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Mythic Profile: Hades- The Dark Lord of the Underworld
The Titans (giant gods) Kronos and Rhea had many children and one of them was Hades who became the Greek Lord of the Underworld and god of the dead.
In Greek mythology, Hades is famous for kidnapping and marrying Persephone; the daughter of Demeter- the goddess of agriculture.
Hades is often called the ‘Keeper of Souls’ due to his job. He and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, drew lots to see who would become the ruler of the three main parts of the Earth - the sky, the sea, and the Underworld. Hades drew the short straw and became the ruler of the dark realm. Mysterious and not often seen at Mount Olympus (the seat of the gods), or in the mortal world, Hades is a bit of an enigma (a person that is difficult to understand).
Hades is often associated with his three-headed dog, Cerberus, a helmet of invisibility, serpents, the colours of black, gold, and silver, stones and metal, and drinking horns. Pomegranates are also a common symbol for him because he convinced Persephone to eat six seeds of the fruit which meant she was doomed to spend six months of every year in the Underworld, forever.
The Fate of Persephone by Walter Crane, painted in 1877. The painting shows Persephone (a goddess of spring), being kidnapped by Hades.
The worship of Hades in Ancient Greece
Hades had one notable cult following- the Oracle of the Dead in Thesprotia, in Western Greece. Worshippers of Hades would try to avoid saying his name or angering him as it was said that if he was enraged he could bring any soul to the Underworld - even if they were still alive! He was certainly one of the most powerful gods.
CREATE: Mapping the Underworld
Hades’ land is mostly unmapped, due to its grim and mysterious nature. Certain parts and locations are mentioned in myths, such as Hades’ palace, and Tartarus.
But there are always new souls travelling to the land, and they need your map!
Create your map of the spooky Underworld:
Materials:
-Paper
-Coloured pencils/markers
How-To:
Click the following links to read about the features and geography of the Underworld. Then use a grey lead pencil to draw these features or places in the Underworld and label them. You can imagine what they look like. Some features you may include are the River Styx, Tartarus and Hades’ palace.
Read this short description of the geography of the underworld:
https://kids.kiddle.co/Greek_underworld
Read this longer description of the geography of the underworld:
https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/the-underworld.html
Add some details and colour! Though the Underworld was always depicted as dark and gloomy, there are always spots of colour where Persephone, Hades' wife, can be found. She liked flowers very much.
Give it to someone. See if they would be able to find their way around the Underworld!
A detail from the painting ‘Charon’ (1684-1686) painted by Luca Giordano. This painting shows Charon the ferryman delivering souls in a boat over the Styx and Acheron rivers to the entrance of the Underworld, guarded by the many-headed dog Cerberus. | https://www.argonautsclub.org/post/mythic-profile-hades-the-dark-lord-of-the-underworld |
StartOS was an independent Chinese Linux distribution with the GNOME desktop tweaked to resemble Microsoft Windows XP. In the beginning it was based on Ubuntu, but starting from version 4.0 it adopted custom package management (called YPK) and system installer, though the underlying live medium was still built using Ubuntu's Casper tool.
Rate this project The Pardus project, which develops a Debian-based distribution for desktops and servers, has announced the release of Pardus 17.2. This updated build comes in two desktop variants featuring either Xfce or DDE (Deepin Desktop Environment) desktops, and there is as a separate edition for servers. The release notes are provided in Turkish only, but the distribution itself can be booted and installed in both Turkish and English. Some of the changes in Pardus 17.2 include: LibreOffice updated to version 6.0.1; fix to the navigation rectangle in the Start menu not following the mouse cursor; updated the most Xfce components to their latest versions; fixed incorrect Turkish translations in some Xfce components; miscellaneous package updates, including security patches; various improvements to DDE's dock, such as new functionality to hide plugins, network list refresh button, new 'Forced Quit' in the context menu, improved auto-hide function, improved Window preview.... Pardus 17.2 ISO images are available from the project's download server (SHA512, pkglist): Pardus-17.2-XFCE-amd64.iso (1,306MB), Pardus-17.2-DDE-amd64.iso (1,367MB), Pardus-17.2-SERVER-amd64.iso (529MB).
Pardus is a Debian-based distribution jointly developed by the Scientific & Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) and National Academic Network and Information Centre (ULAKBİM). The project's latest release, Pardus 17.5, offers several package updates and continued support through to 2021. An English translation of the project's release announcement (in Turkish) reads: "Pardus 17.5 is the latest intermediate version. To keep track of the changes, you have to keep your Pardus 17 installed system up to date. With this latest version of Pardus 17, LTS (Long-Term Support) is offered through to 01.05.2021. Pardus 17 will continue to receive updates." Some of the changes in this release include: fixed issues in many graphical interfaces that some end users encountered; system performance optimisations affecting package updates; security updates including over 200 packages and patches; Firefox has been updated to 60.5.1, Thunderbird to 60.5.1; VLC media player has been updated to version 3.0.6; LibreOffice has been updated to version 6.1.5; the Pardus Store application has been updated to version 0.3.1. Download links (SHA512, pkglist): Pardus-17.5-LTS-XFCE-amd64.iso (1,334MB), Pardus-17.5-DDE-amd64.iso (1,396MB), Pardus-17.5-LTS-SERVER-amd64.iso (530MB).
Pardus has announced the release of Pardus 17.4, an updated build of the project's Debian-based distribution set for desktops and servers. Like the previous releases in the 17.x series, this one also comes in two desktop variants featuring either Xfce or the Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE). It offers various improvements as well as stability and security updates for more than 300 packages. Updated software include Firefox 60.3.0, Thunderbird 60.2.1, VLC 3.0.3 and LibreOffice 6.1.3. The OpenSSH server package in now installed by default. Other changes include: improved performance due to package optimisations; fixes to various bugs that some users encountered in graphical interfaces; fixes to installation without Internet that previously resulted in post-installation corruption of resource lists; changed the default background of the start-up screen. Existing Pardus users do not need to download this release as all updates have already been applied to their systems. See the release announcement and release notes (both resources are in Turkish only) for further information. The new Pardus release, which supports both Turkish and English languages, is ready for download (SHA512, pkglist): Pardus-17.4-XFCE-amd64.iso (1,325MB), Pardus-17.4-DDE-amd64.iso (1,387MB), Pardus-17.4-SERVER-amd64.iso (521MB).
Pardus, a Debian-based Turkish Linux distribution for desktops and servers, has been updated to version 17.1. The new release offers three separate ISO images with distinct names that indicate the purpose - Xfce, DDE (Deepin Desktop Environment) and Server. The release notes are available in Turkish only, but an online translation service reveals a changelog in this interim release of Pardus: The default name of the download directory has changed from 'Downloads' to 'İndirilenler'; the system settings menu has been enhanced; the default printer test page has been redesigned; the password of the pre-defined 'pardus' user is removed when the live system is turned on; the crash that occurred when the gdebi program was run with a graphical interface was fixed; the crash in certain parts of the gnome-disks program have been fixed; new desktop wallpapers added; many packages have been updated; the theme has been refreshed; Deepin Desktop Media support added; many security and system performance patches have been added." Further information on the software available in Pardus 17.1 can be found in the project's release notes. Download (SHA512, pkglist): Pardus-17.1-XFCE-amd64.iso (1,258MB), Pardus-17.1-DDE-amd64.iso (1,283MB), Pardus-17.1-SERVER-amd64.iso (518MB).
Pardus is a Turkish desktop distribution based on Debian. The Pardus project has announced the release of Pardus 17.0 which features the Xfce 4.12 desktop environment and version 4.9 of the Linux kernel. Applications such as Firefox 52.2 and LibreOffice 5.2 are also included. An English translation of the project's release announcement reads: Enjoy the most up-to-date and stable versions of software such as Firefox, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, and VLC Media Player while your hardware works smoothly and with high performance in the Pardus operating system that comes with Linux kernel 4.9.0. See the impact of power management on battery life on laptop computers thanks to the integration of these software as well as tlp software into Pardus." Further information on the software available in Pardus 17.0 can be found in the project's release notes. Download: Pardus-17.0-amd64.iso (1,204MB, pkglist).
2013-03-27 Distribution Release: Pardus Linux 2013 "Corporate"
Pardus Linux 2013 "Corporate" has been released. This is the first stable release of the "new" Debian-based Pardus Linux with GNOME and KDE desktops, currently available in Turkish only. From the release announcement: "Pardus 2013 Corporate is released and available in four flavors. GNOME (x86, amd64) and KDE (x86, amd64). Currently the distribution is only available in Turkish, but this situation will change in the future. Pardus 2013 has many new features inside out. First and most important, Pardus is now based on Debian 'Wheezy' and built using tools provided by the debian-live project. Other features include but not limited to: installable live images for peaceful exploration; integrated and simplified installer for easy installation; Firefox 17esr and Thunderbird 17esr for stable internet experience; complete multimedia tools for hassle-free multimedia experience." Download (MD5) from here: pardus_kurumsal_2013_kde_64bit_tr.iso (1,709MB, MD5), pardus_kurumsal_2013_gnome_64bit_tr.iso (1,472MB, MD5).
Gökçen Eraslan has announced the release of Pardus Linux 2011.2, an updated version of the project's desktop Linux distribution with custom package management and many user-friendly features: "Pardus Linux 2011.2 is now available. Here are the important updates shipped with Pardus 2011.2: NetworkManager is updated to 0.8.5.91, problems about adding VPN connections have been fixed, handle WLAN security passwords gracefully while upgrading distribution; ModemManager is updated to 0.5, improvements for Samsung modems, support access technology reporting for Qualcomm Gobi modems, fix communication with Nokia N900 devices; CUPS is updated to 1.4.8; LibreOffice is updated to 3.4.3, fixed crash closing document with footnotes; MPlayer - fixed crash playing subtitled videos which was triggered by FreeType 2.4.6 security update." Read the complete release announcement for a full list of bug fixes. Download the installation or live DVD image: Pardus-2011.2-i686.iso (1,168MB, MD5), Pardus-2011.2-x86_64.iso (1,186MB, MD5), Pardus-2011.2-Live-i686.iso (1,346MB, MD5), Pardus-2011.2-Live-x86_64.iso (1,369MB, MD5).
Gökçen Eraslan has announced the release of Pardus Linux 2011.1: "Pardus 2011.1 'Dama Dama' is now available. Here are the basic components and their versions shipped within Pardus 2011.1 release: KDE Desktop Environment 4.6.5, Linux kernel 2.6.37.6, LibreOffice 3.4.1.3, Mozilla Firefox web browser 5.0, X.Org Server 1.9.5, GIMP 2.6.11, Python 2.7.1, GCC 4.5.3, glibc 2.12. In addition to those updates: lots of bugs have been fixed; 64-bit Skype and WINE package are now in 2011 stable repository; YALI has a System Rescue mode now; work on 2009 - 2011 distribution upgrade interface is about to finish, after the testing is complete, upgrade-manager package will be provided in 2009 repositories to ease the transition; QuickFormat application can be tested now to format USB removable disks easily.... Here is the brief release announcement. Download: Pardus-2011.1-i686.iso (1,160MB, MD5), Pardus-2011.1-x86_64.iso (1,177MB, MD5). Quick links to the live DVD images: Pardus-2011.1-Live-i686.iso (1,338MB, MD5), Pardus-2011.1-Live-x86_64.iso (1,358MB, MD5).
Gökçen Eraslan has announced the availability of the beta release of Pardus Linux 2011.1: "The Beta release of the upcoming Pardus 2011.1 is now available. Here are the basic components and their versions shipped within Pardus 2011.1 beta release: KDE Desktop Environment 4.6.3, Linux kernel 2.6.37.6, LibreOffice 3.3.2.2, Mozilla Firefox 4.0.1, X.Org Server 1.9.5, GIMP 2.6.11, GCC 4.5.3, glibc 2.12. In addition to those updates lots of bugs have been fixed, 64-bit Skype package is now in 2011 stable repository, 64-bit WINE package will be in 2011 repositories soon, YALI now has a System Rescue mode, work on 2009-2011 distribution upgrade interface is about to finish, upgrade-manager package will be provided in 2009 repositories to ease the transition.... Read the complete release announcement for further details. Download the installation or live (non-installable) DVD images from here: Pardus-2011.1-Beta-i686.iso (1,139MB, MD5), Pardus-2011.1-Beta-x86_64.iso (1,155MB, MD5), Pardus-2011.1-Beta-Live-i686.iso (1,307MB, MD5), Pardus-2011.1-Beta-Live-x86_64.iso (1,325MB, MD5). | https://distrowatch.com/?newsid=10126 |
Human longevity and personality traits are both heritable and are consistently linked at the phenotypic level. We test the hypothesis that candidate genes influencing longevity in lower organisms are associated with variance in the five major dimensions of human personality (measured by the NEO-FFI and IPIP inventories) plus related mood states of anxiety and depression. Seventy single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in six brain expressed, longevity candidate genes (AFG3L2, FRAP1, MAT1A, MAT2A, SYNJ1, and SYNJ2) were typed in over 1,000 70-year old participants from the Lothian Birth Cohort of 1936 (LBC1936). No SNPs were associated with the personality and psychological distress traits at a Bonferroni corrected level of significance (P<0.0002), but there was an over-representation of nominally significant (P<0.05) SNPs in the synaptojanin-2 (SYNJ2) gene associated with agreeableness and symptoms of depression. Eight SNPs which showed nominally significant association across personality measurement instruments were tested in an extremely large replication sample of 17,106 participants. SNP rs350292, in SYNJ2, was significant: the minor allele was associated with an average decrease in NEO agreeableness scale scores of 0.25 points, and 0.67 points in the restricted analysis of elderly cohorts (most aged >60 years). Because we selected a specific set of longevity genes based on functional genomics findings, further research on other longevity gene candidates is warranted to discover whether they are relevant candidates for personality and psychological distress traits. | https://repub.eur.nl/pub/63204 |
Teaching Strategies for Large Classes Reference Sheet (quick reference guide; opens as PDF).
Lessons Learned from Teaching Large Classes (tips sheet with discussion, opens as PDF)
Michael Sandel, Harvard University, presents a lecture on morality and justice to a class of 700.
Teaching Frameworks for Large Classes
- Peer Instruction – using clickers or student-response software to engage and transform large lectures.
- Peer Instruction was developed by Eric Mazur at Harvard University to implement Just-in-Time-Teaching (JiTT) concepts in large lecture classrooms using student response systems (clickers or polling software). This process has students work together on conceptual problems to find answers, surveys students as a formative means of assessing their learning, and then adapts the lecture to address misconceptions, bottlenecks, and other learning roadblocks. This is the foundational model to the “flipped” learning model, which has students prepare for class activities outside of class. To learn more about specific strategies using Peer Instruction, visit their blog, or watch the videos below to see the process in action.
- Another model of implementing Peer Instruction, or the “flipped” classroom model, with evidence-based research, from Kelly Logan at the University of North Carolina. Her research is available via open source creative commons licensing below.
- Team-Based Learning (TBL) – team-based learning is a four-step process for structuring large classes for engagement, active learning, and high degrees of student participation and satisfaction. It uses pre-structured small groups and highly organized content-activities and assessments to keep students active and engaged for learning.
- Team-Based Learning from Faculty Innovation Center on Vimeo (examples of TBL in practice).
- For information on how to implement TBL, use this link to the step by step process with examples and supplemental materials.
- Supplemental Instruction and Virtual Supplemental Instruction – Supplemental instruction (SI) is an academic support program using peer-led study sessions that targets traditionally difficult courses and can be adapted using Video-Based Supplemental Instruction (VSI) to large course sessions. Instructors record their lectures and students attend sessions with peer-instructors or TAs to help process and facilitate learning of the material.
- Uses a concept called Time to Think, as videos can be stopped and started based on where students feel stuck or get confused. Students formulate questions, make observations, and consider solutions as they work through the lecture with a peer-guide.
- Reinforces learning for peer-guides. Teaching is a highly effective way to reinforce or deepen content learning. SI has been proven through decades of research to increase student retention and learning across the disciplines.
- Universal Design and Accessibility
- Designing for Universal learning through multimodal approaches. Learn more and access rubrics, course design models, and assignment templates on their web site.
- Teaching Large Classes Online – Using Technology to Enhance Large Classes
- Polling software: Padlet, Polleverywhere, Mentimeter, Sli.do, and Kahoot! are easy to use and adaptable to phones, laptops, or tablets. They offer anonymity and instant feedback on what student’s know, believe, or think about a topic, and are great for active, engaged learning and prompting discussions.
- LMS – Canvas.
- Collaborative Learning – techniques for collaborative discussions, activities, and assignments.
- Break up large online classes by splitting off students to work either synchronously or asynchronously on exam prep, hold small group conferences and study groups, or invite Happy Half-Hour discussions where students can select topics (even non-course related) for discussion.
- Browse more tips here to break up large, long online classes.
References and Additional Reading
Strategies for Large Classes
Tony Spanakos and Josh Galster “Teaching Strategies for Large Classes: from Political Science to Earth and Environmental Science” Strategies for Large Classes – PowerPoint Doc
Structuring Large Course
Eddy, S.L. & Hogan, K.A. (2014) “Getting Under the Hood: How and for Whom Does Increasing Course Structure Work?” CBE—Life Sciences Education, Vol. 13, No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.14-03-0050.
Assessment and Grading
Glazer, N. “Formative Plus Summative Assessment in Large Undergraduate Courses: Why Both?” International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 2014, Volume 26, Number 2, 276-286. http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE1703.pdf
Small-Group Learning in Large Classes
Jenay R., Lewis, S.E., Oueini, R. and Mapugay, A. “Coordinated Implementation and Evaluation of Flipped Classes and Peer-Led Team Learning in General Chemistry.” Journal of Chemical Education, 2016 93 (12), 1993-1998. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00395.
Sibley, J. & Ostafichuk, P. (2014). Getting Started with Team-Based Learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Stone, M.E. & Jacobs, G. (Summer 2006) Supplemental Instruction: New visions for empowering student learning. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. | https://www.montclair.edu/faculty-advancement/peer-to-peer-support/teaching-large-classes/ |
ACPIVR return with a face to face event: Refreshments and Lunch included.
Current Requirements (may change with UK government advise):
Proof of vaccination status or negative Covid-19 test.
Course Description
Dizziness is the number one cause of office visits to physicians for patients over the age of 65. The most common cause of dizziness is Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV). In one study of older adults, 1 out of 10 persons presenting to the clinic for other medical conditions had undiagnosed BPPV. Persons with BPPV had a higher incidence of recent reported falls. BPPV can be seen post-operatively or after a fall. Falls and dizziness are a leading cause of hospital admissions with high rates of mortality and morbidity. As rehabilitation professionals, we are often called on to treat persons with balance and/or dizziness impairments. How can we determine if the problem is medical, mechanical, or from the often-misdiagnosed problem of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo? This course will provide you with the tools to be able to differentially diagnosis what conditions are within your scope of practice and which patients should be referred for additional follow-up care. Videos will be shown of treatment maneuvers and short cases will be shared to enhance your knowledge and understanding of BPPV.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this course the participants will be able to:
1. Describe the anatomy and physiology of the vestibular system and how it relates to the pathology of BPPV
2. Identify the signs and symptoms of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV).
3. Be able to differentiate between BPPV and central vestibular disorders.
4. Describe different evaluation techniques specific to the patient with BPPV including the Dix-Hallpike, sidelying test, the loaded Dix-Hallpike, and the roll test
5. The following maneuvers will be discussed and described: the modified Epley, the Semont, the modified Semont, the Brandt Daroff, the self-Epley, self-Semont, Semont plus, modified Epley over a pillow, the Li maneuver (for posterior and horizontal canal BPPV), the barbeque maneuver, the Gufoni maneuver, prolonged lying, Zuma maneuver, and the Kim maneuver.
6. Understand how to BPPV (posterior and horizontal canals) with information provided about anterior canal BPPV including the Yacovino maneuver
7. Discuss cases that demonstrate typical and atypical presentations of persons with BPPV in order to differentiate what is BPPV from other problems that can present in your clinic
8. Explain the latest about BPPV prevention
NB: If the face to face event has to be cancelled due to COVID-19 or other unforeseen circumstances you will be informed at the earliest opportunity, a full refund will be issued and ACPIVR will work to deliver the training at a later date or stream online if possible. | https://www.tickettailor.com/events/acpivr/563567/ |
In this article, we shall view the Internet Computer (IC) through the lens of distributed system design. As most other blockchains, the IC achieves fault-tolerance using strategy called state machine replication. We shall take a close look at some design choices that make the IC fast, scalable, and secure.
The state machine
Before we dive into the internals of the protocol, let's first define the state machine that we'll be dealing with. Nodes participating in the Internet Computer are grouped into units called subnet blockchains, or simply subnets. Nodes in the same subnet run their own instance of the core Internet Computer Protocol (i.e., they form an independent peer-to-peer network and reach consensus independently from other subnets). We'll model as a state machine the computation that nodes in the same subnet perform.
Let's play by the book and define components of our state machine:
- Inputs
- The key product of the consensus protocol is a sequence of blocks containing messages for canisters hosted by the subnet. These blocks are the inputs of our state machine.
- Outputs
- In our model, the main artifact of the execution is a data structure called state tree. We'll learn more about state trees in a moment.
- States
- The single most important thing that the Internet Computer does is hosting canisters.
Thus we'll define the state as a data structure containing everything we need to serve canisters installed on the subnet, including but not limited to:
- WebAssembly modules and configuration of the canisters.
- Memory and stable memory of those canisters.
- Messages in canister mailboxes.
- Results of the recent ingress messages.
- Transition function
- When a replica receives a block, it
- Injects messages from the block into the canister mailboxes.
- Picks some canisters for execution according to a deterministic scheduling algorithm.
- Executes the messages on the selected canisters and records the execution results.
- Output function
- Once a replica processed a block, it computes a state tree. This tree can be used to inspect the results of the execution and validate the authenticity of those results. The deterministic procedure that constructs a state tree from the state is our output function.
- Initial state
- Each subnet starts its life with no canisters, no messages, and no results to inspect. It's as boring as it gets.
I call these state machines (one for each subnet) replicated because each honest node on a subnet has an exact copy of the machine.
Checkpoints
Let's say we want to add a new node to an existing subnet because a flood destroyed one of the data centers hosting the subnet. This new node cannot start processing and proposing new blocks until it has the right state, the state that results from execution of all the blocks produced by this subnet so far.
One way to bring the node up to date is to download all those blocks and "replay" them. This sounds simple, but if the rate of change is high and message execution is costly, the new node might need a lot of time to catch up. As the Red Queen put it: “My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.”
Another solution is to create persistent snapshots of the state from time to time. The peers can fetch and load those snapshots when they need help. This method works really well for our state machine: it reduces the catch up time from days to minutes. Let's call those persistent snapshots checkpoints.
State trees
The transition function is complex, but its details aren't very important for our discussion. We can treat block processing as a black box. Let's now see how we get the data out of the state machine.
There are quite a few bits of information that we want to access, for example:
- Replies to user requests.
- Canister metadata, like module hashes or certified data entries.
- Messages for other state machines (inter-subnet messages).
Furthermore, since we cannot trust any particular node, we want to have some authenticity guarantees for the data we get back. Sounds easy: hash all the relevant bits of the state, collect a threshold signature on that hash, and use the signature as a proof of state authenticity. Problem solved?
But how do can we validate a single request status if we have a signature on the full state? Collecting a separate signature for each request would solve the problem, but the cost of this approach is unacceptable from the performance point of view.
Wouldn't it be great to be able to "zoom" into different parts of the state to produce replies for different clients, while still having only a single hash to sign? Enter state trees.
The state tree is a data structure that contains all outputs of our state machine in a form of a merkle tree. Once the gears of the execution stopped, the system computes the root hash of the state tree corresponding to the newly computed state, starts collecting a threshold signature for that hash, and moves on to the next block.
Lookup
Let's look at an example to see how the state tree does its magical zooming.
Assume that you sent a request with id
1355...48de to the IC and you want to get back the reply.
As we now know, the system will put the reply into a state tree, so let's make a
read_state request with path
"/request_status/1355...48de/reply".
The replica processes our request in the following way
- Check that the caller has permission to look at the paths listed in the
read_staterequest.
- Get the latest certified state tree (i.e. the state tree with a complete threshold signature on its root hash).
- Build the result tree that includes all the paths from the
read_staterequest, with all the pruned branches replaced by their hashes.
- Combine the result tree with the threshold signature to form a full certified reply.
The tree that you'll get back will look something like this:
Even though the pruned tree is much smaller than the full state tree, both trees have exactly the same root hash. So we can validate the authenticity of the pruned tree using the threshold signature that consensus collected for the root hash of the full state tree.
State transfer
State as an artifact
As we discussed in the checkpoints section, replicas periodically persist snapshots of its state to disk. The main purpose of these snapshots is to speed up state recovery. If a replica was out for a brief period of time, it can use its own checkpoint to recover more quickly than replaying all the blocks starting from the genesis. Load the checkpoint, replay a few blocks, and you're ready to rock. There is a more interesting case, however: a healthy replica can help other replicas catch up by sending them a recent checkpoint.
Replicas in a subnet communicate by exchanging artifacts using a peer-to-peer protocol. Most of these artifacts (e.g., user ingress messages, random beacons, state certifications) are relatively small, up to a few megabytes in size. But the machinery for artifact transfer is quite general: the protocol supports fetching arbitrary large artifacts by slicing them into chunks, provided that there is a way to authenticate each chunk independently. Furthermore, multiple chunks can be fetched in parallel from multiple peers. Sounds a lot like BitTorrent, isn't it?
Before advertising a checkpoint, replica computes a manifest for that checkpoint. Manifest is an inventory of files constituting a checkpoint. Files are sliced into chunks, and the manifest enumerates paths, sizes and cryptographic hashes of every file and every chunk of each file. In our BitTorrent analogy, manifest plays a role of a .torrent file. If we have a manifest, we know for sure how much data we need to fetch to construct a checkpoint, and how to arrange this data. Hashes of file chunks in the manifest allow us to validate each chunk independently before we put it on disk. Replicas use the hash of the manifest itself when they advertise a checkpoint in the peer-to-peer network.
Triggering state transfer
Let's assume that we have a replica that needs to fetch the latest checkpoint. It listens to the peers, and discovers a few state artifacts with different hashes advertised by different peers. How does our poor replica decide which state it needs to fetch?
As you might have guessed, the consensus subsystem armed with threshold signatures comes to the rescue again. Replicas gather a threshold signature on a full state hash and use that signature as a proof of checkpoint authenticity. The result is an artifact containing a state height, a full state hash, and a threshold signature. We'll call this artifact a catch-up package.
The interaction between the replica consensus module and the state machine is something like the following
- Consensus sees a catch-up package for state 100 with a valid threshold signature and the state hash is
H100. Consensus asks the state machine "Hey, what's your state height?".
- State machine: "It's nine. Why?"
- Consensus: "We're missing out. Fetch the checkpoint for state 100, but only if it has root hash
H100."
- State machine: "Sure, I'm on it." The state machine starts looking for state artifact advertisements with a matching hash.
Yes, the consensus module can be a bit bossy sometimes, but it always acts with the best of intentions.
Fetching states incrementally
Let's now have a brief look at the most juicy part of state transfer, the actual state fetch protocol.
Let's suppose that we have a replica that has state 9 and it wants to catch up to state 100 with hash
H.
- The replica receives advertisements for checkpoint artifacts from other peers and picks the peers that advertize the state with the hash
H.
- The replica fetches the manifest of checkpoint 100 from one of the peers and validates that the manifest hash is indeed
H.
- The replica compares the manifest of checkpoint 9 that it has locally to the manifest of checkpoint 100.
- The replica copies all the chunks with the matching hashes from the old checkpoint into the new one. Why waste network bandwidth and fetch data you already have?
- The replica fetches all the missing chunks from the peers, validates them against the manifest, and puts on disk them where they belong.
When there are no more chunks to fetch, checkpoint 100 is complete, and the replica is ready to go.
As you can see, the state transfer procedure is incremental: if the catching-up replica was offline for a brief period of time, it needs to fetch only the data that actually changed in the meantime. Of course, a replica that has no checkpoints at all will have to fetch all the chunks to construct its first checkpoint.
Conclusion
In this article, we
- Abstracted the complexity of block execution into a transition function of a finite state machine.
- Marveled at how state trees and threshold signatures allow clients retrieve authentic replies by consulting only one replica.
- Learned how replicas can their transfer states quickly and securely.
This concludes our overview of how the IC implements state machine replication on the scale of a single subnet. From that prospective, the IC as a whole is really a swarm of replicated state machines!
I made a few simplifications and omitted a lot of details to keep us focused on the replication aspect. For example, we didn't look at how different subnets communicate with one another, how individual worker bees form the swarm. This is a great topic that deserves an article of its own, so stay tuned! | https://mmapped.blog/posts/02-ic-state-machine-replication.html |
Magnesium sulfate (or magnesium sulphate) is an inorganic salt (chemical compound) containing magnesium, sulfur and oxygen, with the formula MgSO4. It is often encountered as the heptahydrate sulfate mineral epsomite (MgSO4·7H2O), commonly called Epsom salt, taking its name from a bitter saline spring in Epsom in Surrey, England, where the salt was produced from the springs that arise where the porous chalk of the North Downs meets non-porous London clay. The monohydrate, MgSO4·H2O is found as the mineral kieserite. The overall global annual usage in the mid-1970s of the monohydrate was 2.3 million tons, of which the majority was used in agriculture.
Anhydrous magnesium sulfate is used as a drying agent. The anhydrous form is hygroscopic (readily absorbs water from the air) and is therefore difficult to weigh accurately; the hydrate is often preferred when preparing solutions (for example, in medical preparations). Epsom salt has been traditionally used as a component of bath salts. Epsom salt can also be used as a beauty product. Athletes use it to soothe sore muscles, while gardeners use it to improve crops. It has a variety of other uses. Epsom salt is also effective in the removal of splinters.
Magnesium sulfate is a common mineral pharmaceutical preparation of magnesium, commonly known as Epsom salt, used both externally and internally. Epsom salt is used as bath salts and for isolation tanks. Oral magnesium sulfate is commonly used as a saline laxative or osmotic purgative. Magnesium sulfate is the main preparation of intravenous magnesium.
Magnesium sulfate is the first-line antiarrhythmic agent for torsades de pointes in cardiac arrest under the 2005 ECC guidelines and for managing quinidine-induced arrhythmias.
As a bronchodilator after beta-agonist and anticholinergic agents have been tried, e.g. in severe exacerbations of asthma, magnesium sulfate can be nebulized to reduce the symptoms of acute asthma. It is commonly administered via the intravenous route for the management of severe asthma attacks.
Magnesium sulfate is effective in decreasing the risk that pre-eclampsia progresses to eclampsia. IV magnesium sulfate & diazepam is used to prevent and treat seizures of eclampsia. It is also commonly used for eclampsia where compared to diazepam or phenytoin it results in better outcomes.
In those who are at risk of a preterm birth. A systematic review suggested that intravenous magnesium sulfate before birth could reduce the risk of cerebral palsy and motor dysfunction in preterm infants by 30%.
Magnesium sulfate has been used as an experimental treatment of Irukandji syndrome caused by envenomation by certain species of Irukandji jellyfish, but the efficacy of this treatment remains unproven.
Solutions of sulfate salts such as Epsom salt may be given as first aid for barium chloride poisoning.
The use of Epsom salt may help "draw out" splinters.
An overdose of magnesium causes hypermagnesemia.
In gardening and other agriculture, magnesium sulfate is used to correct a magnesium or sulfur deficiency in soil; magnesium is an essential element in the chlorophyll molecule, and sulfur is another important micronutrient. It is most commonly applied to potted plants, or to magnesium-hungry crops, such as potatoes, roses, tomatoes, lemon trees, carrots, and peppers. The advantage of magnesium sulfate over other magnesium soil amendments (such as dolomitic lime) is its high solubility, which also allows the option of foliar feeding. Solutions of magnesium sulfate are also nearly neutral, as compared to alkaline salts of magnesium, as found in limestone; therefore, the use of magnesium sulfate as a magnesium source for soil does not significantly change the soil pH.
Anhydrous magnesium sulfate is commonly used as a desiccant in organic synthesis due to its affinity for water. During work-up, an organic phase is saturated with magnesium sulfate until it no longer forms clumps. The hydrated solid is then removed with filtration or decantation. Other inorganic sulfate salts such as sodium sulfate and calcium sulfate may also be used in the same way.
Magnesium sulfate is used in bath salts, particularly in flotation therapy, where high concentrations raise the bath water's specific gravity, effectively making the body more buoyant. Traditionally, it is also used to prepare foot baths, intended to soothe sore feet. The reason for the inclusion of the salt is partially cosmetic: the increase in ionic strength prevents some of the temporary skin wrinkling (partial maceration) which is caused by prolonged immersion of extremities in pure water. It is also a common belief that magnesium sulfate can be absorbed into the skin, reducing inflammation. However, no scientific study has ever been published to either explain or reaffirm this belief. It is naturally present in some mineral waters.
It may also be used as a coagulant for making tofu.
Magnesium sulfate heptahydrate is also used to maintain the magnesium concentration in marine aquaria which contain large amounts of stony corals, as it is slowly depleted in their calcification process. In a magnesium-deficient marine aquarium, calcium and alkalinity concentrations are very difficult to control because not enough magnesium is present to stabilize these ions in the saltwater and prevent their spontaneous precipitation into calcium carbonate.
Cu + MgSO4 + 2 H2O → H2 + CuSO4 + Mg(OH)2.
Magnesium sulfate is used as a brewing salt in beer production to adjust the ion content of the brewing water and enhance enzyme action in the mash or promote a desired flavor profile in the beer.
Magnesium sulfate was once used as a tocolytic, but meta-analyses have failed to support it as an anti-contraction medication. And its use for prolonged periods (more than five to seven days) may result in health problems for the baby.
In those at risk of an early delivery, magnesium sulfate appears to decrease the risk of cerebral palsy. It is unclear if it helps those who are born at term.
A study carried out in February 2015 found that Epsom salt minutely raises magnesium levels in those who bathe in it regularly. Therefore, although Epsom salts may help relieve some muscle tightness, Epsom salts are less beneficial than once thought.
Magnesium sulfate is highly soluble in water. The anhydrous form is strongly hygroscopic, and can be used as a desiccant. It is the primary substance that causes the absorption of sound in seawater (acoustic energy is converted to thermal energy). Absorption is strongly dependent on frequency: lower frequencies are less absorbed by the salt, so that the sound travels much farther in the ocean. Boric acid also contributes to absorption, but the most abundant salt in seawater, sodium chloride, has negligible sound absorption.
Almost all known mineralogical forms of MgSO4 occur as hydrates. Epsomite is the natural analogue of "Epsom salt". Another heptahydrate, the copper-containing mineral alpersite (Mg,Cu)SO4·7H2O, was recently recognized. Both are, however, not the highest known hydrates of MgSO4, due to the recent terrestrial find of meridianiite, MgSO4·11H2O, which is thought to also occur on Mars. Hexahydrite is the next lower (6) hydrate. Three next lower hydrates — pentahydrite (5), starkeyite (4) and especially sanderite (2) — are more rarely found. Kieserite is a monohydrate and is common among evaporitic deposits. Anhydrous magnesium sulfate was reported from some burning coal dumps, but was never treated as a mineral.
The pH of hydrates is average 6.0 (5.5 to 6.5). Magnesium hydrates have, like copper(II) sulfate, coordinated water.
The heptahydrate can be prepared by neutralizing sulfuric acid with magnesium carbonate or oxide, but it is usually obtained directly from natural sources.
Anhydrous magnesium sulfate is prepared only by the dehydration of a hydrate.
Magnesium sulfates are common minerals in geological environments. Their occurrence is mostly connected with supergene processes. Some of them are also important constituents of evaporitic potassium-magnesium (K-Mg) salts deposits.
Bright spots observed by the Dawn Spacecraft in Occator Crater on the dwarf planet Ceres are most consistent with reflected light from magnesium sulfate hexahydrate.
^ a b "Quick Cures/Quack Cures: Is Epsom Worth Its Salt?". Wall Street Journal. April 9, 2012.
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^ Duley, L; Gülmezoglu, AM; Henderson-Smart, DJ; Chou, D (Nov 10, 2010). "Magnesium sulphate and other anticonvulsants for women with pre-eclampsia.". The Cochrane database of systematic reviews (11): CD000025. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD000025.pub2. PMID 21069663.
^ Duley, L; Henderson-Smart, DJ; Walker, GJ; Chou, D (Dec 8, 2010). "Magnesium sulphate versus diazepam for eclampsia.". The Cochrane database of systematic reviews (12): CD000127. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD000127.pub2. PMID 21154341.
^ Duley, L; Henderson-Smart, DJ; Chou, D (Oct 6, 2010). "Magnesium sulphate versus phenytoin for eclampsia.". The Cochrane database of systematic reviews (10): CD000128. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD000128.pub2. PMID 20927719.
^ Doyle, LW; Crowther, CA; Middleton, P; Marret, S (Jun 2009). "Antenatal magnesium sulfate and neurologic outcome in preterm infants: a systematic review.". Obstetrics and gynecology 113 (6): 1327–33. doi:10.1097/AOG.0b013e3181a60495. PMID 19461430.
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^ "Magnesium Sulfate: Drug Safety Communication – Recommendation Against Prolonged Use in Pre-term Labor". FDA. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
^ Doyle, LW; Crowther, CA; Middleton, P; Marret, S; Rouse, D (Jan 21, 2009). "Magnesium sulphate for women at risk of preterm birth for neuroprotection of the fetus.". The Cochrane database of systematic reviews (1): CD004661. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD004661.pub3. PMID 19160238.
^ Wolf, HT; Hegaard, HK; Greisen, G; Huusom, L; Hedegaard, M (Feb 2012). "Treatment with magnesium sulphate in pre-term birth: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.". Journal of obstetrics and gynaecology : the journal of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 32 (2): 135–40. doi:10.3109/01443615.2011.638999. PMID 22296422.
^ Nguyen, TM; Crowther, CA; Wilkinson, D; Bain, E (Feb 28, 2013). "Magnesium sulphate for women at term for neuroprotection of the fetus.". The Cochrane database of systematic reviews 2: CD009395. doi:10.1002/14651858.cd009395.pub2. PMID 23450601.
^ Shea, Molly (March 10, 2015). "Can Soaking In Epsom Salt Help You De-stress—And Detox?". Yahoo. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
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^ Peterson, Ronald C.; Hammarstrom, Jane M.; Seal, II, Robert R (Feb 2006). "Alpersite (Mg,Cu)SO4·7H2O, a new mineral of the melanterite group, and cuprian pentahydrite: Their occurrence within mine waste". American Mineralogist 91 (2–3): 261–269. doi:10.2138/am.2006.1911.
Influence of sulphate on the composition and antibacterial and antiviral properties of the exopolysaccharide from Porphyridium cruentum.
Raposo MF1, de Morais AM1, de Morais RM2.Author information 1CBQF - Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina-Laboratório Associado, Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Universidade Católica Portuguesa/Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino Almeida, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal.2CBQF - Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina-Laboratório Associado, Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Universidade Católica Portuguesa/Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino Almeida, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal. Electronic address: [email protected]: The influence of two culture media and three different concentrations of sulphate in the medium on the growth of two strains of Porphyridium cruentum and on the production, composition and viscoelastic characteristics, and antimicrobial properties of the sulphated exopolysaccharide (EPS) were studied.
Life sciences.Life Sci.2014 Apr 17;101(1-2):56-63. doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2014.02.013. Epub 2014 Feb 25.
The efficacy of nebulized salbutamol, magnesium sulfate, and salbutamol/magnesium sulfate combination in moderate bronchiolitis.
Kose M1, Ozturk MA, Poyrazoğlu H, Elmas T, Ekinci D, Tubas F, Kurt T, Goktas MA.Author information 1Department of Pediatric Pulmonology, Erciyes University Faculty of Medicine, Pediatric Pulmonology Unit, Kayseri, 38000, Turkey, [email protected] aim of this paper is to compare the effect of nebulized magnesium sulfate to nebulized salbutamol and salbutamol/magnesium sulfate on successful discharge from the emergency department. A total of 56 infants were included in this double-blinded, prospective study. Infants were grouped according to the nebulized treatment they received: group 1-salbutamol/normal saline, group 2-magnesium sulfate and normal saline, and group 3-salbutamol plus magnesium sulfate. Heart beat, bronchiolitis, clinical severity scores (CSS), and oxygen saturation of the patients were determined before and after nebulization (0, 1, 4 h). The patients were monitored for adverse reactions. Post-treatment mean CSS results were significantly lower than pre-treatment scores in all groups at 4 h with no significant difference within groups. CSS scores were lower in the salbutamol/magnesium sulfate group when compared with the magnesium sulfate and salbutamol groups (3.4 (2.4-4.3), 4.7 (3.8-5.7), 4.0 (3.2-4.3)). CSS were significantly lower than those from the magnesium sulfate group. Conclusion: Nebulized magnesium sulfate plus salbutamol may have additive effects for improving the short-term CSS.
Ayuk J1, Gittoes NJ2.Author information 1Department of Endocrinology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom.2Department of Endocrinology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. Electronic address: [email protected] magnesium concentration is determined by the interplay of intestinal absorption and renal excretion. Hypomagnesemia can occur as a result of insufficient magnesium intake, increased gastrointestinal or renal loss, or redistribution from extracellular to intracellular compartments. A number of drugs are known to cause hypomagnesemia, including proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). We report the case of a patient with symptomatic hypomagnesemia due to short bowel syndrome and PPI therapy. Investigations revealed low 24-hour urinary magnesium excretion and secondary hypocalcemia. PPI treatment was withdrawn and the patient was managed with intravenous and oral magnesium and calcium replacement. This teaching case provides an evidence-based discussion of the treatment of hypomagnesemia.
American journal of kidney diseases : the official journal of the National Kidney Foundation.Am J Kidney Dis.2014 Apr;63(4):691-5. doi: 10.1053/j.ajkd.2013.07.025. Epub 2013 Oct 4. | https://meddic.jp/magnesium_sulfate |
[Warning: speculation ahead.] In a previous blog entry I discussed that with the singularity will come the ability to incorporate unlimited matter in our persons, which seems worth a quick elaboration. After the singularity, it is likely that people will not be defined by the typical boundaries of a human body. With the singularity will come the ability to redesign complex systems, such as the human body, and eventually to design entirely new kinds of bodies for our minds. At a trivial level, this could mean that some people would add an extra pair of arms, as easily as people now add body piercings. More importantly, people could choose to augment their brains. This could be done biologically, by increasing the actual neuronal brain mass that people have to remember and process experiences, it could be done on a hybrid level by wiring non-biological computational elements into a biological brain, or it could be done non-biologically by entirely replacing the brain with a non-biological computational unit (i.e. the mind uploading championed by Ray Kurzweil). Additionally, there is no reason why a person will need to be limited to a single physical object like a human body. For instance, a person may choose to distribute their physical presence among a dozen human bodies, robotic bodies, or human and robotic bodies. A person's mind may exist in a giant data center somewhere while her bodies are merely avatars to the physical world, or the mind may be distributed among multiple different bodies, each doing an independent piece of the perception, thinking and feeling done by the whole mind.
These possibilities are not meant to be exhaustive, but rather are described to illustrate that there are no laws of physics to confine "personhood" to the boundaries of a single familiar object such as a human body. Right now, the boundaries of a person correspond to the boundaries of a human (or perhaps animal) body, but that is only a peculiarity of the Darwinian evolution that created currently existing people. Evolution never hit upon high-speed wifi, and without it distributing a person among different objects is tricky. Bees hives and ant colonies function in many ways (though not perfectly) as a single unit. To a significant degree an individual bee does not have its own independent drive for survival, reproduction, etc., but rather preserves its life and takes actions only to the extent that doing so preserves the life of, and furthers the interest of, the hive. But for whatever reason bee hives did not evolve the intelligence, self awareness, and other qualities that we typically associate with personhood. Despite the fact that all examples of consciousness that we know of are confined to individual bodies, that is merely an accident of the evolutionary process that created us, rather than a feature of consciousness itself.
Furthermore, personhood will not be limited to predefined structures and shapes. A person could grow to encompass a planet, or a solar system, or could shrink her consciousness down to a speck of dust. To make any progress understanding the singularity you must discard the notion that the human body is a fundamental unit of personhood.
Once you do that, it is natural to wonder how people will choose to shape their physical manifestations. One answer is that they will shape their physical manifestations in whatever way permits them to pursue their goals most effectively. One thing that will be indispensable to achieving most sets of goals is intelligence (this is tautological if you define intelligence as the ability to choose actions to effectively accomplish goals). Thus, it seems like a reasonable supposition, that most people, absent any countervailing forces, will seek to increase there intelligence as much as possible. There are two possible ways to increase raw intelligence: (1) improve the use of existing computational matter and (2) acquire new computational matter. Assuming that at some point there are diminishing returns to improving the use of existing computational matter, a reasonable assumption is that most people will soon start acquiring and incorporating whatever additional computational matter is available to them.
We know of no limits to the principles that more computational matter can be used to increase intelligence and greater intelligence can improve ability to pursue and achieve goals. Thus, if a person is not using matter for something else important to her, she might as well incorporate the matter into her brain. There may be diminishing returns to increased intelligence, but even if there are, she might as well gain the meager returns if the matter is freely available to her and she has no other use for it. Even if she does not want to enlarge her brain she might as well incorporate the matter to be used at a latter time, if for nothing else, to transform it into energy later.
The implication is that most people will seek to assimilate all matter in the universe, that they do not value more highly in some other state, into their persons, as brain, body or stored energy. The notion of freely available matter that remains a public good simply because nobody wants very much of it (such as ocean water, or air) will not exist. Whereas a human body can only use a very limited quantity of ocean water or air, in the post singularity there will be no limit to how much people can use.
This does not mean that all matter will be incorporated into people. For one, individuals may prefer not to assimilate certain matter if assimilation conflicts with their goals. For instance, if one of your goals is to preserve the biosphere of the earth, assimilating all the matter of the earth by decomposing it and reconstituting it as brain matter will clearly be counterproductive. Secondly, just as we currently manage some common resources through government, resources may be managed post singularity too. Certain resources may be legally off limits for incorporation into individual bodies. (What it means for something to be legally off limits after the singularity, is something that I intend to explore in future blog posts.)
What seems probable in this environment, however, is that we will be living in a world of near perfect scarcity, where every particle of matter is either incorporated into someone's person or is off limits for another reason, such as government restriction. The notion of abundance, that somehow there will be excess resources, not already claimed by someone is inapplicable to the singularity. Instead, many of the same dynamics which make resources in the modern world scarce will make the resources after the singularity even more scarce--chiefly, competition for limited resources.
However, as I mentioned in a previous article, there may be an extraordinary difference, in that, for the first time it may be possible to articulate what a truly fair distribution of resources would look like, and to implement that. I hope to write about that more soon. | http://www.humanpossibility.org/2014/05/personhood-assimilation-of-matter-and.html |
Inext Petroleum & Oil Field Services Sdn Bhd is a Malaysian company. The company was formed to meet the current focus on cost reduction without compromising the detail, execution or safety. Inext Petroleum & Oil Field Services has elected to be a boutique engineering and consultant placement company, which will focus on working together with the client to cost reduction, risk mitigation, safety and new technology.
We are a streamlined company with the ability to move quickly on small or large projects. Our core team can react to any problem or event which comes our way. We also have a substantial data base of worldwide engineers that we can call on if required.
We take pride in participating in this industry thereby reducing our country’s dependence on foreign companies. While the industry continues to evolve with the development of new technologies and discoveries, Inext is well positioned to adapt to and capitalize on this dynamic environment Inext Petroleum & Oil Field Services is in the position to offer our client base a full suite of drilling services, such as MOST, Seismic Services, Tubular Services, Hammer Services, Slot Recovery Services, Rental Tool Services and Land Rig Drilling. | https://www.innowacapac.com/inext-petroleum-oil-services |
In celebration of World Water Day, the Water Environment Federation (WEF) announces its participation in today’s White House Water Summit and specific contributions to this long-term effort to raise awareness of the national importance of water, and to highlight new commitments and announcements that the Administration and non-federal institutions are making to build a sustainable water future.
The White House issued a call-to-action for individuals, organizations, and institutions from all sectors to take new, specific, and measurable steps to address key water issues, such as drought or flooding; water availability or quality; water-use efficiency; water security; ecosystem requirements; or others. As a recognized leader in the water sector, WEF was an invited participant in the December meeting and submitted three commitments for consideration, of which the following two were accepted:
Commitment #1: National Green Infrastructure Certification Program (NGICP)
As announced in early February, WEF and DC Water are developing the NGICP to promote a skilled green infrastructure workforce and help support community-based job creation in U.S. cities. The program will provide certifications to individuals performing the installation, inspection, and maintenance of GI as having the required knowledge, skills, and abilities to support long-term performance and sustainability of GI systems, which can help reduce combined sewer overflows and provide triple-bottom-line benefits. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, and other TBA partners, will help WEF implement and advance the certification in communities across the country. The first certifications are expected in January 2017.
Commitment #2: The Leaders Innovation Forum for Technology (LIFT) Water Reuse Focus Area and Water Reuse Roadmap
As a joint initiative by WEF and the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF), LIFT helps accelerate water sector innovation. WEF and WERF are announcing the launch of a new LIFT Technology Focus Area on Water Reuse, which will establish a new network of water users identifying, evaluating, and demonstrating innovative technologies to help improve the effectiveness and reduce the costs of water reuse. The two organizations will also collaborate with WateReuse on implementing the new Focus Area. As a separate but related effort, WEF will also release a new Water Reuse Roadmap at WEFTEC 2016 in September to promote water reuse—specifically recovering resources from wastewater—as an important part of a diverse and resilient water management strategy.
“WEF is honored to be working in collaboration with our nation’s leaders, our water sector colleagues, and many stakeholders from across the country to explore and advance resilient and sustainable water management strategies that work for us today and protect our water for the future,” said WEF Executive Director Eileen O’Neill. “We are excited and encouraged by the increased awareness of the value and importance of water and the very real steps we are taking together to make it a national priority.”
To learn more about this effort, please read the Working Together to Build a Sustainable Water Future Fact Sheet. For a complete summary of commitments, please read the Commitments to Action on Building a Sustainable Water Future. | http://cweawaternews.org/water-environment-federation-announces-white-house-water-commitments/ |
ERP professionals are invaluable to businesses because they are at the center of crafting solutions that improve the way organizations manage their day-to-day tasks. From accounting, procurement and project management to risk management, compliance, and supply chain operations, there are a range of diverse roles available in Enterprise Resource Planning. Because of these many roles, businesses that implement ERP solutions will need experts with both technical and functional expertise as well as the relevant soft skills to help with the company’s success and to gain a competitive advantage.
In all, every organization wants to ensure that they have the best employees available in every role. This article highlights the important skills necessary for success in ERP.
Technical and Functional Knowledge
ERP professionals, of course, need to have credible experience and knowledge of ERP systems. ERP technologies such as Acumatica, Sage, and Microsoft Dynamics are highly specialized and have many different certifications you can obtain for both technical and functional positions. The combination of experience, knowledge and certifications in different ERP systems will open up many different opportunities in varying industries such as manufacturing, supply chain and Information Technology. To better your chances of landing a role in ERP, you would need to have adequate expertise in the areas needed for the role you’re going for. Having knowledge of the industry, market and any recent developments or changes is also essential, as it is developing all the time.
Good Communication
As an ERP professional, your communication skills are of utmost importance. Whether you’re leading an ERP implementation or upgrading an existing ERP system, you need to be able to discuss projects and assignments with your team, as well as other stakeholders in the project. This may be over email, phone or through meetings and presentations. So, a wide array of communication skills is an important element in this role, especially when breaking down complex solutions to those who aren’t familiar with the terms and language that you and your team use.
Project Management
Experience is equally as important as certifications in the ERP industry. Therefore, project management is a greatly desired skill for ERP professionals. Many employers value past experience, so any evidence that you have worked on an ERP implementation project to successful completion is a huge bonus. And, of course, any transferable skills in this area are also a great way to show that you already have experience that is easily adapted to an ERP role.
Problem Solving
As with any project, it’s likely that an ERP project will experience some hitches along the way. That’s why ERP experts need excellent problem-solving skills if they are to succeed in the industry. Professionals who can identify and articulate a problem and find a satisfactory solution are those who will deliver a project on-time and on-budget. Also, having evidence that showcases your problem-solving skills in past projects will help you land the role you want.
Data Analytics
Data is an invaluable resource to companies and underpins almost every decision in most businesses. Embedded analytics is now a crucial part of ERP; hence, knowledge of data analytics is a key competency for ERP talent. Possessing skills in user experience and the know-how on how to create and deliver dynamic reports that allow users to make quick and educated decisions is essential to successful deployments.
Team Building
Regardless of how self-sufficient you may be as an ERP professional; it is highly unlikely that you’ll be required to handle an ERP implementation or upgrade a project alone. As such, ERP professionals need to know how to bring a team together to successfully collaborate on solving technical issues. Teamwork is a vital skill for ERP professionals, as you’ll need to work closely with your team on complex projects and share knowledge with each other. As the team leader, you’ll also need to resolve conflicts amicably within the team where necessary.
Working With Insight Recruitment
Employers mainly look out for the above listed skills in their candidates as they help increase customer satisfaction, efficiency, and revenue. So, demonstrating these skills is of great importance when applying to and interviewing for ERP roles.
If you’re looking for your next ERP Role, our team of experienced recruiters can help. We’ll handle everything from bringing the right opportunity to you, coaching you on your resume, preparing you for interviews and giving you critical interview feedback. Contact us today. | https://www.insightrecruitment.com/2020/03/31/top-skills-necessary-for-success-in-erp/ |
What To Know About COVID-19 And Arthritis
Experts do not yet understand how COVID-19 may affect someone with arthritis relative to the general population.
However, it appears that people with inflammatory or autoimmune arthritis may be at greater risk of contracting the infection, and developing more severe symptoms, than others.
Keep reading to learn more about the potential effects of COVID-19 on those with certain types of arthritis. This article also covers some precautions that people can take to reduce their risk of contracting the virus.
How does COVID-19 affect people with arthritis?
Neither researchers nor doctors know the exact effects of COVID-19 on people with arthritis. The World Health Organization (WHO) and other expert bodies are still learning about the impact of the virus on people with preexisting health conditions.
According to the Arthritis Foundation, people with autoimmune or inflammatory arthritis with high disease activity generally have a higher risk of infections due to reduced immune function.
Regarding children with arthritis, the Arthritis Foundation suggests that factors such as arthritis type, disease activity, the involvement of organs, and the level to which their immune system is suppressed may all play a role in the risk of coronavirus infection.
Some research suggests that people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have an increased risk of infection because their immune system is impaired. This is typical in autoimmune conditions such as RA.
Furthermore, these people may take medications — such as corticosteroids and immunosuppressive drugs — that also affect immune function. This may increase their risk of contracting the virus.
The presence of other underlying conditions, such as diabetes or heart disease, can further increase risk.
Is COVID-19 more dangerous for people with arthritis?
There is not yet enough evidence to confirm this, but it seems that people with autoimmune or inflammatory arthritis may be at higher risk of infection or severe COVID-19 symptoms.
Experts suggest that the main concerns for those with autoimmune conditions who develop COVID-19 include secondary bacterial infections and other complications that may result from the initial viral infection.
In general, those who take immunosuppressive medications, such as biologics or corticosteroids, are at higher risk of a severe viral infection. People who take immunosuppressive medications and who develop flu-like symptoms should call their doctor immediately.
Healthcare professionals typically do not recommend immunosuppressive treatments in those with active infections, but the risk of disease flares is also worth consideration. A person can determine whether to discontinue, taper, or maintain their medication by consulting their doctor.
Those who take immunosuppressive drugs and who do not have symptoms of COVID-19 should discuss their options with their doctor. In some cases, the risk of arthritis flares may outweigh the potential benefits of stopping treatment.
In either case, it is important that people do not adjust their dosage or stop taking their medication without first seeking medical advice. | |
: Bell-shaped blooms on compact flower spikes.
Idea & Tips
: Prefers well-drained soil in full sun, although will tolerate a wide range of soils and conditions.
Grower Information
:
Compact varieties bloom in bold colors…“sweet as candy, tough as nails!”
Bell-shaped blooms on compact flower spikes.
Plump panicles stand out against green foliage.
Fits well at the front of a border, along walkways and in containers.
Hardy to Zone 5.
'Novapenlig'
Protection Information
:
EU PBR61259
;
PP27,787
(Flowering Only License)
Breeder
: Darwin Perennials
Propagation Guide
Media EC/pH:
EC 0.75-0.80 mmhos/pH 5.8-6.2
Soil Temperature:
70-72°F (21-22°C)
Rooting Hormone:
500 ppm IBA
Mist:
Moderate to high for first 24 hours, then reduce to low.
Fertilization:
50-75 ppm N
Pinching:
Recommended.
Transplanting:
35-42 days after sticking
Comments:
Use low mist settings; do not oversaturate rooting media. Root zone temperatures of 70°F (21°C).
Finishing Guide
Media pH:
5.8-6.2
Temperature:
Nights: 55 to 70°F (13 to 21°C) Days: 60 to 80°F (15 to 27°C)
Light Level (fc):
3,000 to 5,000
Vernalization:
No
Daylength:
Long day facultative
Watering:
Allow media to dry moderately between watering.
Fertilization:
Use a balanced fertilizer at a rate of 150 to 175 ppm N.
Pinch After Transplant:
Yes
Plant Growth Regulators:
PGRs generally not needed
Pests and Fungal Diseases:
Spider mites, thrips. Watch for INSV/TSWV.
Crop Scheduling
1–qt. (10–cm) pot, 1 plant per pot:
Unrooted: 10-14 wks Rooted: 8-10 wks
1–gal. (15–cm) pot, 1 plant per pot:
Unrooted: 15-17 wks Rooted: 10-12 wks
2 to 3–gal. (25 to 30–cm) pot, 3 plants per pot:
Unrooted: 19-22 wks Rooted: 12-14 wks
Bloom Months: | https://www.darwinperennials.com/Products/Plantinfo/?phid=047907343004121 |
What is interviewing?
Why might interviewing be considered an art?
Why is it important?
What are the basic steps in interviewing?
What is the difference between basic questions and deep questions?
Interviewing practice
Introduce yourself to a classmate you have never talked to before.
Take notes and ask lots of questions.
Explain to your classmate that you are a journalism student at Towson University and you are trying to get ideas for a news story to write.
Tell your classmate that you are hoping that he or she can help you by telling you about interesting hobbies or experiences from his/her own life. Talking to people is a great way to learn about interesting topics to write about and inform the public.
Ask your classmate what he/she finds most enjoyable or most exciting in life. What is his/her passion? What is his/her dream? What is the most exciting thing he/she has ever done?
If your classmate is struggling to think of anything, brainstorm to help him or her. Try to find out a few ideas from your classmate.
Gather lots of details. KEEP YOUR NOTES. | https://joannebroadwatertowsonu.com/2754-2/ |
The medical disclaimer is in the Terms of Service, and feel free to have a look at it if you have any doubt. Having said that, these are the four components of my warm-up routine when I train Upper Body:
● Rotator cuff warm-up without elastic
● Rotator cuff warm-up with elastic
● Dynamic movements
● Specific pre-sets warm-up
Let’s cover the first two points with two nice schematics:
For the “dynamic movements” I just rotate both arms forward (think of butterfly swimming stroke) ten times, then backwards other ten times, and then same again but this time one arm at the time.
And now for the juicy part, the “specific pre-sets warm-up”.
Let’s jump straight to a real-life example: here’s the “Upper Body A” day from my four-day “Upper/Lower Split” workout routine, part of the “Muscle Building Workout Routine” which I got from Jay’s “A Workout Routine” .com (Links).
Where:
W = warm-up
S = sets
M = movements (reps)
R = rest
Let’s look at column “W”:
** = full pre-sets warm-up
* = half pre-sets warm-up
– = no pre-sets warm-up
Let’s take the Bench Press (**), and defining the “target weight” as the weight I will be using during the sets, this is how I warm up for that exercise:
10x reps with empty bar (20kg)
8x reps with 50-55% of target weight
6x reps with 65-70% of target weight
3x reps with 75-80% of target weight
1x reps with 85-90% of target weight
These are “target” percentages, of course, and I just try to be as close as possible to them depending on the target weight and the weights available at the gym.
Let’s consider the Incline Dumbbell Press 30° (**), and considering that right now I use 18kg dumbbell for this exercise, this is how I warm up here:
10x reps with 2kg dumbbells
8x reps with 10kg dumbbells
6x reps with 12kg dumbbells
3x reps with 14kg dumbbells
1x reps with 16kg dumbbells
Sets with 18kg dumbbells
For the exercises with single asterisk (*), I do something like:
8x reps with 50-55% of target weight
4x reps with 70-75% of target weight
2x reps with 85-90% of target weight
The specific pre-sets warm-up is extremely important, since its primary objective is keeping you away from injuries. As a bonus, since you have warmed up the muscles properly, you will also be able to lift heavier weights during the sets themselves, the muscles will be stimulated more intensely, and they will grow bigger as a result: excellent.
The warm-up when I train Lower Body differs in the initial part only, and then for the specific pre-sets warm-up I follow the same principle explained just above.
● Bicycle (5 min)
● Static stretching
● Dynamic movements (good mornings, squat with wooden bar, sideways leg swings, frontal leg swings, etc)
● Specific pre-sets warm-up
This is not intended to be a comprehensive “guide” on gym warm-up, but rather a starting point. It’s food for thought and it’s aimed at everyone, but mainly at the guys who arrive at the gym and start working out directly with the target weight, without doing any prior warm-up, or maybe they rotate each arm twice forwards and twice backwards only, before starting the sets with the target weight: that’s not the way to go, and I’ve seen more than a few guys doing just that during my years at the gym. Those guys could do themselves a favour by implementing the recommendations provided here.
The Upper Body recommendations seem comprehensive to me, I’d say no point in doing more than that unless you have a specific situation (e.g. recovering from an injury, specific joint problem, etc). On the other hand, compared to industry’s standards, the Lower Body recommendations provided in here are a bit slim in the middle section (static stretching and dynamic movements). I personally don’t do any static stretching, and the dynamic movements I do are “only” those listed above. Still, the World Wide Web contains huge amount of information on this topic, there are entire guides dedicated on squat warm-up only, so feel free to do some more searching if you want to go the extra mile.
Cheers.
Related Posts:
• Gym rule #1 – Don’t injure yourself
• Gym rule #3 – Proper technique
• Gym rule #4 – Progressive overload
• The Daygamer’s gym outfit
• Maximising your Looks
The Essentials: | https://highvaluedaygame.com/2019/10/27/gym-rule-2-warm-up/ |
Teachers were reacting coolly Friday to a plan to overhaul two big high schools in Minneapolis.
Edison, located in Minneapolis's Northeast neighborhood, and Washburn, located near 46th St. S. and I-35W, are each getting a "fresh start" that could replace the entire staff.
There are about 2,500 students and between 200 and 300 staffers at the two schools. There are five other large high schools in the city.
Teachers union president Robert Panning-Miller said word of the overhauls came as surprise on Thursday.
It's the second time in as many years that the district has uprooted faculty in a pair of Minneapolis schools.
Panning-Miller also said reassigning the staff unfairly cast blame on the very people who had been trying to turn things around.
"Looking back at last year, you had staff who were looking for help, who were trying to find ways to improve the situation," Panning-Miller said. "The district didn't respond until it came in, emptied the place out and started over."
The announcement of the latest makeovers come just a week after the school board finalized its new nine-point strategic plan.
That plan calls for closing the racial achievement gap, narrowing a multi-million dollar budget gap and making four out of five graduates ready for college.
Chief Academic Officer Bernadeia Johnson said the school board felt the need to follow up their planning with quick action.
''We realized we needed to really accelerate our work with these particular schools before the next school year,'' Johnson said.
The school principals, Carol Markham-Cousins, at Washburn, and Carla Steinbach, at Edison, will be staying on.
As part of the fresh start, the schools will also offer more arts classes and the highly regarded International Baccalaureate program, as well as additional academic counseling and two weeks of additional training for the new staffs.
The makeovers are the 8th and 9th in the district since 1996.
Some, like those at two North Side elementary schools this year, have been required under the federal No Child Left Behind education act.
Others have been voluntary. And they've sparked sparked unrest before.
A ''fresh start'' at Benjamin Banneker Elementary in 2002 drew scores of angry parents and prompted a revision of the initial overhaul plan.
Johnson, the district's chief academic officer, said the changes at Edison and Washburn were overdue.
She said that overhauls are one of a number of approaches district officials plan to take with the lowest-performing 25 percent of schools in the city. | https://www.mprnews.org/story/2008/03/21/fresh |
1989-1991 Research Associate, Agriculture Canada Research Station Project: Genetics of resistance to acaricides in European Red Mites on apples.
Research in my laboratory is directed towards understanding how changes at the molecular level affect cellular and whole organism processes in a wide range of organisms (Figure 1). Most of my early work focused on the genetic and ecological consequences of a particularly extreme form of genetic change- whole genome duplication or polyploidy- but I have also been interested in the consequences of gene duplication at the level of gene families that control recognition processes involved in adaptation, such as plant self-incompatibility systems (SI), plant resistance genes, and the vertebrate immune genes (e.g. the Major Histocompatibilty Complex, MHC). I am particularly interested in how such genomic changes affect interactions between organisms, such as mate choice and pathogen responses. Some of my primary areas of interest have been: 1) the evolutionary dynamics of gene families involved in recognition systems; 2) the causes and consequences of changes in mating systems for genetic diversity and adaptation; and 3) the consequences of mating system variation and polyploidy for mate recognition and pathogen response.
However, research within the group has also focused on a wider range of other topics, focused on conservation genetics, adaptation to changing environments, and understanding drivers of biotic interactions (including host-vector-pathogen systems, microbiome diversity, and evolution of resistance). I have also supervised master's and undergraduate projects on a wide range of subjects, mostly related to systematics and molecular ecology. There has thus been a shift in my focus recently more towards thinking about the relative importance of genetic variation in general: how critical is it for adaptation and can genetics be used effectively to inform management interventions for conservation and disease mitigation?
Current projects lead by PhD or Master’s students include: 1) assessing diversity of the rhizosphere of plants in the genus Brassica in relation to ploidy, mating system and population genetic structure (Elizabeth Mittell, PhD candidate); 2) developing molecular markers to inform translocation strategies for fenced populations of Southern White Rhinoceros in Botswana (Tarid Puriyosoto, PhD candidat); 3) assessing levels of genetic variation in protected populations of Northern Black Rhinoceros across Tanzania (Ronald Mellya, MSc); 4) investigating the genetic and ecological drivers of resistance in parasitic nematodes of sheep (Sam Brown, PhD candidate).
Figure 1. Some of the research questions and study organisms that I have focused on: a) evolution of mating systems and polyploidy in grey treefrogs (Hyla versicolor); b) evolution of mating systems and polyploidy in rock cress (Arabidopsis lyrata); c) conservation genetics of African wild dogs; d) evolution of resistance to acaricides in European red mites (Panonychus ulmi); e) evolution of resistance to anthelmintics in nematodes infecting livestock; f) host-pathogen-vector dynamics (e.g. multiple species of tsetse flies feed on a wide range of wild and domestic hosts and can transmit multiple species of trypanosomes).
Most of the research in my laboratory is currently focused on understanding the adaptive dynamics of plants in variable environments. In particular, I am interested in the effects of mating systems (i.e. inbreeding vs outcrossing) and ploidy level (i.e. diploid vs tetraploid) on the ability of plants to tolerate or adapt to changes in the abiotic and the biotic (e.g. changes in pathogen pressures or proximity to competitors) environments.
We have been using A. lyrata as a model to investigate how mating system and polyploidy affect pathogen response systems. We have been focusing on particular oomycete pathogens (causing white blister rust and downy mildew) that are known to be problematic for cultivated species of Brassicaceae and for which candidate genes for resistance have been previously characterised in Arabidopsis thaliana. We have been investigating variation in resistance to pathogens in plants sampled from across their European range (where the plants are known to vary in ploidy level) and in the Great Lakes region of Eastern North America (where the plants are known to vary in mating system) and investigating the prevalence of the pathogens in native environments and variation in candidate resistance genes. We have also been using RAD sequencing to enable comparison of genome-wide patterns of variation in neutral genes with those that might be involved in adaptation. This research is currently funded by a grant from NERC, in collaboration with Eric Holub, from the University of Warwick. The project has involved three postdoctoral researchers (Volkan Cevik and Joana Vicente, Warwick; James Buckley, Glasgow), and three research technicians (Aileen Adam, Elizabeth Kilbride, Ryan Carter).
We are also using the University field station on Loch Lomond (SCENE) to pilot use of outdoor experimental nurseries to use a common garden garden approach to investigate the ability of plants with different ploidy and mating systems to adapt to novel and variable environmental conditions (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Experimental nursery at SCENE showing natural variation in climatic conditions. | https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/boydorr/people/byname/barbaramable/ |
Central coordination of cardiovascular function is accomplished, in part, by the baroreceptor reflex, a multi-input multi-output physiological control system that regulates the activity of the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems via interactions among multiple brainstem nuclei. Recent single-cell analyses within the brain revealed that individual neurons within and across brain nuclei exhibit distinct transcriptional states contributing to neuronal function. Such transcriptional heterogeneity complicates the task of understanding how neurons within and across brain nuclei organize and function to process multiple inputs and coordinate cardiovascular functions within the larger context of the baroreceptor reflex. However, prior analysis of brainstem neurons revealed that single-neuron transcriptional heterogeneity reflects an adaptive response to synaptic inputs and that neurons organize into distinct subtypes with respect to synaptic inputs received. Based on these results, we hypothesize that adaptation of neuronal subtypes support robust biological function through graded cellular responses. We test this hypothesis by examining the functional impact of neuronal adaptation on parasympathetic activity within the context of short-term baroreceptor reflex regulation. In this work, we extend existing quantitative closed-loop models of the baroreceptor reflex by incorporating into the model distinct input-driven neuronal subtypes and neuroanatomical groups that modulate parasympathetic activity. We then use this extended model to investigate, via simulation, the functional role of neuronal adaptation under conditions of health and systolic heart failure. Simulation results suggest that parasympathetic activity can be modulated appropriately by the coordination of distinct neuronal subtypes to maintain normal cardiovascular functions under systolic heart failure conditions. Moreover, differing degrees of adaptation of these neuronal subtypes contribute to cardiovascular behaviors corresponding to distinct clinical phenotypes of heart failure, such as exercise intolerance. Further, our results suggest that an imbalance between sympathetic and parasympathetic activity regulating ventricular contractility contributes to exercise intolerance in systolic heart failure patients, and restoring this balance can improve the short-term cardiovascular performance of these patients.
Clinical Institute
Cardiovascular (Heart)
Clinical Institute
Neurosciences (Brain & Spine)
Department
Cardiology
Department
Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Department
Institute for Systems Biology
Recommended Citation
Park, James H; Gorky, Jonathan; Ogunnaike, Babatunde; Vadigepalli, Rajanikanth; and Schwaber, James S, "Investigating the Effects of Brainstem Neuronal Adaptation on Cardiovascular Homeostasis." (2020). Articles, Abstracts, and Reports. 3291. | https://digitalcommons.psjhealth.org/publications/3291/ |
Margiana (Old Persian Marguš): oasis in the Karakum desert, modern Mary (or Merv) in the southeast of Turkmenistan.
Bronze Age
Margiana was situated on the boards of the river Murghab; this river, which was called Margos by the ancient Greeks, has its sources in the mountains of Afghanistan and flows to the north, into the Karakum desert, where it divides into several branches that disappear in the desert sands. The fertile delta was called Margiana and was already occupied by farmers in about 2200-1700 BCE; their Bronze Age culture is known as the "Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex". Among the sites are Altyn Deppe, Gonur Deppe, Namazga Deppe, and Ulug Deppe.
In the Avesta, Margiana is mentioned as one of Ahuramazda's special creations and called "the strong, holy Môuru".note[Vendidad, Fargard 1.6.] In the Hindu, Parsi and Arab traditions, Margiana is identified with the ancient Paradise.
Little is known about the Iron Age.
Persian Age
Margiana must have been conquered by the Persian king Cyrus the Great. This is not written in our sources, but is implied by the fact that he fought against the Massagetes, a nomad tribe living beyond Margiana.
In March 522 BCE, a Magian named Gaumâta seized power in the Achaemenid empire, claiming to be the brother of the legitimate king Cambyses. (Gaumâta could do this, because this brother, Smerdis, had been killed secretly.) Immediately, Cambyses advanced to the usurper, but he died before he reached Persia; the false Smerdis was able to rule for several months. However, Cambyses' relative Darius, together with six Persian noblemen, killed the usurper (29 September). Darius became king and faced a serious crisis: nearly all provinces of the Achaemenid empire revolted. The most important rebellion was that of the Medes, whose leader was king Phraortes. His rebellion spread to the north to Armenia and to the east to Parthia. Even further to the east, the oasis of Margiana revolted.
The leader of the Margian insurrection was one Frâda. Because Margiana was not a very important part of the Achaemenid empire, no action was undertaken. At the end of the spring of 521, however, the Medes had been defeated and in July the Parthian rebellion had been suppressed; only some mopping up operations were needed to restore order in the Achaemenid empire. The satrap of Bactria, Dâdarši, advanced against the rebels, which he defeated on 28 December 521 after a march of three hundred kilometers through the Karakum desert.
In the Behistun inscription, which was made immediately after the above mentioned events, Dâdarši's victory is presented as if it was just as important as the victories over the rebels in Babylonia or Media. One version of the text (the Aramaic, which is severely damaged) even mentions 55.423 Margians killed and 6.972 taken captive, which is certainly exaggerated.
Hellenistic Age
We hear from it again in the histories of the Persian campaign of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great. After the collapse of the Achaemenid empire, a Bactrian nobleman named Spitamenes started a guerilla war against the invaders (in 329/328 BCE), trying to keep Bactria and Sogdia free from Macedonian occupation. Alexander pursued the Bactrian leader, who retreated to the north, and sent his general Craterus to the west, to fortify Margiana. This was necessary, because in doing so, Spitamenes could no longer attack Alexander in the rear, in Aria. Craterus founded a city called Alexandria and fortified five other towns, all situated on defendable hills.
Alexandria was refounded by king Antiochus I Soter (281-261), who called it Antiochia. It was a large, square military settlement, intended to guard Iran against incursions from nomad tribes, such as the Parni, who were to overrun this region and to found the Parthian empire in what is now Iran and Iraq. (The acropolis is now known as Erk Kala; the walled city is called Gyaur Kala.)
In 53 BCE, Antiochia in Margiana received new settlers: ten thousand Roman soldiers, taken captive by the Parthians at Carrhae. They must have found the conditions of their captivity easier than they expected; a few years later, the Greek topographer Strabo of Amasia praises Margiana as a country especially blessed by nature.
In the second century CE, Margiana played a role in the trade between east and west. Coming from China, caravans arrived in Sogdia and continued through the desert to Margiana, from where they went to the Parthian empire and finally the Mediterranean. The trade route became known as the Silk road. Margiana flourished and grew rich on the trade revenues. It had its own coins and became a cultural center of great importance, where Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Jews, and (from the late fifth century) Christians lived together. It also played a role in the spread Christianity: in the sixth century, Nestorian missionaries moved from Ctesiphon through Margiana to Maracanda and China. | https://www.livius.org/articles/place/margiana/ |
We take a break from today’s chicanery to bring you a quick distraction: Marc Marquez riding the Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP around the Catalunya track, in a 360° video format.
The video comes from Honda’s initial photo and video shoot for the unveiling of the new CBR1000RR-R, but that doesn’t make it any less cool.
For the maximum experience, watch the video on your phone. The IMU on your smartphone should pick up your movements, and change your field of view as you “look” around the bike as its on track.
As VR headsets get better and better, it won’t be long before they start replacing TVs and other media devices. Can you imagine watching a MotoGP race like this? We think it would be a game-changer for how we watch motorcycle racing. | https://www.asphaltandrubber.com/bikes/marc-marquez-honda-cbr1000rr-r-360-video/ |
Palos Verdes uses 500 million gallons of water per month.
In 2015, the water consumption rate decreased by 24.9% compared to 2014. This reduction saved Palos Verdes more than 165,532,526 gallons of water.
87% of all water consumed in Palos Verdes is used by residential customers.
The other 13% is used by commerce/agriculture and city needs.
Palos Verdes consumes just 0.15% of California's water resources, with each resident consuming an average of 73,036.5 gallons of water per year.
Follow these easy tips to save 28,000+ gallons per year per person.
A point-of-use tankless water heater can save thousands of gallons of water by cutting down on "warm up" time.
Use a low flow showerhead to save 15 gallons of water during a 10 minute shower.
Upgrade to a high-efficiency WaterSense® toilet and save 1,200 gallons of water a year.
Install low flow aerators on your faucets and cut your water usage by 40%!
Save 5,000 gallons of water a year by using Energy Star dishwashers rather than washing dishes by hand.
Fix leaks under your home, in your kitchen, and in your bathroom to save up to 2,500 gallons.
When doing laundry, make sure you match the settings on your machine to match the size of the load to save 1,300 gallons a year.
Use a sponge and a bucket to wash your car rather than a running hose.
Install a pool cover to prevent losing as much as a quarter inch of water a day to evaporation.
The water usage data was sourced from the California State Water Resources Control Board dated May 5, 2015, which can be found here (WRCB Report). The SERVIZ Ranking and the SERVIZ Grade are based on the average water usage per resident per day in the South Coast Hydrologic Region as shown in the WRCB Report. The SERVIZ Ranking is just a straight numerical ranking, with the city with the lowest average water usage per resident per day being ranked #1. The SERVIZ Grade is calculated as follows: the top 20% of the cities were given an A (meaning those cities had the lowest average water usage per resident per day), a B for cities between 40% and 20%, a C for cities between 60% and 40%, a D for cities between 80% and 60% and an F for cities 20% or below. The information contained in the infographic is for general information purposes only. While the infographic is provided by SERVIZ, SERVIZ makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or accuracy of the data provided by The California State Water Resources Control Board.
I am not surprised that Beverly Hills received and F, but was very surprised that Westlake Village is such a water hog. I hope pages like this will help to shed light on the california drought and maybe spur some folks and cities for that matter to further reduce water usage. BTW, I love the hidden little game with the sheep.
Got any comments? Let us hear them! | https://www.serviz.com/palos-verdes-peninsula-los-angeles/city/1-1047 |
The present invention relates to an air intake device mainly used for an air intake system of an internal combustion engine for a vehicle.
As shown in FIG. 3, an air intake device proposed in JP-A-10-103089 has a metallic throttle body 103 and a resinous air intake duct 104. The throttle body 103 rotatably supports a throttle valve 101 through a valve shaft 102. The air intake duct 104 defines a hollow cylindrical air intake passage 105. The air intake duct 104 has an opening 104a that opens in a peripheral direction thereof, and the throttle body 103 is assembled onto the opening 104a. O-rings 110 are provided between contact surfaces of the throttle body 103 and the air intake duct 104.
In this kind of air intake device, in addition to the air intake duct, separate sealing members are required at an upstream side and a downstream side of the throttle to prevent an air leakage and communication with the outside air. Further, the throttle body is fixed with bolts. Therefore, the air intake device is upsized, and the number of components is increased. As a result, it is difficult to reduce a manufacturing cost. Furthermore, it is difficult to improve fuel efficiency due to weight increase and upsizing.
The present invention is made in view of the above problems, and it is an object to provide an air intake device suitable for reducing a manufacturing cost by downsizing and reductions of the numbers of assembly process and components, and reducing a weight by reducing an axial length of a throttle body, so that fuel efficiency of an engine is improved.
According to the present invention, a throttle body is directly connected to an air cleaner case and an intake manifold. Therefore, an air intake duct is not required, and it is unnecessary to fix the throttle body with bolts. Accordingly, the air intake device is downsized and the number of components is reduced.
FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view of an air intake device according to the first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2A is a partial vertical cross-sectional view of an air intake device according to the second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2B is a partial enlarged view of a flange shown in FIG. 2A; and
FIG. 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a conventional air intake device.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description made with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
In an air intake device shown in FIG. 1, a throttle valve 1 is rotatably supported in a throttle body 3 through a valve shaft 2. An accelerator lever (not shown) is provided on an end of the valve shaft 2 that penetrates to the outer peripheral surface of the throttle body 3, and a return spring (not shown) is attached on the valve shaft 2 between the accelerator lever and the throttle body 3. Further, a wire (not shown) interlocked to an accelerator is wound around the accelerator lever. Therefore, the throttle valve 1 is opened/closed by pressing the accelerator. The throttle body 3 has a cylindrical part and an annular flange 3a is provided on the outer periphery of the cylindrical part. The throttle body 3 is generally made of metal, such as iron and aluminum alloy, but it may be alternatively made of resin.
An air cleaner unit 6 is provided at the upstream air side of the throttle valve 1. The air cleaner unit 6 has an air cleaner cap 61, an air cleaner element 62 and an air cleaner case 63. The air cleaner element 62 is held between the air cleaner cap 61 and the air cleaner case 63, and the cap 61 and the case 63 are tightened with clamps 64. An air inlet 61a is provided in the air cleaner cap 61 and an air outlet 63a is provided on the bottom surface of the air cleaner case 63. Further, an annular receiving recess 63b for receiving the flange 3a of the throttle body 3 is provided on the bottom surface of the air cleaner case 63.
An intake manifold 7 is provided at the downstream air side of the throttle valve 1. Air introduced from the air inlet 61a of the air cleaner cap 61 passes through and is filtered by the air cleaner element 62. Then, the air is introduced from the air outlet 63a to the intake manifold 7 through the throttle valve 1. In this way, an air passage 5 is formed.
The throttle body 3 is sandwiched between the air cleaner case 63 and the intake manifold 7 and engaged with the both. The air cleaner case 63 and the intake manifold 7 are directly fixed by bolts 8 and the like. The throttle body 3 is detachable. In FIG. 1, the flange 3a of the throttle body 3 is sandwiched between the air cleaner case 63 and the intake manifold 7, and the cylindrical part of the throttle body 3 is held on the inner peripheries of the air cleaner case 63 and the intake manifold 7. In this case, an outer diameter of the cylindrical part of the throttle body 3 is smaller than an inner diameter of the intake manifold 7 and a diameter of air outlet 63a. In this embodiment, however, the cylindrical part of the throttle body 3 may be directly sandwiched between the air cleaner case 63 and the intake manifold 7 without the flange 3a. Although the receiving recess 63b for receiving the flange 3a is provided at the air cleaner case 63 side, a receiving recess can be provided at the intake manifold 7 side. Further, receiving recesses can be provided on both of the air cleaner case 63 and the intake manifold 7 to jointly receive the flange 3a.
In order to prevent air leakage, an annular gasket 9 is sandwiched between contact surfaces of the air cleaner case 63 and the intake manifold 7 radially outside the throttle body 3.
As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, annular thin projections 3b are provided on both of the top and bottom surfaces of the annular flange 3a of the throttle body 3. Each thin projection 3b, for example, has a triangular shape in a cross section, as shown in FIG. 2B. When the flange 3a of the throttle body 3 is directly held between the air cleaner case 63 and the intake manifold 7, a peak of the thin projection 3b is crushed to form sealing portion. In this case, a sealing member such as the gasket 9 of the first embodiment is not required. Although the thin projections are provided on the top and the bottom surfaces of the flange 3a, the thin projections can be provided on the air cleaner 6 side and the intake manifold 7 side.
As described above, since the gasket 9 is sandwiched between the air cleaner case 63 and the intake manifold 7 outside the throttle body 3, it is possible to seal the air cleaner case 63 and the intake manifold 7 with a single gasket. Therefore, a manufacturing cost can be reduced. Further, when the throttle body 3 is sandwiched between the air cleaner case 63 and the intake manifold 7, the sealing portions are provided by the crush of the thin projections 3b on the throttle body 3, or the air cleaner case 63 and the intake manifold 7. Therefore, a separate sealing member is not required. As a result, the manufacturing cost can be reduced.
Further, since the intake manifold 7 is directly tightened to the air cleaner case 63 with the bolts 8 and the therottle body 3 is sandwiched therebetween, it is not required to tight the throttle body 3 to the intake manifold 7 with bolts. Therefore, the numbers of assembly process and components such as the sealing member and the intake duct are reduced. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce the manufacturing cost.
In addition, since the throttle body 3 has the flange 3a and the cylindrical part is held radially inside of the air cleaner case 63 and the intake manifold 7, the outer diameter of the throttle body 3 and the axial length thereof may be reduced. Accordingly, the air intake device is reduced in weight and size. As a result, fuel efficiency of an engine is improved.
The present invention should not be limited to the disclosed embodiments, but may be implemented in other ways without departing from the spirit of the invention.
In an air intake device, a throttle body (3) is sandwiched between an air cleaner case (63) and an intake manifold (7) which are connected in direct contact with each other. A gasket (9) for preventing an air leakage is provided between the air cleaner case (63) and the intake manifold (7) radially outside the throttle body (3). Alternatively, crushable thin projections (3b) are provided on the top and the bottom surfaces of the flange (3a). When the flange (3a) is sandwiched between the case (63) and the intake manifold (7), the thin projections (3b) are crushed to provide seals therebetween.
(First embodiment)
(Second embodiment) | |
Strong culture, good communication, and standard processes are the top 3 factors that help businesses to collaborate effectively in remote working environment.
The COVID-19 pandemic is nothing more than a “brutal” push, forcing many businesses to switch to a remote working model. However, when business owners first implemented this model in practice, they began to encounter ominous questions about collaborative activities in their team.
Of course, this is not a model fault. But because these businesses are taking the wrong approach to remote operations. Because in fact, from research by Nicolas Bloom & James Liang, remote workers are happier, less likely to quit, and more productive than in-office employees.
So what are the right approaches for teams, employers, and employees to collaborate more effectively when working remotely? Let’s find out the answer in the article below.
1. Good Culture
When working remotely, away from the usual office environment, employees will be easily distracted at work and lose their usual performance and collaboration. In order to reduce this problem, culture, or the human factor, needs to be given more attention.
Encouragement And Recognition
Individuals who can freely struggle in isolated working conditions must be trained in self-ownership thinking that involves self-control, self-motivation, and self-responsibility. Only when it is internally achieved that each employee has “real determination” and “true will” to work, can they wholeheartedly devote themselves to the business, regardless of environment or circumstances.
But of course, not when you have the right people, you have the right to sit and let them “swim” at work. In addition to intrinsic motivation, employees also need to be boosted by the “fighting spirit” from the company. Specifically, designing forms of recognition and rewards for excellent employees to make them feel similarly appreciated to when working in the office.
The most common form of recognition currently being adopted by many businesses is to create public commendation posts with individuals who have excellent performance. Employers can take advantage of the emailing system professionally, rather than using the internal corporate communication network, to create an achievement article and send it to all employees in the company in real-time. Others will be able to interact with the post and spread joy and motivation throughout the company.
The Right Working Tool
The second point about culture for effective remote work is the right tool. A common mistake of businesses just starting to implement the remote working model is thinking by default that employees already have the same equipment and official internet connection as at the office. But that is not the case, and it is the lack of synchronization of work tools that will drown the organization’s collaboration performance.
Therefore, when conducting the remote operation model, managers need to quickly complete an internal survey form to determine what are the missing equipment that employees need to use. In general, smartphones and laptops are two essential tools for every position. However, some individuals still need more specialized supplies, such as printers for legal professionals, webcams for online job interviewers, and so on.
In addition, the problem of internet connection also needs to be taken care of. A loose home network that does not guarantee complete security can cost employees and businesses dearly. The most common solution to this problem is to use a virtual private network (VPN – Virtual Private Network) to which each connected account must authenticate with a username and password. For smaller organizations, you can consider other options that are less expensive and simpler like connectivity software: Citrix Virtual Apps, Blackberry Digital Workplace or TeamViewer,…
The Given Orientation
The final ingredient to creating an effective remote collaboration culture is that businesses should have the right orientation for employees.
Contrary to the traditional working model, remote teams will not have much time to connect with the culture and goals of colleagues and organizations. Therefore, managers need to regularly align their employees’ thoughts with the vision, values, and mission of the business, so that all activities can take place effectively, towards a unified result.
When all these 3 factors – finding the right people, giving them the right tools, and making sure they see the company’s path are met, then the remote working culture of the business is truly complete and ready for supporting all employees to work effectively.
2. Standard Communication
Remote communication can make employees happier and less stressed. However, if the communication is done incorrectly, it will cause information flow to be broken leading to everything “doesn’t work”, which means that collaboration also becomes less effective.
So how to effectively communicate in the remote working model?
Communicating In Daily Work
In daily communication with remote colleagues, free chat applications such as Zalo, Facebook, Skype, Google Hangouts,… seem to be the most used communication tools.
However, it’s important to note that the above chat applications were originally born to serve asynchronous communication (members operate at different times). But with the ability to transmit information in real-time, users often confuse them with synchronous communication.
This form of synchronous communication causes employees to constantly wait and check messages, inadvertently affecting the essential work they are doing. The solution to this problem is that the working team must clearly separate the purpose and duration of communication when working remotely such as employees are not allowed to text outside in the company’s general chat group, or useful news must be sent from certain channels.
Ideally, the company should have a collaborative workspace that is completely isolated from communication channels that are too crowded and potentially distracting. Many companies are using task management software for everyone to comment, discuss, and exchange documents right under each task listed. This is considered the closest communication method with the criteria of work management and team collaboration.
Conveying Important Information
Similar to everyday collaboration, free chat apps are also not a good way for companies to convey important and official information. Because the information can quickly drift, get forgotten, or jump to another topic when employees are constantly interacting in the communication channel.
Using a Facebook Private Group was originally supposed to be a useful and easy-to-implement solution. Gradually, however, CEOs realized two serious problems. One is the performance problem. When employees have to turn on a Facebook tab in case of company announcements, they inevitably lose focus for a lot of other things on the social network. Second, the Facebook group does not allow managers to control who has the right to post, which can lead to the appearance of false and unorthodox news.
Therefore, with important content, sending an email will become a better option. Because this is a one-way information communication channel, officially controlled by the company. Or more optimally, managers can consider deploying a dedicated internal communication network for their businesses.
Conducting Online Meetings
Referring to remote working, it is impossible not to mention online meetings – which are recommended to be held through video call support tools.
That’s right, whether your company hold a one-on-one meeting or a group meeting, this method can always be used, as long as the camera and mic are fully equipped. Video calls help communication become more soulful while ensuring the focus and effectiveness of the meeting. Besides, meeting organizers’ can use the shared Google Docs system to facilitate their online meetings. This method helps employees who can not attend the meeting to understand the context and grasp the content of the meeting after reading the document.
Additionally, Google Docs method supports the meeting in real-time. Each meeting has a Google Docs page that is authorized to edit for all employees. On it is available the necessary information about the meeting such as time, agenda, participants, … When the chairperson raises an issue, the members will simultaneously type their opinions. Comment layers are distinguished by indentation. People are also allowed to comment or make notes on other people’s opinions.
One thing to keep in mind is to only hold meetings when absolutely necessary. For the rest, simplify communication at work by using communication platforms.
3. Standard Processes
In this factor, a problem that makes it difficult for businesses to operate and work remotely is the thinking that the process must be standard and fixed. Given the process, 100% of the employees must follow it, which is not really flexible. This is a rather wrong thinking, when put in a situation where businesses need to adapt to a completely new working model.
In fact, the process must be constantly updated and re-standardized. When there are market fluctuations (such as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic) and the company’s working model changes, the process must also change to facilitate employees’ operations.
Complex, multi-step workflows are inevitably difficult to operate effectively in a remote environment that lacks a lot of physical interaction. The new process to support the staff must be improved, streamlined and more logical to deliver results and reduce risks. A process management application can help businesses establish and improve processes continuously during stressful and urgent epidemic times.
Conclusion
A remote business, wanting to collaborate and work effectively, must first recognize the three pillars of influencing factors culture, communication and process as mentioned. Achieving these 3 effects, owners will not only be able to support their businesses through the crisis of the recent pandemic but also turn their organizations into a lean, precise operating machine that can deal with other pressing situations in the future.
Suddenly changing the working model is never an easy task for businesses, especially when they are in a passive situation, due to pressure from external factors. Deviation in collaboration and effective work is highly possible, but if leaders have the right direction, it will be much simpler to put everything back on the right track.
Hopefully, the above article will give you the direction to manage people who have to work from home and remotely. | https://blog.accountdock.com/2021/08/12/best-hack-tips-for-great-remote-work-collaboration/ |
Abstract:
This paper provides evidence on the effect of women directors on the performance of family firms with a case study of India. Existing literature on the subject has primarily focused on widely held firms, notably in the US. Given that ownership structure and governance environment of family firms are distinctly different from those of non-family firms, the evidence on the relationship between women on board and firm performance in the context of widely held firms may not apply in the context of family firms. India provides an ideal setting for analyzing this question as the presence of family firms is pervasive and since 2013 India has instituted gender quotas on corporate boards. Using a data-set of 10218 firm year observations over a ten year period from 2005 to 2014 which spans the pre-quota and post-quota years, we find robust evidence that women directors on corporate boards positively impact firm value and that this effect increases with the number of women directors on board. However, we find that the positive effect of gender diversity on firm performance weakens with the extent to which the family exerts control through occupying key management positions on the board. In addition, women directors affiliated to the family have no significant effect on firm value, whereas - independent women directors do. Our results with respect to profitability are somewhat different; while as in the case of market value, women directors positively impact profitability with the positive effect driven by independent women directors, the effect does not vary with the extent of family control. Taken together, our results suggest that though gender diversity on corporate boards may positively impact firm performance in family firms in general, the extent of family control can have a significant bearing on this relationship. The findings from this study could be instructive for emerging economies like India in promoting gender-based quotas on corporate boards.
Keywords: Board of Directors; gender diversity; promoter control; ownership; regulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G32 G34 G38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cfn, nep-cse, nep-dem, nep-eff, nep-gen and nep-hrm
Date: 2015-10
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Downloads: (external link)http://www.mse.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Working-Paper-130.pdf (application/pdf)
Related works:Working Paper: Women on Board and Performance of Family Firms: Evidence from India (2015) Working Paper: Women on board and performance of family firms: Evidence from India (2015) This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
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Alison Moyet performing her Other Tour at The Royal Concert Hall Nottingham on Sunday 26th November 2017.
Images and Review by Kevin Cooper
Beginning her career back in 1982 as one half of the synth pop duo Yazoo, for Alison Moyet it seems appropriate that her sound has almost come full circle to once again return to the world of electronica, and it was a packed Royal Concert Hall who had turned out to witness it.
Forty years after she wrote her first songs and thirty five since she became one of the nation’s favourite unlikely pop stars, Moyet has learnt to embrace the Other, the title of her current album as she showed that she still has a timeless, unique voice that is still relevant to any decade that she chooses to sing in where people respect individuality and passion.
The Royal Concert Hall dropped to darkness and the crowd were mesmerised as the monologue from April 10th pierced the darkness and began a pure piece of theatre. The stage was sparse, with just two keyboards played by John Garden and Shaun McGhee who were mostly kept in the dark, leaving the stage to the most relatable diva, who has always been blessed with a big voice, but a down to earth and less than slick stage presence.
From her new album there was I Germinate, a loving dedication to her mother who passed away from Alzheimer’s two years ago with the lovely The English U, and highlighting the wonderful sultry tone of her voice which remains undiminished by time was The Rarest Birds.
With the audience eager to hear her 80s hits, the capacity crowd were rewarded with all the pristine synth pop singles from her Yazoo days. Their 1982 hit Only You was the first track to get the crowd on their feet and they stayed there to applaud Nobody’s Diary.
With a stunning version of All Cried Out, Moyet kept the nostalgic old school fans happy and on penultimate Yazoo song Situation, she stopped the band to get the audience to tell her the exact words, and then started again. Happily, this uncharacteristic flub brings people to their feet, before she finishes the set with a fabulous Love Resurrection.
Back on for an encore of Whispering Your Name and Don’t Go, Moyet had been at times exuberant, at times moving but most of all one of Britain’s most iconic artists had really delivered her soulful electronica. | https://www.ukmusicreviews.co.uk/gigreviews/gig-review-alison-moyet/ |
Fact: According to Forbes magazine, Fortune 500 companies lose around $31.5 billion yearly because they fail to or don’t know how to share knowledge. Considering the current global economy, this can be a quite scary figure.
It’s not a secret that managing knowledge in an active way can help companies increase their chances of success and even gain a competitive advantage. Specifically, this facilitates decision-making, but also builds solid learning environments, by making learning routine, as well as stimulating cultural change and innovation.
Knowledge sharing itself contributes to today’s thriving economies. Gone are the days in which organizations could get by with siloed information, while just a few key members of the organisation had access to it.
How knowledge sharing contributes to business success
Companies are aware that embracing a knowledge sharing culture can help everyone grow and succeed together. That’s why we strongly believe that we’re now at a point in time in which sharing knowledge effectively is crucial to business success.
And we’re not the only ones.
1. It improves communication and collaboration within a company
A recent study from McKinsey revealed that, on average, employees spend 20% of the working week just to search for the information they need to complete their daily tasks. Let that sink in a for a minute. A fifth of their time is wasted just trying to find something that should be already available.
“Sharing knowledge is not about giving people something, or getting something from them. That is only valid for information sharing. Sharing knowledge occurs when people are genuinely interested in helping one another develop new capacities for action; it is about creating learning processes,” claims Peter Senge, senior lecturer at MIT.
This is where a knowledge sharing platform comes in. By centralizing all the available information within a company in one place, employees are able to save important amounts of time, and also improve the relationships with their colleagues. And these are just a few of the benefits it brings.
2. It encourages innovation and productivity
Knowledge sharing isn’t just about the collaboration between team members. Its main purpose is indeed to deliver better results, but there are other aspects which can contribute to this as well.
Stimulating innovation and learning helps organisations who have taken the time to build a knowledge base be more productive. It also increases idea sharing and keeps team members up to date with the latest trends and strategies.
3. It helps team members feel valued
Working in an environment where knowledge sharing is encouraged is great for each and every one of your team members. After all, when a person is able to give back and, at the same time, contributes to collective knowledge, they can directly see the positive impact of their work.
Consider implementing a knowledge sharing platform as a way of giving team members a stake in the company. By constantly contributing to it, they do not only increase their investment in collective knowledge and help improving peer engagement, but they will also begin feeling more appreciated as individuals.
4. It makes growth easier
Let’s face it, growing a company is not easy. Scaling operations, establishing chains of command, and managing new personnel can be a real challenge. Especially the latter, which is we recommend an article about creating an effective employee onboarding process if you’d like to read more on the subject.
What kind of information does a new employee need? Who should answer all their initial questions and offer insight regarding operational practices? Such issues can be complicated if a company isn’t making good use of knowledge sharing.
Instead of letting your employees hoard valuable information and leave new team members feeling directionless, why not be one step ahead of the game and provide answers to any questions they might have?
Conclusion
If we were to describe the importance of knowledge management within a company using just one word, “crucial” would definitely be a great choice. Implementing a knowledge sharing software is essential to the long-term success of your organisation.
Fostering a pro-knowledge sharing culture can help your business fill some of its biggest information gaps, and also increase innovation and stimulate leadership.
Sounds like something you would like for your company, or want to find out more? You know what you have to do. | https://www.quandora.com/4-ways-knowledge-sharing-is-crucial-to-business-success/ |
It is increasingly clear that, alongside the spectacular forms of justice activism, the actually existing just city results from different everyday practices of performative politics that produce transformative trajectories and alternative realities in response to particular injustices in situated contexts. The massive diffusion of urban gardening practices (including allotments, community gardens, guerrilla gardening and the multiple, inventive forms of gardening the city) deserve special attention as experiential learning and in-becoming responses to spatial politics, able to articulate different forms of power and resistance to the current state of unequal distribution of benefits and burdens in the urban space. While advancing their socio-environmental claims, urban gardeners make evident that the physical disposition of living beings and non-living things can both determine and perpetuate injustices or create justice spaces.
In so doing, urban gardeners question the inequality-biased structuring and functioning of social formations (most notably urban deprivation, lack of public decision and engagement, and marginalisation processes); and conversely create (or allow the creation of) spaces of justice in contemporary cities.
This book presents a selection of contributions investigating the possibility and capability of urban gardeners to effectively tackle spatial injustice; and it offers the readers sound, theoretically grounded reflections on the topic. Building upon on-the-field experiences in European cities, it presents a wide range of engaged scholarly researches that investigate whether, how and to what extent urban gardening is able to contrast inequalities and disparities in living conditions.
5 Urban gardening and spatial justice from a mid-size city perspective: the case of Ortobello Urban Garden Giuseppe Aliperti and Silvia Sarti Introduction The concept of justice is strongly related to present-day conditions that are constantly influenced by class, race and gender, and are able to generate a locational discrimination on certain groups of the population (Soja, 2009). Starting from the 1970s, the term spatial justice has been introduced in order to describe this kind of phenomenon. Spatial justice has been initially investigated by focusing on
urban gardening practices are able and suitable to address social and spatial (in)justice in the urban context. The relationship between urban gardening practices and socio-spatial justice has been rarely investigated (see for instance McClintock, 2014; Milbourne, 2012; Miller, 2005; and Reynolds, 2014). This book aims to fill this gap through presenting scholarly analyses and reflections that unveil the consequences, potentialities and contradictions of urban gardening practices in the constitution of urban spaces and urbanity and examine their ability to address
shaping socio-environmental and spatial justice through such everyday environmentalism (Milbourne, 2012). This chapter contributes to that end by highlighting the contradictory ways in which the dynamic Danish political-economy, strongly rooted in welfare-driven policies and increasingly moulded by global pressures of neoliberalism, is shaping urban community gardening practices and their impact on social and spatial justice for minority groups. Community gardening is increasingly used by the Danish Integrated Urban Renewal (IUR) programme as a tool for dealing with
contemporary social and productive urban landscapes by raising important issues, regarding new modes of land-use management, green space governance and collaborative approaches. This chapter mainly focuses on the shifted meanings of the notion of open public space by referring to its openness to a diversity of uses and users that claim it and relates to spatial justice questions of access rights, power relations among actors, negotiations and the so-called right to use and re-appropriate land (Hackenbroch, 2013). The long tradition of allotment gardens in many European
2 Conflation in political gardening: concepts and practice Lucy Rose Wright and Ross Fraser Young Introduction This chapter introduces the re-emerging political characteristic of urban gardening (UG) (Certomà and Tornaghi, 2015). Our contribution presents an understanding of the importance process has for a group seeking spatial justice through engagement in UG. The garden’s local political environment shapes the process by which a group seeks to tackle localised spatial injustice. Spatial justice refers to ‘an intentional and focused emphasis on the spatial
green areas and as their necessary complement. Both perspectives refer to the idea of spatial justice and even distribution of goods (Soja, 2009). Wastelands as substitutes of parks Deficiency of public green spaces constitutes one of the many evident negative results thereof. The inhabitants of such deficient areas are much less active, and the clear health consequences of it are emphasised by researchers and scientists (McCurdy et al., 2010). Whereas the lack of contact with nature leads to psychocultural disturbances popularised by means of the term Nature Deficit
7 Limits to growth? Why gardening has limited success growing inclusive communities Hannah Pitt Introduction As this collection’s introduction highlights, heavy expectations are placed on urban gardens’ ability to advance social and spatial justice. Community is central to these: as outcomes of garden practices, it is taken as evidence of social inclusion as people form relationships of trust and mutual-dependence. As both mode of garden activity and mechanism of its achievements, community is seen to represent an inclusive approach to addressing injustice
less privileged from public space, and urban alienation, among other issues. Urban gardens oppose this state of affairs by representing a demand for spatial justice; for the right to the city; and for open space, community cohesion, diversity and more (e.g. Eizenberg, 2016; Okvat and Zautra, 2011; Schmelzkopf, 1995; Staeheli et al., 2002 for the United States; Ioannou et al., 2016; Müller, 2007 for Europe; and Barron, 2017). The ‘big project’ associated with the seemingly naive practices of seeding and harvesting herbs and vegetables, as well as organising festive
The production of urban space and associated neoliberalisation of urban governance limits opportunities for individual and collective freedoms. Such a socio-spatial approach to uneven urban development has influenced a number of authors in their examination of urban community gardens. The research has shown both positive agency and wellbeing benefits of these spaces and also more critical accounts of how the spaces are limited in their ability to truly enhance political freedoms, overcoming asymmetric power relations. In addition to ongoing issues of insecurity of tenure, such well-intentioned community garden initiatives may be seen as light green, weak approaches to urban sustainability rather than a true oppositional discourse of practice, therefore seen to continue neoliberal forms of both unsustainable and uneven development.
Using qualitative, visual methods, the chapter focuses on the potential of community gardens to enhance both human agency and ecological sustainability of passive adult users, and active youth and child users in urban areas. The sites chosen are specifically designed with ecological principles and associated features. In order to examine the freedoms valued within these sites, Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach (CA) is operationalised in five such sites in the UK and Ireland. Various critiques of the CA are addressed, and a particular approach to evaluating human wellbeing, linking the sustainable and just use of urban resources is developed. Such a re-conceptualisation of the CA is significant in realising the potential role of the sites in enhancing a more expressive mode of being for individuals, along with the enhancement of participative and critical capacity in urban areas. | https://www.manchesterhive.com/search?q=%22spatial%20justice%22 |
Recent growth in the research activities and the well-established educational programs of the School of Information Technology (ITE) is enabling a significant expansion. In 2017 the total research expenditures where over 67 MSEK and the school had over 800 students. Over the next three years, the School will grow significantly.
This announcement is for two Research Engineer positions in Computer Science (Hybrid Systems Modeling Languages) for six months each. The positions are intended to contribute to the research activities of the School of Information Technology (ITE) at Halmstad University. The positions starts from February 1st, 2019 or as soon as possible thereafter.
The candidate researcher for this position will work closely with the project leader to build and analyse a new implementation of a hybrid systems modeling language. The new implementation will be built using the Julia programming language.
First, property-based driven testing infrastructure will be established for the intended full-scale system.
Second, simplified syntax will be developed with the aim of facilitating good error reporting and user feedback while ensuring more reliable and efficient parsing.
Third, a web-based interface will be developed and tested extensively to ensure ease of use for inexperienced users. The implementation should support recording of generated plots and 3D animations in a reliable and convenient manner (for example using Jupyter).
Fourth, the core engine of the language will be redesigned and implemented in Julia, with particular emphasis on automated testing and ease of gather analytics about usage and availability of the service.
Finally, and as time allows, various components of the system may be proved correct, first by hand and then using formal verification tools.
Throughout the process, the researcher will be involved in comparing the tool to other technologies, in developing demonstrations and benchmarks, and in writing up the results for publication in technical conferences and journals.
The position requires having a Bachelor or Masters in Computer Science, and an interest in Programming Languages, Reachability Analysis, or a closely related topic. Also desirable is experience with modeling and simulation of hybrid systems, language design and implementation, functional programming, reachability analysis, rigorous numerics, web-based graphical user interfaces and 3D graphics, and the development of web-based applications. | https://hh.varbi.com/de/what:job/jobID:242549/type:job/where:4/apply:1 |
What kind of a world is one in which border security is understood as necessary? How is this transforming the shores of politics? And why does this seem to preclude a horizon of political justice for those affected? Border Security responds to these questions through an interdisciplinary exploration of border security, politics and justice. Drawing empirically on the now notorious case of Australia, the book pursues a range of theoretical perspectives - including Foucault's work on power, the systems theory of Niklas Luhmann and the cybernetic ethics of Heinz Von Foerster - in order to formulate an account of the thoroughly constructed and political nature of border security. Through this detailed and critical engagement, the book's analysis elicits a political alternative to border security from within its own logic: thus signaling at least the beginnings of a way out of the cost, cruelty and devaluation of life that characterises the enforced reality of the world of border security.
Peter Chambers lectures in criminology at Deakin University, Melbourne. | http://www.betterread.com.au/book/border-security-shores-of-politics-horizons-of-justice.do |
This volume brings together insights from Cold War culture studies, girls' studies, and the history of gender and militarization to shed new light on how age and gender work together to form categories of citizenship. The author argues that a new internationalist girl citizenship took root in the country in the years following World War II in youth organizations such as Camp Fire Girls, Girl Scouts, YWCA Y-Teens, schools, and even magazines like Seventeen. She shows the particular ways that girls' identities and roles were configured, and reveals the links between internationalist youth culture, mainstream U.S. educational goals, and the U.S. government in creating and marketing that internationalist girl, thus shaping the girls' sense of responsibilities as citizens.
|URL||https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/american-girls-and-global-responsibility/9780813575797|
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Library: | https://gwonline.unc.edu/node/8112 |
Working with indexes in the MongoDB ODM is pretty straight forward. You can have multiple indexes, they can consist of multiple fields, they can be unique and you can give them an order. In this chapter we'll show you examples of indexes using annotations.
name - The name of the index. This can be useful if you are indexing many keys and Mongo complains about the index name being too long.
dropDups - If a unique index is being created and duplicate values exist, drop all but one duplicate value.
background - Create indexes in the background while other operations are taking place. By default, index creation happens synchronously. If you specify TRUE with this option, index creation will be asynchronous.
safe - You can specify a boolean value for checking if the index creation succeeded. The driver will throw a MongoCursorException if index creation failed.
order - The order of the index (asc or desc).
unique - Create a unique index.
sparse - Create a sparse index. If a unique index is being created the sparse option will allow duplicate null entries, but the field must be unique otherwise.
partialFilterExpression - Create a partial index. Partial indexes only index the documents in a collection that meet a specified filter expression. By indexing a subset of the documents in a collection, partial indexes have lower storage requirements and reduced performance costs for index creation and maintenance. This feature was introduced with MongoDB 3.2 and is not available on older versions.
You can specify indexes on embedded documents just like you do on normal documents. When Doctrine creates the indexes for a document it will also create all the indexes from its mapped embedded documents.
If you are mixing document types for your embedded documents, ODM will not be able to create indexes for their fields unless you specify a discriminator map for the embed-one or embed-many relationship.
You can create a partial index by adding a partialFilterExpression to any index.
Partial indexes are only available with MongoDB 3.2 or newer. For more information on partial filter expressions, read the official MongoDB documentation.
Sometimes you may want to require indexes for all your queries to ensure you don't let stray unindexed queries make it to the database and cause performance problems. | https://www.doctrine-project.org/projects/doctrine-mongodb-odm/en/1.1/reference/indexes.html |
The Glorification Of Mother-Tongue: Critiquing The Three-Language Formula Of NEP 2020
Raja Rao, in his seminal foreword to Kanthapura, captured the dilemma of translation and negotiation with multiple languages in the Indian nation-state, by stating, “One has to convey in a language that is not one’s own; the spirit that is one’s own.”
The recent National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) in mandating the three-language formula and by making primary school instruction in the ‘mother-tongue’, appears to be focusing on the spirit question a tad too stringently.
The recent National Education Policy 2020 (NEP) in mandating the three-language formula and by making primary school instruction in the ‘mother-tongue’, appears to be focusing on ‘conveying meaning through the spirit’ a tad too stringently.
Academicians and experts have been engaged in debates on the progressive or detrimental nature of the policy, with DUTA President Professor Rajib Ray vehemently criticising it. However, it is pertinent to the holistic implications of the policy that we ask some basic questions.
Whose mother-tongue will be privileged and how so, considering the heterogeneous demographic distribution of the country? Is this a project asserting an Indian liberation from the colonial hangover, is this a veil of nationalist pride disguising threads of discrimination unique to the Indian socio-economic fabric?
To do so, we need to assess the historical linguistic transformation in India, closely linked with the evolution of translation, literary and oral oeuvre, the British colonial project, and the development of nationalism in the Indian independence struggle.
Tracing The History Of Translation
The history of translation – which, in its spirit, is the act of bridging the gap among multiple languages and spirits by conveying the meaning of one (the original or the source language) into another (target language) – is not only a Herculean task of analysing our multiple religious, cultural, political, and social myths and realities from the past, but it is also an attempt at understanding the present-day nature of standardisation and linguistic hegemony that derives from a heavily political standpoint of, perhaps, pleasing the “vote-bank”.
Bharata’s Natyasastra, through examination of historical records and evidences, is considered to be one of the earliest texts written in the country. In the Dravidian culture of present-day South India, Tolkappiyam composed by Tolkappiyar serves a similar functionality in laying down prescriptive rules and guidelines on the nature of linguistic grammar, dramaturgy, literature, and the act of artistic composition in general.
The existence of these two texts in two different regions of present-day India, essentially speaking with authority on similar themes, showcases the diverse nature of linguistic understanding, interpretation, and subsequent claim on the act of creation that informs the literary and artistic heritage of the country. This authoritative literature of ancient India is an evident site of multilingualism based upon an amalgamation of cultural and social factors.
However, as this history suggests, there is a class and caste problem in this project of glorifying mother-tongues and integrating them with the nationalist fabric of India.
For instance, Mrichchhakatika – a ten-act play attributed to the ancient playwright Sudraka – brings forth this different linguistic treatment of classes and groups. The Brahmin and Kshatriya characters in the play have Sanskrit dialogues, while the women and the people from down the ladder in the varna system speak in Pali and Prakrit dialects.
To emphasise upon the intellectual refinement of the courtesan – also the heroine of the play – she often speaks in Sanskrit verse, which is meant to be a mark of her “higher-class” attributes for the other characters in the play, as well as for the audience.
This practice has been followed in most of the ancient literary texts, and establishes a relationship among different dialects/languages where the linguistic difference was categorised on the social, gender-based, class-based treatment of the speakers.
British Colonisation And English Education
The impact of the British colonisation later on, then, derived from the standardisation of a singular language for official purposes. Bentinck and Macaulay, on introducing the English Education Act of 1835, were coming from this place of administrative concern when it came to ruling a land with the multiculturalism and multilingualism as vivid as India’s.
Translation gained significant momentum, ironically, during this time because it was important for the colonising master to understand and comprehend the socio-cultural and historical context its subjects – the Indians – belonged to. These translations of Indian texts into English and the subsequent rise of English education for a specific strata of the society that could afford it, created the scope for what is now recognised as Indian English literature.
To some extent, people from across these social groups could now access the text in a singular language. The significant role of the translation of these classical, and prominently religious texts was in consolidating the status of the multiple languages and bringing to fore the lesser-known dialects.
The examples that stand out in this project are some of the translations of Valmiki’s Ramayana – Tulsidas’ famous Ramcharitmanas in Awadhi, Kamban’s Ramavataram in Tamil, Kotha Ramayana in Assamese, Bhavartha Ramayana in Marathi, Krittibasi Ramayana in Bengali, among many others.
Though the process of expressing this spirit in an “alien” language belonging to the coloniser appears to be submissive on the surface, the project of English education was thus an empowering tool from the perspective of class oppression in India.
Warring Languages In Independent India
In post-1947 India, language remained a point of concern and contention, since there were several attempts at the revival of multiple native languages and dialects, with an affiliation towards the mother-tongue that the British colonisers had negated earlier in favour of a uniform subject.
Language was an important factor in the division of states during Independence and after it as well. However, this project had its significant shortcomings as the multilinguistic background that informs the diversity of India suffered at the hands of the increasing political polarity which aimed at standardisation.
The “Anti-Hindi Agitations of Tamil Nadu”during the pre- and post-Independence periods are examples of this problematic standardisation that ruptured the glorified ideal of the diverse, unified India.
The proposals of adopting Hindi as the official language and the standardisation of Hindi in primary education was vehemently resisted and rebelled against by political parties and citizens alike, since the founding of a culturally and linguistically diverse nation-state as India could not sustain itself by declaring an ideology of “othering” and looking at one linguistic identity as superior to that of the defined, signified “other”.
The current discourse on the three-language formula mandated in the National Education Policy 2020 has invited the same kind of opposition, since it opens up avenues to negate the value and the identity of the multitude of languages and cultures that shape the nation-state.
The current discourse on the three-language formula mandated in the National Education Policy 2020 has invited the same kind of opposition, since it opens up avenues to negate the value and the identity of the multitude of languages and cultures that shape the nation-state.
In the present times where the politics of othering has alienated and marginalised many by coming to define a prominent “centre” through standardisation and Hindu-isation, the looming fear pertains to the assumption that there will not only be a forced imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi-speaking regions, but this depravation from English in the primary, formative years will reinstate the class-intellect hierarchy of the past.
G.N. Devy, in After Amnesia, famously stated that colonialism made “amnesiacs” out of the Indian intelligentsia, since they deluded themselves into believing that, by virtue of expressing themselves in English, they had been integrated into the literary canon acknowledged and revered by the coloniser.
Our onus is to also recognise the gaps in this projection of the mother-tongue and the casteist, classist depravities of dialectic segregations that mar Indian cultural communication. Image Source: NDTV.com
However, for 21st century students and scholars, the binaries are not between the impeccable, unflinching loyalty to the mother-tongue and the supplication to the English idiom of the coloniser. But our onus is to also recognise the gaps in this projection of the mother-tongue and the casteist, classist depravities of dialectic segregations that mar Indian cultural communication.
English education, in all its debatable flaws and questions of subjectivity, has been successful in raising the marginalised strata to equitable discourses and capabilities, and in branding them with the mother-tongue or regional idiom once again, India seems to be chartering into a dangerous territory that will turn global access and education into privileges granted, not fundamental human rights.
As a student of English literature at Lady Shri Ram College, Anushree hopes to learn and un-learn through her writing. She loves dogs and momos and the winter sun, and often makes up poems about them, but she also wants her writing to express the violence and prejudices of the socio-political reality inhabits. The former Print Editor of DU Beat, she has pursued student journalism avenues along with creative writing, with bylines appearing in Terribly Tiny Tales, Live Wire, and Film Companion. She can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn
In the Indian imagination, an ‘Aunty’ is a middle-aged, usually fat woman who is married and has children. Young women, especially unmarried ones, either do not want to associate with the term or are expected to steer clear of it.
Terms
Feminism In India is an award-winning digital intersectional feminist media organisation to learn, educate and develop a feminist sensibility among the youth. It is required to unravel the F-word and demystify the negativity surrounding it. FII amplifies the voices of women and marginalised communities using tools of art, media, culture, technology and community. | |
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Background: Hookah smoking has increased worldwide especially among youth and young adults and has been identified as an emerging threat to public health. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of hookah use and related factors in a sample of Iranian college students.
Methods: This study took place in Tabriz (northwest of Iran) in April and May 2011. The randomly selected sample consisted of 1837 college students. Data was collected in a survey. A self-administered questionnaire was used to measure religious belief, parental support and risk taking behaviors including hookah smoking. Logistic regression model was performed in data analysis.
Results: The prevalence of hookah smoking was 8.5% (CI95%: 7.3-9.9). After adjustment, being male (OR= 2.01), living in single house in comparison with living with parents (OR= 2.22), smoking (OR= 5.96) and ever drug abuse (OR= 3.02) were factors associated with students’ hookah use.
Conclusion: Our results showed a low prevalence of hookah smoking in Iranian college female students and revealed some of its associated factors. We demonstrated the co-occurrence of risky behaviors which emphasizes the importance of interventions aimed at reducing or preventing different high risk behaviors simultaneously.
Keywords
JRHS Office: | http://jrhs.umsha.ac.ir/index.php/JRHS/article/view/1681 |
The average cost of a full-time childcare place in Northern Ireland is £168 per week which is equivalent to almost 40 per cent of average household income, according to Employers For Childcare. This startling figure was announced as the Charity launches its 8th Annual Childcare Cost Survey, which analyses the scale and impact of childcare costs.
The report captures the views and experiences of 4,800 parents across Northern Ireland and highlights how they believe access to childcare is acting as a barrier to work. For many parents, covering the cost of childcare is their single biggest worry. In almost a third (30%) of households, the childcare bill is more than the mortgage or rent. Revealing the struggle families go through to meet their monthly childcare bill, 46% of parents report they have had to go without or cut back in order to meet childcare costs. For some this means cutting back on heating their homes, going without quality, fresh food, and skipping meals to meet their monthly childcare bill. Worryingly, 33% of parents, up from 25% last year, have used means such as savings, credit cards, loans or gifts from family and friends, and even payday loans to cover the cost.
Aoife Hamilton, Policy and Information Manager at Employers For Childcare, comments on the findings: “Parents recognise they need to pay for childcare so they can go to work, so it takes precedence over other bills such as groceries or heating. As a result, many are paying ‘interest only’ on their credit cards, not putting money away for the future in savings or pensions, and constantly worrying about making ends meet. This year more than other years, we see parents identifying themselves as experiencing in-work poverty. For others, the figures simply don’t add up and they have left, or plan to leave, the workforce”.
Factors other than cost that working parents struggle with include: lack of out of school and wraparound services; lack of provision in rural areas; restricted and inflexible opening hours; and limited provision for children with specific needs.
On the issue of family well-being Aoife says: “This year’s results express the most personal impact since recording began in 2010. Many parents have told us how the high cost and lack of childcare provision has been detrimental to their family well-being. Families are waiting until their first child is in school before having another baby to minimise costs, or reducing their planned family size because they are already struggling to pay for childcare.”
Despite this, the overwhelming majority (87%) of parents are positive about the quality of childcare provision. They recognise the valuable experience their children receive and the important role childcare staff play in their children’s lives.
Commenting on what parents are calling for to ease the burden of childcare costs, Aoife concludes: “There is an overwhelming cry from parents who perceive they are being penalised if they choose to go to work. They want childcare to be an enabler to work and are calling for the Government to provide financial help but more importantly, information on the support currently available.”
“Employers For Childcare is committed to making sure the voices of these parents are heard and are at the heart of legislation and policy development on childcare reform. Investment in childcare here is drifting even further behind that in other parts of the UK. It is more than two years since the consultation on a draft Childcare Strategy for Northern Ireland closed, and we are no further forward. We will continue to work with stakeholders to ensure childcare is treated not as a side issue but as an economic and social priority so that children, parents, childcare providers and employers in Northern Ireland can benefit from affordable, accessible, quality childcare”.
Key findings:
- Overall cost of a full-time day nursery place has increased by over £12 a month (£3 per week).
- A place at a holiday scheme has increased by £10 a week in a private setting and £13 in a community setting.
- The cost of a full-time place at a private day nursery (£172 per week) has overtaken the cost of a full-time place at a registered childminder (£169 per week) for the first time since 2010.
- Counties Armagh and Derry/Londonderry have seen the highest spike in costs for full-time private childcare, up by £7 per week since last year.
- County Fermanagh continues to record the lowest cost for full-time private childcare at £140 per week.
- Parents in Counties Tyrone and Fermanagh report using the most childcare hours at 48 hours per week on average.
- 67% of households report using informal childcare for some or all of their childcare needs. 90% of these households access childcare provided by grandparents.
- 63% of households reported a change in working patterns for one or both parents. Where there was a change the key reason given by respondents was the cost of childcare (42% of these households) while just 16% of these households stated the change was due to personal preference.
‘Households below average income Northern Ireland’, Department of Communities 2015/16 – the average (median) income before housing costs in NI increased by 4% to £436 per week in 2015/16. These were the most up to date figures at time of writing.
Read the full report or Executive Summary here. | https://www.employersforchildcare.org/news-item/childcare-cost-survey-2017/ |
Freshman year of high school, as nearly anyone can attest, is a lot to digest, from new locker combinations to lunchroom politics to catching the right bus and avoiding rowdy juniors.
Aside from those social concerns, there’s increasing evidence that it is one of the most important academic years in students’ lives. Freshman year grade point average is a powerful signal of how students will do in later years—and even whether they will enroll in college, a new research study says.
Or to put it in a more urgent way: When students experience a rough freshman year of high school, they usually don’t recover from it.
The research, from the University of Chicago’s Consortium on School Research, analyzed eight data cohorts of Chicago high school freshmen, from the entering classes of 2006 to 2013—more than 187,000 students in all. They looked at data including the students’ school grades, test scores, and background information like race and the poverty status of the neighborhoods where they lived. Researchers John Q. Easton, Esperanza Johnson, and Lauren Sartain tracked the students’ progress through high school and, where applicable, their college enrollment and retention rates.
They found clear achievement patterns based on freshman GPA. It was highly predictive of GPA in the 11th grade. It was also predictive of whether students would actually graduate, whether they would enroll in college, and whether they would remain in college after one year, with A- and B-level students generally doing better than students with lower GPAs.
GPAs were also a better predictor of outcomes than supposedly more objective test scores—in Chicago, on the ACT Inc.'s EXPLORE and PLAN, which are taken in 9th and 10th grades, respectively. The report found that freshman GPA was nearly twice as predictive of high school graduation as performance on those two tests.
There were some important variations based on gender and race in the data. Girls, on average, had many more GPAs in the A and B range than boys, as did white and Asian students compared to their black and Hispanic peers. Taking honors classes correlated with higher grades. Depressingly, the report also shows that inequitable access to schools takes its toll on GPAs, too. Chicago’s controversial selective high schools tend to have the highest number of students with GPAs in the A range, and chronically low-performing neighborhood high schools have the fewest.
In Chicago, GPAs have risen over the past decade, which has raised fears that the increases are due to grade inflation rather than genuine improvement. The report doesn’t attempt to answer that question, but it notes that those rises have been coupled with other positive trends, such as higher 8th grade scores, ACT scores, improved student attendance, and a decline in suspensions. That would suggest that some of the improvement is due to better academic performance, though it’s not conclusive evidence.
Closing the ‘GPA Gap’
The report’s takeaway is that Chicago’s focus on freshman grades is probably a good idea. And although teachers don’t use standardized criteria when they give out their A’s, B’s, and C’s, they seem to be picking up both academic performance and social factors, such as effort and attitude, that contribute to success.
What gets trickier is that, while these patterns exist, there’s less data to explain exactly why freshman GPA is predictive of important outcomes for students. The researchers plan to look at things like attendance and discipline records to try to tease out more information on this. Perhaps, the report proffers, doing well as freshmen gives kids entry to more advanced courses later on in high school and college. Or perhaps teachers have higher expectations for students because of their high freshmen GPAs. Or maybe students develop greater confidence after experiencing initial success.
“We don’t know which of these paths are true, but it seems likely that there are elements of ‘success breeding success’ at play,” the researchers said.
For now, the reports’ authors conclude, it may well be worth focusing on efforts to reduce the “GPA gap,” in addition to the “achievement gap,” which is more commonly measured by test scores.
More districts, like Chicago, are looking at “early warning” systems in that year, which seems a good place to start. And probably not coincidentally, Illinois’ plan under the federal education law known as ESSA (or the Every Student Succeeds Act) would use a measure of whether 9th graders are on track to graduate as a school quality indicator.
Image: Getty
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A version of this news article first appeared in the Curriculum Matters blog. | https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/9th-grade-gpa-may-be-the-most-important-predictor-of-high-school-success-heres-how/2017/09 |
The utility model discloses a float light guide line processing cutting die which comprises a cutting tool carrying table and a plurality of sets of cutting tools, the cutting tools are obliquely arranged on the cutting tool carrying table in parallel, the distance between every two adjacent cutting tools is the sum of the width of a float mesh and the width of a float mesh separation strip of a float tail of a float, and the cutting tools are used as bevel edges. The length of each cutter and the width of the float target form a right triangle, and the length of each cutter is equal to the sum of the width of the float target divided by the distance between the two adjacent cutters and the sum of the square of the perimeter of the float tail of the root-mark fish float and the square of the distance between the two adjacent cutters. According to the utility model, different float mesh sculpture depths on the same float tail can be realized; patterns such as continuous lines, pock marks or dotted lines are engraved at one time on the same float tail; the same float tail is engraved with float meshes with different widths at one time; the same float tail is high in consistency of one-time float targets with the same width; and multiple float tails can be simultaneously and continuously processed at one time, so that the efficiency is greatly improved, and the high manual processing cost is reduced. | |
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wide-angle side-mirror device which mainly provides a rear field of view of the sides of trucks, and in particular provides a wide rear field of view so that the road conditions of a road intersecting an acute angle intersection at an acute angle can be visibly confirmed in a reliable manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Regarding operating an automotive vehicle, confirmability of the conditions around the driver's side of the vehicle is generally maintained by means of the driver viewing the field of view toward the rear of the drivers seat both directly and through a side-mirror comprised of a convex mirror situated on the automobile frame forward of the driver's seat, thus safety in traffic is generally secured. However, in the case of viewing the field of view toward the rear of the side opposite the driver's side of the vehicle, i.e., the passenger side of the vehicle, confirmation can be made by the passenger in the event that a passenger is on board, but in the event that the vehicle is being operated by a driver alone, confirmation of the field of view toward the rear of the passenger side must depend on a side-mirror device, this being particularly true in the case of trucks.
Accordingly, various side-mirror devices for the passenger side have been provided. All have been comprised mainly of a convex mirror, with one example being a convex mirror proper being situated on the automobile frame forward of the passenger seat in a projected manner (refer to reference numeral 20 in FIG. 7). However, according to this arrangement, only a certain angle range of view, i.e., an acute angle, from the side of the vehicle can be secured along the vehicle (refer to q 2 in FIG. 7), so that confirmation of the road conditions of, e.g., a road intersecting an acute angle the road upon which the vehicle is proceeding at an acute angle intersection can not be made.
In order to deal with such problems, there has been, e.g., a lateral projection mirror disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 54-139439. As shown in FIG. 10, this system is comprised of a convex mirror 21 mounted toward the rear of the passenger seat of the vehicle C, at an angle to the direction of progression of the vehicle, and a flat or concave reflection mirror 22 mounted toward the front of this passenger seat, by which reflection mirror 22 a projected image cast by the convex mirror 21 is reflected, thus providing means for securing the field of view toward the rear of the passenger side of the vehicle C.
However, according to the lateral projection mirror shown in FIG. 10, the width of the convex mirror 21 must be great in order to enlarge the field of view toward the rear. Thus, the convex mirror protrudes greatly from the side of the vehicle C which is both obstructive and dangerous, and further, wind resistance during driving is increased and consequently fuel costs are increased.
On the other hand, in the event that a concave mirror is used, the reflected image thereof becomes unclear and fuzzy; and in the event that a concave spherical mirror is used, the image is inverted vertically, resulting in an image that is different from actuality when viewed from the driver's seat, and it is known that such an image is completely unusable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a wide-angle side-mirror which allows for the driver of a vehicle to confirm, from the driver's seat, a clear and wide image of the road conditions of a road intersecting an acute angle intersection at an acute angle from the direction of behind the passenger side.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a wide- angle side-mirror which does not protrude from the body of the vehicle in a marked manner, thus allowing for safe and efficient operation.
In light of the aforementioned, the inventor of the present invention has discovered that by means of employing a mirror which is shaped like part of a doughnut, i.e., concave in the horizontal x-axial direction and convex in the vertical y-axial direction, an image can be obtained from a compact mirror which is clear and wide, and thus has made the present invention. That is, the present invention is comprised of a doughnut- shaped mirror serving as an object mirror and a flat mirror serving as an observation mirror, whereby a wide-angle side mirror has successfully been provided wherein the field of view does not become narrow or small even when the aforementioned object mirror and observation mirror are placed in close proximity, and wherein the road conditions of a road intersecting an acute angle intersection at an acute angle from the direction of behind the passenger side can be visibly confirmed in a reliable manner from the driver's seat. Confirmation in such a situation has been considered difficult with the known art. Moreover, the present invention does not need to be mounted outside the vehicle but can be mounted within the vehicle, so that the mirror does not protrude from the body of the vehicle in a marked manner, thus successfully providing a wide-angle side-mirror which can be used safely.
In order to achieve the aforementioned objects, the present invention comprises: a mirror box 1 provided along the lengthwise direction of the side of a vehicle C; an object window 2 provided toward the front of the outer wall of the aforementioned mirror box facing outwards from the vehicle; an observation window 3 provided toward the rear of the inner wall of the aforementioned mirror box facing the vehicle inward; an object mirror 10 having a doughnut-shaped mirror surface or a drum-shaped mirror surface which has a continuously curved formation so that a cross- section made in the horizontal direction is a concave surface retracted in a concave manner and a cross-section made in the vertical direction is a convex surface bulging in a convex manner, the aforementioned object mirror 10 being provided within the mirror box 1 at the object window 2 so as to face diagonally rearwards; and an observation mirror 11 provided facing forwards within the mirror box 1 at the observation window 3 so as to reflect the projected mirror image from the object mirror 10 toward the interior of the vehicle.
The degree of curvature of the concave and convex planes of the doughnut-shaped mirror surface of the object mirror 10 are approximately the same, the observation window 11 is provided as a flat mirror, and the object mirror 10 and the observation mirror are positioned and fixed so as to face the object window 2 and the observation window 3, respectively. The mirror box 1 is mounted to the interior side of the window-glass G on the passenger side of the vehicle C, or linkedly fixed to a vehicle frame or pillar around the window-glass G on the passenger side of the vehicle C, or such like manner.
Due to the object mirror 10 provided to the wide-angle side- mirror device according to the present invention and pointed in a direction diagonally rearward being formed as a doughnut-shaped surface or a drum- shaped mirror surface which is curved so that a cross-section made in the horizontal direction is a concave surface and a cross- section made in the vertical direction is a convex surface, the scenery in the diagonally rearward direction outside of the vehicle is formed into a projected mirror image which can be viewed as a non-reverse erect image while maintaining a wide angle of view.
Although the projected image obtained by this object mirror 10 appears inverted when viewed by the driver, due to being reflected off of the observation mirror 11, the field of view is wide, and the road conditions of a road intersecting an acute angle intersection at an acute angle from the direction of behind the passenger side, for example, can be confirmed from the driver's seat in a reliable manner.
Also, the entire device is made small by means of placing the object mirror 10, which faces diagonally rearward, and the observation mirror ll, which faces diagonally forward, in close proximity to each other within the mirror box 1. A sufficiently wide angle of view is formed even though the device is provided within the vehicle, due to the device being fixed to the inner side of the window-glass G.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating one example of an embodiment according to the present invention is use;
FIG. 2 is a horizontal cross-section diagram of the same;
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the object mirror comprising a portion of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a cross-section view along the line IV--IV in FIG. 3, viewed in the direction shown by the arrow;
FIG. 5 is a cross-section view along the line V--V in FIG. 3, viewed in the direction shown by the arrow;
FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a doughnut-shaped object in the event that the object mirror is to be formed from part of a doughnut- shaped object;
FIG. 7 is a schematic cross-section view describing the difference between the angle of view of a known side-mirror device and the angle of view of the present invention;
FIG. 8A is a schematic cross-section view illustrating the angle of view according to a side-mirror device constructed by situating a convex mirror toward the front of a mirror box and a flat mirror to the rear thereof, as a comparison with the device according to the present invention;
FIG. 8B is a schematic cross-section view illustrating the angle of view according to a side-mirror device constructed by situating a flat mirror toward the front of a mirror box and a convex mirror to the rear thereof, as a comparison with the device according to the present invention;
FIG. 9 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention in the event that other supporting means are employed; and
FIG. 10 is a schematic cross-section view illustrating the angle of view according to the side-mirror device according to a known example comprising a combination of a convex mirror and flat mirror.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Description of an embodiment of the present invention will be made with reference to the drawings. Although the description will be made with the embodiment of the present invention being implemented in a vehicle with the steering wheel on the right side, implementation regarding a vehicle with the steering wheel on the left side can be conducted simply by constructing the device in a horizontally or vertically inverted manner. Thus, explanation of the later will be omitted, since one in the trade can sufficiently understand this principle.
In the FIG. 5, reference numeral 1 denotes a mirror box which is fixed and mounted to the inner side of the window-glass G of the passenger side of a vehicle such as a truck. The mirror box has an almost rectangular form which is long in the front-to-rear direction of the vehicle, and is provided with an object window 2 provided toward the front of the outer wall of the mirror box facing outwards from the vehicle and an observation window 3 provided toward the rear of the inner wall of the mirror box facing inward of the vehicle. Further, in addition to the object window facing outwards, consideration is made regarding the later- described object mirror 10 provided related to the object window 2 being curved in such a manner that the upper and lower portions thereof face upward and downward so that the object field of view reaches diagonally upward and downward; accordingly, the object window 2 is not only formed so as to face outwards, but is also continuously connected with upper and lower windows 4.
Also, the side of the mirror box 1 which faces the outside of the vehicle is slightly slanted upwards, so that when the side-mirror device according to the present invention is situated on the inner side of the window-glass G, the side which faces the outside of the vehicle is in contact with the inner side of the window-glass G on the passenger side which is slanted downwards, thus stably maintaining the entire device at an almost level state.
Further, the mirror box 1 proper is fixedly situated on the inner side of the window-glass by means of supporting fixing means 5. In FIG. 1, upper attachment members 6 provided to the upper edges of both front and rear side walls of the casing 1, and lower attachment members 6 provided to the lower edges of both front and rear side walls thereof serve as the supporting fixing members by which the casing 1 is suspended and fixed by means of attachment cords 9 or the like possessing rigidity and elasticity, these cords connecting the aforementioned attachment members to hook members 8 fixed to the inner side of the window-glass G. It is needless to say that the supporting fixing means 5 are not limited to the arrangement illustrated in the figure, but any arrangement will suffice as long as the mirror box 1 is situated on the inner side of the window- glass G so that scenery outside of the vehicle is reflected in the object mirror 10 through the object window 2, examples of such means include, but are not limited to, suction cups, flat plane fasteners, adhesive agents, and the like.
Moreover, as shown in FIG. 9, the device may be fixed to a vehicle frame or pillar around the window-glass G on the passenger side of the vehicle C by means of linked fixing. One example of such an arrangement involves supporting and fixing the mirror box 1 by means of e. g., L- shaped attachment arms, which have been fixed to a vehicle frame or pillar by means of screws, bolts, or the like. According to such an arrangement, the window-glass G may be free to be opened or closed, as the mirror box 1 proper is supported so as to be separated from the window-glass G, rather than directly supporting the mirror box 1 directly by the window-glass G. Moreover, by means of providing a hinge 16 to the position of the flexible member or the like of the attachment arm 15, the side-mirror device proper according to the present member can be retracted to the side, thus avoiding the device according to the present invention becoming a nuisance when the window has been opened.
Situated within this mirror box 1 are: an object mirror 10 which is provided at the forward portion of the mirror box facing diagonally rearward through the object window 2 provided at the front of the mirror box 1, and which has a doughnut-shaped surface; and an observation mirror 11 which is provided at the rearward portion of the mirror box facing diagonally forward through the observation window 3 provided at the rear of the mirror box 1, and which has a flat mirror surface so as to reflect the image projected by the object mirror 10 into the vehicle. Reference numeral 12 in the figures denotes object mirror fixing members which have an approximately L-shaped cross section, and which are used for fixing the object mirror 10 to the upper and lower side walls of the mirror box 1. Reference numeral 11 in the figures denotes observation mirror fixing members which have an approximately L- shaped cross section, and which are used for fixing the observation mirror 11 to the upper and lower side walls of the mirror box 1.
The object mirror 10 mounted to the interior side of the window- glass G has a mirror surface "a" which has a continuously curved formation so that a cross-section made in the horizontal direction (x- axial direction) is a concave surface retracted in a concave manner and a cross-section made in the vertical direction (y-axial direction) is a convex surface bulging in a convex manner. In other words, as shown in FIG. 6, this mirror surface a comprises a doughnut-shaped surface forming the inner hollow portion of a doughnut shaped object, or a drum- shaped surface (not shown). Further, the curvature in the horizontal direction and the curvature in the vertical direction are approximately equal, so that the radius of the inner hollow portion of the doughnut shaped object "r1" and the radius of the ring-shaped portion forming the doughnut "r2" are in a relation of "r1"="r2". When the relation of "r1"="r2" holds, and when the ring-shaped portion of the doughnut-shaped object is imagined to be hollow, the mirror surface formed of the inner surface and the outer surface of one portion of the hollow side of the inside of this imagined side wall can be approximately matched one upon another by means of rotating 90°. Incidentally, it is desirable that the curvature of this doughnut be approximately that of a perfect circle in both horizontal and parallel directions, so as to obtain a projected mirror image not distorted in either direction. Also, if the mirror is in a state where "r1"≠"r2", the projected mirror image obtained by means of the object mirror 10 is distorted and fuzzy, and thus has little practical use.
When the projected mirror image obtained by means of this doughnut- surface object mirror 10 is directly viewed, the image appears as a non- reverse erect image, and since this mirror is pointed in a direction diagonally rearward of the vehicle C, the image observed in the object mirror 10 is exactly the same as the scenery observed in a direction diagonally rearward of the vehicle C with the naked eye. Further, in the event that this object mirror 10 is pointed in a downward direction and used independently, numerals and characters such as speed limit or limitations which are posted on the pavement appear non-inverted horizontally and vertically, so that it is possible to read the numerals and characters as they are. In other words, while an image viewed with a standard flat mirror appears inverted in the horizontal right and left directions, an image directly observed in such a doughnut- shaped mirror surface or a drum-shaped mirror surface which has a continuously curved formation, i.e., concave in the horizontal x-axial direction and convex in the vertical y-axial direction, is not inverted so, but appears as a non-inverted erect image. Moreover, when this mirror is rotated 90° , i.e., so as to be convex in the horizontal x-axial direction and concave in the vertical y-axial direction, and an image is directly viewed thereby, the image obtained is vertically inverted.
On the other hand, the observing mirror 11 is a standard flat mirror formed with a flat surface, which reflects the projected mirror image obtained by the object mirror 10, so that the driver sitting in the driver's seat can observe the projected image. As shown in the figure, the side-mirror device according to the present invention takes into consideration that the device is to be situated to the interior side of the window-glass G on the passenger side, i.e., approximately to the side of the driver, in that the observation mirror 11 is provided within the mirror box 1 and toward the inside of the vehicle at an angle approximately 45° to the side of the vehicle. Corresponding to this, the object mirror 10 also is provided within the mirror box 1 and toward the outside of the vehicle at an angle approximately 45° to the side of the vehicle. It is needless to say that in the event that the mutual relation between the position of the driver and the side- mirror are other than described above, the relative angles of the object mirror 10 and the observation mirror 11 are to be changed accordingly.
Also, since the reflected mirror image obtained by means of the observation mirror 11 is a horizontally inverted image of the non- inverted erect image obtained by means of the object mirror 10, the image is inverted horizontally, as shown in FIG. 2. Further, the focal distance and the like of this reflected mirror image is set so that the image appears clearly at the position at which the driver sitting in the driver's seat observes the image, i.e., at the position of the eyes. Moreover, although the observation mirror 11 is shown in the figure as being a flat mirror, this may be made to be a convex mirror or a convex mirror with a slight and gentle curvature; any such arrangement is employable as long as the projected mirror image from the object mirror 10 is reflected to the driver, so that the driver can observe the projected mirror image from the object mirror 10.
Next, a description of an example of using the side-mirror device according to the present invention will be made. As shown in FIG. 7, the side-mirror device is situated on the interior side of the window- glass G on the passenger side, approximately on the side of the driver, by means of fixing. As shown in FIG. 1, the mirror box 1 is fixed so that the side wall of the device facing outwards from the vehicle, i.e., the side on which the object window 2 is provided, is made to face the window- glass G, by means of attachment cords 9 passed through the upper attachment members 6 and lower attachment members 7 and secured to hook members 8 stuck to the surface of the window-glass G. Accordingly, the scenery in the diagonally rearward direction outside of the vehicle is cast on the object mirror 10 via the object window 2, and then the projected mirror image is reflected on the observation mirror 11 and passed through the observation window 3 so that the driver can observe the reflected mirror image.
The field of view obtained by the side-mirror device according to the present invention is denoted by q 1 in FIG. 7, and covers a wide area starting from a position slightly away from the side of the vehicle and reaching to almost a position perpendicular to the vehicle. On the other hand, the field of view according to the known side-mirror device 20 using a convex mirror is denoted by q 2, and is an acute angle which begins from a position almost alongside the side of the vehicle and reaching to a position diagonally rearward of the vehicle. Accordingly, the side-mirror device according to the present invention provides sight of the road conditions of a road intersecting an acute angle intersection at an acute angle from the direction of behind the passenger side, which cannot be observed at all with the known side- mirror device 20, due to being a blind spot a.
Now, with reference to FIGS. 8A and 8B, comparison will be made with a box-type side-mirror which is formed by situating a convex mirror 24 serving as an object mirror and a flat mirror 25 serving as an observation mirror in a diagonally opposed manner within a mirror box 23 fixed within a vehicle C, which mirror box 23 is provided with an object window 26 on the side wall facing outward from the vehicle and an observation window 27 on the side wall facing inward. The positions of the convex mirror 24 and flat mirror 25 are as shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B: in FIG. 8A, the convex mirror 24 is positioned toward the front of the mirror box 23 facing diagonally rearward; in FIG. 8B, the convex mirror 24 is positioned toward the rear thereof facing diagonally forward.
However, in the box-type side mirrors shown in FIG. 8A and 8B, the angle of view is not wide even if the two mirrors are situated in the same manner as the side-mirror device according to the present invention, due to the convex mirror 24 and flat mirror 25 being in close proximity, and even if the object or observation windows 26 and 27 are formed larger, there is a limit to such an arrangement. Accordingly, the field of view to the rear and to the side cannot be sufficiently gained, and a wide field of view such as obtained with the present invention cannot be obtained.
The present invention is comprised as described above, with a doughnut- shaped mirror serving as an object mirror 10 and a flat mirror serving as an observation mirror 11, whereby the field of view does not become narrow or small even when the aforementioned object mirror and observation mirror are placed in close proximity within the mirror box 1, and wherein the road conditions of a road intersecting an acute angle intersection at an acute angle from the direction of behind the passenger side can be visibly confirmed in a reliable manner from the driver's seat. Confirmation in such a situation has been considered difficult with known art. Moreover, the present invention does not need to be mounted outside the vehicle but can be mounted within the vehicle, so that the mirror does not protrude from the body of the vehicle in a marked manner, thus avoiding the danger of external usage and providing for safe use.
The aforementioned is accomplished by means of the present invention comprising: a mirror box 1 provided along the lengthwise direction of the side of a vehicle C; an object window 2 provided toward the front of the outer wall of the aforementioned mirror box facing outwards from the vehicle; an observation window 3 provided toward the rear of the inner wall of the aforementioned mirror box facing inward of the vehicle; an object mirror 10 having a doughnut-shaped mirror surface or a drum-shaped mirror surface which has a continuously curved formation so that a cross- section made in the horizontal direction is a concave surface retracted in a concave manner and a cross-section made in the vertical direction is a convex surface bulging in a convex manner, the aforementioned object mirror 10 being provided within the mirror box 1 at the object window 2 so as to face diagonally rearwards; and an observation mirror 11 provided facing forwards within the mirror box 1 at the observation window 3 so as to reflect the projected mirror image from the object mirror 10 toward the interior of the vehicle.
Due to the object mirror 10 situated within the mirror box being formed as a doughnut-shaped surface which is formed continuously curved so that a cross-section made in the horizontal direction is a concave surface and a cross-section made in the vertical direction is a convex surface, and due to this object mirror 10 being situated facing diagonally rearwards, the scenery in the diagonally rearward direction outside of the vehicle is formed into a projected mirror image which can be viewed as a non-reverse erect image while maintaining a wide angle of view.
Although the projected image obtained by this object mirror 10 appears inverted when viewed by the driver, due to being reflected off of the observation mirror 11 so as to be visible through the observation window 3, a wide field of view can be observed regarding the conditions outside of the vehicle on the passenger side thereof in a diagonally rearward direction. Not only can the scenery to the side of the passenger seat be observed, but the scenery diagonally rearward thereof can be seen as well, and the road conditions of a road intersecting an acute angle intersection at an acute angle from the direction of behind the passenger side for example can be confirmed from the driver's seat in a reliable manner. Accordingly, the movement of other vehicles, pedestrians, and the like on a road intersecting an acute angle intersection can be comprehended, and thus providing for safe passage through acute intersections.
Also, the entire device is made small by means of placing the object mirror 10 which faces diagonally rearward and the observation mirror 11 which faces diagonally forward in close proximity to each other within the mirror box 1, and a sufficiently wide angle of view is formed even though the device is provided within the vehicle. The device being fixed to the inner side of the window-glass G does not create a nuisance as the entire device is of a compact size as described above, and providing the device within the vehicle increases safety, as it does not necessitate mounting an extra protrusion on the outside of the vehicle.
Although omitted in the drawings, the side-mirror device according to the present invention may also be used as a curve mirror device. An example of employing the side-mirror device according to the present invention as a curve mirror device involves, e.g., mounting the device on the side of a garage where a vehicle exits from the garage directly onto the road.,or the like. In this arrangement, the doughnut- shaped object mirror 10 is provided to the rear of and facing diagonally forward within the mirror box 1 which is mounted on the exit portion of a garage, and the flat observation mirror 11 is provided to the front of and facing diagonally rearward within the mirror box 1 so as to face the object mirror 10. According to such an arrangement, the conditions to the side of the garage can be confirmed upon exiting from the garage, and thus allowing for safely proceeding onto the road or the like.
Moreover, the argument of the present invention involves bringing a blind spot which cannot be directly viewed by general means into the field of view, by means of employing as an object mirror a doughnut- shaped surface or a drum-shaped surface which has a continuously curved formation and is concave in one direction and convex in another direction intersecting the first direction at a right angle, and using this object mirror such that the projected mirror image is reflected and observed. Accordingly, it goes without saying that all modifications in design, structure, or otherwise, which may be made by those skilled in the art, are intended to be covered within the present invention as fall within the scope of the argument set forth. | |
About US:
East African Underwriters Limited (EAUL) is a member of the Liberty Group and a joint venture with the Madhvani Group. Liberty is a multinational group of companies operating in the financial services industry.
Job Summary: The Risk and Compliance Officer will act as the subject matter expert to maintain, support and monitor the implementation of the relevant components of Enterprise Risk Management and Compliance to ensure that they are fully complied to.
Key Duties and Responsibilities:
- Support the CEO in driving and supporting the implementation of all risk and compliance frameworks and policies within the business and to provide oversight and monitoring of risk and compliance.
- Build and maintain networks and relationships with internal and external stakeholders in order to achieve and promote the development of Enterprise Risk Management and Compliance.
- Keenly analyse and manage data quality within the relevant risk and compliance systems including reports, and to drive actions to improve data quality.
- Offer support in the development of standards, procedures, guidelines, templates to support the implementation of Risk and Compliance policies and frameworks.
- Ensure that adherence to statutory, supervisory and regulatory requirements are monitored and reported on to the relevant stakeholders.
- Continuously and proactively liase, advise, communicate, and provide risk and compliance support to relevant internal and external stakeholders to assist and support the meeting of statutory, supervisory and regulatory requirements.
- Prepare and consolidate compliance and risk reports to inform management decision making.
- Offer support in the implementation of business continuity.
- Ensure that a compliance and risk culture is embedded within the organisation by means of appropriate training and development, and awareness initiatives.
- Assist with ensuring that all methodologies are in line with best practices, both nationally and internationally.
- Assist with insuring that required legislation is implemented in the business by means of relevant processes and controls.
- Provide support to the business in identifying, assessing, treating, monitoring and reporting of all risks in terms of controlled self-assessments.
- Support the business in identifying root causes of control breakdowns in terms of both risk and compliance.
- Convening board meetings as well as shareholder meetings and regular management Committee meetings
- Compiling and circulating agenda, board/committee packs, attending meetings, taking and preparing minutes and resolutions as well as maintaining statutory records for companies.
- Ensure that the Board is run in terms of King III principles.
- Prepare statutory returns to the regulators and resolutions for companies
- Ensure compliance with legislation and regulatory requirements as well as Best International Practices on Corporate Governance
- Ensure the lodging of correct information and forms with Regulators
- Attend to shareholder queries and act as liaison officer between the shareholders and Transfer Secretaries
- Assist with the preparation of the annual financial statements for the company.
- Establish & maintain healthy relationship with all Regulators.
- Get Board approval of all Policies required for the day to day running of the business.
- Provide support to the Board by arranging training for the Board Members
- Ensure implementation of board resolutions.
- Provide legal advice upon request and on a pro¬active basis in anticipation of changes in the business environment.
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
- The applicant must hold a BA (Law) or LLB
- Possession of a Post Graduate Diploma in Risk and/or Compliance Management would be an advantage.
- A minimum of five years of risk and compliance experience within the Financial Services Industry
- A minimum of two years of risk and compliance experience in general insurance industry.
- Financial services industry
- General Insurance knowledge
- Legislation and regulations pertaining to risk and compliance (Working knowledge of principles of project management
- Broad knowledge and understanding of processes and controls
- Governance practices and procedures – best practice
- Knowledge of Company structure, articles of association for respective entities, delegation of authority and meeting procedures in terms of the board charter and terms of reference for the various board sub-committees
- Shareholder administration and communicating with Transfer Secretaries
- Presenting and Communicating Information
- Analysing
- Learning and Researching
- Delivering Results and Meeting Customer Expectations
- Adhering to Principles and Values
- Persuading and Influencing
- Creating and Innovating
- Planning and Organising
- Following Instructions and Procedures
- Adapting and Responding to Change
How to Apply: | https://www.weinformers.com/2017/02/09/risk-and-compliance-officer-needed-at-east-african-underwriters-limited-eaul/ |
Emily Wanderer earned her PhD from MIT’s program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society. She is an anthropologist of science whose research focuses on the intersection of medical and environmental anthropology and addresses how ideas of identity and place in the world are implicated in the practice of life scientists, as well as the ways human and non-human lives intersect and are transformed in scientific practice.
Her research and teaching interests include the anthropology of science and technology, medical anthropology, environmental anthropology, multispecies ethnography, Latin America, and Pittsburgh.
Research Description
Professor Wanderer’s first book, The Life of a Pest (2020), is a study of the politics of nature in Mexico, examining why and how different species are variously protected or exterminated to improve life as a whole. Through multispecies ethnographic research in labs, fields, and offices, it analyzes how scientists moved biopolitics and biosecurity beyond the human to include animal, plant, and microbial worlds. In improving life, scientists were called upon to determine what it meant to be a native or invasive species and to address the migration, mobility, and security of a wide array of life forms. They became arbiters who established which life forms were included in or excluded from group membership. In Mexico, where nature has never been conceptualized as pristine or separate from culture and human life, biopolitics and biosecurity have looked different than in Euro-American places. Scientists produced biopolitical apparatuses that incorporated multiple species and sorted bodies according to categories of difference that were informed by Mexican history and culture. Through case studies of infectious disease, invasive species, and agricultural and ecological research, this book considers how better living is a multispecies project, one which moves past anthropocentric conceptions of a good life to incorporate a more biocentric view.
Her current research project is on regeneration. Much has been written about extinction in the age of the Anthropocene, as extinction processes have been analyzed for what they tell us about nature, science, and conservation and the consequences of human actions, and for their power to generate action. Alongside analyses of extinction have emerged reports on regeneration – of cells, tissues, organisms, and ecosystems. This project analyses scientific work on regeneration, from research in regenerative medicine to enhance human capacities to heal or replace tissues and organs to work in restoration ecology to enable ecosystems to regenerate. This project asks how the cultural, political, and economic contexts of research in regeneration shape how scientists imagine what life could or should be and, as scientists remake life in the lab and the field, how these ideas are being built into biological substances. How do scientists make comparisons and translate findings about non-human life into human biology and how does this research reconfigure the relationship between humans and other life form? In analyzing the role of non-human life forms in our understanding of regeneration, this project looks particularly at amphibians and their dual roles as model organisms and sentinel species.
Professor Wanderer also has research interests in the Pittsburgh environment, particularly air quality, its relationship with health, and the development of related citizen science projects.
Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).
Courses
Anthropology of Science: Global Perspectives
Science and technology are integral to contemporary societies. Understanding how science is produced and how it shapes daily life is a crucial challenge for anthropologists, who have studied the production of scientific knowledge in labs, hospitals, field sites, and elsewhere. While early studies of science as a cultural practice focused primarily on the U.S. and Europe, science and technology are produced and consumed globally. Through analyses of case studies of biotechnology, medicine, genetics, conservation, agriculture, energy, climate science, and computing around the world, this class will investigate the global dynamics of science and technology. Juxtaposing readings on different scientific fields from around the globe, we will look for recurring themes that connect these studies. What happens when science and technology travel, and how do new places emerge as centers of knowledge production? How are culture, identity, technology, and science linked?
Health and the Environment in Pittsburgh
This course examines the relationship between environment and health, with a special focus on the city of Pittsburgh and the surrounding environs as a case study. We will use medical anthropology to systematically investigate the effect of the environment on health and the interplay of natural and human systems. Drawing on research in political ecology, this class will consider the social, political, and economic systems that shaped Pittsburgh and its inhabitants. We will pay particular attention to the way changing industrial and environmental conditions changed incidence of disease, and how exposure to risk and disease are shaped by race, gender, and class. We will examine issues like the histories of air pollution and resource extraction including coal mining, oil and gas drilling and their impacts on the environment and health. The course will examine how knowledge about health is produced and the development of new forms of citizen science that enlist local residents in projects to monitor issues like air quality.
Global Pharmaceuticals
This course examines pharmaceuticals as cultural and social phenomena, following their development, production, marketing, and use around the globe. We will investigate a number of issues, including the growing number of drugs prescribed to Americans each year, the lack of access some populations have to essential medicines, the increasingly global nature of clinical trials, and the role of pharmaceutical companies in the opioid crisis. We will use the study of drugs and medicines to analyze the production of medical knowledge, changing perceptions of health and illness, and the role of the state and the market in the development and distribution of therapeutics. Pharmaceuticals bring together science, clinical practice, marketing, and consumerism, and this course will draw on anthropological research to trace the role they play in global flows of knowledge, capital, commodities, and people.
People and other Animals
What can anthropology tell us about nonhuman life forms? This class examines the interconnections between humans and other life forms, looking at how human cultural, political, and economic activities are shaped by the animal, plant, and microbial forms that surround us and likewise how these life forms are shaped by human activities. Topics addressed will include the interactions of humans and other beings in agriculture, domestication, hunting, scientific research, medicine, pet-keeping, and conservation. We will consider the subjectivity and agency of the nonhuman, our moral and ethical obligations to other life forms, and critically examine divisions between culture and nature.
Medical Anthropology II
This course is a seminar in medical anthropology, focusing on the key theoretical perspectives and methodological problems that have characterized the subfield. We begin with an overview of the emergence of the field of medical anthropology from early studies of rationality and belief, moving on to analyze diverse medical traditions and understandings and experiences of the body, health, and disease. We will discuss contemporary theory in medical anthropology as well as the construction of research problems from different theoretical perspectives in medical anthropology. The course will address approaches within medical anthropology to the social construction of illness and healing, sex, gender, race, markets and bioeconomies, and global health and humanitarianism. The goal of the course is to prepare students to conduct their own research and to engage in contemporary scholarly debates within the subfield of medical anthropology.
Publications
2020 "The Life of a Pest: An Ethnography of Biological Invasion in Mexico". Berkeley: University of California Press.
2019 “Our Amphibians, Ourselves: An Interview with Emily Wanderer,” interview with Ashley Elizabeth Drake and Lachlan Summer.
2018 “The Axolotl in Global Circuits of Knowledge Production: Producing Multispecies Potentiality” Cultural Anthropology 33(4): 650-679.
2017 “Bioseguridad in Mexico: Pursuing Security Between Local and Global Biologies,” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 31(3): 315-331.
2015 “Michael Dove Interviews Emily Wanderer, 2014 Rappaport Finalist”.
2015 “Biologies of Betrayal: Judas Goats and Sacrificial Mice on the Margins of Mexico,” BioSocieties, 10(1).
2012 "Perspectivas Antropológicas Sobre el Riesgo y la Bioseguridad", AMEXBIO Annual Journal, 18-20. | https://www.anthropology.pitt.edu/people/emily-wanderer |
FirstBus Canada Limited will provide wheelchair accessible public transportation services for the City of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada.
FirstBus Canada will operate a fleet of 90 buses for a five-year contract beginning July 1, 2002. It will also operate a fleet of about 37 sedans for ambulatory passengers under a second contract with the city. Combined gross revenues are projected to be greater than $50 million dollars.
The City of Ottawa provides door-to-door transportation service for persons with disabilities who are not able to use conventional transit services. There are approximately 10,000 persons with disabilities in Ottawa who are registered for this service. Approximately 30% of the registrants use either a wheelchair or scooter and therefore require a wheelchair accessible vehicle. The remaining 70%are ambulatory and can usually travel in either a passenger car or a wheelchair-accessible vehicle.
Including concerns around the quality of concrete used in the project and other construction elements and practices.
If transportation authorities introduce autonomous vehicles or wages start to fall, the union will organize a strike, according to union chief.
Most recently served as CEO of the company’s Nassau County, N.Y., the largest contracted transit system in the U.S.
French city is excellent example of what trams and integrated public transport can offer to discourage the use of the private car.
Gilberto Ruiz has more than 25 years of experience working across a wide variety of project types including residential, commercial, public works, and transportation. | http://www.metro-magazine.com/management-operations/news/280281/firstbus-canada-will-operate-ottawa-bus-service |
The Fairfax Christian School pledges to provide the highest academic standards in a safe environment which encourages and motivates students, instills respect and wisdom, enlivens creativity and builds a foundational capacity to seek the truth. The Fairfax Christian School creates scholars and gives students a competitive advantage so they may live a life with gratitude and abundance.
scholars noun \ˈskä-lərs\
: intelligent and well–educated people who have a practical knowledge and literacy in the foundations of education — mathematics, language, science, history, economics, religion and the arts and pursue their academic passions.
Our Motto
“Wisdom begins with respect for the Lord.” — Proverbs 9:10
Our Honor Code and Pledge
“I will not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate anyone who does."
Our honor code and pledge sets the highest moral and ethical standards for our students and faculty. At the fall orientation, students are asked to sign a banner acknowledging the honor code. All students are required to comply with the honor code and pledge.
All assignments, including homework, papers, quizzes, and tests must have the following signed pledge: | http://www.fairfax-christian-school.com/our-mission/ |
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that devastates the brain—affecting cognitive function, memory, visual spatial perception, abstract thinking, and eventually loss of bodily functions. Based on the latest Rand report on dementia and AD, the current costs in lives lost, families shattered, careers disrupted, and financial futures ruined is much too high. And with the projected increases in the number of individuals affected by AD and related dementias in coming years, the global costs become unendurable and insupportable. | http://21cbt.org/disrupting-alzheimers-disease-research/ |
At The Turing School we are passionate about ensuring that our students become happy, confident and successful young people, whilst instilling in them a love of learning and a desire to succeed. We are dedicated to developing our students to have high aspirations, self-confidence and a clear focus for their future.
We are committed to equipping our students with the knowledge and skills needed to be successful both in education and the wider community while they are with us, and as they make their transition into adulthood. One of the many things we pride ourselves on is knowing all of our students individually which enables us to support and enhance their experiences both academically and in the development of their strong characters.
We promote a strong culture of inclusion and diversity where all members of our community can feel proud of their identity, their individual achievements are celebrated and they are able to fully participate in the life of the school.
The school community champions respect for all and challenges discrimination by providing equal opportunities for our pupils. This is regardless of age, disability, race, religion or belief, gender or gender identity and socio-economic background. We are committed to offering an inclusive curriculum and bespoke pathways to ensure the most positive progress and outcomes for our pupils, whatever their needs or abilities. Each member of staff has a shared responsibility to remove any potential barriers to learning for all pupils, including those with a disability.
We prioritise the wellbeing of our students alongside their academic development and expect our students to learn in a safe, positive and supportive environment with a variety of opportunities for them to develop themselves both in and outside of the classroom. Our students' wellbeing is of the utmost importance and our curriculum provides rich opportunities for students to reflect and develop strategies to support their mental health, well-being and resilience.
We believe it is vital that our students have the opportunity to study a wide variety of subjects to enable them to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of their skills and talents. Our subjects are of equal importance at The Turing School as they enable students to identify and nurture talents and skills that allow them to excel in a range of areas. The combination of subjects help us develop our young people as knowledgeable, innovative and respectful individuals.
Encompassing our ethos and values is the importance of our students having ownership of their school and being involved in all we do. We have an exciting Student Leadership and Student Voice programme that encourages students from all year groups to have a voice and to take on areas of responsibility around the school. The student leadership team has opportunities to feedback to school leaders about how we can best improve our school.
Relationships between The Turing School, our families and community is key to providing the best opportunities and support for our students, and we endeavour to work collaboratively with all stakeholders to ensure the best provision and support for our students.
CORE VALUES
ASPIRATION - Have goals, think big and aim for greatness, the world is full of opportunities, and we want our students to take advantage of these.
RESPECT - Earn respect by your actions and your voice, give respect by showing kindness to and standing up for others. Be ambassadors for our school in the community and respect the environment around you.
DIVERSITY - Embrace the differences of others and celebrate who you are. Include others and share experiences and opportunities with them.
INNOVATION - Be daring, be creative, be original and unleash your potential. | https://www.theturingschool.org.uk/page/?title=Ethos+and+Values&pid=15 |
Macaques, Monitor Lizards And More in The Brunei Rainforest
Spot some of this threatened species and other wildlife unique to the island of Borneo in the quiet sultanate of Brunei. Proboscis monkeys are rarely described as beautiful. Their prominent, pendulous noses distinguish them from other types of monkeys, and they are often overlooked by visitors to Borneo in favour of their more famous and more attractive relations, the orang-utan.
In fact, the country and city where there is the most chance of spotting these distinctive creatures, Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei, is also often overlooked by tourists, as most visitors to Borneo hurry eastwards towards the Malaysian state of Sabah, in search of more well-known animal inhabitants of Borneo, Pygmy Elephants and Orang-utans.
Brunei – Home Of The Proboscis Monkey.
This slightly unusual looking primate is endemic to the banks of the Brunei River that snakes lazily through Brunei’s capital city, and is one of Borneo’s many wildlife treats that should not be overlooked. It is not widely known that Brunei has the world’s largest population of Proboscis monkeys and an easy and cheap way to spot these delightful creatures is by taking an early evening boat ride down the Brunei River.
Brunei is a tiny country, so it does not take more than a couple of days to check out the sights that Bandar Seri Begawan has to offer. In the centre of town, book one of the local boatmen to take the trip downriver, as this will be much cheaper than trying to organize a similar trip through a tourist agency. It is easy and quick to organize, and the trip should not come to much more than 10 Brunei dollars per person, (around 7 or 8 USD.)
Kampong Ayer – Brunei’s Water Village
Boats will usually set off from the centre of town, opposite Yayasan Shopping Centre and close to the impressive Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque that dominates Bandar Seri Begawan’s tiny city centre. The trip always includes a brief tour around Kampong Ayer, Brunei’s famous water village, and can sometimes include a look inside one of the village’s typical houses as well, upon request.
The water village itself is a maze of wooden boards and seemingly ramshackle houses, a surprising number of which boast satellite dishes attached to the outside and other evidence of all the mod-cons not usually associated with a water village. The village also has all their own amenities such as several schools, a fire station – manned of course by boats, a police station and restaurants.
Wildlife Spotting On The Brunei River
After the tour around the water village, the boat will head south in the direction of the Malaysian border, past the Sultan’s place and into the thick mangrove tree-lined river that a large number of Proboscis monkeys call their home.
The boat drivers are well trained to spot any animal movement in the trees or pick out even the smallest glimpse of scales resting on the river banks – crocodiles, monitor lizards and snakes can all be spotted easily along the river as well. The engine goes quiet, and the boat driver guides the boat silently into a nook hidden between the mangrove trees until some tell-tale rustling leaves give away a hiding place.
Although animal sighting cannot be guaranteed on most wildlife spotting tours, it is extremely likely that proboscis and macaque monkeys will be spotted along the river banks, and more often than not, a large monitor lizard will be pointed out perched ominously over the roof of the boat on a low hanging branch.
An easy and affordable way to spot some of Borneo’s wildlife away from the large tourist crowds. | https://www.uncharted101.com/spotting-proboscis-monkeys-in-borneo/ |
It's Just a Habit!
Updated: Aug 5, 2021
Has this ever happened to you: An old unwanted thought or fear pops into your mind and manipulates your thinking and mood? The bothersome thought completely grabs your focus. You ruminate on how this problem has always been a problem and continues to be a problem. The more you go down this rabbit hole, the more fear you experience. Now, you are worried that you won’t be able to shake free of these thoughts and the worry and discomfort they cause. You look for ways to avoid your emotional discomfort. Maybe you shop, indulge in food, sex, or drugs, or micro-manage your partner or kids – any behavior that allows you to focus on things outside of your internal discomfort will do. Yet, as soon as there is quiet, your negative thoughts, worry, and fear resume their relentless bullying. You become angry with yourself for your inability to control your thinking. Now, on top of your worry and emotional discomfort, you judge yourself for being in this state. And with the painful weight of judgment added to the mix, the ruminating, worry, and fear cycle repeats.
This joyless dance is a fear loop. The more you try to free yourself from its mess, like quicksand, the deeper you sink. I talk about my personal experience with this phenomenon in Chapter Three of The Little Book of Big Lies.
Recently, I asked a struggling client if the above scenario was present in his experience. His embarrassed silence reminded me of how far we still must travel, as a society, before we human beings realize that experiencing emotional challenge is an innate feature of the human condition. A psychologist by the name of Nick Wignall, whose work I’ve recently been introduced to, says, “Emotional issues are not a sign of failure or weakness. They are confirmation of our humanness.”
Instead of automatically defaulting to your fear loop – the habit of worry and self-judgment that activate with fear – you can set the intention, from this point forward, to make more powerful and empowered choices before a fear loop is triggered.
Choosing to get curious about habituated behavior is a great way to begin to interrupt the automatic response that has driven that behavior up until now. When you contemplate old response behavior through the lens of curiosity, you are changing your relationship to your old pattern. One change can lead to many until the habit is no longer the boss of you!
Neuroscience explains that engaging internal actions such as becoming curious about a situation, deeply contemplating new options and possibilities, and thinking in terms of thriving versus surviving, supports the emotional regulation and inner calm that allows us to access the executive thinking part of the brain (the cortex). From this region of our brain, we can think more empowering thoughts and make better choices. Being in survival mode narrows our ability to see and think, leaving us running for our lives – proving, protecting, manipulating, avoiding, attacking, and, yes, judging ourselves or others as part of our triggered survival behavior.
Getting curious about discomfort also teaches us to tolerate discomfort instead of fleeing from it. Learning to tolerate discomfort allows the opportunity to observe reactions to understand them. This effort builds resilience by expanding your capacity to navigate uncomfortable feelings.
As my ability to tolerate my discomfort grew, so did my ability to see my behavior more clearly. I began to wrestle with my old issues through the new lens of being open and curious. This was not easy work. It was very uncomfortable.
One day, I had a powerful realization: My fear-loop was a habit that ran like clockwork. For the first time, I was present enough in my calm mind to observe my fear-loop in operation: The idea of auditioning would trigger a feeling of uh-oh; that uh-oh would awaken my fear-loop; soon, I would be breathing shallowly and feeling powerless; my focus would be embroiled in thoughts of failing in the audition.
In all my experience with this habit, I had never challenged this automatic fear-filled reaction because I NEVER REALIZED THAT I COULD. I just let it drive me in whatever direction it wanted to go.
When I realized that my fear and the resulting sequence of events were a finely constructed habit, my sense of feeling powerless began to lift. I told myself, I can change a habit. There are actions I can take, things I could do to CHANGE THIS HABIT. Sure, habits can be formidable. But they are not all-powerful. They are HABITS.
This realization created a tiny space, a beat, wherein I could see the habit. That beat allowed distance between me and the habit. We were NOT one. If it was a habit, and I was a person experiencing the habit, then I could be a person without that habit. I began to imagine myself in control of the habit instead of feeling like it was my fait accompli.
Getting curious about how things work is the process of discovery in science and life. It is also a powerful way to self-discover and always be aligned with life’s ultimate purpose, which is to grow and expand.
I began to ask what this painful recurring overwhelm has to teach me? The more I was willing to sit with such questions the less afraid and anxious I was when I found myself in habituated overwhelm.
The game-changer was devising a cool, calm, and collected – cortex supported – plan to get in front of my triggered pattern BEFORE it was triggered, if possible. If I was trigger too quickly to be ahead of the fear loop, I would use my plan to help me interrupt the habit as best I could and mitigate its duration and overwhelm.
My 5-Step Plan:
I will interrupt my old pattern the next time it is triggered.
When I feel the familiar fear feeling mounting in my stomach, I will calmly acknowledge that a trigger is activated.
I will remember it is just a habit and aim to see the pattern more clearly?
I will breathe through my emotional discomfort, trusting that sitting with my discomfort will not kill me. Rather, it will build tolerance and resilience.
I will envision and focus on the results I want, instead of catastrophizing and focusing on the vision of failure that I don’t want.
I defaulted to my plan over and over. This was hard work. In the beginning, in my efforts to implement my plan, I often still felt like I was failing. In those doubtful moments, I would imagine myself chopping down a big tree. (Sorry for the image of me abusing Mother Nature.) The analogy allowed me to trust my actions, and not expect immediate results. Yet, there was the feeling of magic present almost immediately. I was behaving proactively in a scenario that, for years, had left me feeling at risk and powerless.
Simply saying “this is a habit” may not bring the relief you want. When we are in pain, most of us want our pain to go away quickly and NEVER RETURN. However, breaking a habit includes navigating the setbacks and momentary breakdowns that are bound to happen. Telling yourself a simple truth like, this is just a habit, helps you access the part of your brain that can both see the habit, in all its disguises, and make the choice to not indulge it, and know that the discomfort you will experience in the process will not kill you.
We, humans, want life to be easy. It isn't. That's why tools and practice are necessary. When it comes to your most challenging habit, see it for the habit that it is. Then, wrap your mind around the idea that you don’t have to be a slave to old habits. No matter how long the habit has been a habit, it is still just a habit! Underneath the habit is your original whole Self waiting for you to get curious about your behavior and take the journey back to your Self.
Tina Lifford plays Aunt Vi on the critically acclaimed television show, Queen Sugar. The Little Book of Big Lies: A Journey Into Inner Fitness is her first book; released by Harper Collins, November 2019, and is full of the kind of internal “actions” that will transform your thinking and your life. You can also join her at a workout in her Inner Fitness Studio to practice strengthening your wellbeing and making it actionable in your day to day life. Don't miss the latest news from Tina Lifford and The Inner Fitness Project. Sign up our monthly newsletter here. | https://www.theinnerfitnessproject.com/post/it-s-just-a-habit |
China plays an increasingly important role on the international economic scene and in global supply chains. Initially only coastal regions participated in global supply chains, but in recent years comparative cost advantages have led to an increased participation of inland destinations in Chinas economic development. The growth of some inland regions has urged logistics players to revise and reconfigure their extensive logistics networks. This has been particularly the case in the Yangtze region. Upstream cities such as Chongqing are emerging as potential important production centres for the international markets. This paper discusses the challenges for container barge services on the Yangtze River to Chongqing. It is argued that a further strengthening of the global market position of Chongqing and other upstream locations demands further improvements in transport-related and logistical cost control and reliability. The performance of container river services on the Yangtze River is crucial for upstream economic regions to take part in world trade. The paper analyzes the costs aspects linked to transporting goods to the world markets and makes a comparison to gateway region Shanghai.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Research in transportation economics. - Greenwich, Conn.
Publication
Greenwich, Conn.
: | https://repository.uantwerpen.be/link/irua/94067 |
Dietary patterns can be the primary reason for many chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity. State-of-the-art wearable sensor technologies can play a critical role in assisting patients in managing their eating habits by providing meaningful statistics on critical parameters such as the onset, duration, and frequency of eating. For an accurate yet fast food intake recognition, this work presents a novel Machine Learning (ML) based framework that shows promising results by leveraging optimized support vector machine (SVM) classifiers. The SVM classifiers are trained on three comprehensive datasets: OREBA, FIC, and CLEMSON. The developed framework outperforms existing algorithms by achieving F1-scores of 92%, 94%, 95%, and 85% on OREBA-SHA, OREBA-DIS, FIC, and CLEMSON datasets, respectively. In order to assess the generalization aspects, the proposed SVM framework is also trained on one of the three databases while being tested on the others and achieves acceptable F1-scores in all cases. The proposed algorithm is well suited for real-time applications since inference is made using a few support vector parameters compared to thousands in peer deep neural networks models. | https://academia.kaust.edu.sa/en/publications/machine-learning-based-unobtrusive-intake-gesture-detection-via-w |
c sorting members of structure array - Stack Overflow
Simple C Programs,Selection Sort,Selection Sort Program in C, Data Structures and Algorithm Sorting Programs using c with sample output. This program describes and demonstrates Simple Insertion Sort Program in C++ Sort Program in C++*/ /* Data Structure C++ C++ Insertion Sort Example).
Complexity Analysis An algorithm is a procedure that you can write as a C function or program, An example: Selection Sort Advanced Data Structure; The selection sort algorithm sorts an array by repeatedly finding the minimum C program to sort an array of strings using Selection
... c-sharp tutorials,C# Interview Data structures and Algorithms; Selection sort is an algorithm of sorting an array where it loop from the start of Selection Sort Data Structure Example in C - Program to arrange elements in Ascending, Descending Order, Program to sort array elements in ascending and descending
Data Structure Sorting C Programs thiyagaraaj.com
C# Programming Examples on Sorting Sanfoundry. this tutorial explains how the selection sort algorithm works and shows you how to implement the selection sort in c. about us; c data structures. c stack; c, this program describes and demonstrates simple selection sort program using functions in c with data structure c++ selection sort example).
SELECTION SORT USING C PROGRAM cquestions.com. problem solving with algorithms and data structures. the quick sortⶠthe quick sort uses divide and conquer to since we have looked at this example a few, ... bubble sort, merge sort, insertion sort, selection sort, quick sort to data structures: give a suitable example. in selection sort the list is divided). | https://erwindevries.org/new-south-wales/selection-sort-in-data-structure-with-example-in-c.php |
Heap sort is a comparison based sorting technique based on Binary Heap data structure. It is similar to selection sort where we first find the maximum element and place the maximum element at the end. We repeat the same process for the remaining elements.
What is Binary Heap?
Let us first define a Complete Binary Tree. A complete binary tree is a binary tree in which every level, except possibly the last, is completely filled, and all nodes are as far left as possible (Source Wikipedia)
A Binary Heap is a Complete Binary Tree where items are stored in a special order such that value in a parent node is greater(or smaller) than the values in its two children nodes. The former is called as max heap and the latter is called min-heap. The heap can be represented by a binary tree or array.
Why array based representation for Binary Heap?
Since a Binary Heap is a Complete Binary Tree, it can be easily represented as an array and the array-based representation is space-efficient. If the parent node is stored at index I, the left child can be calculated by 2 * I + 1 and right child by 2 * I + 2 (assuming the indexing starts at 0).
Heap Sort Algorithm for sorting in increasing order:
1. Build a max heap from the input data.
2. At this point, the largest item is stored at the root of the heap. Replace it with the last item of the heap followed by reducing the size of heap by 1. Finally, heapify the root of the tree.
3. Repeat step 2 while size of heap is greater than 1.
How to build the heap?
Heapify procedure can be applied to a node only if its children nodes are heapified. So the heapification must be performed in the bottom-up order.
Lets understand with the help of an example:
Input data: 4, 10, 3, 5, 1 4(0) / \ 10(1) 3(2) / \ 5(3) 1(4) The numbers in bracket represent the indices in the array representation of data. Applying heapify procedure to index 1: 4(0) / \ 10(1) 3(2) / \ 5(3) 1(4) Applying heapify procedure to index 0: 10(0) / \ 5(1) 3(2) / \ 4(3) 1(4) The heapify procedure calls itself recursively to build heap in top down manner.
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Sorted array is 5 6 7 11 12 13
Here is previous C code for reference.
Notes:
Heap sort is an in-place algorithm.
Its typical implementation is not stable, but can be made stable (See this)
Time Complexity: Time complexity of heapify is O(Logn). Time complexity of createAndBuildHeap() is O(n) and overall time complexity of Heap Sort is O(nLogn).
Applications of HeapSort
1. Sort a nearly sorted (or K sorted) array
2. k largest(or smallest) elements in an array
Heap sort algorithm has limited uses because Quicksort and Mergesort are better in practice. Nevertheless, the Heap data structure itself is enormously used. See Applications of Heap Data Structure
https://youtu.be/MtQL_ll5KhQ
Snapshots:
Quiz on Heap Sort
Other Sorting Algorithms on GeeksforGeeks/GeeksQuiz:
QuickSort, Selection Sort, Bubble Sort, Insertion Sort, Merge Sort, Heap Sort, QuickSort, Radix Sort, Counting Sort, Bucket Sort, ShellSort, Comb Sort, Pigeonhole Sort
Please write comments if you find anything incorrect, or you want to share more information about the topic discussed above.
Attention reader! Don’t stop learning now. Get hold of all the important DSA concepts with the DSA Self Paced Course at a student-friendly price and become industry ready. | https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/heap-sort/ |
Medical knowledge and technology have advanced significantly in recent years increasing the ability to sustain lives thus expanding the human lifespan. In advanced age or poor health, we may find ourselves in a position where decisions need to be made as to how we wish to be medically treated in certain situations. This is especially true at the end stages of life when we may be unable to express our preferences about treatment and critical health decisions are being made by others. This current Weekly Pulse article discusses the importance of using a Living Will and Health Care Proxy to dictate the type of medical care you want should you be unable to articulate your wishes.
Let us begin with the Living Will also known as Advance Directive. This is a written document which outlines your health care wishes for end-of-life care if you become terminally ill and cannot make decisions on your own. It tells your medical providers the types of treatments you may or may not want including how long you want your life prolonged. It can also include religious preferences. A Living Will does not impact your current medical treatment. Consider your value when determining your wishes, how important it is to you to be independent and self sufficient? Identify what circumstances might make you feel like life is not worth living. Would you want treatment to extend your life or to not be resuscitated? Would you want treatment only if a cure is possible?
A Living Will is one way to communicate your values and beliefs, but the language used in a standard Living Wills can often be too narrow to be useful in many common medical situations. Depending on state law, this document may permit you to express whether you wish to be given life-sustaining treatments in the event you are terminally ill or injured. A Living Will can be terminated at any time, but some states may require a renewal after a certain number of years this can vary. If you spend time between two or more states, be sure to review the laws of each state and speak to your health care provider. Be very careful signing any such document without reviewing the possible implications to you. Be certain that whatever you sign is consistent with your beliefs and wishes.
A Health Care Proxy sometimes called a “Health Care Surrogate”, or “Durable Medical Power of Attorney” is a durable power of attorney specifically designed to cover medical treatment. It is a legal document that appoints a person you trust to express your wishes and make medical decisions for you when you are unable to do so. Even if you have a Living Will in place, you should still have a healthcare proxy. Not all medical situations can be anticipated, and you never know when you may need someone you trust to make a judgment call about your health care wishes. The person you choose may be a spouse, family member, friend or some other person you are close to and trust.
The main responsibilities of a Health Care Proxy are as follows:
- Conferring with the medical team and reviewing the medical chart
- Discussing treatment options
- Requesting consultations and second opinions
- Consenting to or refusing medical tests or treatments
- Making life-support decisions
- Authorizing transfer to another physician or institution.
You would appoint a person and grant to him/her the authority to make medical decisions for you in the event you are unable to express your preferences about medical treatment. Most commonly, this situation occurs either because you are unconscious or because your mental state is such that you do not have the legal capacity to make your own decisions. Normally, one person is appointed as your health care proxy. It is quite common, however, for you to appoint one or more alternate persons (successors) in the event your first-choice proxy is unavailable. You should confirm prior to appointing someone as your proxy that he or she will in fact be willing and able to carry out your wishes.
Choosing a Health Care Proxy when choosing a person to be your health care agent, you want to make sure of the following:
- Your Proxy is 18 or older.
- You feel comfortable speaking openly and honestly with this person about your wishes.
- You can have several discussions with your health care agent over time, in case your wishes, values or medical needs change.
- You believe the person you choose is comfortable taking on the role of health care agent, able to make difficult decisions and able to stand up for your rights and wishes.
- You know the person you choose will be able to carry out your wishes regardless of their values, religious beliefs, love for you and other family members’ beliefs.
- You choose someone who lives locally or can be reached easily in case of an emergency.
Many people prefer to keep their legal documents private with end-of-life issues, however, communicating your wishes is essential. An Advance Health Care directive is the first step in this process. However, you need to discuss your preferences with others. Take the time to discuss these issues with the person you appoint as your Health Care Proxy. Make sure your family knows how you feel about end-of-life issues. While conversations are no doubt difficult, they will relieve those you appoint of tremendous emotional burdens by your having personally explained your desires. When it comes to drafting a HealthCare Proxy or a Living Will, The Law Offices of Marjory Cajoux will be with you every step of the way. We have helped families with a range of elder law issues, including estate planning, Medicaid planning and more. | https://www.macalaw.com/blog/2021/10/the-weekly-pulse-the-importance-of-using-a-living-will-and-health-care-proxy-to-determine-medical-care/ |
Rogers Smith. Handbook of Citizenship Studies. Editor: Engin F Isin & Bryan S Turner. Sage Publication. 2002.
What does citizenship mean today? How does this meaning or set of meanings differ from what it has meant in the past and what it may mean in the future? To the question of the distinctive modern meaning of citizenship, we scholars can give some reasonably concrete and widely accepted answers. The question as to what modern citizenship is becoming is one that many people are also answering, but they are doing so in ways that go well beyond what scholars can hope to determine, either in theory or practice. That is essentially as it should be, I believe; but I shall nonetheless seek to say something about where modern citizenship may be going.
Four Meanings of Citizenship
To grasp what citizenship has come to mean in the contemporary world, it may be helpful to begin by identifying some different definitions of the term.
The first and perhaps the most familiar meaning of citizenship is in fact the seminal one. In both ancient and modern republics and democracies, a citizen has been a person with political rights to participate in processes of popular self-governance. These include rights to vote; to hold elective and appointive governmental offices; to serve on various sorts of juries; and generally to participate in political debates as equal community members.
Secondly, especially in the modern world, we also commonly speak of ‘citizenship’ as a more purely legal status. ‘Citizens’ are people who are legally recognized as members of a particular, officially sovereign political community. They therefore possess some basic rights to be protected by that community’s government, whether or not those rights include rights of political participation. In this meaning, possessing ‘citizenship’ is understood to be effectively equivalent to possessing ‘nationality’ under a particular modern state, even if there remains some sense that ‘citizens’ are presumptively more entitled to full political rights than mere ‘nationals.’
In the last century or so, moreover, it has become increasingly customary to use ‘citizen’ in a third way, as referring to those who belong to almost any human association, whether a political community or some other group. I can be said to be a citizen of my neighborhood, my fitness club, and my university as well as my broader political community. To be sure, this type of usage is far from strictly modern. St Augustine’s fifth-century masterpiece, City of God, was premised on the idea that the saved are ‘citizens of the heavenly City,’ rather than simply citizens of earthly cities or indeed of ‘the world community’ (Augustine, [413-427] 1958: 326). Today this sort of deployment of the term ‘citizenship’ is still often understood to be at least partly metaphorical, as it was in Augustine’s formulation. Yet now the use of ‘citizenship’ to refer to membership in virtually any association is so ubiquitous that many treat such nonpolitical ‘citizenship’ as an alternative but equally valid meaning of the word.
Fourthly, as a result of, especially, both the first and third meanings, today we often use ‘citizenship’ to signify not just membership in some group but certain standards of proper conduct. Some people—those who contribute to the well-being of their political community, church, lunch club, or other human association, and do so frequently, valuably, at some cost to themselves—are understood to be the ‘true’ citizens of those bodies. Others who free-ride on their efforts are mere members who do not seem to understand, embrace, or embody what citizenship really means. When communities, public or private, give ‘citizenship’ awards to some of their members, it is this usage they invoke. It obviously implies that only ‘good’ citizens are genuinely citizens in the full meaning of the term. This meaning represents a merger of the republican conception of participatory citizenship with the now common practice of using citizenship to refer to membership in any of an almost infinite variety of human groups.
Note that the latter three of these meanings have emerged especially over the last several centuries, with the last two probably most prevalent in the last 100 years. What happened in the course of modern history to generate this proliferation of usages? The answers, I believe, reveal much about what citizenship has become and where it may be going.
The Path to Modern Citizenship
Perhaps necessarily, the oldest meaning of citizenship, participation in political self-governance, has survived in the modern world only in greatly modified form. The word ‘citizen’ derives from the Latin civis or civitas, meaning a member of an ancient city-state, preeminently the Roman republic; but civitas was a Latin rendering of the Greek term polites, a member of a Greek polis. Innumerable scholars have told how a renowned resident of the Athenian polis, Aristotle, defined a polites or ‘citizen’ as someone who rules and is ruled in turn, making ‘citizenship’ conceptually inseparable from political governance (Aristotle, [350 BCE] 1968: 1275a23). Though most inhabitants of Athens, including the foreigner Aristotle himself, were ineligible to participate in citizenship thus understood, this ideal of citizenship as self-governance has often served since as an inspiration and instrument for political efforts to achieve greater inclusion and democratic engagement in political life. It continues to play that role in modern political discourse.
But for that very reason, this ancient idea of citizenship has often seemed politically threatening to many rulers, who have abolished or redefined the category. It was for this sort of political reason—because the regimes that had created citizenship succumbed to conquest by Alexander’s monarchical empire—that ancient Greek citizenship disappeared. And it was for a similar political reason—because the Roman republic gave way to imperial rule generated from within—that Roman citizenship came to have a different meaning than the one Aristotle articulated. In principle, Roman citizenship always carried with it the right to sit in the popular legislative assembly that had been the hallmark of Athenian citizenship. But as participation in that assembly became increasingly meaningless as well as impractical for most imperial inhabitants, Roman citizenship became essentially a legal status comparable to modern nationality (Pocock, 1995). It provided rights to legal protection by Roman soldiers and judges in return for allegiance to Rome. It no longer had any strong connection to actual practices of self-governance.
‘Citizenship’ was then eclipsed in the West by the various feudal and religious statuses of the medieval Christian world, but it did not vanish entirely. ‘Burghers’ or the ‘bourgeoisie’ were citizens of municipalities that often had some special if restricted rights of self-governance within feudal hierarchies. It was in fact in reference to this class of persons that the term ‘citizen’ first came to be commonly used in English, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Such burghers remained, however, fundamentally subjects of some ruling prince or lord, with their ‘citizenship’ chiefly providing legal rights of protection in the manner of Roman imperial citizenship. In contrast, during the Renaissance some Italian cities achieved both independence and a meaningful measure of popular self-governance. They invoked ancient ‘republican’ ideals of participatory citizenship to define and defend their regimes. Their experiences in turn fed into the anti-monarchical revolutions that created the first modern republics, including the short-lived seventeenth-century English Commonwealth and late eighteenth-century French Republic, as well as the still enduring United States (Pocock, 1975). It was here that modern citizenship took its basic form.
In complex fashion, those revolutions inaugurated transformations ‘from subject-ship to citizenship’ across much of the globe that are still ongoing today, when most of the world’s governments proclaim themselves to be ‘republics’ of some sort populated by ‘citizens.’ In eighteeenth-century North America and France, to be a ‘citizen’ was once again understood to be someone who shared in political self-governance, as in the ancient and Renaissance Italian city-states. Unlike the medieval European burghers, then, these modern ‘citizens’ were people who were emphatically not ‘subjects.’ They rejected rule by hereditary monarchical and aristocratic families in favor of a much broader community of political equals. But in these modern republics, self-governance by ‘citizens’ no longer took place chiefly in ‘cities.’ Rather, it occurred within ‘nations.’ These were substantially larger populations who could not possibly have face-to-face knowledge of each other, only some form of ‘imagined community,’ in Benedict Anderson’s valuable phrase (Anderson, 1983).
These ‘imagined communities’ could engage in self-governance, if at all, only through more extensive reliance on systems of representation—a reliance that became to many the distinguishing feature of modern republics. The authors of the Federalist Papers argued for the proposed US Constitution by applauding such representative systems as means to check the dangers of direct popular self-governance (Hamilton et al., 1987: 126, 372-3). Some French radicals influenced by Rousseau instead regarded elaborate structures of representation as dangers to true republican freedom (Higonnet, 1988: 220-8, 235). Still, those Rousseauean revolutionaries did not favor the creation of decentralized self-governing French city-states. Rather, they vigorously championed the concept of a large French nation, whom they claimed to represent directly. As that fact shows, in modern large-scale republics, there has simply been no practical alternative to extensive reliance on representative systems of self-government, except for effective abandonment of any meaningful self-governance at all.
Today, then, the core meaning of citizenship is membership with at least some rights of political participation in an independent republic that governs through some system of elected representatives—parliamentary, presidential, bicameral, unicameral, or some other variation. Such citizenship is understood to embrace not only various rights and privileges, including rights to participate politically, but also an ethos of at least some willingness to exercise these rights in ways that contribute to the common good. But the polity-wide assembly in which all citizens sit, deliberate and vote has effectively vanished from the modern world, as much or more than the hereditary aristocracies and monarchies that the American and French revolutionaries first assaulted. Only a few rare vestiges of direct, active, collective self-governance by the whole body of relevant citizens now exist, within sub-units such as small towns, counties, and school districts. And with the demise of the all-citizens assembly, expectations that most citizens will in fact be extensively involved in activities of political self-governance have also faded. As many have argued, citizenship in most modern societies rarely involves a strongly participatory public ethos or vigorous democratic practices (e.g. Barber, 1984, 1995).
How should we understand this transformation? How it has been bound up with the spread of the other meanings of modern citizenship that I have listed? Sheer logistical burdens in engaging in civic participation under the conditions that characterize large-scale modern republics surely provide a good portion of the answer; yet certain related political developments have also been more important than may first meet the eye.
The Politics of Modern Apolitical Citizenship
To show why, let me first make another run at the pertinent history. Men created the early modern republics, first the American, then the French, and then others, in an international realm that had been organized by the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia into a system of mutual recognition among overwhelmingly monarchical nation-states. In gaining acceptance within that system, the new republics defined their citizens as having the same international status as national monarchical subjects. For international purposes, these citizens, too, were simply persons who owed allegiance to and could claim protection from particular sovereign governments. Whether those sovereigns were the representatives of the ‘sovereign people’ or were instead individual hereditary rulers, usurpers, or conquering despots made no difference to this legal status. Thus Westphalian international law gave no official recognition or significance to the ideological connection of modern republican citizenship with active self-governance, treating it instead as akin to the legalistic, protection-oriented, imperial version of Roman citizenship (Held, 1995: 74-83).
Furthermore, the first enduring modern republic, the United States, was forged amidst racial and gender hierarchies that few revolutionaries sought to challenge. Hence early American leaders felt compelled to argue that, though free blacks and women might be citizens, citizenship did not in fact inherently entail rights of political participation. It guaranteed, once again, only more limited rights to certain judicial and executive protections. Perhaps the most revealing example of this phenomenon in US law is the post-Civil War case of Minor v. Happersett (88 US 162, 1874). There a suffrage activist, Virginia Minor, argued that her citizenship in the American Republic under the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution logically required that she be granted voting rights, since voting was inherent in the core meaning of such citizenship. Chief Justice Morrison Waite of the United States Supreme Court ruled, however, that republican citizenship actually meant only ‘membership of a nation and nothing more.’ Later courts invoked this reasoning to justify restrictions on the franchise for other classes of citizens as well (R.M. Smith, 1997: 341-2, 408, 432). Parallel understandings of citizenship can be found in the law of other modern republics, most of which denied women and some other free adult citizens the franchise until the twentieth century, for similar reasons. For long stretches of time, then, both international and national politics worked to strengthen legalistic as opposed to more participatory conceptions of citizenship in many modern societies, despite the rise of modern republicanism.
But if lawyers have tended to treat modern ‘citizenship’ and ‘nationality’ as fundamentally identical terms, many contemporary political theorists and historians of political thought have analyzed the apparent declining emphasis on participatory citizenship in modern regimes in another way. They often distinguish between ‘liberal’ conceptions of citizenship, usually traced back to the seventeenth-century political tracts through which John Locke shaped the English and later the American Revolutions, and ‘republican’ conceptions of citizenship, often traced back to the eighteenth-century writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, if not to Machiavelli and Aristotle (Hutchings, 1999). ‘Liberal’ conceptions are said to present civic membership basically as an instrument of a diverse range of self-interested personal life plans, with the emphasis generally on seeking economic, religious, and familial fulfillment. The guarantees of basic protections from one’s regime contained in international law notions of citizenship are thought to be generally consonant with this ‘liberal’ view of citizenship, so long as basic human rights are not violated. In contrast, ‘republican’ conceptions still insist that citizenship must involve rights and practices of political participation to achieve common goods. Many modern regimes are then analyzed as combining ‘liberal’ and ‘republican’ civic elements. The resulting argument is that, for good or bad reasons or both, modern societies have simply moved toward more ‘liberal’ than ‘republican’ civic conceptions (e.g. Sandel, 1996).
These arguments are fine as far as they go, but there is much they omit. Not just the United States, but in fact most modern societies display not only liberal and republican civic traditions, but also long histories of governmental use of gendered, racialized, religious, nativistic, and other ascriptive categories to assign quite different civic statuses to different sets of people. Many of these categories are openly inconsistent with the requirements of respect for human rights built into most theoretical depictions of genuinely ‘liberal’ citizenship. Similarly, though republican views of citizenship often favor civic homogeneity as a means to strengthen civic commitments, they do not by themselves include or endorse notions of racial, ethnic, or religious superiority. Sociologists and historians, especially, have therefore often distinguished between two types of modern nations. ‘Civic’ nations base citizenship on acceptance of certain political principles and procedures, usually some combination of liberal and republican ones. ‘Ethnic’ nations instead stress hereditary ethnic, racial, or religious identities (e.g. Brubaker, 1992; Greenfeld, 1992; Ignatieff, 1993).
Though useful for some purposes, all these classifications fail, I believe, to recognize how modern forms of citizenship have emerged from political processes that predictably generate societies that do not fit readily into any of these pigeonholes. From the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries, modern nations arose chiefly in struggles against preexisting monarchical regimes and against European colonial regimes, whether monarchical or not. In those political contests many revolutionaries found liberal notions of human rights and republican notions of popular sovereignty (along with later Marxist notions of proletarian destiny) useful in defining and legitimating their causes. Yet logically, many of those ideals threatened systems of political and economic power and status in which the revolutionaries were themselves invested, such as gender and ethnic hierarchies. Furthermore, doctrines of a liberal, republican, or workers’ state do not by themselves explain why people should embrace one particular liberal republic or workers’ state rather than another.
As a result of these political problems, the architects of modern forms of nationhood and citizenship have regularly blended liberal, republican, or Marxian elements with forms of nationalism and patriarchy that build on and adapt prevalent notions of ethnic, racial, religious and gender as well as class identities. In so doing they add to their notions of membership what I have termed politically useful ‘constitutive stories,’ accounts that make citizenship in a particular society seem intrinsic to the identities of their putative members. Racial, ethnic, gender, cultural, and religious ‘constitutive stories’ purport to define who we essentially are. They can readily be blended into accounts that present membership in a specific regime as our natural or divine destiny. If citizens accept such accounts, they are likely to be quite loyal to their regime. That is one reason why would-be leaders regularly propagate such stories; and in so far as the stories help to sustain regimes that express and advance the identities, interests, and ideals of those whom they valorize, many citizens also have strong incentives to embrace them (R.M. Smith, 2001).
When we attend to the political processes through which senses of peoplehood have been shaped, then, it seems less surprising that in reality there simply have never been any purely ‘liberal,’ ‘republican,’ or ‘liberal republican’ modern republics; and existing regimes have always mixed elements of ‘civic’ and ‘ethnic’ nationhood (cf. A.D. Smith, 1991). They still do. Even today, for instance, most people acquire their political citizenship through unchosen, often unexamined, hereditary descent, not because they explicitly embrace any political principles, liberal, republican, civic, or otherwise. Immigration policies in western Europe, the USA, and elsewhere generally include some sort of favoritism for those who can claim kinship with current citizens, without any effort to ascertain if their commitment to civic principles is really stronger than those of applicants with no citizen relatives. National and international courts in the USA and elsewhere also continue to make the narrower, protection-centered view of citizenship legally authoritative in many contexts, even when clearly illiberal, unrepublican ethnic nations are involved. Many more examples could be cited.
It remains true, however, that the citizenship laws of most modern societies have been altered over time in more ‘liberal,’ ‘republican,’ and ‘civic’ directions, with explicit racial, ethnic, gender, and religious bars to full citizenship being dropped. In the political contests that have produced these changes over the last two centuries, the notion that genuine citizenship involves rights of political participation has been a resonant rhetorical tool for legislative and constitutional reformers and revolutionaries. Those ideological arguments have been combined with active, sometimes violent, domestic protests and international pressures, especially the need for broad support in wartime, to produce dramatic changes. By the late twentieth century, reformers had used these means to achieve the extension of the franchise to all adult citizens, in the USA and most of the Western world. In America, blacks won both citizenship and voting rights after the Civil War, even though most came to be effectively disfranchised in the ‘Jim Crow’ era of racial segregation; and women gained the franchise after World War I. In both cases, arguments appealing to their public service, especially in wartime, and to the idea that true citizenship must include the franchise, played key roles in their successes (Foner, 1988; Flexner, 1973). World War II, the Cold War, and the civil rights movement also all contributed to the ending of Jim Crow segregation and disfranchisement and also US racial restrictions on naturalization and immigration during the 1950s and 1960s (Daniels, 1990). Other nations that had versions of some or all of these policies, such as Australia and South Africa, have since generally followed suit.
In Britain and to some degree in other Western European nations that had been politically configured essentially by feudal and industrial class systems, modern citizenship was wrought out via somewhat different struggles. As T.H. Marshall famously argued, first middle and then working class political pressures resulted in the expansion of civil rights of property and protection, then in near-universal rights of political participation, and finally and incompletely, in ‘social rights’ for all national citizens that included income, housing, medical, and educational guarantees (Marshall, 1950). Marshall’s argument has been so influential that many scholars and some political activists, especially in Europe, today equate genuine citizenship with full possession of all three types of rights: civil, political, and social. As a normative matter, that argument has power. But as a matter of historical analysis, Marshall’s class-centered account is not well equipped to explain many civic developments, including the back-and-forth pattern of racial and ethnic voting rights in US history and the battles over gender discrimination and representation that are still ongoing in both the US and Europe. Today, moreover, different modern states define the content and extent of Marshall’s three types of citizenship rights in ways that vary too greatly for his account to depict very concretely either the formal laws of citizenship or the broadly shared understandings of citizenship that prevail in most of the modern world (Turner, 1986).
Even so, Marshall’s analysis can help to highlight some striking features in the evolution of modern citizenship, and the apparent decline in participatory civic ideals, that I have been reviewing. Even as the franchise was broadened in the USA, Europe, and elsewhere, even as old class, racial, gender, religious, and other barriers to full and equal membership were increasingly discredited, the rise of ‘social rights’ of citizenship provided new arenas for what were in many cases continuing conflicts over genuine civic equality. In the USA, for example, New Deal social programs of poverty relief, unemployment assistance, job training, and social insurance often reflected and reinforced beliefs that women and racial minorities still played distinctive and lesser roles in the market place and political processes. They did so by giving women and minorities different and lesser benefits (Mettler, 1998; Lieberman, 1998). In the civil rights era of the 1950s and 1960s, national and state legislators made many of those programs more inclusive; and in the Great Society years of the mid-1960s, new forms of educational and economic assistance, sometimes targeted at racial and ethnic minorities and women, were enacted. But from the late 1960s on, programs that were perceived as disproportionately aiding poor racial and ethnic minority members came under attack as inefficient and counterproductive, while measures explicitly aimed at aiding such groups were criticized as violating norms of equal citizenship (Quadagno, 1994).
The rise to power of Ronald Reagan in the USA and Margaret Thatcher in Britain made the 1980s an era in which many ‘social rights’ were reduced in these countries and, usually to lesser degrees, in many other advanced industrial societies as well. In some ways these developments ‘strengthened’ citizenship, as efforts mounted to prevent aliens from entering modern welfare states or from receiving full social benefits when they were present. But at the same time, these cutbacks in ‘social rights’ threatened to help perpetuate the more privileged statuses of higher-class, native-born, ethnically dominant groups and their political allies—privileged statuses to which modern citizenship laws had long contributed (Schuck, 1998). Partly as a result, many analysts have argued for increased representation of the interests of various sorts of disadvantaged groups, sometimes via official systems of ‘differentiated’ or ‘multicultural citizenship’ (Young, 1990, 2000; Kymlicka, 1995). Such advocacy has especially contributed to enhanced legal and political rights for native peoples and for women in a number of nations; but after the 1970s, the political tides were generally flowing against openly ‘differentiating’ civic policies in most locales.
These battles over the extension of various forms of social and political assistance to long disfranchised groups may also have contributed to the apparent increased modern apathy toward citizenship conceived as active participation in meaningful self-governance. Many have contended that when citizenship laws explicitly express racial, ethnic, gender, or religious identities (as, in fact, they have throughout most of modern history), they work against a strong sense of common citizenship (e.g. Lind, 1995). People are said to retreat instead into the lives of their multiple ‘cultural’ communities, in Balkanized fashion. Others contend that the movements against policies aiding the disadvantaged have worked to discredit the whole sphere of government in the minds of many of the better off, while these developments have simultaneously generated heightened political alienation and disaffection among the worse off. Both responses could well be working to foster widespread disengagement from active politics, by rich, poor, and middle classes alike. And even apart from their possible contributions to negative attitudes toward government, the economic and cultural developments that have led to a focus on activities in various social spheres may have also made traditional political activism simply seem less important. To many modern citizens, involvement in their social, economic, and cultural organizations may well appear more pressing.
For all these reasons, then, the term ‘citizenship’ may have become common in so many contexts beyond political self-governance because today it is in these other contexts that people find the memberships that mean the most to them, and in which they can act most effectively. It is there, too, that many now think citizenship understood as ‘good’ citizenship matters most. If so, then the inevitable corollary is that citizenship understood as political self-governance has indeed become quite secondary to the conscious concerns and activities of many modern citizens. Ironically, it seems that as citizenship has become ubiquitous, it has also become depoliticized, at least in so far as participation in formal self-governance is concerned. It is now more and more understood purely in terms of the latter three meanings with which we began—as an entitlement to legal protections and rights, of which political rights are the least important; as a label for membership in a whole variety of human associations; and as a normative conception of what good membership in all those groups involves. Citizenship as a political vocation is not an unknown concept today, to be sure; but it seems to be a vocation that relatively few now follow.
Political leaders frequently deplore this state of affairs when they wish for their citizens to provide more in the way of support and civic service. Still, few really try hard to combat it. It is probable that like their predecessors in other regimes, many who wield power in modern republics are content when those they govern think of citizenship chiefly in terms of subnational, often nongovernmental associations, and in terms of the ‘good citizen’s’ civic service rather than vigorous political activism.
Yet even if few policies within modern republics do much to enhance the feasibility and potency of such activism, it is not clear that this fact is to be wholly regretted. If various economic, social, and cultural groups represent the forms of association and activity that people value most, then respect for persons and their free choices may well mean accepting the modern minimization of participatory republican or democratic citizenship. On the other hand, if such acceptance also means embracing policies that effectively perpetuate or even deepen the class, racial, gender, ethnic, and religious inequalities that have been central to the civic lives of most modern regimes, even those who are not advocates of strongly participatory ideals may have cause for concern. Hence the question of whether political life can be conducted successfully in modern republics with diminishing levels of civic involvement is one that these developments in modern citizenship have inescapably placed on the agenda today.
The Prospect of Postnational Citizenships
The circumstances of the twenty-first century, however, increasingly cast a new light on all these matters. Though some scholars and democratic activists lament what they see as the eclipse or decline of modern republican national citizenship, others react quite differently. They stress that the heightened transnational economic, transportation, and communication systems that we call ‘globalization’ are in any case making traditional notions of national citizenship obsolete (Soysal, 1994; Jacobson, 1996; cf. Miller, 1995). The old sovereign nation-state, such writers insist, is on the way out. Regional associations, international legal institutions, and transnational economic, cultural, and political organizations, all ‘semi-sovereign’ in some spheres of some people’s lives, are said to be more likely to shape humanity’s future than existing national regimes. Hence membership in such bodies will rightly represent the most important forms of ‘citizenship’ in the twenty-first century. The redirection of participation toward ‘good citizenship’ in a grand plethora of human associations, in a manner akin to the democratic vision of John Dewey, can be understood as the appropriate realization of ancient participatory ideals in the new millennium.
There is much to these arguments. The fact that such ‘globalizing’ trends exist is undeniable; though it must quickly be added that usually, national governmental actors remain the central players even in transnational or international organizations and institutions. Despite advances in communication and transportation, moreover, meaningful participation in the governance of such populous and geographically far-flung entities can seem even more chimerical for most people than it is within existing nation-states. Advocates of ‘global citizenship’ or ‘cosmopolitan citizenship’ respond that such concerns fail to appreciate the democratic opportunities that emerge when old forms of national sovereignty are shattered and governance is performed at many levels. Some supranational organizations may be beyond the reach of most of those they affect, but some transnational groups will not be massively populated and may be more electronically interconnected on a daily basis. Furthermore, these advocates stress that governmental power can often safely be decentralized, going down and out as well as up, with a great number of important decisions being made henceforth in local communities that can in some regards approximate the old ideal of democratic city-states (Held, 1995; Linklater, 1999). To varying degrees, such devolution is indeed visible in the modern policies of many modern Western states, including Canada, the United States, and most dramatically in the United Kingdom, where the Welsh and Scots now have their own national legislatures. Thus there is a real prospect that the idea of ‘citizenship’ will increasingly be severed not only from engagement in traditional forms of self-governance, but even from membership in some single, titularly sovereign political community. The term ‘citizenship’ may instead become all the more ubiquitous, but now with its dominant meaning referring to all memberships in any of a wide variety of human groups, to many of which persons will belong simultaneously.
There are, however, both normative and empirical reasons to raise doubts about this scenario. Normatively, skeptical analysts ask pointedly where the motivation for constructive participation in public life will arise when people feel themselves only partial members of many political associations, most of which they join only for narrow instrumental reasons, having only the faintest sense of shared identity with their fellow ‘citizens’ (Miller, 1999). And as a matter of empirical political behavior, history suggests that the leaders of political communities rarely give up power willingly. Therefore it is not surprising that efforts to resist globalizing trends and reinvigorate loyalties to existing nations and regimes are also visible players in modern ‘citizenship politics,’ particularly in regard to immigration policies. Under conditions of economic hardship, international conflict, or simply increased governance by remote supranational bureaucracies, moreover, it is possible that many more people will come to feel concerned about the decline in forms of citizenship through which they can exercise some genuine control over their collective lives. The fact that political and social reform movements have often gained wide support by insisting that citizenship means sharing in governance shows that such feelings can be politically powerful fuel driving quite important changes. Given the incentives and the skills political leaders have to channel such feelings into support for existing forms of political community, these circumstances may well mean that radical changes will come less rapidly than some analysts now expect. The enormous difficulties in creating a truly all-encompassing global government mean, moreover, that memberships in particular political communities of some sort are likely to remain important features of human life, even if those communities do come to be constituted in new ways, as they frequently have been in the past.
Thus we cannot rule out the possibility that both existing political memberships and older notions of participatory citizenship will continue to play important roles in the recrafting of political institutions and communities that the twenty-first century will inevitably see. Whether those recraftings will go so far as to mean the end of the nation-state or whether they instead produce some less radical transformations remains to be seen. But whatever forms of citizenship result, they will almost certainly be the ongoing products of intense political contests that distribute powers and memberships to some people and not others. These distributions will be all the more controversial because they will also convey to citizens only some sorts of civil, political, and social rights, protections, and resources, and not others. Hence though citizenship in the twenty-first century may in some respects look sharply different than citizenship today, just as modern citizenship is different than medieval or ancient citizenship, in some fundamental regards citizenship will probably remain what it has long been: a political status of profound importance for the well-being both of those who fully and securely possess it, and of those who do not. | https://pustaqa.com/modern-citizenship/ |
What is mental health and why does it matter?
Poor mental health is one of the biggest issues in the workplace today, causing over 70 million working days to be lost each year. The most commonly experienced symptoms include stress and anxiety through to more complex mental health conditions such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and bipolar disorder.
As well as having a huge impact on individual employees, it also has severe repercussions for employers including increased staff turnover, absence, lost productivity and decreased motivation.
How do we encourage good mental health in the workplace?
As employers we need to encourage safeguarding staff, addressing problems before they become severe and supporting staff when issues do emerge. As an employer, it's about spotting the signs that something might be wrong and putting strategies in place to support good mental health.
Have you spotted the signs?
There are many reasons why mental health has become such a huge issue in the workplace today, but one factor is that many cases go unrecognised until they become severe. Whilst most employers are clued up on spotting the signs of physical illness, mental health problems can be more difficult to identify.
Here are some common signs that someone may be struggling:
Emotional:
Employees who are struggling with their mental health may seem irritable, sensitive to criticism, demonstrate uncharacteristic loss of confidence or seem to lose their sense of humour.
Business:
At a business level, look out for increased absence or staff turnover. Have you noticed employees working longer hours or a general drop in motivation or productivity levels?
Behavioural:
This could include things like arrive late, not taking lunch breaks, taking unofficial time off, not joining in office banter or not hitting deadlines, becoming more introvert or extroverted, generally acting out of character.
Cognitive:
An employee may make more mistakes than usual, have problems making decisions, or not be able to concentrate. Look out for any sudden unexplained drop in performance at work.
What can you do as an employer?
Prevention:
It is important to safeguard the mental health of your employees by creating an open and caring culture that makes staff feel supported and looked after. Here are some practical ways you can do this:
Culture:
Create a culture of openness and awareness by encouraging people to talk about mental health.
Communication:
Use staff newsletters, posters in communal areas and other internal communications to raise awareness of mental health.
Conduct regular staff surveys to take a temperature check on wellbeing and feedback results and progress to staff.
Working Practices:
Review job descriptions to ensure that tasks are set out clearly and workload is realistic.
Think about how success is measured and people are rewarded.
Encourage staff to take regular breaks away from their desks and get out of the office to reduce stress.
Managers:
Train up your management team! If employees know their boss is clued up in mental health matters, they may feel more comfortable in coming forward to discuss any problems they may have at work or even at home.
Make sure line managers spend time getting to know their team, this makes it easier to spot when they're struggling or have a change in their behaviour.
Remember that you should always talk about mental health openly. As an employer and a colleague, we all have a responsibility to look after one another. | https://www.harperhr.co.uk/blog/world-mental-health-day |
In part one of this post, we shared insights from Andreas Prins’ webinar on speeding up digital transformation in the enterprise and keys to building a responsive enterprise, utilizing lean and agile techniques to enable value stream management. We shared three pillars to success: customer collaboration, organizational simplicity, and data-driven decisions. Prioritizing these will help you to focus on business outcomes and reap the value of software applications.
In this post, we will share Andreas’ recommendations for getting started—practical ways to move forward and put into practice the three pillars for building a responsive enterprise. These are shifts in thinking that will position you to advance and be an agent of change within your organization.
Adopt Quality-first Thinking
A quality-first mindset helps to both improve customer satisfaction and, at the same time, optimizes engineering capacity. These two go hand in hand. By focusing on quality first you will see the number of open incidents and tickets raised by the customer will go down. This is important because the higher your customer satisfaction, the more business grows. The downside to having many open incidents is obvious. From a Lean perspective, this disrupts the flow of new feature development.
You can have a great vision, but if the quality is lacking, execution will fail.
The concept of “shift left,” falls under quality-first thinking. It helps to bring parts of the development process, such as security, into consideration earlier. Automation is also key to a quality-first mindset because it enables you to test and ensure quality early, collecting data throughout the entire pipeline.
Rethink the Reality of Pipelines
For any customer-facing service such as processing a payment, many apps are going to be involved in your stack. In an ideal world, we might imagine pipelines to look like the above image. You would expect to have a simple pipeline to deploy four different business applications. This is not reality, however and it’s time to revisit how you see pipelines. If you focus on customer delivery, most likely there’s a separate pipeline for each application. Modern customer-facing web applications will likely mean multiple pipelines with each representing a different speed. For example, a data lake on premises may have hundreds of integrations and is going to move slower than a customer application like AWS.
How do you manage this superset of activities? If it’s difficult to solve the complexity, you need to manage it. You must be able to align these distinct pipelines so they can run in cadence. They will have their own rhythm, but this is aligned for delivery. By focusing on delivery, you can start building insights and gathering data and bringing the changes from the engineering team into the hands of the customers.
The result is a reliable and stable delivery process. Do you have the visibility to see what your pipelines are? Making releases independent benefits the customer. In today’s technology environment and with the rapid changes of COVID-19, we don’t have weeks to run end-to-end testing, we need to be able to make changes within days.
Understand DevOps is a Must
In a large enterprise, you want to experiment in specific areas and then scale rapidly to all teams. DevOps as a Service helps you achieve this, where practices are shared. DevOps as a Service provides a platform, ready for consumption, with predefined patterns, to scale DevOps practices across the enterprise. What’s helpful about this approach is that the services are ready for use and available to all teams. These predefined patterns provide expert knowledge to all teams. DevOps tools produce so much data that this approach allows you to enable enforcement of compliance and governance, which ultimately enables the acceleration of DevOps adoption.
All of these tips and strategies are intended to help you create a more responsive enterprise. These technologies and practices, presented in part one, coupled with the new ways of thinking described here, lead to higher IT performance. As we’ve seen, IT performance is directly correlated with having a responsive enterprise.
Learn More
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To dive deeper into these topics, you can watch the full webinar: Don’t Let Technology Slow Down Your Digital Transformation
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Part 1: Is Technology Slowing Down Your Digital Transformation? | https://digital.ai/resources/blog/part-2-is-technology-slowing-down-your-digital-transformation |
There are common threads which run through many of the world’s major religions. These threads are often extraordinarily fine, as hard to spot as a human hair fallen on carpet—but they exist, nonetheless.
One such may just connect two of the world’s most popular religions—Buddhism and Christianity. This thread lies in how the two belief systems define the cause of human suffering.
The Christian concept of sin and the Buddhist concept of dukkha—suffering caused by incorrect beliefs about the world— seem, on the surface, to be similar, perhaps even mirrors of one another.
Let’s take a closer look at these two concepts and see how deeply these similarities truly go.
Suffering in Christianity
In Christian theology, the root cause of suffering lies in alienation from God, caused by sin. The very essence of the Christian hell—the ultimate punishment—is, in fact, a permanent disconnection from the face of God.
Scripturally, from this disconnect arises entropy—the decline into disorder. In Genesis, Adam and Eve walk through the Garden of Eden alongside the very presence of God until their choice to sin caused them to be separated from Him. Since God’s nature is not only of love and mercy, but also of perfect justice, this separation was a necessity.
This, of course, brought about the Biblical fall, and the introduction of entropy to all creation—the end result of which is human suffering as imperfect man struggles to survive in an imperfect world.
Within Christianity, suffering is meaningful—God uses it to teach and guide. The Biblical book of Job deals with the problem of suffering, showing that it is directed by the wisdom of God, and although humankind may not be able to know the reasons behind their suffering, they must trust in that omnipotent wisdom. That trust is mankind’s answer to suffering.
Suffering is also impermanent for those who submit to the will of God, ending when they pass into the afterlife, into heaven, and are reunited with God. This is the ultimate end of suffering for the Christian.
Suffering in Buddhism
The first of the Buddhist Four Noble Truths is that “Life is dukkha”— the Buddhist concept of impermanence, dissatisfaction, and suffering. This is often translated as simply, “Life is suffering”. For Buddhists, suffering is without meaning, useless to the human condition, and so adherents see no value in it.
For the Buddhist, the cause of suffering can be explained by the Second Noble Truth, which teaches that the cause of suffering is craving. In this worldview, people constantly search outside the self for something to make them happy. But the problem with that is no matter how much we find—success, fame, money, or love—we never stay satisfied.
The Buddha wrote that this craving stems from an ignorance of the self, that we suffer because the world doesn’t work the in the ways we expect, and that our lives don’t conform to our expectations—our preconceived notions that don’t match reality are the true cause of suffering.
The Third Noble Truth teaches that we can put an end to suffering by addressing this craving, that we can escape from our state of constant dissatisfaction and enjoy the cessation of dukkha. This is achieved only through great difficulty—by letting go of the things that we think keep us happy, and learning to simply be happy with the way the world is.
The Fourth Noble Truth shows how to actually let those preconceived notions go. This is done by following the Buddhist Eightfold Path—eight areas of practice that affect all aspects of life. By following these eight ways to live correctly, an adherent can finally leave suffering behind.
A Dichotomy of Sorrow
It seems that, in both worldviews, suffering is caused by a yearning. In that light, are sin and dukkha the same?
The answer to this question lies in what that yearning is directed toward. The Christian concept of sin involves suffering, but suffering is not sin. Sin is alienation from God, and that alienation is the cause of suffering. In essence, suffering is the human yearning for God, and the inability to satisfy that yearning while on earth.
For Buddhists, the cause of suffering is wholly different—it is based in the human rather than the divine. For them, suffering—dukkha—flows from the difference between human desires and what reality offers. Here, suffering is yearning, itself, and the answer is simply to stop yearning.
The answer is no—sin and dukkha are quite different. One worldview aims to save mankind from suffering by reconnection with God. The other, by transcending human desire.
But an adherent of Christianity and a practitioner of Buddhism have much to learn from one another.
A Christian can certainly apply the Four Noble Truths to their life in their quest to lessen their suffering, while still holding fast to the idea that the desire for God is the only craving that must remain untouched. The Eightfold Path, too, holds great potential as a path to living out the will of God, as it directs us to treat others and ourselves in a way that does not cause pain.
A Buddhist, likewise, can learn from the Christian to see suffering as meaningful, rather than simply something to be escaped—when it is inescapable, realizing that it can have a purpose can do much for the ability to persevere.
The problem of pain is as old as humankind, itself—a problem that nearly every belief system attempts to address. Likewise, each of these belief systems contains wisdom, contains paths through which we might navigate the sorrows of life.
Remain open to receiving this wisdom from worldviews that may not be your own—the mind that can hold strong to its own worldview while still taking these nuggets of truth from other, possibly opposing, worldviews, is a strong one, and one that will take its owner through even the worst of trials. | https://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/christian-sin-and-buddhist-dhukka-are-they-the-same.aspx |
Admitting mistakes could lead to better patient safety
Something refreshingly unique occurred last week.
I talked to a couple of people from Silverton Hospital's leadership, who volunteered the information that an oversight in their equipment maintenance process led to patient harm.
More specifically, an error in assembling surgical lights led to burns on patients who underwent procedures in three of the hospital's five operating rooms.
Based on how long these lights were missing their filters, as many as 2,100 people could have been affected.
Now, the lights have been replaced, and the hospital has overhauled its medical equipment and installation processes to avoid future problems.
Reporting on health care requires a constant tug-o-war between transparency and privacy. As a journalist, I'm always going to be an advocate for more transparency. Health care officials would rather protect their own and their patients' privacy. It's a tension that is constant, understood and usually doesn't warrant articulating.
But not only had Silverton Health opted to first reach out to known patients who were burned by these lights, its officials picked up the phone and admitted their errors to me — and to the public.
Medical liability reform has for decades been a discussion point in the health care industry. What if doctors and health care systems admitted their errors and apologized, rather than clamming up for fear of litigation? Would that reduce or increase litigation? But perhaps more importantly, what is the right thing to do?
The Oregon Legislature in the 2013 session created the Early Discussion and Resolution program under the Oregon Patient Safety Commission to encourage providers and patients to resolve cases of patient harm without going to court. But many hospitals have instituted internal programs of their own.
Not only is open communication in these situations the humane thing to do for patients and loved ones, it improves the safety of the health care system as a whole, executive director Bethany Walmsley said.
"What you're seeing is a maturity that's starting to develop in health care facilities," Walmsley said. "Not only is it important to find out what happened, but we also have an obligation to our patients.
"We're entering an era where it's no longer acceptable to remain silent."
Furthermore, it's likely that there are other hospitals who use similar surgical lights and are reviewing their processes to make sure the mistake doesn't occur in their own organization, Walmsley said. The effect is a generally safer health care system.
St. Charles Medical Center in Bend made headlines last month when it admitted a medication error led to a patient's cardiac arrest and death.
In the Bend Bulletin's coverage, the patient's son expressed disbelief and anger, but also pleasant surprise at the hospital's forthright admission of its error. He told the reporter that the transparency helped.
Walmsley says it has taken a change of mindset and culture for the public to learn of medical errors in an open way.
"The fear of medical liability drove people to silence," she said. "There's no one who would argue that. But now what you're seeing is this new understanding and appreciation for the fact that regardless – we have to do the right thing for our patients and build a stronger system."
The bonus? Research has shown that hospitals that take part in early disclosure and communication when bad things happen actually do experience a decrease in litigation.
When instead of shutting down, clinicians can satisfy patients and their loved ones' need to understand what happened by honestly providing an explanation, litigation is no longer the only option to address and improve patient safety.
[email protected], (503) 399-6673 or follow at Twitter.com/syoo. | https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2015/01/27/admitting-mistakes-lead-better-patient-safety/22387045/ |
Hukka Design produces homeware made from Finnish soapstone, an incredibly dense yet soft rock formed over 2.8 billion years ago.
A collision of continental plates formed a mountain range that now spans between Finland and Russia. As the mountains rose, huge air pockets formed underneath them, and were filled by fluid, volcanic stone. Under this intense heat and extremely high pressure, soapstone was formed.
The properties of soapstone which allowed it to withstand such harsh conditions also make it the perfect companion for your kitchen or bar. Its density means it can absorb and retain heat and coolness for extended periods of time. However, despite this, it does not absorb liquids or flavours, nor does it leach into your favourite food or beverage. | https://www.townhouse.com.hk/hukkadesign |
Q:
Loop without do error, excel vba
I'm trying to read a macro that will sum up corresponding values associated with a series of dates. IE- Jan. 1st will have 20 rows, with corresponding entries of 20, 50, 80, in respective columns. I want a macro that will sum all of these entries, and once all of the Jan. 1st entries are summed, then it will move on to Jan. 2nd, and sum all of those entries. The code that I have written so far gives me a loop without do error.
Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()
Dim dateCheck As String
Dim shipDay As Date
Dim L As Integer
Dim i As Integer
Dim S As Integer
Dim search As String
Dim usaTotal As Long
Dim usaCredit As Long
Dim usaDebit As Long
L = 10
i = 3
dateCheck = InputBox("What Date is Ship Day 1?", "Ship Day Entry")
If IsDate(dateCheck) Then shipDay = DateValue(dateCheck) _
Else: MsgBox ("Invalid Date") ' Prompts user for ship day 1, and checks if actual date
While Not Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells(i, 8).Value = "" ' Runs until all cell rows are accounted for
For S = 0 To 29
shipDay = shipDay + S
Do Until shipDay <> Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells(i, 8).Value ' Execute until new date
search = Worksheets("sheet1").Cells(i, 12).Value ' Variable to use InStr to check for "CAN"
If (((shipDay = Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells(i, 8).Value) And _
InStr(1, search, "CAN", vbBinaryCompare) = 0) _
And (Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells(i, 6).Text = "Invoice")) Then
'Check that date matches, and that it isn't Canada, and that order is an invoice
usaDebit = Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells(i, 22).Value ' Account for Debits
usaCredit = Worksheets("Sheet1").Cells(i, 24).Value ' Account for Credits
usaTotal = usaTotal + usaCredit - usaDebit ' Calculate contribution
i = i + 1
End If
Loop
MsgBox (usaTotal)
Next S
Worksheets("JUNE Canada").Cells(i, 22).Value = usaTotal
MsgBox (usaTotal)
' Need code here that will input final usaTotal into respective space
MsgBox (usaTotal)
Wend ' End of Initial "while not"
End Sub
A:
Looks like you're missing an "end if" statement at the top. This seemed to work for me (I also added an "Exit Sub" if they inputted an invalid date. That just seemed to make sense, but you should take it out if an invalid date doesn't impact the rest of the code):
If IsDate(dateCheck) Then
shipDay = DateValue(dateCheck)
Else:
MsgBox ("Invalid Date")
Exit Sub
End If ' Prompts user for ship day 1, and checks if actual date
| |
Released on:2018-08-10Views:
Since the period of "12th Five-Year", Jing'an District has carried out the policy of the Party and the State and has listed special education as an important index to improve the quality of regional education and create a high quality education area. In particular, after the two districts of Zabei and Jing'an removed the two districts and established one, and the regional special education made rapid development and the combination of medical education and education promoted in depth in order to respond to the main line of development of new Jing'an as a "new benchmark in the center of the city and the new bright spot in Shanghai", and the development goal of "higher quality education internationalization and higher level of education modernization". Through the creation of the "321" project, that is, "based on the foundation of the three progressive projects, achieve a double network coverage and strengthen one course carrier", the management system of regional special education has been optimized, the dual service network of education institutions and medical institutions has been perfected, and the construction of various kinds of special courses at all levels has been promoted, and the teachers' professional education has been strengthened, so as to ensure that regional special education work has gradually embarked on a modern and connotative way of scientific development.
Compared with the requirements of the Second Phase Special Education Promotion Plan (2017 - 2020) issued by the seven ministries including the Ministry of Education, and compared with the goals put forward in the middle and long term educational reform and development planning outline of the State and Shanghai, there still exists a certain gap in special education in this District. The guarantee system of special education is to be improved further, the mode of joint service combining medicine and education should be further optimized, the quality of integrated education should be further improved, and the training mode of special teachers should be further innovated. In order to adapt to the new requirements and new goals of the development of special education in the new era, promote the connotative development of special education in the region, build a special support and service system for the sustainable development of the disabled students, make the disabled students enjoy the whole course of education, rehabilitation and health care, a new round of three-year action plan of special education in Jing'an District is hereby formulated.
I. Guiding Ideology
To carry out the 19th Party Congress spirit of "running a good special education" and the requirements of the Regulations on Education for the Disabled, the Planning Outline of the National Medium and Long Term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020),and the Planning Program for Middle and Long Term Education Reform and Development in Shanghai (2010-2020), carry out all the goals and tasks prescribed in the Second Phase Special Education Promotion Plan (2017 -2020), the 13th Five-Year Plan of Shanghai for the Basic Education Development and the Three-Year Action Plan (2018 - 2020) of Shanghai for Special Education, take the "combination of medicine and education, comprehensive rehabilitation, respect for personality and integrated promotion" as the development goal, further deepen the reform of system and mechanism, strengthen the construction of the special education system, deepen the combination of medicine and education, strive to provide education, rehabilitation, health care and other diverse and high-quality services, and run the special education to satisfy the people.
II. Main Objectives
The main goal of Jing'an District special education from 2018 to 2020 is to promote "four new" special education dreams through three years of effort, that is, “to seek a new special education management guarantee system, to renew the service mode of medicine and education combination, to innovate the integrated education development approach, and to update the construction of a special education talent contingent", so that every disabled student has his or her educational needs fully satisfied, his or her own potential fully developed, and educational resources fully shared, and that the special education work in the region will gradually take the road of modern and connotative, scientific development.
1. To seek a new special education management guarantee system --- to continue to play the regional "1+3" government functions, strengthen the management of the guidance center of special education, improve the operating mode of the southern and northern guidance centers and clarify the responsibilities of various departments. To optimize the layout of preschool special education outlets, ensure the continuous growth rate of disabled children entering kindergarten at the preschool education stage; the enrollment rate of disabled students in compulsory education stage is over 99%, and the enrollment rate of disabled students in high school education reaches 70%. The personalized education for disabled students aged 0-19 is to achieve all the course, be given to everyone and make full coverage so as to provide a wide range of educational opportunities for the disabled in different categories and levels.
2. To renew the service mode of medicine and education combination---strengthen the cooperation of the departments related to the combination of medicine and education, and gradually improve the disability evaluation mechanism to make the coverage rate of the disabled children in the preschool education and compulsory education stage reach 100%. To make the concept of medicine and education combination permeate through the development and construction of school-based courses in every school so as to improve the quality of education and rehabilitation in an all-round way and provide appropriate services combining medicine and education for all kinds of disabled students.
3. To innovate the integrated education development approach--- rely on the subject of “the integrated education practice research oriented to the individualized needs of special students (children)” to actively carry out the research on individualized integration education in each schooling section to follow the full course of the development of special children and form a new approach of multi-dimensional personalized integration service research, so that the special children can get the earliest intervention, the most systematic rehabilitation and the greatest degree of integration opportunities, thus creating a suitable development path for the students to integrate into the society.
4. To update the construction of a special education talent contingent --- take "the development plan for the key teachers contingent of the district special education" as the grasp to carry out the training for all teachers of the regional special education, make efforts to cultivate the compound-type teachers with both the professional ability of special education and the teaching ability of the subject, so as to promote the professional development of the teachers. Carry out the standards for the establishment of special teachers and the treatment of teachers, and in accordance with the requirements of the Municipal Education Commission, 50% of the schools carrying out regular classes will be staffed with full-time special education teachers.
III. Concrete Measures
1. Deepening the mechanism reform and renewing the guarantee system of special education management
(1) Continue to play the role of the regional "1+3" government functions. Give full play to the function of the district joint meeting of special education, and constantly improve the regional special education management system of "combining medicine and education with comprehensive rehabilitation".
A. The District Education Bureau shall make overall plans for the development of special education undertakings in the region, manage special education institutions, construct a contingent of special education teachers, rationally resettle students with disabilities, carry out curriculum construction and teaching scientific research, and ensure the quality of special education.
B. The District Development and Reform Commission will integrate special education into the overall planning of the development of social undertakings in the District, make a plan for the layout and construction of special education as a whole, and ensure the balance and quality of special education resources.
C. The District Civil Affairs Bureau shall bring the eligible disabled students and their families into the scope of social assistance and social welfare policies, and cooperate with the education department to maintain the rights of students with disabilities to enjoy education.
D. The District Finance Bureau shall, in conjunction with the relevant departments, study and establish a funding mechanism adapted to the economic and social development of the district and suitable for the needs of special education development, set up a special budget for special education, and provide financial support for the development of special education undertakings.
E. The District Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security shall, in accordance with the relevant regulations of the State and this Municipality, implement the management policies on special education teachers, such as the treatment of teachers and the evaluation standards of professional titles, and enhance the professional level of teachers.
F. The District Health and Family Planning Committee shall organize medical institutions to provide testing and screening services for disabled children, organize medical institutions and medical experts to provide rehabilitation services for children with special needs, and participate in the formulation of relevant policies and systems for the regional integration of medicine and education.
G. The Organization Office shall, in accordance with the spirit of relevant documents, approve the establishment of teachers in special education schools, pre-school special education classes, area resource centers and regular schools.
H. The District Disabled Persons Union shall conduct the investigation of disabled children and cooperate with the education department in doing well the enrolment, rehabilitation, vocational and technical education of disabled students and employment after their graduation, strengthen the work of accurate rehabilitation and accessories for disabled children, actively carry out social project research and provide support and guarantee for the disabled education work.
(2) Optimize the district special education management network. The District Special Education Guidance Center shall strengthen the system construction and improve the district special education management network. The District Special Education Guidance Center shall set up the preschool section, compulsory education section and high school section, and make clear the responsibilities of various sections, and shall continue to enhance the functions of management, research, guidance, resources and services in the regional special education work, and form the three-level linkage service mode of the special education guidance center, the area resource center and the special education outlet.
(3) Improve the layout of pre-school special education outlets. According to the regional characteristics, the spread of disabled children and the distribution of preschool education resources, give full play to the radiation effect of the three special education outlets in the south, middle and north of the preschool section. In each of the fourteen sub-districts and towns, one kindergarten shall be selected to set up a special class, and adopt a double track system to establish the "4+1" education model with the main body of the common kindergarten integration education. Encourage and support ordinary kindergartens to receive children with slight disabilities, improve the settlement mode of preschool integration education, and form a preschool special education pattern of transversal perforation and longitudinal extension
(4) Make steady development of special education in high school. Actively develop the special high school education with vocational education as the main part and broaden the channels for disabled students to receive secondary vocational education. According to the layout of the special education classes held in the ordinary vocational school, the suitable specialty shall be set up according to the special students' situation, and take the special students’ integration into society as the purpose to carry out multi-level and diversified training, and set up a platform for the special students' employment.
2. Forming a long-term mechanism to renew the mode of combining medicine and education
(1) Strengthen cooperation between the various professional departments and institutions. Give full play to the role of Shanghai First Hearing Impairment Center and the District Special Education Guidance Center in the aspects of daily management, professional evaluation, business guidance, student service and research and promotion, and establish the cooperative mechanism of the hearing impairment center and the district special education guidance center, the cooperative mechanism of educational institutions and medical institutions, and conduct classified guidance to various kinds of disabled students. Continue to strengthen cooperation with Pediatrics Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to the School of Medicine of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai Children’s Hospital and Shanghai Third Rehabilitation Hospital. Through project cooperation, promote in depth the rehabilitation of students with disabilities, such as cerebral palsy and hearing impairment, and consolidate medical rehabilitation and educational rehabilitation so as to meet the needs of students.
(2) Improve the evaluation mechanism of disabled children. The district special education guidance center shall actively promote the effective use of the five field assessment tools in cognitive ability, language and communication ability, sports ability, perception ability and social adaptation ability of disabled children, and carry out individualized assessment for disabled students. Actively carry out a diversified educational process assessment, establish a personal growth profile of disabled students and record the whole growth process of each student. Study and formulate the disability assessment system for students with disabilities, conduct one-stop services for enrolment, class attending affirmation, participation in all kinds of entrance examination, transfer and other services, and strengthen the management of the evaluation work.
(3) Deepen the "CIF" management and service mode of combining medicine and education. Various schools at all levels shall deepen the exploration of the "CIF" management and service mode of combining medicine and education, take the national curriculum and local curriculum as the blueprint, on the basis of basic courses, developing courses and compensatory courses, based on the development needs of special students, actively develop school-based curriculum, into which integrate the concept of medicine and education combination. Make education and teaching activities integrated in educating people, community resources sharing and life experience guidance, respect personality, explore potential, compensate defects, rehabilitate functions, promote their intelligent development and improve their life practice ability.
(4) Establish and improve health care services and strengthen daily management. All kinds of schools engaged in special education shall establish a health care system, integrate the work of school health care, education and teaching, logistics support and other departments, and make clear the requirements of their duties. According to the characteristics and individual needs of students with disabilities in different categories and ages, special schools shall be encouraged to rationally assign care-givers and provide personalized care services through the purchase of social services, and to pay attention, make analysis, adjustment and guidance to special children's diet, nutrition, health and safety, and to set up a file for a student and carry out related research.
3. Focusing on practical subjects, innovating the development approach for the integration education
(1) Actively carry out the research on the subject of integration education. Take the key subject of practical research on integration education oriented to meeting the individual needs of special students (children) as the grasp, constantly improve the quality of integration education. Various schools at all levels shall focus the subject to conduct related sub-research, gradually form the new approach of studying multi-dimensional personalized integration services to children aged 0-19 years.
(2) Expand the implementation form of the preschool integration education. The preschool special education institutions shall actively carry out the requirements of the Guide to the Implementation of the Preschool Special Education Curriculum in Shanghai, strengthen the research on the implementation of the curriculum, start from the needs of the disabled children with different disability categories and degrees, respect their personality, choose suitable education and rehabilitation contents and methods, and actively carry out various modes of integration activity of kindergarten integration, of kindergarten and kindergarten and of class and class with focus on cooperation between family and kindergarten, and strive to improve the quality of preschool special education.
(3) Strengthen the study of the effectiveness of class attending. The school that enrolls students attending classes shall actively implement the requirements of the Guiding Recommendations on the Implementation of Curriculum in Compulsory Education in Shanghai, according to the development needs of students attending classes, clarify the individual development goal, conduct the targeted "IEP" individualized education and research, and attach importance to the curriculum consolidation of ordinary and special schools, make appropriate development of school-based self-made courses and reasonable arrangements of such students’ learning content, study time and space, so that the students attending classes may merge into the school life and get a comprehensive development.
(4) Explore the ways of special vocational education development. Actively implement the notice of Recommendation for Implementation of Further Promoting the Reform the High School Examination and Enrollment System in Shanghai, and expand opportunities for special education students to receive high school education. In addition, Shanghai Shibei Vocational School and Shanghai Deaf and Dumb Youth Technical School shall actively implement Shanghai Special Secondary Vocational School (Class) Curriculum Program, and according to the program requirements, actively formulate school-based curriculum implementation plan. With the needs of the students as the starting point, the market operation as the direction, set up a matching profession, attach importance to their living ability, social adaptability and professional skills training, and actively explore the effective ways and methods of secondary vocational education for disabled students merging in the environment.
4. Improving professional level and updating the construction of special education talent contingent
(1) Draw up and implement a team development plan for backbone teachers of special education. The District Special Education Guidance Center shall make a team development plan for special education backbone teachers, and establish a contingent of special education backbone teachers. Through the professional demonstration and guidance of the outstanding team of the backbone teachers, enhance the awareness of teachers conducting teaching practice and research on the first line, stimulate the teachers' vitality of innovative practice, encourage teachers to achieve results with regional and municipal influence in the fields of subject study, curriculum construction, teaching design, classroom practice, homework guidance and teaching evaluation through teamwork, lift the discourse power and popularity of special teachers in the education and teaching field, and lift the professional level of regional teachers as a whole.
(2) Conduct the regional special education training for all teachers. Bring special education and training courses in the compulsory courses of primary vocational and continuing education of ordinary school and kindergarten teachers with credits calculated and meantime bring the special education training courses in the principal's post training courses and carry out the special education training for all teachers. According to the actual needs of special education reform, launch various forms of special training to improve the ability of teachers to carry out special education teaching. Highlight the compound cultivation of humanistic care emotion, special education professional ability and subject teaching ability.
(3) Actively implement the establishment standard for special education teachers. According to the staffing standards of special education teachers in Shanghai, make full assignment of teachers, attach importance to teachers of special education classes in ordinary primary and secondary schools, vocational schools and kindergartens in particular, and to the staffing and management of full-time special education teachers attending classes and district tour instructors. Assign 2 full-time itinerant tutors for the area preschool special education points, and 1 special (concurrent) special teacher for the ordinary kindergarten with disabled children, the number of special teachers being appropriately increased with more than 5 special children. Study and formulate relevant policies, make explicit stipulations on personnel requirements, work tasks, employment process, enjoyment of treatment and teacher management, and bring the teachers mentioned above into the unified management of special education teachers and enjoyment of the treatment of special teachers.
(4) Improve the treatment of special education staff. Raise special education allowances for special education staff, which is reflected in the merit pay. The evaluation and recognition of titles and commendation awards of teachers and staff shall be inclined to special education staff under the same conditions. Show concern about the physical and mental health of special education staff and improve their working environment.
5. Improving the supporting facilities and optimizing the running conditions of special education.
(1) Launch the up-to-standard construction of the special school library. All the special schools shall, according to the guide (trial) to the construction of Shanghai special education school library, conduct the library construction in line with the school’s training objectives and requirements of the curriculum implementation, provide the students with rich books and multimedia facilities, create a diversified reading environment, cultivate the students' reading ability and broaden the students' learning horizon
(2) Speed up the construction of resource classrooms and barrier-free facilities in ordinary schools. According to the relevant state regulations and the Guide (Trial) to the Equipping of Special Education Resources Classroom in Shanghai Ordinary Schools and the Guide (Trial) to Equipping of Preschool Special Education Classes (Kindergartens) in Shanghai, issued by the Municipal Education Committee, the regular primary and secondary schools, vocational schools and kindergartens running the special education class and conducting class attending work shall be scientifically equipped with teaching and rehabilitation facilities and equipment, and 50% of ordinary schools that carry out classes attending work shall allocate resource classrooms. In accordance with the requirements of barrier-free construction and the actual needs of students with different disability categories, it is imperative to conduct the construction of barrier-free facilities to support students with disabilities to better adapt to the school life. | http://english.jingan.gov.cn/zf/003005/20180810/a503a5a9-5a3d-48bc-9106-b474b6512d18.html |
Community Services Block Grant (CSBG)
The Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) program provides Native American and Alaskan Native Tribes and Tribal Organization with funds to address the causes and conditions of poverty in their communities. CSBG is a flexible, community-responsive block grant that can support a range of services and activities, including employment, education, housing, emergency services, nutrition, health, income management, support for improved service linkages, and self-sufficiency programs. Funding is provided directly to Tribes and Tribal Organizations through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Community Services (OCS).
Federal Legislation & Regulations
“Because it is right, because it is wise, and because for the first time in our history it is possible to conquer poverty and I submit for the consideration of the Congress and the country the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. The act does not merely expand old programs or improve what is already being done. It charts a new course. It strikes at the causes not just the consequences of poverty.”
– President Linden B. Johnson
CSBG provides federal funds to States, Territories, and Tribes to support a wide range of community-based activities to reduce poverty. It is administered at the federal level by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)/Administration of Children and Families (ACF)/Office of Community Services (OCS).
Review legislation governing the CSBG read the Community Service Block Grant (CSBG) Act.
The HHS regulations for the CSBG block grant are found in Title 45 (Public Welfare) of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 96 (Block Grants), Subpart I (CSBG), cited as 45 C.F.R. §§ 96.90 – 96.92. Subparts A-F of the HHS block grant regulations also pertains to CSBG. View the regulations for CSBG.
Review more resources:
OCS Communications
CSBG Reports to Congress
CSBG Core Services
CSBG is a flexible, community-responsive block grant that can support a range of services and activities including employment, education, housing, health & nutrition, emergency services, youth development, linkages & coordination, self-sufficiency, income management, and partnership & community engagement.
Employment
Support for job placement programs, vocational and skills training, career counseling, job development, and eliminating barriers to work
Education
Adult education, literacy programs, scholarships, Head Start enhancement, child development, and anti-drug education.
Housing
Ownership & fair housing counseling, landlord/tenant relations, housing assistance, services for homeless, & home rehabilitation.
Emergency Services
Homeownership counseling and loan assistance, counseling with fair housing concerns, housing assistance, shelters and services for the homeless, and home repair and rehabilitation
Youth Development
Establishment of violence-free zones, youth intervention, youth mediation, youth mentoring, life skills training, job creation, entrepreneurship, and after-school child care programs.
Health & Nutrition
Food banks, health and nutrition counseling and education, community gardening, water and food production, emergency medical services, and transportation to medical services.
Self-Sufficiency
Assist families in becoming more financially independent, including assessing family needs & resources, developing a plan of support, & identifying resources.
Income Management
Services include programs and activities that support assistance with budgeting, tax preparation, tax credit information, and medical and other benefit claims assistance.
Linkages & Coordination
Support for service linkages and coordination with anti-poverty programs to make more effective use of related programs, including other public and private sources.
Partnership & Community Engagement
Development of public and private grassroots partnerships with local law enforcement agencies, local housing authorities, private foundations, and other public and private partners. CSBG funding also supports inter-agency partnerships and Tribal/State partnerships as well. | https://csbgtribalta.com/csbg_overview/ |
CLEVELAND, January 28, 2020 – The Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP) announced the chamber of commerce’s support for a 4.7 mill eight-year Cuyahoga County health and human services (HHS) levy today. In addition, the organization of more than 12,000 members vowed to convene with County officials to further examine HHS levy-related finances and agreed-upon measurements and metrics to help gauge progress going forward. In order to help avoid a future HHS levy ballot increase beyond the March 2020 measure, the County plans to develop and publish HHS levy savings that are achieved.
The HHS ballot measure will appear before voters in March. The position aligns with GCP members’ support of the last two County health and human services levies. GCP endorsed the 2016 renewal of a 4.8 mill HHS levy and the 2018 HHS renewal of a 3.9 mill levy. In its 2018 endorsement, GCP member leaders vowed to closely and actively engage with the County on future levy proceedings.
“Cuyahoga County elected officials are to be commended for taking the business community’s concerns seriously in an ongoing effort to review possible taxpayer savings and improved services that can be achieved,” said Joe Roman, President and CEO of the Greater Cleveland Partnership. “GCP believes support for the HHS levy increase is necessary because the effort demonstrates a severe and urgent societal need in which progress must be made to ensure economic vitality and those in need are protected sufficiently. We think this can be achieved in concert with additional feedback and expertise from key stakeholders, partners, and the business community.”
In addition, GCP and County leaders agreed to establish a task force. Among the purposes of the task force, will be to create an initial working group to explore and drive potential structural reforms. Officials are committed to evaluating and pursuing reforms that may improve the overall efficiency of our local tax system to offer improved services and remain competitive with peer cities.
“The business community’s support and expertise on health and human services issues over the years has been crucial,” said Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish. “We’re fortunate to live in a compassionate region that understands the necessity of this HHS levy increase – an increase we have not proposed in my time as County Executive. Like GCP, I also recognize the need to coordinate future tax levies in our region and continue to look for improvements we can make surrounding structural reforms and I am committed, and welcome others, to engage in those discussions going forward. Finally, we are committed to working to ensure a health and human services tax increase is avoidable in 2024.”
“Approving the HHS levy request this March is essential in order to protect those in our community who are most in need,” said Cuyahoga County Council President Dan Brady. “We thank GCP for their support and we look forward to working with its members to identify additional cost savings and transparent metrics that can be identified to improve upon the significant progress we are making as community for our children and seniors.”
GCP’s strategic plan, ForwardCLE, called for a better understanding of the impact of our collective tax climate. The proposed health and human services levy represents the second major local tax increase proposal since data was released from the GCP tax analysis. Additional local tax levy increases are also expected in 2020. GCP has continually reiterated that the purpose of these important exercises and raising the bar for support for future tax levy increases is to seek areas for improvement, not to single out any one tax or entity. This position is consistent with GCP’s stated resolve to address the unsustainable trajectory of tax growth and meets our stated basis for exception and creates a path and shared commitment to needed reform.
“As stated previously, it is our sincere hope the public, private, philanthropic sectors, and others can come together to better understand and examine a more cost-effective means of providing vital government services in our region to benefit the communities they serve,” said Scott Chaikin, who serves as GCP Board Chair and Executive Chairman of Dix & Eaton. “Our members are proud to offer support for the latest health and human services proposal. We cannot afford to become complacent as a region, however, and working with public officials and our communities is a key ingredient to achieving the success and improvement we all desire.”
The Great Lakes Metro Chambers Coalition is a collective of chambers of commerce across the region that jointly advocate on core policy issues, including water quality, immigration reform, trade, and transportation and infrastructure. The National Small Business Association (NSBA) is a non-partisan organization with 65,000 members in every state and every industry in the country.
And, the Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP) is intimately involved with both organizations continuing to call for passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
The USMCA modernizes NAFTA to be more compatible with today’s economic environment. In fact, and for the first time in a U.S. free trade agreement, the USMCA includes a stand-alone chapter on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This chapter of the USMCA aims to improve information-sharing, create a committee on SME issues, and develop a framework for ongoing stakeholder input.
GCP calls on the small business community to urge federal policymakers to support passage of the USMCA. For the small business community, predictability on tariffs is key and any instability in this key policy area can impact a small business’ ability to plan for the future.
Click here to contact your lawmakers.
When GCP’s strategic plan, ForwardCLE, called for a better understanding of the region’s collective tax climate, GCP commissioned a study that analyzed our tax environment’s impact on growth and competitiveness. The study—released in late April—found a stark difference in Cleveland’s tax levels compared to other peer cities. In short, the local tax burden in our region is significantly higher than in similar benchmark cities—nearly forty percent higher than the average per capita tax collections.
A ballot-by-ballot approach to tax levies isn’t enough to create a positive environment for economic growth and inclusion—and our members are interested in exploring systemic solutions. As a result, the Advocacy team is examining potential paths forward for improvement, including structural reform or specific solutions that lay the foundation for future economic success and high-quality public services.
So far, the team has engaged over 40 community stakeholders and visited several cities that have experience in this space. In the last several weeks, members of the GCP Advocacy team met with leaders in Louisville, Indianapolis, Nashville, and St. Louis—each of which consolidated or attempted to consolidate portions of city and county government services to create environments ripe for strategic advancements while improving services for residents. With lessons learned from those visits in hand, GCP will continue to engage Northeast Ohioans even more broadly about shaping the future of our region through possible structural change.
To read past coverage about the tax study and potential reform, click here.
Earlier this month the GCP Advocacy team provided an update to the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA) Board regarding its ongoing efforts to complete a fiscal analysis and economic forecast for the transit agency. Last fall, GCP assembled a taskforce of GCP member companies to guide this work. At a recent GCRTA board committee meeting, GCP’s Vice President of Government Advocacy, Alesha Washington, shared that GCP has hired a consulting group to complete this work. The team combines national expertise in transit finance and operations with a strong local understanding of GCRTA and its fiscal constraints.
Since this work began in June 2018, GCP has actively worked with GCRTA leadership to develop an approach to studying the current system that will eventually allow GCP to make recommendations about its future, including the structure of a potential levy request. The first step of this effort was to secure a consultant—and now that a team is onboard, GCP will continue to work closely with GCRTA to produce a comprehensive and rigorous analysis. The GCP Advocacy team hopes to wrap up this work—which will culminate in a final report—in fall 2019.
Last week, GCP held the Empowering Local Leadership Conference—it’s seventh annual DC Fly-In event. The conference was hosted in partnership with Northeast Ohio’s U.S. House of Representatives delegation—Congressman Dave Joyce, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, and Congressman Anthony Gonzalez. Thanks to the leadership of the House delegation and their staff, attendees from across the region connected to federally elected officials and policymakers.
Throughout the conference, attendees heard from a range of White House officials, including James Carroll, Director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control, who spoke about Ohio’s ongoing challenges with the opioid epidemic. Andrew Wheeler, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, addressed the group regarding EPA support for local municipalities. Finally, attendees heard from a host of White House officials about community revitalization efforts like Opportunity Zones, which GCP has played a key role in locally.
During the opening night reception on the Hill, Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman spoke and connected with local leaders. Day two of the conference convened on the Hill again with an Ohio Delegation Breakfast. Participants heard from a range of Ohio delegation House members, but also from national leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Chair of the House Financial Services Committee. Officials from the EPA, Department of Homeland Security, and White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council rounded out this year’s conference, providing valuable information about available federal resources.
GCP thanks its sponsors for their support of this event, including leadership-level sponsors Westfield Group, Dominion Energy, MetroHealth, and BakerHostetler. Additional sponsors included CT Consultants, NOPEC, University Hospitals, and Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.
Ohio Senate Bill 57 (SB 57) was introduced in late February and the bill would formally decriminalize hemp in Ohio by excluding it from the definition of marijuana that is used to enforce controlled substance laws. The latest federal farm bill, enacted by Congress, removed hemp from listing under the Controlled Substances Act, allowing states to regulate hemp through their departments of agriculture.
A vast majority of states have now enacted legislation to establish industrial hemp cultivation and production programs. Ohio does not currently have any specific laws in place regarding hemp or hemp products, and hemp and hemp products are prohibited in Ohio because hemp comes from the same plant as marijuana – cannabis. Therefore, hemp is currently considered a Schedule I controlled substance under Ohio law.
SB 57 – a bill GCP supported – passed in July with a clause that specifies that it will go into effect immediately, instead of roughly 90 days after the Governor signs it. The reason is because Ohio is behind other states and the Department of Agriculture needs to set up the program so farmers can plant and have a harvest next spring. Also, the bill includes provisions allowing the release of CBD products that authorities have seized under some circumstances, and the legislature wants people to be able to get their products back quickly.
In line with federal law, SB 57 would allow for the sales of hemp, clearly defining hemp and marijuana as different. Our membership sees merit in aligning state and federal laws – as it relates to hemp – allowing for a responsible, reputable hemp market with the potential to expand jobs and increase prosperity in Ohio. | https://www.cose.org/en/Mind-Your-Business/Business-Growth/GCP-Supports-HHS-Levy |
The mandate of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (MEMD) is “To Establish, promote the Development, Strategically Manage and Safeguard the Rational and Sustainable Exploitation and Utilization of Energy and Mineral Resources for Social and Economic Development”.
The Government of Uganda (GoU), with support from the World Bank, is preparing the Uganda Energy Access Scale-up Project (EASP). The proposed EASP will support GoU’s efforts to scale-up access to electricity for households, refugee and host communities, industrial parks, commercial enterprises and public institutions, so as to spur socio-economic transformation, in line with Uganda’s Vision 2040 and other Government policies. EASP activities will build on earlier Government initiatives, in the energy sector, to support the expansion and strengthening of the electricity distribution network, scale-up service connections within the network, and increase access to off-grid electricity in refugee settlements and their host communities, and to clean cooking services outside the electricity distribution network.
Further, the project will provide technical assistance to strengthen the operational capacity of the Health, Safety and Environment Unit (HSEU) at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (MEMD) and build capacities at other implementing agencies to ensure compliance with HSEU requirements under the project. Technical assistance will also be provided to the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) to attract the private sector and enable its participation in increasing electricity access, both in grid and off-grid areas, including, where necessary, through the introduction of new regulations.
In addition, EASP will support Uganda’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to mitigate climate change, through a series of priority and adaptation measures, including building enabling infrastructure such as medium voltage (MV) and low voltage (LV) networks, implementing associated electricity service connections, promoting the development and use of renewable energy sources through off-grid solar solutions for households, and for public institutions such as schools, health centers, administrative buildings, and water supply schemes, and increasing efficiency in the use of biomass.
The Government of Uganda (GoU) has received funding from the World Bank towards the
implementation of the proposed Electricity Access Scale-Up Project (EASP). The funding
under the EASP project will be implemented by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral
Development (MEMD) toward implementing infrastructure and connections under the new
Electricity Connections Policy (ECP). Through the EASP, the MEMD will provide funding
for connections through a Results Based Financing (RBF) approach. These connections
should be implemented within the Umeme Limited footprint.
Uganda and the rest of Africa share great challenges concerning .....Read More
EEAU is happy to announce that we have scheduled a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) course to take place from 24th to 28th October 2022 at Forest Cottages Bukoto, Kampala, Uganda.
This Association of Energy Engineers course and certification is brought you in partnership with IEPA ahead of Uganda’s Energy and Minerals Week 2022.
The CEM course is designed to help energy professionals, including energy managers, energy engineers, facility and business managers, industrial engineers, supply chain professionals, utility officials, consultants, contractors, financial officers, and energy service company professionals become more aware of and effective at identifying and implementing the best energy management strategies.
Download file here
To register, please follow the link here
For more details and any inquiries, please reach out to us on; [email protected]
Energy, including power, petroleum, nuclear and various forms
of renewable energy, is the backbone of Uganda’s economy.
Access to energy facilitates on economic activities as well as
delivery of services. | https://energyandminerals.go.ug/ |
---
abstract: 'The increasing number and precision of measurements of neutron star masses, radii, and, in the near future, moments of inertia offer the possibility of precisely determining the neutron star equation of state. One way to facilitate the mapping of observables to the equation of state is through a parametrization of the latter. We present here a generic method for optimizing the parametrization of any physically allowed EoS. We use mock equations of state that incorporate physically diverse and extreme behavior to test how well our parametrization reproduces the global properties of the stars, by minimizing the errors in the observables mass, radius, and the moment of inertia. We find that using piecewise polytropes and sampling the EoS with five fiducial densities between $\sim1-8$ times the nuclear saturation density results in optimal errors for the smallest number of parameters. Specifically, it recreates the radii of the assumed EoS to within less than 0.5 km for the extreme mock equations of state and to within less than 0.12 km for 95% of a sample of 42 proposed, physically-motivated equations of state. Such a parametrization is also able to reproduce the maximum mass to within 0.04 ${M_{\odot}}$ and the moment of inertia of a 1.338 ${M_{\odot}}$ neutron star to within less than 10% for 95% of the proposed sample of equations of state.'
author:
- 'Carolyn A. Raithel, Feryal Özel, & Dimitrios Psaltis'
bibliography:
- 'carolyn\_2.bib'
title: |
From Neutron Star Observables to the Equation of State.\
I. An Optimal Parametrization
---
=4
Introduction
============
A key goal of observations of neutron stars is to determine the equation of state of cold, ultradense matter. The equation of state at high densities results from the interactions of nucleons, quarks, and possibly other constituents and fully characterizes the microphysics of the neutron star interior. Over the years, the sample of proposed equations of state (EoS) have incorporated vastly different physics and, accordingly, have predicted a variety of different global properties for neutron stars (see @Ozel2016 for a recent review). Some early studies employed a purely nucleonic framework (e.g., @Baym1971 [@Friedman1981; @Akmal1998; @Douchin2001]), while others explored the role of hyperons (e.g., @Balberg1997), pion condensates (e.g., @Pandharipande1975), and kaon condensates (e.g., @Kaplan1986). It is even possible, albeit contrived, to construct EoS that generate parallel stable branches of neutron stars with the same masses but different radii by introducing a first-order phase transition into the EoS of hybrid neutron stars (@Glendenning2000 [@Blaschke2013]). More recently, there have been studies that incorporate the expected quark degrees of freedom at high densities, either from phenomenological models or deriving from early results of lattice QCD (e.g., @Alford2005 [@Alford2013; @Kojo2015]).
Nuclear physics experiments are able to constrain these various EoS only up to densities near the nuclear saturation density, ${\rho_{\rm sat}}\sim 2.7\times10^{14}$ g cm$^{-3}$ (see @Lattimer2012). In this regime, there have been attempts to convert experimental results more directly into physical constraints. Even though, at these densities, the interactions between particles can be formally described in terms of static, few-body potentials (see, e.g., @Akmal1998 [@Morales2002; @Gandolfi2012]), there are large uncertainties arising from extrapolations to $\beta$-equilibrium and low-temperature matter. Furthermore, at densities well above ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$, the interactions between particles can no longer be expanded in these terms.
At densities beyond ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$, experimentally constraining the dense-matter EoS can be accomplished using observations of neutron stars and exploiting the direct mapping between the EoS and the mass-radius relation [@Lindblom1992]. This can be achieved by comparing measured masses (@Demorest2010 [@Antoniadis2013]) and radii (@Guillot2013 [@Guillot2014; @Heinke2014; @Nattila2015; @Ozel2016a; @Bogdanov2016]; see @Ozel2016 for a recent review) to the predictions of particular EoS. However, this approach is limited in scope, as it serves to constrain the parameters of already formulated EoS frameworks and may not necessarily span the full range of possibilities. In other words, it may not be capable of recreating the EoS from observations in a model-independent way.
A separate approach is to empirically infer the EoS from the combination of these radii and mass measurements by utilizing a model-independent parametrization of the EoS. To date, several parametrizations have been proposed. The EoS can be written as a spectral expansion in terms of the enthalpy [@Lindblom2012; @Lindblom2014]. Alternatively, the EoS can be represented as a discrete number of segments that are piecewise polytropic or linear (@Read2009 [@Ozel2009; @Hebeler2010; @Steiner2016]).
Despite these various proposals, only limited systematic optimizations have been undertaken to determine the ideal number of segments and functional forms for a parametric EoS. Moreover, these earlier studies used an existing sample of theoretical EoS as benchmarks and sought to represent only this subset. Finally, many of these early studies only sought to reproduce the predicted radii to rather large uncertainties by today’s standards, reflecting the available data at the time. However, the current sample of mass and radius measurements, as well as the anticipated moment of inertia measurement from the binary system PSR J0737$-$3039, which is expected to be measured with 10% accuracy in the next five years [@Lyne2004; @Kramer2009], require reconstructions of the EoS to a much higher accuracy than ever before. Any useful parametrization must be able to recreate masses and radii to high precision with a minimum set of parameters.
We present here an optimization of a piecewise-polytropic parametric EoS. In order to test our parametrization as generally as possible, we generate mock EoS that incorporate physically extreme behavior. We then apply our parametrization to these mock EoS and determine the differences in masses, radii, and moments of inertia between the parametrized and the full EoS. We optimize the number of segments included in the parametric EoS by requiring these differences to be smaller than the expected accuracy of observations. We find that sampling the EoS with five fiducial densities that are evenly spaced in the logarithm of density (i.e., using five polytropes) recreates the radii of the assumed EoS to within $\lesssim$0.5 km for the extreme cases and to within $\lesssim$0.12 km for 95% of a sample of 42 proposed EoS with a wide range of input physics. Such a parametrization is also able to reproduce the maximum mass to within $\lesssim$ 0.04${M_{\odot}}$ and the moment of inertia to within $\lesssim$10% for 95% of the proposed EoS sample.
Optimizing the Parametric EoS {#sec:optimizing}
=============================
We parametrize the EoS in terms of $n$ piecewise polytropes,[^1] spaced between two densities, $\rho_{\rm min}$ and $\rho_{\rm max}$. We define the dividing density and pressure between each piecewise polytrope to be $\rho_i$ and $P_i$, respectively. Each polytropic segment is then given by $$\label{eq:polytrope}
P = K_i \rho ^{\Gamma_i} \quad (\rho_{i-1} \le \rho \le \rho_i) ,$$ where the constant, $K_i$, is determined from the pressure and density at the previous fiducial point according to $$\label{eq:ki}
K_i = \frac{P_{i-1}}{\rho_{i-1}^{\Gamma_i}} = \frac{P_i}{\rho_i^{\Gamma_i}}$$ and the polytropic index for the segment, $\Gamma_i$, is given by $$\label{eq:gammai}
\Gamma_i = \frac{\log_{10}(P_i/P_{i-1})}{\log_{10}(\rho_i/\rho_{i-1})}.$$ Figure \[fig:polytrope\] shows an example of piecewise polytropes over three density segments, with various values of their polytropic indices, $\Gamma$, to illustrate the behavior of equations (\[eq:polytrope\])-(\[eq:gammai\]).
![\[fig:polytrope\] Pressure as a function of density for a sample of piecewise polytropes. The equation of state is divided into polytropic segments at three fiducial densities that are uniformly spaced in the logarithm. In each segment, we allow the polytrope in equation (\[eq:polytrope\]) to have an index of $\Gamma$ = 0, 1, or 2 to illustrate their general behavior.](fig1.pdf){width="40.00000%"}
Our primary goal in optimizing the parametrization is to reduce the errors in the prediction of observables (i.e., mass, radius, and moment of inertia) below a threshold that is comparable to the uncertainties in present or upcoming observations, while keeping the number of polytropic segments to a minimum. For the optimization process, we produce extreme, albeit physically allowed EoS between $1-8~{\rho_{\rm sat}}$ to test how well our parametrizations reproduce observables with various numbers of polytropic segments included. Once our parametrization is optimized, we then apply it to more reasonable, physically motivated EoS to test its ability to recreate those as well.
In addition to the number of polytropes to include in the parametrization, there are two other variables that we have to optimize: the density at which the parametrization should start and the spacing of the polytropic segments. For the question of where to start the parametrization, we explored starting at $\rho_0 = 10^{14}~$g cm$^{-3}$ as well as at $\rho_0 = {\rho_{\rm sat}}$. It is typically assumed that the EoS is known up to ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$; however, @Lattimer2001 showed that for a sample of around 30 proposed EoS, the predicted pressures vary by a factor of 5 over the range $0.5~{\rho_{\rm sat}}< \rho < {\rho_{\rm sat}}$, even though these EoS are all meant to be consistent with nuclear physics experiments in this density regime. This is because the extrapolation of pressures from symmetric nuclear matter to neutron-rich matter is poorly constrained. Meanwhile, densities below $\sim0.5{\rho_{\rm sat}}$ do not significantly affect the global properties of the star. Therefore, we allowed our parametrization to start at both $0.5{\rho_{\rm sat}}$ and ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$, in order to explore these two limits. As for the question of how to space the polytropic segments, the preferred option is to space the segments evenly in the logarithm of the density. A logarithmic spacing more finely samples the low density region of the EoS, which is the region that most affects the resulting neutron star observables [@Lattimer2001; @Read2009; @Ozel2009]. For completeness, we also explored a second possibility: spacing the fiducial densities between each polytropic segment linearly.
We found that the combination of starting the parametrization at ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$ and spacing the fiducial densities evenly in the logarithm resulted in the smallest errors in mass and radius. We therefore start the first polytrope at $\rho_0 = {\rho_{\rm sat}}$ and space the remaining fiducial densities evenly in the logarithm between $\rho_0$ and 7.4 ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$. We set the last point, $\rho_n = 7.4~{\rho_{\rm sat}}$, following the results of [@Read2009] and [@Ozel2009] who found that the pressure at this density determines the neutron star maximum mass and that pressures at higher densities do not significantly affect the overall shape of the resulting mass-radius curve. We determined the pressure corresponding to each fiducial density by sampling whichever EoS we were parametrizing, i.e., $P_i = P_{\rm EoS}(\rho_i)$. For $\rho \le \rho_0$, we connected our parametrization to a low-density EoS.
We varied the total number of fiducial densities above ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$ from 3 to 12. Clearly, as the number of polytropes used to represent the EoS increases, the errors in the observables are expected to reduce. Our goal in the remainder of this paper is to determine the minimum number of fiducial densities required to reproduce the mass, radius, and moment of inertia of a neutron star to within desired observational uncertainties.
From EoS to Observables {#sec:tov}
=======================
In order to determine how well our parametrizations were able to reproduce the observations predicted by a given EoS, we used the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff (TOV) equations and solved them to find the mass, radius, and moment of inertia.
The TOV equations give the pressure, $P$, and the enclosed mass, $M$, of the star as a function of radius, according to $$\frac{\text{d}P}{\text{d}r} = - \frac{G}{c^2} \frac{(\epsilon + P)(M + 4\pi r^3 P/c^2)}{r^2 - 2GMr/c^2}
\label{eq:dpdr}$$ and $$\frac{\text{d}M}{\text{d}r} = \frac{4 \pi r^2 \epsilon}{c^2},
\label{eq:dmdr}$$ where the energy density, $\epsilon$, is given by $$\label{eq:thermo}
d\frac{\epsilon}{\rho} = -P d\frac{1}{\rho}.$$
To get the full relation between energy density and mass density, we can integrate equation (\[eq:thermo\]) for $\Gamma \ne 1$ to $$\epsilon(\rho) = (1+a)\rho c^2 + \frac{K}{\Gamma -1}\rho^{\Gamma},
\label{eq:eps_generic}$$ where $a$ is an integration constant. Along any density section of the EoS, requiring continuity at either endpoint determines $a$ such that equation (\[eq:eps\_generic\]) becomes $$\begin{gathered}
\label{eq:gammaNot1}
\epsilon(\rho) = \left[\frac{\epsilon(\rho_{i-1})}{\rho_{i-1}} - \frac{P_{i-1}}{\rho_{i-1}(\Gamma_i-1)}\right]\rho + \frac{K_i}{\Gamma_i -1} \rho^{\Gamma_i}, \\
(\rho_{i-1} \le \rho \le \rho_i) \end{gathered}$$ where $K_i$ and $\Gamma_i$ are determined as in equations (\[eq:ki\]) and (\[eq:gammai\]).
Similarly, for the case of $\Gamma$=1, equation (\[eq:thermo\]) becomes $$\begin{gathered}
\label{eq:gamma1}
\epsilon(\rho) = \frac{\epsilon(\rho_{i-1})}{\rho_{i-1}}\rho + K_i \ln\left(\frac{1}{\rho_{i-1}}\right)\rho - K_i \ln\left(\frac{1}{\rho}\right) \rho \\
\rho_{i-1} \le \rho \le \rho_i.\end{gathered}$$
We used equations (\[eq:gammaNot1\]) or (\[eq:gamma1\]) to relate an EoS to the energy density, and then used that energy density to integrate the TOV equations outwards from the center of the star. The radius at which the pressure becomes negligible gives the total mass and radius of the star.
In order to calculate the moment of inertia, we simultaneously solved equations (\[eq:dpdr\]) and (\[eq:dmdr\]) with two coupled differential equations for the relativistic moment of inertia, $$\frac{\text{d}I}{\text{d}r} = \frac{8 \pi}{3}\frac{ \left( \epsilon + P \right)}{c^2} \frac{f j r^4}{1-2\frac{G M}{r c^2}},
\label{eq:didr}$$ and $$\frac{\text{d}}{\text{d}r} \left(r^4 j \frac{\text{d}f}{\text{d}r} \right) + 4 r^3 \frac{\text{d}j}{\text{d}r} f = 0,
\label{eq:secondord}$$ where $f(r) \equiv 1 - \frac{\omega(r)}{\Omega}$, $j \equiv e^{-\nu/2} (1 - 2GM/rc^2 )^{1/2}$, $\omega(r)$ is the rotational frequency of the local inertial frame at radius $r$, and $\Omega$ is the spin frequency of the star. The boundary conditions for the second-order partial differential equation (\[eq:secondord\]) are $$\left[ \frac{df}{dr} \right]_{r=0} = 0
\label{eq:dfdrbc}$$ and $$f(r = R_{\rm{NS}} ) = 1 - 2\frac{G}{c^2} \frac{I}{R^3_{\rm{NS}}}.
\label{eq:fbc}$$ To solve these coupled equations, we integrated equations (\[eq:didr\]) and (\[eq:secondord\]) outwards from the center of the star, using equation (\[eq:dfdrbc\]) as one boundary condition, and iterated it to find the value of $f_0$ for which equation (\[eq:fbc\]) is valid.
In this way, we determined the mass, radius, and moment of inertia for a given equation of state.
Generating mock equations of state {#sec:genmock}
==================================
In order to be as general as possible and go beyond the current sample of proposed equations of state, we tested our parametrization on a sample of mock EoS that incorporated extreme but physically allowed behavior, with the hypothesis that if our parametrization could accurately capture these extreme cases, then it would be able to reproduce more reasonable EoS as well.
![\[fig:gammas\] Cumulative distribution of polytropic indices, $\Gamma$, calculated at all tabulated densities in a given range in a sample of 49 proposed EoS. We found that the majority of polytropic indices lie between $\Gamma \sim$ 1 and $\Gamma \sim$ 5 and we therefore set the two extreme polytrope options in our mock EoS to have these indices.](fig2.pdf){width="40.00000%"}
For our mock EoS, we assumed the true EoS of neutron stars to be well known up to the nuclear saturation density. We then divided the high-density regime, from 1-8 $\rho_{\rm sat}$, into 15 segments that were evenly-spaced in the logarithm of the density, so that each segment would be small relative to the overall range of densities. The logarithmic sampling also sampled the lower density region better and thus allowed more variability in the region that most affects the global properties of the star [@Lattimer2001; @Read2009; @Ozel2009]. In each of the 15 segments, we allowed our mock equation of state to be one of two extremes, which we describe below (see $\S$ \[sec:phasetrans\] for the addition of phase transitions to these mock EoS).
We set both the upper and lower extremes of each segment to be polytropes. To determine the polytropic index of each, we looked at a sample of 49 proposed equations of state. This sample of EoS was compiled in order to include a wide variety of physics and calculation methods, as in @Read2009. Using the tabular data for each of these EoS, we calculated the polytropic indices for all adjacent sets of pressure and density using equation (\[eq:gammai\]) for two density ranges. The cumulative distribution of the resulting polytropic indices is shown in Figure \[fig:gammas\]. We found that the majority of polytropic indices fell between $\Gamma$=1 and 5; therefore, we set our nominal upper and lower extremes to have these indices and allowed any sequence of polytropic indices across our density range.
There is, however, an absolute upper bound on the allowed polytropic index that is set by the condition of causality, which requires that the pressure gradient inside a neutron star obey the relation $$\label{eq:luminal}
\frac{dP}{d\epsilon} \equiv \left(\frac{c_s}{c}\right)^2 \le 1,$$ where $c_s$ is the local sound speed.
We can use this relation to derive the corresponding bound on $\Gamma$ by noting that we can write equation (\[eq:luminal\]) as $$\frac{dP}{d\epsilon} = \frac{dP}{d\rho} \left( \frac{d\epsilon}{d\rho} \right)^{-1} = \left(\frac{c_s}{c}\right)^2.$$ For a polytrope, $dP/d\rho = \Gamma P/\rho$, and the mass density-energy density relation of equation (\[eq:thermo\]) can be expanded to $$\frac{d\epsilon}{d\rho} = \frac{1}{\rho} \left( \epsilon + P \right).$$ The polytropic index can therefore be written as $$\label{eq:gamma_lum}
\Gamma = \frac{c_s ^2}{c^2} \frac{\epsilon + P}{P} \le \frac{\epsilon + P}{P} \equiv \Gamma_{\rm luminal}.$$ In order to ensure that our upper extreme did not violate causality, we set our upper polytropic index to be the minimum of $\Gamma = 5$ and $\Gamma_{\rm luminal}$.
With this set of steps, we obtained the pressure, mass density, and energy density for each segment of our mock equations of state. The mock EoS start at ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$, so once the pressure at this density is determined, the above relations will uniquely determine the rest of the behavior of each mock EoS. We introduced further freedom in our mock EoS by allowing two significantly different pressures at the starting point, ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$. This is motivated by the fact that such a bifurcation is also seen among the set of proposed EoS. We used the EoS SLy [@Douchin2001] and PS [@Pandharipande1975] to determine the lower and higher starting pressures, respectively.
With 15 density-segments, two options for the polytropic behavior along each segment, and two options for the starting pressure, our algorithm produced $2\times2^{15}$ = 65,536 different mock EoS against which we could test our parametrization. However, we excluded any mock EoS that were too soft to produce a 1.9 ${M_{\odot}}$ neutron star [@Demorest2010; @Antoniadis2013], reducing our final sample size to 53,343.
The Mock EoS
------------
The 53,343 extreme mock equations of state that reached 1.9 ${M_{\odot}}$ are shown in Figure \[fig:mockPRho\].
![\[fig:mockPRho\] The grid of 53,343 extreme, mock equations of state, starting at nuclear saturation density with a pressure corresponding to either the EoS SLy (in red) or PS (in blue). One sample mock EoS is shown bolded in black. Each mock EoS is composed of 15 segments that are spaced evenly in the logarithm between 1 and 8 ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$. Each segment is a polytrope with either $\Gamma$=1 or the minimum of $\Gamma$=5 and $\Gamma_{\rm luminal}$. Only EoS that reach 1.9 ${M_{\odot}}$ are shown here, leading to the absence of segments in the lower right corner of the parameter space.](fig3.pdf){width="39.00000%"}
![\[fig:mockMR\] Mass-radius curves corresponding to the 53,343 mock EoS shown in Figure \[fig:mockPRho\]. The red curves are those that started at ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$ with the corresponding pressure of the EoS SLy; the blue curves use the nuclear saturation pressure of EoS PS. By including both starting pressures in our sample, we are able to densely sample a realistic range of radii of $\sim$ 9-17 km. These mass-radius curves also show a wide range of slopes, indicating that a large range of underlying physics is incorporated in this sample. The dashed line shows the causal relationship of $M_{\rm max} \sim 0.24 R ({M_{\odot}}/ \rm km)$, derived by @Lindblom1984. The small discrepancy between this line and the observed cutoff in our M-R curves can be attributed to the different EoS that was assumed in the low-density region of the @Lindblom1984 analysis.](fig4.pdf){width="39.00000%"}
{width="\textwidth"}
All possible trajectories through this grid are indeed included, with the constraint that pressure must always increase with density (i.e., only monotonic behavior in this grid is allowed). The broadening of the mock EoS at high pressures is a result of our requirement that the upper polytropic limit must be the minimum of $\Gamma$=5 and $\Gamma_{\rm luminal}$.
The corresponding mass-radius curves, calculated according to the method described in $\S$ \[sec:tov\], are shown in Figure \[fig:mockMR\]. As Figure \[fig:mockMR\] demonstrates, starting the mock EoS at the two different pressures corresponding to the two families of proposed EoS allowed us to fully span the range of reasonable radii. With this choice, we achieved a dense sampling of mass-radius curves that span radii from $\sim$ 9-17 km for $M \lesssim 1~{M_{\odot}}$. Furthermore, the mock mass-radius curves include curves that shallowly slope upwards, that are nearly vertical, and that bend backwards, indicating that we have sampled a wide range of possible underlying behavior.
The trend of increasing maximum mass with radius is a result of our causality constraint. @Lindblom1984 derived the maximum gravitational redshift of a neutron star as a function of mass by assuming that the equation of state is trusted up to 3$\times 10^{14}$g cm$^{-3}$ and configuring the resulting mass of the star to maximize the redshift. As in our analysis, that study required that the relationship between pressure and density inside the star not violate causality. After converting their relationship between the mass and maximum gravitational redshift to a mass-radius relationship, we find that the corresponding relationship of $M_{\rm max} \sim 0.24 R ({M_{\odot}}/\rm km)$, shown as the dashed line in Figure \[fig:mockMR\], is very close to what is seen in our mock EoS. The small differences between this relationship and that in our mock EoS can be attributed to the different EoS assumed up to the first fiducial density: @Lindblom1984 assumed the EoS BPS, while we assumed either SLy or PS. Furthermore, they assumed their EoS up to $3\times10^{14}$ g cm$^{-3}$, while we assumed SLy or PS only up to ${\rho_{\rm sat}}\sim 2.7\times10^{14}$ g cm$^{-3}$.
Determining the goodness of the parametric representation
---------------------------------------------------------
We quantified how well our parametrization represented the full EoS and chose the optimal number of sampling points by comparing the radii of our results to those found using the full EoS at three fiducial masses, $M$=1.4, 1.6, and 1.8 ${M_{\odot}}$. We also calculated $\Delta M_{\rm max} \equiv \left|M_{\rm max}(\rm full)-\it{M}_{\rm max}(\rm parametric)\right|$ to determine how well our parametrization reproduced the maximum mass predicted by the full EoS. Finally, we calculated the difference in the moment of inertia, $\Delta I_{\rm A}$, predicted by our parametrization and by the full EoS for a star of mass $M = 1.338~{M_{\odot}}$, i.e., the mass of the Pulsar A in the binary system PSR J0737$-$3039.
Given the typical uncertainties in the mass, radius, and moment of inertia, either with current data or with those expected in the near future, our goal was to reproduce the radii to within half a kilometer, i.e., to require $\Delta R <$ 0.5 km at each of the three critical masses. We also required $\Delta M_{\rm max} < 0.1~{M_{\odot}}$. Because the moment of inertia for Pulsar A has not yet been measured, we did not impose strict requirements on $\Delta I_{\rm A}$ , but still included this observable in our results to see qualitatively how well it compares to some reasonable predictions for $I_{\rm A}$.
Results of parametrization of mock EoS {#sec:mockresults}
--------------------------------------
![\[fig:deltaI\_noPT\] Cumulative distribution of the differences in moment of inertia for a star of mass $M_A = 1.338~{M_{\odot}}$, calculated between our parametrization and the full EoS. The different colors represent the number of fiducial densities above ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$ that we included in our parametrization (i.e., the number of polytropic segments). The vertical dashed line marks a residual of 10% for a hypothetical moment of inertia measurement of 10$^{45}$ g cm$^{2}$; the horizontal dashed lines mark the 95% level of the cumulative distribution. With 5 fiducial densities, the moment of inertia residuals are less than 0.17 $\times 10^{45}$ g cm$^{2}$ in 95% of cases. We therefore find that, depending on the exact value of the upcoming measurement of the moment of inertia for Pulsar A in the double pulsar system, 5-6 fiducial densities may be needed to reproduce $I_A$ to the 10% accuracy level. ](fig6.pdf){width="50.00000%"}
Figure \[fig:deltas\_noPT\] shows the cumulative distribution of residuals in radius and mass for when various numbers of polytropic segments were included in the parametrization for our full sample of 53,343 extreme mock EoS. We found that our goal of $\Delta R < $ 0.5 km was achieved by sampling the EoS with 5 fiducial densities above ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$ (i.e., including 5 polytropes). Specifically, using 5 fiducial densities, we found that for 95% of the mock EoS, $\Delta R=$ 0.50, 0.44, and 0.48 km at $M$ = 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8 ${M_{\odot}}$, respectively. In addition, a parametrization with 5 fiducial densities reproduced $M_{\rm max}$ to within 0.12 ${M_{\odot}}$ in 95% of the cases.
We also calculated the difference in the moment of inertia for a neutron star with the same mass as Pulsar A in the double pulsar system, i.e., $M_A=1.338{M_{\odot}}$. The cumulative distribution of these residuals as a function of the number of polytropes included in the parametrizations is shown in Figure \[fig:deltaI\_noPT\]. By sampling the EoS at 5 fiducial densities, we found that the residuals in moment of inertia are less than $0.17 \times10^{45}$g cm$^2$ in 95% of the cases. The moment of inertia for Pulsar A is expected to be on the order of $10^{45}$g cm$^{2}$ and is expected to be measured with 10% accuracy [@Kramer2009]. As a result, depending on the exact value of the forthcoming moment of inertia measurement, 5-6 fiducial densities may be required to recreate the moment of inertia to the 10% accuracy level.
Even a parametrization with just 3 fiducial densities reproduced the radii of $\sim$80% of our extreme mock EoS to within 0.5 km. However, requiring $\Delta M_{\rm max} < 0.1 {M_{\odot}}$ and $\Delta~I/I \lesssim 10\%$ requires more points. We therefore conclude that, given the most recent observational uncertainties and the continuing prospects for even smaller errors in the near future, a parametrization that samples the EoS at 5 fiducial densities is optimal. Specifically, we recommend spacing the five fiducial densities evenly in the logarithm of the density, such that ($\rho_0, \rho_1, \rho_2, \rho_3, \rho_4, \rho_5) = (1.0, 1.4, 2.2, 3.3, 4.9, 7.4$) ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$.
Adding phase transitions to the mock EoS {#sec:phasetrans}
========================================
{width="\textwidth"}
We also considered more diverse equations of state by allowing there to be a first-order phase transition in the mock EoS described in $\S$ \[sec:genmock\]. We allowed only one phase transition per mock EoS, but allowed the phase transition to start in any of our 15 density segments and to last anywhere between 1 and 15 segments. For the remaining segments, the mock EoS was polytropic with an index of $\Gamma$=1 or the minimum of $\Gamma$=5 and $\Gamma_{\rm luminal}$, as above. With the addition of these phase transitions, there are now $2^{N} \times N(N+1) / 2$ possibilities for $N$ segments of the EoS, for each possible starting pressure. For 15 segments and our two starting pressures (corresponding to the EoS SLy and PS at ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$), this corresponds to 7,864,320 possibilities for the mock EoS.
We randomly sampled $\sim$175,000 of these mock EoS, with roughly half starting at each of the initial pressures. We then applied our parametrization to each mock EoS. As we did for the original set of mock EoS, we varied the number of polytropic segments in the parametrization between 3 and 12 and calculated the resulting residuals in radius, mass, and moment of inertia. The mass and radius residuals are shown in Figure \[fig:deltas\_PT\]. With 5 fiducial densities above ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$, i.e., the optimal number of polytropic segments found in $\S$ \[sec:mockresults\], we found that 95% of the radius residuals were less than 0.48, 0.43, and 0.46 km at 1.4, 1.6, and 1.8 ${M_{\odot}}$, respectively. These errors are comparable to those from the mock EoS without phase transitions. We also found that 95% of the differences in maximum mass were less than 0.22 ${M_{\odot}}$, which is a larger error than in our previous, less extreme sample of mock EoS. However, 70% of the errors in maximum mass were still less than 0.1 ${M_{\odot}}$ for this sample, indicating that this parametrization reasonably recreated the maximum mass for many of our most extreme sample of mock EoS. The error distribution for the moment of inertia was almost identical to the distribution for the sample without phase transitions. We found that a parametrization with 5 fiducial densities reproduced the moment of inertia to within 0.17 $\times 10^{45}$ g cm$^{2}$ for 95% of the mock EoS with phase transitions.
The tail end of all four distributions in Figure \[fig:deltas\_PT\] extended to higher errors than did the tail in Figure \[fig:deltas\_noPT\]. This is because the arbitrarily-placed phase transitions in this sample of mock EoS can make the resulting mass-radius curve have very sharp turn-overs. If a sharp turn-over occurs near one of the fiducial masses at which we measure radius residuals, we will infer an artificially high error. However, the distributions in Figure \[fig:deltas\_PT\] show that the probability of the true EoS falling in this tail is small ($\lesssim~5\%$ with 5 fiducial densities). We therefore find that, for the vast majority of cases, a parametrization that samples the EoS at 5 fiducial densities is sufficient to reproduce radius and maximum mass observables to within 0.5 km and 0.1-0.2 ${M_{\odot}}$, even if the EoS contains a first-order phase transition at an arbitrary density and over an arbitrary range.
Application of the parametrization to physically-motivated EoS {#sec:tabEoS}
==============================================================
{width="\textwidth"}
Even though we optimized our parametrization using EoS that span a much wider range of possibilities than the currently proposed ones, we nevertheless explored how well this parametrization reproduced the physically-motivated EoS found in the literature. To this end, we applied our optimized parametrization (5 fiducial densities above ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$) to a sample of 42 proposed EoS,[^2] which incorporate a variety of different physical possibilities and calculation methods. (The tabular data for these EoS are compiled in @Cook1994 [@Lattimer2001; @Read2009]; and @Ozel2016). Our sample included purely nucleonic equations of state, such as: relativistic (BPAL12 and ENG) and nonrelativistic (BBB2) Brueckner-Hartree-Fock EoS; variational-method EoS (e.g. FPS and WFF3); and a potential-method EoS (SLy). We also include models which incorporate more exotic particles, including, for example, a neutron-only EoS with pion condensates (PS), a relativistic mean-field theory EoS with hyperons and quarks (PCL2), and an effective-potential EoS with hyperons (BGN1H1).
In applying our parametrization to these proposed EoS, we no longer connected to SLy or PS for $\rho < {\rho_{\rm sat}}$. Instead, we assumed that each EoS is known up to ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$, and we therefore used the full EoS that we were parametrizing for the low-density regime. For $\rho > {\rho_{\rm sat}}$, we applied our parametrization as above. After applying our parametrization, we calculated the resulting residuals in radii at the three fiducial masses,[^3] the maximum mass, and the moment of inertia. The residuals for our optimized, 5-polytrope parametrization are shown in Figure \[fig:deltaRMI\_tab\].
The errors in applying the parametrization to the proposed, physically motivated EoS were much lower than for the more extreme, mock EoS. Our optimized parametrization reproduced the radii of $\sim$95% of the proposed EoS to within 0.10, 0.12, and 0.09 km (at 1.4, 1.6, and 1.8 ${M_{\odot}}$, respectively) and the maximum masses of 95% of the EoS to within 0.04 ${M_{\odot}}$. As examples, we show in Figure \[fig:ap4\] the full mass-radius relation as well as the one calculated from our parametrized EoS for several proposed EoS: AP4 (nucleonic), ALF4 (quark hybrid), SLy (nucleonic), and BGN1H1 (includes hyperons). As seen here, the differences in mass-radius space are extremely small.
![\[fig:ap4\] *Top:* Mass-radius relations for the EoS AP4, AL4, BGN1H1, and SLy as solid lines. The dashed lines show our parametrization of each, with five fiducial densities above ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$. The different symbols represent the mass and radius of a star with a central density equal to each fiducial density. *Bottom:* Pressure as a function of mass density for these EoS. The symbols represent the location of each fiducial density. We find that this parametrization reproduces the EoS to very high accuracy in mass-radius space.](fig9.pdf){width="50.00000%"}
Conclusions
===========
In this paper, we investigated an optimal parametrization of the neutron star equation of state that can be used to interpret neutron star observations. We found that a parametric EoS with five polytropic segments evenly spaced in logarithm between 1 and 7.4 ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$ was sufficient to reproduce the radii of proposed EoS to within 0.12 km and the maximum mass to within 0.04 ${M_{\odot}}$ in 95% of cases. This parametrization was also able to reproduce the radii of our more extreme, mock EoS to within 0.5 km, suggesting that even if a more extreme EoS is proposed or realized in nature, our parametrization will be robust enough to reproduce it well.
The radii of approximately fifteen neutron stars have already been measured, for most of which the masses are also known [@Guillot2013; @Guillot2014; @Heinke2014; @Nattila2015; @Ozel2016a; @Bogdanov2016]. Even though the uncertainties in the individual radius measurements are of order $\sim$2 km, combining all the measurements leads to a rather narrow range of predicted neutron star radii. Moreover, these spectroscopic measurements will be independently checked in the near future by, e.g., waveform modeling with NICER [@Gendreau2012]. The forthcoming measurement of the moment of inertia, which is a higher-order moment of the mass distribution of the star [@Lyne2004; @Kramer2009], and the prospect of eventual measurements of other higher-order moments using gravitational wave observations from coalescing neutron stars (e.g., @Read2009b [@Del-Pozzo2013; @Agathos2015]) will provide additional constraints. Finally, the recent mass mesaurements of approximately two-solar mass neutron stars [@Demorest2010; @Antoniadis2013] already place strong priors on empirically inferred EoS.
Previous empirical inferences of the equation of state based on existing observations typically relied on functional forms with 3-4 parameters (e.g., @Ozel2010 [@Steiner2010; @Ozel2016a; @Steiner2016]). It is difficult to compare the errors produced in these parametrizations directly to our own, as they are not always quantified in mass-radius space. @Read2009 report errors in their parametrization in pressure vs. density: they find that a four-parameter EoS produced average errors in $\log P$ of 0.013, which corresponds to a fractional error in pressure of $\sim$3%. Similarly, @Lindblom2012 report errors in their spectral parametrization in energy density vs. enthalpy space: their errors ranged from 1 to 15% when they used 4$-$5 spectral parameters. Finally, @Steiner2013 performed a preliminary comparison between five different types of models (e.g., a parametrization of two polytropes and one with four line segments) and found the largest difference in the predicted radii between any two of their models to be 0.8 km; however, these models were not necessarily optimized in terms of the number of parameters.
Ultimately, it is the inverse process of what we have shown that will be of interest: the inference of a parametric EoS from astrophysical measurements. We will address this aspect of the problem in a forthcoming paper. However, our work here suggests that the uncertainties in the inference of the EoS will be dominated by the quality of the data and the uncertainties in the inversion process itself, rather than those introduced by the parametrization of the EoS.\
\
[*[Acknowledgements.]{}*]{} We thank Gordon Baym for useful comments on the manuscript. We gratefully acknowledge support from NASA grant NNX16AC56G.
For completeness, we also explored a parametrization that uses linear segments between a number of density points to represent the EoS. As in the case of our polytropic parametrization, we started this parameterization at ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$ and spaced the segments evenly in the logarithm of the density. The EoS along each linear segment is given by $$P = m_i \rho + b_i \quad\quad (\rho_{i-1} \le \rho \le \rho_i),$$ where continuity at the endpoints implies $$m_i = \frac{P_i - P_{i-1}}{\rho_i - \rho_{i-1}}$$ and $$b_i = P_{i-1} - \left(\frac{P_i - P_{i-1}}{\rho_i - \rho_{i-1}}\right) \rho_{i-1}.$$
Using this linear relationship for pressure to integrate the differential equation (\[eq:thermo\]), we find that the energy density in this case is given by $$\epsilon(\rho) = (1 + a)\rho c^2 + m \rho \log{\rho} - b,$$ where $a$ is an integration constant. By requiring continuity in the energy density at the endpoints of each segment, we can solve for the integration constant such that $$\label{eq:lineareps}
\epsilon(\rho) = \left( \frac{\epsilon_{i-1} + b_i}{\rho_{i-1}} - m_i \log{\rho_{i-1}}\right) \rho + m_i \rho \log{\rho} - b_i, \quad (\rho_{i-1} \le \rho \le \rho_i) .$$ We used equation (\[eq:lineareps\]) to relate the linear EoS to the energy density and then used that energy density to integrate the TOV equations and solve for the total mass, radius, and moment of inertia of the neutron star.
We applied a five-segment parametrization to the $\sim$53,000 mock EoS shown in Figure \[fig:mockMR\] and calculated the errors in radius at 1.4, 1.6, and 1.8 ${M_{\odot}}$ as well as the errors in the maximum mass. In this way, we can directly compare these results with those from the five-polytrope optimal parametrization in Figure \[fig:deltas\_linear\]. We find that the polytropic parametrization performs modestly better. However, the linear parametrization is still able to recreate the radii of the full EoS to within $\lesssim 0.5$ km for $\sim$80% of the extreme, mock EoS.
Even though our mock EoS are composed of polytropic segments, there are multiple mock EoS segments per parametrization segment. Moreover, the mock EoS segments are offset from the parametrization segments. We therefore do not expect that the mock EoS should significantly bias the performance of a polytropic parametrization over a linear parametrization.
In order to see how well the linear parametrization performs for more physically motivated EoS, we also applied it to the sample of 42 proposed EoS from $\S$ \[sec:tabEoS\]. We compare these results to those of the polytropic parametrization in Figure \[fig:deltas\_linear\_tab\]. We find again that the polytropic parametrization performs better than the linear parametrization, although the differences between the two parametrizations are most significant at radius and maximum mass errors that are well below observational uncertainties.
It is likely that the same levels of errors could be achieved by the linear parametrization if more than five segments were included; however, for five segments, the polytropic parametrization performs modestly better in most cases. A polytropic parametrization is also the more natural choice for the neutron star EoS. We, therefore, recommend a five-segment polytropic parametrization over a linear one.
{width="\textwidth"}
{width="\textwidth"}
[^1]: See the Appendix for a discussion of a linearly parametrized EoS.
[^2]: This sample is smaller than the 49 EoS that we previously cited because we exclude from this subsample any calculated EoS that become acausal, except for the EoS AP4. Even though AP4 reaches a local sound speed of $c_s \sim 1.1c$ by densities of $\rho \sim6~{\rho_{\rm sat}}$ and becomes more acausal thereafter, we do include this EoS, as it is commonly used and included in the literature. We also exclude from this sample two EoS that are not calculated to high enough densities to accommodate our parametrization at 7.4 ${\rho_{\rm sat}}$.
[^3]: For every EoS, we only calculated and included the radius resdiual at a given mass if the EoS actually reaches that mass. If, for example, an EoS only produces masses up to 1.7 ${M_{\odot}}$, we still included the radius residuals at 1.4 and 1.6 ${M_{\odot}}$ and simply excluded the data point at 1.8 ${M_{\odot}}$.
| |
The most intense exchange during the first portion of Hillary Clinton's testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi Thursday revolved around the prior private testimony of Sidney Blumenthal, a Clinton confidant who emailed her many times about Libya but never visited the country.
After Chairman Trey Gowdy, a Republican, began questioning Clinton about her relationship with Blumenthal, his employment by the Clinton Foundation and his ability to email her directly, Democrats on the committee insisted that Gowdy release a full transcript of Blumenthal's testimony earlier this year. Voices rose, lawmakers spoke over each other, Clinton grinned widely.
Democratic Reps. Elijah Cummings and Adam Schiff led the charge, arguing that Gowdy has been selectively using Blumenthal's testimony to cast aspersions on Clinton.
"Why conceal the transcripts?" Schiff asked Gowdy.
Gowdy refused to make them public, saying he would consider it at a later date and insisting he would keep up the line of inquiry later in the day.
"If you think you've heard about Sidney Blumenthal," Gowdy said as he gaveled into a recess, "wait 'til the next round."
The GOP's focus on Blumenthal is the strongest evidence that the committee's a partisan political tool and that its members have little interest in either finding out what happened when four Americans were killed in Benghazi in 2012 or how to prevent future attacks. What they are determined to do is embarrass Clinton and hurt her chances of winning the presidency.
Ultimately, the first three hours of Clinton's marathon testimony yielded little if any new information. Republicans are making the argument that Blumenthal's emails to Clinton suggest he had an out-sized impact on the US policy in Libya. But that's absurd. Clinton received emails from Blumenthal and forwarded some to her staff. But there's no evidence that Blumenthal, a gadfly who was black-balled from the administration by the Obama White House, had any influence at all on policy or on Clinton's thinking.
This is just the latest in a string of Blumenthal-based attacks
Republicans stripped away any pretense that they are more interested in the Benghazi attack than in attacking Hillary Clinton when Blumenthal was dragged to Capitol Hill this summer for a deposition behind closed doors.
With that nine-hour interrogation of Blumenthal, the committee jumped the shark.
The Benghazi Committee deposed the Clinton confidant in a closed hearing room in a sub-basement of the Capitol. Blumenthal’s never been to Libya. He doesn’t know anything special about the Benghazi attack. He did sometimes forward "intelligence" memos from an ex-CIA officer to his longtime friend Hillary Clinton.
Not surprisingly, the committee — tasked with investigating the Benghazi assault — learned absolutely nothing from Blumenthal about the terrorist attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, in September 2012.
However, by spending all that time on Blumenthal, they met someone who does know something about HClinton. Indeed, Blumenthal’s appearance on Capitol Hill — where he was last a prominent figure during Bill Clinton’s impeachment saga — felt like part of a national time warp in which Americans are forced to relive the partisan warfare of the 1990s, when Republicans summoned Clinton aides to testify about an endless string of investigations. A Clinton confidant testifying before Congress is the only thing more '90s than a Bush and a Clinton running for president.
Democrats were so convinced the deposition will make Republicans look partisan and politically motivated that they called for the release of a full transcript to the public both on the day of the testimony and during the Clinton hearing Thursday.
Gowdy, who invited reporters to stake out the Blumenthal deposition, insisted that he isn’t trying to affect the election.
"My interest is in the past, not the future," the South Carolina Republican said.
Gowdy, a former prosecutor who may have watched a little too much Law & Order, tried to generate as much drama as possible from the deposition by suggesting at a press conference afterward that the most exonerating evidence was actually the most damning.
Blumenthal "wasn’t the author of a single one of those memos," but "simply and merely a conduit" for someone who may have had a "pecuniary interest" in Libya, Gowdy said, enunciating his words for effect. A new batch of Blumenthal emails is "eerily similar" to those that have been made public before by the State Department, he added. He acknowledged that he didn’t directly learn anything about the Benghazi attack from Blumenthal.
So, for those scoring at home — and by Gowdy’s own admission on all counts — Blumenthal took memos from a former CIA official, essentially cut and pasted them, and forwarded them to the secretary of state.
On Thursday, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) hinted at what Gowdy may have been going after during the Blumenthal deposition when he asked Clinton whether Stevens had her personal email address.
Clinton replied that she didn't believe the ambassador had it. So, Westmoreland, concluded, Blumenthal had a more direct line to her than Stevens.
No smoking gun
Cummings said in June that "there’s no smoking gun."
Actually, there’s no gun, no bullet, no smoke, and no crime. Blumenthal is an oddity, a sycophantic relic of the Clinton administration who, for some unfathomable reason, retained Hillary Clinton’s ear — or at least her email address. It’s mildly embarrassing that she was receiving intelligence memos cooked up by a former CIA official, Tyler Drumheller, through a friend who was on the payroll of the Clinton Foundation.
Gowdy tried to make that sound really nefarious, too, both in June and on Thursday — like Clinton had mishandled the information.
"We have a CIA. So why would you not rely on your own vetted source intelligence agency?" Gowdy asked reporters this summer. On Thursday, he said "a significant number of your emails were to or from Sidney Blumenthal."
The emails that have been made public by the State Department show that Clinton often sent Blumenthal’s memos to members of her aides to vet. They found the information was sometimes wrong, sometimes outdated, and sometimes compatible with the department’s own intelligence.
This may come as a surprise to Gowdy, but the State Department is actually a massive intelligence-gathering operation that is a vital and integral part of America’s national security apparatus.
"My testimony shed no light on the events of Benghazi, nor could it," Blumenthal told reporters after his deposition, adding that he had been called to the Hill for "one reason and one reason only, and that reason is politics."
He said he told the committee that his work for the Clinton Foundation, for which he was reportedly paid $10,000 a month, had nothing to do with him forwarding to Clinton the content of memos from a person he described only as a "well-respected, former high-ranking CIA officer." The emails were intended "for her to use or not" as she saw fit, Blumenthal said. Flanked by his lawyer, former Deputy Attorney General James Cole, Blumenthal did not take questions.
A master of political spin and a veteran of the bloody 1990s political wars that seem destined for a comeback, Blumenthal is nobody’s victim. But neither is he any part of the answer to the questions of what happened in Benghazi and how the US can prevent and defend against future attacks on diplomatic facilities.
Before he spoke to the assembled reporters and television cameras, Blumenthal asked for a few moments to meet with his lawyer and gather himself.
"I need to look good for you," he said.
That put him one up on Gowdy. | https://www.vox.com/2015/6/17/8795707/Benghazi-Committee-Blumenthal-Gowdy |
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An unusually complex form of one of the most abundant chemical elements on Earth has been revealed in the lab for the first time.
Researchers created a crystallised version of nitrogen - which at normal conditions is the main constituent of air - by subjecting it to extreme pressures and temperatures.
The study shows for the first time that simple molecular elements can have complex structures at high pressures.
It could inform similar studies in other elements, researchers say.
An international team of scientists led by the University of Edinburgh used a high-pressure diamond-tipped anvil to squeeze tiny amounts of nitrogen at pressures half a million times that of Earth's atmosphere, while heating it to about 500 Celsius.
They then used specialist X-ray technology to capture an image of the resulting crystals, and were surprised to find that the nitrogen had formed a complicated arrangement made up of dozens of molecules.
The team had expected to uncover a much simpler structure.
Their findings resolve speculation over the structure of this form of nitrogen, known as ι-N2. It was discovered 15 years ago but its structure was unknown until now.
Computer simulations of the new structure have given valuable insights, finding it to be surprisingly stable.
The study, published in Nature Communications, was carried out in collaboration with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France, and with researchers in China. It was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Robin Turnbull, of the University of Edinburgh's School of Physics and Astronomy, who led the study, said: "We hope that these results will prompt further investigations into why relatively simple elements should form such complex structures - it's important that we keep searching for promising new lines of scientific investigation."
Catriona Kelly | EurekAlert!
Further information:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07074-4
Further reports about: > Nature Communications > Radiation > X-ray > complex structures > nitrogen
Quantum gas turns supersolid
23.04.2019 | Universität Innsbruck
Explosion on Jupiter-sized star 10 times more powerful than ever seen on our sun
18.04.2019 | University of Warwick
The human eye is particularly sensitive to green, but less sensitive to blue and red. Chemists led by Hubert Huppertz at the University of Innsbruck have now developed a new red phosphor whose light is well perceived by the eye. This increases the light yield of white LEDs by around one sixth, which can significantly improve the energy efficiency of lighting systems.
Light emitting diodes or LEDs are only able to produce light of a certain colour. However, white light can be created using different colour mixing processes.
Researchers led by Francesca Ferlaino from the University of Innsbruck and the Austrian Academy of Sciences report in Physical Review X on the observation of supersolid behavior in dipolar quantum gases of erbium and dysprosium. In the dysprosium gas these properties are unprecedentedly long-lived. This sets the stage for future investigations into the nature of this exotic phase of matter.
Supersolidity is a paradoxical state where the matter is both crystallized and superfluid. Predicted 50 years ago, such a counter-intuitive phase, featuring...
A stellar flare 10 times more powerful than anything seen on our sun has burst from an ultracool star almost the same size as Jupiter
A localization phenomenon boosts the accuracy of solving quantum many-body problems with quantum computers which are otherwise challenging for conventional computers. This brings such digital quantum simulation within reach on quantum devices available today.
Quantum computers promise to solve certain computational problems exponentially faster than any classical machine. “A particularly promising application is the...
The technology could revolutionize how information travels through data centers and artificial intelligence networks
Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley have built a new photonic switch that can control the direction of light passing through optical fibers...
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Revered mathematicians and computer scientists converge with 200 young researchers in Heidelberg! | https://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/physics-astronomy/intense-tests-reveal-elusive-complex-form-of-common-element.html |
Roughly 50 years ago, a crop of 900-odd performance art spaces, science museums and rec centres was established coast to coast explicitly to encourage Canada's development. The intention of giving each young province a few public institutions was to spur homegrown culture, with the governments of the time believing the buildings themselves had a key role to play in cultivating our national identity.
A project to construct "architecture of significance" was generously funded by Ottawa for our 100th birthday in a robust period of support for Canadian arts and lifestyle infrastructure. Prince Edward Island, for instance, got the Confederation Centre for the Arts, Toronto built the Ontario Science Centre, Winnipeg got its Centennial Concert Hall, Calgary received a planetarium, and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa became the first true performing arts venue in our nation's capital – finally allowing visiting symphonies to play in something grander than a high school auditorium.
Flash forward to July 1, 2015, and the NAC will feature an exhibit on these centennial architecture projects that will display extensive archival materials from 20 of the buildings. And considering the controversy surrounding contemporary projects – from the Canadian Memorial to the Victims of Communism to Mother Canada to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg – the timing could not be better.
"When Canada was commemorating 100 years, we were very forward-looking. We weren't nostalgic at all," says Marco Polo, associate professor in Ryerson's Department of Architectural Science and co-curator of the exhibition, Architecture and National Identity: The Centennial Projects 50 Years On. "We were optimistic."
In a move that Polo thinks would be incredible were it to happen again in our current political climate, former prime ministers John Diefenbaker and Lester B. Pearson personally addressed professional architects at the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada during two annual general meetings in 1960 and 1964, and tasked them with expressing a national character through their work. The centennial institutions were to provide opportunities for cultural expression, production, and regional and national community building. The emphasis was to build for our hopeful future.
So it's curious to take stock now of how (with a few exceptions) these buildings remain working within their original intention: The majority withstood the tests of time; it seems as though, culturally speaking, we can reap what we sow. But the idea that architecture was seen "as an essential building block" in creating our national identity and public policy that supported our arts and ambitions is something that, at least according to Polo, "we've lost to some extent."
It's difficult to compare today's projects to an architectural climate of the past, and too general a question to ask if they possess the same foresight. "Starchitects" didn't exist in the same way that they do now; a hard-and-fast architectural rulebook has long been thrown out; and there isn't a national design brief today that holds public buildings in account to one another, or to the surrounding urban environment. There is nothing in place to demand we think about that future we once emphasized so heavily. Still, Polo believes our national identity has "a huge role to play" in our contemporary buildings.
"[Architecture is] inherently an identity-building activity. It says a lot about our values whether we build well or poorly and what we're prepared to invest in," he says. "Intentionally or not, it says a lot about us."
So as this country turns 150 years old in 2017, architects and urban critics alike see an opportunity for Canadians to take a hard look at public spaces and structures and start asking an important question: Who do we want to be in 2067? Or 2117?
To kick off the centennial exhibition, Polo will join Ryerson colleague and co-curator Colin Ripley in a panel discussion with heritage architect Barry Padolsky and Donald Schmitt, principal architect of the NAC's $110-million "rejuvenation project," on July 1 at the NAC in Ottawa.
"Looking at 2017, we have a fresh set of challenges in architecture and urban design," says Padolsky. "Our biggest issues are how to deal with the growth of cities, handle climate change, conserve our natural environment and conserve our built heritage … how do we make our cities as a whole more equitable, sustainable and safer?"
And at this point in the life cycle of our modern institutions, new conversations are also emerging about whether the centennial fleet should now be considered heritage buildings, too. And if so, what can they still teach us about building toward the future?
"They were brilliant in their restrained modesty, a perfect reflection of our better selves," says architecture writer and critic Adele Weder. "Decision-makers today seem to be seized by this dangerous mentality that something has to be big and blingy to be good … but we were confident enough back then that we didn't have to build these huge, expensive, brash, out-of-place tourist attractions."
Weden also points out what she views as a crisis in leadership when it comes to the role of today's architect. "These days, the best Canadian architects are too often squeezed out of the action, because museum boards often want foreign brand-name architects and bombastic architecture to impress their prospective donors," she says. "At the same time, governments tend to err in the opposite direction – favouring bleak, out-of-date architecture that doesn't look expensive, regardless of its actual cost."
Public and service-oriented community buildings succeed when they "nurture us and our activities as a people," Weder adds. "It's both gratifying and sad to look at the Centennial projects and realize we never had it so good." | https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/architecture/when-our-country-was-built-an-exhibit-at-ottawas-national-arts-centre-will-showcase-centennial-architecture-projects/article25177060/ |
Jim Blanchard is a contemporary topographical artist known for his architectural watercolors of historic Louisiana buildings. A native son of Lafourche Parish in South Louisiana, he was raised amid the aging plantations and vernacular 19thcentury architecture of the region. Born in Thibodaux in 1955, Blanchard briefly studied at Nicholls State University before joining the family’s oil brokerage business. It was there that Blanchard learned to research archives and public records, and honed his draughting skills through making maps. Moving to New Orleans in the early 1980s, Blanchard – like many artists before – fell in love with the city and its cultural and architectural history.
In New Orleans, Blanchard turned his full attention to creating artworks based on the region’s architectural history. Using watercolor and gouache as his primary medium, he depicted the grand buildings of the past with the precision of an architect, the integrity of an historian and the hand of a master watercolorist. Over the next thirty years, Blanchard created a stunning body of work that stands as testament to both his skill and artistry, and to the rich history of Louisiana’s built environment.
Eschewing the romanticism of decay so often embraced by contemporary artists, Blanchard depicts these buildings in their original glory, often adding figures in period costume for both scale and context. Calling them “architectural archival watercolors” for their precise scale and historical accuracy, Blanchard’s works exist as both architectural renderings and topographical history paintings. In the tradition of the great 19th century architect and painter, Marie Adrien Persac, the paintings of Jim Blanchard combine history, aesthetic and skill to create a visual document that is both accurate and idealized. Through these works, grand homes rise from the ashes of the past, crumbling facades are restored and faded images glow with the color of life.
A Precise Vision brings together works from throughout Blanchard’s career for the largest exhibition of his work to date. Drawing from both private and public collections, this exhibition tells the story of one man’s mastery of his chosen medium, of his obsession with the built environment of his home and of his transcendent combination of history and art. | http://www.artsdistrictneworleans.com/exhibitions/ogden-museum-of-southern-art9 |
On their deadline—Wednesday, Dec. 1—the co-chairs of President Obama’s Fiscal Commission promise to present a plan to reduce annual federal budget deficits and accumulated debt, even though they are delaying a vote of the 18-member, bipartisan, fiscally conservative body until Friday.
But the nation would be better served if Erskine Bowles, former chief of staff to Bill Clinton, and former Wyoming Republican Sen. Alan Simpson shredded their proposal. Then they should submit instead either one of the two proposals from progressive groups that were unveiled on Monday and Tuesday (or the earlier, less fleshed-out proposal from Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a Commission member).
The progressive proposals—from Schakowsky; from a “Citizens’ Commission on Jobs, Deficits and America’s Economic Future” (convened by the Institute for America’s Future); and “Investing in America’s Economy” from Our Fiscal Security (a partnership of three leading think tanks—the Economic Policy Institute, Demos, and the Century Foundation)—all forge a similar path, and all head in a direction different from Bowles and Simpson.
It’s the direction most unions want to take. AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka strongly endorsed Our Fiscal Security, and two labor union presidents—Larry Cohen of the Communications Workers and Mary Kay Henry of the Service Employees—served on the Citizens’ Commission.
All of these progressive proposals advance a plan for a recovery that aims, first, for economic growth and job creation through public investment, aid to state and local governments, and aid to the unemployed, financed by short-term, stimulative deficits. Then by 2015, or when unemployment drops sufficiently (say to 5.5 percent), the plans would reduce federal deficits (achieving primary balance, not counting interest, by 2018-2020) during the economic recovery by relying in varying fashions on
- faster growth than would otherwise be expected;
- control of healthcare costs, the main driver of long-term budget problems, through a strong public option, bargaining with drug companies, and other reforms;
- higher revenues (mainly from higher taxes on the very wealthy, on financial speculation, on carbon [or through cap and trade or fuel taxes], and on eliminating many corporate and individual tax expenditures,
- cuts in defense, plus cuts in some farm and corporate subsidies;
- improved social safety nets and income security, including support for
- low-income workers, to reduce inequality and broaden consumer demand;
- long-term commitments to public investment in infrastructure, education (including in early childhood), green jobs, public transit and other needs that generate faster, more prolonged growth of the real, non-bubble economy.
The alternative, pushed by Bowles and Simpson and much of the Washington elite, is austerity. Cut budget deficits now. Cut social programs (even Social Security, which has no effect on deficits). Cut tax rates for everyone (while ending tax expenditures, which are skewed to the rich but include many helping the middle class). Cut government down to a smaller size, rather than invest.
Cut, cut, cut. It is all too reminiscent of banker Andrew Mellon’s advice to President Hoover at the start of the Great Depression: ”Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate . . . purge the rottenness out of the system.” Or, more precisely, the advice FDR mistakenly followed in 1937, after New Deal programs had helped stimulate job creation. Under pressure from conservatives, he began balancing the budget—only to lead to a new downturn.
The Citizens’ Commission report gives a good account of the 1937 mistakes and also provides an excellent historical, empirical and theoretical critique of austerity economics, just as “Investing in America’s Economy” offers useful reviews on health care savings, retirement security and public investment and growth.
These proposals demonstrate how it is possible to balance the budget with rising government investment, faster growth, more jobs, and creation of the basis for a new, more sustainable economy. Most working and middle class Americans retain the programs they need while most of the tax responsibility shifts to those most able to pay. Austerity is not needed; it will only make life worse.
There’s one hitch: even though these progressive plans fit well with popular opinion, they have virtually no chance of passage in their entirety, especially when John Boehner takes the House gavel next year from Nancy Pelosi. But probably none of the austerity plans could win outright either. Yet the progressive plans could help frame the debate for the next two years and the following election, if it “can put some spine in some of our Democratic friends,” according to Demos fellow and Citizens’ Commission member Robert Kuttner.
That spine is needed first and foremost by the man who got off to a bad start in directing the deficit dialogue on Monday, when he ordered a federal worker wage freeze for two years—President Obama himself.
This article was originally published on Working in These Times. | https://indypendent.org/2010/12/creating-jobs-trimming-deficits-progressive-budget-plans-challenge-dems/ |
For more than 35 years, attorney Walter T. Grabowski has provided sound, pragmatic advice and counsel aimed at helping our clients resolve disputes, minimize their future liability and protect their financial interests. With offices in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Grabowski Law Offices, LLC, is dedicated to providing small-to-midsize businesses and professionals with dependable representation...
Houston Harbaugh, P.C. is a business law and litigation firm serving large national companies, insurers, privately-held businesses, health care organizations, banking institutions, employers, professional corporations and their members. The firm ranks among the 20 largest law firms in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and among the top 100 in the Commonwealth. Since its founding in 1975, the firm has...
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The law office of David W. Saba Esq., Attorney at Law, is proud to provide comprehensive legal services to the people of Kingston, Pennsylvania. The firm offers legal representation to those who need help in the following areas: personal injury, business law, real estate law, estate planning and workers' compensation. Within the personal injury section of the firm, the following types of cases are...
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Philip Gelso, Esquire concentrates his practice in the area of criminal and civil litigation. He is admitted to practice before the state and federal courts in Pennsylvania as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (PACDL) where he serves as President Elect...
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With offices in Easton, and serving throughout Eastern Pennsylvania, the Law Offices of Edward P. Shaughnessy has helped individuals in their personal injury matters for more than 25 years. As an attorney, I make it my mission to work closely with the clients I serve. An injury is an intensely personal affair, and will affect all areas of an individual's life. As such, it is important to me...
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A Respected Pennsylvania Law Firm Injury Compensation • Criminal Law Disability Benefits • Estate Planning and Probate Although we are a small firm, few can match the qualifications, experience and successful record of Law Offices of Anthony Urban. We combine a welcoming atmosphere for clients with aggressive representation on their behalf. Our attorneys commonly receive referrals from...
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Since 1988, Fitzpatrick Lentz & Bubba has propelled growth in our clients and the Lehigh Valley as a whole. For nearly 30 years, Fitzpatrick Lentz & Bubba has served businesses and individuals throughout the Lehigh Valley from our Center Valley and Easton Offices. Our team’s legal experience spans a variety of practice areas, including business, real estate, land use, intellectual...
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Use FindLaw to hire a local litigation and appeals lawyer to walk you through all phases of a lawsuit - from pre-trial through the appeals process.
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Use the contact form on the profiles to connect with a Carbondale, Pennsylvania attorney for legal advice.
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Consider the following:
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Want to check lawyer discipline?
It is always a good idea to research your lawyer prior to hiring. Every state has a disciplinary organization that monitors attorneys, their licenses, and consumer complaints. By researching lawyer discipline you can:
- Ensure the attorney is currently licensed to practice in your state
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- Determine the seriousness of complaints/issues which could range from late bar fees to more serious issues requiring disciplinary action. | https://lawyers.findlaw.com/lawyer/firm/litigation-appeals/carbondale/pennsylvania |
Occupational Health (OH) aims to complement the University's academic reputation by providing a support service that promotes and preserves both the physical and mental wellbeing of all staff.
Working alongside our colleagues in the Safety and Environmental Protection Services we assist in ensuring that the work environment is safe and that a person's health is not adversely affected by their work activities.
The Occupational Health team comprises of a small team of our Occupational Health specialist doctor, nurses and adminstrative personnel who:
- devise preventative strategies for identifying and controlling hazards to health arising from work
- assist in fulfilling statutory and regulatory requirements to ensure that the health of staff and others is not adversely affected by their work
- provide an employment health assessment process
- provide pro-active management of sickness absence
- ensure that work health issues are appropriately managed
Our team also provides specific services to medical, veterinary, dental and nursing students.
We provide an advisory service whose role is to provide impartial advice regarding fitness for work to line managers who are responsible for staff and monitoring and control of sickness absence. This advice is aimed at assisting employees to regain and retain their good health and return to a suitable job as soon as their recovery allows.
Occupational Health is located at 63 Oakfield Avenue. The map below illustrates the location of the Unit (E10 on campus map).
Services Available
- Assessment and advice to individuals / line managers regarding ongoing fitness for work.
- Advice relating to individual's concerns at work.
Health Surveillance
The Occupational Health Unit monitor the health of University employees who work in specific areas with specific hazards which may affect their health. This includes areas where people work with respiratory sensitisers and those working in noisy environments.
Treatment Services
The Occupational Health Unit is unable to provide a treatment service. All staff and students are advised to register with a GP close to where they live. The Barclay Medical Practice based in the Fraser Building can offer advice and treatment to those registered there and, in an emergency, to visitors and staff/students not registered.
Psychology and Psychiatry
Employees can be referred through one of the Occupational Health Advisers to either the University Psychological or Psychiatric Services.
Confidentiality and Health Records
The service strives to pay careful attention to consent and confidentiality of service users. Personally identifiable information about service users is accessible only within the OHU. OHU staff will not pass on personal information about service users to anyone outside the service without the express permission of the service user.
Your confidential Occupational Health records are kept securely and are accessed only by the Occupational Health staff. Your general Occupational Health Records are kept for six years after you leave/graduate and you are entitled to have a copy of this information if you request this. Your health surveillance records will be kept for forty years and radiation records for fifty years. | https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/occupationalhealthunit/contact/about/ |
New York, USA, 1 June 2022 – Four battery associations representing the entire lead battery value chain are joining the Protecting Every Child’s Potential (PECP) initiative, founded in October 2020 to help protect children’s health from lead exposure globally.
The International Lead Association (ILA), Battery Council International (BCI), Association of Battery Recyclers (ABR), and the Association of European Automotive and Industrial Battery Manufacturers (EUROBAT) are joining PECP together as part of their joint Material Stewardship Project. The four associations have established a global programme to create a sustainable future by championing best practices in lead mining, lead production, lead battery manufacturing and recycling, and by encouraging responsible practices along the entire battery value chain through supply chain management and product stewardship.
The four associations have pledged to help advance PECP’s mission to ensure a future free from childhood lead exposure in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) where capacities, including regulatory, are often absent. In addition to other forms of assistance, the associations will provide pro-bono technical support remotely and, on the ground, to help LMIC regulators and facilities adopt global best practices. This is an activity that ILA and BCI have supported for many years with successful projects delivered in Africa, Central America and Asia.
“We wholeheartedly support the objectives set out by the PECP initiative,” said Mark DeLaquil, General Counsel of ABR. “Health and safety are always our highest priority, and we look forward to sharing our expertise and advice in those countries where lead and lead batteries are being recycled inappropriately or unsafely.”
“The health and safety of children is a universal priority,” said Roger Miksad, BCI Executive Vice President. “We are pleased to join PECP and other partners to support work in low and middle-income countries to help eradicate poor recycling practices. We believe the learnings of the North American industry can be adapted and shared with others through knowledge transfer to improve on-the-ground conditions in many targeted communities.”
“When we launched our material stewardship project, with our partner associations, the main goal was to work together with various stakeholders, such as NGOs and regulators, to help improve global standards,” said Rene Schroeder, Executive Director, EUROBAT.
“It also supplemented another self-imposed initiative from the battery industry, namely the successful employee blood lead reduction programme, launched in Europe and the U.S. more than 20 years ago. Finally, joining PECP not only perfectly completes these initiatives, it also brings the industry’s efforts for sound battery recycling to the next level and EUROBAT is thrilled to be a part of the campaign.”
“For more than 20 years we have provided our expertise in support of projects to improve the management and use of lead in low- and middle-income countries, working with government and non-governmental organisations,” said Andy Bush, Managing Director of ILA.
“ILA is therefore delighted to join PECP, working alongside committed partners, to help protect both workers and communities from lead exposures. PECP aligns closely with our own material stewardship programme, which is promoting the adoption of safe and responsible battery recycling in all regions of the world.”
The four battery associations call on other private sector stakeholders to join the PECP and advance its important vision: a future free of childhood lead exposure.
Private sector partnership is crucial to tackling the global health crisis of lead exposure harming 1 in 3 children globally, as recently highlighted in the joint report by UNICEF and Pure Earth. Common sources of lead exposure in low- and middle-income countries include unsound and informal recycling of lead-acid batteries, as well as spices, cosmetics and toys.
NOTES TO EDITOR
Association of Battery Recyclers
The Association of Battery Recyclers (ABR) is a trade association for North American lead battery recyclers. Its members proudly comply with the most stringent environmental, health and safety (EHS) standards in the world to help responsibly recycle 130 million used lead batteries annually, keeping them from landfills. ABR members supply the critical raw material needs of North American lead battery manufacturers.
Battery Council International (BCI) is the leading trade association representing the North American battery industry. Formed in 1924, BCI brings together battery manufacturers and recyclers, marketers and retailers, suppliers of raw materials and equipment, and battery distributors from North America and around the world. BCI members are committed to responsible manufacturing processes and have created a circular economy with 99% of its used lead batteries collected and recycled in the U.S.
Association of European Automotive and Industrial Battery Manufacturers
The Association of European Automotive and Industrial Battery Manufacturers (EUROBAT) is the leading association for European automotive and industrial battery manufacturers, covering all battery technologies, and has more than 50 members. The members and staff work with all policymakers, industry stakeholders, NGOs and media to highlight the important role batteries play for decarbonised mobility and energy systems as well as numerous other applications. | https://www.protectingeverychildspotential.org/battery-associations-join-protecting-every-childs-potential/ |
by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.
printable
version
The following steps are considered to be the "minimum package" in the
strengthening of relationships between countries of origin and national
diasporas:
1. The granting to the diaspora of unlimited or, at the very least,
restricted voting rights in the Motherland (e.g., Macedonia)
2. The institutionalized involvement of political structures representing
the diaspora in the politics of the Motherland (e.g., Israel) and vice
versa (for instance, the Jewish Congress and the Jewish Agency).
3. Holding common sports events (e.g., the Maccabia or Maccabead Games
as a Jewish Olympiad with participants from all over the world); the
exchange and transfer of students and professionals between the diaspora
and the Motherland.
4. The establishment of a fund for the purchase of land, the restoration
of national treasures to the Motherland, reforestation and preservation
of nationally or historically significant sites (e.g., the Jewish Keren
Hayesod and Keren Kayemet le-Israel)
5. The solicitation of donations, scholarships, and sponsorships from
wealthy individuals in the diaspora
6. Emphasis on cultural activities and the promotion of the national
language (e.g., various Francophone activities by France)
7. Selling bonds and stocks exclusively to the diaspora (e.g., the
Israeli Bonds) and the creation of various investment funds and vehicles
to encourage greater economic involvement of the diaspora in the Motherland.
8. Leveraging the nation's common history, religious affiliation, and
cultural roots to further national cohesion and political lobbying and
support.
9. Encouraging remittances with the implementation of a special, lenient
tax regime, the issuance of remittance-bonds, and by providing foreign
investors with tax holidays, one-stop-shop facilities, business incubators,
and direct access to decision makers.
10. Fostering knowledge-based networks of local and foreign (diaspora-based
exapts) businessmen, scientists, and experts; forming migrant associations
to share contacts and business opportunities and otherwise socially
network; encouraging returning citizens and providing them with tax
concessions, loans, and employment opportunities (e.g., Israel, China,
Venezuela, Uruguay, Ethiopia).
Barry Chiswick and Timothy Hatton demonstrated ("International Migration
and the Integration of Labour Markets", published by the NBER in its
"Globalisation in Historical Perspective") that, as the economies of
poor countries improve, emigration increases because people become sufficiently
wealthy to finance the trip.
Poorer countries invest an average of $50,000 of their painfully scarce
resources in every university graduate - only to witness most of them
emigrate to richer places. The haves-not thus end up subsidizing the
haves by exporting their human capital, the prospective members of their
dwindling elites, and the taxes they would have paid had they stayed
put. The formation of a middle class is often irreversibly hindered
by an all-pervasive brain drain.
Politicians in some countries decry this trend and deride those emigrating.
In a famous interview on state TV, the late prime minister of Israel,
Yitzhak Rabin, described them as "a fallout of the jaded". But in many
impoverished countries, local kleptocracies welcome the brain drain
as it also drains the country of potential political adversaries.
Emigration also tends to decrease competitiveness. It increase salaries
at home by reducing supply in the labour market (and reduces salaries
at the receiving end, especially for unskilled workers). Illegal migration
has an even stronger downward effect on wages in the recipient country
- illegal aliens tend to earn less than their legal compatriots. The
countries of origin, whose intellectual elites are depleted by the brain
drain, are often forced to resort to hiring (expensive) foreigners.
African countries spend more than $4 billion annually on foreign experts,
managers, scientists, programmers, and teachers.
Still, remittances by immigrants to their relatives back home constitute
up to 10% of the GDP of certain countries - and up to 40% of national
foreign exchange revenues. The World Bank estimates that Latin American
and Caribbean nationals received $15 billion in remittances in 2000
- ten times the 1980 figure. This may well be a gross underestimate.
Mexicans alone remitted $6.7 billion in the first 9 months of 2001 (though
job losses and reduced hours may have since adversely affected remittances).
The IADB thinks that remittances will total $300 billion in the next
decade (Latin American immigrants send home c. 15% of their wages).
Official remittances (many go through unmonitored money transfer channels,
such as the Asian Hawala network) are larger than all foreign aid combined.
"The Economist" calculates that workers' remittances in Latin America
and the Caribbean are three times as large as aggregate foreign aid
and larger than export proceeds. Yet, this pecuniary flood is mostly
used to finance the consumption of basics: staple foods, shelter, maintenance,
clothing. It is non-productive capital.
Only a tiny part of the money ends up as investment. Countries - from
Mexico to Israel, and from Macedonia to Guatemala - are trying to tap
into the considerable wealth of their diasporas by issuing remittance-bonds,
by offering tax holidays, one-stop-shop facilities, business incubators,
and direct access to decision makers - as well as matching investment
funds.
Migrant associations are sprouting all over the Western world, often
at the behest of municipal authorities back home. The UNDP, the International
Organization of Migration (IOM), as well as many governments (e.g.,
Israel, China, Venezuela, Uruguay, Ethiopia), encourage expatriates
to share their skills with their counterparts in their country of origin.
The thriving hi-tech industries in Israel, India, Ireland, Taiwan, and
South Korea were founded by returning migrants who brought with them
not only capital to invest and contacts - but also entrepreneurial skills
and cutting edge technologies.
Thailand established in 1997, within the National Science and Technology
Development Agency, a 2.2 billion baht project called "Reverse the Brain
Drain". Its aim is to "use the 'brain' and 'connections' of Thai professionals
living overseas to help in the Development of Thailand, particularly
in science and technology."
The OECD ("International Mobility of the Highly Skilled") believes
that: "More and more highly skilled workers are moving abroad for jobs,
encouraging innovation to circulate and helping to boost economic growth
around the globe."
But it admits that a "greater co-operation between sending and receiving
countries is needed to ensure a fair distribution of benefits".
The OECD noted, in its "Annual Trends in International Migration, 2001"
that (to quote its press release): "Fears of a "brain drain" from developing
to technologically advanced countries may be exaggerated, given that
many professionals do eventually return to their country of origin.
To avoid the loss of highly qualified workers, however, developing countries
need to build their own innovation and research facilities ... China,
for example, has recently launched a program aimed at developing 100
selected universities into world-class research centers. Another way
to ensure return ... could be to encourage students to study abroad
while making study grants conditional on the student's return home."
The key to a pacific and prosperous future lies in a multilateral agreement
between brain-exporting, brain-importing, and transit countries. Such
an agreement should facilitate the sharing of the benefits accruing
from migration and "brain exchange" among host countries, countries
of origin, and transit countries. In the absence of such a legal instrument,
resentment among poorer nations is likely to grow even as the mushrooming
needs of richer nations lead them to snatch more and more brains from
their already woefully depleted sources.
Also Read:
Immigrants and the Fallacy of Labour Scarcity
The Labour Divide - II. Migration and Brain Drain
Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism
Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He served
as a columnist for Global Politician, Central Europe Review, PopMatters,
Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United Press International (UPI) Senior
Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health and Central
East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101. | http://www.pollitecon.com/html/reprints/How_Diasporas_Can_Help_The_Motherland.htm |
A key component of this project is the capacity development of all concerned stakeholders. In particular agro-pastoral communities with emphasis on woman. Research activity is developed with community involvement to insure ...
Increasing resilience of livestock migration in the arid areas of India
This is a white paper that describes the results of a household survey of migratory pastoralists as well as results from GPS collar and land classification that tells us what type of forage resources pastoralists are ...
Silvopasture for the state of Rajasthan (India)
Blog on silvopasture entitled "Improving Dryland Agronomic Practices one Pastoralist at a Time"
Improving the livelihoods of dryland farmers through the introduction of potato cropping: a proposal based on detailed SWOT analysis
FAO has identified potato as a crop for ensuring future food security for the global poor, particularly in the developing countries. Strength of this analysis was demonstrated in India during 2003 and 2013 in terms of ...
Sustainable intensification of Sivi-pastoral system (CPR) - List of Participants
To increase awareness of agro-silvopastoral communities about the benefits of silvopasture a field awareness day was organized
Performance assessment of CropSyst model for yield and nitrogen uptake and water use of crops in hot arid north western Rajasthan
The crop yield and water productivity is a complex indicator because it can be ascribed mainly to agro-techniques, plant factors, and environment. Appropriate crop management strategies to improve yield and water productivity ...
Pastoral Land Use and Grazing Measurement through Remotely Sensed Data
About 60 percent of the world's pasture land (about 2.2 million sq km), just less than half the world's usable surface is covered by grazing systems. These are distributed between arid, semi arid and sub humid, humid, ...
Identify NRM options for sustainable management community silvopasture systems for enhanced biomass productivity, biodiversity & livestock production
This is a face to face workshop with farmers to promote silvopastoral practices, in the meeting the community generated rules that they should follow that are linked with the government funds for community development. ...
NRM and institutional options for sustainable management of silvipasture systems on community and private lands for enhanced eco-system services II
This is a list of participants for the training with their sign in. There were 55 male and 53 female participants.
Prospects of Cactus Introduction for Improving Livelihood in Low Rainfall Regions of India
Adoption and expansion of Opuntia ficus-indica in many countries due to its multiple uses as fruit, vegetable, fodder and medicinal compounds has prompted similar attempts in India, too. Since 1970 various research ... | https://repo.mel.cgiar.org/handle/20.500.11766/10/discover?filtertype_0=year&filter_relational_operator_0=equals&filter_0=2015&filtertype=institute&filter_relational_operator=equals&filter=Central+Arid+Zone+Research+Institute++-+CAZRI |
*The room rate depends on the seasons, days of the week and plans.
Please comfirm the room rate when you make a reservation.
The price mentioned includes the Tax and service charge. please note that the price is subject to charge without notice.
*Please note that payment needs to be made upon arrival at the hotel.
The hotel has its own parking tower. Before your arrival at the hotel, please notify reception that you wish to use our parking facilities. Only cars with a length, width and height less than 4950 mm (approx. 16 ft 3 in), 1950 mm (approx. 6 ft 5 in), and 1530 mm (approx. 5 ft) can be accommodated in the parking tower. However, it should be noted that some cars within the above measurements cannot be accommodated.
The overnight parking fee is ￥1000 (tax not included) on top of the hotel rate. | https://www.parkside.co.jp/en/reserve.html |
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> Overcoming a stammer for career success
Overcoming a stammer for career success
29 May
Tom
Battelley’s
journey into the professional world has been full of adventure. After being born with a neurological infection that affected his speech, he went through years of physio and speech therapy to overcome his stammer. Now, he’s thriving in his role as Senior Technical Associate in the Investment Trusts Custody Team & Transaction Reporting at DST. Here’s his story:
My neurological infection meant my speech and development were affected
“I had years of physio when I was younger, but as I grew up I started to have issues saying certain words and putting sentences together. I participated in NHS-funded speech therapy to improve my stammer but didn’t find this effective, so took it upon myself to improve my speech. It took resilience and confidence but I knew I needed to help myself.” In my 20s, I noticed the signs of a stammer coming back “While I self-managed my speech when I was younger, my 20s saw my stammer become lazy, and I was showing signs of not being in control or managing my speech. I struggled to answer phone calls successfully and people were often finishing my words and sentences. I found it hard to do the simplest of things like
buy
a drink or contribute to meetings. But then I turned 24 and my life changed radically – for the better.”
The McGuire Programme has changed my life
“In 2014 I applied for a speech development course, funded by a production company for the show Stammer School – Musharaf Finds His Voice. The McGuire Programme is run by stammerers, for stammerers, and is the most intensive, exhausting and rewarding experience I’ve had. I was filmed during the first four days of the programme, where I sat in a chair for 14 hours a day re-learning the phonetic alphabet, learning a new breathing technique and adapting tools to help me improve my speech. I also undertook a contact challenge, where I had to make a minimum of 100 verbal ‘contacts’ within four hours. This was
hard,
but helped me practice my techniques and work past any fears I had around rejection.
This training has completely turned my speech around – I now feel comfortable chatting on the phone, attending and leading meetings and taking part in interviews. Now that I have control of my speech, I even enjoy public speaking!”
Society takes verbal communication for granted
“With so many different communication platforms these days, non-verbal communication has become popularised – but in business, you can’t escape face-to-face speaking. It’s important to establish rapport and relationships in the working world, and for me, the ability to attend and lead meetings, seminars, talks and networking events is really important for my career success.”
I was limited
in
being able to communicate professionally
“Words can’t explain how hard it was for me to build up my professional and social life with a stammer. People with speech difficulties expend so much more energy speaking, and while I’ve been working in finance for five years, I was limited in my professional communication skills. The
McGuire Programme
was draining but I knew I had to put the effort in to change my life. Now, networking and building professional relationships come easily, and I’ve been able to grow my career the way I want. I attend courses regularly and use McGuire techniques every day to maintain my speech and make sure I keep moving forward."
DST has helped me to develop
"I’ve been at DST for a year and a half. After working in discretionary asset management, I wanted to pursue a career in fund administration. After a supportive, encouraging interview process with the support of Katie
Stopps
, Ross Cattell and Adele Carnera, I joined the Book and Pricing team as a Lead/Senior Associate in Asset Servicing. Everyone was approachable and understanding about my stammer, which made me know DST was a great place to work. I was then promoted to my current role and became part of the Creating Community Events team and have become a Service Improvement Lead for the Group Forum, which has not only been a fantastic professional
progression,
but also allowed me to develop my speech with confidence.
Though my development courses that take place are outside of work, DST has given me the chance to practice my techniques in the office environment. Everyone has been so supportive, particularly my managers who have encouraged me to move through the business. I interact with people all over the business and I’m loving having my voice heard. I feel like part of the DST family.”
I’m always working on my speech and myself
“I still have to work hard, but I have my tools and techniques to draw upon every day. Now, I love
speaking,
and have no fear of getting stuck
in to
both work and social activities. In the
future
I’d love to be able to lead a seminar on the importance of communication in business and social life, and continue to spread the message to my colleagues and friends. Now I’m looking at becoming a Primary Coach through the McGuire programme to help others find their voice.
I want to show other people it’s possible to overcome a stammer and lead a successful professional life. As I say every day, “Fight the fear, or the fear will fight you.”
Tom is just one of the many amazing people who are part of the DST team. If you’re interested in joining us, take a look at our
latest vacancies
.
For more on Tom's journey, take a look at his
before
and
after
videos. | https://www.careersatdstemea.com/news/overcoming-a-stammer-for-career-success-81492914854 |
Artist Spotlight: Skyler Simpson
A selection of paintings by Salt Lake City-based artist . Shifting between familiarity and fantasy, Simpson creates figures and surroundings that “exist on the edge of what is believable.” Her use of unexpected colours and awkward proportions work to create the sense of an internal landscape not quite rooted in the real world. As Simpson further explains her process:
“I collect and collage photographs and often invent a color palette reflecting my emotional state while I paint. Influenced by Northern Renaissance painters and their ability to convey authentic expression through quirky exactness, many of my pieces investigate the psyche that exists behind subtle facial expressions. Delicate shifts in their features suggest feelings of curiosity, anxiety, contentment, or isolation. I glaze oil paint in a manner reminiscent of these artists, building layers to achieve convincing detail. I am interested in creating familiar yet uncomfortable and ambiguous scenes; by making intimate, small-scale pieces, I encourage the viewer to search for a narrative within the details. For me that narrative includes contemporary mythologies as they relate to women. These females are vulnerable, sexual, but not sexualized. In part, the work serves as a counterpoint to women marginalized and objectified throughout art鈥檚 history.”
Check out more of Simpson’s work below! | https://www.aaca.cc/47/1985.html |
All effective learning objectives have certain characteristics. The developer should always take these characteristics into consideration when constructing objectives.
- Attainable: Is the objective possible to achieve by the average trainee?
- Specific: Is the wording concise? Has unnecessary and confusing verbiage been removed?
-Clear: Will everyone interpret the objective in the same way?
- Measurable: Can this behavior be measured? How? With what kind of gauge?
Effective learning objectives can be stated in a variety of formats. The most common format combines condition, action, and standard statements. This combination explicitly defines the condition under which the performance occurs, what knowledge or skill is exhibited, and the standards of acceptable performance.
Defines standard
Replaced/Superseded by document(s)
Cancelled by
Amended by
|File||MIME type||Size (KB)||Language||Download|
|DoE Guide to Good Practices for Developing Learning Objectives.pdf||application/pdf||471.76 KB||English||DOWNLOAD!|
Provides definitions
Introduction
This guide to good practices provides information and guidance on the types of and development of learning objectives in a systematic approach to training (SAT) program. Contractors are encouraged to consider this guidance as a reference when developing new learning objectives or refining existing ones. Training managers, designers, developers, and instructors are the intended audiences.
1.2 Definition
A learning objective is defined as "a statement that specifies measurable behavior that a trainee should exhibit after instruction." Properly prepared learning objectives consist of the following parts:
- A statement of behavior (action) the trainee must exhibit
- The conditions under which the action will take place
- The standards of satisfactory performance
1.3 Discussion
The development of effective training materials is dependent on the development of learning objectives which adhere to a strict set of criteria. Learning objectives are developed from analysis information obtained during the design phase of the systematic approach to training (SAT) process. It is important that objectives are developed and approved early since they form the foundation for the development of test items and all other training material. Because objectives serve as the design basis of performance-based training programs, they should clearly describe the trainee's desired performance to preclude misinterpretation. | https://segoldmine.ppi-int.com/node/67717 |
CACI uses a tiny micro-current, this stimulation delivers electrical impulses that mirror the body's own natural bio electrical field. This helps to tone, lift and re-educate the muscles back to their original, youthful position.
The low intensity of the current means that the process is slow and lasting, rather than a high intensity current which would merely make the muscles unwillingly contract or spasm back to their original form for a short period of time.
Proper firmness is re-established by contracting or expanding the muscles which corrects the sagging muscle and in turn corrects the sag of the skin. The treatment also stimulates blood circulation, which helps improve the muscle tone. | http://www.karenannbeauty.co.uk/how-it-works/ |
The Supreme Court had last week issued notice to the State of Karnataka in a batch of appeals challenging a Karnataka High Court verdict that effectively upheld the ban on wearing hijab in government schools and colleges.
The Karnataka High Court had on March 15 upheld a Karnataka government order (GO) effectively empowering college development committees of government colleges in the State to ban the wearing of hijab (headscarves) by Muslim girl students in college campus.
The petitioners – Muslim girl students from various colleges in Karnataka – had approached the High Court after they were denied permission to attend classes on account of wearing hijab.
A three-judge Bench of then Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justices Krishna S Dixit and JM Khazi held that:
– Hijab is not a part of essential religious practices of Islam;
– Requirement of uniform is a reasonable restriction on the fundamental right to freedom of expression under Article 19(1)(a);
– The government has the power to pass the GO; no case is made out for its invalidation.
One of the pleas before the top court argued that the High Court “failed to note that the right to wear a Hijab comes under the ambit of ‘expression’ and is thus protected under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.”
It also contended that the High Court failed to take note of the fact that the right to wear Hijab comes under the ambit of the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
With regard to uniform, the plea said that the Karnataka Education Act, 1983, and the Rules made under the same, do not provide for any mandatory uniform to be worn by students.
Arguments today
Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing for the petitioners, said that only if an attire disrupts public order, it can be restricted.
“It has to be seen that my attire does not fall foul of public order even if its not a core religious practice. Senior Advocate K Parasaran wears a religious symbol, but does it disrupt public order,” he said.
However, Justice Gupta refused to accept the same.
“You cannot compare lawyers appearing in court as there is a uniform. Other day Dr Dhavan cited pagdi but in Rajasthan people wear Pagdi as a matter of routine. In Gujarat also there is pagdi which is matter of routine, Am i correct Mr Mehta (SG),” the judge said.
Kamat said that the same is applicable for Hijab as well and the test is of public order violation.
“It cannot violate public order,” he said.
“You wearing hijab in public does not offend anyone. But if you wear it in school then what kind of public order are we talking about,” Justice Gupta replied.
Kamat said that maintenance of public order is the responsibility of the State and ‘Hitler’s veto’ is not permissible in a Constitutional scheme.
“Public order here is responsibility of the school. Suppose I wear a head gear on road and there is ruckus, police can come and tell me not to wear it as it disturbs public order. In a constitutional scheme, is Hitler’s veto permissible? There are precedents which states that such a thing is not possible. This is US judgment which was followed in India by a 2001 judgment,” Kamat contended.
He submitted that the State cannot take a ground that public order will be violated.
“It is your (State’s) duty to create an atmosphere where I can exercise my right in accordance with Article 25 of the Indian Constitution,” Kamat underscored.
Kamat also explained why he was making submissions on the aspect of public order.
“The GO uses the term public order. I am not making submissions in the air! If they did not raise it why will I submit it,” he said.
“Do not waste your time on public order Mr Kamat,” Justice Gupta stated.
Kamat said pursuant to the GO, hijab-clad girls have not been allowed entry into colleges.
“So they derive powers from the GO. Is there a written order by schools,” Justice Dhulia queried.
“There are no written orders,” Kamat said.
“This is not a fundamental right violation. It is not the positive right but the negative right that you want to assert,” Justice Gupta said.
“Article 25 rights cannot be contained in a pigeonhole of negative rights. It is the penumbra of rights which makes existence worthwhile,” Kamat replied.
He also contended that the State is entitled to make laws to regulate secular activities.
“Right to Education Act is a social welfare legislation and then they say hijab can be prohibited,” he stated.
The Court asked whether regulation of ‘other secular activity’ is applicable only to Hindus.
“No this court has held it applies to all religion starting from the Hanifi case. State in zeal to put it under 25(2) tried to pick a needle from a haystack,” Kamat stated.
Kamat said that the GO is not clear but muddy.
“High court has stated that the GO is as clear as Gangetic water.. but I would say that its totally muddy. A link such as this must be proximate and rational and direct,” he contended.
In this regard, he highlighted how Karnataka Education Act does not specify any restriction on hijab.
“Please see the preamble of Karnataka Education Act…Any restriction on right must be direct and proximate, not indirect or inferential. The High Court also referred to it. As per the State, preamble is a restriction,” he argued.
“Is there a restriction on wearing headscarf under law. there are none,” he underscored.
He also sought to distinguish hijab from bhagwa and how the latter is mere jingoism and not an innocent display of faith.
“Wearing of an orange shawl is not an innocent display of faith. Wearing orange shawl is an belligerent display of faith and Article 25 does not protect it. Rudraksh, namam, etc are innocent displays of faith,” Kamat contended.
In this regard, he also highlighted the scope of freedom of religion and conscience.
“In Hindu religion we worship deities and somebody carries photo of Lord Krishna or Rama in my pocket. I used to carry a photo.. it gave me security. Is it freedom of religion or conscience. The boundaries where one ends and another begins… such borders are nebulous,” he said.
Regarding the issue of Essential Religious Practice Test (ERP) and whether hijab is essential to Islam, Kamat said that the issue needs to be gone into only if the restriction is deemed to be a valid Constitutional restriction.
“Regarding ERP, there is a divergence of views between Karnataka, Kerala and Madras High Court judgments on whether hijab is an essential religious practice. Madras and Kerala have held it is essential, while Karnataka High Court has not agreed,” he submitted.
He concluded his submissions by seeking reference of the matter to a Constitution Bench.
Advocate Nizamuddin Pasha also appearing for one of the petitioners, then argued on ERP and whether hijab is prescribed in Quran.
He said that the High Court relied on incorrect verses to hold that hijab is not mandatory.
“The verse which shows no one can be compelled to convert has been used to hold Hijab is not mandatory in this case,” he said.
“Tell us which verses say hijab is necessary,” asked Justice Gupta.
“Please see the verse which shows how women should draw veil over bosom and how even for men lowering the gaze is important. The word used in Quran for Hijab is Khimar. In India we call it Hijab. Like in Arabic prayer is called Salah and in India we call it Namaaz. It is one of the pillar of Islam. Khimar is defined in oxford dictionary as a piece of cloth covering head,” Pasha replied.
Pasha pointed out that the High Court relied on a verse which quoted the Prophet as saying “let there be no compulsion in religion”.
“This is a gross is misunderstanding of the verse. It is on conversion. Conversion cannot be forced and no one can be converted to Islam if they don’t want to. That was the idea behind ‘let there be no compulsion’,” Pasha contended.
He then proceeded to quote Surah Al Ahzab.
“Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women, that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad). that is most convenient, that they should be known (as such) and not molested.”
Hijab, Pasha claimed, marks the identity of a Muslim woman.
“Milord hijab marks the difference and protects the identity of a Muslim women,” he stated.
He also contended that the High Court misinterpreted a verse on jilbab (covering entire body with a robe) as referring to hijab.
“The High Court judgment has drawn a conclusion from footnote that verse is recommendary and not mandatory. It concerns Jilbab and not Hijab. Many feel jilbab is not mandatory but bench has considered to be the footnote of hijab,” Pasha said
“So the scholar says God will forgive you if you don’t wear jilbab. But this is not about Hijab,” Justice Dhulia asked.
“Absolutely milord,” replied Pasha.
Due to misreading of the commentary, the High Court comes to the conclusion that Hijab is only recommended and not mandatory in nature, Pasha added.
Pasha also said that certain observations by the High Court borders on blasphemy.
“Commentator speaks about the time when Islam originated there was jahaliyyah and there were incidents of molestations and how hypocrites thrived then. But the High Court says that since this is about that time it has no implication now…..The last verse of Quran meant that religion of Islam was perfected by God for all times to come. High Court saying that verse of Quran is not relevant now anymore borders on blasphemy,” Pasha contended
“Don’t go so far,” Justice Dhulia said. | https://salahuddinayyubi.com/news/right-to-education-act-is-a-social-welfare-legislation-and-then-they-say-hijab-can-be-prohibited-said-senior-advocate-devadatt-kamat/ |
Most of us know about St Patrick as the patron saint of Ireland and the saint behind the famous St Paddy’s Day celebrations that are marked across the world. But what miracles did he perform in order to be canonised as an official saint by the Catholic church?
Image Credit
Patrick’s Early Life
Want to know what’s behind the story of those St Patricks Day gifts you’ll see each year? Patrick was born in Scotland in 385 to Roman parents. At the age of 14 he was captured as a slave and taken to Ireland, a country filled with Druids and pagans. The young Patrick rapidly learned their customs and language whilst praying to God continuously. He had a dream that God told him to escape, which he did – being helped by sailors who helped him to return to his family in England. Patrick continued to receive messages from God in dreams, and he began to study for the priesthood. Later he became a bishop, and he returned to Ireland in a bid to bring the word of Jesus and the Gospel to its people.
Converting the Pagans
When he arrived, a tribal chief ordered him to be killed, but his arm was prevented from moving – the first miracle. As he relented towards Patrick, his arm began to move again. Later, Patrick was able to teach the Gospel and convert thousands of Irish pagans. He built 300 churches and baptised more than 120,000 people, working in the country for over four decades before dying as a pauper in 461.
The church granted him sainthood in recognition of many tales of miracles and his achievements. He died at the site of the first Irish church he had built, in https://www.catholic.org/saints/.
Many resurrection stories have been attributed to Saint Patrick, with around 33 famous ones on record. These include raising royals, children, siblings and women back to life. Others include creating food for starving people and bringing animals back to life. He is also believed to have stopped a fire. Find out more at https://www.shamrockgift.com/st-patricks-day.
The shamrock is associated with the saint, and he used it to explain the Trinity concept of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. After a life of miracles, this incredible man was named a saint on March 17th – the day that he died. | https://what-it-is.com/what-miracles-were-performed-by-st-patrick/ |
European Parliament Intergroup on "Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development",
the BlueAction project, and
ECRA - European Climate Research Alliance
would like to invite to the following online event:
Tipping points, extreme events and uncertainty: How can studying the Arctic help us predict future European climate beyond the mean?
Hosted by MEP Christel Schaldemose & MEP Urmas Paet
Date: 14 October
Time: 13:30 – 15:30 CEST
Venue: Web-Conference, GoToWebinar
EVENT PAGE on ebcd.org / AGENDA / RECORDING
We invite policy‐makers, MEPs and stakeholders to join us for this briefing event, where researchers leading on this topic from Horizon2020 climate research project Blue‐Action will present the current state of knowledge to decision‐makers and other policy‐stakeholders. The event will include a panel discussion with MEPs and Blue‐Action scientists, and is open to all who would like to learn more about this topic.
The Arctic is warming twice as anywhere else on the planet and rapid changes are occurring, from warming air temperatures to retreating sea ice. However, the impacts of Arctic change are not restricted to the far north, as the Arctic is connected to the rest of the world via atmosphere and global ocean circulation. Understanding the drivers of these changes, and the connections between the Arctic and the Northern Hemisphere, allows us to make predictions about the impact beyond the Arctic. Developing robust predictions is a vital step to allow businesses, communities and governments to be able to adapt to future changes.
Cutting‐edge research has suggested linkages between European weather and climate, and changes in sea ice and sea surface temperatures in the Arctic. In particular, extreme weather events such as heatwaves, cold waves or storms can be linked back to changes in the Arctic. These extreme events are predicted to increase in frequency and intensity, and can have huge impacts on ecosystems and human society.
The Blue‐Action project is an EU‐funded Horizon2020 project working to improve how we predict the impact of warming in the Arctic region on Northern Hemisphere weather and climate, by: | http://ecra-climate.eu/13-publications/213-blueaction-ecra-ig-event |
Press Release
COVID-19 Consumer Habits Assessed by FMCG Experts HRA Global
HRA Global, the food and drink experts, present the findings of their coronavirus consumer habit research project. A "snap survey" of 100 participants was conducted by the food and drink market research company.
Torquay, United Kingdom, April 25, 2020 --(PR.com)-- Food and drink experts HRA Global has published some statistics relating to consumer habits during the coronavirus outbreak. The FMCG experts have been analysing trends and data since the COVID-19 pandemic began and the findings have been presented.
HRA Global’s consumer panel research team conducted a remote, online "snap survey," which involved 100 participants. There were some unsurprising results given the times, with 41% of people stocking up on frozen and tinned foods, while the amount shoppers are spending in a single shop has soared. Of the surveyed participants, 67% revealed that they were spending more on their shop.
It seems that the government’s social distancing advice is being heard up and down the UK, as 63% said that they are visiting supermarkets or stores much less than they were before March 2020. Only 14% said that they are shopping just as much now than they were before the coronavirus outbreak in the UK. Meanwhile, 31% of people said that they are shopping in Express stores or local stores, as opposed to large supermarkets.
HRA Global also presents some intriguing statistics in other areas; alcohol consumption, for example. Of the participants, 22% of consumers admitted to buying more alcohol. While more people are buying more alcohol, it seems that a lot more are cooking from scratch. Out of the 100 people surveyed, 60 said that they are now cooking from scratch more. This coincides with the ready meal sales figures being down.
Lastly, cupboard filling foods such as pasta and rice; just over 33% of people said that they were stocking up on these types of foods.
You can read the extended analysis of the COVID-19 consumer research report by reading HRA Global’s Initial Shopper Verdict - Changes in Lockdown article. HRA Global is continually analysing trends and spending patterns within the food and drink industry. They will no doubt be working to produce more figures and key information on spending habits, as the coronavirus pandemic continues and the UK lockdown remains still in place.
About HRA Global
HRA Global are food and drink experts, dedicated to helping brands improve their exposure and market position. Not only do HRA Global carry out extensive food and drink market research services, but are adept in all areas of marketing and commercial consultancy.
With a portfolio of over 100 satisfied clients, HRA Global has become known as one of Europe’s leading FMCG consulting companies. The company also offers international food and drink brands a route into the UK market, devising comprehensive UK market entry strategies.
Notes to Editor:
Available to publish and release immediately.
High-resolution images available on request.
Contact HRA Global on 020 800 43 800 or by emailing them at [email protected]. | |
I’ve just read a well-planned and lateral-thinking paper in Nature Communications that I think readers of CB.com ought to appreciate. The study is a simulation of a complex ecosystem service that would be nigh impossible to examine experimentally. Being a self-diagnosed fanatic of simulation studies for just such purposes, I took particular delight in the results.
In many ways, the results of the paper by Osuri and colleagues are intuitive, but that should never be a reason to avoid empirical demonstration of a suspected phenomenon because intuition rarely equals fact. The idea itself is straightforward, but takes more than a few logical steps to describe:
- Tropical plant species, and mainly trees, depend heavily on animals to disperse their seeds.
- The biggest tree species tend to have the biggest seeds.
- Animals tend to prefer bigger seeds.
- The loss of animals (= ‘defaunation’) through hunting or by deforestation/fragmentation can weaken seed dispersal.
- Thus, defaunation can cause tree recruitment to shift towards smaller-seeded, animal dispersed or abiotically (e.g., wind) dispersed species.
- The volume of wood in a forest therefore declines as defaunation progresses.
- As wood volume declines, so to does its carbon content.
- Thus, defaunation reduces the amount of carbon a forest can sequester, thus exacerbating anthropogenic climate change.
Simple — yes. Easy to demonstrate — no.
You can appreciate that to show this phenomenon experimentally would be very challenging, especially at scales relevant to the global carbon cycle. However, Osuri and colleagues solved the problem through a clever simulation study that mimicked the change in tree species composition following putative animal declines.
Another cool finding was that because the proportion of animal-dispersed species varies from tropical forest to tropical forest, the carbon sequestration decline from defaunation was in fact much higher in tropical forests of the Americas, Africa and South Asia, whereas because more species are abiotically seed-dispersed in Southeast Asia and Australia, the sequestration decline was much less (or even non-existent).
Most tropical forests are facing major defaunation as we speak from hunting, habitat fragmentation, selective logging and other human disturbances, so this is a real worry. In fact, the Americas, Africa and South Asia account for 3/4 of all tropical forests combined, meaning that defaunation alone (and the changing tree species composition this implies) could equate to 14 years’ worth of Amazon deforestation (in carbon terms) alone.
Another nail in the coffin of doubt that ecosystem erosion is bad for humanity. | https://conservationbytes.com/2016/04/30/one-two-carbon-punch-of-defaunation/?replytocom=80341 |
About us...
Trinity Episcopal Church in Cranford, New Jersey is a parish in the Diocese of New Jersey established in 1872. We have been an integral part of the Cranford community for generations.
Trinity Episcopal Day School offers a safe and nurturing learning environment with:
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An excellent child development curriculum
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Extended hours
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Flexible schedules
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Competitive pricing
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Easy to reach in central Union County
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We are dedicated to provide a nurturing, learning environment that promotes intellectual emotional, social, spiritual and physical growth.
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Member of the National Association of Episcopal Schools with an approved curriculum designed to promote learning through play
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Low, teacher/student ratio allows individual attention to small class setting
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Provides learning in all areas of development: Social/emotional, physical, cognitive and language
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Emphasis is placed on exploration and discovery, development of creative abilities and positive self-image.
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Understanding of sharing and team play based on playground and game activities, which develop motor skills.
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Spiritual development is enhanced through respect for one another and love of the environment. | https://teds205.wixsite.com/tedscranford/about |
Considered a country park when it was formed in the 19th century, Franklin Park is the largest and last component of the Emerald Necklace created by Frederick Law Olmsted. Although often neglected in the past, it is considered the "crown jewel" of Olmsted's work in Greater Boston. It is bordered primarily by Forest Hills St., Walnut Ave., Seaver St., Blue Hill Ave., Walk Hill St., and the American Legion Highway.
Franklin Park, previously known as West Roxbury Park, was renamed in honor of Boston-born patriot Benjamin Franklin, who documented in his will that he wished for a portion of his estate to be given to a worthy cause. The park brings together rural scenery, a woodland preserve, and areas for active recreation and sports. Franklin Park also has six miles (9.7 km) of roads and fifteen miles (24 km) of pedestrian and bridle paths to explore.
Much of Franklin Park is scenic and devoted to the general use and enjoyment of the public. Scarboro Pond and Ellicott Arch are popular sites within the park, as are the large forested areas. The park also has picnic areas, stone bridges, outcroppings of Roxbury Puddingstone, and old stone ruins, specifically the Long Crouch Woods of Roxbury—also known as "the Bear Dens." | https://www.hoovedao.xyz/hexpals-parks/franklin-park |
Contributors:
Levinson, Cynthia (Author)
Turk, Evan (Illustrator)
Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2021
Binding: Hardcover (Readerbound Available)
Retail: $18.99
""The first thing I can remember," Ben said, "I drew." As an observant young child growing up in Lithuania, Ben Shahn yearns to draw everything he sees-and, after seeing his father banished by the Czar for demanding workers' rights, he develops a keen sense of justice, too. So when Ben and the rest of his family make their way to America, Ben brings with him both his sharp artistic eye and his desire to fight for what's right. As he grows, he speaks for justice through his art-from challenging classmates who bully him for being Jewish, to resisting his teachers' calls to paint beautiful landscapes in favor of painting stories true to life, to using his work to urge the US government to pass Depression-era laws that help people find food and security. In this moving and timely portrait, award-winning author and illustrator Cynthia Levinson and Evan Turk honor an artist, immigrant, and activist whose work still resonates today: a true painter for the people"--
Nunc neque neque, blandit finibus libero eget, placerat gravida magna. Duis suscipit scelerisque nisi nec auctor. Fusce ac mauris nunc. Duis et fermentum quam.
Citation: pg. 1
Morbi congue, mi commodo vehicula molestie, erat mi vulputate ex, in elementum nibh magna id leo. Integer sed odio in felis sodales dapibus. | https://www.mrsnelsons.com/wholesale/detail?isbn=1419741306&readerbound=0 |
In this special edition of the Prabuddha Bharata, we delve deep into the overwhelming influence that digital and communication technologies are exerting on us. With help from experts in the fields of Science and Technology, Sociology, Work Ethics, Spirituality, Philosophy and Psychology amongst others, we try to determine the impact of present and future technologies on our lives, thinking, personality and the world in general.
Further, we also explore solutions to various kinds of problems and challenges, faced by individuals and humanity due to the advent of this new phenomenon in human history.
Among the authors, we have distinguished monks of the Ramakrishna order, scholars, academicians, technocrats, professionals and young people have shared their knowledge and experience in dealing with the present scenario to find ways to lead a fruitful and enriched life by adapting eternal values of spirituality, especially Vedanta.
To pre-order copies, please visit the following link:
https://shop.advaitaashrama.org/prabuddha-bharata-january-2022-special-issue/
If you have not subscribed yet, please do subscribe for one/three/five years and you would automatically get the free copy of the 2022 special issue.
The articles presented here are not only of academic interest but also illuminate us with a practical understanding on how to adapt spiritual and ethical values in the digital way of life that we are living today.
Finally, as a kayak that floats on the water and not be drowned by it, this multi-disciplinary knowledge helps us not to shy away from technologies but instead provide a fine balance and navigate successfully this digital technological ocean without being consumed by it. | https://sipractce.com/2021/11/27/living-a-meaningful-life-in-a-digital-world/ |
Little is known about the psychobiological processes of adults, at age 23 who were born prematurely. Compared to infants born at term, premature infants face additional obstacles of immature body systems, more neonatal stress and are at risk for developmental delay and possible parental overprotective patterns. The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease theory asserts that early prenatal and neonatal stress disturbs hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function, which in the long run, affects later health and behavior. The purpose of this secondary analysis is to examine neonatal stress of prematurity on coping, emotional intelligence, physiological responses, developmental milestones and emotional health at age 23 years in a sample at risk for HPA dysfunction.
Prematurely born age 23 year olds, categorized into four groups of medical risk were compared to a term-born group on measures of: Daily Hassles Stress, Coping Response Inventory-Adult, Bar-On EQi, Adult Self Report and salivary cortisol responses in the Trier Social Stress Test. Significant differences in cortisol slope, between the term and premature medical risk group with high stress coupled with lower and upper socioeconomic status, were found as well as differences in total cortisol AUCg levels between premature groups. Significant differences in cortisol slope values were found for all 23 year olds with Adult Self Report psychological clinical problems. This study supports the HPA Axis stress response as a biomarker of premature birth and of psychological clinical problems. Preventative and clinical interventions for young adults to reduce and actively manage problems can promote adaptive emotional health behaviors and later physical health.
Recommended Citation
Hickey, Joyce Ellen, "Stress, Coping, Emotional Intelligence, Emotional Health and Cortisol in Premature Infants, at Age 23" (2017). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 597. | https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/597/ |
Former U.S. President Barack Obama penned an op-ed in USA Right this moment on Wednesday advocating for the safety of voting rights.
“After I spoke at John Lewis’ memorial service two years in the past, I emphasised a reality John knew higher than simply about anybody,” Obama wrote, persevering with:
“‘Our democracy isn’t a given. It isn’t self-executing. We, as residents, need to nurture and have a tendency it. Now we have to work at it. And in that process, we’ve to vigilantly protect and defend our most elementary software of self-government, which is the proper to vote.’”
To guard voting rights, Obama is urging the U.S. Senate, wherein he represented Illinois from 2005 to 2009, to put aside its filibuster rule, which permits as few as 41 senators to forestall laws from being voted on, and defend voting rights by way of passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Development Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.
Don’t miss: Here are Democrats’ options for changing the filibuster as Biden presses case for voting-rights bills
“That’s why I absolutely help President Joe Biden’s call to modify Senate rules as necessary to ensure pending voting rights laws will get known as for a vote. And each American who cares concerning the survival of our most cherished establishments ought to help the president’s name as effectively,” Obama continued.
The previous president cited restrictive voting measures taken by Republican-led state legislatures in recent times that make it tougher for individuals to vote and, in response to critics, place explicit new burdens on individuals likelier to help Democrats, together with metropolis dwellers, minorities and school college students.
From the archives (March 2021): Voting rights intensify as partisan battleground, with Democrats pushing H.R. 1 and Republicans altering election procedures at state level
After high turnout within the 2020 presidential election — wherein then–President Donald Trump drew more votes than any presidential candidate in history other than his Democratic opponent, Biden, who attracted greater than 7 million extra votes — regardless of efforts by Trump and allies to discourage absentee and mail-in votes, amid a life-threatening pandemic, state legislative efforts picked up, Obama defined, to institute provisions that “deal with sure polling areas otherwise, creating one algorithm for voters residing in cities and one other set for individuals residing in additional conservative, rural areas.”
What’s extra, in response to Obama, within the wake of the election, “one among our two main political events — spurred on by the then-sitting president — denied the outcomes of that election and spun conspiracy theories that drove a violent mob to assault our Capitol.”
The piece from Obama comes after Biden delivered an impassioned speech in Atlanta wherein he publicly backed altering the filibuster in any means essential to “protect our democracy.”
Two, and presumably extra, Senate Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, stay against dropping the 60-vote requirement, at the same time as each are on document as favoring passage of the voting-rights payments.
Sinema spoke on the Senate ground on Thursday, forward of a caucus lunch attended by Biden, of her perception that just lately enacted state restrictions on voting rights and procedures undermine U.S. democracy however said she would not set aside the filibuster to allow their passage by mere majorities.
Biden, rising from the caucus lunch on the Capitol, advised reporters that, as with civil-rights laws up to now, if these payments fall do quick within the Senate this time round, a follow-up effort might be mounted. | https://citigist.com/news/key-phrases-obama-urges-senate-to-do-the-proper-factor-as-he-backs-bidens-push-to-alter-filibuster-guidelines/ |
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How about geotherm established by study of mantle xenoliths?
Some sheared nodules 1450ﾟC, 200km: plumeeffect?
b. Different processes involved
different ages & tectonic history, e.g., deep root (~200km) of the Archean craton, very refractory (high Fo, residual) as compared to younger terrains (denser & easier to delaminate); some alpine peridotites may represent recycled oceanic crust (rich in graphite, originally diamonds?, with δ^13C organic character -25); some highly metasomtized by subduction zone processes ± sediments (where?) ; some affected by intraplate LVZ meta somatism, mantle plume under plating, thermal erosion, delamination.
c. Reactivation of the lithospheric mantle for magma generation
Decompression, thermal erosion, heating by rifting, plume underplating: mixing of magmas derived from mantle plume and the low temperature melting & metasomatized potion of the plume derived melts?
d. continental litheospheric mantle compared with oceanic lithenosphe less than 10% LIL elements of the bluk Earth stored in the continental lithospheric mantle?
Elemental systematic observed in fertile spinel lherzalites → estinate & reconstruct the composition of the primitive mantle.
Problem: secular systematic variations? E.g., different Ti/PGE in the Archean mantle and modern mantle? (apparently not).
9. 地殼的形成和發展
a. Why melt? Process involved & secular variation P.T.X, heat source. | http://www.nadmgl.tw/history/detail.php?classid=14&submenu=5&ID=22 |
- Published:
Halodehydroxylation of alcohols to yield benzylic and alkyl halides in ionic liquids
Sustainable Chemical Processes volume 3, Article number: 16 (2015)
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Abstract
Background
Alcohols are widely used, and sometimes renewable, reagents but the hydroxyl moiety is a relatively poor leaving group under mild conditions. Direct nucleophilic substitution of alcohols is a desirable reaction for synthetic and process chemists.
Results
Synthesis of twelve alkyl and benzyl halides was achieved in [Bmim]PF6 (Bmim = 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium) from their parent alcohols using ammonium halides as the halogenating agents. Trends in reactivity based on the alcohol and halide were discovered. Mechanistic evidence suggests that the reaction proceeds via SN2 substitution of the hydroxyl group, which is activated via hydrogen-bonding with the acidic proton of the imidazolium cation. Also, for benzyl substrates, equilibria involving formation of dibenzyl ether complicate the reactions and reduce optimum yields.
Conclusions
Ammonium halides are useful, solid and relatively safe reagents for the conversion of some primary alcohols to organohalides in ionic liquids (yields up to 81 %). Indanol under the same conditions yields biindenylidene (GC yield 63 %).
Background
Alcohols are widely encountered chemicals and are useful intermediates in modern organic synthesis due to their ability to be transformed into a wide range of products. Furthermore, many renewable feedstocks contain hydroxyl moieties. Unfortunately, hydroxyl groups are not favourable leaving groups under mild conditions. This usually means, for nucleophilic substitution reactions, that the alcohol must be activated and subsequently displaced in order to produce the desired product. This sort of procedure violates the principles of green chemistry as the activation step can be considered unnecessary derivatization. Therefore, direct nucleophilic substitution of alcohols is desired and is one of the key green chemistry research areas previously identified by pharmaceutical manufacturers . Catalytic methods for these reactions remain relatively underexplored and were the focus of a recent review .
In particular, halogenation of alcohols is a useful reaction as alcohol-starting materials are cheap and large varieties are commercially available. Many procedures are known that convert alcohols to halides however, they can involve harsh conditions and hazardous chemicals. For example, the chlorination of alcohols is traditionally performed using HCl gas or thionyl chloride, both of which are hazardous to human health and often produce many side reactions. Although improvements have been made upon these halogenation reactions, further green methodology is desired. On a laboratory scale, ammonium halide salts (NH4X) are solid reagents, which means they are easy to handle and measure.
Discovering a mild, neutral, highly selective and environmentally friendly system for catalytic dehydroxyhalogenation is desirable but it is not a trivial task. Compromises in the journey towards an ideal sustainable process have to be made. This is exhibited by some of the trends found in the literature regarding chlorination of alcohols. Some reports involve the use of triphenylphosphine (PPh3) as a superstoichiometric additive in dehydroxychlorination reactions [3, 4]. Although these systems use mild conditions (often performed at room temperature with neutral chlorinating agents), exhibit high selectivity, and possess a large and diverse substrate scope, a large amount of PPh3 oxide is formed in the reaction, which causes purification to be troublesome. An interesting reagent that has been researched in dehydroxychlorination reactions is 2,4,6-trichloro-1,3,5-triazine (TCT), which is generally considered non-toxic. Systems involving this reagent, in combination with either DMSO or DMF, give very good yields in short reaction times with no heating required [5, 6]. A drawback with these systems is that only two chlorine atoms of TCT are used in the reaction, and therefore atom efficiency is compromised. Another type of chlorination system involves the use of silicon-based chlorinating agents in the presence of Group 13 chlorides (e.g. InCl3) as catalysts [7, 8].
Recently reported methodologies concerning bromination and iodination of alcohols are similar in substance to the reports of chlorination processes; some are truly ‘green’ systems whereas others would not be suitable for scale-up [9–12]. One particular system produces alkyl iodides starting from the corresponding ketone with the use of a ruthenium-based catalyst that is active towards both reduction and halogenation . This system appears to be extremely useful as it can be used for a number of substrates and uses a mild iodinating agent, NaI. However, while crucial to organic synthesis, precious metal catalysis is often not economically feasible on a large scale.
Solvents are required in most organic synthetic processes to produce homogeneous mixtures, provide a means for energy and mass transfer, stabilize transition states, and/or provide a means for separation and purification of products . In the substitution reactions described above, dipolar aprotic solvents (e.g. DMF, DMSO) are often required to dissolve ionic reagents and stabilize intermediates. Ionic liquids are one class of alternative reaction media, which are suitable replacements for such solvents . The field of catalytic reactions performed in ionic liquids has been reviewed extensively and the sheer volume of transformations performed with ionic liquids is outstanding [14–16]. In surveying these reactions, an interesting observation is warranted. Depending on its properties, an ionic liquid can be used as an ‘innocent’ solvent, a ligand precursor, a co-catalyst, or even the catalyst itself. Ionic liquids have been used as “reagent-solvents” in bromination and iodination of alcohols, where the active nucleophile originates as the anion of the ionic liquid [17–19]. These systems have commonly been used with long-chain alcohols , which have previously been problematic to halogenate due to their poor solubility in most solvents. The greenness of these systems is enhanced as the ionic liquid can be regenerated and reused a number of times simply by stirring, with a NaX salt (X = Br, I), at an elevated temperature over a short period of time . This allows a number of reactions to be performed in the same solvent, which is generally unheard of in reactions involving traditional organic solvents.
The research presented in the current article arose from earlier findings in our group . Upon investigating microwave-assisted catalytic dehydrative etherification of benzyl alcohols in ionic liquids, attempts were made to observe the affect of pH on the reaction. Upon addition of a stoichiometric amount of NH4Cl to reactions containing benzyl alcohol as the substrate, the major product obtained was benzyl chloride. As this reaction was peripheral to the original study, no further investigation was performed at that time regarding the conditions and scope of this reaction. As mentioned above, the halogenation of alcohols under relatively mild conditions is an important synthetic transformation and the development of greener methods of performing these reactions is desired. Therefore, it was deemed worthwhile to perform further studies of this halogenation process. The goals of this study commence with the optimization of the chlorination process described above. Attempts were made to observe the affects of different ionic liquids, reaction time and temperature on the chlorination process. Using the optimized conditions as a starting point, reactions were performed on benzyl alcohol using different ammonium salts (NH4F, NH4Br and NH4I) to observe if halogenation could be performed using these reagents. A summary of optimization parameters is shown in Fig. 1.
Results and discussion
Further to our initially reported study , we discovered that palladium was not an essential component in the catalytic system for chlorinating benzyl alcohol. Therefore, a number of reaction variables (time, temperature and nature of the ionic liquid) were optimized for the non-metal catalyzed reaction of benzyl alcohol with NH4Cl to yield benzyl chloride. Reaction conditions (MW time and temperature) were optimized for the conversion of benzyl alcohol to benzyl chloride in [Bmim]PF6 (Figs. 2, 3). At 150 °C, after the optimum reaction time of 17 min, an NMR yield of 68 % was obtained. There is a distinct rise to a maximum yield followed by a decrease in yield with longer reaction times. Similar decreases in yield are observed when reactions are performed at higher temperatures. The decrease in yields is a result of by-product formation such as dibenzylether . Products and unreacted starting materials could be isolated from the reaction mixture via vacuum distillation, using apparatus described elsewhere . Purified products could then be isolated via flash chromatography or fractional reduced pressure distillation. Isolated yields (when determined) were not significantly different to those obtained via GC or NMR analyses.
The effect the ionic liquid had on this reaction was investigated while all other variables were kept constant (Table 1). [Bmim]PF6 was the most suitable solvent for this reaction. The reaction does not occur in hydrophilic ionic liquids, e.g. [Bmim]BF4, nor the conventional hydrophilic solvent DMF. This is not unexpected because dehydration reactions can be enhanced in hydrophobic reaction media. The reaction was also performed in two other hydrophobic ionic liquids: [P66614]DBS and [BMmim]PF6. This shows that the hydrophobicity of the solvent is not the only requirement and that the cation plays a critical role in the reaction outcome. An interesting inference can be made by comparing the results for [Bmim]PF6 and [BMmim]PF6 (68 % for [Bmim]PF6, 18 % for [BMmim]PF6). The only difference between these two ionic liquids is the identity of the substituent on the carbon between the nitrogens of the cation (Fig. 4): [Bmim]PF6 contains an acidic proton whereas [BMmim]PF6 bears a methyl group at this position. This observation leads to a hypothesis that the acidic proton of [Bmim]PF6 is playing a significant role in the production of benzyl chloride. Another interesting conclusion that can be drawn via comparison of the results for [Bmim]PF6 and [BMmim]PF6 is that HF, potentially produced via hydrolytic decomposition of the PF6 − anion, is not playing a major role in the production of benzyl chloride. Since the hydrolytic instability of PF6 − should be independent of the nature of the imidazolium cation. If HF was the active catalyst, it would be expected that both [Bmim]PF6 and [BMmim]PF6 would give very similar results in the chlorination of benzyl chloride. Based on the nature of the imidazolium systems, it was hypothesized that either one of two species was acting as the catalyst: an acidic species or a N-heterocyclic carbine (NHC) generated from the deprotonation of [Bmim]PF6 (Fig. 5). It was predicted that if the catalyst was acidic, addition of base would hinder the reaction whereas if the catalyst was an NHC, addition of base would improve the yield. Therefore, a reaction was performed where the optimized reaction conditions were used and KOH (potassium hydroxide) was added. It was found that under these conditions, no benzyl chloride was produced, suggesting that the active catalyst is an acidic species.
Mechanistic and equilibrium considerations
In this particular system, there are three acidic species that could be proposed as catalysts in this reaction: NH4 +, HF and the acidic proton of [Bmim]PF6. As [Bmim]Cl could also be used as the chlorinating reagent, one can conclude that NH4 + is not the major catalyst as the reaction proceeds even when NH4 + is not present. Also, we have already hypothesized that HF is not the catalytic species, as significantly different results were obtained when [Bmim]PF6 and [BMmim]PF6 were used, which should produce the same amount of HF if anion decomposition was occurring. Therefore, we propose that the major catalytic species in the presented reaction system is the acidic proton of [Bmim]PF6. The involvement of this proton is supported by the large decrease in yield (from 68 to 18 %) when [BMmim]PF6, which does not contain this acidic proton, is used as the solvent instead of [Bmim]PF6 in the chlorination of benzyl alcohol. The proposal that this acidic proton is involved is based on precedent seen in the literature. Despite having a relatively high pK a of 21–24 , this proton has been observed to participate in a number of interactions. In one particular case, where Michael addition reactions were studied, results obtained suggested that the acidic proton of [Bmim]PF6 formed a hydrogen bond with a basic catalyst, resulting in a decrease of activity .
In nucleophilic substitution reactions, there are two general mechanisms: SN1 and SN2. For SN1 reactions, the leaving group (in this case -OH) is ejected, forming a carbocation intermediate, which is attacked by the nucleophile. In general, SN1 reactions are favored by good leaving groups and highly branched systems that can form a stable carbocation intermediate (e.g. 3° alkyl reagents). For SN2 reactions, an incoming nucleophile attacks from the backside of the substrate and ejects the leaving group. SN2 reactions are favored by good nucleophiles and unhindered C-X bonds such as primary alcohols. In order to determine whether an SN1 or SN2 process dominates, competition studies were performed. Reaction of one equiv. NH4Cl with one equiv. of both benzyl alcohol and 1-phenyl ethanol was performed. This afforded benzyl chloride in yields identical to those performed in the absence of 1-phenyl ethanol. Under the reaction conditions explored, there was no evidence of 1-phenyl ethanol reacting. This lack of reactivity suggests that the reaction does not proceed in an SN1 fashion, as the more stable carbocation should afford higher yields of 1-phenyl-chloroethane than benzyl chloride.
The proposed mechanism for the conversion of benzyl alcohol to benzyl chloride for the reaction system used in this study is presented in Fig. 6. As described in the background section, hydroxyl moieties are very poor leaving groups and usually require activation of some sort in order to be displaced by a nucleophile. This is usually done by protonating the oxygen of the hydroxyl group with acid, producing an excellent leaving group. In the proposed mechanism (Fig. 6), we suggest that the activation of the alcohol occurs through hydrogen-bonding of the acidic proton of the imidazolium cation with the oxygen of the alcohol, causing the alcohol to bear a slight positive charge. This causes the alcohol to be activated and subsequently displaced by the chloride nucleophile in a SN2 fashion.
The examination of this proposed mechanism allows for rationalization of some of the previously described results. For the reaction performed in the phosphonium based ionic liquid, [P66614]DBS, a very low yield of product was observed. Since this ionic liquid does not contain an acidic site similar to [Bmim]PF6, without this acidic site, activation of the alcohol could not be achieved, leading to very poor conversions.
In our previous studies involving dehydration reactions of benzyl alcohols [20, 21], equilibria between the alcohol and product were observed. In the studies herein varying quantities of dibenzyl ether co-product were noted. This led to problems in obtaining better yields of benzyl chloride with longer reaction times. To investigate the role of dibenzyl ether in these halogenation processes, a reaction was attempted, using the optimized conditions (17 min, 150 °C, [Bmim]PF6) where dibenzyl ether and a molar equivalent of water was reacted in the presence of NH4Cl instead of benzyl alcohol (Fig. 7). From this reaction, it was found that after the reaction, both benzyl chloride and dibenzyl ether were present. This result indicates that an equilibrium does indeed exist between the two compounds, and explains the observed time dependence on the yield of benzyl chloride. As the reaction proceeds and water is produced, the yield of benzyl chloride decreases as the yield of dibenzyl ether increases.
Since benzyl chloride is the desired product in the reactions that have been presented thus far, it would be desirable to control the selectivity of these reactions and improve the yield of benzyl chloride. In the dehydration reaction of benzyl alcohol to produce dibenzyl ether, water is produced as a by-product. However, based on the mechanism proposed in Fig. 6 for the formation of benzyl chloride from benzyl alcohol, hydroxide is formally produced as a by-product. While the majority of the hydroxide produced may undergo rapid proton transfer with NH4 + to produce H2O, the highly ionic nature of the solvent may allow a substantial amount of the hydroxide to exist as a charged species in solution. Based on this argument, we hypothesized that the presence of a small amount of water added to the reaction mixture would hinder the production of dibenzyl ether more than it would suppress the production of benzyl chloride. In order to investigate this prediction, the best yielding reaction presented above (68 % yield of benzyl chloride) was attempted in the presence of a half molar equivalent of water with respect to benzyl alcohol to see what effect this had on the yield. It was found that this reaction yielded 75 % benzyl chloride, improving the yield slightly from what was previously observed. This result is in agreement with the rationale presented above. However, the amount of water added needs to be carefully controlled. When three molar equivalents of H2O are added, only a 39 % yield of benzyl chloride was obtained. Nevertheless, these findings show that dehydroxylation reactions need to be explored carefully in terms of the water content of the reaction medium and methods for removing water to enhance yields.
In summary, it has been discovered that an equilibrium exists between benzyl chloride and dibenzyl ether in the reactions that have been studied and that some control over this equilibrium can be acquired with the addition of a small amount of water to the reaction mixture. However, in order to improve the yield of benzyl chloride, it is necessary to gain further control of the production of dibenzyl ether, either through an additive or catalytic species.
Extension of this reaction to bromide, iodide and other alcohols
Using the optimized reaction conditions for the conversion of benzyl alcohol to benzyl chloride, attempts were made to halogenate benzyl alcohol with NH4Br and NH4I. The results for these reactions are summarized in Table 1. The yield of benzyl iodide is quite similar to the yield of benzyl chloride under the same conditions (72 versus 68 %), but the yield of benzyl bromide (50 %) is significantly lower. Based on the proposed mechanism, it would be expected that the best nucleophile, iodide, would give the best yield followed by bromide and chloride. Since dibenzyl ether was also observed as a product in the reactions involving NH4Br and NH4I, it is expected that similar equilibria exist in these halogenation reactions, as was the case for the chlorination reaction. Therefore, these yields are not completely comparable as the time and temperature dependence of the bromination and iodination reactions have not been fully investigated. Fluorination of benzyl alcohol was attempted with NH4F using a number of reaction conditions (80–180 °C, 15–40 min). For all of these reactions, it was not possible to identify any fluorinated product, although all of the starting material had reacted, in most cases. This result is not surprising based on the properties of the fluoride anion, which is a poor nucleophile but extremely basic and rarely reacts neatly in nucleophilic displacement reactions.
Using the optimized conditions for the chlorination of benzyl alcohol, attempts were made to halogenate a variety of other alcohols. These included substituted benzyl alcohols, both functionalized and non-functionalized aliphatic alcohols, and a secondary alcohol. The results of these studies are discussed below.
The first group of alcohols that were studied were para-substituted benzyl alcohols, to investigate the effect substituents had on the yield of the chlorination reactions. The results obtained are shown in Table 1. Products were identified via 1H NMR spectra of known compounds in combination with GC–MS analysis of the reaction mixtures. Isolated yields for some products are also reported. From these results, a number of interesting observations are made. Firstly, it is obvious that the yield of the chlorinated product is very much dependent on the substituent at the para-position of the aromatic ring. This is opposite to what was observed in the etherification reactions of benzyl alcohols, using a similar reaction system , where it was found that the substituent at the para-position had little effect on the yield of the etherification product. For the chlorination reactions, in comparison to when Y = H, it is seen that when Y = Cl, the yield of the chlorinated benzyl alcohol is improved whereas when Y = Br, NO2 or CH3, the yield decreases. These trends can be rationalized using a number of arguments. When Y = CH3 and the reaction is attempted at 150 °C, a large number of by-products were observed from the GC–MS analysis making calculation of the yield of the chlorinated product difficult. However, by lowering the temperature to 125 °C, better control of the reaction was obtained and a 46 % yield of 4-methylbenzyl chloride could be determined. This suggests that at higher temperatures the chlorinated product is generated but reacts further to give the observed side-products (incl. aryl-substituted methanes). This can be rationalized by considering that with an electron-donating group in the para-position, such as CH3, the benzylic carbocation that could be generated in the reaction mixture would react to give high mass by-products (e.g. di(p-tolyl)methane). For Y = Br and Cl, one would expect similar yields. This is not the case as when Y = Br, the yield obtained was 65 % whereas when Y = Cl the yield was 81 %. In the case when Y = Br or Cl, the corresponding etherification product is also obtained in a significant amount. As was explored to a certain extent above (Fig. 7), an equilibrium exists between the chlorinated product and the etherification product that is highly dependent upon reaction time. It is predicted that this equilibrium is also dependent upon electronic properties of the aromatic ring system, which is based upon the nature of the substituents. Therefore, it is possible that for Y = Br and Cl, the reaction conditions used did not optimize the yield of the chlorinated product. For the reaction involving 4-nitrobenzyl alcohol (Y = NO2), a number of interesting observations were made. From the GC–MS analysis, it is shown that the only product obtained was 4-nitrobenzyl chloride, along with unreacted starting material. This was the only benzyl alcohol substrate that did not produce any ether by-product, which is consistent with the results obtained previously . These observations suggest that the nitro group extensively modulates the reactivity of the alcohol and may give rise to some information regarding the mechanism of the etherification reactions. In comparison to the reaction of benzyl alcohol under identical conditions, it is observed that the nitro-substituted benzyl alcohol produces a slightly lower yield of the desired product (58 versus 68 %). This result is not surprising and can be rationalized using the finer details of the proposed mechanism of these reactions (Fig. 6). In this mechanism, a slight positive charge is generated, suggesting that a build-up of positive charge in the transition state will also be observed. In the presence of an electron-withdrawing group, such as NO2, this positively charged species would be destabilized, increasing the energy of the transition state and slowing the transformation of the alcohol to the chloride. No yield of chlorinated product was obtained for Y = OH and OCH3. Upon attempting to analyze the products of these reactions, it was found that the reaction mixtures were uncharacteristically viscous and a product had formed that did not dissolve in organic solvents (ether, acetone and hydrocarbons). These observations suggested that some sort of polymeric product formed in these reactions, as proposed in Fig. 8. This also implies that the methoxy group of 4-methoxybenzyl alcohol undergoes hydrolysis under these reaction conditions, producing the phenoxide which could further react in a similar way as 4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol to give a polymeric product. These results show that unfortunately this method is not applicable to all types of benzylic alcohols.
In order to investigate substrate scope, chlorination was attempted using 2-phenylethanol as the substrate. Using the optimum reaction conditions for chlorination of benzyl alcohol, 2-phenylethyl chloride was obtained in 60 % yield. From the GC–MS analysis, it was observed that only a very small amount of the etherification product was obtained and that no other by-products were produced. This result suggests that benzyl alcohols are much more reactive in this system, leading to unwanted side-products. Interestingly, the chlorination of this substrate was studied with an indium-catalysed system that used chlorodimethylsilane as the chlorinating agent, and although this system was successful in chlorinating a wide range of alcohols, no yield was obtained for this particular substrate . This result was rationalized with the prediction that a carbocation intermediate was being formed and since 2-phenylethanol is a primary alcohol, a primary carbocation would have to be formed, which is unflavored . The fact that the system presented herein is effective in the transformation of a primary alcohol to a primary chloride further supports the SN2-like mechanism described above.
With the discovery that this chlorination system was effective in the chlorination of 2-phenylethanol, investigations were performed to see if this system could be expanded to simple aliphatic alcohols. Since it is known that the [Bmim]+ cation interacts favorably with aromatic systems , the halogenation of 1-butanol (Table 1) was investigated to see if the presence of the aromatic ring was required for the halogenation to occur. The yield of the butyl halide increases with increasing nucleophilicity of the anion reacted (best yield obtained with NH4I). This is the trend expected when studying substitution reactions that follow SN2 mechanisms. This mechanism is also supported by the observation that no 2-butyl halides or rearrangement products were obtained based on analysis of the 1H NMR spectra for the reactions involving 1-butanol. One would expect that if a SN1 mechanism existed in these reactions, rearrangement products would be observed, as is the case with the indium-catalysed system . As well, it should be noted that no ether by-products were observed in these reactions, suggesting that etherification under these reaction conditions is limited primarily to compounds containing aromatic groups. Given the selectivity of these reactions, ionic liquid recycling studies were performed for the n-butanol to 1-chlorobutane process. The reaction was performed (150 °C, 17 min) and after completion, the product could be isolated via distillation. The diluted ionic liquid phase containing some unreacted alcohol was dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate, decanted, concentrated and then successfully re-used for the same reaction four times. Yields obtained were 50–57 % (based on the amount of alcohol added before each reaction).
Although it was observed that halogenation could be performed on aliphatic alcohols, the effect of functional groups on the halogenation process had not yet been determined. For this study, the renewable alcohol citronellol was chosen (Table 1) as it contains a double bond that could be reactive under the acidic conditions contained in this chlorination system. As before, the optimized conditions obtained from the study of benzyl alcohol were used. From the GC–MS analysis of this reaction, it was found that the desired chlorinated product was obtained as thea major product. A number of other by-products were obtained in small amounts such as the terminal alkene generated from an elimination reaction involving either the hydroxyl of the starting material or the generated chloride. This suggests that for the most part, the double bond functionality of citronellol is insensitive to the reaction conditions and similar compounds could be halogenated. However, if more acid-sensitive functional groups were present in the starting material, such as terminal alkenes or esters, it is predicted these groups would not be able to withstand the conditions of this halogenation system.
Based on the SN2-like mechanism proposed, it would be expected that the halogenation of secondary and tertiary alcohols using this system would be more difficult then benzylic and primary alcohols due to steric hindrance. This hypothesis was investigated by analyzing the reaction of 1-indanol (Fig. 9), a secondary alcohol, under the optimum conditions for halogenation of benzyl alcohol. Analysis of the reaction by 1H NMR and GC–MS led to a very interesting discovery. From the GC trace, only one major product was observed. The mass spectrum of this compound shows that the molecular ion has m/z 232.2, which corresponds to the alkene-bound dimer shown in Fig. 9. This type of product had not been seen in any of the other previous halogenation reactions performed and is highly unusual. The product was isolated (63 % yield) via flash chromatography and characterized via NMR spectroscopy, and high resolution mass spectrometry, which confirmed the identity of the product as spectra were in agreement with literature data . Further investigation of this reaction would be worthwhile to see if it could be expanded for use with other secondary alcohols. If expansion were possible, this system could pose as an alternative to the McMurry reaction.
Overall, it has been shown that NH4X (X = Cl, Br, I) in [Bmim]PF6 under microwave irradiation can be used to halogenate a number of alcohols. Fluorination was not possible under the conditions explored. With respect to para-substituted benzyl alcohols, the halogenation process is highly dependent upon the nature of the substituent. For aliphatic alcohols, the results obtained support a SN2 mechanism, as the yield is directly correlated to the nucleophilicity of the anion used and no rearrangement products are observed. It has also been shown that it is possible to chlorinate unsaturated aliphatic alcohols. However, it is predicted that this system would not be suitable to halogenate alcohols containing acid-sensitive functional groups. For 1-indanol, a secondary alcohol, an unusual coupled product was obtained upon attempting chlorination. Therefore, further investigation into the reactivity of secondary and tertiary alcohols in this reaction system may be warranted.
Experimental
Chemicals and instrumentation
[Bmim]Cl, [Bmim]Br, [Bmim]Tf2N, [Bmim]BF4 and [Bmim]PF6 were prepared according to literature procedures [26–28]. [BMmim]PF6 (BMmim, 1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium) was purchased from Alfa Aesar, while [P66614]DBS was received as a gift from Cytec Inc. Benzyl alcohol was distilled under vacuum and stored under a blanket of nitrogen in contact with 4 Å activated molecular sieves. Butanol was distilled from sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and stored, with 4 Å molecular sieves, under nitrogen. All other reagents were purchased from either Alfa Aesar or Sigma Aldrich and used without further purification.
A Biotage microwave reactor was used to run the experiments under microwave (MW) irradiation. The ‘very high’ absorption level setting was used each time to ensure controlled heating of the reaction. 1H NMR spectra were acquired on a Bruker AVANCE 500 MHz spectrometer with TMS as the internal standard. GC–MS spectra were recorded on an Agilent 7890A GC system coupled with an Agilent 5975C MS detector that was equipped with a capillary column DB-5 (column length: 30.0 m and column diameter: 0.25 mm). All 1H NMR experiments were performed with acetone-d6 as the solvent, except when [P66614]DBS was used, in which case the 1H NMR experiments were performed in chloroform-d. In all cases, samples were injected into the GC–MS instrument with use of diethyl ether as the solvent. All yields were determined by 1H NMR with use of acetophenone as the internal standard and reported in reference to the limiting reagent. Products could be isolated via vacuum distillation or flash chromatography.
General procedure for dehydroxyhalogenation reactions
Ammonium salt (1.10 mmol), alcohol (1.10 mmol), and ionic liquid (0.50 g) were placed in a 2 mL microwave vial equipped with a stir-bar. The vial was sealed under nitrogen and the reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature for 15 min to ensure homogeneity. The reaction was then subjected to microwave irradiation for a set period of time at a pre-selected temperature, both of which are noted in the results section above. Upon cooling, a sample of known mass was taken from the reaction mixture, added to a known amount of acetophenone (internal standard) and dissolved in acetone-d6 to be analyzed by 1H NMR. For analysis by GC-MS, a 0.1 g sample of the reaction mixture was extracted with 2.5 mL of dry diethyl ether. For product isolation, the ionic liquid was extracted with 3 × 5 mL diethyl ether. The combined extracts were concentrated and flash chromatography was performed using a Biotage Isolera system to separate any unreacted alcohol and ether by-products from the desired halogenated product.
Ionic liquid recycling was performed as follows. Ammonium chloride (4.40 mmol), n-butanol (4.40 mmol), and [Bmim]PF6 (2.00 g) were placed in a microwave vial. The mixture was microwave-heated to 150 °C for 17 min whilst stirring. Upon cooling, the vial was transferred to a distillation apparatus and the chlorobutane isolated . The ionic liquid phase was then treated as follows prior to re-use. The contents of the microwave vial were dissolved in anhydrous acetone (10 mL) and dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate. The mixture was decanted and the acetone removed under vacuum. The resulting ionic liquid was then re-used. Yields of chlorobutane were 51, 57, 56, 54, and 52 % (based on the amount of alcohol added before each reaction).
Conclusions
Further investigation of catalytic chlorodehydroxylation of benzyl alcohol in ionic liquids led to a number of interesting observations. Firstly, although it was initially thought that this transformation was palladium-catalysed , it has been proven that this transformation is acid-catalysed and that the presence of palladium has a negative effect on the yield of the desired product. As well, when benzyl alcohols, with the exception of 4-nitrobenzyl alcohol, are employed in this reaction system, an equilibrium exists between the chlorinated product and the corresponding ether that is highly dependent upon reaction temperature, time and substituent. Furthermore, based on experimentally obtained data, it appears that the dehydroxyhalogenation reaction proceeds through a SN2 mechanism and that the acidic proton of [Bmim]PF6 plays a crucial role in this process. It has also been shown that this reaction system can be expanded for use with other ammonium halide salts, with the exception of NH4F, and both functionalized and non-functionalized primary alcohols. However, when 1-indanol, a secondary alcohol, was used, no chlorinated product was observed and an interesting biindenylidene product was formed in moderate yields. It is known that biindenylidenes have interesting photochromic properties [1, 29–31]. Overall, NH4X (X = Cl, Br, I) in [Bmim]PF6 under microwave irradiation is a safe, green method of transforming several alcohols into the corresponding halides.
Abbreviations
- [Bmim]:
-
1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium
- [BMmim]:
-
1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium
- [P66614]:
-
trihexyl-tetradecylphosphonium
- DBS:
-
dodecylbenzenesulfonate
- PPh3 :
-
triphenylphosphine
- TCT:
-
2,4,6-trichloro-1,3,5-triazine
- DMF:
-
N,N′-dimethylformamide
- DMSO:
-
dimethylsulfoxide
- GC–MS:
-
gas chromatography-mass spectrometry
- OAc:
-
acetate
- TMS:
-
tetramethylsilane
- MW:
-
microwave
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Authors’ contributions
CP performed the majority (80 %) of reactions and analyses with the remaining portion performed by HK (20 %). FK conceived of the study, and participated in its design and coordination and wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Acknowledgements
We thank Memorial University, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and Research and Development Corporation (RDC) of Newfoundland and Labrador for funding.
Contribution for special issue on “Green and sustainable solvents”.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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The mechanism of Escherichia coli chromosome segregation remains elusive. We present results on the simultaneous tracking of segregation of multiple loci in the ori region of the chromosome in cells growing under conditions in which a single round of replication is initiated and completed in the same generation. Loci segregated as expected for progressive replication-segregation from oriC, with markers placed symmetrically on either side of oriC segregating to opposite cell halves at the same time, showing that sister locus cohesion in the origin region is local rather than extensive. We were unable to observe any influence on segregation of the proposed centromeric site, migS, or indeed any other potential cis-acting element on either replication arm (replichore) in the AB1157 genetic background. Site-specific inhibition of replication close to oriC on one replichore did not prevent segregation of loci on the other replichore. Inhibition of RNA synthesis and inhibition of the dynamic polymerization of the actin homolog MreB did not affect ori and bulk chromosome segregation.
The chromosome of the extensively studied bacterium Escherichia coli undergoes simultaneous replication and segregation and has no apparent mitotic apparatus for chromosome segregation, a situation very different from that of eukaryotes, where replication and segregation occur in temporally separate periods of the cell cycle. An unsolved mystery of the bacterial cell cycle is how chromosome segregation takes place. Several mechanisms have been proposed to drive the segregation of origin and bulk DNA after replication. In one model, cell elongation is proposed to be a crucial factor, in which the two newly replicated origins are attached to the inner membrane and separated by cell growth between them along the long axis of the cell (25). However, it is now clear that elongation occurs throughout the cell and the movement of the origins is much faster than the rate of cell elongation, indicating that cell elongation alone is not responsible for segregation (55, 60).
Active partitioning systems were first found in low-copy-number plasmids, where they are required for stable inheritance by distributing the daughter plasmids to both daughter cells (reviewed in reference 14). These systems fall into two families; one uses the ParM actin and its associated protein and binding sites to drive newly replicated sister plasmids apart during cycles of actin polymerization and depolymerization (4, 19). The second parABS family is less well understood mechanistically, although ATP hydrolysis-dependent cycles of ParA movement appear to play a key role in the segregation process (48).
Later, it was found that many bacterial chromosomes also utilize parABS systems for their segregation, for example, Bacillus subtilis (23, 37), Caulobacter crescentus (41), and both chromosomes of Vibrio cholerae (22). The typical chromosomal par locus consists of two genes, parA and parB (soj and spo0J in B. subtilis), and a cis-acting parS DNA element. ParB is a DNA-binding protein that specifically recognizes parS and subsequently spreads along the DNA to form a nucleoprotein complex (7, 37, 42). ParA is an ATPase that binds ParB and is proposed to direct the ParB/parS complex to the poles (18). These partitioning systems serve to facilitate chromosome segregation but are often not essential, for example, in B. subtilis, Streptomyces coelicolor, and Pseudomonas putida and for V. cholerae chromosome I (18, 23, 30, 35).
In contrast, these systems are essential for viability in C. crescentus (41, 54) and for segregation of chromosome II in V. cholerae (63). The latter requirement may be due to the fact that chromosome II has many properties of a large plasmid and its Par proteins are more closely related to plasmid-encoded ones than to those encoded on chromosomes (22). In C. crescentus, the par system may be essential only indirectly, as it is used for proper localization of the cell division machinery through at least two other proteins, PopZ (6, 13) and MipZ (53). PopZ captures the parB/ori complex and subsequently anchors it at opposite cell poles (6, 13). This results in the FtsZ polymerization inhibitor MipZ, which also forms a complex with ParB, to localize to the poles. High concentrations of MipZ at the poles and low concentrations at mid-cell restrict FtsZ ring formation to mid-cell for proper cell division (53).
In a similar indirect manner, Spo0J (ParB) in B. subtilis was recently demonstrated to recruit structural maintenance of chromosome (SMC) complexes to the parS sites in the origin region, where these complexes are proposed to organize the origin region and promote efficient chromosome segregation (21, 52). Furthermore, in sporulating B. subtilis, a different mechanism is used. RacA protein binds to a number of sites within ∼200 kb of the origin and then attaches the chromosome to the cell pole in the forespore compartment in a process that also requires Soj and the polar localized cell division protein DivIVA (5, 62). This process prevents the formation of DNA-free forespores.
E. coli and some of its gammaproteobacterial relatives do not encode any obvious parABS system for chromosome segregation (39). It is interesting that these same bacteria have a divergent functional analog to SMC complexes made up of MukB, MukE, and MukF (50) and use SeqA to modulate the initiation of replication (reviewed in reference 56). An E. coli 25-bp cis-acting site (migS) capable of facilitating bipolar segregation of the origin region has also been described (16, 64). However, in the same studies, deletion of migS was shown to have little effect on overall segregation, suggesting that the sequence is not important or is functionally redundant.
A body of experimental evidence has indicated that the chromosome loci segregate sequentially after replication, with a relatively short period of cohesion (36, 43, 47, 57). These data, in part, provided support for an “extrusion-capture” model for chromosome segregation in which a DNA replication factory located at a fixed cellular position pulls in the DNA to replicate and then expels the newly replicated sisters outward (34). However, the demonstration that sister replisomes track independently along the DNA in slow-growing E. coli argues against this model (47). Other observations have led to the suggestion that the organization and properties of the E. coli chromosome lead to “segmented” chromosome segregation in which extensive regions of the chromosome segregate together (2, 15).
In a different model, both transcription itself and the coordinated transcription of membrane proteins and their insertion into the membrane (“transertion”) have been proposed as processes that can drive chromosome segregation (12, 45, 49, 61). Nevertheless, these proposals have not been tested rigorously by experiments.
Additionally, it has also been proposed that the highly conserved actin-like cytoskeletal element MreB may play a key role in at least origin segregation (20, 31, 32, 51). MreB polymerizes to form spiral-like filaments that span the inner surface of the cytoplasmic membrane and is responsible for maintaining the cell shape (9, 17, 26). Resent studies have taken advantage of a small molecule, A22 (24), which rapidly disrupts MreB localization in vivo by directly binding to its ATPase pocket, inducing a state with low affinity for polymerization (3). Several studies have demonstrated that inhibition of MreB polymerization does not perturb initiation and progression of DNA synthesis but does apparently block segregation of newly replicated origins, but not bulk DNA (20, 31). Nevertheless, since MreB can serve as a cytoskeletal track for other proteins, its apparent role in origin segregation could be indirect, as supported by a reexamination of the role of MreB in E. coli DNA segregation (29).
Finally, thermodynamic considerations of the properties of a highly confined, self-avoiding polymer (representing a DNA molecule) in a rod-shaped cell-like geometry (representing a bacterial cell) have indicated that duplicated circular chromosomes could segregate spontaneously without any additional force in physiologically relevant timescales (1, 27, 28). Therefore, entropy alone may be sufficient to produce the observed segregation of replicated chromosomes, while plasmids use active partition systems because their small size in a “sea” of chromosomal DNA would not lead to effective spontaneous segregation.
In this study, we combined snapshot and time-lapse fluorescence microscopy of cells in which a single round of replication is initiated and completed in the same generation to examine the segregation of newly replicated ori loci. We also examined the effects of blocking replication at a repressor-bound array at multiple loci, together with inhibitors of RNA synthesis and MreB activity, to add insight into the segregation process. We found no apparent direct role of transcription/transertion, cis-acting sequences, or MreB dynamics in E. coli chromosome segregation. We showed sequential and symmetric segregation of markers in the origin region and were able to spatially resolve loci that are physically separated by only a few kilobases.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Bacterial strains and growth conditions. E. coli AB1157 strains containing lacO and tetO arrays were constructed as described previously (33, 57, 58). In brief, a lacO or tetO operator array on a plasmid (33) was PCR amplified using primers that provided 45 to 50 nucleotides (nt) of homology on each side of the target insertion locus. The PCR product was transformed to E. coli and integrated into the chromosome using λ red recombination (11). To construct the tandem lacO-tetO array, a tetO array (120 copies) was liberated from pLAU40 using NheI/HindIII and ligated to XbaI/HindIII-digested pLAU37, which contains 120 copies of lacO. The resulting plasmid was digested with XbaI/NdeI and ligated with the chloramphenicol resistance gene amplified from pKD3 using primers flanking the NheI/NdeI sites. A tetO-lacO tandem array, followed by a chloramphenicol resistance gene, was constructed using the same method by introducing the lacO array into the plasmid containing the tetO array. The tandem arrays were integrated into the chromosome using λ red recombination (11).
LacI-CFP and TetR-YFP (where CFP is cyan fluorescent protein and YFP is yellow fluorescent protein) were expressed constitutively from pWX6 (58). Unless otherwise stated, cells were growing at 37°C in M9 minimal medium supplemented with 0.2% glycerol and essential nutrients (58). For exponential growth, 0.5 mM isopropyl-β-d-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) and 40 ng/ml anhydrotetracycline (AT) were added to the medium to reduce repressor binding but allow normal replication and focus visualization. For replication blocks, exponentially growing cells were collected and washed using the same medium lacking AT by centrifugation (8,000 rpm, 1 min, three times) and subcultured in prewarmed AT-free medium. Cells were generally imaged 70 to 100 min after the block was applied, unless otherwise stated. The concentrations of the antibiotics used were 300 μg/ml for rifampin, 10 μg/ml for A22, and 100 μg/ml for ampicillin.
Fluorescence microscopy.Cells were grown to an A 600 of 0.1 to 0.2 and transferred onto a slide containing 1% agarose in the same medium. Cells were visualized with a 100× objective on a Nikon Eclipse TE2000-U microscope equipped with a Photometrics Cool-SNAP HQ charge-coupled device camera and a temperature-controlled incubation chamber. Images were analyzed and processed by Metamorph 6.2.
RESULTS
Segregation patterns of five loci in the E. coli ori region.Our previous studies have shown that genetic loci in the terminus region (ter), up to 400 kb apart, have a distinct spatial organization, with loci replicated by different forks frequently locating to opposite cell poles during most of the cell cycle (38, 58). This then raises the questions of whether origin regions on either side of oriC behave in the same way during chromosome segregation and whether any part of the origin region segregates first. In order to address these questions, extensive analyses were carried out with markers in the 423-kb region in the origin region, including oriC and migS, the latter a 25-bp sequence 210 kb clockwise from oriC, which was reported to act like an E. coli centromere (Fig. 1A) (16, 64). Cells for all experiments were grown at 37°C in minimal-glycerol medium, which resulted in a generation time of ∼100 min and with most DNA replication initiations occurring a few minutes after birth and terminating within the same generation (57, 58). Representative snapshot micrographs are shown in Fig. 1B to E, and the primary snapshot data are summarized in Fig. 1G. Time-lapse analyses are summarized in Fig. 1F.
Pairwise combinations of markers ori0 (−2 kb from oriC [−, counterclockwise]), ori1 (−15 kb from oriC), and ori2 (+15 kb from oriC [+, clockwise]) showed superimposition or partial overlapping of foci, suggesting that the position of any of the three markers broadly describes the behavior of oriC, although ∼2% of the cells had the −2 kb sister loci (ori0) separated apparently earlier than sisters of the ±15 kb loci (ori2 and ori1, Fig. 1B, red arrow, and G). Despite there being only 13 kb between the two closest ori loci, these loci are apparently resolvable both in time and in space.
Pairwise combinations of an oriC-proximal loci (ori0, ori1, and ori2) with ori-distal loci ori3 (−210 kb from oriC) and ori4 (+213 kb from oriC) showed similar timing for initial separation, with 91 to 95% of the cells having the same number of foci for each marker (Fig. 1G). In the 5 to 9% of the cells where there were two separated foci for one marker and only one focus for the other (Fig. 1G, rows highlighted in blue), the majority of the cells had the more oriC-proximal marker separated into two foci, consistent with sequential replication-segregation and the view that cells with a single focus rarely had two spatially nonresolvable foci. Furthermore, combination of ori1 with ori2 or of ori3 with ori4 showed that the timing for replication and separation of loci with the same distance from oriC but on opposite replichores were similar in most cells. Only 4% of ori1-ori2 cells and 5% of ori3-ori4 cells had two foci for one marker and one for the other.
The snapshots indicate that sister origins may not always segregate symmetrically from mid-cell to quarter positions (Fig. 1B to E, yellow arrows). For each ori marker, about 10 to 15% of the whole population showed asymmetric positioning of sisters, with one of the sisters close to mid-cell and the other close to a pole. In such cells, the two different ori markers exhibited the same asymmetric pattern (Fig. 1B to E, yellow arrows, and G), rather than the “opposed” asymmetry observed for loci in ter (58), despite there being up to ∼400 kb separating the markers visualized in both ori and ter.
Time-lapse analysis was used to assess the interval between the initiation of replication and the segregation of the various ori markers. For this, cells carrying an ori marker and expressing a fluorescent replisome component, YPet-DnaN, were grown on microscopic slides. Images were taken every 5 min, and the appearance of the replisome was defined as time zero. The period of DNA synthesis in these cells was ∼68 min (±6 min, n = 41; i.e., ∼34 kb·min−1), as judged by the time between replisome appearance and disappearance. The time difference between replisome appearance and visible separation of the ori marker was recorded. Fifty percent of the cells had two separated foci at 13 min for ori1 and ori2 and at 21 min for ori3 and ori4 (Fig. 1F). The separation of the ori-proximal loci at ∼13 min after replication initiation is in agreement with previous estimates of cohesion in the ori region (47). Loci ∼200 kb downstream of the ori-proximal loci (ori3 and ori4), which were replicated ∼6 min after the ori-proximal loci based on the ∼34-kb·min−1 replication rate in these cells, separated ∼8 min later, indicating that these loci (ori1, -2, -3, and -4) have similar periods of cohesion. To test if deletion of the proposed centromeric sequence would affect the timing of locus separation, the migS locus was deleted from our AB1157 strain. Cells with or without migS behaved identically for ori separation in our analysis (Fig. 1G).
Our data support the view that segregation of loci in the origin region is sequential and symmetric with respect to each replichore, with loci closer to oriC segregating earlier. We found no evidence for asymmetrically positioned cis-acting sites during DNA segregation. Whatever the global domain structure of the ori region, it does not preclude the spatial separation and independent segregation of loci.
Espeli and colleagues (15) have reported rather different conclusions using E. coli MG1655. Although the focus of this study was the dynamic behavior of different genetic loci, using the ParB-parS labeling system, the authors inferred that ori region loci segregated together some substantive time (up to 30 min) after replication, with only subsequently replicated loci in apparent nonstructured regions showing shorter cohesion and sequential replication-segregation. We do not fully understand the reasons for these differences. However, Espeli and colleagues used a richer growth medium (minimal glucose, Casamino Acids) and a lower growth temperature (25°C). With a doubling time of ∼120 min, these cells initiated and completed replication in different generations, with synchronous initiation at two origins occurring around 54 min after birth. These cells also had a very long period (∼100 min) between the completion of replication and cell division (D period).
Site-specific replication fork blockage does not interfere with replication and segregation of loci on the opposite replichore.We have previously shown that tight binding of fluorescent fusions of either TetR or LacI to arrays of their cognate operators can be achieved when they are expressed in the absence of their inducers (AT and IPTG, respectively) and results in replication blockage at the array (46). Furthermore, replication restarts rapidly upon relief of these tight repressor-binding events. In order to examine the consequence of replication blockage on one side of oriC to segregation of other ori loci, we analyzed a variety of genetic loci after site-specific replication blockage.
In the first experiment, replication was blocked at ori1 (tetO) using TetR-YFP (constitutively expressed from a high-copy-number plasmid, pWX6) by removing AT from the medium. Seventy minutes after the removal of AT, the proportion of cells with one ori1 focus increased from ∼25% to 90% (Fig. 2A, green marker). Importantly, loci downstream of the block, but not close to the terminus region, never duplicated in the 2 to 4 h following the block. Equivalent results were observed with other blocks in ori. An example is shown in Fig. 2C, where a similar block was induced at ori2 (tetO) by growing cells in liquid medium without AT for 100 min. These cells were then transferred to an agarose slide containing the same medium (without AT), and images were captured every 3 min. The locus ∼200 kb downstream, ori4 (lacO), never duplicated in the course of the experiment. These findings imply that tight TetR-YFP binding blocked replication and not segregation of the ori2 (tetO) locus and that the marker downstream was not replicated during the course of the experiment by the clockwise fork (because of replication blockage at the upstream tetO array), by the counterclockwise fork (because of ter sites), or because of potential replication barriers created by sequence skew or head-on transcription collisions.
When AT was reintroduced to release the replication block, within 5 min, 66% of the cells had the tetO array segregated (data not shown), and after 10 min, this proportion increased to 81% of the cells (Fig. 2B, green marker). This is consistent with rapid replication restart and the immediate segregation of loci after replication. This contrasts with the general ∼15-min cohesion period of newly replicated sister loci before their visible spatial segregation (see above; 47). The period of cohesion is modulated by the activity of topoisomerase IV (TopoIV), which removes the precatenanes that form between newly replicated DNAs (59). We propose that when replication is blocked by tightly bound repressors, there is sufficient time in the 70-min incubation period before release of the replication block for TopoIV to remove precatenanes so that, once replication resumes, segregation of newly replicated sister loci occurs immediately.
We next examined the consequence of blocking replication at ori1 on the replication-segregation of loci on the other replichore (Fig. 3A). After being blocked at ori1 (tetO; −15 kb from oriC on the left replichore) for 70 min, cells with one ori1 (tetO) focus increased to ∼90% as reported above. When the nonblocked locus being monitored was ori4 (lacO; +210 kb from oriC, 240 kb from the block on the right replichore), after 70 min of ori1 blockage, 33% of the cells had one ori4 focus, 22% had two closely spaced ori4 foci, and more than 30% of the cells had two clearly separated ori4 foci. Similarly, after 70 min of replication blockage at ori1, replication-segregation of R2 (lacO; +1,081 kb, midpoint of the whole 2.3-Mb right replichore) occurred identically to that in cells in which there was no replication block (Fig. 3E and G). These data confirm the independent action of replisomes on sister replichores (47) and show that loci on different replichores not only segregate independently but do so in such a way that each is not influenced by inhibition of the replication-segregation of the other replichore.
The segregation of ori2 (lacO; +15 kb from oriC and 30 kb from ori1) in ori1-blocked cells was also examined (Fig. 3A). After replication blockage for 70 min, the percentage of cells with one ori1 focus increased to 90% as reported above. At the ori2 locus, >50% of the cells had one ori2 focus and 16% of the cells had two ori2 foci very close together. Only 12% of the cells had two well-segregated sister ori2 foci, while 15% had an intermediate separation. Therefore, although blocking replication close to oriC on the left replichore does not prevent replication-segregation of loci on the right replichore, the proximity of ori2 to the blocked ori1 locus (30 kb away) does perturb the visible spatial separation of newly replicated ori2 sisters. This perturbation disappears when loci further along on the right replichore are examined. We assume that these differential effects on segregation are a direct consequence of the genetic distance between the unblocked and blocked loci. Blocking of any locus in the origin region (ori1, -2, -3, or -4) resulted in a very similar distance-related effect (summarized in Fig. 3A to D).
Finally, when replication was blocked at R2 (tetO; midpoint of the right replichore), all of the ori markers segregated normally (Fig. 3F), demonstrating that blocking replication at later loci on one replication arm does not affect the segregation of the origin region. Interestingly, when replication was blocked at R3 (tetO; ∼700 kb from dif), the two replicated L3 (lacO) foci, rather than segregating asymmetrically (57), were frequently placed on the outside of the two sister nucleoids, indicating that replication blockage near the end of replication can switch the sister nucleoid orientation as previously reported (38).
Our data (Fig. 3A to D) indicate that the mechanisms that govern the segregation of loci are the same for the left (L) and right (R) replichores, with no indication of a mechanism acting preferentially on either chromosome arm. Our analysis also demonstrates that early blockage (within the origin region) of one replication fork does not contribute to conversion of the normal <L-R-L-R> pattern of segregation to <L-R-R-L> or <R-L-L-R> (Fig. 3E and G), while late blockage of one replication fork switches nucleoid orientation, with sister loci derived from the blocked locus being located together in the nucleoid mid-region (38, 57).
Inhibition of RNA polymerase does not affect origin segregation.As both transcription and the insertion of newly transcribed-translated proteins into membrane (transertion) have been implicated as mechanisms contributing to bacterial chromosome segregation (12, 31, 45, 49, 61), we wished to test the consequence of inhibiting transcription (and thereby ongoing transertion) on segregation of ori loci. To do so, we synchronized cells for DNA synthesis using dnaC(Ts) mutation (40) and treated them with rifampin (300 μg/ml) to block transcription. dnaC(Ts) mutant cells were grown exponentially at 30°C and then shifted to the nonpermissive temperature (37°C) at an A 600 of ∼0.1 to block replication initiation but allow completion of ongoing rounds of DNA synthesis. After 2 h, the cells were shifted back to 30°C for 5 min to allow initiation of DNA synthesis (47). The culture was subsequently split in two with rifampin added to one of them. The A 600 of the rifampin-treated culture stopped increasing immediately after treatment, confirming that rifampin inhibited transcription effectively (Fig. 4A). Origin segregation was examined by snapshot fluorescence microscopy of cells with the ori1 (lacO) marker (Fig. 4B). Following inhibition of replication initiation (2 h at 37°C), most of the cells (77%) had a single ori1 focus, as expected. Cells with two foci were likely to be ones that were blocked for initiation but had not divided. After 5 min at the permissive temperature, during which replication initiation can occur, 73% of the cells retained a single focus. Although replication initiation occurs efficiently under these conditions, most of the newly replicated loci have not segregated (47, 59). By 70 min after replication initiation, the rifampin-treated and rifampin-free cultures showed essentially identical distributions of foci, with >80% of the cells containing two or more ori1 foci. Nevertheless, 35 min after replication initiation, only 65% of the rifampin-treated cells had two or more ori1 foci, compared to >80% of the cells in the nontreated control. Therefore, inhibition of transcription appeared to cause a slight delay of the replication-segregation process upon replication initiation.
In a parallel experiment in which rifampin was added 5 min before a shift back to the permissive temperature to allow replication initiation, >80% of the cells contained two or more foci after 70 min at the permissive temperature, while 56% of the cells contained two or more ori1 foci at 35 min (data not shown). This result implies that inhibition of transcription does not prevent ori locus segregation but may delay replication initiation. Nevertheless, essentially all of the cells were able to initiate replication in a dnaC(Ts) strain shifted to the permissive temperature and to subsequently segregate newly replicated loci under conditions of transcription inhibition.
Time-lapse experiments confirmed the above observations (Fig. 4C). Following synchronization, cells were left at the permissive temperature for 5 min to allow replication initiation and then rifampin was added to the liquid culture for 10 min before the cells were mounted on the agarose slide containing growth medium and rifampin. During an 80-min time-lapse period, 20 of 36 rifampin-treated cells duplicated and separated their ori1 sister foci more than one-third of a cell length apart, whereas the average cell length increased by only ∼3% (compared to ∼68% without rifampin treatment). An example is shown in Fig. 4C; the length of the rifampin-treated cell increased from 3.8 to 3.9 μm over 80 min, while the sister ori1 loci segregated 1.4 μm apart between 20 and 30 min and were maximally 2.3 μm apart. This confirms that inhibition of transcription does not prevent segregation of newly replicated origins and that cell elongation is not necessary to allow ori segregation. Examination of the segregation of R2 and loci within ter after rifampin treatment also showed that segregation of newly replicated copies of these loci was not blocked by inhibition of transcription (data not shown).
Inhibition of MreB dynamics does not affect origin segregation.Having shown that neither transcription nor cell growth along the long axis is necessary for ori1 segregation, we examined the consequences of inhibiting the cytoskeletal protein MreB on ori locus segregation. In C. crescentus, A22, an inhibitor of the dynamic polymerization of the bacterial actin-like protein MreB, was reported to completely block the movement of newly replicated origins (20). Similarly, it was reported that after 1 h of A22 treatment, the percentage of E. coli cells with two ori foci decreased from 80% to 20%, suggesting that inhibiting MreB dynamics may also block origin segregation in E. coli (31). Furthermore, these same authors noted that cells expressing a mutant MreB protein failed to segregate their chromosomes normally (32). However, it has also been reported that A22 does not prevent chromosome segregation in E. coli (29). In an attempt to address this inconsistency, we used A22 to study the effect of MreB dynamics on origin segregation in our strain and under our experimental conditions. In all of our experiments, A22 (10 μg/ml) treatment caused cells growing in minimal medium to slowly change their shape from rods to spheres through an egg-shaped intermediate. A strain with a single point mutation in MreB, making it resistant to A22 treatment, did not undergo the shape change (data not shown), showing that A22 did inhibit MreB function in our experiments.
To study the effect of A22 on ori1 segregation, an exponential culture was split in two and one was treated with A22. Cells were harvested at various time points to score and compare the proportions of cells with one or more ori1 foci. At all time points, the proportions remained similar with or without A22 treatment and an increase in cells with one ori1 focus was not observed (Fig. 5A). Furthermore, when a dnaC(Ts) mutant strain was used such that A22 could be added at the time of reinitiation of DNA synthesis, no difference was observed between the A22-treated cells and the nontreated control, again demonstrating no influence of A22 on ori1 segregation (Fig. 5B). Finally, examination of A22-treated cells by time-lapse microscopy confirmed that cells continued to grow and segregate their ori1 sister loci during A22 treatment (Fig. 5C).
Our data therefore support the view that inhibition of MreB dynamics does not prevent segregation of the origin region. Furthermore, we found that L3, R3, and loci in ter were also able to segregate normally after A22 treatment (data not shown), and therefore inhibition of MreB dynamics by A22 does not affect bulk chromosome segregation.
Dynamic locus behavior in the region of replication blocks.During initial time-lapse experiments of replication-blocked cells, we noted that with a replication-blocked ori1 locus, the neighboring locus was sometimes seen to split into two closely spaced loci before reverting back to a single focus (Fig. 6A and B, 30-min block in liquid culture, followed by an additional 30 min on the slide before imaging, red arrows), thereby explaining some of the snapshot data (Fig. 3A to D). Furthermore, we occasionally observed a splitting of a blocked locus into two, before reversion to a single focus (Fig. 6B, green arrow). This behavior was not modified after rifampin treatment and was also observed in RecA− cells, indicating that it is not a consequence of transcription/transertion or induced by DNA breakage-recombination (data not shown).
To gain insight into these observations, we constructed hybrid arrays in which 120 copies of tetO (4.1 kb) and 120 copies of lacO (4.3 kb) are immediately adjacent to each other. This tandem array hybrid was inserted at the ori2 locus in both orientations, so that clockwise replication forks could encounter either the lacO or the tetO array first. Therefore, when replication was blocked at tetO, the behavior of lacO when either upstream or downstream of the block could be observed in time-lapse experiments.
When lacO was downstream of the block, only a single lacO focus, representing the unreplicated locus, was ever observed (Fig. 6C, 70-min block in liquid, followed by an additional 30 min on the slide before imaging; see movie S1 in the supplemental material). At most time points (93% in 25 time progressions, each of 14 time points), the lacO and tetO foci were superimposed.
When lacO was immediately upstream of the block, we observed frequent splitting and refusion of lacO foci (Fig. 6D, 70-min block in liquid, followed by an additional 30 min on the slide before imaging; see movie S2 in the supplemental material), indicating that a replication fork Y structure with two newly replicated copies of lacO adjacent to at least a partly unreplicated tetO locus allows spatial resolution of the sister lacO loci. Note that in these time-lapse progressions, as in those in Fig. 6C and D, the blocked locus exhibits an occasional splitting in two and refusion, indicating that the blocked locus has undergone at least partial replication, allowing some separation of the newly replicated tetO sisters. Analysis of 22 time-lapse progressions showed that the time during which the upstream lacO locus is split in two is about three times that of the blocked tetO locus.
The ability to spatially separate newly replicated sister lacO foci immediately adjacent to a blocked tetO locus was unexpected and shows that sister loci that are close and physically linked can be spatially separated. The length of an uncompacted 4.3-kb lacO locus is 1.46 μm; we do not know the conformation of such a locus in vivo and do not know how much of an array has to be bound by fluorescent repressors to give a focus. We would not expect sister copies of such a locus immediately behind a fork to become supercoiled because of the free DNA ends at the fork. Nevertheless, upon repressor binding, we observe a sharp focus indistinguishable from foci distant from replication forks. In Fig. 6D, the separated sister lacO foci are frequently ≥1 μm apart, with a smeary TetR-YFP trail between them. The 18- to 24-min time points in Fig. 6D are shown in Fig. 6E with the LacI-CFP (red) and TetR-YFP (green) channels placed side by side, along with a schematic that illustrates what we believe is the explanation for our observations. Assuming that the replication block is contained within the 4.1-kb tetO array, the centers of the upstream 4.3-kb sister lacO arrays can have a maximal spatial separation of 4.3 kb to <12.5 kb (1.46 to 4.25 μm uncondensed), depending on whether the fork is blocked at the beginning of the tetO array or toward its end. The outer extremities of the newly replicated arrays could be up to 16.8 kb apart. About three kilobases of an uncondensed newly replicated locus bound by the repressor at its compacted outer extremity (Fig. 6E, schematic) would allow the type of spatial separation that we observed, with the uncondensed array sequence either lacking fluorescence or with a smear of fluorescence instead of a sharp focus.
Another explanation for the observed splitting of the lacO sisters when the downstream tetO locus is replication blocked is the arrival of a new round of replication at the blocked locus that generates a double-strand break at the blocked fork. This physical unlinking would allow separation of the lacO sisters as observed. Nevertheless, we do not favor this explanation since this behavior is observed in cells blocked for a period of only one generation (Fig. 6C and D) or less (Fig. 6A and B) before image capture commences. Because there are no overlapping rounds of replication under our growth conditions, most of the blocked forks would not be encountered by other replication forks from a new round of replication within the time course of the experiment. Furthermore, the same behavior is observed in RecA− cells, in which we would not expect to see the refusion of the foci if the splitting were caused by double-strand breaks when new replication forks run into a blocked fork. We note that in these experiments, there is sufficient time for any precatenation present in the vicinity of the newly replicated sister loci to have been removed by TopoIV, which in turn may allow enough separation of the loci to explain the detectable splitting. These results provide new information on the spatial resolution of newly replicated loci using conventional epifluorescence microscopy and suggests dynamic behavior of newly replicated DNA in the region of a blocked fork.
DISCUSSION
The work presented here provides no support for the idea that transcription/transertion, MreB dynamics, or specific cis-acting DNA sequences play a key role in E. coli chromosome segregation. In cells with a single round of replication initiated and terminated in the same generation, segregation of the newly replicated sister loci of the ori region on different replichores is sequential, independent, and apparently symmetrical. Blocking of replication in one replichore does not prevent segregation of loci on the other.
It seems plausible that spontaneous chromosome segregation by entropic disentanglement of the chromosomal polymer (1, 27, 28) may provide the essence of the segregation mechanism. Therefore, the key to efficient and faithful segregation is likely to reside in chromosome organization itself and the processes that drive this organization, as well as independent replication by spatially separated replisomes tracking along the DNA and the subsequent decatenation by TopoIV. Consistent with this view, aberrant chromosome organization as a consequence of absence of functional SMC complexes (MukbEF) leads to an altered pattern of replication-segregation and to failures in chromosome segregation (8, 10, 44). It seems to us that the independent tracking of sister replisomes along DNA, outward from oriC (47), may facilitate the segregation of newly replicated sister chromosomes into separate cell halves, thereby allowing the entropic mechanism to mediate the segregation process efficiently.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank R. Reyes-Lamothe for the kind gift of the ypet-dnaN strain, K. Gerdes for the A22-resistant mreB mutant strain, and H. Niki for the migS deletion strain.
This research was supported by the Wellcome Trust.
FOOTNOTES
- Received 22 July 2010.
- Accepted 20 September 2010. | https://jb.asm.org/content/192/23/6143 |
SEC Chair Gary Gensler on Friday said financial agencies in the U.S. should share “one” crypto rule book in order to prevent loopholes due to fragmented regulatory structure. The recommendation comes after the bipartisan crypto bill proposes the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for crypto oversight.
In fact, Gary Gensler is in discussion with his counterparts at the CFTC to ensure satisfactory protection and transparency regarding the trading of digital assets. Moreover, SEC Chair Gensler claims that most digital tokens are securities.
SEC Chair Urges Shared Crypto Oversight With the CFTC
The SEC and the CFTC have never worked in tandem earlier. The SEC oversees the securities industry and the CFTC regulates the derivatives markets. However, cryptocurrencies led both agencies to have oversight of the crypto market.
As a result, the regulatory burden has increased significantly on the crypto market, along with rising penalties. As per data by crypto analytics company Elliptic, U.S. regulators have collected $3.35 billion in crypto enforcement actions since 2008.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler has always called for a strict crypto oversight and registration of crypto platforms with the SEC. Moreover, he was working on a memorandum of understanding with the CFTC in which the SEC has jurisdiction over platforms listing tokens that are deemed securities.
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However, the bipartisan crypto bill by US senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Cynthia Lummis proposed most digital assets resemble commodities rather than securities. It put crypto oversight in the hands of the CFTC, potentially reducing the SEC’s influence over digital assets.
Gary Gensler believes a shared crypto rule book will better protect investors against fraud, front-running, and manipulation, as well as provide transparency. He told Financial Times:
“I’m talking about one rule book on the exchange that protects all trading regardless of the pair — [be it] a security token versus security token, security token versus commodity token, commodity token versus commodity token.”
In January, CFTC’s Chair Rostin Behnam stated that digital tokens qualify as commodities, including Bitcoin and Ether. The CFTC is better aligned to manage the crypto market.
Gary Gensler Believes the Crypto Bill Undermines Protections
As the crypto market reels under massive pressure, the SEC Chair warned that the crypto bill undermines market protections. He believes most cryptocurrencies are unregistered securities that harm investor protection.
The SEC has already filed lawsuits against crypto companies, including Ripple. Moreover, the SEC is investigating Binance’s initial coin offering of BNB over a violation of securities law.
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Spanish, French, and Chinese are the three best languages to learn (after English). The obvious answer is that you don’t need to think twice about learning a new language if you’re going to work in a specific country. You have made... | https://www.ilovelanguages.com/author/marc/page/241/ |
The Chairman of the Cultural Affairs Committee Aadu Must said that Estonia must increase its investments into education to ensure sustainability. “Our national treasure is the intellectual abilities and skills of our children. If we fail to develop these, we will undermine Estonia’s sustainability,” Must said.
Must listed a number of problems in vocational education that the Cultural Affairs Committee had found through discussions with representatives of vocational schools, ministries, authorities, and businesses. These included the unpopularity of vocational education, hurdles between vocational education and future employers, and syllabuses bearing no relevance to current needs. Must was also sad to point out that graduates of teacher training shunned work in vocational schools, and that there were no benefits for employers in sponsoring vocational schools.
Must stressed that the goal of the Committee was not to find someone to blame. “Our task was to see if there were aspects where the law is lagging behind, where it creates obstacles, and where the legislator should do a better job. We found a whole host of such problems,” said Must, adding that the Cultural Affairs Committee planned to launch a discussion on the reform of vocational education, and formulate proposals to the Government of the Republic for solving these.
The Minister of Education and Research Mailis Reps spoke of the massive changes implemented in the vocational schools and vocational education. While in 1997 Estonia had 90 vocational education institutions, this number has now dropped to 33. The total number of students in vocational education is 25,000, and nearly 50 per cent of them are adults. “At the same time, we have to admit that the percentage of basic school graduates who enrol in vocational schools has not increased over the years,” Reps said.
“Analyses and recommendations by OSKA indicate that we are doing many things correctly in vocational education. We are developing career counselling, training vocational teachers, and supporting their internships in businesses, developing apprenticeship, and digital and business studies,” Reps said.
Reps believes that in the near future it is important to change the financing model in a way that would take into account the efforts of schools in achieving good results in education, but would also ensure a sufficient basic funding, which would give the schools the necessary stability and would allow them to support students with special needs more than before. “We need to start looking for solutions for technology centres, and reduce the unnecessary red tape surrounding our schools. We need to sieve through the conclusions of OSKA to determine the actual needs for developing education, and to change its structure where needed,” Reps said. “We need to increase our support to students, and reduce the number of people who drop out of the education system too early for any number of reasons. And, most importantly, we need to be open and positive regarding every school and teacher in Estonia, and every educational opportunity,” Reps added.
CEO of AS Standard Mr Enn Veskimägi made three proposals to improve vocational education on behalf of the Estonian Employers’ Confederation, and the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Firstly, to exempt apprenticeship training from social tax because the financing of the health insurance of a vocational student falls on the state. Secondly, to make the financing model of vocational schools performance-based. Experts of the field estimate that the current financing model is not sufficiently motivational for schools to invest in the quality of education. Thirdly, the quality of professional exams must be maintained.
“Granting a professional certificate must be an unbiased process, based on an assessment of the conformity of the skills with the requirements of the labour market. We believe that the organisers of professional exams must be found through competitions, and that the state should not set the examination fee,” Veskimägi said.
Tarmo Loodus, Chairman of Management Board Estonian Association for Advancement of Vocational Education, proposed that the legislation should obligate every individual to acquire a profession by 25 years of age, in order to improve the quality of the labour force and to reduce the number of unqualified workers. He sees vocational education as an efficient instrument of regional policy, and a component of security in peripheral counties.
Loodus also proposed that the future teachers should be sent to vocational schools for practical training so they could see how modern vocational training works. He also thinks that basic school aged children with special needs should be educated in special schools.
Heljo Pikhof spoke on behalf of the Social Democrat Party faction, stressing the need to strengthen the support systems of vocational schools, the organisation of internships, and improving the reputation of vocational education.
Heidy Purga spoke on behalf of the Reform Party faction, recounting how the Cultural Affairs Committee had reached the conclusion that one of the major pitfalls of vocational education was its lack of integrity, and its fragmentation between a number of institutions.
Viktoria Ladõnskaja spoke on behalf of the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union faction, stressing the need to improve the reputation of vocational education, and to prepare for the shift to the Estonian language teaching in Russian language vocational schools.
Toomas Väinaste spoke on behalf of the Centre Party faction, stressing that vocational education is one of the pillars of business, and that discussions on various questions of vocational training must be continued, with particular emphasis on students with special needs.
Krista Aru spoke on behalf of the Free Party faction, calling vocational education part of the natural educational path. Aru hopes that the Ministry of Education and Research comes out with an initiative to end the fragmentation of vocational education institutions. Aru does not see the reputation of vocational education as a big problem, because this is just a social attitude, and these are always notoriously difficult to change. Instead, the content of the vocational education should be developed.
Monika Haukanõmm focused on students with educational special needs, more particularly regarding inclusive education, scholarships, and physical accessibility of educational institutions.
Jürgen Ligi sees the key in breaking down barriers between general and vocational education.
Laine Randjärv focused on the training of musicians in vocational schools. | https://www.riigikogu.ee/en/press-releases/cultural-affairs-committee-en/riigikogu-discussed-vocational-training-matter-national-importance/ |
The Fifth generation of cellular mobile communications is called 5G. It succeeds the LTE/WiMax 4G, UMTS 3G and GSM 2G systems all over the world.
Performance target of the 5G includes high data-rate, reduced latency, energy-saving, reduction of the cost, system capacity higher than before, and massive-device-connectivity. By March-2019 5G first phase specifications in Release-15 will be completed, to accommodate early-commercial-deployment. The release-16 second phase will be completed by March-2020, for submission to the ITU as a candidate IMT-2020 technology.
The ITU IMT-2020 standard provides for high speeds up to 20-gigabits per second and has only been demonstrated with millimeter waves of 15 gigahertz and higher frequency. The more recent 3GPP standard includes any network using the NR New-Radio Software System.
5G New Radio can include the very lower-frequency system, which is from 600-MHz to 6-GHz. However, In these lower frequencies, speed is only modestly higher than new 4G systems, estimated at 15% to 50% faster.
5G Speed:
5G New Radio speed is from sub-600MHz to sub-6GHz bands can be modestly higher than 4G which is with a similar amount of spectrum and antennas.
5G Capabilities:
5G systems in line with IMT-2020 specifications are expected to provide an enhanced device and network-level capabilities, tightly coupled with intended applications.
The following eight parameters are key capabilities for IMT-2020 5G:
=========================
Capability: Peak data rate
Description: Maximum achievable data rate
5G target: 20 Gbit/s
Usage Scenario: eMBB
=========================
Capability: User experienced data rate
Description: Achievable data rate across coverage area
5G target: 1 Gbit/s
Usage Scenario: eMBB
=========================
Capability: Latency
Description: Radio network contribution to packet travel time
5G target: 1 ms
Usage Scenario: URLLC
=========================
Capability: Mobility
Description: Maximum speed for handoff and QoS requirements
5G target: 500 km/h
Usage Scenario: eMBB/URLLC
=========================
Capability: Connection density
Description: Total number of devices per unit area
5G target: 106/km2
Usage Scenario: MMTC
=========================
Capability: Energy efficiency
Description: Data sent/received per unit energy consumption (by device or network)
5G target: Equal to 4G
Usage Scenario: eMBB
=========================
Capability: Spectrum efficiency
Description: Throughput per unit wireless bandwidth and per network cell
5G target: 3-4x 4G
Usage Scenario: eMBB
=========================
Capability: Area traffic capacity
Description: Total traffic across coverage area
5G target: 10 (Mbit/s)/m2
Usage Scenario: eMBB
=========================
Note that 5G, as defined by 3GPP, includes spectrum below 6 GHz, with performance closer to 4G. The 3GPP definition is commonly used.
Deployment:
Development of 5G is being led by companies such as Huawei, Intel, and Qualcomm for modem technology and Lenovo, Nokia, Ericsson, ZTE, Cisco, and Samsung for infrastructure. AT&S is supporting the current roll-out of the 5G mobile communications generation with high frequency (HF) optimized interconnect solutions by developing and producing hybrid-printed circuit board (PCB) structures.
The worldwide commercial launch is expected in 2020 (As well as expected in EXPO 2020). Numerous operators have demonstrated 5G as well, including Korea Telecom for the 2018 Winter Olympics and Telstra at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. In the United States, the four major carriers have all announced deployments: AT&T's millimeter wave commercial deployments in 2018, Verizon's 5G fixed wireless launches in four U.S. cities and millimeter-wave deployments, Sprint's launch in the 2.5 GHz band, and T-Mobile's 600-MHz 5G launches in 30 cities. Vodafone performed the first UK trials in April 2018 using mid-band spectrum, and China Telecom's initial 5G buildout in 2018 will use mid-band spectrum as well.
Beyond mobile operator networks, 5G is also expected to be widely utilized for private networks with applications in industrial IoT, enterprise networking, and critical communications.
Mobile Networks:
Initial launches of 5G in the sub-6 GHz band will not diverge architecturally from existing LTE 4G infrastructure. Leading network equipment suppliers are Nokia, Huawei, and Ericsson.
5G Technology:
NRF (New Radio Frequencies), Frequency Range 1 (< 6 GHz), Frequency Range 2 (24–86 GHz), Massive MIMO Antennas, Edge Computing, Small Cell, Beamforming, Radio convergence, NOMA (Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access)
First 5G Network Deployments:
These countries have announced 5G trials and network launches.
Qatar, United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Finland and Estonia, South Korea, Australia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Lesotho, Norway... | https://www.freshmarker.news/2018/10/What-is-5G-5G-is-the-fifth-generation-of-cellular-mobile-communications-5G-Internet.html |
3 years ago
Effectiveness of the "What's Up!" Intervention to Reduce Stigma and Psychometric Properties of the Youth Program Questionnaire (YPQ): Results from a Cluster Non-randomized Controlled Trial Conducted in Catalan High Schools.
Feliu-Soler, Serrano-Blanco, Juncosa, Bernadàs, Luciano, Rubio-Valera, Tosas, Pérez-Aranda, Andrés-Rodríguez, Aznar-Lou
Mental disorders are highly prevalent in the general population, and people who experience them are frequently stigmatized. Stigma has a very negative impact on social, academic/professional, and personal life. Considering the high rates of mental disorders among children and adolescents (13.4%) and how critical this age is in the formation of nuclear beliefs, many campaigns to combat stigma have been developed in the last decade, with mixed results. The OBERTAMENT initiative has produced various anti-stigma campaigns in Catalonia (Spain). In the present study, the main objective was to report on the effectiveness of the OBERTAMENT "What's up!" intervention, a curricular intervention including education and social contact conducted by the teachers in the classroom with teenagers aged between 14 and 18. Prior to this, we examined the psychometric properties of the Youth Program Questionnaire (YPQ), our main outcome measure, in terms of dimensionality, reliability, and validity. A cluster non-randomized controlled trial was conducted to assess this intervention, which was tested in nine high schools situated in the Barcelona region. A convenience sample of 261 students formed the intervention group and 132 the control group (52% women, mean age = 14, SD = 0.47). The assignment to study conditions was conducted by Departament d'Ensenyament (Department of Education), Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government). Participants were evaluated at baseline, post-intervention, and 9-month follow-up. The main outcome measure of this study was the YPQ. The Reported and Intended Behavior Scale (RIBS) was used as secondary outcome measure. The statistical analysis indicated that the YPQ possesses a two-factor structure (stereotypical attitudes and intended behavior) and sound psychometric properties. The multilevel mixed-effects models revealed statistically significant interactions for both study measures and post hoc intragroup analyses revealed a significant but small improvement in the YPQ and RIBS scores in the intervention group. Overall, our results indicate that "What's up!" produced statistically significant, albeit small improvements in stereotypical attributions and intended behavior toward people with mental disorders. Some methodological limitations and the relatively low levels of stigma observed in our sample may undermine our results. The implications of our results are discussed in relation to stigma research.
Publisher URL: http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01608
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01608
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Reading tea leaves is a tradition of many kitchen witches, old aunts and kooky grandmothers. With The Cup of Destiny author Jane Lyle attempts to teach her readers a skill which tea bags and coffee makers have nearly made obsolete. This divinatory technique is meant to be a relaxing extension of staring into a cup of tea or coffee.
At the beginning of the book Lyle says she will describe two techniques which should not be combined: a “game” methodology and a “real” divinatory technique. Throughout, she offers clear and rigid directions on how to get divinatory messages. She has step by step directions outlined which are clear and easy to understand. Yet she skims over and is repetitive when describing the “game” method.
The cup and saucer are very busy with pictures covering most of the surface, but the significance of these pictures is never really explained. In four pages she discusses these symbols, yet gives only one line to play her “Cup of Destiny” game. While the author does give definitions of the symbols themselves and in a completely different section an overview of three levels for position within the cup, she doesn’t cover the significance of the symbols in relation to each other.
Throughout the book, Lyle uses clear and helpful diagrams to illustrate her techniques, but written directions were often repetitive. Literally the same information word for word is repeated in two consecutive sections, which left this reader wondering why. In the game section she utilizes the symbols on the cup to perform the divination. The reader sees where the grounds are located in the cup and instead of looking for symbols or pictures in the grounds the reader is to use the symbols on the cup. This seems to stray from the traditional tea leaf reading method.
Lyle does tell the reader to trust her own intuition over any meaning in the book. She reiterates this several times, stressing that a personal meaning is more important than her book meaning. That’s good, because some of her definitions of these symbols are clichéd and superficial. She is also inconsistent; her snake definition wavers on what it represents depending on which meaning in the book you look at.
Lyle includes astrology in tea leaf reading. Her definitions of both Eastern and Western astrological signs seem to be accurate, however, she advises the reader to only use this if they are studying these astrological techniques. At the end of the book, Lyle offers four sample readings with diagrams, which are very useful and clear. However, this section also includes information which isn’t referenced elsewhere. These both led this reader to question Lyle’s authority to discuss the topic.
While her brief definitions are interesting, Lyle contradicts some that are listed in numerous places. It seems that in an attempt to keep her format simple and short, she has left out some key chunks of information. This book might be a good starting point for someone with an interest in the topic, but if the reader is seeking depth they should go elsewhere. | http://facingnorth.net/Divination/the-cup-of-destiny.html |
How do you cook a 10 pound spiral ham?
Chef's answer
Cover pan tightly with aluminum foil. Bake at 275?F for approximately 15 minutes per pound, until heated through (see chart)..
Frequently asked Questions 🎓
✔
If you're ever in doubt, it's better to cook the loaf a little longer than to undercook it. An extra five minutes isn't going to burn the crust, and the worst that will happen is that your bread will be a bit on the dry side. ... If your oven temperature is off, it could be affecting the cooking times of your loaves.
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Cooking salmon on the stovetop is the ultimate in ease: if you don't want to heat up your oven or spend too much time in front of it, sauteing a fillet is the way to go. Or if you're looking for a low-fat option, poaching salmon produces tender, clean-tasting fish..
✔
Roasting salmon fillets in the oven gives you beautiful, succulent fish that doesn't require constant attention. This method, which we recommend if you're cooking four or fewer fillets, has you sear the fish in a pan on the stovetop first, which crisps the skin delectably..
✔
Cover a single large meatloaf with a piece of aluminum foil during cooking to keep it moist, but uncover it for the last 15 minutes of baking. "Meatloaf is highly suited to being either frozen raw for cooking later or cooked and frozen to reheat." Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.17 Dec 1997.
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Slow Cooked Bacon For this method, preheat oven to 350?F and cook bacon for approximately 30 minutes.
✔
Remove from oven when done, and place bacon on paper towels to drain more excess fat.
✔
Don't bother with racks, crimped foil, or stacked baking sheets.
A few more cooking questions 📍
Should you mix pasta with sauce?
With few exceptions (such as when you're making a pesto-style sauce or a simple Roman-style cheese sauce, like carbonara or cacio e pepe), pasta should be tossed with sauce that is already hot and ready. You don't want your cooked pasta to heat up in a cold pan of sauce, slowly absorbing more water and becoming mushy.
What Temperature Does a Little Chief smoker cook at?
165 degrees FahrenheitThe Little Chief will give you a consistent low temperature (165 degrees Fahrenheit) that you need to smoke foods. This way you never have to worry that your temperature shot up and you're now cooking and ruining your expensive, well-earned batch of salmon or jerky.
What is an eggy cake?
The eggy smell or taste you're getting is from the sulfur compounds in the eggs. These can be more noticeable after being exposed to high heat. ... You might find that one recipe tastes or smells eggier than another and this is completely normal. Some cakes do just have a subtle egg flavor or smell to them.
Can cumin seeds cause miscarriage?
Cumin has been used by some cultures as a substance to trigger miscarriage, so women that are pregnant or trying to become pregnant should keep that in mind. Cumin is very safe to take even in large doses. Some evidence has been found that it can suppress testosterone levels in men and may also trigger miscarriage.
Why is salmon bad for you?
Fish have extremely high levels of chemicals such as arsenic, mercury, PCBs, DDT, dioxins, and lead in their flesh and fat. You may even get industrial-strength fire retardant with that catch of the day. The chemical residue found in salmon flesh can be as much as 9 million times that of the water in which they live. | https://indonesian-recipes.com/how-do-you-cook-a-10-pound-spiral-ham |
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