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Prevention of obesity in children and youth is, ultimately, about community—extending beyond individuals and families and often beyond geographic boundaries to encompass groups of people who share values and institutions (Pate et al., 2000). In recent years, many public health professionals and community leaders have recognized the need for community involvement in preventing disease and promoting healthful lifestyles. Consequently, they have attempted to capitalize on the naturally occurring strengths, capacities, and social structures of local communities to institute health-promoting change.
Many factors in the community setting affect the health of children and youth. Does the design of the neighborhood encourage physical activity? Do community facilities for entertainment and recreation exist, are they affordable, and do they encourage healthful behaviors? Can children pursue sports and other active-leisure activities without excessive concerns about safety? Are there tempting-yet-healthful alternatives to staying-at-home sedentary pastimes such as watching television, playing video games, or browsing the Internet? Are sound food choices available in local stores and at reasonable prices?
Communities can consist of people living or working in particular local areas or residential districts; people with common ethnic, cultural, or religious backgrounds or beliefs; or people who simply share particular interests. But intrinsic to any definition of a community is that it seeks to protect for its members what is shared and valued. In the case of obesity prevention in children and youth, what is “shared and valued” is the ability of children
to grow up with healthy and productive bodies and minds. But “to protect” is not necessarily a given. Achieving the vision of Healthy People 2010—“healthy people in healthy communities”—depends on the capacity of communities to foster social norms that support energy balance and a physically active lifestyle (DHHS, 2000b).
This report as a whole examines a variety of types of communities and the ways in which improvements can be made in order to foster and promote healthful food and physical activity choices and behaviors. This chapter focuses on the local community, using the term “community” to refer to the town, city, or other type of geographic entity where people share common institutions and, usually, a local government. Of course, within each local community there are many interdependent smaller networks of residential neighborhoods, faith-based communities, work communities, and social communities.
The intent of this chapter’s recommendations is not only to make a case for raising the priority of childhood obesity prevention in our communities, but also to identify common interests that can spark collaborative community initiatives for addressing that goal. Many communities and organizations across the United States are actively working to address physical activity and nutrition-related issues; examples are highlighted throughout the chapter (Boxes 6-1 through 6-5).
By stepping outside the traditional view of obesity as a medical problem, we may more fundamentally focus on the many institutions, organizations, and groups in a community that have significant roles to play in making the local environment more conducive to healthful eating and physical activity. Table 6-1 illustrates categories of many of the stakeholder groups that could be involved in obesity prevention efforts. For community efforts, key stakeholders include youth organizations, social and civic organizations, faith-based groups, and child-care centers; businesses, restaurants, and grocery stores; recreation and fitness centers; public health agencies; city planners and private developers; safety organizations; and schools.
Community-based obesity prevention efforts differ from those of school and home settings (Pate et al., 2000), but potentially supplement and reinforce the messages received in those settings. Young people, particularly adolescents, often spend a large part of their free time in community locales (e.g., recreational or entertainment centers, shopping areas, parks, fast food restaurants). These informal settings, which do not have the stresses of grades or other school situations, may offer environments that are more conducive to trying new activities and foods. Additionally, community settings offer the potential for involving parents and other adult role models in
TABLE 6-1 Examples of Stakeholder Groups in the Prevention of Childhood Obesity
Children, Youth, Parents, Families
Child- and Youth-Centered Organizations
Program, service, and advocacy organizations (e.g., Boys and Girls Clubs, 4H, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, YMCA, YWCA, National Head Start Association, Children’s Defense Fund, National Association for Family Child Care)
Community coalitions, civic organizations, faith-based organizations, ethnic and cultural organizations
Community Development and Planning
Architects, civil engineers, transportation and community planners, private developers, neighborhood associations
Employers and Work Sites
Employers and corporate policy makers, employee advisory committees
Food and Beverage Industries, Food Producers, Advertisers, Marketers, and Retailers
Corporate and local food producers and retailers (e.g., food and beverage industries, grocery stores, supermarkets, restaurants, fast food outlets, corner stores, farmers’ markets, community gardens)
Foundations and Nonprofit Organizations Government Agencies and Programs
Federal, state, county, and local elected or appointed decision-makers (e.g., education boards and agencies, public health agencies, parks and recreation commissions, planning and zoning commissions, law enforcement agencies)
Pediatricians, family physicians, nurses and nurse practitioners, physician assistants, dietitians, occupational-health providers, dentists
Health- and Medical-Care Professional Societies
Disciplinary organizations and societies
Health-Care Delivery Systems
Hospitals, health clinics, school-based facilities, work-site health facilities
Health-Care Insurers, Health Plans, and Quality Improvement and Accrediting Organizations
Public and private health-care providers and insurance reimbursement institutions such as Medicaid and health maintenance organizations; quality improvement and accrediting organizations (e.g., National Committee for Quality Assurance)
Mass Media, Entertainment, Recreation, and Leisure Industries
Television, radio, movies, print, and electronic media; journalists; commercial sponsors and advertisers; Internet websites and advertisers; computer and video-entertainment industry representatives
Public Health Professionals
Recreation and Sports Enterprises
Local, collegiate, and professional sports organizations; recreation facilities; recreation and sport equipment manufacturers, advertisers, marketers, and retailers
Biomedical, public health, and social scientists; universities; private industry
Schools, Child-Care Programs
Educators and school administrators, food service personnel, after-school program providers, coaches, school boards, school designers (siting and construction), child-care providers
promoting healthful behaviors (Pate et al., 2000). In enhancing local assets for promoting physical activity—that is, in designing and revamping community facilities and neighborhoods—communities should consider issues related to cultural and social acceptability, availability (proximity), affordability, and accessibility (ease of use).
Community Stakeholders and Coalitions
Community-Based Interventions: Framework and Evidence Base
“Ecological frameworks,” which have been applied across a variety of settings and public health issues to change people or change the environment (Glanz, 1997), suggest that it is important to involve individuals, organizations, communities, and health policy makers in producing desired effects on health (Baker and Brownson, 1998). Given the interactive nature of virtually all elements of a community, most effective interventions act at multiple levels. Moreover, tapping a wide range of local community leaders, organizations, businesses, and residents can result in local ownership of the issue and effectively leverage limited resources (Pate et al., 2000).
Community-wide campaigns and interventions. The most relevant evidence for large-scale community-wide efforts comes from studies aimed at reducing cardiovascular risk factors through dietary change and increased physical activity. These interventions have often used multiple strategies, including media campaigns (see Chapter 5), community mobilizations, education programs for health professionals and the general public, modifications of physical environments, and health screenings and referrals; in some cases, home- and school-based interventions were also incorporated (Shea and Basch, 1990).
The Stanford Three Community Study, Stanford Five-City Project, Minnesota Heart Health Program (MHHP), Pawtucket Heart Health Program, and North Karelia Project (in Finland) have demonstrated the feasibility of community-based approaches in promoting physical activity and changes in dietary intake (Farquhar et al., 1977, 1990; Maccoby et al., 1977; Luepker et al., 1994; Young et al., 1996; Puska et al., 2002). The results of these studies for adults have been somewhat inconsistent, although modest positive changes in diet and physical activity have generally been seen when a community that received the intervention was compared with one that had not. The strongest positive results were obtained by the extensive North Karelia project, which examined the effects of multiple interventions on the high incidence of coronary artery disease (Pietinen et
al., 2001; Puska et al., 2002). This study, being long-term and multifocal, may be the best model for childhood obesity prevention efforts.
MHHP’s Class of 1989 Study provides some insights into the potential impact of community-based programs focused on children and youth (Kelder et al., 1993, 1995). This study examined changes in nutrition and aerobic activity among groups of students, starting when they were sixth-graders and extending through 12th grade. Interventions included a school-based curriculum and a number of other community-based approaches that were not designed specifically for children (including labeling of heart-healthful restaurant and grocery store items; media campaigns; and screening for heart disease risk factors). Positive changes were seen in the young people’s levels of physical activity and their nutritional knowledge and decision-making.
Community campaigns aimed at preventing tobacco use by children and youth also provide evidence of the feasibility of using this approach for addressing major public health problems. The Midwestern Prevention Project, the North Karelia Youth Project, and MHHP’s Class of 1989 Study each found reductions in youth smoking rates that were maintained over time (IOM, 1994). It should be stressed that each of these studies had a strong school-based prevention intervention that complemented a community-wide program, and isolating the effects of the community-wide program was not possible.
Community programs for children and youth. Programs involving specific community-based organizations have also been found to aid health promotion efforts. Studies with civic, faith-based, and social organizations have established the feasibility of developing programs in a variety of settings that can be effective in improving nutritional knowledge and choices, increasing physical activity, and in some cases in reducing body weight or
Girls on the Run
Girls on the Run is a nonprofit organization that works with local volunteers and community-level councils to encourage preteen girls to develop self-respect and healthful lifestyles through running (Girls on the Run, 2004). A 12-week, 24-lesson curriculum has been developed for use in after-school programs and at recreation centers and other locations. Evaluation of the program has found improvements in participants’ self-esteem, body-size satisfaction, and eating attitudes and behaviors (DeBate, 2002).
maintaining healthy body weight (IOM, 2003). For example, Cullen and colleagues (1997) found that Girl Scouts who participated with their troop in nutrition classes including tasting sessions and materials sent home exhibited increased levels of fruit and vegetable consumption. Furthermore, community programs often are focused on high-risk populations and offer the opportunity to implement culturally appropriate interventions and evaluate their impact (Yancey et al., 2004).
Community coalitions. Building coalitions involves a range of public- and private-sector organizations that, together with individual citizens, focus on a shared goal and leverage the resources of each group through joint actions (Table 6-2). It has been pointed out, however, that while the strength of
TABLE 6-2 Unique Characteristics of Effective Community Coalitions
Holistic and comprehensive
Allows the coalition to address issues that it deems as priorities; well illustrated in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion
Flexible and responsive
Coalitions address emerging issues and modify their strategies to fit new community needs
Build a sense of community
Members frequently report that they value and receive professional and personal support for their participation in the social network of the coalition
Build and enhance resident
A structure is provided for renewed civic engagement in community life engagement; the coalition becomes a forum where multiple sectors can engage with each other
Provide a vehicle for community empowerment
As community coalitions solve local problems, they develop social capital, allowing residents to have an impact on multiple issues
Allow diversity to be valued and celebrated
As communities become increasingly diverse, coalitions provide a vehicle for bringing together diverse groups to solve common problems
Incubators for innovative solutions to large problems
Problem solving occurs not only at local levels, but at regional and national levels; local leaders can become national leaders
SOURCE: Adapted from Wolff, 2001.
coalitions is in mobilizing the community to work for change, they are not generally designed to develop or manage specific community services or activities (Chavis, 2001).
Community collaborative efforts focused on health are of growing interest across the United States. Models are being refined on ways to link community organizations, community leaders and interested individuals, health-care professionals, local and state public health agencies, and universities and research organizations (Lasker et al., 2001; Lasker and Weiss, 2003). Community coalitions have played significant roles in efforts to prevent or stop tobacco use. The American Stop Smoking Intervention Study (ASSIST), which was funded by the National Cancer Institute and featured the capacity building of community coalitions, targeted tobacco control efforts at the state and local levels. States with ASSIST programs had greater decreases in adult smoking prevalence than non-ASSIST states (Stillman et al., 2003); factors identified as contributing to participation and satisfaction with the ASSIST coalitions included skilled members and effective communication strategies (Kegler et al., 1998). Coalition building and community involvement also have been effective in community fluoridation efforts (Brumley et al., 2001).
Although this report focuses primarily on population-wide approaches that have the potential to improve nutrition and increase physical activity among all children and youth, the committee recognizes the additional need for specific preventive efforts. Children and youth in certain ethnic groups including African-American, Mexican-American, American-Indian, and Pacific Islander populations, as well as those whose parents are obese and those who live in low-income households or neighborhoods, are disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic (Chapter 2). Many issues—including safety, social isolation, lack of healthy role models, limited access to food supplies and services, income differentials, and the relative unavailability of physical activity opportunities—may be barriers to healthier lifestyles for these and other high-risk populations. Moreover, as discussed in Chapter 3, perceptions about body image and healthy weight can vary between cultures and ethnic groups, and these groups can manifest differing levels of comfort with having an elevated weight. Furthermore, there may be a “communication gap” in making information about the health concerns of childhood obesity widely available.
As a result, culturally appropriate and targeted intervention strategies are needed to reach high-risk populations. There are examples of these types of strategies having positive results. For example, a 10-county study of churches participating in the North Carolina Black Churches United for
Better Health project found that church-based interventions (including group activities, changes in food served at church events, and dissemination of educational materials) resulted in increased fruit and vegetable consumption by adults participating in the intervention (Campbell et al., 1999). Pilot studies from the Girls Health Enrichment Multi-site Study (GEMS), a research program designed to develop and test interventions for preventing overweight and obesity in African-American girls, have included a variety of community, after-school, and family-based components in a range of settings (Baranowski et al., 2003; Beech et al., 2003; Robinson et al., 2003; Story et al., 2003). For example, the Stanford GEMS pilot study in 61 families tested a model that combined after-school dance classes for girls with family-based efforts to reduce time spent watching television. Positive trends were observed regarding body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, physical activity, and television viewing in the treatment group when compared to the control group (Robinson et al., 2003). These studies demonstrate the feasibility of implementing relevant community programs; two of these studies have been expanded to evaluate programs with larger study populations over a 2-year period (Kumanyika et al., 2003).
However, much remains to be learned about interventions that can reduce or alleviate the risk factors for childhood obesity in high-risk populations. Prevention efforts must be considerate of culture, language, and inequities in social and physical environments (PolicyLink, 2002). Furthermore, because these populations traditionally have been disenfranchised, special efforts must be made to gain their trust, both among individuals and at the community level. The 39-community Partnership for the Public’s Health project in California and other community-centered public health initiatives have demonstrated that the most progress is made when an intervention engages community members themselves in the program’s assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation (Partnership for the Public’s Health, 2004).
Private and public efforts that work to eliminate health disparities should include obesity prevention as one of their primary areas of focus. Some of the many ongoing efforts span the public and private sectors as well as the local, regional, state, and national levels and focus on diabetes and other chronic diseases for which obesity is a risk factor. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) REACH 2010 initiative has broad-based collaboration within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the private sector (CDC, 2004b) to fund and support demonstration projects and community coalitions focused on eliminating health disparities. Each coalition includes community-based organizations and the local or state health department or a university or research organization. Efforts to date have included community and tribal efforts to address diabetes and cardiovascular disease risk factors.
These efforts should aim to increase access to culturally and linguistically appropriate nutritional and physical activity information and skills and should support community-based collaborative programs that address the inequities in obesity rates between populations.
The communities themselves, meanwhile, need to involve all segments of the local population in developing both community-wide interventions and those that focus on high-risk populations. Furthermore, local communities—with the assistance of state and federal governments, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector—need to grapple with the underlying and long-standing socioeconomic barriers that result in limited opportunities for physical activity (e.g., safe parks and playgrounds) and affordable healthful foods (e.g., produce markets or large grocery stores). Opportunities to foster such coalitions and to develop effective programs for high-risk populations will be widened if there is grassroots participation by the citizens most affected by the problem.
Next Steps for Community Stakeholders
Many community organizations are currently involved in efforts to improve the well-being of their children and youth regarding a number of health and safety concerns, such as tobacco and alcohol abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, pedestrian and bike safety, and prevention of motor
Kids Off the Couch
Kids Off the Couch is a community collaborative pilot project in Modesto, California, that works with parents and caregivers to prevent obesity in children up to 5 years of age. The project’s goal is to influence behavioral changes in food selection and physical activity among parents and primary caregivers. The program provides parents and caregivers with:
This project is a collaborative effort of numerous partners including the local school system, health services agency, hospitals, and health clubs; the American Cancer Society; Blue Cross of California; and the University of California Cooperative Extension.
vehicle injuries. Increased media coverage and the voices of concerned individuals and groups should now be prompting these community groups and others, including the broad range of stakeholders they work with, to focus on childhood obesity prevention. In particular, there is a need to galvanize action and expand opportunities for healthful eating and physical activity at the community level.
Community youth organizations can have an impact not only by adapting their own programs to include emphasis on healthful eating and physical activity, but also by joining with other organizations to form coalitions to promote community-wide efforts. Additionally, innovative approaches to community recreational programs are needed. Traditional organized competitive sports programs are an important facet of the community and offer physical activity opportunities for many children and adolescents. However, competitive sports programs are not of interest to all individuals and it is important to expand the range of options to include not only team and individual sports but also other types of physical activity (e.g., dance, martial arts) (CDC, 1997b). It will also be important to help families overcome potential obstacles—including transportation, fees, or special equipment—to program participation (CDC, 1997b).
Community youth organizations (such as Boys and Girls Clubs, Girls Scouts, Boy Scouts, 4H, and YMCA) should expand existing programs and establish new ones that widen children’s opportunities to be physically active and maintain a balanced diet. These programs should complement and seek linkages with similar efforts by schools, local health departments, and other community organizations. Furthermore, evaluation of these programs should be encouraged.
Employers and work sites are another important component of community coalitions. The work site affects children’s health both indirectly, through its influence on employed parents’ health habits, and directly, through programs that may engage the entire family. Workplaces should offer healthful food choices and encourage physical activity. In businesses where on-site child care is provided, attention should be paid to ensuring that children have a balanced diet and adequate levels of physical activity.
Local organizations, businesses, local public health agencies, and other stakeholders increasingly have been joining together to address health issues through community coalitions, wherein the sum is greater than the parts, and meaningful progress on an issue becomes more likely. Coalitions can make obesity prevention a local priority and can design and implement programs that best fit the local area. It is important for coalitions to be inclusive, promote broad involvement, and represent as many constituencies as possible (see Table 6-2). As coalitions become established, it is also important for them to periodically reassess their status to ensure they remain inclusive and do not outlive their usefulness. Because of their nature,
coalitions exhibit wide variation in their structure and in the range of organizations, agencies, and individuals involved. However, to be sustained all require strong and ongoing leadership that is selected by coalition members.
Communities should establish and promote coalitions of key public and private stakeholders (including community youth organizations, local government, state and local public health agencies, civic and community groups, businesses, faith-based groups) to address the problem of childhood obesity by increasing the opportunities for physical activity and a balanced diet. Partnering with academic centers will be important for community-based research.
To have a long-term and significant impact on the public’s health, community health initiatives should include programs that work towards initiating changes at many levels including changes in individual behaviors, family environments, schools, workplaces, the built environment, and public policy (Kaiser Permanente, 2004). This ecologic approach (see Chapter 3) is a critical part of a framework for community-level initiatives that support a health-promoting environment. Communities should seek to undertake a comprehensive, interrelated set of interventions operating at each ecological level and in multiple sectors and settings. Factors that have been found to be involved in sustaining successful community change efforts include a large number of environmental changes focused on a small number of categorical outcomes; intensity of behavior change strategy; duration of interventions; and use of appropriate channels of influence to reach appropriate targets (Fawcett et al., 2001).
Community-level approaches are among the most promising strategies for closing the disparities gap (PolicyLink, 2002; Prevention Institute, 2002). These strategies include improvements in the social and economic environment (e.g., through the creation of health-promoting social norms, economic stability, and social capital development), the physical environment (e.g., access to affordable healthful food and physical activity resources), and community services (e.g., after-school programs) (Prevention Institute, 2003). The goals of improving community health and addressing racial and ethnic health disparities are closely aligned.
The committee acknowledges the limited amount of empirical research that directly examines the effects of changes in community programs or formation of coalitions on obesity prevalence. However, interventions such as GEMS demonstrate the feasibility of these interventions, and the experience gained in other public health areas provides additional support for recommendations in these areas. As with other types of obesity prevention interventions (noted throughout this report), there is a critical need to ensure that community intervention programs are thoroughly evaluated. The impacts of coalitions have sometimes gone undetected because of inap-
propriate (or weak) evaluation plans. This is most likely to occur when (1) the evaluation timeline is too short, (2) the evaluation strategy focuses on unrealistic or distant health outcomes instead of intermediate indicators that can be influenced by coalition activity, (3) measures are incapable of detecting valid indicators of change, or (4) alternative explanations for effects are not taken into account (Kreuter and Lezin, 2002). In order to assess a community coalition’s level of change, and to allow communities elsewhere to profit from its experience (good, bad, or in between), realistic evaluation plans must be set up and be incorporated into the initial planning and implementation of coalitions and interventions. Ongoing evaluation that relies on learning and feedback is also an integral component of the community change process. Community health initiatives by their nature are confronted with unpredictable variables; feedback should be used to adjust subsequent efforts.
The standard of practice in comprehensive community health improvement efforts is to fully engage community organizations and community residents, not just as subjects of research but as the drivers and owners of evaluation—“community-based participatory research” (Minkler and Wallerstein, 2003). Using this approach, community members are involved in identifying and framing of the problem or goals; developing a logic model or framework for achieving success; identifying research questions and appropriate research methods; documenting the intervention and its effects; understanding the data; and using the data to make midcourse adjustments (Fawcett et al., 2004).
To provide the impetus for community programs and efforts, a coordinated network of community-based demonstration projects should be established. These projects would be run by community organizations linked with public health departments and in partnership with academic institutions to provide support, training, and evaluation. Seed funding for the projects could come from an expansion of federal programs, particularly CDC’s state-based Nutrition and Physical Activity Program to Prevent Obesity and Other Chronic Diseases (see Chapter 4) and the DHHS Steps to a Healthier U.S. initiative.
Designing Communities and Neighborhoods to Encourage Physical Activity
Communities should provide places where children can play outside, particularly within their residential neighborhoods, and where they can safely walk, bike, or travel by other self-propelled means to destinations such as the park, playground, or school. Hoefer and colleagues (2001)
found that local neighborhood and parks were the most frequent settings for physical activity among middle school students. Three studies of young children found that the amount of time a child spent outside was the most powerful correlate of his or her physical activity level (Klesges et al., 1990; Baranowski et al., 1993; Sallis et al., 1993). However, pedestrian injuries that result from collisions with automobiles are a leading cause of injury death for children aged 5 years and older (Grossman, 2000), and traffic speed is a key determinant of their injury risk (Jacobsen et al., 2000). The challenge is thus to create places where children are safe to walk, bike, and play, so that the benefits of increased physical activity are not offset by increases in injuries.
Because changes to the built environment can enhance opportunities for children and youth to safely play outside and be more physically active, such changes are a critical component of any action plan to prevent childhood obesity. Interest in the role of the built environment in determining levels of physical activity has grown over the past decade, and renewed efforts are currently under way to reconnect the goals of urban planning and public health and to identify the factors that influence physical activity and travel behavior (Handy et al., 2002; Hoehner et al., 2003; Corburn, 2004). A concurrent study by the Transportation Research Board is examining issues regarding transportation, land use, and health in greater depth than this report, though for the population as a whole.
Encouraging children and youth to be physically active involves providing them with opportunities to walk, bike, run, skate, play games, or engage in other activities that expend energy. However, in many neighborhoods children do not have safe places—because of vehicular traffic, or high crime rates, or both—in which to play outside. In other locales, children may lack adequate sidewalks or paths on which to bike, skate, or simply walk to local destinations such as schools, parks, or grocery stores. This is a result of regulations and practices that guide the development of transportation systems and design of neighborhoods. The needs of the car have often been emphasized over the needs of pedestrians and bicyclists.
A recently published observational study examined the associations between community physical activity-related settings (e.g., sports areas, public pools and beaches, parks and green space, and bike paths) and race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status in 409 communities throughout the United States (Powell et al., 2004). The researchers found that higher median household income and lower poverty rates were associated with increasing levels of available physical activity-related facilities and settings. Communities with higher proportions of ethnic minorities had fewer physical activity-related settings. There are many communities and neighborhoods where access to facilities for physical activity is an issue that needs to be addressed.
Discovering Public Spaces as Neighborhood Assets in Seattle
Feet First, a Seattle-area nonprofit organization, is using its Active Living by Design grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to help neighborhood residents take a closer look at their streets. As part of their project’s activities, Feet First staff organize neighborhoods through monthly walking audits. On these walks, the staff train groups of up to 40 neighbors to see their streets as an untapped resource with potential for physical activity. At the end of the one-mile, two-hour inspections, participants receive notes with photos and maps documenting assets, possible improvements, and needed policy changes. The organization assists citizens in working with city agencies and departments to address the neighborhood concerns.
Evaluation has been built into the design and implementation of the Feet First program and is now in progress. Results will be used to assess next steps and inform the planning of future programs.
Correlational studies. Convenient access to recreational facilities emerges as a consistent correlate of physical activity, although most research has been conducted with adults (Sallis et al., 1998; Humpel et al., 2002). A 2002 review by Humpel and colleagues summarized the results of 16 cross-sectional studies, published between 1990 and 2001, on the link between physical activity and the physical environment. Access to facilities such as bicycle paths or parks showed significant positive associations with physical activity, while measures of a lack of facilities (or inadequate facilities) showed significant negative associations. Awareness of and satisfaction with facilities also showed significant associations with physical activity, as did measures of local aesthetics, such as attractive neighborhoods or enjoyable scenery.
Although there are fewer studies on the relationships between young people’s access to recreational facilities and their levels of physical activity, they are nevertheless consistent with the findings for adults. A comprehensive review by Sallis and colleagues (2000a) on the correlates of physical activity among children found a significant positive association with access to recreational facilities and programs, and two out of three studies involving adolescents found a significant positive association as well. However, a study of the neighborhoods of low-income preschoolers in Cincinnati, Ohio, found that overweight was not associated with proximity to playgrounds (Burdette and Whitaker, 2004). These results suggest that access to recreational facilities may be more important for youth than for young children or that reported physical activity may not always translate into differences in weight.
Available evidence (limited to the behavior of all residents or of adults
only) shows that the design of streets and neighborhoods is correlated with walking. A recent review of studies (Saelens et al., 2003) comparing “high-walkable” and “low-walkable” neighborhoods found that among persons aged 18 to 65 years, the frequency of walking trips was twice as high in the high-walkable locales. The high-walkable neighborhoods were characterized as those that had higher residential density, street connectivity (few cul-de-sacs), aesthetics, safety, and mixed land use (stores and services located within close proximity to residential areas).
Safety is often an important consideration in decisions by parents and children regarding outside activity. Safety concerns pertain to the speed and proximity of nearby traffic and to fears of crime; but other factors, such as unattended dogs and lack of street lighting, may also be pertinent. Research has shown that parents are more likely now than in the past to restrict their children’s use of public spaces because of fear for their safety (Loukaitou-Sideris, 2003). Concerns about “traffic danger” and “stranger danger” have been reported as important influences on the decisions by parents to drive their children to school or not allow them to walk to the neighborhood park (Roberts, 1993; DiGuiseppi et al., 1998); furthermore, parents report that safety considerations are the most important factor in selecting play spaces for their young children (Sallis et al., 1997).
Among adults, data from five states (Maryland, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia) document a higher level of physical inactivity among persons who perceive their neighborhoods to be unsafe (CDC, 1999). There also appear to be large gaps in neighborhood safety across socioeconomic groups. For example, a national study found that perception of neighborhood crime was almost twice as great among lower income populations as in higher income populations (Brownson et al., 2001). Thus, the crime rate, or the perception of crime, is likely to affect the likelihood of people walking or bicycling in their neighborhoods.
Studies on the link between neighborhood crime and rates of physical activity among children and youth have shown inconsistent results. Gordon-Larsen and colleagues (2000) studied a large adolescent cohort and found that living in a high-crime neighborhood was associated with a decreased likelihood that teenagers would participate in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity at high levels. However, a study by Zakarian and colleagues (1994) looking at physical activity among minority adolescents or children, who were predominantly of low socioeconomic status, found no association with convenient facilities or neighborhood safety; another study found no association between these factors and overweight (Burdette and Whitaker, 2004). On the other hand, Romero and colleagues (2001) studied fourth-grade students of diverse economic backgrounds and found that children from families of lower socioeconomic status perceived more neighborhood hazards (including crime and traffic), but that this percep-
tion was significantly associated with more reported physical activity rather than less. This finding points to a problem documented by others (Doxey et al., 2003): children from families with lower socioeconomic status are more dependent on walking as a means of transportation than are children from families with higher socioeconomic status, but they also live in neighborhoods where walking is not as safe.
Intervention studies. Research that directly examines the impact of changes made in the built environment on physical activity has been limited simply because increasing physical activity is often not the primary goal of these interventions and “pre-/post-” studies are difficult to conduct. Instead, changes to the built environment are often made because of safety concerns and the need to reduce the likelihood of traffic-related injuries. For example, the primary goal of traffic-calming programs—such as speed humps, traffic diverters, and “bulb-outs” (pavement structures that extend from the sidewalk at an intersection to force cars to take slower turns around corners)—has been to reduce speeds and to lower the levels of traffic on residential streets. Studies have been conducted of traffic levels and speeds, pedestrian-vehicle crashes, and pedestrian behavior both before and after the installation of traffic-calming devices (Huang and Cynecki, 2000, 2001; Retting et al., 2003). One recent study, for example, showed that speed humps were associated with a lower probability of children being injured within their neighborhood (Tester et al., 2004). However, no studies of the impact of the installation of such devices on the physical activity of residents in the area are available.
A small group of studies has used a pretest/posttest design to test the impact of a specific change to the built environment in a relatively limited area (e.g., street-scale interventions). Painter (1996) examined the impact of improved lighting on the use of footpaths in London and found an intervention effect ranging from 34 percent to 101 percent increases in footpath use, depending on the location. Similarly, a 23 percent increase in bicycle use was found with the addition of bike lanes (Macbeth, 1999). Researchers examining the impact of the redesign of two residential streets in Hannover, Germany, into “Woonerven” (designed for shared use by cars and people) observed 11 percent to 100 percent more children on the street and 53 percent to 206 percent more incidents of street play after the changes in street design (Eubanks-Ahrens, 1987).
The research needs in this area are many. Most obviously, future studies should determine the specific elements of the built environment that influence physical activity in children and youth. DHHS and the Department of Transportation should fund community-based research to examine the impact of changes to the built environment on the levels of physical activity in the relevant communities; in addition, population-wide demon-
stration projects should be funded and carefully evaluated, as should studies of natural experiments.1 In addition, carefully designed intervention studies together with studies using longitudinal designs are needed to improve our understanding of the relationships between changes to the built environment and resulting physical activity behavior in youth; such studies will require collaborations between researchers and the responsible public officials. Furthermore, better measures of physical activity collected through travel diary surveys (widely used in transportation planning) and ongoing surveillance systems such as the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System are needed, as are better measures of the built environment itself.
The Guide to Community Preventive Services, a systematic review of population-based interventions, strongly recommends the “creation of and enhanced access to places for physical activity combined with informational outreach activities” (p. 91) as an approach to promote physical activity, though the focus of this review was on adults (Kahn et al., 2002). But it is clear that improvements to many different elements of the built environment—parks, hike/bike trails, sidewalks, traffic-calming devices, pedestrian crossings, bicycle-route networks, street connections, and mixed land-use developments—will contribute to the solution.
Next steps. It is incumbent upon local governments to find ways to increase the opportunities for physical activity in local communities and neighborhoods. Achieving this goal may involve revising zoning and subdivision ordinances, where necessary, to ensure that new neighborhoods provide opportunities and facilities for physical activity. For example, a growing number of communities are revamping their local development codes to adhere to smart-growth principles (see Box 6-4) (Local Government Commission, 2003).
To enhance the quality and extent of opportunities for physical activity within existing neighborhoods, local governments will need to prioritize such projects in their capital improvement programs. Federal, state, and regional policies can also contribute to these efforts, primarily by providing the funding necessary to effect physical changes to the built environment. The Federal Transportation Enhancements Program, for example, funded $1.9 billion in pedestrian and bicycle projects throughout the United States between 1992 and 2002 (Federal Highway Administration, 2004). As a
Trends in City Planning
result, many Metropolitan Planning Organizations, agencies responsible for implementing federal transportation programs in metropolitan areas, now put significant emphasis on bicycle and pedestrian planning (Chauncey and Wilkinson, 2003). Professional organizations such as the Institute of Traffic Engineers and the American Planning Association should also work to assist the efforts of local governments by developing and disseminating best practices for expanding opportunities for physical activity.
Citizens themselves have a responsibility to advocate for changes in policy so that the built environment may ultimately offer increased opportunities for physical activity among children and youth. The public may bring significant influence to bear over policy, particularly if a large and vocal constituency urges change and if prominent community groups, nonprofit organizations, and business organizations lend their support. In many communities, neighborhood associations play a formal role in the planning process and have successfully advocated for new or improved parks, additional side walks, traffic-calming programs, and other changes in the built
environment. In addition, legal approaches may be useful (Perdue et al., 2003; Mensah et al., 2004).
Local governments, in partnership with private developers and community groups, should ensure that every neighborhood has safe and well-designed recreational facilities and other places for physical activity for children and youth. Communities can require such environmental characteristics in new developments and use creative approaches to retrofit existing neighborhoods. Furthermore, local governments should ensure that streets are designed to encourage safe walking, bicycling, and other physical activities within the neighborhood and the larger community. Child-safe street design includes well-maintained sidewalks, safe places for crossing, adequate bike lanes, and features that slow traffic.
Walking and Bicycling to School
Compared with 30 years ago, few students in the United States are walking or bicycling to school. In 1969, an average of 48 percent of all students walked or biked to that destination; among those living no more than a mile away, nearly 90 percent did so (EPA, 2003). In comparison, the 1999 HealthStyles Survey found that of the participating households, 19 percent reported that their children walked to or from school at least once a week in the preceding month and that 6 percent rode their bikes (CDC, 2002a). Similar results were seen in a study by the Georgia Division of Public Health, which found that fewer than 19 percent of the state’s school-aged children who lived a mile or less from school commuted by foot most days of the week (CDC, 2002b).
The HealthStyles Survey households reported that barriers to their children’s walking or bicycling to school included: long distances (noted by 55 percent of respondents), traffic-related safety concerns (40 percent), adverse weather conditions (24 percent), crime danger (18 percent), school policy (7 percent), or other reasons (26 percent) (CDC, 2002a). Sixteen percent acknowledged that there were no barriers to walking or bicycling to school.
Two other studies also identified distance as a determinant. In one small study of six school sites, respondents said that it was more likely that their children would walk or bike to school if their home was a mile or less away (McMillan, 2002), while the other found that the probability of walking or bicycling declined with travel time (EPA, 2003). The situation at present is that the majority of children arrive and leave school in automobiles, vans, trucks, and buses (Figure 6-1) (TRB, 2002). Research also suggests that parents, students, and school officials often select or encourage motorized travel because of convenience, flexibility, budget, or expectation rather than to maximize safety (TRB, 2002).
Because the majority of children and youth attend school five days per week, throughout a large part of the year, trips to and from school offer a potential opportunity to substantially increase their daily physical activity and energy expenditure. Observational studies have in fact demonstrated that children can get some of their most vigorous school-day physical activity during the times they travel between home and school (Cooper et al., 2003; Tudor-Locke et al., 2003). Cooper and colleagues (2003) found, in a study of 114 British children aged 9 to 11 years, that the boys who walked to school were generally more active than those who were transported by car (although similar results were not seen for girls).
While the committee acknowledges that there is no direct evidence that walking or bicycling to school will reduce the prevalence of obesity in children, clear evidence does exist that increases in physical activity can have positive impacts on weight loss or on maintaining a healthy weight. Further, there are potential ancillary benefits, which include enhancing the neighborhood environment (e.g., so that families may walk or bike more
often during after-school hours), lowering busing costs, and fostering social interaction within the community.
Interventions to promote safe walking and bicycling to schools have already become popular in some communities, thereby demonstrating a broader potential for feasibility and acceptability (Box 6-5). In Chicago, for example, 90 percent of the nearly 422,000 public school children walk to school and the city has encouraged a Walking School Bus program in which one or more adults walk to school with and supervise a small group of children from the neighborhood (Chicago Police Department, 2004). Since 1997,2 National Walk Our Children to School Day and a similar international effort have attracted substantial interest.
Safe Routes to School programs have produced increases in the number of students walking or bicycling between home and school. Demonstration projects in 10 British towns showed an increase in walking and bicycling among children and reductions in car use (Sustrans, 2001). An evaluation of the Safe Routes to School programs in seven schools in Marin County, California, found that from fall 2000 to spring 2002, there was a 64 percent increase in the number of children walking to school and a 114 percent increase in the number of students bicycling (Staunton et al., 2003). Another evaluation of the California program, which focused on schools in Southern California, showed strong evidence of success in five schools, weak evidence in one school, and no evidence in three schools (success was defined as improvements in safety conditions as well as increases in the numbers of children walking or bicycling to school) (Boarnet et al., 2003). These data suggest that Safe Routes to School programs show promise in promoting physically active means for children traveling to and from school.
Locating schools in close proximity to the neighborhoods they serve is another opportunity for increasing the likelihood that children and youth will walk or bike between them (EPA, 2003). Annual school construction costs in the United States (including new school construction and school building rehabilitation) were estimated to have grown from about $18 billion in 1990 to $25 billion in 1997 (GAO, 2000) and continue to increase. Given the scale of this spending and the numerous projects involved, school construction projects provide a tremendous opportunity for locating at least some new schools within walking or biking distance of the residential areas from which they draw their students.
Local governments and school districts should ensure that children and youth have safe walking and bicycling routes between their homes and schools and that they are encouraged to use them. Realizing this objective
Safe Routes to School
Safe Routes to Schools was initiated in Western Europe and the United Kingdom. As its name implies, the program promotes walking and bicycling to school, and it does so through education and incentives that show how much fun it can be. The program also addresses the safety concerns of parents by encouraging greater enforcement of traffic laws, educating the public, and exploring ways to create inherently safer streets.
In the United States, the California legislature established a Safe Routes to School program in 1999 and extended it for three more years in 2001. This program provides $25 million in state and federal transportation funds to projects that improve the safety of walking and bicycling to schools. Administered by the state Department of Transportation, Safe Routes to School funded 268 projects in its first 4 years (Caltrans, 2004).
Other programs are emerging across the United States to promote safe walking and bicycling to school, and the nonprofit organization Transportation Alternatives provides a toolkit to help communities in starting their own Safe Routes to School-type programs (Transportation Alternatives, 2004).
The U.S. programs incorporate one or more of the following four key elements:
will involve the efforts of many groups in local communities. Schools and school districts, in collaboration with community partners, need to develop and implement policies and programs that promote walking and bicycling (Chapter 7). Local governments need to allocate the resources to make the necessary improvements to sidewalks, crosswalks, signals, signs, and other traffic control devices. Collaborations between law enforcement officials and schools are needed to deploy pedestrian safety measures at the beginning and end of each school day; crossing guards are an important part of this process. Additionally, decisions regarding the locations of new schools need to carefully consider the benefits of being close enough to the neighborhoods they serve to facilitate students’ walking or bicycling from one site to the other.
When interventions that promote walking or bicycling to school are implemented, it is crucial that researchers evaluate their effects on total
daily physical activity and energy expenditure, and on changes in weight over time. Programs promoting safe routes to school, as well as other efforts to increase students’ walking and bicycling, should include funding for evaluation, and the organizations that implement these programs should work with researchers to develop rigorous evaluation designs. Because so much remains to be learned about the various approaches to increasing walking and bicycling to school, thorough evaluations of such initiatives are critical.
Community Food Environment
All members in a community need access3 to affordable and healthful food on a regular basis. Food security is commonly defined as “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life and includes at a minimum: a) the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and b) the assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (p. 1560)” (LSRO, 1990). Food security is one of the necessary conditions to ensure the health of a population.
In 2002, 11.1 percent of U.S. households, representing more than 35 million people, experienced food insecurity—that is, their access to nutritious food on a regular basis was limited or uncertain (Nord et al., 2003). In general, households with children report food insecurity at more than twice the rate of households without children (16.5 percent versus 8.1 percent, respectively) (Nord et al., 2003). Children living in food-insecure households are more likely to have compromised well-being than children living in food-secure households (Alaimo et al., 2001); evidence has linked food insecurity to declines in children’s health, mental and psychological functioning, and academic achievement (ADA, 2004). As discussed in Chapter 3, however, evidence linking childhood food insecurity to obesity is inconclusive.
In 2002, a food-secure household in the United States spent 35 percent more on food than the typical food-insecure household of the same size and composition (Nord et al., 2003), though food accounted for a greater proportion of the latter’s budget (Lang and Caraher, 1998). Thus, it stands to reason that food cost is a significant predictor of dietary choices and health outcomes, particularly in low-income ethnic minority urban communities (Perry, 2001; Morland et al., 2002a; Pothukuchi et al., 2002; Sloane et al., 2003) and rural communities (Holben et al., 2004). At the same time, while
it is acknowledged that consumer food choices are shaped by taste, cost, and convenience, it has been suggested that high-fat, energy-dense foods and diets are often less expensive on a cost-per-calorie basis and are more palatable than high-fiber low-energy-dense foods such as the lean meats, fish, fresh fruits, and vegetables that comprise a healthful diet (Drewnowski and Specter, 2004). However, based on the ACNielsen Homescan 1999 data for household food purchases from all types of retail outlets, a price analysis of 154 types of fruits and vegetables found that more than one-half of the produce items were estimated to cost less than 25 cents per serving. The study concludes that all consumers, including low-income households, can meet the recommendations of three servings of fruit and four servings of vegetables for 64 cents per day (Reed et al., 2004). However, it is difficult to predict or understand consumer behavior from these types of analyses, as discussed in Chapters 3 and 5.
The availability and affordability of energy-dense foods has increased in recent years in low-income neighborhoods (Morland et al., 2002a,b; Sloane et al., 2003). This situation is associated with several trends: fewer supermarkets being located within a reasonable walking distance, supermarket relocation to the suburbs (Cotterill and Franklin, 1995; Shaffer, 2002; Bolen and Hecht, 2003), the lack of transportation to supermarkets offering a variety of healthful choices at affordable prices (Urban and Environmental Policy Institute, 2002; Bolen and Hecht, 2003), and the local proliferation of gas stations and convenience stores that often have a limited selection of healthful foods and at higher prices (Alwitt and Donley, 1997; Perry, 2001; Morland et al., 2002a).
Community food-security assessment toolkits and other methods, such as community mapping, have been used to assist communities throughout the United States in undertaking community assessments and inventories to identify the type and range of locally available food resources, including supermarkets, corner grocery stores, full-service and fast food restaurants, food banks, food pantries, farmers’ markets, and community gardens (Perry, 2001; Cohen, 2002; Pothukuchi et al., 2002; Sloane et al., 2003). Knowing the inventory and its gaps, communities may then take appropriate action, and in fact they are addressing their food insecurity problems in a variety of ways.
For example, local governments are offering financial incentives such as grants, loans, and tax benefits to stimulate the development of neighborhood groceries in underserved urban neighborhoods (Shaffer, 2002; Bolen and Hecht, 2003; Baltimore Healthy Stores Project, 2004; Clark, 2004). Some communities are initiating farmers’ markets or enhancing the existing Farmers’ Market Nutrition Programs offered to participants in Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children and the Food Stamp Program (Connecticut Food Policy Council, 1998; Fisher,
1999; Kantor, 2001; Conrey et al., 2003). Others are promoting community gardens (Kantor, 2001; Twiss et al., 2003), school gardens (Edible Schoolyard, 2004; see Chapter 7), and farm-to-school and farm-to-cafeteria programs (Kantor, 2001; Bellows et al., 2003; Center for Food and Justice, 2004; Sanger and Zenz, 2004; see Chapter 7).
Recent research has demonstrated that children who grow some of their own food in school gardens have an increased preference for certain vegetables (Morris and Zidenberg-Cherr, 2002). Recent federal legislation (Public Law 108-265) includes provisions designed to strengthen partnerships between local agriculture and schools to ensure that fresh local produce can go from farms directly to schools.
These initiatives to enhance the community food environment and promote household and community food security are promising to expand healthful food choices, especially for neighborhoods that are now limited in their ability to obtain healthful and affordable food on a regular basis. However, evaluations will be required to determine the programs’ effectiveness in meeting these goals.
Local governments should work with community groups, nonprofit organizations, local farmers and food processors, and local businesses to support multisectoral partnerships and networks that expand the availability of healthful foods within walking distance, particularly in low-income and underserved neighborhoods. Such efforts will expand healthful food choices at local grocery stores, supermarkets, and fast food restaurants, and they will encourage a broad range of community food-security initiatives that improve access to highly nutritional foods.
Health Impact Assessments and Community Health Evaluations
Evaluation of community-wide efforts can be a challenge, given the typically wide age range among members of the population; their ethnic, racial, and social diversities; the differences in settings of various community interventions; and the numerous barriers involved.
Nevertheless, it is important to assess the potential impact of proposed programs and changes as well as to conduct evaluations of recent and ongoing efforts. A prospective approach to community evaluation efforts involves a “health impact assessment” that gauges the potential effects of a proposed policy or intervention on the health of the population (WHO, 1999). Much as environmental impact assessments examine the potential effects of a new construction project on such indicators as an area’s air and water quality, health impact assessments are used to evaluate and then modify a proposed action—that is, to remove or minimize that action’s negative public health impacts, and to help enhance its positive effects (Taylor and Quigley, 2002). The health impact assessment may also be
particularly useful in bringing potential health impacts to the attention of policy makers.
A major value of this approach is its focus on considering the input of multiple stakeholders, including those who would be directly affected by the project under consideration. As changes are proposed to the built environment, communities should consider this tool for examining how proposed changes in the community would affect health issues such as access to and availability of healthful foods and opportunities for physical activity. It will be important to identify and examine natural experiments in which initiatives based on health-impact assessments could be compared to those undertaken without such an assessment.
For an overall assessment of a community’s health improvement efforts that are already underway, community health “report cards” (also termed community health assessments or health profiles) are an excellent tool, both to assess and convey progress (CDC, 1997a). A variety of approaches have been used, all with the goal of providing a concise and consistent collection of data that can be formatted for dissemination to the community. For example, state, county, and community health profiles have been developed using CDC’s Healthy Days Measures among other community performance indicators (CDC, 2004a). In addition, the Community Health Status Indicators Project (CHSI)—a collaborative effort of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), and the Public Health Foundation—has developed report indicators and formats for county-specific information that allows comparisons with similar “peer” counties throughout the country (NACCHO, 2004). A CHSI report contains information on behavioral risks, preventive services use, access, and summary health measures. To assist in obesity prevention efforts, community health report cards should use measures that assess the community’s progress toward encouraging good nutrition and physical activity. These measures could rate the built and social environments, local school policies and practices (Chapter 7), the community food environment, and the degree of involvement of local businesses, organizations, and other groups in supporting and participating in obesity prevention efforts.
To streamline efforts and encourage communities to engage in these types of evaluation efforts, common evaluation tools should be developed and shared, while also ensuring that evaluation tools have the flexibility to be sensitive to the needs of local communities. This is an area where it will be important to build on tools (those discussed above and others) that have already been developed. Leadership for these efforts should involve CDC, NACCHO, the American Planning Association, and other relevant organizations, including foundations such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, with interests in community-based obesity prevention efforts.
Communities should use evaluation tools (e.g., health impact assessments, audits, or report cards) to assess the availability and impact of local opportunities for physical activity (e.g., sidewalks, parks, recreational facilities) and for healthful eating (e.g., grocery store access, farmers’ markets).
Mobilizing communities to address childhood obesity will involve changes in the social and built environment. Several large-scale community-based interventions—primarily focused on improving diet and physical activity levels to address cardiovascular outcomes—show the feasibility of such efforts, although much remains to be learned about how to increase their effectiveness, particularly with regard to obesity prevention in youth. Efforts to address other public health issues such as tobacco prevention and control provide models for community coalition efforts.
A relatively new field of research is merging urban planning, transportation, and public health research tools to examine the impact of the built environment on human health. Observational and correlational studies, primarily conducted in adult populations, have shown that features in the built environment such as the walkability of neighborhoods or availability of recreational facilities are associated with level of physical activity. A few small-scale intervention studies have examined the effects of changes to the built environment; however, research is needed to explore what specific changes to the built environment will be the most effective in preventing childhood obesity. The committee recommends the implementation and evaluation of a range of community changes to facilitate improved nutrition and increased physical activity. These efforts are an integral part of a comprehensive approach to create healthier environments for children and youth.
Recommendation 6: Community Programs
Local governments, public health agencies, schools, and community organizations should collaboratively develop and promote programs that encourage healthful eating behaviors and regular physical activity, particularly for populations at high risk of childhood obesity. Community coalitions should be formed to facilitate and promote cross-cutting programs and community-wide efforts.
To implement this recommendation:
Private and public efforts to eliminate health disparities should include obesity prevention as one of their primary areas of focus and
should support community-based collaborative programs to address social, economic, and environmental barriers that contribute to the increased obesity prevalence among certain populations.
Community child- and youth-centered organizations should promote healthful eating behaviors and regular physical activity through new and existing programs that will be sustained over the long term.
Community evaluation tools should incorporate measures of the availability of opportunities for physical activity and healthful eating.
Communities should improve access to supermarkets, farmers’ markets, and community gardens to expand healthful food options, particularly in low-income and underserved areas.
Recommendation 7: Built Environment
Local governments, private developers, and community groups should expand opportunities for physical activity including recreational facilities, parks, playgrounds, sidewalks, bike paths, routes for walking or bicycling to school, and safe streets and neighborhoods, especially for populations at high risk of childhood obesity.
To implement this recommendation:
Local governments, working with private developers and community groups, should:
Revise comprehensive plans, zoning and subdivision ordinances, and other planning practices to increase availability and accessibility of opportunities for physical activity in new developments
Prioritize capital improvement projects to increase opportunities for physical activity in existing areas
Improve the street, sidewalk, and street-crossing safety of routes to school, develop programs to encourage walking and bicycling to school, and build schools within walking and bicycling distance of the neighborhoods they serve
Community groups should:
Work with local governments to change their planning and capital improvement practices to give higher priority to opportunities for physical activity
DHHS and the Department of Transportation should:
Fund community-based research to examine the impact of
changes to the built environment on the levels of physical activity in the relevant communities and populations.
Because health care is usually provided at the local level, it is best addressed in a community context. Health-care professionals have frequent opportunities to encourage children and youth to engage in healthful lifestyles. Unfortunately, treatment of obesity per se is rarely considered a reimbursable interaction between patient and doctor, and our current health-care system is not yet focused on preventive measures for childhood obesity. But the health-care delivery system can still have a significant impact on this issue. It is now up to health-care professionals and their professional organizations, as well as health insurers and quality improvement and accrediting agencies, to make obesity prevention a part of routine preventive health care.
Health-care professionals—physicians, nurses, and other clinicians—have an influential role to play in preventing childhood obesity. As healthcare advisors both to children and their parents, they have the access and the influence to make key suggestions and recommendations on dietary intake and physical activity throughout children’s lives. They also have the authority to elevate concern about childhood obesity and advocate for preventive efforts.
The 2002 National Health Interview Survey found that 74.5 percent of children (aged 18 years or younger) had seen a health-care professional at some time during the past six months (Dey et al., 2004), thereby providing numerous opportunities for doctors and other clinicians to measure and track height, weight, and BMI and to counsel the children—as well as their parents or other caregivers—about proper nutrition and physical activity. Measuring height and weight and plotting these measures on growth charts is already a standard part of children’s health care, and recent recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics have added BMI to this list (AAP, 2003). Although there is little direct evidence of the impact of height, weight, and BMI screening and tracking on preventing obesity in children, BMI measures for adults have been found to be both easy to measure and a highly reliable method for identifying patients at risk of morbidity and mortality due to obesity (McTigue et al., 2003). The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that clinicians use BMI to screen all adult patients for obesity (USPSTF, 2003). A survey of 940 pediatric health-care providers, however, found that more used clinical impression
and weight-for-age or weight-for-height measures than used BMI or BMI percentiles (Barlow et al., 2002).
Because there are standardized BMI charts for children, and given that BMI is a reasonably good surrogate for adiposity, it is sensible to include BMI calculations in all health supervision visits for children. By routinely measuring height and weight and calculating BMI, clinicians communicate that this is an important matter, just as important as routine immunizations or screening tests in protecting children’s health (see Chapter 8). Furthermore, BMI measures on an annual or similarly regular basis allow assessment of the individual child’s growth trajectory, which offers better insights, and on an earlier basis, than height or weight measurement alone (see Chapter 3).
After determining the child’s weight status, health-care professionals have a responsibility to carefully communicate the results to parents and, in an age-appropriate manner, to the children themselves; provide the information that the families need to make informed decisions about physical activity and nutrition; and explain the risks associated with childhood overweight and obesity. Behaviors that can be targeted include those most closely associated with improved nutrition and increased physical activity: increased breastfeeding, limited consumption of sweetened beverages, reduced television viewing or other screen time, and a greater amount of outdoor play (Whitaker, 2003). Careful attention should be paid to minimizing the stigmatization of obesity (Schwartz and Puhl, 2003).
Studies of such counseling on obesity-related issues have shown positive results. In one trial, African-American families were randomized to receive primary-care-based counseling alone or counseling plus a behavioral intervention (including goal-setting and an electronic television-time manager) as part of their regular clinic visits (Ford et al., 2002). Both groups reported similar within-group decreases (from baseline) in children’s television, videotape, and video game use. In the between-group comparison, the behavioral intervention group reported medium to large (and statistically significant) increases in organized physical activity and increases in playing outside. There was also a slight decrease for the intervention group in the number of meals eaten in front of the television, though the differences were not statistically significant (Ford et al., 2002). A four-month primary-care-based assessment and counseling intervention involving adolescents showed the feasibility of such efforts and found short-term improvements in dietary and physical activity outcome measures (Patrick et al., 2001).
More generally, studies of counseling for adults may provide insights into the potential effectiveness of counseling for children and their parents. The USPSTF review of dietary intake counseling for adults in primary-care settings found it to be effective in reducing dietary fat consumption and
increasing fruit and vegetable consumption (Pignone et al., 2003). The best evidence was for patients with known risk factors for cardiovascular and other chronic diseases, but there was also fair evidence that brief counseling in primary care can produce some improvements in diet among unselected patients as well.
Similar reviews of studies that focused on physical activity counseling of adults in primary care found mixed results, although most of the studies showed a trend toward increased physical activity in the intervention groups (Sallis et al., 2000b; Eden et al., 2002). For example, a nonrandomized controlled trial in healthy sedentary adults found short-term increases in moderate physical activity, particularly walking, among those who had received three to five minutes of physical activity counseling by their physician (Calfas et al., 1996).
Although research on the effectiveness of counseling children and their caregivers about obesity prevention is limited to date, and much remains to be learned, the seriousness of the problem and the emergence of tested strategies argue for routine counseling. The evidence that routine smoking-cessation counseling is effective, at least in changing adult behaviors, is another precedent for this kind of guidance (DHHS, 2000a).
Additionally, as visible and influential members of their communities, health-care professionals can serve as role models for good nutrition, for being physically active, and for maintaining a healthy weight. Health-care professionals can also have influential voices in increasing community awareness and advocating for actions to prevent childhood obesity. By giving speeches or conducting workshops at schools, testifying before legislative bodies, working in community organizations, or speaking out in any number of other ways, health-care professionals can press for changes to make the community one that supports and facilitates healthful eating and physical activity. A notable precedent is that physicians and other healthcare professionals have played crucial roles in changing tobacco-related behaviors; they have been advocates both at the local and national levels, and they have served as personal role models by quitting smoking or by not starting in the first place.
Pediatricians, family physicians, nurses, and other clinicians should take active roles in the prevention of obesity in children and youth. As discussed above, this includes routinely measuring height and weight; tracking BMI; and providing feedback, interpretation, counseling, and guidance on obesity prevention to children, parents, and other caregivers. This assumes that clinicians will have learned the appropriate skills to deliver these preventive services, which has implications for training at all levels (see below). They should also serve as role models for healthful eating and regular physical activity and take leadership roles in advocating for childhood obesity prevention in local schools and communities.
Similarly, health-care professional organizations and their members have important roles to play in advocating across the range of community institutions for obesity prevention activities and policies (AAP, 2003). Areas of possible involvement include health insurance coverage policies, school nutrition and physical education, and community recreation and zoning policies. Professional organizations can also be influential in encouraging their members to adopt a more healthful lifestyle and serve as role models to their patients as well as to become more active in their offices and communities in working to prevent obesity. For example, the leadership of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has recently challenged all of its members to increase their personal physical activity levels in order to serve as role models for their patients (as well as improve their own health); additionally, AAFP has initiated a program called “Americans in Motion” to help patients, their families, and communities fight obesity (AAFP, 2004).
Furthermore, many professional organizations are providing information on topics relevant to obesity prevention. The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued position statements on children’s television viewing and on physical fitness and activity in schools (AAP, 2000, 2001). The American Medical Association recently published a 10-part monograph on assessment and treatment of adult obesity (Kushner, 2003); similar materials on children should also be prepared. Collaboration between groups could broaden their effectiveness; if health-care professional organizations work together to implement obesity prevention programs and initiatives and develop clinical guidance, they would help ensure that consistent messages are reaching both health-care professionals and their patients.
Health- and medical-care professional organizations should make childhood obesity prevention a high-priority goal for their organizations. This includes creating and disseminating evidence-based clinical guidance and other materials on obesity prevention; establishing programs to encourage members to be role models for proper nutrition and physical activity; advocating for childhood obesity prevention initiatives; and coordinating their efforts, wherever possible, with other health-care professional organizations.
It is also critical to address current limitations in health-care training with regard to obesity prevention, nutrition, and physical activity. Medical and other health-care students have traditionally received little education in nutrition and physical activity; further, instruction on counseling about these topics generally has not been included either in medical school or primary-care residency training curricula (Taren et al., 2001). Such omissions should be corrected in curricula at all levels, from preclinical science through the clinical training years and into postgraduate training programs and continuing medical education for practicing clinicians. In addition, if
certifying entities such as medical specialty boards included questions about these areas in their formal examinations, this would provide an incentive to students and residents to master the associated material. Programs such as the Nutrition Academic Award Program sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute have begun to focus attention on improving nutrition education efforts in medical schools (Pearson et al., 2001), and further efforts are needed regarding other relevant areas. A recent Institute of Medicine report confirms the need for expanding behavioral and social-science content in medical schools’ curricula (IOM, 2004). Health-care professional schools, postgraduate training programs, continuing professional education programs, professional organizations, and certifying entities should require knowledge and skills related to obesity prevention (e.g., child and adolescent BMI interpretation, nutritional and physical activity counseling) in their curricula and examinations.
Health-Care Insurers, Health Plans, and Quality Improvement and Accrediting Organizations
Until recently, health-care concerns had largely focused on the treatment—as opposed to the prevention—of obesity, particularly the severe forms of adult obesity. But epidemiologic data showing increases in the numbers of obese children and youth, along with a rise in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes (formerly termed “adult onset diabetes”) and increased hypertension in children (Muntner et al., 2004), have raised awareness that childhood obesity might be best addressed from a prevention perspective. Furthermore, the high economic costs of obesity (Chapter 2) provide incentives to health-care insurers and health plans to encourage healthful lifestyles and thereby reduce their costs.
The health-care insurance industry in particular has several paths by which it may address obesity prevention. For individuals and their families, health insurance companies and health plans can develop innovative strategies for encouraging policy holders and their children to maintain a healthy weight, increase their levels of physical activity, and improve the quality of their diet. Creative options may include incentives for participating in and documenting regular physical activity, or programs that provide discounts or other incentives for wellness-related products. For example, one insurance company includes discounts on health and wellness magazines as well as lowered fees for health club memberships and weight-reduction programs for adults (CIGNA, 2004). Furthermore, health-care insurers can take an active role in community coalitions and other activities; one example is the Jump Up and Go Program in Massachusetts (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, 2004). It will be particularly important for healthcare insurers and health plans to consider incentives that are useful to high-
risk populations, who often live in areas where easy access to recreational facilities is lacking or where costs are prohibitive.
For the providers of health-care services, it is important that obesity prevention (including assessment of weight status as well as counseling on nutrition and physical activity) become a routine part of clinical care. Moreover, measures related to successful delivery of clinical preventive services, such as rates of screening tests, should be important components of healthcare quality-improvement programs that are promoted by health plans. The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) and other national quality-improvement and accrediting organizations should add obesity prevention efforts—such as routine measurement and tracking of BMI, counseling of children and their parents on diet and exercise—to the measures they develop and assess.
There may also be opportunities for incorporating obesity prevention measures and counseling into ongoing federal, state, and local programs that provide disease prevention and health promotion services to children. For example, Medicaid’s Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment program offers preventive screenings for eligible children (generally in underserved populations) and it includes a comprehensive health and developmental history. More than 8.7 million children participated in the screening program in 1998 (CMS, 2004), thus offering many potential opportunities for obesity prevention in children.
As with other sectors, those involved in delivering and paying for health care need to become more proactive, preferably through a multifocal, coordinated set of initiatives, in working with families to promote physical activity and healthful diets among children. Medicare has recently removed barriers to coverage for obesity-related services (DHHS, 2004). Although this, of course, does not relate directly to children, it is an action that may well be emulated by other insurers and for preventive services as well as for treatment.
Health insurers, health plans, and quality-improvement and accrediting organizations should designate childhood obesity prevention as a priority health promotion issue. Furthermore, health plans and health-care insurers should provide incentives to individuals and families to maintain healthy body weight and engage in routine physical activity. Health insurers, health plans, and quality improvement and accrediting organizations (such as NCQA) should include screening and obesity prevention services (e.g., routine assessment of BMI or other weight-status measures, counseling of children and their parents on nutrition and physical activity) in routine clinical practice and in quality assessment measures relating to health care.
The health-care community offers a range of opportunities for interactions with children and youth regarding obesity prevention. Several controlled trials of counseling by health-care providers have resulted in patient improvements in physical activity levels or diet, although these studies have generally been conducted with small numbers of patients and have focused on counseling of adult patients. Further research is needed on effective counseling or other types of obesity prevention interventions that could be provided in health-care settings. Improved professional education regarding obesity prevention is an important next step, as is the active involvement of health professional organizations, insurers, and accrediting organizations, in making childhood obesity prevention efforts a priority.
Recommendation 8: Health Care
Pediatricians, family physicians, nurses, and other clinicians should engage in the prevention of childhood obesity. Health-care professional organizations, insurers, and accrediting groups should support individual and population-based obesity prevention efforts.
To implement this recommendation:
Health-care professionals should routinely track BMI, offer relevant evidence-based counseling and guidance, serve as role models, and provide leadership in their communities for obesity prevention efforts.
Professional organizations should disseminate evidence-based clinical guidance and establish programs on obesity prevention.
Training programs and certifying entities should require obesity prevention knowledge and skills in their curricula and examinations.
Insurers and accrediting organizations should provide incentives for maintaining healthy body weight and include screening and obesity preventive services in routine clinical practice and quality assessment measures.
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Sallis JF, Patrick K, Frank E, Pratt M, Wechsler H, Galuska DA. 2000b. Interventions in health care settings to promote healthful eating and physical activity in children and adolescents. Prev Med 31(2):S112-S120.
Sanger K, Zenz L. 2004. Farm-to-Cafeteria Connections. Marketing Opportunities for Small Farms in Washington State. Washington State Department of Agriculture, Small Farm and Direct Marketing Program. [Online]. Available: http://agr.wa.gov/Marketing/SmallFarm/102-FarmToCafeteriaConnections-Web.pdf [accessed June 8, 2004].
Schwartz MB, Puhl R. 2003. Childhood obesity: A societal problem to solve. Obes Rev 4(1):57-71.
Shaffer A. 2002. The Persistence of L.A.’s Grocery Gap: The Need for a New Food Policy and Approach to Market Development. Los Angeles, CA: Center for Food and Justice, Urban and Environmental Policy Institute.
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In 2007, NCTE passed its Resolution on Strengthening Teacher Knowledge of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Issues. In 2010, NCTE passed its Resolution on Social Justice in Literacy Education, and in 2011, NCTE passed its Resolution on Confronting Bullying and Harassment.
Bullying and its deleterious impact on students will be debated on the floor of the Senate when the ESEA is considered in the coming weeks. At the HELP Committee mark-up, both Chairman Alexander (R-TN) and Senator Casey (D-PA) submitted amendments to address bullying (listed as Alexander Title IV, Amendment 1, and Casey Title IV, Amendment 1). While the two amendments share similar language, they differ in their proposed implementation. Given the importance of addressing bullying, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) suggested that the two Senators work out a compromise. Their staffs are in the process of working on language acceptable to all parties.
Senator Al Franken (D-MN) is also expected to introduce the Student Non-Discrimination Act as an amendment to ESEA. This amendment is focused on bullying but with particular attention paid to LGBT students.
NCTE’s commitment to treating every student with dignity and respect and its belief that teachers should have a voice makes this a particularly good time to share our resolutions with decision makers on the Hill. All 100 Senators will be voting on these amendments when they are introduced on the floor.
NCTE will send out relevant action alerts when the time comes, but why wait? Why not write your Senators now to raise their awareness about your perspective or the Council’s perspective on this issue!
As our Resolution on Confronting Bullying and Harassment states:
“As English teachers, we are in a unique position to use discourse as a way of helping students explore and understand bullying in all its forms and to shape their own values and attitudes toward it, even as they deepen their understanding of language effect and affect in the world.”
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This essay is inspired by the title of the book, “Prisons We Choose to Live Inside” by Doris Lessing, I read some years ago. I have to confess I did not read the whole book, but I did not really have to, the title alone is the inspiration.
Since the beginning of contact, Europeans and later Americans began to move into our lands and sought ways to manage and control the indigenous peoples. This management has taken the form of treaties, removal, and reservations. Tribal peoples learned to live within a number of reservations, many of them imposed upon us and many we have chosen to accept as part of our culture.
By the time the Oregon territory was established, the American knew that they did not want to live next to Indians, and in many ways sought the ultimate extermination of our people. Volunteer militias were formed to protect American settlements and retribution was enacted on our people by these militias. Very slight offenses caused exterminating acts; For a theft of a cow may come the extermination of a whole village by the volunteers. The tribes in southern Oregon were fighting for their very existence, and when the U.S. Army arrived, it was acknowledged by General Wool that it was the Americans who were at fault.
At the same time, the United States sought the removal of all the native people to reservations. The objective was to make all of the best land available to the Americans, and to remove the Indians to the land that was not wanted. Treaties were negotiated with the tribes. the tribes knew that they could not stem the tide of settlement that they had given away their land and their numbers were decreasing. Most tribes wanted to live in peace and so chose to sign the treaties so that their people would survive. Some 27 tribes were removed to Grand Ronde, and about 25 to the Coast Reservation. Some people have suggested that the tribes were forced onto the reservation. In the larger picture this is true because the alternative was that if they remained near the settlers they would have been killed in a series of raids. The tribes instead accepted the reservation because of assurances that there would be some measure of safety. Some tribes, like the Kalapuyans, were allowed to visit the reserve a month before removal. Joel Palmer, the Indian Superintendent of Oregon, wanted their agreement to remove their people. So there was some choice for removal, but in the end it was only way to get away from the volunteer militias who wanted nothing more than complete extermination of the tribes.
Once on the reservation, the tribal people had to integrate together, learn agriculture, build their own houses, send their children to American schools, and accept imprisonment on the reservation. The people could not leave the reservation without a pass. Children were forcefully taken from their homes to attend boarding schools. American culture was forced onto the children, including clothing styles, language, culture, and working habits. The people on the reservation had to accept whatever food they were given from the Indian agents. The agents were in charge of the money from the federal government, and much was stolen by individual agents. There was constant poverty and starvation on the reservation. people were made to live on what they could find in the forest. This was not so bad during the early reservation, but later people had already changed their culture, and older people and those who could not hunt or fish, would starve without regular handouts.
Disease was at epidemic levels on the reservation. Some 90-95% of the people had died from diseases before the reservation. In the first ten years a large percentage of the original people died. Later on the reservation, each monthly sanitation (health) report had a long list of ailments. People were writing in letters that the medicines on the reservation were old and would not work; so people were forced to gather together what money they could and ask for a pass to travel to Salem to buy medicines. The population at Grand Ronde in 1900 was some 400 individuals from the original population of 1200 in 1857.
In 1887 began the Dawes Act, a process of giving Indian allotments on the reservations. The Dawes act required that the allotted have 1/2 Indian blood quantum to gain an allotment of 260 acres for a man. Men, women and children all got allotments. The children’s was usually about 60 acres. Through this process the government hoped to instill individualist thinking in the Indians, and they would no longer live on communal lands. In addition, the ultimate goal, since the beginnings of Indian management was elimination of tribes. The reservations cost the federal government money and the elimination of treaty responsibilities would fulfill that goal. The Dawes Act would not allow allotments for people who had less that 1/2 Indian blood, and so they would effectively be non-Indians. They were forced to leave the reservation to find temporary work and the means of survival. The Dawes Act did what boarding schools could not, begin the elimination of Indian people as in each generation, there are a certain number who marry no tribal people, and so there would be less people who could claim 1/2 Indian blood. This provision, by the way, is not a part of our treaties. Nowhere in the treaties does it state that all members of the confederation have to maintain 1/2 Indian blood or better to maintain their rights. Treaties do not have an end date, they are to persist forever and they promise a reservation forever for the tribes and people that ceded some 14 million acres to the federal government. After all allotments were given out on the reservation, a little less than half of the original 60,000+ reservation was sold to the public as surplus.
The confederated tribes were subject to heavy management by the Indian agent. The annual censuses were conducted by the agents until 1936 when the Business Committee for the tribe took over the duties after enacting the tribal constitution. In about 1910, the Indian agent began removing people from the annual census, those who no longer lived ion the reservation. This appears to be a policy that they adopted as there was no rule or law passed to allow this to take place. There were less than 100 people enrolled on the tribal census from ~1910-1914 because of the subtractions. Then the agent was ordered to add the people back on to the census in later years. How many errors were made during this time we may never know.
In this time period, from ~1909-1918 there were a series of heir-ship investigations. Special agents took testimony to determine who would have a right to inherit the allotments of the allotted people who had passed between allotment and the present. After determining this, the lands were sold and the proceeds were divided among the descendants. In this manner thousands of acres passed from tribal hands.
It was not until 1924 that the American Indian Citizenship Act was passed. But even after the act was signed, Indians in Oregon could not marry whites under Oregon Law, or buy alcohol. Many Indians nationwide, even after they served in the military, could not get Social Security, auto insurance, or welfare payments even though they were full Americans under the law. Indian people in many areas were subject to extreme racism, with Indians in northern California forced to go to the back door of restaurants, to order at the back window, to eat outside, and the women to wear head-coverings. Indian people lived a shorter life span than any other ethnic group, and they still do today in all measurements.
In 1935-1936 the tribe accepted a constitution and changed their government to gain some self sufficiency. They adopted an elected Business Committee who administered the tribe. Then in 1940s word of liquidation came to the tribe. They began to prepare for liquidation/Termination. In 1954 after years of meeting and promises by the Indian agents that life would be better after termination, and they would gain they lands, the tribes of western Oregon were terminated. In 1956 the final termination was signed and we lost all rights under the treaties. The termination bill was signed without the tribe’s agreement, and the agent in Portland presenting our original agreements for the “Early termination” bill with the 2nd termination bill. The 2nd bill was never agreed on by the tribe before termination yet was still enacted despite conditions set by Congress and President Dwight D. Eisenhower that the tribes had to agree. Most of the tribal lands were sold and each person at Grand Ronde received $35 for their share in the reservation.
Loss of Rights at Restoration
In the 1970s and 80s when the tribe was working towards restoration there was a lot of discrimination in their treatment by area politicians. The politicians would not allow the restoration bills to be introduced without the tribe agreeing to terminate hunting and fishing rights. Both the Siletz (1977) and Grand Ronde (1983) bills included this stipulation. Sports fishermen organizations stated that the tribes, when they were restored, would “destroy fishing in Oregon.” So these terminations were added to the bill. Then Grand Ronde had to address fears by the timber industry that the restoration of the tribe would “destroy logging in Oregon.” Grand Ronde met with the logging outfits in the Grand Ronde School and effectively addressed their fears. But when the Reservation bill was introduced (1988) the tribe had to agree that the BIA would manage timber sales for 20 years and the tribe could not sell timber internationally. Its clear today that over 30 years later neither of these industries were destroyed.
Inculcation (Post Colonial)
This is a summary of the worst of Indian management of the tribes in Oregon. These situations exist for many tribes across the United States. Today, the tribes have inculcated a number of cultural and political realities to survive. Introduced notions of Indian management and elimination like blood quantum are part of the “reservations” that many people accept for their tribe and reservation. Its hard to think of tribal membership and citizenship without thinking about blood quantum. But it remains a quasi-scientific theory of Indian purity that has no basis in tribal traditional culture. Tribes normally would expect people from their tribe to marry outside of the tribe. This was the cultural way with the vast majority of tribes in the region. Therefore all tribal people by definition were mixed blooded, there were very few who were pure of any one tribe. When white people arrived it was seen as desirable to arrange to marry your sisters and daughters to these men. Such marriages would be arranged by the chiefs, and then if the offspring desired they may join the tribe as members. There was not the discrimination we have today over blood quantum, and tribes who have adopted that as one standard for membership are the only nations on earth that require some blood-quantum affiliation. The notion of blood quantum is a way for self-termination for tribes. Tribal people accept blood quantum because its a safe place for knowing who is tribal and who is not. Its a safe political position because the people that believe in blood quantum today outnumber those who do not. But it is a reservation, a federally imposed prison where our people were removed. We are the descendants of the original people who chose to sign the treaties so that their people would survive and continue forever.
People have noted that the reservation is the homeland of the tribes. The reservation in its initial iteration was a haven for the tribes, because otherwise we would be extinct. Our true homelands are the valleys of western Oregon. The Kalapuyas come from the Willamette and Umpqua valleys, The “Rogue River ” tribes, actually Athapaskan, Takelma and Shasta tribes, are from the Rogue and Illinois river valleys and mountain ranges of Southern Oregon, the upper Umpqua are from the Umpqua valley, the Molalla are from the Cascade Range, with three tribes separated as North Santiam and Southern Molalla, the Chinookan peoples are from the Columbia and Willamette Rivers. Finally the Tillamook tribes are late arrivals but are from the northern Oregon coast. We have chosen to live with the notion that the reservation is our homeland because that is the only place that was allowed for us for 150 years. For several generations the reservation is home and we all look to the reservation as a special place to the people of Grand Ronde, but it is not our only homelands. I am a descendant of five tribes (that I know), Santiam, Takelma, Chinook, Molalla and Yoncalla, and the homelands of those people are my homelands.
Termination itself is a prison. Its hard to get away from the notion that someday the federal government might terminate us again. We spend a lot of attention on this and we are very fearful that it may occur again. So much of our strategy is to make enough money so that we can defend ourselves in the future.
27 tribes / 7 treaties
Some people in the tribe believe that we were only originally five tribes. This notion eliminates the very deep and complex history of the tribes, where at least 27 tribes came to the reservation. This is a fact, because if one were to write down the tribal names on all 7 of the ratified treaties you would get very close to this number. The remaining tribal names are consolidated within the last remaining tribes that confederated together just before treaties to defend themselves from settler and other tribal encroachments.
Trans-Generational Stress Disorders?
The tribe has a number of ailments that are unique to the membership. I think some studies have been conducted. But I am sure there is quite a bit of PTSD related to termination. In fact, a colleague of mine from Klamath has researched another disorder, a form of PTSD that crossed generation of tribal membership. Trans-Generational Traumatic Disorder may infect a good number of members. With this disorder we may be experiencing trauma that is passed on to each new generation of trauma that relates to the time of genocide, epidemics, and removal to the reservation. So many of our “reservations” relate to federal management practices in the early period and we may be seeing psychological signs of these traumatic events in our population today.
There is much more to be said of other “reservations” in culture, our languages, our rights under treaties, the tribal finances etc. We have accepted the reservation as the homeland of the people, we have accepted alien/foreign concepts of membership that will eventually reduce the tribe, we have learned to live with federal government management in case they want to terminate us again. When do we begin to address these colonizing concepts and begin finding who we really are as tribal people of western Oregon? When do we reject the colonial management and begin a process of de-colonization and reverse a century and a half of cultural destruction? And in the end when will we demand acknowledgement of what the United States has done to us over the last two centuries.
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The concept of sequential cytotoxicity indicates the successive release of two or more cytotoxic compounds causing grater toxicity to the neoplasm than normal cell. This hypothesis is evaluated by designing a series of compounds of 2, 6 diphenyl piperidine-4-one. Recently for the development of novel cytotoxic and anticancer agents, different series of compounds have been designed that utilizes the 1, 5-diaryl-3-oxo-1, 4-pentadinyel pharmacophore. These compounds interact with cellular thiols of cell and thiols are not part of nucleic acids. Hence these compounds are free from the problem of mutagenicity and carcinogenicity. The series of compounds which either lacking of olefinic bond or one or more olefinic bond are synthesized by Claisen-Schmith reaction. The compounds having one or no any olefinic bonds will be predicted to be less cytotoxic than the compounds having two or three olefinic bonds. The SRB-assay method was used to evaluate cytotoxic property of all the synthesized compounds. The results revealed that the predictions made regarding the viability of the theory of sequential cytotoxicity were fulfilled.
Dr. Rahul L. Jadhav
Gourishankar Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Limb, Satara, Maharashtra, India.
Dr. Chandrakant S. Magdum
K. E. Society’s Rajarambapu College of Pharmacy, Kasegaon, Sangli, Maharashtra, India.
Miss. Manisha V. Patil
Adarsh College of Pharmacy, Vita, Sangli, Maharashtra, India.
View Book: – http://bp.bookpi.org/index.php/bpi/catalog/book/173
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In the vibrant and dynamic world of anime, shonen has long been a genre that captivated audiences worldwide. But, have you ever wondered about the portrayal of female characters in this male-dominated genre? Historically, Female Representation in Shonen Anime has been a topic of much debate and discussion. The damsels in distress and the sidekicks – is that all there is to female characters in shonen anime? Well, not anymore! Modern shonen anime is breaking barriers and challenging gender norms, bringing a fresh perspective to female representation. Let’s dive into this transformation and see how shows like “Jujutsu Kaisen” are leading the charge!
Historical Context of Female Representation in Shonen Anime
Traditional Roles and Stereotypes
Once upon a time, in the realm of shonen anime, female characters were often confined to the shadows of their male counterparts. They were the damsels in distress, waiting to be rescued, or the supporting characters whose narratives revolved around the male protagonists. Stereotypes and traditional roles were the norms, limiting the depth and development of female characters. But why was this the case? Was it a reflection of societal norms, or was there more to the story?
The Target Audience and its Influence
Shonen anime, primarily targeted at young males aged 14-18, had a significant influence on the portrayal of female characters. The narratives were crafted to appeal to this demographic, often sidelining female characters and reinforcing gender norms. The focus was on action, adventure, and the hero’s journey, with little room for exploring diverse female perspectives. But as the audience evolved, so did the narratives. The demand for well-rounded female characters grew, paving the way for a shift in representation.
Further Readings:Carole & Tuesday Anime: Representation and Controversy
The Shift in Narrative: Modern Shonen Anime’s Approach
Introduction of Diverse Female Perspectives
Fast forward to today, and the landscape of shonen anime is undergoing a transformation. Gone are the days of one-dimensional female characters; enter the era of diversity and empowerment! Modern shonen anime are introducing a plethora of female perspectives, each with their unique narratives and complexities. Female characters are no longer just the love interests or sidekicks; they are the protagonists, the anti-heroes, the warriors – they are redefining what it means to be a female character in shonen anime.
Avoiding Gender Tropes and Clichés
Breaking free from the chains of clichés and tropes, modern shonen anime is crafting narratives that challenge societal expectations and norms. Female characters are depicted with strength, intelligence, and independence, shattering the stereotypes that once confined them. Shows like “Jujutsu Kaisen” are at the forefront of this revolution, avoiding gender tropes and presenting female characters that are relatable, inspiring, and empowering.
Case Study: Jujutsu Kaisen’s Progressive Portrayal
Nobara Kugisaki and Maki Zenin
Enter the world of “Jujutsu Kaisen,” where characters like Nobara Kugisaki and Maki Zenin are stealing the spotlight and challenging the status quo. Nobara, with her fierce personality and unapologetic confidence, represents a departure from the traditional female archetype. She’s not just strong; she embraces her femininity and shatters the expectations placed on her. And then there’s Maki Zenin, a character who battles not just the enemies but also the patriarchal norms of her clan. These characters are not just fighters; they are symbols of resistance and empowerment.
Challenging Societal Expectations and Norms
“Jujutsu Kaisen” doesn’t just stop at creating strong female characters; it delves deeper into the societal expectations and norms that surround them. The show explores themes of perfection, strength, and the pressures faced by women in a patriarchal society. It’s not just about physical strength; it’s about challenging the very norms that define gender roles. The characters of Nobara and Maki are not just fighting battles; they are challenging societal expectations and redefining what it means to be a woman in the world of shonen anime.
Community Response and Industry Impact
Audience Reception and Discussions
The transformation in the portrayal of female characters hasn’t gone unnoticed by the anime community. Forums are buzzing, discussions are heated, and the audience is divided. While some applaud the progressive portrayal and the breaking of stereotypes, others are more critical, analyzing the depth and authenticity of the representation. The community’s response is a reflection of the changing dynamics in society and the increasing demand for diverse and authentic representation of women in media.
The Ripple Effect on the Anime Industry
The impact of shows like “Jujutsu Kaisen” is not just limited to the audience; it’s creating ripples across the anime industry. Other creators are taking note, and there’s a visible shift in the narrative across various shonen anime. The industry is evolving, and the representation of female characters is becoming a focal point of discussion and development. The success of “Jujutsu Kaisen” and the positive reception of its female characters are indicative of a changing tide and a promising future for female representation in shonen anime.
Conclusion: The Future of Female Representation in Shonen Anime
As we journey through the vibrant landscapes and intense battles of shonen anime, the evolution of female characters is evident. The damsels have become warriors, the sidekicks have become protagonists, and the narrative is more inclusive and diverse. The future of Female Representation in Shonen Anime is promising, with characters like Nobara and Maki leading the way and shows like “Jujutsu Kaisen” setting the benchmark. So, what’s next? Will the future bring more empowered female characters, shattering stereotypes and redefining norms? Only time will tell, but the journey is exciting and the possibilities are endless!
How has the portrayal of female characters in shonen anime evolved over the years?
The portrayal of female characters in shonen anime has evolved from being primarily damsels in distress or side characters to more empowered and diverse roles. Modern shonen anime are introducing a variety of female perspectives and challenging traditional gender norms and stereotypes.
Why is the shift in female representation significant for the anime industry?
The shift in female representation is significant as it reflects the changing societal norms and the demand for diverse and authentic representation. It also influences the narrative and character development in shonen anime, paving the way for more inclusive and relatable content.
What are some other shonen anime that have positively represented female characters?
Apart from “Jujutsu Kaisen,” other shonen anime like “My Hero Academia,” “Attack on Titan,” and “Demon Slayer” have also been recognized for their positive representation of female characters, showcasing their strengths, complexities, and individualities.
How has the anime community responded to the changes in female representation?
The anime community has had varied responses, with many applauding the progressive portrayal and breaking of stereotypes, while others engage in critical discussions analyzing the depth and authenticity of the representation. The community’s response reflects the increasing awareness and demand for diverse representation.
What can we expect for the future of female characters in shonen anime?
The future of female characters in shonen anime looks promising. With the industry evolving and more creators focusing on diverse and authentic representation. The success of shows with strong female characters indicates a positive trend, and we can expect to see more empowered and multifaceted female characters in upcoming shonen anime.
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- A recent study examined the impacts of ecological and sociocultural influences on bearded pig populations in Malaysian Borneo.
- The researchers found that the presence of pigs is “compatible” with Indigenous hunting in certain areas.
- The team’s findings point to the importance of a nuanced understanding of nearby human cultural values and local ecology in determining policies toward hunting.
Bearded pigs play a prominent role in the lives of many people living on the island of Borneo. For some ethnic groups, they’re a hunter’s most-prized quarry, providing an important source of protein, and a shared pig is often a central part of community celebrations.
Now, a recent study provides quantitative evidence for the first time that Bornean bearded pigs (Sus barbatus) can persist even in areas where they’re highly sought-after by local Indigenous groups.
“For thousands of years, the bearded pig has been hunted,” said David Kurz, a conservation scientist and postdoctoral fellow at Trinity College in the U.S. and the lead author of the study published Feb. 17 in the journal npj Biodiversity. “We know that from archaeological evidence.”
Prior research has also shown that hunting affects the movements of bearded pigs and the areas they frequent. Kurz and his colleagues wanted to know whether the pig’s presence could be tied to specific social and cultural factors in the areas where they occur.
The team began with camera trap-recorded detections of bearded pigs from 18 field sites in the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo collected between 2010 and 2014. In their analysis, they examined how certain variables might determine whether pigs were present in specific areas. For example, they included ecological factors, such as a location’s proximity to water or the edge of the forest, as well as “socio-cultural variables,” like whether the humans living nearby had a tradition of hunting pigs, and how accessible the terrain was for hunters.
Muslims in Malaysia, as elsewhere, generally don’t eat pork. But many members of Borneo’s large Indigenous minorities, such as the Kadazandusun-Murut in Sabah and the Iban in Sarawak, practice Christianity and hold bearded pig meat in high regard. Kurz’s earlier research sought to understand how pig hunting had changed in these societies with changes to the island, like the influx of oil palm plantations over recent years.
“We heard people say things like, ‘I live in the forest. This is my food,’” Kurz said. “We really saw the importance of the bearded pig in dietary and cultural terms.” Because of its role in some groups’ lives and the impact that social practices have on its presence, the team dubbed the bearded pig “a cultural keystone species.”
The team aimed to integrate those social variables along with what they knew about the pig’s ecology to produce more nuanced maps showing where the occurrence of pigs was most likely.
Their findings suggested a strong relationship between the culture of the people living nearby and the number of pigs. Pigs were likely to be more numerous in easily accessible areas where fewer of the nearby humans were from pig-hunting cultures, such as places in Malaysian Borneo where Islam predominates. They also found high probabilities of finding pigs near pig-hunting cultures in areas that were difficult for hunters to reach, such as those far from roads or cities.
Peter Williams, a postdoctoral researcher and ecologist at Michigan State University in the U.S., who wasn’t involved in the research, said the study demonstrates “the importance of considering culture and how humans are affecting wildlife.”
That’s not to say hunting isn’t a concern, Kurz said, especially when hunting moves beyond the subsistence level and starts to supply commercial markets.
“Hunting in tropical forests, especially in Southeast Asia, is a big conservation threat,” he said. “I don’t want to sugarcoat that.”
Still, the study demonstrates the possible coexistence of Indigenous hunting and the sustained presence of bearded pigs.
“In essence, that is showing something that Indigenous communities have known for thousands of years,” Kurz said, “which is that there’s potential compatibility between Indigenous environmental stewardship and ecological sustainability.”
The authors say that managing bearded pig populations requires an inclusive process with a diversity of voices from different parts of society. But their data do suggest that restrictions on hunting in readily accessible areas near pig-hunting groups are likely more important than, say, limits on hunting in inaccessible areas with pig-hunting groups nearby. Restrictions on hunting when the nearby human population doesn’t place a high cultural value on bearded pigs also aren’t as critical.
A ‘baseline’ for recovery?
Recently, Malaysian Borneo’s bearded pigs have had to contend with African swine fever. It’s not clear how much this virulent disease has affected pig numbers, but studies have found that fatality rates range from about 50% to 100% (but only for pigs — the disease doesn’t affect the humans who eat the meat). Bearded pigs are probably nowhere near as numerous as they were in the early 2010s when the scientists collected the data for this study, the authors write.
Their findings do provide a “baseline” against which the bearded pig’s recovery can be measured, Kurz said — at least since humans have altered the animal’s habitat with logging, oil palm agriculture and the expansion of urban areas over the past several decades.
“It’s an imperfect target, but it does give us some kind of number,” Kurz said.
Even before swine fever hit, the Bornean bearded pig was considered vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Bearded pigs’ swift reproductive rates could help them recover, Kurz added: A single sow can have multiple litters of 12 or more piglets a year in the right conditions. But whether bearded pig numbers can withstand continued hunting is an open question. To reach sustainable levels, the authors call for the inclusion of Indigenous leaders in wildlife management decisions, taking into account the culture and traditions of local human groups.
“Conservation has shown us that if you don’t include local communities, then you’re unlikely to have long-term sustainable solutions,” Kurz added. “It’s both more ethical and more effective to consider long-term needs of human communities alongside long-term needs of ecological communities, and often there are compatible links that promote both.”
John Cannon is a staff features writer with Mongabay. Find him on Twitter: @johnccannon
Kurz, D. J., Connor, T., Brodie, J. F., Baking, E. L., Szeto, S. H., Hearn, A. J., … Brashares, J. S. (2023). Socio-ecological factors shape the distribution of a cultural Keystone species in Malaysian Borneo. npj Biodiversity, 2(1). doi:10.1038/s44185-022-00008-w
Kurz, D. J., Saikim, F. H., Justine, V. T., Bloem, J., Libassi, M., Luskin, M. S., … Potts, M. D. (2021). Transformation and endurance of Indigenous hunting: Kadazandusun‐Murut bearded pig hunting practices amidst oil palm expansion and urbanization in Sabah, Malaysia. People and Nature, 3(5), 1078-1092. doi:10.1002/pan3.10250
Luskin, M. S., Meijaard, E., Surya, S., Sheherazade, Walzer, C., & Linkie, M. (2020). African swine fever threatens Southeast Asia’s 11 endemic wild pig species. Conservation Letters. doi:10.1111/conl.12784
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So, a social psychologist, a cognitive psychologist and an industrial psychologist walk into the woods … and what emerges is a strong research collaboration that links psychology with one of the most significant challenges of our time – solving environmental problems
The fundamental cause of all “environmental problems” is human behavior. These problems are happening because many of the ways humans fulfill their needs (and wants) are incompatible with the natural processes that maintain ecological integrity. As experts in human perception, learning, emotion, thinking and behavior, psychologists will serve a crucial role in redirecting our ecologically destructive trajectory and promoting a sustainable future.
The relevance of psychology to environmental issues is something even colleagues in our discipline only recently have begun to recognize. “Conservation psychology” refers to basic and applied research with the goal of promoting a sustainable future. We tend to refer to ourselves as conservation psychologists but have all served as officers of Division 34 (until recently called Population and Environmental Psychology) of the American Psychological Association. We have published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology and we are all on the editorial board of Ecopsychology and have published in that journal as well. Whatever it is that we do – conservation psychology, ecopsychology or environmental psychology – we are known among our colleagues nationwide as the Minnesota Green Gals.
We each have lengthy autobiographical narratives of how we became inspired to bring environmental issues into our professional lives. More important is the story of how we became the Green Gals, our collaborative team of the past seven years. Elise Amel and Britain Scott first began a conversation about doing green research together in 2001 while sipping hot cocoa amidst clouds of cigarette smoke in the Café de Flore in Paris. Teaching a J-Term abroad course that was exclusively sited in urban settings (Paris and London), inspired in them a sense of urgency about the environmental crisis. Meanwhile, Manning was living in Germany, where she had been working for several years in a research position at the University of Hamburg. Although she, too, was immersed in urban Europe, she was surrounded by examples of environmentally progressive practices and became interested in environmental research conducted by German psychologists. When she moved back to the United States with her family in 2003, Manning was eager to find like-minded colleagues. Through community networks, she tracked down Scott and came knocking on her office door. Scott took Manning down the hall to meet Amel, and a research program was born.
Following our values and passions was not risk-free. Such significant changes in the direction of our research required substantial time investment in uncharted territory. Conservation psychology was not the area of expertise for which any of us were hired by St. Thomas. The work seemed fringy from a traditional psychology perspective. Luckily, in the years since we’ve engaged in this work, St. Thomas has committed itself publicly to similar ideals and action. In 2008 Father Dennis Dease signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality at St. Thomas by 2035 and making sustainability a priority in student education. The Board of Trustees approved a strategic priority under Catholic Identity pledging that St. Thomas will “cultivate an ethic of environmental stewardship, and will integrate principles of environmental sustainability across the curriculum and in co-curricular activities in order to educate students to appreciate their roles and obtain tools for leadership and innovation in care for God’s Creation.” We are grateful that what we study is fully supported by the university.
To adequately address climate change, some organizations talk about the importance of reducing carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050, while others talk about the equivalent 2 percent per year until 2050. Which would motivate you?
Working With the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
Students find this work fascinating and relevant (which is handy since we rely on them for data collection at large public venues). Over the years we’ve worked with dozens of student researchers who have scouted potential public data collection venues, run lab experiments, reviewed literature, co-written papers, presented at professional conferences and earned research grants. Students are able to jump in at times when faculty are overwhelmed with other tasks that would otherwise bring the research to a grinding halt. Even though few of our students go on to graduate work in conservation psychology (especially since there are not yet any graduate programs specific to this area), we all benefit from the work we’ve accomplished together.
Our most extensive community collaboration, with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, has been both synergistic and rewarding. We’ve collected data for them at the Living Green Expo and the Minnesota State Fair (nestled between the lumberjack field and the Jacuzzi sales tent). Based on our findings and knowledge of psychology, we’ve suggested strategies for engaging folks at their events to increase sustainable behavior (e.g., practice loading a bike onto an MTC bus, on-site registration for wind-source power and junk-mail reduction). In turn, we get to ask large groups of everyday Minnesotans to participate in our research projects. We also have collected data in other public venues, including the Rondo Days and Grand Old Day street fairs and during a rally on the steps of the state Capitol.
Survey-style research in the field has its challenges (e.g., persuading people to participate, confronting illiteracy) and lacks the comfortable control of laboratory experimentation, but it gives us access to a more diverse population of participants than is typical of most psychology research (which is conducted primarily on college student samples). It isn’t always easy to work outside of the ivory tower, but we believe that application is a vital component of conservation psychology.
It is important to us that we work toward the common good in collaboration with undergraduate students and community partners. It is not only fulfilling but consistent with the mission and values of St. Thomas. We’d like to share some of our recent research findings to give you a flavor of the diverse set of questions psychologists address.
Research HighlightsHow Goal Setting Applies to Climate-Related Behaviors
One robust finding in psychology is that people accomplish more when they set specific, challenging, manageable goals rather than vague “do your best” goals or no goal at all. We expected this same pattern for environmental behaviors, and so we have investigated how goal-setting affects people’s sense of self-efficacy when they are trying to become more sustainable.
To adequately address climate change, some organizations talk about the importance of reducing carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050, while others talk about the equivalent 2 percent per year until 2050. Which would motivate you? Our results show that people who are trying to live more sustainably do not tend to distinguish between these, believing both are good goals. On the other hand, folks who have not really contemplated living differently find the 2 percent goal more compelling. Another distinction is that, when given a choice of the two goals, people who choose the 80 percent option do so because they sense an urgency that is not represented by the 2 percent goal, while those who choose the 2 percent goal think it is more feasible. Both the 80 percent and 2 percent goals are still what we would consider vague, or distal, goals and people respond to them by thinking they need to learn new skills, which can be a big barrier to behavior change. When more detail is provided, however, such as replacing 30 miles of driving per month with combining trips, taking public transportation, biking, carpooling or walking, people feel like they already have the skills to engage. So, what we know about goal-setting applies to climate-related behaviors.
Can Message Framing Make Climate Change Relevant?
The way an idea is presented makes a difference in how we react to it and what our brains do with it. Variations in source, context and emphasis all can affect how we respond to the very same message. For example, imagine turning on the radio and hearing someone promoting conservation. How would you respond to her message if she was identified as an “environmentalist”? Would you respond the same way if she were called a “concerned citizen”? Our research suggests not.
One of our recent framing studies presented information about climate change. For most Minnesotans, climate change feels like a distant issue. Though the scientific facts tell us it is happening, we have only an intellectual understanding, not an experiential one. Without experience, it is hard to feel that climate change is personally relevant. Thus, we examined whether framing could make climate change less psychologically distant and more personally relevant. We created a scenario describing climate change impacts and varied (1) the geographic distance described (in Minnesota versus in Kenya) and (2) whether or not the focus was on humans (people versus an important bird species). We thus had four scenarios describing climate change impacts on (1) people in Minnesota, (2) people in Kenya, (3) loons in Minnesota and (4) flamingos in Kenya.
Our results were intriguing. As we expected, when the setting was Kenya, participants were more alarmed by the scenario with people than the one with flamingos; however, when the setting was Minnesota, participants felt less psychological distance from climate change (and were more willing to make a donation to help) when the scenario described loons rather than people! One possible interpretation is that reading about negative climate impacts to us and our loved ones is uncomfortably threatening, so participants buffered themselves emotionally against this message. We are designing a follow-up study to test this hypothesis.
Loving nature does not require understanding natural systems or how our actions affect those systems. On the other hand, living sustainably in nature does require such an understanding.
Humans’ Connection to Nonhuman Nature
Ecopsychologists propose that connection to nonhuman nature is good for mental health – and good for the health of the planet – because it keeps us mindful of who we are and of the ecological systems on which we rely for life support; however, contemporary, urban-industrial lifestyles create physical distance, and, therefore, psychological distance, between people and nonhuman nature. The result, they say, is that we find ourselves feeling lost, anxious, stressed, depressed and unfulfilled because we are out of touch with our natural rhythms, needs and identities. We also behave in ecologically inharmonious ways because we are several steps removed from basic realities such as the sources of our food and origins of the raw materials required for our shelter, tools and clothing. In recent years, several researchers have devised measures for assessing individuals’ sense of connection to nature to test these ideas. In our work on this topic, we have identified and attempted to fill a gap concerning the way connection to nature is conceptualized and measured.
A consistent theme running through various researchers’ conceptualizations of connection to nature is that being connected involves both one’s sense of identity and one’s emotions. The more one defines and experiences oneself as part of nature, the more empathy one should feel for other living things and this should, therefore, be positively correlated with pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. Thus, the self-reporting designed to measure connection to nature focuses on people’s feelings. The problem that we see with this is that humans’ connection to nature is not merely spiritual nor emotional – it is a genuine physical link. Without nonhuman nature, we do not survive. The environmental crisis does not just jeopardize our sacred places, our favorite getaway spots or the scenic landscapes and beloved critters that we like to photograph – it threatens our ability to feed, clothe and shelter ourselves. Although an affective or spiritual connection to nature may be the best that most of us urban-dwellers will achieve, we are not convinced that it is sufficient to inspire environmentally conscious decisions. Loving nature does not require understanding natural systems or how our actions affect those systems. On the other hand, living sustainably in nature does require such an understanding.
This is why we devised a new measure that we call “Participation in Nature” (PIN). Items on the PIN describe engagement in the kinds of activities that were routine in ancestral hunter-gatherer groups (e.g., foraging for wild edibles or shelter building). We hypothesize that by participating directly in the fulfillment of our survival needs, we develop a practical, respectful attitude toward the rest of the natural world that is neither unrealistically reverent, nor dangerously domineering. We wondered, therefore, whether individuals who participate in nature more would report greener attitudes and behaviors overall.
To explore this, we collected data from people at the Minnesota State Fair and at the Lake Superior Traditional Ways Gathering. The Gathering is a weeklong encampment on pristine Anishinabe lands where participants offer and attend workshops on earth-living skills (e.g., hide tanning, basket making and fire starting). Collecting data at the Gathering was our most dramatic departure from traditional psychology research; we used to think that only anthropologists got to collect data tentside. We discovered that PIN was significantly and positively correlated with other measures of connection to nature and that both predicted pro-environmental behavior. As expected, the Gathering sample was “greener” overall than the State Fair sample; however, in both samples, there were a few individuals (almost all men) who scored high on PIN but low on other measures of connection to nature, and there were a few individuals (almost all women) who scored low on PIN but high on other measures of connection to nature. The first group reported significantly less pro-environmental behavior than the second group, suggesting to us that, like other forms of connection to nature, PIN may not be sufficient, nor necessary, to inspire ecologically friendly behavior.
A Personal Note
Over the years our collaboration as conservation psychologists has strengthened our friendships and brought our families together. While growing our research program, we’ve been raising children, too: six daughters, two apiece. Each summer our families attend the Traditional Ways Gathering on the shores of Gitche Gumee. We also went on a dogsled and snowshoe adventure in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in December. Between excursions, we feast together on bounty from our gardens and foraging expeditions. We know that our daughters benefit not only from the supportive community we have formed with each other, but from watching their mothers do good works while balancing career and family.
Read more from CAS Spotlight
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A single piece of crisp paper can be folded into any number of shapes. Twist its edges one way and you’ll wind up hoisting a paper crane. A simple re-arranging of those creases, however, could yield a dove, a boat or seemingly boundless other possibilities. “You can think of the genome three-dimensional structure the same way,” MacKay said. “You have your strand of DNA. Fold it one way and it will do one thing, but fold it a different way and it will do another thing, and those will have different structures and functions associated with them.”
MacKay, who studies bioinformatics, is one of two U of S students—along with Jacques Desmarais—to win a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship in 2016. The prize is one of Canada’s top honours for graduate students, and awards recipients with up to $150,000 over three years to support their doctoral studies.
For MacKay, that funding is supporting her work on predicting three-dimensional genome structures, as she builds a program that takes in biological data and uses it to create a model of what these structures could potentially look like.
MacKay explained that the project could reveal a new understanding of science at a fundamental level, with vast potential in fields as wide-ranging as agriculture, medicine and essentially anything involved with the study of biology. It could even be used as a starting point to develop new treatments for diseases such as cancer.
“One of the main areas that three-dimensional genome structure has been shown to have a big role in is cancer research,” she said. “With cancer, different folds can happen that cause different mutations or rearrangements to occur in the genome. If we can develop therapies to reverse these disease-related folds, we can potentially return cells back to a non-cancerous state.”
For his part, Desmarais, a PhD student in geology, earned his Vanier Scholarship in part due to his research into defining objects unseen to the human eye.
Desmarais is working on computer algorithms that calculate properties of materials. The project works entirely from a theoretical standpoint, based on the concepts of quantum mechanics and using little to no prior knowledge from experiments.
“Say we wanted to know how the inside of the Earth works, because the inside of the Earth is what drives volcanoes and plate tectonics and things like that,” he said. “Since we can’t get there, and since often it’s too difficult to simulate the high pressures and temperatures, sometimes the only thing we can do is theory.”
Among other applications, the algorithms are used to study crystals that make up geological formations on Earth and other planets.
“Using these types of theoretical approaches, one can calculate the properties of materials inside of planets and, from there, start to predict how exactly the inside of that planet works,” he said.
The Vanier Scholarship has allowed Desmarais to team up with researchers in Italy working on a project called Crystal, featuring collaborators from around the globe who have been developing these types of algorithms for more than 60 years. In 2016, he joined the group for three months, got a grasp of speaking Italian and relished the opportunity to learn from bright minds from around the world.
“They have a lot of collaborators from different countries and they all come to meet at this particular lab,” he said. “Maybe every week there would be a new professor or researcher from a different country and I’d get to meet them and learn something from them.”
After six decades of work already, there is no end in sight for the Crystal project. While some researchers may be uncomfortable working without a strict deadline, Desmarais is excited about the possibility of remaining involved in the project long-term.
"It’s an exciting project. We’ll see how things turn out, but I could see myself working on it or similar projects for some time.”
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The standards in Subpart S are consistently in the top 10 in OSHA’s most frequently cited standards lists and highest penalties assessed lists. The standards in Subpart S are complex and often misunderstood—even by professional electricians.Use the checklist to conduct an electrical safety inspection of your workplace. Add the citation for the OSHA standard for each question. In the comments section for each item, include your recommendations for correcting the violations. If a checklist item does not apply to your organization, explain why in the comments. In the summary section at the end of the checklist, discuss the significance of any noncompliance you found, and identify the types of injuries that might result if theviolations are left uncorrected.If you did not find any noncompliance, discuss what your organization does to prevent electrical safety violations and electrical injuries. Compile the checklist information into a report that outlines the major issues, if any, found in your workplace.
The work provided by the experts at nursingassignmentscare.com are model papers for students and it should not be submitted as it is in their school, college, or university. Our crafted papers are strictly intended to help students on their grades
+1 (203) 677 0547
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The condition in which a small hole or tunnel is developed in the skin is known as Pilonidal sinus. It would result in two forms, such as Pilonidal cyst or Pilonidal abscess. The gap or tube will be formed with the pus inside it. The appearance would be like a giant-sized pimple.
The combination of dirt, hair, and debris is collectively developed as the Pilonidal cyst. The pilonidal cyst is said to cause severe pain. This condition can easily get infected soon. In the time of infection in the cyst, the pus will be released from the hole, which would not have a pleasant smell.
The Pilonidal sinus can occur in all the persons irrespective of their gender. But it is considered that men who are sitting for a long time like drivers, watchmen, along with young adult students who happened to follow ‘not so healthy’ lifestyle can easily get affected by this health condition.
What are the symptoms of Pilonidal sinus?
- Development of pain, redness, and inflammation in the spine bottom part.
- Release of pus or blood from the cyst.
- Foul or bad smell from the pus.
- Fever and chills
- Sensitive to the touch
What are the causes of Pilonidal sinus?
There are no shreds of evidence to prove the exact reason for the occurrence of Pilonidal sinus. But it was considered that the cause of this pilonidal sinus is due to the hormonal changes which occur after the puberty period. It is also due to the growth of excessive hair, prolonged time of sitting, and friction caused by the clothes we wear. Some People may also report to experience multiple sinuses at a time.
Some actions such as sitting and wearing clothes cause friction in the skin and make the hair which is growing in a particular area to get back to underneath the region of the surface. The immune system in the body considers this excess hair enters into the body as an Antigen. Hence it stimulates an immune response, which would result in the formation of a cyst around the hair.
How to prevent Pilonidal sinus?
The re-formation of Pilonidal sinus can be prevented by following some preventive measures. Don’t sit still for a more extended period.
It would be best if you washed the particular region with a mild soap properly daily. Wash the soap content thoroughly and make sure that the soap is completely washed off. Dry and cleanse the area properly with a clean cloth.
What are the treatments for Pilonidal sinus?
Medication: Sometimes, the doctor will detect the pilonidal sinus before the severe pain and inflammation in the skin experienced by the patient. In that situation, the doctor will be prescribing some oral medications, such as antibiotics. Antibiotic is used to treat the bacterial infection, which would reduce the discomfort.
Lancing: The process which weakens the effect of the pilonidal abscess and the collection of pus formation inside the cyst is known as Lancing. General anesthesia will be given before the treatment. With the help of a scalpel, the doctor will get rid of hair, pus, and blood inside it.
Phenol: Phenol is a chemical compound that is used as an antiseptic. The patient will be provided with the anesthesia before this process. The phenol is injected into the cyst to treat the Pilonidal sinus condition. It is not commonly used by doctors.
Surgery: If the Pilonidal sinus gets re-formed through one of the treatments as mentioned earlier are performed, the doctor will then suggested performing the surgery. The operation is also preferred when the person experiences multiple sinuses at a time.
The local anesthesia is given to the patient, and the incisions are made in the patient body. The pus, debris, and dirt will be removed through the incisions. Finally, the incisions will be stitched.
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As a writer and researcher, I often find myself using Twitter as a valuable source of information. Whether it’s a breaking news story, a viral trend, or a thought-provoking quote, Twitter is a treasure trove of valuable content. However, when using Twitter as a source for my work, it’s essential to properly cite the tweets I reference. In this article, I will provide you with a detailed guide on how to cite Twitter effectively.
Why is citing Twitter important?
Citing your sources is a fundamental practice in the world of academia and journalism. It not only gives credit to the original author but also allows readers to verify the information and explore the context surrounding it. When it comes to Twitter, citing tweets becomes even more crucial because of the fast-paced and dynamic nature of the platform.
Basic Format for Citing Tweets
The basic format for citing a tweet includes the Twitter handle of the author, the tweet’s content in quotation marks, the date and time of the tweet, and the URL of the tweet. For example:
@username. "The content of the tweet." Twitter, Day Month Year, Time, URL of the tweet.
It’s important to note that the date and time should be displayed in the timezone of the original tweet.
Citing a Tweet with an Image
Twitter allows users to attach images to their tweets, which can be valuable sources of visual content. When citing a tweet with an image, you should follow a similar format as mentioned earlier and include the name of the image in square brackets after the tweet’s content. For example:
@username. "The content of the tweet" [Image description]. Twitter, Day Month Year, Time, URL of the tweet.
Retweets and Quote Tweets
Retweets and quote tweets are another important aspect of Twitter. When citing a retweet, it’s crucial to give credit to both the original author and the person who retweeted it. Similarly, when citing a quote tweet, you should credit the author of the original tweet, the person who quoted it, and provide the URL of the quote tweet. Here’s an example:
@originalusername. "The content of the original tweet." Twitter, Day Month Year, Time, URL of the original tweet.
@quotetweetusername quoted @originalusername. "The content of the quote tweet." Twitter, Day Month Year, Time, URL of the quote tweet.
How to Find the URL of a Tweet
Locating the URL of a tweet is crucial for proper citation. To find the URL of a tweet, you can follow these steps:
- Open Twitter and navigate to the tweet you want to cite.
- Click on the timestamp of the tweet. This will take you to the individual tweet page.
- Copy the URL from the address bar of your browser.
It’s important to use the URL of the individual tweet rather than the URL of the user’s profile or the tweet’s embed code.
Citing Twitter properly is an essential skill for writers and researchers who use the platform as a source of information. By following the guidelines mentioned above, you can ensure that you give proper credit to the original authors, allow readers to verify the information, and maintain academic integrity. So the next time you reference a tweet in your work, make sure to use the appropriate citation format and include the necessary details.
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8.1 Overview of Photosynthesis
The process of photosynthesis transformed life on Earth. By harnessing energy from the sun, photosynthesis evolved to allow living things access to enormous amounts of energy. Because of photosynthesis, living things gained access to sufficient energy that allowed them to build new structures and achieve the biodiversity evident today.
Only certain organisms, called photoautotrophs, can perform photosynthesis; they require the presence of chlorophyll, a specialized pigment that absorbs certain portions of the visible spectrum and can capture energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis uses carbon dioxide and water to assemble carbohydrate molecules and release oxygen as a waste product into the atmosphere. Eukaryotic autotrophs, such as plants and algae, have organelles called chloroplasts in which photosynthesis takes place, and starch accumulates. In prokaryotes, such as cyanobacteria, the process is less localized and occurs within folded membranes, extensions of the plasma membrane, and in the cytoplasm.
8.2 The Light-Dependent Reactions of Photosynthesis
The pigments of the first part of photosynthesis, the light-dependent reactions, absorb energy from sunlight. A photon strikes the antenna pigments of photosystem II to initiate photosynthesis. The energy travels to the reaction center that contains chlorophyll a to the electron transport chain, which pumps hydrogen ions into the thylakoid interior. This action builds up a high concentration of ions. The ions flow through ATP synthase via chemiosmosis to form molecules of ATP, which are used for the formation of sugar molecules in the second stage of photosynthesis. Photosystem I absorbs a second photon, which results in the formation of an NADPH molecule, another energy and reducing power carrier for the light-independent reactions.
8.3 Using Light Energy to Make Organic Molecules
Using the energy carriers formed in the first steps of photosynthesis, the light-independent reactions, or the Calvin cycle, take in CO2 from the environment. An enzyme, RuBisCO, catalyzes a reaction with CO2 and another molecule, RuBP. After three cycles, a three-carbon molecule of G3P leaves the cycle to become part of a carbohydrate molecule. The remaining G3P molecules stay in the cycle to be regenerated into RuBP, which is then ready to react with more CO2. Photosynthesis forms an energy cycle with the process of cellular respiration. Plants need both photosynthesis and respiration for their ability to function in both the light and dark, and to be able to interconvert essential metabolites. Therefore, plants contain both chloroplasts and mitochondria.
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- How do teams develop over time?
If you have been a part of a team—as most of us have—then you intuitively have felt that there are different “stages” of team development. Teams and team members often start from a position of friendliness and excitement about a project or endeavor, but the mood can sour and the team dynamics can go south very quickly once the real work begins. In 1965, educational psychologist Bruce Tuckman at Ohio State University developed a four-stage model to explain the complexities that he had witnessed in team development. The original model was called Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development, and he added the fifth stage of “Adjourning” in 1977 to explain the disbanding of a team at the end of a project. The four stages of the Tuckman model are:3
The Forming stage begins with the introduction of team members. This is known as the “polite stage” in which the team is mainly focused on similarities and the group looks to the leader for structure and direction. The team members at this point are enthusiastic, and issues are still being discussed on a global, ambiguous level. This is when the informal pecking order begins to develop, but the team is still friendly.
The Storming stage begins as team members begin vying for leadership and testing the group processes. This is known as the “win-lose” stage, as members clash for control of the group and people begin to choose sides. The attitude about the team and the project begins to shift to negative, and there is frustration around goals, tasks, and progress.
After what can be a very long and painful Storming process for the team, slowly the Norming stage may start to take root. During Norming, the team is starting to work well together, and buy-in to group goals occurs. The team is establishing and maintaining ground rules and boundaries, and there is willingness to share responsibility and control. At this point in the team formation, members begin to value and respect each other and their contributions.
Finally, as the team builds momentum and starts to get results, it is entering the Performing stage. The team is completely self-directed and requires little management direction. The team has confidence, pride, and enthusiasm, and there is a congruence of vision, team, and self. As the team continues to perform, it may even succeed in becoming a high-performing team. High-performing teams have optimized both task and people relationships—they are maximizing performance and team effectiveness. Katzenberg and Smith, in their study of teams, have created a “team performance curve” that graphs the journey of a team from a working group to a high-performing team. The team performance curve is illustrated in Exhibit 10.5.
The process of becoming a high-performance team is not a linear process. Similarly, the four stages of team development in the Tuckman model are not linear, and there are also factors that may cause the team to regress to an earlier stage of development. When a team member is added to the group, this may change the dynamic enough and be disruptive enough to cause a backwards slide to an earlier stage. Similarly, if a new project task is introduced that causes confusion or anxiety for the group, then this may also cause a backwards slide to an earlier stage of development. Think of your own experiences with project teams and the backslide that the group may have taken when another team member was introduced. You may have personally found the same to be true when a leader or project sponsor changes the scope or adds a new project task. The team has to re-group and will likely re-Storm and re-Form before getting back to Performing as a team.
Starting the Startup Team
Nothing is more exciting than a startup business. The enthusiasm is high, and people are excited about the new venture and the prospects that await. Depending on the situation, there may be funding that the startup has received from investors, or the startup could be growing and powering itself organically. Either way, the startup faces many different questions in the beginning, which will have a tremendous impact on its growth potential and performance down the road. One of the most critical questions that faces a startup —or any business for that matter—is the question of who should be on the team. Human capital is the greatest asset that any company can have, and it is an especially critical decision in a startup environment when you have limited resources and those resources will be responsible for building the company from ground up.
In Noam Wasserman’s January 2012 HBSP article “Assembling the Startup Team,” Wasserman asserts:
“Nothing can bedevil a high-potential startup more than its people problems. In research on startup performance, venture capitalists attributed 65% of portfolio company failures to problems within the startup’s management team. Another study asked investors to identify problems that might occur at their portfolio companies; 61% of the problems involved team issues. These problems typically result from choices that founders make as they add team members…”
These statistics are based on people problems in startups, and it isn’t quite clear what percent of larger company failures could be directly or indirectly attributed to people and team issues. I would imagine that the percentage is also significant. The impact of people problems and team issues in a startup organization that is just getting its footing and trying to make the right connections and decisions can be very significant. If you know anyone who has a company in startup mode, you may have noticed that some of the early team members who are selected to join the team are trusted family members, friends, or former colleagues. Once a startup company grows to a certain level, then it may acquire an experienced CEO to take the helm. In any case, the startup is faced early on with important questions on how to build the team in a way that will maximize the chance of success.
In “Assembling the Startup Team,” the author refers to the three Rs: relationships, roles, and rewards as being key elements that must be managed effectively in order to avoid problems in the long term. Relationships refers to the actual team members that are chosen, and there are several caveats to keep in mind. Hiring relatives or close friends because they are trusted may seem like the right idea in the beginning, but the long-term hazards (per current research) outweigh the benefits. Family and friends may think too similarly, and the team misses the benefit of other perspectives and connections. Roles are important because you have to think about the division of labor and skills, as well as who is in the right roles for decision-making. The startup team needs to think through the implications of assigning people to specific roles, as that may dictate their decision power and status. Finally, defining the rewards can be difficult for the startup team because it essentially means that they are splitting the pie—i.e., both short-term and long-term compensation. For startup founders, this can be a very difficult decision when they have to weigh the balance of giving something away versus gaining human capital that may ultimately help the business to succeed. Thinking through the tradeoffs and keeping alignment between the “three Rs” is important because it challenges the startup team to think of the long-term consequences of some of their early decisions. It is easy to bring family and friends into the startup equation due to trust factors, but a careful analysis of the “three Rs” will help a startup leadership team make decisions that will pay off in the long term.
- Why might it be a bad decision to hire someone for a key startup role based only on the fact that the person is close family or a friend? What are the potential tradeoffs to the business?
- What does it mean for the “three Rs” to be in alignment? What is the potential risk of these not being in alignment? What could go wrong?
- What are the four stages of team development?
- What can cause a team to regress in its development?
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Chapter 2: Introduction to the Chemistry of Life
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Describe matter and elements
- Describe the interrelationship between protons, neutrons, and electrons, and the ways in which electrons can be donated or shared between atoms
Watch a video about electrons and how the electrons in chemical bonds influence the shape and function of molecules.
At its most fundamental level, life is made up of matter. Matter occupies space and has mass. All matter is composed of elements, substances that cannot be broken down or transformed chemically into other substances. Each element is made of atoms, each with a constant number of protons and unique properties. A total of 118 elements have been defined; however, only 92 occur naturally, and fewer than 30 are found in living cells. The remaining 26 elements are unstable and, therefore, do not exist for very long or are theoretical and have yet to be detected.
Each element is designated by its chemical symbol (such as H, N, O, C, and Na), and possesses unique properties. These unique properties allow elements to combine and to bond with each other in specific ways.
An atom is the smallest component of an element that retains all of the chemical properties of that element. For example, one hydrogen atom has all of the properties of the element hydrogen, such as it exists as a gas at room temperature, and it bonds with oxygen to create a water molecule. Hydrogen atoms cannot be broken down into anything smaller while still retaining the properties of hydrogen. If a hydrogen atom were broken down into subatomic particles, it would no longer have the properties of hydrogen.
At the most basic level, all organisms are made of a combination of elements. They contain atoms that combine together to form molecules. In multicellular organisms, such as animals, molecules can interact to form cells that combine to form tissues, which make up organs. These combinations continue until entire multicellular organisms are formed.
All atoms contain protons, electrons, and neutrons. The only exception is hydrogen (H), which is made of one proton and one electron. A proton is a positively charged particle that resides in the nucleus (the core of the atom) of an atom and has a mass of 1 and a charge of +1. An electron is a negatively charged particle that travels in the space around the nucleus. In other words, it resides outside of the nucleus. It has a negligible mass and has a charge of –1.
Neutrons, like protons, reside in the nucleus of an atom. They have a mass of 1 and no charge. The positive (protons) and negative (electrons) charges balance each other in a neutral atom, which has a net zero charge.
Because protons and neutrons each have a mass of 1, the mass of an atom is equal to the number of protons and neutrons of that atom. The number of electrons does not factor into the overall mass, because their mass is so small.
As stated earlier, each element has its own unique properties. Each contains a different number of protons and neutrons, giving it its own atomic number and mass number. The atomic number of an element is equal to the number of protons that element contains. The mass number, or atomic mass, is the number of protons plus the number of neutrons of that element. Therefore, it is possible to determine the number of neutrons by subtracting the atomic number from the mass number.
These numbers provide information about the elements and how they will react when combined. Different elements have different melting and boiling points, and are in different states (liquid, solid, or gas) at room temperature. They also combine in different ways. Some form specific types of bonds, whereas others do not. How they combine is based on the number of electrons present. Because of these characteristics, the elements are arranged into the periodic table of elements, a chart of the elements that includes the atomic number and relative atomic mass of each element. The periodic table also provides key information about the properties of elements —often indicated by color-coding. The arrangement of the table also shows how the electrons in each element are organized and provides important details about how atoms will react with each other to form molecules.
Isotopes are different forms of the same element that have the same number of protons, but a different number of neutrons. Some elements, such as carbon, potassium, and uranium, have naturally occurring isotopes. Carbon-12, the most common isotope of carbon, contains six protons and six neutrons. Therefore, it has a mass number of 12 (six protons and six neutrons) and an atomic number of 6 (which makes it carbon). Carbon-14 contains six protons and eight neutrons. Therefore, it has a mass number of 14 (six protons and eight neutrons) and an atomic number of 6, meaning it is still the element carbon. These two alternate forms of carbon are isotopes. Some isotopes are unstable and will lose protons, other subatomic particles, or energy to form more stable elements. These are called radioactive isotopes or radioisotopes.
How many neutrons do (K) potassium-39 and potassium-40 have, respectively?
Evolution in Action
Carbon-14 (14C) is a naturally occurring radioisotope that is created in the atmosphere by cosmic rays. This is a continuous process, so more 14C is always being created. As a living organism develops, the relative level of 14C in its body is equal to the concentration of 14C in the atmosphere. When an organism dies, it is no longer ingesting 14C, so the ratio will decline. 14C decays to 14N by a process called beta decay; it gives off energy in this slow process.
After approximately 5,730 years, only one-half of the starting concentration of 14C will have been converted to 14N. The time it takes for half of the original concentration of an isotope to decay to its more stable form is called its half-life. Because the half-life of 14C is long, it is used to age formerly living objects, such as fossils. Using the ratio of the 14C concentration found in an object to the amount of 14C detected in the atmosphere, the amount of the isotope that has not yet decayed can be determined. Based on this amount, the age of the fossil can be calculated to about 50,000 years. Isotopes with longer half-lives, such as potassium-40, are used to calculate the ages of older fossils. Through the use of carbon dating, scientists can reconstruct the ecology and biogeography of organisms living within the past 50,000 years.
Concept in Action
To learn more about atoms and isotopes, and how you can tell one isotope from another, visit this site and run the simulation.
How elements interact with one another depends on how their electrons are arranged and how many openings for electrons exist at the outermost region where electrons are present in an atom. Electrons exist at energy levels that form shells around the nucleus. The closest shell can hold up to two electrons. The closest shell to the nucleus is always filled first, before any other shell can be filled. Hydrogen has one electron; therefore, it has only one spot occupied within the lowest shell. Helium has two electrons; therefore, it can completely fill the lowest shell with its two electrons. If you look at the periodic table, you will see that hydrogen and helium are the only two elements in the first row. This is because they only have electrons in their first shell. Hydrogen and helium are the only two elements that have the lowest shell and no other shells.
The second and third energy levels can hold up to eight electrons. The eight electrons are arranged in four pairs and one position in each pair is filled with an electron before any pairs are completed.
Looking at the periodic table again, you will notice that there are seven rows. These rows correspond to the number of shells that the elements within that row have. The elements within a particular row have increasing numbers of electrons as the columns proceed from left to right. Although each element has the same number of shells, not all of the shells are completely filled with electrons. If you look at the second row of the periodic table, you will find lithium (Li), beryllium (Be), boron (B), carbon (C), nitrogen (N), oxygen (O), fluorine (F), and neon (Ne). These all have electrons that occupy only the first and second shells. Lithium has only one electron in its outermost shell, beryllium has two electrons, boron has three, and so on, until the entire shell is filled with eight electrons, as is the case with neon.
Not all elements have enough electrons to fill their outermost shells, but an atom is at its most stable when all of the electron positions in the outermost shell are filled. Because of these vacancies in the outermost shells, we see the formation of chemical bonds, or interactions between two or more of the same or different elements that result in the formation of molecules. To achieve greater stability, atoms will tend to completely fill their outer shells and will bond with other elements to accomplish this goal by sharing electrons, accepting electrons from another atom, or donating electrons to another atom. Because the outermost shells of the elements with low atomic numbers (up to calcium, with atomic number 20) can hold eight electrons, this is referred to as the octet rule. An element can donate, accept, or share electrons with other elements to fill its outer shell and satisfy the octet rule.
When an atom does not contain equal numbers of protons and electrons, it is called an ion. Because the number of electrons does not equal the number of protons, each ion has a net charge. Positive ions are formed by losing electrons and are called cations. Negative ions are formed by gaining electrons and are called anions.
For example, sodium only has one electron in its outermost shell. It takes less energy for sodium to donate that one electron than it does to accept seven more electrons to fill the outer shell. If sodium loses an electron, it now has 11 protons and only 10 electrons, leaving it with an overall charge of +1. It is now called a sodium ion.
The chlorine atom has seven electrons in its outer shell. Again, it is more energy-efficient for chlorine to gain one electron than to lose seven. Therefore, it tends to gain an electron to create an ion with 17 protons and 18 electrons, giving it a net negative (–1) charge. It is now called a chloride ion. This movement of electrons from one element to another is referred to as electron transfer. As illustrates, a sodium atom (Na) only has one electron in its outermost shell, whereas a chlorine atom (Cl) has seven electrons in its outermost shell. A sodium atom will donate its one electron to empty its shell, and a chlorine atom will accept that electron to fill its shell, becoming chloride. Both ions now satisfy the octet rule and have complete outermost shells. Because the number of electrons is no longer equal to the number of protons, each is now an ion and has a +1 (sodium) or –1 (chloride) charge.
There are four types of bonds or interactions: ionic, covalent, hydrogen bonds, and van der Waals interactions. Ionic and covalent bonds are strong interactions that require a larger energy input to break apart. When an element donates an electron from its outer shell, as in the sodium atom example above, a positive ion is formed. The element accepting the electron is now negatively charged. Because positive and negative charges attract, these ions stay together and form an ionic bond, or a bond between ions. The elements bond together with the electron from one element staying predominantly with the other element. When Na+ and Cl– ions combine to produce NaCl, an electron from a sodium atom stays with the other seven from the chlorine atom, and the sodium and chloride ions attract each other in a lattice of ions with a net zero charge.
Another type of strong chemical bond between two or more atoms is a covalent bond. These bonds form when a pair of electrons is shared between two elements and are the strongest and most common form of chemical bond in living organisms. Covalent bonds form between the elements that make up the biological molecules in our cells. Unlike ionic bonds, covalent bonds do not dissociate in water.
The hydrogen and oxygen atoms that combine to form water molecules are bound together by covalent bonds. The electron from the hydrogen atom divides its time between the outer shell of the hydrogen atom and the incomplete outer shell of the oxygen atom. To completely fill the outer shell of an oxygen atom, two electrons from two hydrogen atoms are needed, hence the subscript “2” in H2O. The electrons are shared between the atoms, dividing their time between them to “fill” the outer shell of each. This sharing is a lower energy state for all of the atoms involved than if they existed without their outer shells filled.
There are two types of covalent bonds: polar and nonpolar. Nonpolar covalent bonds form between two atoms of the same element or between different elements that share the electrons equally. For example, an oxygen atom can bond with another oxygen atom to fill their outer shells. This association is nonpolar because the electrons will be equally distributed between each oxygen atom. Two covalent bonds form between the two oxygen atoms because oxygen requires two shared electrons to fill its outermost shell. Nitrogen atoms will form three covalent bonds (also called triple covalent) between two atoms of nitrogen because each nitrogen atom needs three electrons to fill its outermost shell. Another example of a nonpolar covalent bond is found in the methane (CH4) molecule. The carbon atom has four electrons in its outermost shell and needs four more to fill it. It gets these four from four hydrogen atoms, each atom providing one. These elements all share the electrons equally, creating four nonpolar covalent bonds.
In a polar covalent bond, the electrons shared by the atoms spend more time closer to one nucleus than to the other nucleus. Because of the unequal distribution of electrons between the different nuclei, a slightly positive (δ+) or slightly negative (δ–) charge develops. The covalent bonds between hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water are polar covalent bonds. The shared electrons spend more time near the oxygen nucleus, giving it a small negative charge, than they spend near the hydrogen nuclei, giving these molecules a small positive charge.
Ionic and covalent bonds are strong bonds that require considerable energy to break. However, not all bonds between elements are ionic or covalent bonds. Weaker bonds can also form. These are attractions that occur between positive and negative charges that do not require much energy to break. Two weak bonds that occur frequently are hydrogen bonds and van der Waals interactions. These bonds give rise to the unique properties of water and the unique structures of DNA and proteins.
When polar covalent bonds containing a hydrogen atom form, the hydrogen atom in that bond has a slightly positive charge. This is because the shared electron is pulled more strongly toward the other element and away from the hydrogen nucleus. Because the hydrogen atom is slightly positive (δ+), it will be attracted to neighboring negative partial charges (δ–). When this happens, a weak interaction occurs between the δ+ charge of the hydrogen atom of one molecule and the δ– charge of the other molecule. This interaction is called a hydrogen bond. This type of bond is common; for example, the liquid nature of water is caused by the hydrogen bonds between water molecules. Hydrogen bonds give water the unique properties that sustain life. If it were not for hydrogen bonding, water would be a gas rather than a liquid at room temperature.
Hydrogen bonds can form between different molecules and they do not always have to include a water molecule. Hydrogen atoms in polar bonds within any molecule can form bonds with other adjacent molecules. For example, hydrogen bonds hold together two long strands of DNA to give the DNA molecule its characteristic double-stranded structure. Hydrogen bonds are also responsible for some of the three-dimensional structure of proteins.
van der Waals Interactions
Like hydrogen bonds, van der Waals interactions are weak attractions or interactions between molecules. They occur between polar, covalently bound, atoms in different molecules. Some of these weak attractions are caused by temporary partial charges formed when electrons move around a nucleus. These weak interactions between molecules are important in biological systems.
Have you or anyone you know ever had a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, a mammogram, or an X-ray? These tests produce images of your soft tissues and organs (as with an MRI or mammogram) or your bones (as happens in an X-ray) by using either radio waves or special isotopes (radiolabeled or fluorescently labeled) that are ingested or injected into the body. These tests provide data for disease diagnoses by creating images of your organs or skeletal system.
MRI imaging works by subjecting hydrogen nuclei, which are abundant in the water in soft tissues, to fluctuating magnetic fields, which cause them to emit their own magnetic field. This signal is then read by sensors in the machine and interpreted by a computer to form a detailed image.
Some radiography technologists and technicians specialize in computed tomography, MRI, and mammography. They produce films or images of the body that help medical professionals examine and diagnose. Radiologists work directly with patients, explaining machinery, preparing them for exams, and ensuring that their body or body parts are positioned correctly to produce the needed images. Physicians or radiologists then analyze the test results.
Radiography technicians can work in hospitals, doctors’ offices, or specialized imaging centers. Training to become a radiography technician happens at hospitals, colleges, and universities that offer certificates, associate’s degrees, or bachelor’s degrees in radiography.
Matter is anything that occupies space and has mass. It is made up of atoms of different elements. All of the 92 elements that occur naturally have unique qualities that allow them to combine in various ways to create compounds or molecules. Atoms, which consist of protons, neutrons, and electrons, are the smallest units of an element that retain all of the properties of that element. Electrons can be donated or shared between atoms to create bonds, including ionic, covalent, and hydrogen bonds, as well as van der Waals interactions.
anion: a negative ion formed by gaining electrons
atomic number: the number of protons in an atom
cation: a positive ion formed by losing electrons
chemical bond: an interaction between two or more of the same or different elements that results in the formation of molecules
covalent bond: a type of strong bond between two or more of the same or different elements; forms when electrons are shared between elements
electron: a negatively charged particle that resides outside of the nucleus in the electron orbital; lacks functional mass and has a charge of –1
electron transfer: the movement of electrons from one element to another
element: one of 118 unique substances that cannot be broken down into smaller substances and retain the characteristic of that substance; each element has a specified number of protons and unique properties
hydrogen bond: a weak bond between partially positively charged hydrogen atoms and partially negatively charged elements or molecules
ion: an atom or compound that does not contain equal numbers of protons and electrons, and therefore has a net charge
ionic bond: a chemical bond that forms between ions of opposite charges
isotope: one or more forms of an element that have different numbers of neutrons
mass number: the number of protons plus neutrons in an atom
matter: anything that has mass and occupies space
neutron: a particle with no charge that resides in the nucleus of an atom; has a mass of 1
nonpolar covalent bond: a type of covalent bond that forms between atoms when electrons are shared equally between atoms, resulting in no regions with partial charges as in polar covalent bonds
nucleus: (chemistry) the dense center of an atom made up of protons and (except in the case of a hydrogen atom) neutrons
octet rule: states that the outermost shell of an element with a low atomic number can hold eight electrons
periodic table of elements: an organizational chart of elements, indicating the atomic number and mass number of each element; also provides key information about the properties of elements
polar covalent bond:a type of covalent bond in which electrons are pulled toward one atom and away from another, resulting in slightly positive and slightly negative charged regions of the molecule
proton: a positively charged particle that resides in the nucleus of an atom; has a mass of 1 and a charge of +1
radioactive isotope: an isotope that spontaneously emits particles or energy to form a more stable element
van der Waals interaction: a weak attraction or interaction between molecules caused by slightly positively charged or slightly negatively charged atoms
- Figure 2.4 by Bill Faulkner/NPS
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Chapter 6: Creative Writing
You may have encountered poetry in a variety of forms. Although free verse, where the line breaks do not follow any particular pattern, is the most common in contemporary poetry, there are many additional types of poem. One is the sonnet, a rhyming pattern of four-line stanzas with a two-line couplet to finish. Typically, sonnets are written in iambic pentameter: stressed and unstressed syllables following each other in a pattern. From Japan, we have the seventeen-syllable, three-line haiku, often employed to describe a moment in nature. Experimental Canadian poets have even written entire books out of “found” material (other texts that have been adapted by the poet), or, in the case of Christian Bök’s Eunoia, a book divided into chapters in which only one of the vowels is used.
The villanelle is an old poetry form that is popular with contemporary poets. Originating in France, the poem has five stanzas of three lines each, finishing with a four-line stanza. The first and third lines of the first stanza are repeated in each following stanza and used to make up the last two lines of the final stanza.
Beginning poets typically wait for inspiration to begin writing. Poetry is seen as something that describes a special moment, and how can one write about a special moment in an everyday mood?
Although this is one way of looking at poetry, it isn’t always helpful when you’re in the classroom and you’ve been asked to write. You probably don’t feel very inspired!
Thinking about different forms your poem could take, different subjects you could write about that are important to you, or simply freewriting a poem and seeing where it goes can be helpful in getting you started. For instructions on freewriting, review Chapter 2.3 Freewriting.
If you want to write more poetry, simply writing as much of it as you can, in whatever circumstances, is useful practice—as it is with every form of writing.
|Things to always do||Things to never do|
- Try an acrostic poem. Select a word meaningful to you. Your name is a classic, but there are many other words you could use, including ones describing values or other things you find important. Write the word in capital letters down the left-hand side of your piece of paper, one letter per line. Use each letter to start a line of poetry related to your word.
- Try making a found poem from a text (or texts) you find. Nisga’a poet Jordan Abel, for example, searched old Western novels for mentions of the word “Injun,” which became the basis for his third book of the same name. Don’t forget that your found text could be a set of instructions, an official letter—anything with words.
- Write a poem explaining “Where I’m From.” Each line begins “I’m from” and contains a detail or phrase. (Hint: For ways to make your writing come alive, review Chapter 3.1 Descriptive Paragraphs, which gives you lists of words relating to the five senses and explains how to show, not tell, readers about your subject.)
- You don’t need to stop with one poem. Your poem can be a jumping-off point for other poems or for other forms of creative writing, such as a short story or piece of creative nonfiction. For ideas of what to write next after “Where I’m From,” for example, see George Ella Lyon’s web page on “Where I’m From”.
- Try rewriting one of your poems in a different format. Can you turn your acrostic poem into a haiku? Are there two phrases in your found poem you can use in a villanelle?
- Find a poem you really like. Study it, and then write a poem of your own. (Hint: To credit your source, write “inspired by,” the poem’s title, and the poet’s name at the top, just under your poem’s title.)
- Trade poems with a classmate. Use the peer review process described in Chapter 7.2 Peer Review to give each other feedback. Revise your poem based on the feedback you received. Do substantial revisions first. As a last step, proofread.
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This National Geographic Magazine map of the area between the North Pole and 60°N latitude is replete with the latest information about the Arctic and explorations of the Arctic. The routes of explorers from various countries, differentiated by color, are identified, along with telegraph lines, railroads, steamship routes, and winter harbors. Detailed insets of Spitzbergen, Franz Joseph Land, and the Smith Sound Region are included at the corners of the sheet. The abundance of details and beautiful colors makes this one of the more striking maps of the North Pole regions.
54. National Geographic Society, The North Pole Regions from National Geographic Magazine (1907).
This striking map of the Arctic regions appeared in the November 1925 issue of National Geographic Magazine, accompanying an article titled, “The MacMillan Arctic Expedition Returns.” This article introduced the world to Richard E. Byrd, the man who would soon be the most famous aviator-explorer of the time. Filled with detailed routes of explorers, this is a fitting companion to the 1907 map, North Pole Regions.
55. Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, The Arctic Regions from National Geographic Magazine (1925).
This map shows the complex bedrock geology and stratigraphy of the Canadian Arctic. As the climate continues to warm and industries seek mining opportunities in the Arctic, the preservation of both the cultural heritage and the environment of this region is of utmost importance to the indigenous peoples of Canada’s northern territories and the Canadian government.
56. Geological Survey of Canada, Geological Map of the Arctic (2011).
National Resources Canada.
This unusual map of the Northern Hemisphere, based on the work of Jean Palairet, shows an “Icy Great North Sea” surrounding the North Pole and intersected by an imaginary Northwest Passage route from Portugal to Japan. Contrary to custom, Asia is located on the left side of the map with America on the right. Another interesting feature of this map is its portrayal of a massive Sea of the West off the coast of what is now California, reminiscent of the cartography of Buache.
The northern part of North America consists of highly distorted landmasses, including an elongated peninsula roughly placed at Alaska’s location. Some small islands representing the Aleutians are scattered beneath the peninsula, which bears a note reporting their discovery in 1753. Another note identifies the point at 80°N reached by a Dutch ship in 1670.
57. John Gibson, A Map of the Icy Sea (1760).
The effects of climate change, notably the melting of ice around the North Pole, creates new opportunities for international transportation networks. Assuming the trend continues, parts of the Arctic will become increasingly navigable for longer periods of time during the year, particularly during summer months. The main trans-Arctic routes include:
Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue of Hofstra University gives three reasons why the commercial utilization of Arctic routes is still a speculative endeavor. In his words:
Still, shipping companies are considering how to use the Arctic as a shortcut between major markets of the northern hemisphere. Some calculations show that Arctic routes could cut off ten to fifteen days of travel.
58. Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Polar Shipping Routes (c.2016).
Produced by the Canadian government in 2004, this is the most current nautical chart available in print for the Northwest Passage. The map details the precise route throught the passage, marking the depths along the way. Examining this map provides a sense of just how difficult it would have been to successfully traverse the Northwest Passage without a correct chart.
59. Canadian Hydrographic Service, Arctic Archipelago (2004).
“The map illustrates the complexity surrounding the future of the Arctic Ocean area in respect of access to resources based on the Arctic Council Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment 2009 Report. This report emphasizes that the regions where there are currently high concentrations of Arctic marine activity include the North Atlantic Ocean, the Barents Sea, and along the coasts of northwest Russia. The increase in cruise ship activity [creates] an increased level of risk of accident as many of these ships are not built for Arctic waters. In addition it is argued that the conducting of more research activities in the central part of the Arctic Ocean may also constitute a risk. The major concern, however, [is] what is going to happen in the coming decades as the sea ice retreats, opening the way for a significant potential increase in maritime activity. The map shows where these new activities are expected to take place and the sea routes that may become important in relation to these future activities in the region.” (Megatrends, p. 84)
60. H. Ahlenius and Jose Sterling, Zones of Marine Activity in the Arctic (2011).
Nordic Center for Spatial Development.
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Diabetic foot problems? Get the solution here!
Diabetes Foot Care Guidelines
Can you tell if you have diabetes or not? The early symptoms would include too much glucose level in your blood. You may even not notice the warning signs which is true especially in case of type 2 diabetes. However, too much glucose in the blood for a long period of time can result in some complications that include foot problems. The blood circulation gets affected which leads to diabetic neuropathy that can damage the extremities in a diabetic patient. It is therefore vital for diabetic patients to take care of their feet. Basic foot wounds and ulcers can lead to great problems if not treated properly within the time frame.
Diabetic neuropathy is uncontrolled diabetes where your nerves are damaged. If you have such damaged nerves then you may not feel the heat, pain and cold. Such is termed as sensory diabetic neuropathy. If there is a cut or sore in your feet, then you might not feel it and it may become infected. You might also see that the muscles are not functioning properly. This can also result in too much pressure in one foot as the foot cannot align properly. According to estimates, almost 10% of people are likely to develop foot ulcers due to nerve damage and peripheral vascular disease.
Peripheral vascular disease: Diabetes tends to affect the flow of blood and without proper blood flow, it takes more time for a sore or cut to heal properly. Such a condition of poor blood flow is termed as a peripheral vascular disease. The blood vessels are directed away from the heart.
Here are some common foot problems with diabetes:
Anyone and everyone is susceptible to foot problems, however, for people with diabetes, the common foot problems can even result in amputation.
- Athletes foot: This is a fungus and if it develops then you might see a crack, redness and feel the need to itch frequently. A doctor can guide you with proper medication in such a condition.
- Blisters: Blisters tend to develop when your shoes rub the same spot on your foot. Ill-fitting shoes or the non-usage of socks while wearing shoes can result in the development of blisters. You must not pop the blisters and instead, you can use anti-bacterial cream to protect the skin from infection.
- Corns: Corns are a hard skin can build up near the bony area of a toe and this results from the rubbing of shoes and your feet as well as the friction between your toes. Just use a pumice stone to remove the build-up of tissue.
- Calluses: Due to the uneven distribution of weight, hard-skin builds up, especially on the underside of the foot. This may also take place when you wear ill-fitting shoes. You must, however, note that some percent of callus formation is normal. Proper care is required if some calluses develop under your foot. You may use a pumice stone to remove the tissue build-up. You may even use some prescribed medications to soften up the tissues but you must never use any sharp objects to remove calluses.
- Dry skin: The skin can crack up thereby allowing germs to enter. You will just have to use moisturizing creams to keep the skin soft and moisturised.
- Hammertoes: due to weakened muscles, a toe becomes bent making the tendons shorter. This can be genetic and it may also happen by wearing shorter shoes. This may lead to other problems such as sores, calluses and blisters. You can treat such a problem by splinting and wearing the correct footwear.
- Foot ulcers: When there is a break in the skin or when there is a deep sore it is foot ulcer. This can also become infected and it may develop from minor scrapes and cuts. You can consult your doctor if you are suffering from foot ulcers.
How can you prevent these foot problems?
These common foot problems can be dealt with proper foot care before they result in some serious problem. Below is the list of things that you can do to prevent the foot problems.
- Follow your healthcare provider’s guide with regard to exercise, nutrition, medication so that you can take care of yourself and your diabetes.
- Use warm water and mild soap to wash your feet every day. Due to nerve damage, your feet may not recognise the temperature and so before sinking your feet test with your elbow.
- You must check your feet every day for any calluses, blisters, redness or any of the problems that have been discussed above. Daily foot check is necessary especially if you have poor blood flow.
- Use a pumice stone to smooth out corns and calluses after taking bath when the skin is soft.
- You must use lotion if the skin on the feet is dry. To know which lotion will be best for you may consult a doctor by visiting https://patientmd.com/
- Trim the toenails with a nail clipper at least once a week.
- Try to use closed-toes shoes as much as possible and use slippers when you are at home. You may also wear cotton socks or stockings that fit your feet well.
- Wear shoes that fit well and always protect your feet from both heat and cold. Use socks if your feet get cold and wear shoes on hot pavement or at the beach.
- Smoking tends to worsen the blood flow, therefore, you must stop smoking if you smoke.
- When you see that there are no improvements in your foot problem then you must immediately consult your doctor.
- Use talcum powder between toes to prevent accumulation of moisture.
- Ensure that your doctor is checking your feet during every check-up. Annual checkup of your feet should be done while inspecting your skin, checking the temperature of your feet and the assessing the sensation of your feet.
You must consult your doctor if you experience any of the following problems:
- Swelling of the foot
- Changes in skin colour and skin temperature
- Pain in legs
- Corns, calluses, dry cracks in the heel
- Foot odour
- Ingrown toenails or fungus infected toenails.
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Should You Be Worried About Your Dry Cough?
Seek medical assistance for a dry cough
A dry cough is one that produces no phlegm or mucus (known as non-productive). A tickly throat is usually associated with a dry cough, which is irritating. Dry coughs are most commonly caused by viral infections like colds and flu, but they can also be caused by allergies or throat irritants.
The cause of a dry cough will determine the appropriate treatment.
What is the average duration of a cough?
Coughs caused by a cold or the flu usually last a week or two, with most people recovering in about three weeks. A post-viral cough can last for several weeks (up to 8) after a viral infection, but some coughs last longer and are usually a sign of an underlying issue.
Coughs in adults and children are classified as acute (short-term) if they last for more than two weeks. A chronic (ongoing) persistent cough in adults is defined as a cough that lasts more than 8 weeks. A prolonged acute cough in children is defined as a cough that lasts 2 to 4 weeks. A chronic cough is defined as one that lasts for more than four weeks. Suburban Wellness SC, one of the finest Cough Treatment Clinic Homer Glen, offers highly convenient care at affordable rates.
Causes of dry cough
A dry cough is often the result of:
- a viral illness, such as influenza (the flu), cold or COVID-19
- a post-infectious, or post-viral cough
A dry cough, on the other hand, can be caused by a variety of issues, including:
- Allergic rhinitis (hay fever) is caused by inhaling allergens such as pollen, dust, or pet dander.
- gastro-oesophageal reflux;
- laryngitis (inflammation of the larynx(voice box));
- obstructive sleep apnea and snoring;
- an inhaled foreign body (e.g. food or other objects accidentally being inhaled – usually in babies and small children);
- a side effect from a medicine
When should you seek medical assistance for a dry cough?
You should seek medical advice if:
- you cough up blood or a lot of mucus (phlegm);
- you are short of breath or wheezy;
- the cough is mainly at night;
- you have associated chest pain;
- you have a fever;
- you are a cigarette smoker;
- you have a hoarse voice;
- you're experiencing other symptoms such as a persistent headache, sore ears, or a rash;
- if you've recently lost weight or if you're experiencing muscle aches in general;
- The cough is in a child under the age of six months;
- the cough has lasted more than ten days, with little or no improvement; or
- If you have high blood pressure, a heart condition, a respiratory illness (such as asthma), gastrointestinal issues, or are taking any other medications, you should consult your doctor.
Trust your Physician
Coughs that come with a cold usually go away in one to two weeks. Because it's not uncommon to be infected with multiple viruses at the same time, symptoms may overlap and last longer from beginning to end. Viruses are almost always to blame.
Your Family Medicine Specialist in Homer Glen, Dr. Sudarsana Chakrabarti, is the expert here - she can advise you on all sorts of remedies, depending on what combination of symptoms you have. For instance, with a chesty cough, you bring up yellow or green phlegm or mucus, while a dry, tickly cough usually doesn't come with any sputum. Dr. Chakrabarti believes in treating her patients with a personal touch, which has proven to be effective in the treatment of some very serious cases. She treats her patients as her family. You can connect with her over the Telemedicine services powered by PatientMD from the comfort of your home.
You'll get the best results from the medicines prescribes by her for the kind of cough you have. The Suburban Wellness SC clinic is one of the best and reputed clinics for cough treatment. We also offer pulmonary respiratory care for people. Call us at 708-737-7136, to get the best and the most affordable treatment!
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Water seemed to be missing. Rocky Mountain snowmelt feeding the Colorado River system had been at least average for the last five years, but the river’s huge manmade reservoirs — which serve 40 million people — continued falling, reaching lows not seen since the 1930s.
Somehow, the system was losing water. Princeton professor Reed Maxwell found the leak.
Maxwell began working at the University in July 2020 after 12 years at the Colorado School of Mines. He had worked for 20 years making connections — between disciplines, natural systems, and geographies — to answer continental-scale questions about water, with implications about the future habitability of where we live.
The Colorado’s missing water, Maxwell discovered, was being sucked up by the roots of trees and plants from streamside areas and shallow groundwater around the upper branches of the region’s waterways. Evapotranspiration — releasing water vapor from plants — generally carries more water than rivers and streams, sending it directly to the sky. With a one-degree increase in average temperature in the West, that skyward flow of water unbalanced the Colorado River’s equation of water supply. Maxwell’s field work and modeling showed that the vast Lake Powell and Lake Mead reservoirs had been emptied by leaves.
The West’s megadrought has lasted 22 years. This work suggests it may not end.
Climate change is altering the distribution of water worldwide, but the complexity of modeling hydrology on that scale has held back our full understanding. The first climate models omitted the issue of water flow for simplicity. Princeton’s Syukuro Manabe, who wrote those first models (and won the 2021 Nobel Prize for Physics for that work), imagined water falling out of the system as if through a hole in a bucket.
“The bucket was leaky, because it was actually leaking underground and going away in Manabe’s early models,” Maxwell says. “But in the real system, water moves, and now we’re tracking it all the way into deep groundwater or to a stream or wherever it ends up.”
It was a huge task to model water flows for the entire country. Maxwell’s team worked for years to assemble a workable dataset on soil and rock extending 400 meters below the surface to predict underground water flow and other parameters.
“My work is really kind of driven around fundamental questions,” Maxwell says. For example, what will happen to the nation’s water supply with 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming? “One of the things that we found was that the eastern U.S. effects of warming are happening faster,” he says, noting this allows for more evaporation, resulting in more water in the atmosphere.
The model showed the water table under the eastern states dropping as water migrated into the atmosphere — an amount similar to the content of Lake Erie. In September, that water disastrously returned to the ground, when Hurricane Ida dumped extreme rainfall on New Jersey (more than 6 inches in Princeton, following 5 inches from Hurricane Henri 10 days earlier). Flooding from Ida killed 30 people in the state.
“Increased moisture feeds the remnant of the storm,” he says. “It doesn’t take much to make the difference between a storm that peters out over land and dissipates versus a storm that is supplied with terrestrial evaporation all the way through. It’s these increased feedbacks that are unfortunately going to become more common.”
But his work could help address that problem. In collaboration with partners at the University of Arizona, Maxwell and Princeton’s Peter Melchior received a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to adapt the model for local decision-makers. They are using machine learning to predict patterns from the supercomputer’s output, creating a portable version of the model that hydrologists in any jurisdiction can use on their own computers to test alternative futures.
This new work closes a loop. Maxwell linked his discipline’s fractured understanding of the nation’s waters into a synthesis that reveals a picture of the entire nation, and now he is returning those findings to the local scale. “To me, it just looked like one continuous system that should be connected,” he says.
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What is payroll management ?
Payroll Management System is one of the most important function of an organization .It works on compensation of employees which contains attendance and leave management , advances , loans, bonuses, tax deductions, stat .compliance in accordance with organization policies. Apart from distributing pay checks to the employees, salary also consumes a lot of time in the areas of payroll management , such as, calculating tax deductions, statutory compliance.
Every time flipping through numerous files to respond to the employees queries is again a time consuming task . Employee for whom monetary salary is the only source of income , imagine what if the salary is not paid accurately or delay in releasing salary .Such irregularities can take a toll on the morale of the employees and ultimately affect the business productivity. While ensuring accurate and timely payment is important , adhering to the various laws and regulation such as labour law, PF, P tax , and other statutory compliance is also critical . Non- adherence with these laws can attract serious legal and financial consequence. To make sure that your employees are happy and you are law compliant , you need to have a proper understanding of what is payroll and how to run payroll effectively.
Term ‘payroll‘ may refer to the workers in a company, plus information about them. It might also refer to the amount of money the employer pays its workers. We often use the term when we are talking about the process of calculating workers’ pay and taxes. I am doing payroll.” … Key benefits of a payroll management system term ‘payroll‘ may refer to the workers in a company, plus information about them. It might also refer to the amount of money the employer pays its workers. We often use the term when we are talking about the process of calculating workers’ pay and taxes. I am doing payroll.” … Key benefits of a payroll management system
The payroll management process , in a nutshell , refers to the process of administration of a company ‘s employees financial records . This should details of the employees salaries , incentives ,bonuses. deductions and net pay. Payroll destination can’t be complete without given description of gross payments ,gross deductions and actual net payout to an employee in a calendar date and noted that these payments and deductions can calculate according to rules and laws which may be differ organizations to organizations and state to state. Payroll can be a means to empower employees and strengthen their relationship with the company. Being paid on time correctly and transparently is intrinsic to the way employees perceive their employers . When payroll information is accessible on demand ,there will likely be fewer queries and any error can be identified sooner by employee.
What is the use of payroll management ?
The payroll management system is a set of process that helps you steamline salaries, bonuses, deductions, taxes and other necessary aspect of net pay and all the employees of your organization. Payroll Management refers to the process by which an employer maintains the salary of employees. It is the administration and management of staff’s
financial reports. It can include base salary, allowance,bonuses,incentives, deductions,PF contribution, and net pay.
WHAT ARE STAGES TO PROCESSING PAYROLL?
A payroll officer needs to do careful planning. There are always ongoing tasks that needs attention and a constant need to monitor changes to withholdings, contribution to social security funds ,etc. The entire process can be spilt into three stages , pre- payroll, actual payroll and post payroll activities.
A payroll PROCESS needs to do careful planning. There are always ongoing tasks that needs attention and a constant need to monitor changes to withholdings, contribution to social security funds ,etc. The entire process can be spilt into three stages , pre- payroll, actual payroll and post payroll activities.
Key benefits of a payroll management system
There are several benefits of implementing a service like this for your business. Some of them have been briefly highlighted below:
- Employee morale – By making sure your employees are paid in a systematic and timely manner, you are reinforcing their faith in your business’ financial integrity. This will boost employee morale and motivate them to perform better.
- Statutory compliance – This refers to the legal framework your business must adhere to. As an employer, you are required to maintain various payroll and payment records of your employees. Every organisation that hires employees and pays salaries must comply with the labour laws. By having a payroll process in place, you are automatically complying with the employment and labour laws in India.
- Manage employee information efficiently – You will be able to accurately store and manage all your employee information in one place. There will be no need to use any additional tool for this purpose.
Core components of payroll processing in India
- Housing Rent Allowance (HRA)
- Dearness Allowance (DA) – Subject to the city of employment
- Special allowance
- leave Travel Allowance (LTA)
- Maternity leave
- Provident fund
- BENEFITS etc
What is payroll management course?
The course covered time tracking, payroll processing, procedure, controls and record- keeping .The course also address the Indian payroll regulations and reporting requirements related to compensation, benefits, payroll taxes, and tax remittances. Payroll management courses shows the accountant how to improve the functions of payroll department, enhancing efficiancy and reducing error rates. Topics covered include time tracking ,payroll processing ,procedure ,control and record keeping.The course also addresses the Indian payroll regulations and reporting requirements related to compensations ,benefits ,payroll taxes, and tax remittence It is updated annually for the latest payroll regulations. Payroll Management is idel for anyone new to payroll , or who wants to enhance an exiting system. Earning your payroll certification helps you demonstrate your expertise , advance your career , and enhance your standing within the profession …… set yourself apart from colleagues within payroll profession . Make yourself more valuable to your organization through professional competency and credibility.
PAYROLL TRAINING OVERVIEW.
THE INSTITITUTE OF PAYROLL TRAINING AND MANAGEMENT
In this course your skill will increase to use payroll programme confidently , you can process any business payroll. Training helps the business conform and employment legislation and data security requirements. lastly , payroll plays the key roll in any organization. So, career in payroll helps you , specialising in a niche field and excellent oppurtunities to touch the sky with a fair amount of income opportunities.
The Institute of Payroll Training and Management popular as IPTM ,Noida was started journey in 2007 , to help students to provide professional education , skill development and training for payroll processing and statutory compliance and direct taxation and certified students as “Payroll Professional” to get opportunities in professional world – in service world and in business. Iptm- helps students to learn payroll from beginning to end . Expert and professional teachers help them to learn end to end payroll processing.
The motto of the institute LEARN, DEVELOP, UPGREAD, GROW, very clearly layout the path for professional growth with slogan “payroll is my passion”.
The institute specializes in developing and updates new areas in professional growth and skill development and delivering them through their unique courses. The institute develops the courses right from concept, develops industry focused/ need focused curriculum and innovative course delivery models, keeping in mind a working professional and new entrants in the profession.
We provide career – oriented and professional payroll training of Indian statutory compliance and direct taxation and give certificate to the students , so that they step into the world as payroll professional, The Institute provide both online and off – line courses , with modern chartered environment with the best online training experience from beginning to end:
To provide certified payroll Professional in organization.
To Help every organization to hire or recruit certified member.
To have students every organization in India.
THE INSTITUTE HAS A GREAT VISION
Being a top ranking payroll institute of choice for students , stuff and corporate, recognized for excellence in payroll Training and certification with the slogan of the institute “The fastest and easiest way to learn Indian payroll and statutory compliances”
INSTITUTE HIGHLIGHTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS.
India’s most preferred institute by the students and working professionals even corporate and excellent experience of long journey from February 2007.
> Classroom learning provides structure and motivation.
>Develop a common payroll language that will optimize efficiencies , avoid costly mistakes and save money.
> Ideal for payroll practitioners and those supporting the payroll industry.
> Providing keep up to date knowledge based for experienced payroll professionals.
> Provide knowledge and skills which required to run advance payroll processing.
ALWAYS ONE STEP AHEAD
The Institute of Payroll and Management popularly known as IPTM was established in 2007 , since then then the institute providing professional education, skill development and training for payroll processing and help students and working people to be certified , so that they can utilize they power of knowledge of payroll processing and statutory compliance and stay one step ahead than other .
REGISTERED OFFICE AND CHAPTERS
The institute is located in NOIDA-Uttarpradesh(Delhi/NCR) , and has more than 10 chapters in all over india.
What We Do
IPTMis India’s first corporate training and skill development education institute and providing Training in management and Technical skill.
Specialization – payroll.
Indian Payroll Processing .
Indian Statutory compliance.
Classroom learning provides structure and motivation.
online learning .
choose the self – directed or online instruct -assisted format.
IPTM self- study workbook teaches you all essential aspects of usinf excel and payroll software on a day- to- day basis.
self paced training- online .
Are you like the convenience of learning from your own desk, when you need it ? Self- paced training is for you only. providing ability to learn when you are in learning mode, and make you to be as professional as possible.
PARTNERS WITH INSTITUTE.
We constantly look for people , who always wanted to contribute through their experience , while making a good business sense.
Our mail id –
LIST OF OUR PARTNERS
- Ninety -Nine Excel Training Academy.
- Heyparth Consulting Services.
- Justoncall Services Pvt Ltd.
- PAYNITI service
IPTM PROVIDES FOLLOWING PROGRAMMES.
- Payroll Training Programme.
- Practical workshop on payroll processing .
- Certified Payroll Professional.
- Human Resources Recruitment training.
- In- House (Campus – Corporate ) Group training.
Faculty @ IPTM.
IPTM faculty members are active and regular participants in international conferences and practice in payroll. They contributes to international journals and collaborate with a broad range of agencies to develop and execute consultancy projects.
Mr. Ajit Kumar having more than 12+ years of experience in payroll. He is a young payroll professional and associate to public sector in service/education/digital industries. Mr. A Kumar is a renowned personality amongst the followers of Indian payroll Training and Management profession. He has been on the faculty of iptm for addressing corporate seminars / training on payroll management study at various places.
MANAGEMENT AND TEAM
Mr. Vikash Maurya – Client HR Operations & Marketing.
Ms. Ruchi Dwivedi- Recruitment Training Partner.
MR. Andy Yadav – Client Partner & Recruitment
Mr. Utkarsh Sharma -Consultant & Facilitator.
Mr. Satish Chand – Facilitator & Advisor- india
Mr. Sandeep Kumar – Facilitator & Marketing .
CA Nitin . Khandelwal – F& A
CA Shekhar Sankar – Corporate Trainer
PAYROLL BOOKS :
THE ESSENTIALS OF PAYROLL MANAGEMENT
PAYROLL PEDIA READY RECKONER
The books are “user friendly” and will be found useful by any and everyone dealing with payroll and HR. The books also contain details table, tax rate and formulas, excel formulas and other rates of formulas. SOLID refarence and coverage of all the information that the payroll professional require in their day to day practice.
Helpline timing : 10 am- 8 pm Everyday
Helpline- 91 9667478857.
Welcome to the IPTM institute contact information section . We value your relationship and your satisfaction is important to us. In case you have a queary , please feel free to contact us….
INSTITUTE / NOIDA
113, FIRST FLOOR , OCEAN PLAZA, P-5 , SECTOR 18, NOIDA – 201301 – UTTAR PRADESH- INDIA.
E- MAIL: [email protected]
TRAINING / NOIDA
113, FIRST FLOOR, OCEAN PLAZA, P-5, SECTOR – 18 , NOIDA – 201301- INDIA
PHONE- 91+ 9667478857,
OFFICE NO. 7,GROUND FLOOR, GL 3, ARVIND NAGAR, DELHI – 110053- INDIA
PHONE – 91+999-067-6595
E- MAIL : [email protected]
THANKS FOR READING
Rupa Banerjee – Payroll Editor
Email – [email protected].
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Strep throat, also known as streptococcal pharyngitis or simply strep, is a bacterial infection that can affect people of all ages, including children. It is caused by the Group A Streptococcus bacteria (Streptococcus pyogenes). Here’s what you need to know about strep throat in children:
Symptoms: Strep throat can have various symptoms in children, including:
- Sore Throat: One of the hallmark symptoms is a severe sore throat, often accompanied by pain or discomfort while swallowing.
- Fever: Children with strep throat commonly have a high fever (usually above 101°F or 38.3°C).
- Red Tonsils: The tonsils and the back of the throat may appear red and swollen, sometimes with white patches or pus.
- Swollen Lymph Nodes: The lymph nodes in the neck may become enlarged and tender.
- Headache: Children with strep throat may experience headaches.
- Stomachache: Some children may complain of abdominal pain and nausea.
- Rash: In some cases, children with strep throat may develop a rash known as scarlet fever, characterized by a red, sandpaper-like rash that starts on the chest and spreads.
- Lack of Cough and Runny Nose: Strep throat typically does not cause a cough or a runny nose, which differentiates it from viral sore throats.
Diagnosis: Diagnosing strep throat usually involves a throat swab, where a healthcare provider uses a cotton swab to collect a sample from the back of the child’s throat. The sample is then tested for the presence of Group A Streptococcus bacteria. Rapid strep tests provide quick results, but a throat culture may be performed if the rapid test is negative, as it is more accurate but takes longer for results.
Treatment: If strep throat is confirmed, it is typically treated with antibiotics, which can help reduce the duration of symptoms, prevent complications, and reduce the risk of spreading the infection to others. Common antibiotics used to treat strep throat in children include penicillin or amoxicillin. It’s crucial to complete the full course of antibiotics, even if the child starts feeling better, to ensure the infection is fully eradicated.
Prevention: To help prevent strep throat in children:
- Good Hygiene: Teach children to practice good handwashing and to avoid sharing utensils, drinks, or personal items with others.
- Cover Mouth and Nose: Encourage children to cover their mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing, ideally with a tissue or their elbow, to prevent the spread of the bacteria.
Return to School: Children with strep throat should remain home from school and other group settings until they have been on antibiotics for at least 24 hours and are no longer contagious. This helps prevent the spread of the infection to classmates and others.
Strep throat is generally a treatable and relatively mild illness when diagnosed and treated promptly with antibiotics. However, if left untreated, it can lead to complications like rheumatic fever or kidney problems, so it’s essential to seek medical attention if you suspect your child has strep throat.
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Patient Condition and History
Jimmy, a 3-year-old neutered male American Pit Bull, was diagnosed with an infection of the heartworm parasite (Dirofilaria immitis).
Heartworm is a serious and potentially fatal condition. The parasite lives in the heart, lungs and surrounding blood vessels, and can cause severe lung disease, heart failure, and organ damage. According to the American Heartworm Society guidelines, treatment includes injections to kill the worms and additional medications that help improve the chances of treatment success and reduce the incidence of side effects. Treatment protocols last weeks to months, depending on the patient’s condition. During this time it is essential that the dog’s activity is minimized. Cage rest and drastically restricted exercise during this period can decrease the chances of fatal complications from treatment1.
Despite the importance of complete rest after treatment, it is generally very difficult to restrict the activity of a dog for weeks or months. Various client education tools are employed by veterinarians, but their true effectiveness is questionable.
Treatment and Description
Jimmy received treatment for his heartworm infection, including two Melarsomine injections 24 hours apart and additional medications, and was sent home for observation and forced rest.
A PetPace smart collar was applied to Jimmy to monitor adherence with the veterinarian’s instructions to restrict activity. The collar was also intended to detect the development of potential complications from the treatment.
The PetPace algorithm produces minute-by-minute activity data as well as periodic analysis, averages, and trends. Jimmy’s daily activity chart can be seen below. Each bar on the graph represents a 2-minute activity score – the higher the bar, the more intense the activity.
To assist the dog’s owner in maintaining activity restriction, an alert for activity above a pre-determined threshold was added to the PetPace monitoring system. Jimmy’s veterinarian defined an approved level of movement. Any activity above that level generated an alert, which was sent to the owner. The veterinary staff also had continuous and unlimited access to the data and the alerts.
Following the receipt of PetPace alerts for high activity, and the owner’s conscientious handling of them, Jimmy’s average daily activity levels clearly declined. Before activation of the alerts feature, Jimmy spent an average 7.4% of the day active. After PetPace alerts activation, that number was down to 3.8% – a decrease of over 51%.
Additional physiological attributes measured by the collar, including pulse rate, respiratory rate, Heart Rate Variability (VVTI), and others, remained normal and stable throughout this time, correlating with the clinical assessment of good response to treatment.
Heartworm infection is a common and serious dog illness in the US and other countries. Prevention and prophylaxis are strongly recommended by the veterinary community, yet an estimated 1 million dogs are affected by it in the US alone2. An essential part of the treatment protocol includes strict activity restriction for weeks or months. Improving pet owner compliance with enforced rest remains a challenge.
In Jimmy’s case, monitoring physiological and behavioral parameters, such as respiratory rate trends, indicated that he was stable and in good condition. However, his high level of activity remained a concern. After adding a PetPace alert that signaled the pet owner every time Jimmy exceeded a predefined level of activity, a significant decrease in activity was achieved.
The PetPace wearable device is intended to provide key clinical insights, meaningful owner engagement and improved compliance with medical instructions after discharge from the hospital, said Dr. Asaf Dagan, a specialist in canine and feline medicine and surgery, and PetPace’s Chief Veterinarian. Jimmy’s case demonstrates an effective use of PetPace collar to help prevent a potentially fatal situation. This principle can be applied to other conditions in which activity restriction is recommended, he concluded.
Jimmy’s case is an excellent example of the potential value of the PetPace collar in monitoring patients for activity restriction. The alerting feature together with veterinary involvement and pet owner engagement may be a useful factor in improving compliance. This model can be extended to other situations in which activity restriction is required, including spinal injuries, post-orthopedic surgeries, heart disease, and more.
The level of information now available to veterinarians and the ability to interactively engage owners in their pets’ care, thanks to the PetPace collar, enables markedly better patient care and clinical outcome.
Until now, veterinarians had no effective way of knowing if the patient is truly resting at home as we instructed, noted Dr. Dick Hay, a Diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners and Jimmy’s veterinarian. The PetPace technology allows us, for the first time, to work together with the owners to achieve the common goal, he continued.
We’ve loved being able to monitor Jimmy’s activity levels using the Pet Pace collar! The alerts that were generated helped us modify our approach to keeping him calm and were a great tool to help us while he recovered. I especially appreciate being able to view the data online – even from my phone!” says Matthew Sandness, Jimmy’s owner. We have enjoyed using the PetPace system and would recommend it to friends who have a similar need to monitor their pets,” added Mr. Sandness.
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In order to maintain health and provide for optimal growth, our bodies require more than 40 different nutrients. These various nutrients can be found in the six primary food components: water, protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals.
WATER: Whether or not you believe live began in the sea, the fact remains that life exists in an inner sea within our body, two-thirds of which is water. All of life’s complex biochemical processes take place in a water medium, which accounts for the fluidity of our blood and lymph system. Water is our waste remover through urine and feces; it lubricates our joints, keeps our body temperature within a narrow range; and last but not of least importance to the bodybuilder, water is the primary constituent of muscle tissue.
Viewed in this way, water might rightly be said to be the most important nutrient for survival as well as growth. While we can survive for long periods without food, a lack of water can result in death in a matter of days.
Although it’s true that our muscles are more than 70 percent water, it doesn’t follow that we should drink gallons of water a day to hasten the muscle growth process. Remember that all excess beyond need is merely passed through the body. It is also true that all of the various nutrients work together, and when one is lacking or deficient, the others are limited in their roles as well. There exists, for example, a vital association between water and the electrolytes potassium and sodium. These electrolytes must be present inside and outside our cells for water to remain in proper proportions in our bodies. So while water may be of great importance, it is not the only nutrient of importance. Use common sense and let thirst dictate intake.
PROTEIN: A certain mystique has arisen around protein in the last decade. Protein-enriched formulas are found in everything from shampoos to skin creams to the food we eat. In his informative book, The Realities of Nutrition, Ronald Deutsch states, “Protein has become the dietary lure to which the consumer consistently rises, like a hungry trout on a quiet morning.”
This preference for protein-rich foods, especially meats, dates back many centuries and spans a great diversity of cultures. Though ancient Egypt is noted for its grain, food historians point out that from the time of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, there was grain feeding of cattle and the force-feeding of birds to make for bigger feasts. Only in time of famine, or in areas where animal husbandry was not known, was this preference for protein absent.
In part, this preference for meat and protein has to do with tradition and status. But protein is also vital to the maintenance of health as a repair and growth substance. The word “protein” derives from the Greek, and it means “of first importance.” But I must emphasize to the bodybuilder obsessed with consuming enormous quantities, protein does not mean “of only importance.”
At the risk of repetition, let me state again that muscle tissue is comprised mostly of water (more than 70 percent) and only a small portion is protein (some 22 percent). And while I pointed out that water drunk to excess will only be passed through the body, protein consumed in excess can be turned to fat just as readily as excess calories derived from fat and carbohydrate sources. One gram of protein contains four calories, just as one gram of carbohydrate does, and it is an excess of calories that leads to bodyfat, no matter what the source.
While some controversy exists regarding how much protein we need in our daily diets, most reputable sources recommend about one-half gram per kilo (2.2 pounds) of bodyweight. To be on the safe side, the RDA Committee (providing for disease, stress and other possible problems) recommends .80 grams per kilo of bodyweight. For a 220 pound bodybuilder, daily protein requirements would be 80 grams.
But the needs of bodybuilders are different because they train heavy and are growing muscle, you say? The fact is that protein requirements are dependent solely on the individual’s bodyweight, not physical activity. Under normal circumstances, protein is not a fuel source, so our need for it is not contingent on activity levels.
And just how much protein do you think is required for miniscule daily muscle gains? If we go back to our example and assume we are to gain 10 pounds of muscle in a year, how much do we gain on a daily basis? Divide 10 pounds of muscle by 365 and we find our daily average gain to be .027 pounds, or only 12 grams, which is less than half an ounce! And more than 70 percent of that 12 grams is water! So how much extra protein do we need to gain 12 grams of muscle a day, most of which is water anyway? Very little, obviously. In another section of this book, we calculated it to be about one extra gram of protein a day for 10 pounds of muscle growth a year. How many bodybuilders gained even 10 pounds of muscle this past year? And how many are guilty of consuming excessive quantities of protein well beyond any and all possible need merely because the purveyors of the stuff said they needed it?
CARBOHYDRATES: If, in fact, protein has been the most over-emphasized nutrient, then carbohydrates have been the most maligned. The anti- carbohydrate litany began in Britain in the early 1950s, and reached its apex in the U.S., when diet books by so-called “experts” blamed carbohydrates for everything from obesity of schizophrenia! Talk about being estranged from reality. Now let’s debunk the theories of those who rail against carbohydrates.
One of the first things we learn in elementary biology is that life on the planet earth is dependent on the sun. We also learn that all of our food energy begins with plants. When we eat beef, for instance, we derive nutrients that the animal stored by eating grass.
Plants get their energy in a process involving the sun called photosynthesis, which means “putting together with light.” What the sun is putting together are two of the most common chemicals on earth and in its atmosphere — carbon dioxide and water. Plants use oxygen to combine with carbon dioxide and water to form a hydrated carbon, or carbohydrate, as we commonly refer to it.
Carbohydrates are the primary fuel source of our muscles. And for high- intensity training of the Heavy Duty variety or any other type, carbohydrate in the form of the simple sugar, glucose, is the only fuel. When we don’t take in enough sugar through our diet to fuel muscular contractions, our bodies transform the
amino acid alanine, derived from ingested protein or our own muscle tissue, into glucose. So carbohydrates also have a “protein-sparing effect,” which should cause any bodybuilder on a low-carb diet to reconsider such folly. Both our muscles and our central nervous system derive almost 100 percent of their nutrition from sugar.
In addition to supplying energy, carbohydrates supply important building blocks of life. The ribose found in RNA and DNA is made from the carbohydrates we consume. In light of all these facts, how can carbohydrates be poisonous toxins as asserted by the anti-carbohydrate people?
The fact is that carbohydrates can be dangerous, but only when consumed in excess. The body has a certain capacity for dealing with excess beyond need. But this capacity is not infinite, and can be overwhelmed. The same is true, however, with proteins and fats. Proof exists now that excess protein may be the most harmful of all, having been implicated in intestinal cancer, kidney disorders and a host of other degenerative diseases.
Carbohydrates, therefore, are a vital nutrient in the bodybuilder’s diet. In addition to providing the energy necessary for intense workouts, carbohydrates (in the form of glycogen) are stored in muscles, where each gram of glycogen “holds” three grams of water. This is the reason you often feel loggy, and gain an inordinate amount of weight, the day after going on a carbohydrate binge. And living on low-carb diets inevitably results in periodic binges. No matter how hard you try to abstain, the wisdom of the body wins out eventually, and will attempt to “over-compensate” for the prolonged shortage of vital carbohydrates by making you eat everything in sight. This sets up a pattern of failure and frustration for many who equate such binges with moral weakness and personal shortcomings. These binges are the natural result of trying to live on a very low carbohydrate diet, as Dr. L. M. Vincent points out in his book on dancers, Competing With The Sylph. Why not avoid all that by following a well-balanced diet which has up to 60 percent carbohydrates?
FATS: Fats are important fuel sources which provide energy at rest and late in endurance activities, when the body’s limited glycogen reserves have been depleted. Certain vitamins are soluble only in fat, so obviously fats play a crucial role in a well-balanced diet.
Fats are divided into saturated and unsaturated fats. Saturated fats are found in animal products and can lead to heart problems when consumed in excess. Unsaturated fats are found mostly in plants and are now thought to be a contributing factor to heart disease as well. We would all do well, therefore, to limit our fat intake to the recommended 15 percent of the daily calorie budget.
VITAMINS and MINERALS: All the various vitamins and minerals are referred to as micronutrients since they are needed in such small quantities on a daily basis. Recommended daily allowances of the micronutrients are measured in milligrams, as opposed to the grams used to measure the macronutrients. Vitamins and minerals combine in the body to form the enzymes that serve as catalysts in countless important physiological processes.
If you are consuming a reasonably well-balanced diet, you are getting all the vitamins and minerals you need. If, however, there is any doubt as to whether or
not your diet is balanced, by all means take a general multi-mineral vitamin supplement. Our daily needs for the micronutrients are quite small, so don’t take vitamins and minerals by the handful thinking your body will use them. Most will merely be passed off, while some, like vitamins A and D, actually are toxic in large doses.
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Watching a Quantum System Thermalize
The forces of nature possess symmetries that physicists embody in so-called gauge theories. These theories have mathematical elegance, but they can be challenging to apply in systems whose constituents strongly interact. Performing calculations on a discrete lattice lightens the computational burden, but even that approach can be intractable. An alternative method is to simulate the system of interest with another more-tractable one whose quantum-mechanical description is the same. Now Han-Yi Wang of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and his collaborators have done just that . Using an optical lattice of 19 sites the team was able to mimic the behavior of massive particles in a rudimentary gauge theory. The experiments open a path toward more involved calculations.
The team’s optical lattice consisted of alternating deep and shallow wells, which could be occupied by ultracold atoms of rubidium-87. Tuning various parameters, the team was able to suppress single particle hopping and encourage particle pair hopping, resulting in interactions that matched those of massive particles as described by a one-dimensional lattice version of a gauge theory known as the Schwinger model.
Having set up their system, the researchers filled the lattice with ground-state atoms that had alternating up and down spins, a quantum critical state akin to antiferromagnetism. They then followed the system as it thermalized. Unlike their classical counterparts, closed quantum systems do not necessarily attain a state of maximum entropy after an arbitrarily long time. Forestalled thermalization appeared in the USTC experiment, as expected. However, it was correlated with the quantum critical state, which was unexpected. Wang says the finding could help elucidate how thermalization happens in a gauge theory.
Correction (1 August 2023): A previous version of the story stated that the Schwinger model is a lattice gauge theory. It is in fact a continuous gauge theory.
Charles Day is a Senior Editor for Physics Magazine.
- H.-Y. Wang et al., “Interrelated thermalization and quantum criticality in a lattice gauge simulator,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 050401 (2023).
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This section highlights some important guidelines for working with the arcpy.mp module. It also provides some insight on the design of the arcpy.mp API and suggests some strategies for different scenarios.
Must work with existing projects or layer files
The arcpy.mp module was designed so it can be used to modify existing elements within already existing projects (.aprx) or layer files (.lyr or .lyrx) for the purpose of map or data automation. It can't be used to create or author most of the object types in a project, for example, maps, layouts, and legend elements. The basic principle is to author most of the elements using the application and all of its capabilities and use arcpy.mp to automate only those items that need to be automated. You must carefully author a project or layer file using the application ahead of time with all the appropriate elements and use arcpy.mp to manipulate its contents.
The following are only a few examples of how arcpy.mp can be used:
- Replace a layer's data source.
- Iterate through a series of extents, find and replace text values, and export the page layout to PDF.
- Build a complete map book by appending PDF documents into a final product.
Reference a project on disk or use the CURRENT keyword
There are two different ways that a project can be referenced using the ArcGISProject function. The first, and most recommended, method is to provide a system path to the location of the project (.aprx) on disk. This technique is most versatile because a script can then be run outside of the application. Referencing a specific project on disk provides more control in terms of how the script will execute because a given script may not work on all projects.
An example of providing a full path to a project.
import arcpy aprx = arcpy.mp.ArcGISProject(r"C:\Projects\YosemiteNP\Yosemite.aprx")
The second technique is to use the CURRENT keyword as an input parameter to the ArcGISProject function. This technique only works from within the application because the ArcGISProject object references the project that is currently loaded into the application. Using CURRENT is very helpful when quickly testing and learning the scripting capabilities and command syntax within the Python window. You may start off learning the syntax in the Python window and start pasting those lines of code into a more permanent, larger script saved to disk. Script tools that use the CURRENT keyword must also be run from within the application.
An example of using the CURRENT keyword.
aprx = arcpy.mp.ArcGISProject('current')
Add layers and work with template projects
As mentioned in the section above, arcpy.mp does not allow you to completely author new projects. The solution is easy. Author template projects with all the appropriate elements, page sizes, orientations, and so on, ahead of time, and use arcpy.mp to manipulate the contents.
A common scenario is to author a template project with no layers and use the addLayer, addLayerToGroup, and/or insertLayer methods on the Map object to add layers to a map in the project.
Another common scenario involves map books with facing pages. The left and right pages include different offsets to make space for the binding. This scenario includes having two layouts in a single project: one layout for left pages and another for right pages. The arcpy.mp scripting logic is used to pull together all the individual pages into a final output multipage PDF.
Author all objects with a unique name
In order to easily reference an element in a layout so it can be accessed and modified, the item must have a unique name. Many of the arcpy.mp list functions—for example, listLayouts, listMaps, listBookmarks, listTables, listLayers, listLabelClasses and listElements —have a wildcard parameter that allows you to filter on the name property. These list functions always return a Python list object. In order to reference an element from the Python list, you can either iterate through the list using a loop or you can append an index number at the end of the function. If you use the wildcard parameter and specify a unique name, the resulting Python list will always have one item, and it can be referenced using an index value of 0.
The code below shows an example of referencing a text element on a layout using its name property.
aprx = arcpy.mp.ArcGISProject('CURRENT') lyt = aprx.listLayouts('Main Attractions') title = lyt.listElements('TEXT_ELEMENT', 'title')
Ideally, all layers and tables within a single project would be given a unique name, but that is not always possible. If there are cases where you need to have duplicate layer and table names in a map but need to be able to isolate one item from another, you will need to author the item so it can be distinguished using other properties, for example, the description property.
The code below shows an example of how layers with the same name, Roads, in the same map, Yosemite National Park, can be further isolated using the maxThreshold property of the Layer object. These layers have the same data source but are drawn differently depending on the scale at which they are being viewed.
import arcpy aprx = arcpy.mp.ArcGISProject(r"C:\Projects\YosemiteNP\Yosemite.aprx") mp = aprx.listMaps('Yosemite National Park') for lyr in mp.listLayers(): if lyr.name == 'Roads': if lyr.maxThreshold == 10000: lyr.visible = True if lyr.maxThreshold == 100000: lyr.visible = False aprx.save() del aprx
The better alternative for the sample above would be to name each layer differently, for example, Roads - large scale and Roads - small scale.
Manage the visibility of elements on a layout
There may be a situation where you are creating a map series and there are some pages that need additional map elements that not all pages need, for example, an extra inset map, additional picture, or text elements, and so on. Rather than authoring separate layouts just for those scenarios, you can author a single layout with all the possible layout elements and use arcpy.mp scripting logic to control the visibility of the element. There are two methods that can be used. First, set the element's visible property to True or False depending on the individual page and element configuration. Second, physically move the element off the page if it is not needed. You can do this by modifying either the elementPositionX or elementPositionY properties. If the element is not on the layout and it gets printed or exported, the element will not display.
In the example below, the resulting layout will display a different style scale bar based on the scale of the current data frame. If the scale is larger than 1:25,000, the scale bar units will be in meters. If the scale is smaller than or equal to 1:25,000, the scale bar units will be in kilometers.
import arcpy aprx = arcpy.mp.ArcGISProject(r"C:\Projects\YosemiteNP\Yosemite.aprx") lyt = aprx.listLayouts("Main Attractions") m_scale = lyt.listElements("MAPSURROUND_ELEMENT", "m scale bar") km_scale = lyt.listElements("MAPSURROUND_ELEMENT", "km scale bar") mf = lyt.listElements("MAPFRAME_ELEMENT", "Yose*") if mf.camera.scale < 25000: m_scale.elementPositionX = 5 #Or m_scale.visible = True (on the page) km_scale.elementPostitionX = 15 #Or km_scale.visible = False (off the page) else: m_scale.elementPositionX = 15 #Or m_scale.visible = False (off the page) km_scale.elementPostitionX = 5 #Or km_scale.visible = True (on the page) aprx.save() del aprx
One method may be easier than another depending on the situation. For example, if you prefer to use visible to control the display of an element, the trade-off may be that it is more difficult to manage multiple items on a layout that overlay one another.
Run scripts as scheduled tasks
The arcpy.mp scripts can be scheduled to run at prescribed times using your Windows operating system's Task Scheduler.
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Prior to human settlement, the islands of Ipipiri would have been covered in dense native forest, providing abundant food and habitat for all the creatures that lived there. After human settlement, each of the islands was increasingly cleared for farming, which was the primary land use of large parts of the islands up until the 1970s and 1980s.
Restoring the diversity and health of the ngahere (forest) is essential for providing food and habitat for our native wildlife, and re-establishing thriving, dynamic ecosystems on the islands.
To give this habitat restoration a head-start, Project Island Song volunteers undertake annual planting events to support the natural process of Ipipiri’s regeneration.
Thanks to Project Island Song volunteers over 40,000 native trees have been planted on the islands since 2009. In addition, a huge thank you goes to the private landowners on the islands who have planted well over 100,000 trees on their properties.
Over 60 different species have now been planted, including the rare Koru (Colensoa physaloides) with its beautiful blue flowers and purple berries. Since 2003, the sheltered gullies of Waewaetorea, Urupukapuka and Moturua Islands have had native trees, shrubs and vines planted. These provide nectar, leaves, and berries that birds, invertebrates, and lizards feed on, as well as enhancing the habitat they live in, and are an integral part of regenerating the islands to their former glory.
Learn more about some of the native species we plant on the islands.
Kauri are among the world’s mightiest trees, growing to over 50 m tall, with trunk girths up to 16 m, and living for over 2,000 years.
Species such as the kukupa (wood pigeon), pīwakawaka (fantail), tūī (parson bird), riroriro (grey warbler) and the kotare (kingfisher) can all call the Kauri home. Another distinctive creature is the large kauri snail, a carnivore which feeds mainly on earthworms, slugs and soft-bodied insects.
Kauri dieback disease:
Phytophthora agathidicida (PA) is a fungus-type pathogen which damages the tree’s root system. It reduces the tree’s ability to take water and nutrients from the soil and transport it throughout the plant. This is sometimes referred to as kauri disease or kauri dieback.
There is no known cure, but we can help reduce its spread by avoiding any movement of soil around the roots of trees. That means making sure we stick to the tracks and have spotlessly clean footwear and any gear that might touch the ground.
Another essential way that we support forest regeneration is by removing invasive weeds from the islands.
Numerous invasive weed species are present as a legacy of farming activity, as well as from weed seeds introduced to the islands by the wind, birds, and human visitors.
Controlling these pest plants is an essential part of helping native plants to become re-established and supporting all our wildlife to thrive.
Would you like to support our forest to regenerate? Our volunteer Weedbusters team do vital work across all the islands of Ipipiri and helping out is a great way to explore the islands and spending time out and about in nature. Click here to find out more about the role and sign up to get involved!
Learn more here about the most common weeds we’re tackling on the islands or check out our Weed Management Strategy in full.
Family: Solanaceae (nightshade)
Major Threat to the islands
Originally from South Africa
It grows and matures rapidly, forming dense tall stands and producing many well-dispersed seeds most of year. Allelopathic (produces toxins that poison the soil), inhibits regeneration. It tolerates wet to dry conditions, salt, all well-drained soils, hot to cool temperatures, semi-shade, damage and grazing.
It spreads through birds, especially native pigeons, spreading the seeds. Common seed sources are gullies, roadsides, neglected farms, waste land.
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https://projectislandsong.co.nz/forest-regeneration/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100135.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20231129173017-20231129203017-00000.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.945664 | 872 | 3.6875 | 4 |
EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT SALTS (Nacl and Na2 SO4) ON FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES OF PUMPKIN SEED (TELFARIA OCCIDENTALS) FLOOR
A study was carried out on the physico – chemical properties of fluted pumpkin seeds (Telferia occidentalis) flours. The 1st two flour samples were obtained by boiling for 1 hr in 0.5% solution for Nacl, and .5% solution of Na2 S04 respectively.
The 2nd two samples were obtained by soaking for 12 hrs in 0.5% soln of Nacl, and 0.5% soln of Na2 So4respectively. The control was neither soaked; F4, F6, F5, F7, and F8 respectively. All the samples were dried milled and sieved to obtain their respectively flours. The flour samples were defatted using n-hexane. Proximate composition, Protein solubility and foaming capacity of the samples were determined result showed that the flours contain moisture (1 040-14.67%)
Ash (5.72 – 10.72%) crude fat (6.22-11.17%) crude fibre (4.89 –6.78%) crude protein (59.20 –69.83%). Protein solubility and from capacity of the samples were affected by treatment employed.
Protein solubility ranged between (35 . 57 – 47. 27) while foam capacity varied at different pH values.
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Pumpkin is a common name of the genus cucurbitae of the Gourd Family. It includes the pumpkins and squashes. Although the names are often used interchangeably, pumpkins in the United Kingdom usually refer to cucurbita maximum and it’s varieties, in the U.S. it means curcurbita pepo. The most popular of this is a vine bearing orange fruits or pumpkin used as a piefilling.
Pumpkin is any several prickly vine with large lobed leaves and yellow flowers, in the genus cucurbita of the order violates.
Pumpkin is commonly applied to the large orange coloured fruit, the curcurbita species is used when ripe as a table vegetable in pies. The flesh is some what coarse and strongly flavoured, hence generally not served as a baked vegetable.
Fluted pumpkin (Telfaria accidentalis) belongs to the family cucurbitaceae. It is known as “Ugu” in Igbo, “Umee” in urchobo “Ubon” in Efik and “Iroko” in Yoruba language. It is widely eaten in the first zone of the southern Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea. Both mature and immature leaves and the young shoots are frequently eaten as a pot herb.
The seeds are cooked whole or ground up and used as soup thickener. They have agreeable almond like flavour very nutritious and highly rich in oil of potential industrial value. The seed also contains relatively high amount of minerals and vitamins required in human nutrition.
The amino acid of the protein are deficient in the sulphur containing amino acid. (Asiegbu 1987).
The wide shortage of animal protein in developing countries had continued to attract research interest in plant protein of high abundance.
However the ultimate success of utilizing plant protein in food formulation depend largely upon it’s functional properties some of these functional some of these functional properties include water and oil absorption capacity, gelation property, Emulsification, protein solubility, bulk density (Fagbemi and Oshodi 1991).
Considerable work had been done on it’s cultivation and diseases (Maduewsi 1977). Seed biological chemical ecology cultural practices and fatty acid composition of the oil in the seed. Both the essential and non essential amino acid of fluted pumpkin is higher than that of colocyn this citrullus.
Fagbemi and Oshodi (1991) examined the chemical composition and functional properties of the defatted seed flour, it’s protein isolate nutritionally valuable minerals and compare with other oil seed flour, isolated being based in food formulation. (Fagbemi and Osgodi 1991). Previous studies on the functional properties of the fluted pumpkin had been done on the raw seed (dried sample. Fagbemi and Oshodi 1992, search on the forces affecting the thermal beheviour of protein, may provided methods of improving the functional behaviour of oil seed proteins in food system. Heating to denature some protein had been reported to be justifiable or desirable in thermal destruction of functional agents and deteoretion of enzyme and in enhancing the digestibility of the component proteins in oil seed.
Processing effects on functional properties is desirable for designing appropriate refining, extraction and drying methods for the preparation of the functional properties. There is need to study salt and processing effect on the functional properties of some vegetable protein to enhance their optimum utilization.
This present work is aimed at the following
1) To study the effect of processing on the proximate composition of the fluted pumpkin seed flour.
2) To study the effect of salt on protein solubility of the defatted fluted pumpkin seed flour.
3) To investigate processing effect the foaming capacity and stability of defatted fluted pumpkin seed flour.
4) Study the effect of pH and processing on the foaming capacity and stability of defatted seed flour.
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<urn:uuid:dfbecc46-5925-4f01-85a2-4780b5f33b63>
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CC-MAIN-2023-50
|
https://projectmaster.com.ng/effects-of-different-salts-nacl-and-na2-so4-on-functional-properties-of-pumpkin-seed-telfaria-occidentals-floor/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100135.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20231129173017-20231129203017-00000.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.932766 | 1,151 | 3.15625 | 3 |
The processes and fluxes that produce the distinct compositional structure of Earth’s continental crust by subduction remain controversial. The rates of oceanic crust production, in contrast, are well quantified and are generally believed to be faster than those responsible for building magmatic systems in subduction settings. Here we show that a recently recognized crustal section, the 30-km-thick Ordovician Sierra Valle Fértil–Sierra Famatina complex in Argentina, was built magmatically within only ∼4 m.y. More than half of the crustal section represents additions from the mantle, and is preserved as mafic igneous rocks and mafic-ultramafic cumulates; the remainder is tonalite to granodiorite with evidence for widespread assimilation from highly melted metasedimentary units. U-Pb zircon geochronology reveals that the construction of the arc was not a simple bottom-up construction process. This continuous exposure of the arc crust allows the quantification of field constrained magmatic addition rates of 300–400 km3 km–1 m.y.–1. These rates are similar to those determined for modern slow-spreading mid-ocean ridges and are of the same magnitude as magmatic addition rates required to build certain large segments of the continental masses such as the Arabian-Nubian shield, among others. The implication is that significant convective removal of arc roots is required over time in order to build the modern continental crust via subduction-related magmatism.
|
<urn:uuid:9e843844-df3f-44f2-a438-9c3be7eac65f>
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CC-MAIN-2023-50
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https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-abstract/45/3/235/195276/Ultrafast-magmatic-buildup-and-diversification-to?redirectedFrom=fulltext
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100135.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20231129173017-20231129203017-00000.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.933547 | 317 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Hey! This site is reader-supported and we earn commissions if you purchase products from retailers after clicking on a link from our site.
Whether you are following the ATP or WTA, you will find that every match and tournament is driving the players towards something. That something is usually a Grand Slam (and the prize money). For the fans, these matches are often the most exciting and energetic, because the players are giving it their all to qualify. But what does it mean to be a qualifier in tennis? And how does the tennis qualifier system work?
Basically, players qualify by doing one of the three things:
- Ranking among the top 104 players who sign up for the Grand Slam
- Winning 3 rounds of a qualification match
- Receiving Wildcard status
If this is still confusing, then continue on reading. You are going to learn everything you need to know to answer you question about tennis qualifiers.
What is a Qualification Round?
First off, let us define what a qualification round means. In tennis, a qualification round happens within a match between professionals vying for a position in one of the four prestigious Grand Slam tournaments. When a player qualifies, it means that they have won more tennis matches during a qualification tournament than their opponents.
However, there are many different qualification matches or rounds out there. If you plan on attempting one yourself (or enrolling your child prodigy in Juniors matches), research the ones held as close to you as possible. Some qualifiers are regional, while others are open to players from a specific section of the world. International qualifiers also exist and are open to tennis professionals worldwide.
What is a Tennis Qualifier?
Now, you can attend a tennis qualifier or you could be a qualifier. When a professional tennis player is referred to as a qualifier, it means that they have won a particular match or event. Players will attend low-level events and work their way up to the bigger tournaments, accruing ATP or WTA ranking points along the way.
How Many Sets Are In a Tennis Qualifier?
Generally, both male and female tennis players will play 2 out of 3 sets in a qualifying draw match. The exception to this is Wimbledon. For Wimbledon, male players continue to play 2 out of 3 sets until the final round. There, they must complete 3 out of 5 rounds. Again, this only applies to men. Women play 2 out of 3 sets for every qualifier, regardless of the round or where they are.
How Does a Player Enter a Tennis Qualifier for a Grand Slam?
Also known as the majors, the four Grand Slams are the peak competitions of the tennis world. To head to a Grand Slam means receiving massive attention from the media, as well as some incredible bragging rights. Only the best of the best attend, which means that they have had to qualify in one of the three ways.
The Grand Slams take place throughout the year. The Australian Open happens in January; the French Open is in May; Wimbledon takes place in July; and the US Open is last, in September. Although winning a Wimbledon or Australian open is not easy it is a necceasry step in qualifications. This gives players several chances to attend a Grand Slam.
One of the most consistent ways to attend a Grand Slam is to gather enough ranking points within an organization. For men and boys, that means ATP ranking points. For women that want to compete in Grand Slam , the points are awarded by the WTA. Thousands of players attend ATP or WTA Tours throughout the year, but there are only 104 spots designated for 128 of the best players per organization.
In other words, you need to be of the 104 top players who signed up for the Grand Slam to enter. There are often absences, personal problems, and injuries that prevent certain players from attending, so those who rank beyond 104 may still have a chance to attend.
For example, if the 6, 8, 50, 74, and 100 ranked players cannot make it to the Australian Open, then the fiver players after 104 could be invited.
If you would like to understand tennis rankings a little better, check out this short video:
There are also “Protected Rankings,” meaning that players who have been injured and cannot play for 6 months or longer can request to protect their rank. Once healed, those with Protected Rankings can use that to get them into a tournament. For example, for the Australian Open in 2019, Arthur Murray came back in 2nd place after using a protected rank to take time off to heal.
For doubles, it is a bit different. Only 64 pairs have a chance to qualify based on rank alone, as there are no tennis qualifiers for doubles. 57 pairs are given their place by points. 7 spots are obtained by wildcards.
Furthermore, tennis players who do both doubles and singles can choose which ranking is best. The ranking they choose is then added to the rank of the other team member. The 57 pairs with the lowest combined rankings are allowed to compete in a Grand Slam.
Out of the 128 players that get to go to the Grand Slams, only 16 get through by winning a qualification round. It is extremely challenging, as the player has to win 3 rounds before the drawing. Imagine how many matches that could end up being!
So what does a tennis player have to do to qualify for a qualification round? The first 104 singles players will rank based on points alone. After that, there are 119 players (ranked 105 to 232) who could sign up for qualification rounds. Only 16 are chosen. In order for a player to win their qualifying matches and get through an entire Grand Slam, they would have to win 10 matches in a row. That is no easy feat.
It is made even harder because there is no rest. Right after winning the qualification rounds, a player moves right onto the Grand Slam. However, in 2021, Emma Raducanu made history by being the first ever tennis player to win the Women’s Singles draw after qualifying for the Grand Slam. She won 10 matches in a row and didn’t lose a single set.
In women’s doubles qualifiers, there are 3 rounds and 96 entrants. If there are vacancies in the third round of matches, those teams that won in the 2nd round are given another chance.
Now for wildcards, which make up 8 or 9 spots. Wildcards are awarded to players by the tournament committee. Sometimes, these wildcards go to players who generate a large crowd or who are considered a local favorite. That said, wildcards are never given to players who have entered the qualifiers and lost.
Here are some reasons a player may receive a wildcard:
- The tournament is taking place in your home country
- The player won a special tournament previously and was awarded the wildcard as a reward
- They are a promising talent
- Large crowds are drawn to the player’s matches
- They are a tournament legend who has won a title previously
- The player was once ranked much higher
The second point is one of the reasons why many tennis players join specific tournaments. The following list shows which events award wildcards to Grand Slams:
- Australian Open Wildcard Challenge – USTA awards American men and women who win the Australian Open Wildcard Challenge with a wildcard to the Australian Open.
- Wimbledon – The Challenger tournament is held one week before Wimbledon. Traditionally, the winner of the tournament receives a wildcard.
- US Open – Those who have won smaller tournaments in the US prior to the US Open are invited to the USTA US Open Wildcard Challenge for a shot at winning a wildcard.
- Roland Garros Wildcard Challenge – A pro clay court is used for a chance at winning a wildcard to the French Open.
Another way wildcards are utilized is through exchanges, which add diversity to certain Grand Slams. For example, during the Australian Open, the Australian officials may present a French tennis pro with the wildcard. Then, when the French Open takes place a few months later, the French officials offer a wildcard to an Australian player.
The downside to these exchanges is that French, Australian, and American players tend to receive them, which comes at the expense of less influential countries. In recent years, more wildcards have been presented to tennis players based on their talent, rather than where they come from.
Are There Any Pre-Qualifying Tournaments?
Yes, there are pre-qualifying events that can assist up-and-coming professionals gain points to increase their rank. Many of these tournaments also offer tournaments. As mentioned earlier, some of these pre-qualifying tournaments have wildcards as a reward. The USTA hosts a number of these events to draw in talent. The ITF also has pre-qualifying tournaments.
Attending pre-qualifying tournaments is a smart choice for tennis players who are looking to make a name for themselves. Not only do the USTA and ITF work with organizations like the ATP and WTA, but they also provide rich experience. Plus, the chance to win a wildcard makes any pre-qualifying event a great investment.
For fans, pre-qualifying tournaments are just as exciting to watch as qualification rounds or Grand Slams. You get to see a lot of new faces—some who may be playing at the next Grand Slam.
Qualified to Play and Win
What is a tennis qualifier? Depending on the context, the qualifier could be someone who has qualified to play at one of the four Grand Slams. It could also mean the qualifying match that would send someone to a Grand Slam. There are a couple of ways to qualify for these prestigious tournaments, including receiving a wildcard or having a high enough rank. So are you going to attend a pre-qualifying event any time soon?
|
<urn:uuid:e663db21-7c35-41b2-84e0-b40be8f0784d>
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CC-MAIN-2023-50
|
https://racquetsportscenter.com/what-is-a-tennis-qualifier/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100135.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20231129173017-20231129203017-00000.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.973476 | 2,032 | 2.53125 | 3 |
The IES (Indian Engineering Services) is a national level exams conducted by the Union Public Service Commission(UPSC) for engineers various posts in the government of India.
The IES exams also known as the Engineering Service Examination (ESE) or the Indian Engineering Services Examination (ESE).
The IES exam is one of the toughest examinations in India which select candidate based on their knowledge, technical or other skills in the different Engineering field.
The candidate who qualify IES exam will appoint class I officers in a various departments such as railway, telecommunication, power, water engineering, defence engineering and so on.
The IES exam has three stages: Preliminary, Main, and Personality Test. The Preliminary stage consists of two objective-type papers: Paper-I (General Studies and Engineering Aptitude) and Paper-II (Engineering Discipline).
The Main stage consists of two conventional-type papers: Paper-I and Paper-II (Engineering Discipline). The Personality Test is an interview that assesses the candidates’ suitability for the posts.
The IES exam conducted once in a year in two parts, primarily and main. In the month of February primarily will be conducted and in month of July main exam will be conducted.
Primarily test is held after the declaration of the main exam result. UPSC will be notified in the month of September every year. If you want to do IES exam you have to apply online for UPSC official website before the last date.
IES is a good and very prestigious career options if you have a spirit or aspire to serve the nation you can walk to this career.
For the first step you must clear primarily exam which is held on February after that you will be able to appear in the main exam, and the final selection is decided on the base of your performance and the main exams and an interview.
The IES examination is open for all citizens of India who have a degree of engineering of a recognized university, remember candidate who lies between 20 to 30 years of age are applicable for this test, and there is a benefit also for a candidate that there is no limit of no. of attempts, you can give as attempts as you can until you reached 30.
Apart from this, a career in the IES also provides multiple opportunities for professional growth and personal development.
It allows engineers to work on multiple projects, collaborate with experts in the field, and gain valuable experience in their respective fields.
This exposure will help you to get expertise in a respective field and open doors to higher positions within the government hierarchy. (Hierarchy means: ranks according to their importance).
While the IES examination is highly competitive, with a limited number of vacancies and many aspirants, proper preparation and dedication can significantly increase one’s chances of success.
If you required any further information or assistance about any related matter, get in touch with CSC registration and we will ensure that you receive the right kind of professional help for your requirements. We are India’s best company apply for CSC. We offer a wide range of the best government & non-government services.
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<urn:uuid:f82b3107-8bc6-4f80-96c9-156c2406cf5c>
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CC-MAIN-2023-50
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https://register-csc-gov.com/overview-to-ies-indian-engineering-services-exams/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100135.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20231129173017-20231129203017-00000.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.955453 | 643 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Several new gecko species are found in New Caledonia.
Geckos come in a variety of sizes and colors and are found in habitats ranging from arid deserts to humid tropical forests. Many are known for their ability to effortlessly climb vertical surfaces. They do this with the help of specialized toe pads. Well-known species, such as day geckos (Phelsuma spp.), tokay geckos (Gekko gecko) and New Caledonian crested geckos (Rhacodactylus ciliatus), all share this trait. Others, such as the terrestrial leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius), one of the most commonly kept species, lack this ability.
Want to read the full story? Pick up the September 2008 issue of REPTILES today, or subscribe to get 12 months of articles just like this.
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<urn:uuid:dd0655b1-31fa-483c-9418-d2bea946c2ff>
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CC-MAIN-2023-50
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https://reptilesmagazine.com/fresh-discoveries/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100135.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20231129173017-20231129203017-00000.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.932912 | 184 | 2.84375 | 3 |
A root canal is a term for oral treatment that removes decay from the pulp and root of your tooth. Your teeth have an enamel coating on the outside, a layer of dentin inside, and a soft inner core extending right into your jawbone’s root. The tooth pulp, which is made up of nerves, blood vessels, and connective tissue, is found in the core.
When decay penetrates the soft center, the pulp may become inflamed, infected, or necrotic (dead). In order to remove the decay, a root canal is required. So, how do you identify whether you need a root canal? Are there any warning signs? Read further to find out more about the symptoms that show the need for root canal treatment.
Root Canal Symptoms
Going to the dentist is the only way to determine if you need a root canal. However, there are numerous red flags to keep an eye out for. In the event that you experience any of these signs, it is critical that you book an appointment with your dentist at once. An infected tooth has a higher chance of healing successfully if it is attended to as soon as possible.
One of the implications that you may need a root canal is recurring tooth pain. The pain in your tooth may always torment you, or it might disappear for a while but then return. You may feel the pain deep within the tooth’s bone. You may also experience referred pain in your face, jaw, or other teeth.
Other than a root canal, tooth pain can have various reasons. Listed here are additional possibilities:
- Gum disease
- Pain from a sinus infection or some other issue
- Damaged dental filling
- An impacted tooth that could be infected
If you have tooth pain, whatever the root cause, you must see an endodontist in Saskatoon, especially if the pain is serious. Early detection and treatment typically lead to better results.
Intolerance to Both Hot and Cold
Being sensitive to hot and cold is normal, like biting into food or eating ice cream. The pain is normally tolerable and does not last long. However, if you experience a severe level of sensitivity or the sensation lasts for several hours after exposure; this could be a sign of an infected tooth and the need for a root canal.
Discoloration of Teeth
Stains on teeth from beverages like coffee, tea, red wine, and others are not always possible to avoid, but they are usually minor and easy to brush away or lighten with a whitening product. In other cases, staining (typically yellowing or browning) can occur internally to the teeth and be difficult to remove.
If you experience this, it may indicate that your tooth is decaying, and you should see a dentist as quickly as possible. Click here if you’re worried that discoloration in your teeth might require a root canal, and get some answers on how to treat it.
Chipped or Cracked Tooth
Bacteria can emerge and cause an infection if you have cracked or chipped your tooth by biting on something hard, participating in sporting activities, or being in an accident. Even if the tooth does not crack or chip and is only injured, it can still damage the nerves to the point where root canal treatment is needed. If you have chipped or cracked teeth, it is best to visit a dental clinic in Saskatoon for prompt and professional treatment.
If you believe you have a problem with your mouth, you should keep an eye on it. Refer to the checklist of warning signs above and consult a dental professional if you discover any of them. Remember, the more time passes before scheduling a root canal; the more work will need to be done. Visit your dentist whenever you start to experience a problem so they can help you get back on track to excellent dental health.
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<urn:uuid:2db79b70-081e-4b52-a033-84ea519c30ce>
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CC-MAIN-2023-50
|
https://restoreouranthem.ca/what-indications-point-to-the-need-for-a-root-canal/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100135.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20231129173017-20231129203017-00000.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.94582 | 789 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Библиотека сайта rus-linux.net
Linux and networking go hand in hand. The Linux kernel has support for all common and most uncommon network protocols. The standard UNIX networking tools are provided in each distribution. Next to those, most distributions offer tools for easy network installation and management.
Linux is well known as a stable platform for running various Internet services, the amount of Internet software is endless. Like UNIX, Linux can be just as well used and administered from a remote location, using one of several solutions for remote execution of programs.
We briefly touched the subject of security. Linux is an ideal firewall system, light and cheap, but can be used in several other network functions such as routers and proxy servers.
Increasing network security is mainly done by applying frequent updates and common sense.
Here is an overview of network related commands:
Table 10-2. New commands in chapter 10: Networking
|ftp||Transfer files to another host (insecure).|
|host||Get information about networked hosts.|
|ifconfig||Display IP address information.|
|ip||Display IP address information.|
|netstat||Display routing information and network statistics.|
|ping||Send answer requests to other hosts.|
|rdesktop||Display and MS Windows desktop on your Linux system.|
|route||Show routing information.|
|scp||Secure copy files to and from other hosts.|
|sftp||Secure FTP files to and from other hosts.|
|ssh||Make an encrypted connection to another host.|
|ssh-keygen||Generate authentication keys for Secure SHell.|
|telnet||Make an insecure connection to another hosts.|
|tracepath/traceroute||Print the route that packets follow to another host.|
|whois||Get information abotu a domain name.|
|xclock||X Window clock application, handy for testing remote display.|
|xhost||X Window access control tool.|
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<urn:uuid:fb122f16-0463-4619-a193-1a62685bc0e5>
|
CC-MAIN-2023-50
|
https://rus-linux.net/MyLDP/BOOKS/intro-linux/sect_10_08.html
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100135.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20231129173017-20231129203017-00000.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.826221 | 443 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Sagara Technology – HTML or Hypertext Markup Language and CSS or Cascading Style Sheets are the main core technologies for build Websites. HTML can be describe as the skeleton of a website, while CSS is the skin of a website and basically all visual aspects of a website. HTML and CSS are the basis of building Web pages and Web Applications.
What is HTML?
HyperText is effectively a text within a text and a markup language. It is a language understood by computers, designed to essentially describe webpages and make the text you use more interactive.
HTML is the language for describing the structure of web pages to search engines. HTML gives authors the means to:
- Publish online documents with headings, text, lists, photos, etc.
- Retrieve online information via hypertext links, at the click of a button.
- Design forms for conducting transactions with remote services, for use in searching for information, making reservations, ordering products, etc.
- Include spread-sheets, video clips, sound clips, and other applications directly in their documents.
Primarily, HTML is use for creating the pillar content of a webpage, giving it structure. You start by writing words, then apply tags or elements to these words. Then the web browser can read this and understand which was the heading of a page, paragraphs, and where the page starts and finishes.
What is CSS?
CSS or known as Cascading Style Sheets is basically the skin of a website. It is a sheet-style language, which is a type of language you can use to describe the presentation of a markup language. Generally, it allows for granular control for style elements like the header, footer, navigation, and all the visual aspect of your website. Without it, websites would be plain text on white backgrounds.
CSS was invented in 1996 in order to make sense of HTML and make the webpage looks better in all design aspect.
CSS allowed several innovations to webpage layout, such as:
- Specify fonts
- Specify color
- Specify size of text
- Applying colors
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<urn:uuid:e2ed6c99-c8a1-44e2-bdeb-1de21424b791>
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CC-MAIN-2023-50
|
https://sagaratechnology.com/blog/the-definition-of-css-and-html/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100135.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20231129173017-20231129203017-00000.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.871475 | 432 | 3.875 | 4 |
Enlistment Date: August 31, 1864
Release Date: June 22, 1865
Unit: 211th Pennsylvania Regiment, Company H
Michael Kelly was born in 1845. Towards the end of the war he joined the army and was placed in the 211th Pennsylvania Regiment, company H.
In March, 1865, the regiment fought at the Battle of Fort Stedman, where the regiment received orders to distract the enemy. When the Confederates saw the regiment advancing they stopped firing, and the Union quickly forced them to retreat from the fort.
The 211th also fought in the Siege of Petersburg. The members of the 211th joined on April 2, 1865, the last day of the battle, and helped push the last of the Confederate army out of the city. The regiment suffered many casualties during this battle. After the fall of Petersburg, the regiment moved to Alexandria, where it stayed until it was mustered out.
Michael Kelly died on March 27, 1911. His gravesite is in section B.
(Compiled by Raymond Aguiar)
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<urn:uuid:73c3ba1c-a228-444a-bec9-7452bdc6a5d4>
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CC-MAIN-2023-50
|
https://saintvincentcemetery.com/grave/michael-kelly/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100135.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20231129173017-20231129203017-00000.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.976999 | 217 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Taking a long shot: How vaccines are saving lives, not endangering them
by MARIAH LIN & ROBERT MIRANDA
With the recent measles outbreak spreading across the nation, the unprecedented lack of vaccinated individuals has fuelled the issue.
The controversial debate over whether or not vaccines are safe is sparking much discussion from both sides. The current measles outbreak that began in December originated from Anaheim’s Disneyland Resort with over 100 cases being linked to the area so far.
The MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine was introduced in 1963 after five years of testing. According to cdc.gov, it has an effectiveness rate of 94 percent. Due to the prolific use of the vaccine and a movement by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to eliminate measles in the 1970s, measles cases fell from around 450,000 in 1962 to less than 100 by the late 1990s. As a result, the disease was declared eradicated in the United States in 2000. An “eradicated” disease is defined by the CDC as one which is no longer continually present in the U.S. However, there were 644 new cases in 2014.
The current vaccination rate in California is 90.7 percent; according to bloombergnews.com, it is even lower in certain regions, such as Orange County, where the outbreak started. This is not only California’s problem—26 states reported vaccination rates for the MMR vaccine to be below the target threshold of 95 percent in 2013, according to cnn.com.
Therein the problem lies. Many parents continue to cling to the belief that the chemicals inside vaccines are responsible for a host of medical problems, including autism. Parents’ concerns are understandable, as they simply want the best choices for their children. However, there is no evidence that vaccines cause any danger. A 2014 study by the National Institute of Health (NIH) involving over 1.5 million children found no correlation between vaccines and autism. One of the major concerns is due to the mercury-containing compound thiomersal in vaccines. However, thiomersal is only used in the influenza vaccine, and then in extremely small, harmless quantities used to preserve the vaccine.
While the current outbreak is not yet a major epidemic, it is affecting the majority of the population’s most vulnerable groups. Among those who cannot get vaccinated are children under the age of 1 and children with weakened immune systems. Many parents also choose to not vaccinate their children due to personal beliefs. There are 47 states with religious exemptions, while 19 states, including California, have philosophical exemptions.
Carl Krawitt of Marin County lives in a region that has one of the highest “personal belief exemptions” in the state. For Krawitt, the fight to make vaccines mandatory for all children attending his local schools is personal. His 6 year old son, Rhett, has been battling leukemia for over four years, and his fragile immune system means he cannot be vaccinated—he must rely on those around him for immunity.
Those who are not immunized miss the benefits of this concept of “herd immunity,” or protection from a disease through acquired immunity from those in the same population over time.
“It’s not just Rhett. There are hundreds of other kids that are going through cancer therapy, and it’s not fair to them,” said University of California, San Francisco oncologist Dr. Robert Goldsby. “They have to rely on their friends and colleagues and community to help protect them.”
In many ways, it is a luxury to be having this discussion at all. Many in the developing world continue to hope for vaccines in order to combat preventable diseases but to no avail. Due to vaccines, humanity has been able to overcome diseases that were once feared and widespread. When some parents choose to willingly create greater medical risks for their children by not choosing to immunize them, they unwittingly create a greater risk for everyone around them.
90.5 The percentage of people in California vaccinated against measles
92 The percentage of people that need to be vaccinated against measles for “herd immunity” to work
48,000 Number of people that were hospitalized with measles before a reliable vaccine was released in 1963
644 Cases of measles reported in 2014, compared to only 37 in 2004
4 Number of days an infected person can spread the virus
75 Number of studies that show no link between vaccines and autism
37 Number of vaccines that contain mercury in 2004
SOURCES: bloomberg.com, cdc.gov, nih.gov, cnn.com
Facts compiled by ROBERT MIRANDA
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Resistance and Ohms Law
The Ohms Law Triangle Formula
Below are images that explain the formula used in calculating the resistance in relation to the other components of electronics. To use the triangle, cover the value you want to calculate. The remaining letters make up the formula.
Ohm’s Law can only give the correct answer when the correct values are used. Remember the following three rules:
– Current is always expressed in amperes or amps
– Voltage is always expressed in volts
– Resistance is always expressed in ohms
With these rules, the decimal equivalent of figures that are less than 1 should be converted. For example, if the circuit’s voltage is 10 and the current is 200 mA (200 milliamp), the decimal equivalent of the 200 mA, which is 0.20 Amp, should be used in the calculation.
Examples of Solving Ohm’s Law problems
Using the simple circuit below, assume that the voltage supplied by the battery is 10 volts, and the resistance is 5 Ohms.
Calculating Current Flow
To find how much current is flowing through the circuit, cover the “I” in the triangle and use the resulting equation.
Calculating Circuit Voltage
Using the same circuit, assume the ammeter reads 200 mA and the resistance is known to be 10 Ohms. To solve for voltage, cover the “E” in the triangle and use the resulting equation.
Remember to use the correct decimal equivalent when dealing with numbers that are preceded with milli (m), micro (μ) or kilo (k). In this example 200 had been used, but was converted to 0.2 in the calculation. Otherwise the wrong answer of 2000 volts would have come out as a result.
Calculating Resistance (Ohms)
Using the same circuit, assume the ammeter reads 800 mA and the voltage is known to be 4 Volts. To solve for resistance, cover the “R” in the triangle and use the resulting equation.
Again, remember to use the correct decimal equivalent when dealing with numbers that are preceded with milli (m), micro (μ) or kilo (k). In this example 800 mA has been used, but was converted to 0.8 Ampere in the calculation. Otherwise the wrong answer of .005 Ohms would have come out as a result.
Summary: When we use the triangle to solve the unknown value, the given equivalent figure on the apex of the triangle – in this case is the voltage – is divided by either of the equivalent values at the bottom of the the triangle, whichever is the given meter reading or electronic value. A given value at either side of the bottom of the triangle- the equivalent of the current and resistance – is multiplied by the other bottom value, and vice versa.
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CC-MAIN-2023-50
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https://sciemartech.com/tech/mechatronics/basel008/
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PI: Daniel Limonadi
Changes in sea level are impacting communities across the globe on an almost daily basis through increased erosion, greater saltwater intrusion, more frequent high-tide flooding, and higher storm surge. Expensive decisions - both in economic and societal terms - are already being made by a great diversity of stakeholders planning for current and ongoing sea level rise. This diversity imposes requirements on the scientific information that is needed for decision-making efforts. Increasingly, stakeholders want guidance on what sea level will be at a specific location and at a specific time in the future, including at timescales (seasonal to decadal) that are shorter than typically provided in summary assessments. Failure of scientists and our programmatic structures supporting them to recognize these needs, along with the confrontation of an ever-changing landscape of current scientific knowledge, stakeholders often turn towards consultants or “bridge” companies to provide useful sea level information for planning efforts, removing scientists from the information flow of the decision-making process. Lack of engagement in this process makes it difficult for scientists to understand what is “useful” information and develop systems and tools that can improve decision-making support.
In this prototyping Research-to-Operations (RtoO) project, we seek to begin to address many of the above challenges and improve the flow of information from scientist to end-user. In particular, we will work to extend the science produced by the NASA Sea Level Change Team (N-SLCT) and take the first steps on the path to operationalize this science information by establishing and co-developing data products and pipelines to our federal partner, NOAA. In doing so, we expect to increase the impact of the N-SLCT, help bridge the gap in RtoO activities, and create an exemplar interagency effort (NASA + NOAA) that can have a positive impact on the nation. We will focus on three threads of information that have been identified as foundational by NOAA for the products and services that they provide: 1) short-term (seasonal to decadal) predictions of sea level, 2) projections of longer-term sea level rise, and 3) high-resolution estimates of vertical land motion from InSAR.
- Establish a joint NOAA/NASA Sea Level Change Team working group to demonstrate the value of an interagency collaboration in meeting the challenges of sea level decision-making.
- Through regular discussion and co-development where possible, establish a link between the scientists on the N-SLCT and at NOAA to increase the impact and utility of science generated by the N-SLCT.
- Work with the N-SLCT scientists to understand projection output and develop a pathway for transferring these projections to NOAA for use in their products and services.
- Use the ECCO (Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean) adjoint dynamic sea level rise solution to generate predictions for pilot cities around the U.S. These predictions will be compared to and evaluated against output ongoing NOAA-funded prediction efforts.
- In coordination with NOAA, depending on the results from (2) and (4), develop a plan for operationalizing the ECCO adjoint approach for producing sea level predictions on a regular basis.
- Produce high-resolution vertical land motion maps using InSAR analysis with a view towards future operationalization.
- Improve guidance that accompanies projections, predictions and vertical land motion estimates to better meet end-user needs
Deliverables (e.g. Datasets, Tools)
InSAR vertical land motion map for 1 or 2 high priority locations jointly identified by NASA and NOAA, and maturing algorithms for producing those maps.
Documented and defined pathway for transferring correctly formatted and scoped VLM data to NOAA for use in their operational products and services.
ECCO adjoint dynamic sea level rise solution for 1-2 pilot city location agreed upon by NASA and NOAA.
Documented results from prediction evaluation effort comparing ECCO-approach to ongoing NOAA-funded projects.
Documented and defined pathway for transferring correctly formatted and scoped N-SLCT projections to NOAA for use in their operational products and services.
Updated implementation plan and costs for ongoing development of both partnership between NASA and NOAA and improved research-to-operations pathways.
Conference presentation summarizing project approach and results to date.
Projection outputs of the N-SLCT science team, ECCO, North American Multi-Model Ensemble outputs, Sentinel 1 INSAR data.
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https://sealevel.nasa.gov/science-team/projects/project-8/
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On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.John 20:1-8
Nativity and Resurrection
In Byzantine icons of the Nativity of Christ, the dark cave of his birth and the dark tomb of his resurrection coincide. Christmas anticipates Easter joy: Christ, the Light of the world, “shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).
Iconography is theology in symbol, color, and form. Thus we see the infant Jesus lying in a coffin-like manger at the entrance of a tomb-like cave, wrapped in white bands resembling burial cloths. The Son’s mission to free humankind from the binding coils of death began at his birth. St. Gregory of Nazianzus expressed the theology of the Nativity icon thus: “He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, but He took off the swathing bands of the grave by His rising again.”1
The Empty Tomb
In the Gospel for the Feast of the Beloved Disciple, Peter and John, alarmed by Mary Magdalene’s report that Jesus had been taken from the tomb, ran to the cave and found it empty indeed. The only trace left behind by its occupant was a pile of burial cloths. With childlike faith, the disciple who stood with Mary at the foot of the cross “saw and believed.”2
The details in the gospel concerning the burial cloths indicate that the disciples considered a theft unlikely. A thief would not have bothered to unwrap Jesus, let alone roll up his headclothes and leave them behind. No reasonable motive exists for such time-consuming and meticulous actions on the part of thieves.
St. John Chrysostom writes:
For a thief would not have been so foolish as to spend so much trouble on a superfluous matter. For why should he undo the clothes? And how could he have escaped detection if he had done so? Since he would probably have spent much time in so doing, and be found out by delaying and loitering. But why do the clothes lie apart, while the napkin was wrapped together by itself? That you may learn that it was not the action of men in confusion or haste, the placing some in one place, some in another, and the wrapping them together. From this they believed in the Resurrection. On this account Christ afterwards appeared to them, when they were convinced by what they had seen. Observe too here again the absence of boastfulness in the Evangelist, how he witnesses to the exactness of Peter’s search. For he himself having gotten before Peter, and having seen the linen clothes, enquired not farther, but withdrew; but that fervent one passing farther in, looked at everything carefully, and saw somewhat more, and then the other too was summoned to the sight. For he entering after Peter, saw the grave-clothes lying, and separate. Now to separate, and to place one thing by itself, and another, after rolling it up, by itself, was the act of some one doing things carefully, and not in a chance way, as if disturbed.Homily 85 on the Gospel of John
“They have taken the Lord!” cried Mary, bereaved.
Going into the tomb, John saw and believed.
1 St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Third Theological Oration (Oration 29), XIX.
2 Commentators differ on the interpretation of John’s statement that “he saw and believed.”
According to Augustine, Erasmus, and Luther, he believed what Mary had said. He saw now that the tomb was empty, and believed her report, whether it went on to describe the first angelic message or not; but Lucke, Lange, Meyer, and Moulton, following Chrysostom, etc., rightly interpret “he believed” that Jesus had not been taken by others from the grave. He saw there were no signs of haste or confusion, or of a rifled tomb. He believed that he had risen, that this death of his had been done away, that he was living, as he said.Pulpit Commentary on John 20:8
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| 0.978951 | 1,063 | 3.140625 | 3 |
- Bombers north: Allied bomber operations from Northern Australia 1942-1945
Bombers north: Allied bomber operations from Northern Australia 1942-1945
In early March 1942 Allied forces in the Netherlands East Indies surrendered and the lightning Japanese conquest of South East Asia was complete. Amid fears of a Japanese invasion of Australia, two understrength RAAF squadrons of Lockheed Hudsons began a brave fight back against the enemy from the Darwin area. These modest initial efforts were the beginnings of an unwavering campaign by Allied bombers waged from Northern Australia until the end of the war in August 1945.
As the Hudson squadrons were rebuilt throughout 1942, they were joined by a unique Dutch squadron operating B-25 Mitchells. From 1943 USAAF Liberators joined the fight, and their great range enabled them to attack targets deep within the NEI. From 1944 they were replaced by RAAF Liberators.
Other RAAF squadrons used an assortment of aircraft including Vengeances, Beauforts, Mitchells, Venturas and Catalina flying boats. The last type waged an important mining campaign against Japanese held ports in the NEI and later to the Philippines and beyond.
Drawing on a wealth of new sources, Bombers north presents for the first time the full story of a little-known bomber offensive waged from remote northern Australia.
Details: Non-fiction, published 2023.
Format: Soft cover, 156 pages.
Dimensions: 25.0 cm (h) x 17.6 cm (w).
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CC-MAIN-2023-50
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https://shop.awm.gov.au/products/bombers-north-allied-bomber-operations-from-northern-australia-1942-1945
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| 0.956036 | 306 | 2.640625 | 3 |
I’ve delved into the fascinating world of Chinese New Year, uncovering its origins, historical significance, traditional customs, modern celebrations, and global influence.
In this article about ‘The Evolution of Chinese New Year Facts,’ we’ll explore how this ancient festival has transformed over time while maintaining its cultural essence.
From its humble beginnings to its widespread adaptation around the world, join me on a journey to discover the remarkable evolution of Chinese New Year.
When delving into the timeline of Chinese New Year Facts, it’s crucial to comprehend the traditions and symbolism behind this centuries-old celebration. Understanding the intricacies of themes like zodiac animals, red envelopes, and family reunions can provide profound insights into the cultural significance of Chinese New Year. Exploring the roots and evolvement of Chinese New Year throughout history grants us a deeper appreciation for this festive occasion. With this in mind, let’s unravel the story behind chinese new year explained.
Origins of Chinese New Year
The origins of Chinese New Year can be traced back to ancient times. This important festival is deeply rooted in cultural traditions and holds great significance for the Chinese people.
As “The Evolution of Chinese New Year Facts” takes a deep dive into the cultural significance and historical transformations of this festive celebration, it remains crucial to understand the essence of chinese new year facts.
Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, follows the lunar calendar, which is based on the cycles of the moon. It typically falls between January 21st and February 20th each year. The celebration lasts for fifteen days and marks a time of renewal and new beginnings.
Ancient customs such as cleaning homes to sweep away bad luck and lighting firecrackers to ward off evil spirits continue to be observed today. Family reunions, feasts, dragon dances, lantern festivals, and exchanging red envelopes filled with money are all integral parts of this festive season.
The rich history behind Chinese New Year showcases its deep cultural significance and continues to be celebrated with great enthusiasm worldwide.
Historical Significance of Chinese New Year
Did you know about the historical significance of celebrating Chinese New Year? It’s not just a festive occasion, but a time-honored tradition with deep cultural importance.
The historical traditions associated with Chinese New Year have been passed down for centuries and continue to be cherished today. Here are three sub-lists highlighting the historical significance of this annual celebration:
- Chinese New Year represents the start of spring and new beginnings.
- The color red symbolizes good luck and fortune, while gold signifies wealth.
- Fireworks and dragon dances ward off evil spirits and bring prosperity.
- Family Reunion:
- Chinese New Year revolves around family gatherings and honoring ancestors.
- The holiday emphasizes filial piety, respect for elders, and strengthening family bonds.
- It is a time when people travel long distances to reunite with their loved ones.
- Cultural Traditions:
- Traditional foods like dumplings, fish, and rice cakes hold symbolic meanings.
- Cleaning the house before the new year signifies sweeping away bad luck.
- Red envelopes filled with money are given as blessings for good fortune.
Understanding the historical traditions and cultural importance behind Chinese New Year enhances our appreciation for this vibrant holiday.
Traditional Customs and Practices
Celebrants of Chinese New Year observe a variety of traditional customs and practices to honor their ancestors and bring luck and prosperity into the new year. These customs are deeply rooted in cultural symbolism, with each practice holding significant meaning.
One common tradition is the hanging of red lanterns and couplets, which symbolize good fortune and blessings for the coming year. The color red is believed to ward off evil spirits and bring luck.
In addition, people often clean their homes thoroughly before the New Year as a way to sweep away bad luck from the previous year and make room for good fortune.
Another popular custom is the giving of red envelopes filled with money, known as ‘hongbao.’ This gesture represents sharing prosperity with loved ones, while also bringing good wishes for wealth in the upcoming year.
Overall, these traditional customs and festive decorations play a vital role in creating an auspicious atmosphere during Chinese New Year celebrations.
Modern Celebrations of Chinese New Year
One popular tradition during Chinese New Year is the exchanging of red envelopes filled with money. In modern times, this age-old practice has evolved and taken on new meanings.
Here are some modern traditions and their cultural significance:
- Family Reunions: Chinese New Year is a time for families to come together and celebrate. It provides an opportunity for relatives who live far apart to reconnect and strengthen family bonds.
- Lion Dance Performances: This traditional dance has become a staple of Chinese New Year celebrations around the world. It is believed to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck and prosperity.
- Fireworks Displays: Fireworks have long been associated with festive occasions in Chinese culture. They are believed to scare away evil spirits and bring good fortune.
These modern traditions not only add excitement to the festivities but also retain the cultural significance of Chinese New Year, fostering unity, good fortune, and joy among families and communities.
Global Influence and Adaptation of Chinese New Year
The global popularity of Chinese New Year has led to its adaptation in various cultures around the world. The impact of globalization has allowed this traditional festival to transcend borders and be celebrated in diverse communities.
The cultural assimilation of Chinese New Year is evident through the incorporation of customs and traditions into local festivities, creating a unique blend of cultures. In countries like Malaysia and Singapore, where there are significant Chinese populations, the celebration remains true to its roots but also includes elements from other ethnicities.
In Western countries, Chinese New Year has become a popular event, attracting people from all backgrounds who are eager to participate in the vibrant parades, lion dances, and fireworks displays. This global influence highlights the significance and appeal of Chinese culture on an international scale while fostering cross-cultural understanding and appreciation.
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In conclusion, the Chinese New Year has evolved significantly over time, reflecting both its historical significance and the changing cultural practices of Chinese communities worldwide.
From its ancient origins as a way to ward off evil spirits and bring good fortune, to its modern-day celebrations filled with vibrant parades and fireworks displays, this festival remains an important part of Chinese culture.
Furthermore, the global influence and adaptation of Chinese New Year showcases how traditions can be embraced and transformed in different parts of the world.
Overall, the evolution of Chinese New Year is a testament to the resilience and enduring relevance of this cherished celebration.
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Coil parameters of induction heating furnace
The induction heating furnace is a non-standard medium frequency induction heating equipment. The induction coil of the induction heating furnace is a very important part of the heating system of the induction heating furnace. Purpose. So, what are the parameters of the induction coil of the induction heating furnace?
1. Introduction to the coil of the induction heating furnace:
The induction coil of the induction heating furnace is a rectangular hollow copper tube with a specially designed size according to the process parameters. It is obtained by design after calculation. A coil cooling water distributor is arranged on the induction coil of the induction heating furnace to cool the induction coil in time.
2. The composition of the induction coil of the induction heating furnace:
The induction coil of the induction heating furnace is composed of an induction coil, a fixed structure, a cooling water circuit, and a refractory material.
The induction coil of the induction heating furnace is fixed by welding copper bolts and bakelite posts to fix the turns and ensure the heating length of the coil. Then the coil is fixed on the coil bottom bracket, and the coil cooling waterway, furnace mouth plate and coil cover bakelite board are installed. There is no problem in the pressure test. After vibrating, knot the furnace lining material and install water-cooled guide rails.
3. Classification of induction coils of induction heating furnaces:
Induction heating furnace induction coil is divided into: forging induction heating furnace heating coil, casting induction heating furnace, red lotus coil, induction heating furnace induction coil for quenching and tempering, diathermy induction coil, annealing induction heater, tempering induction heater, Normalizing induction heaters, etc.
4. Parameters of induction coil of induction heating furnace:
The parameters related to the induction coil of the induction heating furnace are: incoming line voltage, incoming line current, DC voltage, DC current, intermediate frequency voltage, heating frequency, rectangular copper tube size, resonant capacitor capacity, cooling efficiency, workpiece dimensions, heating time, heating Efficiency, heating material, heating temperature, etc.
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https://songdaokeji.cn/20270.html
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| 0.910193 | 429 | 2.8125 | 3 |
PURPOSE: This study examined the extent to which teacher responsivity education affected preschoolers' language and literacy development over an academic year. Additional aims were to determine whether children's initial language abilities and teachers' use of responsivity strategies were associated with language outcomes, in particular. METHOD: In this randomized controlled trial, preschool centers were assigned to a responsivity education intervention (n = 19 centers, 25 teachers, and 174 children) or a "business-as-usual" control condition (n = 19 centers, 24 teachers, and 156 children). Teachers within the intervention centers received training focused on a set of strategies designed to promote children's engagement and participation in extended conversational interactions across the school day. RESULTS: Hierarchical linear models showed no main effects on children's language skills, although moderating effects were observed such that the intervention appeared to have positive effects for children with relatively high initial language abilities. In addition, teacher use of responsivity strategies was positively associated with vocabulary development. With regard to children's literacy skills, there was a significant main effect of the intervention on print-concept knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: Although teacher responsivity education is viewed as benefitting children's language and literacy development, the impacts of this type of intervention on children's skills warrant further investigation.
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https://speechbite.com/article/69683/
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| 0.968323 | 260 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Small, yellow, without facial markings but a grey crown and nape (top and back of the head). Calls in a series of fast and loud warbles. Often heard before seen.
A dove-sized, shiny-black bird with rufous wings, seen when in flight. The soft, musical twee twee calls announce this bird.
A noisy, bright-yellow bird with yellow eyes, a black bill and an orangey-brown wash on its face.
Greater Double-collared Sunbird
Small, flitting from flower to flower; it has a long, curved bill, feathers that are bright green in the sun, with a purple and wider red band across its chest. The grey coloured female is always somewhere near.
A secretive bird, easier to hear than to see. It has a bright yellow-orange breast and a green crown and back eyes.
Calls out suddenly from inside a bush, saying Willie!! Seen only when it flies from bush to bush.
One of the many cuckoos that visit us in the summer. Upperparts are flashy emerald with a white breast and red eye. It calls its own name in high-pitched notes.
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https://stfranciskrommetrust.co.za/coastal-treasure/riverine-and-coastal-bush/
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en
| 0.931533 | 246 | 2.6875 | 3 |
JUST WHAT IS IT ABOUT PORK? Any contact with it is prohibited in the Torah. There we read: “Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, saying, “These are the animals which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth: Among the animals, whatever divides the hoof, having cloven hooves and chewing the cud—that you may eat. Nevertheless these you shall not eat among those that chew the cud or those that have cloven hooves: the camel, … the rock hyrax, … the hare, … and the swine, though it divides the hoof, having cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. They are unclean to you’” (Leviticus 11:2-8).
Here the reason given seems arbitrary: is there a divine reason for preferring animals which have cloven hooves and chew their cud? If so, we are not told.
Modern commentators have suggested ecological and hygienic reasons for the Jews’ attitude. It has been suggested, for example, that because pigs will eat anything – garbage, offal, even carcasses – they were thought of as “unclean,” that is, unfit for God’s People.
The Quran also prohibits the consumption of and even contact with pork: “He has made unlawful to you only that which dies of itself, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and that on which the name of any other than Allah has been invoked” (2.174). This and similar texts record the prohibition but do not explain it.
The prohibition in the Quran does suggest another possible reason when it couples pork with “that on which the name of any other than Allah has been invoked.” In fact, pigs were regularly sacrificed to “other names” at the time of Moses. In the Egypt of his day pigs were sacrificed to the gods, especially to Set, the ruler of Upper Egypt, and the pork was consumed in a ritual feast. One of their most important gods, it was Set, along with Horus, the ruler of Lower Egypt, who were depicted as crowning Pharaoh.
Pigs were also sacrificed to various deities by the Philistines, the Greeks and the Romans. Would this ongoing association of pigs with pharaoh and idolatry have influenced the condemnation of pork by the Hebrews? Idolatry and its attendant practices would certainly have been the greatest uncleanness to an observant Jew of the day; anything connected with idolatry would have been equally condemned. Perhaps the same reasoning applies to the Jewish prohibition against mixing meat and dairy. Would the fact that Canaanites offered lamb cooked in its mother’s milk to their gods, making it unfit for God’s People?
In any case, pigs became the ultimate symbol of uncleanness in Judaism and, later, in Islam. When Jesus tells the story of the Prodigal Son, for example, the lad’s final degradation was to feed husks to the pigs.
The Pigs of Gedara
Jesus’ encounter with the demoniacs is directly connected with the story of how He calmed the sea ([reference-pericope]Matthew 8:23-27[/reference-pericope]) which precedes it. The Gospel says that Jesus and His disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee when a storm erupted. Commentators have stressed that Matthew used the same word here as he did in the account of the Lord’s crucifixion when the earth quaked. It represents an apocalyptic event, heralding the coming of the Messiah and the Kingdom of God to the Galilee of the Gentiles.
When Jesus and His disciples get to the eastern side of the sea, they come upon the demoniacs whose healing is described in [reference-pericope]Matthew 8:28-34[/reference-pericope]. Part of Jordan today, this was a region inhabited by Jews, local Gentiles and Greco-Roman settlers. Early manuscripts of the Gospel story vary, locating this event in Gadara (the center of Hellenism in the region), or Gerasa (modern Jerash). Both were Gentile towns, more Greek than Semitic, with pagan temples side by side with Jewish synagogues. Pagan festivals were observed, with dramas depicting the gods and sacrifices offered to them. Pork would have been considered acceptable here.
In the Gospel narrative the demons are given leave to enter the pigs and plunge into the sea. All that is unclean in this world (the idolatrous pigs) and in the spiritual realm (the rebellious demons) are destined to plummet into the abyss to make way for the kingdom of God.
While crossing the Sea of Galilee the disciples had asked one another “Who can this be, than even the winds and the sea obey Him?” (v. 27) – they had yet to experience Christ as more than a holy man. When Jesus confronts the demons, however, there is no need for a discussion. “What have we to do with you, Jesus, you Son of God!” they whine. “Have you come here to torment us before the time?” (v. 29) – these invidious spiritual powers know what, at this stage the disciples do not. Much of Matthew’s Gospel is concerned with the disciples’ growing awareness of Christ’s unique relationship with the Father. Those “of little faith” would before long be spreading faith in Christ much farther than they had ever gone before.
The Time Has Come
What is “the time” mentioned in the demons’ complaint? These demons were not prepared to lose their power. They are depicted here like many Jews of their time, who expected to have sway until the Last Day, the apocalyptic end of all things, when the Lord’s Anointed would come in glory and judge the world. They were not prepared to encounter the King of the ages in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
This Jesus would come in glory, but not when and how anyone expected. Christ would be glorified when, triumphant over sin in Himself, He surrendered Himself to death in order to abolish it and overturn its power over mankind. Christ’s sacrificial death was His glory, the victory of self-offering in the face of a sterile world.
What is Clean and Unclean?
When scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem criticized Jesus and His followers for not observing the practices of ritual purification, He responded, “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man” (Matthew 15:11). Impurity is no longer a matter of ritual practices but of our actions and intentions.
Not without some initial disagreements, the early Church came to maintain that there would be no clean vs. unclean foods, for all food is from God. As St. Paul insisted, keeping Torah laws does not justify us; rather we put our faith in Christ and in His saving acts. Nothing I do can “save” me. The source of all human uncleanness is that idea that I can save myself by doing this or refraining from that. Our efforts cannot bring us into relationship with God; it is only in God’s work, manifested in Jesus Christ, that we can find security and hope.
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| 0.971358 | 1,578 | 2.859375 | 3 |
The process of String Art
String Art is an extremely time-consuming process and requires the utmost focus. The artist begins by mapping out the selected reference image that is dissected into squares, then once a canvas size has been selected, this mapping process is upscaled onto the wooden canvas and squares are marked with an equal ratio to the ones on the reference image.
The nail process involves further dissection of the piece, square by square hitting nails on outlines and reference points with regard to shading and layout of the selected image. The nails act as the foundation for the string so it is crucial to be accurate and ensure spacings are correct. The string acts similarly to shading with a pencil, where you continue building the layers to create a darker tone - a true blend of science and art working in harmony.
Stringometry Originals can take anywhere between 100 – 800 hours to complete. Larger works include up to 58,000 nails and 5000 metres of string, but Ben is determined to top these figures in the future.
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Electric Tricycles – Redefining Urban Mobility
In a world grappling with congestion, pollution, and the need for sustainable transportation, electric tricycles have emerged as a game-changer, redefining urban mobility. These three-wheeled vehicles, powered by electricity, are making cities more accessible, environmentally friendly, and inclusive. With their unique blend of features, electric tricycles are not only transforming the way people commute but also addressing some of the most pressing challenges of urban life.
Sustainability at the Forefront
One of the most significant advantages of electric tricycles is their environmental impact, or rather, the lack thereof. With zero tailpipe emissions, they are helping to combat air pollution and reduce the carbon footprint of urban transportation. In an era when climate change is a top global concern, these vehicles offer a sustainable alternative to traditional gas-powered vehicles, helping cities inch closer to their sustainability goals.
Affordable and Inclusive
Electric tricycles are not only eco-friendly but also pocket-friendly. Their lower cost compared to cars or two-wheelers makes them an attractive option for a broad spectrum of people, including those with limited financial resources. This affordability factor, combined with ease of use and stability, ensures that electric tricycles are inclusive, providing mobility solutions to individuals who might otherwise struggle with transportation options.
Traffic Congestion Mitigation
Urban traffic congestion is a nightmare for commuter’s worldwide, wasting time and energy while contributing to pollution. Electric tricycles, with their compact design and ability to navigate through congested streets, offer a promising solution. Their smaller footprint allows them to weave through traffic, reducing gridlock and making urban travel more efficient. In addition, their electric motors provide instant torque, ensuring swift acceleration and seamless maneuverability, even in the most crowded cityscapes.
Electric tricycles excel in solving the “last-mile” challenge in urban transportation. Often, public transportation systems do not provide convenient access to all areas of a city. Electric tricycles bridge this gap, allowing commuters to travel from their homes to bus stops, train stations, or workplaces with ease. This last-mile connectivity not only reduces the reliance on personal cars but also encourages the use of public transport, thus further reducing congestion and emissions.
Accessibility and Inclusivity
Electric tricycles are inherently accessible vehicles. Their three-wheeled design offers stability, making them an excellent choice for people of all ages and physical abilities. This inclusivity factor is particularly essential in cities where an aging population and people with disabilities need reliable transportation options. Electric tricycles empower these individuals to maintain their independence and mobility.
Low Operating Costs
Beyond the initial purchase price, electric tricycles offer significant savings in operating costs. Electricity is generally cheaper than gasoline or diesel fuel, and electric tricycles have fewer moving parts than traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. This electric tricycle translates into lower maintenance costs over the long run, making them an economically attractive choice for both individuals and fleet operators.
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c. 300 BCE: Indian mathematician Pingala writes about zero, binary numbers, Fibonacci numbers, and Pascal’s triangle.
c. 260 BCE: Archimedes proves that π is between 3.1429 and 3.1408.
c. 235 BCE: Eratosthenes uses a sieve algorithm to quickly find prime numbers.
c. 200 BCE: The “Suàn shù shū” (Book on Numbers and Computation) is one of the oldest Chinese texts about mathematics.
c. 100 CE: Nicomachus poses the oldest still-unsolved problem in mathematics: whether there are any odd perfect numbers.
c. 250 CE: The Mayan culture in Central America flourishes, and uses a base-20 numeral system.
c. 830 CE: Al-Khwarizmi publishes “Kitab al-jabr wa al-muqābalah”, the first book about – and the namesake of – Algebra.
1202: Fibonacci’s Liber Abaci introduces Arabic numerals to Europe, as well as simple algebra and the Fibonacci numbers.
1482: First printed edition of Euclid’s Elements
1545: Cardano conceives the idea of complex numbers.
1609: Kepler publishes the “Astronomia nova”, where he explains that planets move on elliptical orbits.
1618: Napier publishes the first references to the number e, in a book on logarithms.
1637: Fermat claims to have proven Fermat’s Last Theorem.
1654: Pascal and Fermat develop the theory of probability.
1684: Leibniz’ publishes the first paper on the calculus.
1687: Newton publishes the Principia Mathematica, containing the laws of gravity and motion, as well as his version of calculus.
1736: Euler solves the Königsberg bridges problem by inventing graph theory.
1761: Lambert proves that π is irrational
1799: Gauss proves the fundamental theorem of algebra.
1829: Bolyai, Gauss and Lobachevsky all invent hyperbolic non-Euclidean geometry.
1832: Galois finds a general condition for solving algebraic equations, thereby founding Group theory and Galois theory.
1858: August Ferdinand Möbius invents the Möbius strip.
1874: Cantor proves that there are different “sizes” of infinity, and that the real numbers are uncountable.
1895: Poincaré’s paper “Analysis Situs” starts modern topology.
1905: Einstein explains the photoelectric effect and Brownian motion, discovers special relativity, and E = mc².
1915: Noether shows that every conservation law in physics corresponds to a symmetry of the universe.
1931: Gödel’s incompleteness theorem establishes that mathematics will always be incomplete.
1939: A group of French mathematicians publish their first book under the pseudonym of Nicolas Bourbaki, on Set theory.
1961: Lorenz discovers chaotic behaviour in weather simulations – the butterfly effect.
1976: Appel and Haken prove the Four Colour Conjecture using a computer.
1977: Adelman, Rivest and Shamir introduce public-key cryptography using prime numbers.
1994: Andrew Wiles proves Fermat’s Last Theorem.
2000: The Clay Mathematics Institute published the seven Millenium Prize Problems.
2003: Perelman proves the Poincaré conjecture, the only one of the seven Millennium problems that have been solved to date.
c. 9100 BCE: Oldest known agricultural settlement in Cyprus.
c. 2030 BCE: The Sumerian city of Ur is the largest city in the world.
c. 3500 BCE: The first vehicles with wheels appear in Mesopotamia and Eastern Europe.
c. 3200 BCE: The first writing systems appear in Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indus Valley.
c. 3000 BCE: First evidence of smelting iron ore to make wrought iron.
c. 2560 BCE: The Great Pyramid of Giza is built in ancient Egypt, for Pharaoh Khufu.
c. 1754 BCE: The Babylonian King Hammurabi Issues the Code of Hammurabi, one of the first legal documents.
776 BCE: The first Olympic Games competition takes place in Greece.
753 BCE: Legendary date of the founding of Rome.
c. 563 BCE: Buddha is born in India. His teachings become the foundation of Buddhism.
c. 551 BCE: Confucius is born in China. His teachings become the foundation of Confucianism.
490 BCE: Greece stop the Persian invasion at the battle of Marathon. The Classical period begins.
432 BCE: The Acropolis is built in Athens, during its golden age under the rule of Pericles.
399 BCE: Socrates is sentenced to death, refuses to escape, and drinks a cup of poison.
327 BCE: Alexander the Great invades India, having created an enormous empire across Asia.
c. 221 BCE: Qin Shi Huang unifies China and starts construction of the Great Wall.
146 BCE: The Roman army destroys Carthage, ending the Third Punic War.
44 BCE: Julius Caesar is murdered.
4 BCE: Jesus of Nazareth is born in Bethlehem, establishing Christianity.
180 CE: The death of Marcus Aurelius ends the Pax Romana, a 200 year period of peace across Europe.
476 CE: Fall of the Roman Empire
570 CE: Muhammad, the founder of Islam, is born in Mecca.
c. 641 CE: The Library of Alexandria is destroyed.
800 CE: Charlemagne is crowned as the first Holy Roman Emperor.
c. 870 CE: Norse explorers discover and colonise Iceland.
1066: William the Conqueror wins the battle of Hastings and is crowned King of England.
1088: The first university is established in Bologna, Italy.
1096: The First Crusade is launched by Pope Urban II.
1206: Genghis Khan defeats his rivals and receives the title “Universal Ruler of the Mongols”.
1215: King John of England is forced to sign the Magna Carta, restricting his powers.
1266: Marco Polo arrives at the court of Kublai Khan in Beijing.
c. 1347: The Black Death kills millions of people across Europe.
1439: Johannes Gutenberg invents the printing press.
1453: The Ottoman Turks conquer Constantinople, marking the fall of the Byzantine empire.
1492: Christopher Columbus arrives in America, starting a new age of European conquest.
1517: Martin Luther publishes his 95 theses, starting the Protestant reformation.
1522: Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition circumnavigates Earth.
1543: Polish scientist Nicolaus Copernicus writes that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
1588: Under Queen Elizabeth I, England defeats the Spanish Armada.
1603: William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is performed for the first time.
1633: Galileo Galilei is tried by the Catholic Inquisition for his scientific writings.
1649: King Charles I is tried and beheaded during the English Civil War.
1756: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born in Austria.
c. 1765: James Watt invents a more efficient steam engine, that will power the industrial revolution.
1776: America Issues its Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.
1789: Revolutionaries storm the Bastille in Paris, starting the French Revolution.
1804: Napoleon is crowned emperor of France.
1819: Simón Bolívar defeats Spain at the Battle of Boyacá, leading to the independence of many South American countries.
1837: Samuel Morse and others develop electrical telegraphs.
1859: Charles Darwin publishes “On the Origin of Species”, introducing natural selection.
1865: Abraham Lincoln is assassinated, at the end of the American Civil War.
1876: Alexander Bell invents the telephone.
1903: The Wright Brothers construct the first powered, heavier-than-air aircraft.
1914: Franz Ferdinand of Austria is assassinated in Sarajevo, starting the first World War.
1929: The Black Tuesday stock market crash starts the great depression.
1939: Adolf Hitler invades Poland, starting World War II.
1953: Watson and Crick discover the double-helix structure of DNA.
1957: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first man-made satellite into space.
1969: Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land and walk on the moon.
1975: End of the Vietnam War
1989: Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web.
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| 0.865882 | 1,891 | 3.65625 | 4 |
SOUND ARCHIVE PROJECT
The earliest audio recordings date from the middle of the 19th century. These artefacts are of significant historical interest, both from a technical standpoint – the technology was cutting edge – and the content – the novelty and complexity meant the audio recorded was often a VIP!
CLICK HERE to hear a podcast from the British Library on development of audio recovery – the original audio can be heard at 7m10s
Sadly the substrates that contain these recordings are now often too fragile to be played with original stylus methods and despite the best preservation methods, they continue to deteriorate.
Taicaan embarked on pioneering project with the University of Southampton and the British Library to preserve these recordings for future generations: http://www.sesnet.soton.ac.uk/archivesound/home/. Different substrates require different surface measurement strategies. In the case of cylinder and disk recording a rotary axis is required – either normal or parallel to the axis of the imprints.
Once individual segments of the surface have been recorded it is necessary to mathematically piece together the sections. The overall form of the measurement is largely irrelevant as it does not constitute audio information so this is also mathematically removed. The remaining data consist of the individual grooves in the surface. By tracking the minima of the grooves the path the stylus would have followed can be extrapolated.
Finally the vertical deviations a “virtual stylus” would have made travelling along the groove can be determined and the audio signal recovered.
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<urn:uuid:0565c290-a568-4908-a5e2-b15f6627b3e6>
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CC-MAIN-2023-50
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https://taicaan.com/sound-archive-project/
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en
| 0.929531 | 313 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Polyculture of Penaeid Shrimp in Brackish Water Ponds Receiving Power Plant Cooling Water
Penaeid white shrimp Penaeus setiferus and blue shrimp P. stylirostris and striped mullet Mugil cephalus were cultured in 0.1-ha earthen ponds receiving power plant effluent from the Houston Lighting and Power Company's Cedar Bayou Generating Station near Baytown, Texas during 1978 and 1979. White shrimp were grown in polyculture with blue shrimp or striped mullet and in monoculture. No detrimental effect of either species on white shrimp was found. Blue shrimp yield greater than that of white shrimp in the same ponds. Total pond yield was increased by polyculture. An experiment was performed in which blue shrimp were stocked conventionally into ponds, or stocked in 3 temporally separated increments (staggered stocking study). A preliminary experiment was made in 1978, followed by a more expanded version in 1979. The staggered stocking method was found to increase pond yields compared to expected values from the control pond yields. No detrimental effect of staggered stocking on shrimp survival was found. Pond salinities were much lower in 1979 than in 1978, and lower growth, survival and yield were experienced. A distribution study performed in the staggered stocking study ponds revealed that blue shrimp in mixed size cultures tend to segregate by size, and that small shrimp show somewhat different distribution patterns and temporal activity patterns than large shrimp. A related aquarium study indicated that the presence of large shrimp has an inhibitory effect on feeding activity of small shrimp, but that where food is not limited, no detrimental effect of large shrimp on small shrimp growth occurs. All the organisms used also served as biological monitors of water quality. No dangerously high levels of heavy metals or pesticides were found in any of the cultured animals.
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https://tamug-ir.tdl.org/items/00947072-b6b4-49b5-9193-058d5d7fe32d
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| 0.958057 | 366 | 3.078125 | 3 |
DMM-129A Multimeter - Digital Multimeter RS-232 Interface Product ID: DMM-129A
A multimeter which is known as a volt, ohm meter or VOM is an electronic measuring instrument that combines several functions in one unit. A multimeter are usually be used in measurements of AC and DC voltage, AC and DC current, and resistance.
Tecpel provides you digital multimeter which are most widely used because of their accuracy, durability and extra features . Our compact, contemporary multimeter are ideal for use in your home, office or DIY applications .
A good multimeter can also be used to troubleshoot electrical problems in a wide array of industrial and household devices. For example, your wiring systems and motor controls are common problems that can be solved easily by multimeter.
Besides, there are some tips that you must pay attention to before using the multimeter. Such as never measure resistance in a circuit when power is applied and never apply more than the rated voltage between any input jack and earth ground.
No matter what your purpose, our multimeter are a quick, simple and effective way of getting information of electronic measuring .The quality multimeter of Tecpel can fit your needs.
- DC Voltage Ranges: 400mV,4V,40V,400V,1000V ± 0.1%
- AC Voltage Ranges: 400mV,4V,40V,400V,750V ± 1%
- DC Current Ranges: 400uA,4000 uA, 40mA,400mA, 20A ±1%
- AC Current Ranges: 400uA,4000 uA, 40mA,400mA, 20A ±1 1.5%
- Resistance Ranges: 400Ω,4kΩ,40 kΩ,400 kΩ,4MΩ, 40MΩ,± 0.5%
- Capacitance Range: 4nF,40nF,400nF,4uF,40uF,400uF, 4mF, 40mF ± 3.0 %
- Frequency Range: 4k,40K,400K,4MHz, 40MHz ± 0.1%
- Overload protection: 450VDC or AC RMS for DC/AC Voltage,R,diode,continuity
- *Diode Test * Continuity Test
- Temperature : -50'C ~ 1300'C (-58'F ~ 2372'F) +/- 0.8% K type thermocouple.
- MAX/MIN Hold, RS-232,
- Hz button ACV/DCV, ACA/DCA measurement, push this button to read frequency on display
- Resolution: 100uV, 0.1uA, 0.1 Ohm, 1P, 1Hz, 1'C, 1'F
- Power Requirement:
- Dual 1.5Volt no.4 battery
- Dimensions: 1.2""x3.2""x6.9"" (32x82x176mm)
- Weight: 13.9 oz(395g)
- Accessories: Test leads, holster, battery, and owners manual
- Remarks: DC/AC Voltage ranges are limited to 600V for CE. LVD. regulation,but actually DC 1000V & AC 750V are measurable
3 3/4 digits, 3,999 Count
AC True RMS
42 Segment analog bar graph
Data Hold/Max-Min memory
Audible continuity check
Auto power off
20Amp Range measurement
Double fuse protection (500mA, 20A)
Overlapping rubber holster
Temperature measurement -50'C ~ 1300'C (-58'F ~2372'F).
Input impedance 10M Ohm
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Days to maturity are calculated from date of direct seeding.
• Lettuce performs best in cool weather, 60-70°F, and grows in a wide range of soil types
• Plant as early as soil can be worked
• For extended harvest, plant every 2-3 weeks and choose heat-tolerant varieties for summer
• Lettuce seed can be sown every month from February—October
• A cold frame and cold-hardy varieties can stretch the spring and fall growing season into the winter months
• Apply 1 cup of TSC's Complete fertilizer per 10 row feet, and 1 inch of compost
• 1 gram of seed will sow 30 row feet
• Consistent, even watering is critical for best results
• Use row cover to improve germination and prevent soil crusting
• As soon as 2-3 true leaves have formed, thin loose-leaf types to 10-14 inches apart; icebergs, butterheads, and romaines to 12-16 inches apart
• Start indoors 4-6 weeks before anticipated transplant date
Insects & Diseases
• Common pests: Aphids and slugs
• Pest control: Strong spray of water for aphids or applications of Pyrethrin or Neem oil, baits, traps, or Cabbage Collars for slugs
Harvest & Storage
• While picking individual leaves helps extend the season somewhat, all eventually become bitter as they begin to bolt
What is pelleted seed?
Seed that has been coated with a clay-based material to form a larger, round shape. This makes planting by hand or mechanical seeder easier and allows for more controlled sowing of small seeds such as carrots or lettuce. All pelleted seed has a National Organic Program (NOP) approved coating.
For best results, store pelleted seed in an air-tight container and use within one season.
What is seed tape?
Seed tapes are perfectly straight rows of precisely spaced crops. No more having to thin seedlings! This biodegradable tape will plant a row 5 meters (16 feet, 5 inches) long. Simply lay it in a furrow and cover with a light layer of sifted compost or soil, water and wait. Save yourself a heap of planting time with these popular vegetable and herb staples.
KEY TO LETTUCE DISEASE RESISTANCE AND TOLERANCE
HR indicates high resistance.
IR indicates intermediate resistance.
BR | Bottom Rot
DM* | Downy Mildew
F* | Fusarium Wilt
LD | Lettuce Drop
LMV* | Lettuce Mosaic Virus
Nr* | Lettuce Aphid
PM | Powdery Mildew
Rs | Corky Root
TBSV | Tomato Bushy Stunt Virus (Lettuce Dieback Complex)
* Numbers indicate specific disease race.
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CC-MAIN-2023-50
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| 0.87844 | 600 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Helping Your Preschooler Use the Bathroom on His Own
You may have started toilet training when your child was a young toddler, or perhaps, you decided to wait until now. If you’re just beginning, you might find it helpful to take a look at some of the suggestions on potty training in the “Infants and Toddlers” section.
Using the bathroom independently involves a set of skills—and is a big achievement for every child. Although there’s disagreement among parents, doctors, and child development specialists about when to start toilet training, many preschools expect their students to be able to go to the bathroom on their own, so your child will benefit from being toilet trained before he starts preschool.
The following suggestions will help you work with your child on going to the bathroom independently.
Tips for Helping Your Child Learn Independent Skills
- At home, keep your child’s path to the bathroom clear of obstacles. Clutter can make any child hesitate to move around the house freely out of fear of falling and getting hurt. You also might want to put a piece of textured cloth on the bathroom door or hang a small object from the doorknob so that your child can easily find the right room.
- Keep the things your child uses in the bathroom in the same place all the time. For example, if he needs a small stool to reach the toilet, be sure it’s exactly where he expects to find it. Do the same for toilet paper, soap, and a hand towel—put them all in places that he can reach by himself.
- Help your child understand the need for privacy. Make closing the door part of the bathroom routine so that your child will do the same when using the toilet away from home.
- If snaps, buttons, or zippers are difficult for your preschooler to use, you might want to replace them with Velcro but continue to work with your child on learning to use more complicated fasteners. Using hand-under-hand or hand-over-hand techniques to show your child how to manipulate fasteners may help him learn how to deal with them now.
- Teaching your son to urinate standing up may take time, so try to be patient. If your little boy has some vision, you could try using color markers in the toilet for him to aim at. Show your son how to use his feet and the edge of the toilet to line himself up. For a while, you may have to remind him to lift the toilet seat first. You also might have to give him some hand-over-hand help in the beginning to teach him to aim accurately.
- If your child has an accident, involve him in cleaning up, without treating it as a punishment. Make it an ordinary part of what needs to be done when your child doesn’t get to the toilet in time. Show your child where to put soiled clothing and how to wipe the floor. Don’t expect perfection—you may end up having to do most of the cleaning up!
Using Unfamiliar Bathrooms
A lot of children (and grownups, for that matter), whether sighted or visually impaired, are uncomfortable and sometimes nervous about using public restrooms. As you can imagine, your preschooler may need more help when using an unfamiliar bathroom. You can help him toward independence by describing where things are generally located. For example, toilet paper is usually to the right or left of the toilet, the flush is either behind the right side of the toilet or might be a flat button or raised knob in the middle of the top of the water tank, or, usually, the flat button is to be pushed down and the raised knob is to be lifted up. Pick a relatively quiet time in a location like a restaurant and give your child a “tour” of the restroom. Describe the room and show him the stalls, sinks, and other features of the room, allowing him time to touch the fixtures and become oriented.
Armed with this information and fairly confident of having the necessary skills, your child will have taken a major step toward independence. And you can congratulate yourself for helping him achieve that goal.
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Mahesh Bhagwat Thorat, a 30-year-old farmer from Kumbhphen village in Beed district, Marathwada region, tragically ended his life on July 16, 2023. He had borrowed 100,000 INR (US$ 1,200) from a bank for soybean cultivation. However, his hopes for a successful crop were dashed as the delayed monsoon in June led to crop destruction despite timely sowing and subsequent insect attacks.
Mahesh’s father revealed, “Mahesh brought a rope home; I hadn’t realized its purpose.” Unmarried, Mahesh left behind his elderly father, mother, and brother.
The death of Mahesh is not an isolated case. Marathwada, located in the Maharashtra state of India, is a region comprising eight districts and a population of approximately 18.7 million. This region is unfortunately marked by its vulnerability to drought and has been deeply affected by an ongoing agro-rural crisis.
In Marathwada, as many as 101 farmer suicides have been reported in July this year, while 92 farmers died by suicide in June. Government data reveal a total of 2,392 farmer suicides in the region from January 2021 to June 2023.
India’s farming community averages 28 suicides a day with bankruptcy and debt being major reasons for farmer suicides other than family issues, crop failure, illness, and substance abuse.
Farmers’ suicide and climate change
Experts have warned that climate change-induced extreme weather events are exacerbating this problem, not only in Marathwada but also across different parts of India.
In June 2023 and the first half of July 2023, there was a significant delay in the arrival of the monsoon. Typically, June marks the onset of the monsoon season in India and is an important time for farmers to begin their sowing practices. However, Marathwada experienced a substantial deficit in rainfall during this crucial month. On average, the region receives 134 mm of rainfall in June, but this year there was only 55.5 mm of rainfall. This rainfall deficit had devastating consequences, leading to the tragic suicide of 92 farmers in the month of June alone.
Experts have tried to establish the potential link between climate change and the alarming rate of farmer suicides. The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) presented these findings in a paper titled “Urgent Preventative Action for Climate-related Suicides in Rural India.” The research revealed that suicide rates are impacted by rainfall variation, as well as access to wage employment. It recognizes that farmers are among the most vulnerable groups in India, with an elevated risk of death by suicide.
According to Ira Devulgavkar, the project coordinator of IIED and one of the authors of the paper, there is a need for anticipatory social protection schemes and action-based initiatives for vulnerable farmers in India.
Indian agriculture and climate crisis
According to government figures, two-thirds of India’s population of 1.3 billion depends on farming for their livelihood, but agriculture makes up just around 17% of the nation’s total economic output, amounting to around US$2.3 trillion.
The Central Research Institute of Dryland Agriculture, under the union government, released a report in 2019 titled “Risk and Vulnerability Assessment of Indian Agriculture to Climate Change.” According to the report, developing countries like India, which heavily rely on agriculture for livelihood, are more likely to face the adverse impacts of climate change. The report identifies climate change as a significant threat to the sustainability of agriculture.
In this report, 22 districts are classified as being highly vulnerable to climate change, while 171 districts are categorized as vulnerable to climate change.
The Central Research Institute of Dryland Agriculture report has enlisted names of the districts which are in high and very high-risk categories. This list includes 13 districts of Maharashtra province, of which seven are from Marathwada region itself. Out of these seven districts, Beed and Nanded have been categorized under high risk.
A recent research study conducted by Chaitnya Adhav from the National Dairy Research Institute and Dr. R Sendhil from the Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research has determined that 11 out of 36 districts in the Maharashtra province of India are highly susceptible to the effects of climate change. Additionally, the study has identified another 14 districts as moderately vulnerable to climate change. The research paper titled ‘Socio-economic vulnerability to climate change – Index development and mapping for districts in Maharashtra’ follows the assessment methodology recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for evaluating regional-level climate vulnerabilities. The authors of the study have issued a warning that crops such as jowar, rice, wheat, sugarcane, and cotton will experience adverse impacts due to climate change.
Adhav said, “There are many factors contributing to the issues. We can say that climate change is one risk factor for the farmers’ suicides.” In this paper, the researchers have proposed strategies for overcoming climate-related vulnerabilities in these districts.
Most Indians live in climate-vulnerable areas
A private think tank Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW) in its Climate Vulnerability Index has categorized 463 out of 640 districts of India – accounting for 80% of India’s population, as vulnerable to extreme floods, droughts, and cyclones and pointed out that Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Karnataka are the most vulnerable to extreme climate events.
In 2014, the NCBR presented a detailed analysis of the farmers’ suicides. It has been pointed out that small farmers (having 1 hectare to below two hectares of land) had 44.5% of the farmers’ suicides, while marginal farmers (having less than 1 hectare of land) accounted for the highest number of farmers’ suicides.
Both the union government and several state governments have acknowledged the critical issue of farmer suicides and waivered farm loans. In 2020, Maharashtra introduced a targeted loan waiver program exclusively tailored for small and marginal farmers, providing relief by forgiving loans totaling less than US$ 2,500.
The alarming trend of farmer suicides in Marathwada and throughout India highlights the increasingly clear role of climate change as a significant risk factor in this ongoing crisis. The delayed monsoon and resulting rainfall deficits, exacerbated by climate change, have brought vulnerable farmers like Mahesh to the brink of despair. Experts and research findings consistently emphasize the link between climate variability and farmer suicides.
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When it comes to cryptography in the context of industry standards such as HTTPS (or SSL/TLS) or the end-to-end encryption of chats, one can assume that the encryption methods used are relatively secure and guarantee integrity.
This is where homomorphic encryption differs significantly from conventional methods: For homomorphic encryption to work, the cipher suites must be designed to be flexible (“malleable”). As a result, the integrity of the data cannot be guaranteed. However, this is not a bug, but a wanted feature that simplifies working with encrypted data sets.
This “malleability” is inherent in cryptographic algorithms that allow the transformation of an encrypted text into another, valid and encrypted text, with the meaning of the original text changing. The user who initiates the transformation of the data does not need to know what the data looked like in its unencrypted form.
For example, if you send an email to a colleague with the text “You are a great colleague”, an attacker could steal this encrypted text with the help of a man-in-the-middle attack and turn it into another encrypted data record. When the colleague opens the mail, he may then read: “You are an underground colleague”. In practice, the encryption systems of the e-mail providers usually reliably prevent such attacks – various measures guarantee the integrity of the data, provided that the algorithms and their implementation are free from bugs. If this is not the case, errors can find their way into the encrypted data sets or the results during the analysis. Homomorphic Encryption then makes it particularly difficult to discover such errors.
A practical example of homomorphic encryption is – at least in part – the RSA cryptosystem. This uses the so-called “padding” function to minimize the effects of “malleability”. Message authentication checksums such as MD5 or SHA also help to maintain data integrity.
Homomorphic encryption methods
As a sub-category of mathematics, cryptography relies on numerical values: The encryption and decryption of data is a series of complex numerical calculations. There are three different types of Homomorphic Encryption:
- Partially Homomorphic Encryption (PHE) allows any type of mathematical operation (e.g. multiplication) to be applied to an existing data set without limits.
- Somewhat Homomorphic Encryption (SHE) allows multiple uses of addition and multiplication methods on a data set.
- Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) enables the unlimited use of different mathematical methods on a data set – but with significantly worse performance.
Each of these approaches has a different focus in terms of performance, utility and level of protection. The current developments in the field of homomorphic encryption try to find an optimal solution by balancing PHE, SHE and FHE.
Homomorphic Encryption – Use Cases
The provision of personal data is a challenge in regulated industries such as health and finance. One of the security measures implemented in these industries is storage encryption – which in turn creates new challenges when user data first has to be decrypted to gain insights to generate them.
Predictive analytics can, for example, help doctors determine therapy methods for patients based on data. If homomorphic encryption is used, the patient data does not have to be decrypted. Instead, the analytics algorithms work with the data in encrypted form and also provide the analysis results in an encrypted form.
The same use case could also be extended to online advertising: The restrictions of the GDPR make it difficult to deliver personalized advertisements if data protection is to be guaranteed at the same time. Homomorphic Encryption enables the generation of analytical insights based on encrypted user data – while fully maintaining the confidentiality of the data.
Outsourced cloud storage
Outsourcing data storage can be an effective strategy for reducing labour costs and “getting rid of” data centre maintenance tasks. In some cases, it may also be necessary to outsource databases as part of a certain project for legal reasons – think of WikiLeaks, whose servers are in Sweden.
The data in such outsourced environments is of course encrypted. A problem usually arises when encrypted data needs to be added or modified. With the help of homomorphic encryption, data can be securely stored in the cloud, while calculations and analyzes are still possible. Ideally, only the owner of this data has the opportunity to decrypt it (and also the analysis results).
If you feel like experimenting with homomorphic encryption: There are numerous open-source implementations of homomorphic encryption available on the internet.Tagged With Author: Author: homomorphic encryption language:en , How homomorphic encryption works
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The Taliban, on August 15, made their way to the presidential palace and successfully overthrew the democratic government, establishing its power over Afghanistan. The move came twenty years after the first government was elected in the country.
As the US and NATO forces departed, so did the hope of millions of Afghans for a stable and peaceful nation. As a result, it is the Afghan women who are dreading this new inescapable reality the most, and rightly so.
In July 2021, the UN reported that civilian deaths in Afghanistan had risen by almost 50 percent since the beginning of the year, with more women and children killed and wounded than in the first six months of any year since 2009. In another report, the UN’s refugee agency said that nearly 250,000 Afghans, 80 percent of whom are women and children, have fled their homes since the end of May amid fears that the Taliban would reimpose their misogynist and fundamentalist ideology on women.
Now, with the Taliban in full control of every established institution in the country, the future looks bleaker for Afghan women. There is a sense of dread regarding the return to their brutal 1996-2001 regime during which, women suffered persistent oppression and loss of freedom.
Previous Rule Of The Taliban
During their vicious rule in the 1990s, the Taliban imposed the Sharia law, a strict interpretation of Islamic law under which women could not work or attend school, had to cover their faces in public, and could not leave the house without a male ‘protector’, making them a prisoner in their own homes. There were brutal punishments for those breaking these laws, including public executions, flogging for showing skin in public, and stoning if accused of adultery.
Can A Change Be Expected?
The world has changed drastically in the last 20 years. The advent of technology and social media has radically changed our lives. But the Taliban being capable of change seems like a sceptical claim.
In 2020, America signed an accord with the Taliban stating that if the militant group agrees to sever all ties with the al-Qaeda and enter peace talks with the government, the US will withdraw all troops from Afghanistan. In these talks, the Taliban leaders asserted the wish to grant women’s rights according to Islam.
This soon became an idea and political promise they never intended to keep, when reports of the Taliban’s latest effort to force thousands of girls into sex slavery emerged in early July this year.
The issue of women’s rights is a priority only on paper in Afghanistan. It was made clear at the peace talks held between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha and Moscow early this year. In Moscow, only one woman, Habiba Sarabi, was on the 12-member delegation sent by the Afghan government, and only four were a part of the 21-person team in Doha. The Taliban, on the other hand, included no women in their negotiating team at either of the talks.
Patricia Gossman, the associate Asia director for Human Rights Watch told the New York Times, “Moscow — and Doha, as well, with its small number of women representatives — laid bare the thin veneer of support for genuine equality and the so-called post-2001 gains when it comes to who will decide the country’s future.”
America’s Broken Promise
According to the New York Times, in the last two decades, the United States has spent more than $780 million to promote women’s rights in Afghanistan. The progress has been inconsistent in urban and rural areas, but women are certainly more empowered now than they were under the Taliban’s rule. They make 40 percent of all students in the country. They have joined the military and police, held political office and are an active part of the workforce.
The Afghan women now feel the most betrayed by the American government and their promise of gender equality. “I remember when Americans came and they said that they will not leave us alone, and that Afghanistan will be free of oppression, and will be free of war and women’s rights will be protected. Now it looks like it was just slogans,” Shahida Husain, an activist in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar Province where the Taliban first rose and now control large stretches of territory, told the New York Times.
In a patriarchal country, whose women were already victims of gender discrimination and inequality, the return of a misogynist and extremist militant group in power is the nightmare they did nothing to deserve.
“All the time, women are the victims of men’s wars,” Raihana Azad, a member of Afghanistan’s Parliament, told CBS News. “But they will be the victims of their peace, too,” she added.
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Singapore has made significant strides in the development of education policies over the last five decades. The country now boasts one of the best education systems in the world. With more research highlighting the importance of early childhood education, the country has now shifted focus to this sector. While preschool in Singapore is not mandatory, emerging government policies highlight the importance of this arm of the education sector.
But is early childhood a worthwhile investment? Are there returns a parent or the government should expect from this massive investment? To answer these questions, you’ll have to look at the benefits and costs of investing in early childhood. This post discusses the benefits vs costs of early schools.
Benefits of Early Childhood Education
The question of the role of early childhood schools has been around for a long time. Parents in Singapore have the choice to enrol their children in these programmes or wait till the children are ready for primary school.
Parents of special children need not feel disheartened on this ground. There are some exceptional educational institutions that are now focusing on inclusive education. This means that kids, no matter what their disability, will be able to get education that will be suited to their condition, allowing them a chance to grow and develop just like anyone else.
However, the popularity of preschool education in the country shows that parents have discovered the benefits of early schooling. If you’re a parent pondering whether to enrol your child in an early childhood programme, consider these benefits:
Early childhood schools are crucial in the socialisation of a child outside the family setting. This is the first place your child interacts with other kids and develops social and emotional skills. Children in preschool learn how to share, make friends, collaborate, cope with difficulties and so much more.
Other important concepts your child learns at this stage include diversity. By interacting with children from different backgrounds, your child can appreciate differences and live harmoniously with other kids. In the global nature of the modern world, children need to understand diversity and the need to accommodate each other for more harmonious living.
- Early Academic Training
Early childhood schools set a good academic foundation. Children who go to prep school in Singapore learn crucial concepts, including writing, reading, numeracy skills, problem solving, and alphabets. The basic skills learnt at this level come in handy in the child’s future academic pursuits.
The games and other learning activities used at this level build enthusiasm for learning. Kids who go through early childhood programmes are more curious and have an easier time when they join formal schooling.
- Learning Respect for Rules
Early childhood plays a critical role in introducing the concept of rules to the child. Children have an easy time at home where everyone goes to extra lengths to please them. In school, your child experiences a structured environment with rules and schedules. Children become more responsible and learn to respect authority. These lifelong skills come in handy in moulding the child into a well-behaved adult in the future.
Investment and Cost of Early Childhood Education
Singapore’s Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) landscape comprises mostly privatised institutions. In addition, there are Ministry of Education (MOE)-run Kindergartens. While attending preschool is not compulsory, it’s easy to see the government’s commitment to this sector.
In 2019, the government announced S$1 billion annual spending in early childhood education. The announcement came with a promise to double the funding. Most of this funding goes to the government-run programs. This means private institutions in the country inject even more money into their programs. An established prep school for instance requires a lot of money to run every year which comes from the tuition fees.
But is this investment worth it? Is investment in your child’s early childhood education a worthy investment? Research shows that every $1 invested in quality early childhood programs can yield returns between $4 and $16.
Parents in the country have to pay top dollar for enrolment in the best programmes. Take a look:
- MOE Kindergarten: $160 for Singaporeans half day and maximum of S$415/month
- ECDA Anchor Operator Kindergartens S$720 full day and S$160 half day.
- International Kindergartens: Full day S$1,600 to S$2,900 and S$800 to S$5,000 half day.
Is Investment In Early Childhood Education Worth It?
Preschool subsidies are available for parents who enrol their children in approved childcare centres. The subsidies include S$300 per month for full-day childcare and S$600 per month for full-day infant care. Even with the subsidies, the cost of these preschools is still high. This brings up the question of the importance of preschool education.
The heavy investment in preschool education by the government, the private sector and parents has a huge impact on society. Early childhood schools shape and mould these kids into more responsible adults. The programs build a foundation for early learning and prepare the children for the rigorous formal education.
By investing heavily in early childhood education, investors, the government, and parents have set a foundation for creation of an educated society. This investment has made Singapore’s workforce among the most skilled in the world. The progress started way down in early childhood where parents sacrificed to enrol their children in the best schools. Thinking of enrolling your child in the best international British school? This is the best gift for your child and an investment of a lifetime.
Finding the Best Early Childhood School
Investing in early childhood education is one of the best decisions you can make as a parent. To ensure your child gets the best out of these programmes, choose a licensed and reputable school. Seek referrals and recommendations from other parents and visit the institution to inspect the facilities.
The best facilities invest heavily in safety and hygiene to meet the stringent licensing standards. Confirm the teachers in the programme are well trained and certified. Check the type of learning activities used by teachers and confirm if there are enough teachers to offer personalised attention. Go on and invest in the best early childhood education programme.
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[Editor's note: As the world searches for alternatives to climate-altering fossil fuels, the prospect of "grow-your-own" clean energy from plants -- so-called biomass fuel -- is tantalizing. But this joint Tyee/Investigate West investigation reveals that once you clear away the smoke, there are real problems with the carbon-neutral claims being made for this "green" energy. Last in a series.]
Eight words in a 927-page document. That's all it took to launch a European policy with big implications for B.C. That policy counts burning wood to produce energy as equivalent, climate-wise, to solar and wind power. This despite the fact that burning wood releases the very same greenhouse gasses as any fossil fuel; the same gasses that are turning oceans acidic and melting the polar ice caps. Here are the eight words: "The emission factor for biomass shall be zero."
Not, you will note, "are zero." No: "shall be zero." Behind that starkly declarative pronouncement lay months of tense international negotiations over the climate-change implications of burning biomass, or any kind of plant matter: wood, agricultural wastes, or crops grown for burning. In the end, the winning argument was that biomass regrows, recapturing the carbon released when it was burned, and therefore must be OK for the climate.
As the second report in this series found, however, that argument was based on politics, not science. In fact, there are multiple factors at work in determining whether wood and other biomass lives up to its green billing. Nonetheless, the brief sentence has ignited a whole new industry in B.C. in the last decade, shipping boatloads of pelletized wood waste to Europe. There, Canada's woody biomass is a sought-after commodity to be burned in power plants that put juice on the continental grid.
The export of B.C. pellets generates sales of about $200 million a year. The fuel's "zero-carbon" status, while fictitious as a matter of physics, helps the province's Euro-customers get closer to their Kyoto commitments for greenhouse gas emission reductions. What's not to love?
The trouble with this romance lies in the fact that while plants do regrow, capturing carbon back out of the air as they do, it takes decades for today's emissions to be safely sequestered in the future's trees. Meanwhile, the carbon released from burning biomass has the same climate-change impact as carbon from oil, coal or natural gas. Except that more wood has to be burned to meet a given energy demand than a fossil fuel. On a CO2 per kilowatt basis, wood fuel actually releases nearly half again as much carbon pollution as coal.
Which poses the question: is British Columbia a Saudi Arabia of clean bio-fuel? Or a participant in a global carbon-kiting scheme, claiming climate credit today for carbon that won't be locked safely away for decades?
The pellets the Europeans are burning are thumb-sized extruded chunks of ground-up wood pressed together into fuel -- a miniature wood-based equivalent of the familiar backyard barbecue briquet. Global production of these pellets increased tenfold between 2000 and 2012. At the same time, while other Canadian forest-product exports have been falling, the country has become one of the world's largest suppliers of fuel pellets.
And even though the sea voyage from British Columbia to Europe is three times as long as from eastern Canada, the province contributes four-fifths of Canada's pellet exports. According to the B.C. Ministry of Forests, roughly seven per cent of the biomass removed from B.C. forests ends up as fuel, with about 1.7 million tonnes of that turned into pellets for export annually. In 2012, about 60 per cent of B.C.'s pellet exports, some 795,000 tonnes, went to the United Kingdom, followed by about 250,000 tonnes to the Netherlands and 100,000 to Japan.
Critics point out however that the greenhouse gases actually going up Europe's smokestacks haven't declined at all as a result of switching from coal to wood fuel. They may even have increased, since it takes more wood than coal to generate the same amount of power.
"Those [EU biomass] policies opened the door for an environmental disaster," warns Nicholas Mainville, a Greenpeace campaigner and lead author of a report critical of Canada's foray into biomass energy. "The biomass industry and the boom for pellets actually increases the bad practices."
The industry responds that it's only transforming what used to be a waste product into something useful. Much of B.C.'s pellet production comes from wood mill wastes, industry notes. For years, the same stuff was incinerated in "beehive burners" that caused serious local air pollution in addition to releasing greenhouse gases. Other piles of it were buried in landfills, which is worse: there wood decomposes into methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a century's time. (Nowadays, though, most landfills capture this gas or at least neutralize it before releasing it.)
Unless these mill wastes are made into pellets, "you obviously can't do anything with it other than burn it or bury it," said Gordon Murray, executive director of the Revelstoke-based Wood Pellet Association of Canada.
A major point of contention between critics and industry is the extent to which any of those pellets come from whole trees cut just for fuel. Burning sawdust from lumber mills that would otherwise decompose and release gases that harm the climate anyway, is one thing. But studies strongly suggest that generating power by burning whole trees that would otherwise, even dead, lock up carbon for decades to come in a forest, releases more carbon, sooner, than if they were left standing.
Industry strategist and public-relations consultant Cam McAlpine counters that, "Nobody's going out and cutting saw logs for this. We're not going out and actually cutting anything down."
Pressure to cut, baby, cut
That may be so now. But many environmentalists fear that if Europe persists in its zero-emission biomass fiction, the pressure to harvest whole trees for fuel will become irresistible. By their reckoning, Europe will soon need five times as much wood-based energy than now to "balance" its Kyoto carbon books. The U.K.'s largest plant burns up to seven million tonnes of woody fuel annually, more than four times Canada's total current exports. The European Biomass Association projects the EU will consume 50 million to 80 million tonnes per year by 2020, up to a 10-fold increase over 2008.
"The scale here is huge," said Debbie Hammel of the Natural Resources Defense Council, another international environmental group that opposes woody biofuel. "We're talking about a huge increase in the amount of pellets that would need to go to the EU for these very large utilities to have enough to meet their renewable energy needs." And, she adds, "in reality, [they] are not reducing their carbon."
Europe is sending mixed signals about its biomass-fuelled future plans. Britain's RWE power last summer abruptly cancelled what had been billed as the world's biggest coal-to-biomass conversion, with a promised 70 per cent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. The company cited difficulty in finding investors in the project, and in meeting air-pollution limits.
Also last year, the European Parliament revisited the question of biomass fuels nominal carbon-neutrality. While it didn't reach a decision, a leaked document suggested it was preparing to, "put in place less strict sustainability criteria for biomass... The criteria would not account for... the loss of forests as 'carbon sinks' which remove carbon from the air."
Back in Vancouver, at least one company is looking the other way for additional biomass sales. RCI Capital, its CEO John Park told The Tyee recently, signed a Memorandum of Understanding last November with a Chinese Biomass Energy Association for the investment of up to a billion dollars in B.C. pellet production for shipment to China's power utilities.
Others are asking, if Europe can get close to half its electricity from wood, why isn't more B.C. waste wood used here, instead of being transported around the globe?
In fact, B.C. already boasts North America's largest wood-fuelled power plant: a privately owned facility has been generating 66 MW of electricity -- enough to supply about 52,800 homes -- for the last 16 years in Williams Lake.
But one who would like to see more home-grown biomass generation is UBC professor Michael Brauer. An expert in the effect of air pollutants on human health, he worked in Denmark and the Netherlands before coming to B.C. Now he doesn't see the sense of sending Canadian wood waste there.
"Many of the European countries and Scandinavia say they're going renewable, so they need a renewable energy supply and can't do it themselves. So they import pellets from Canada or the U.S.," Brauer said. "Why don't we use them here? It's perverse that we're sending them over on diesel-powered ships for Sweden to call itself green."
Even more perverse is this: as things stand, British Columbians can't be sure whether the energy they, or Europeans, are getting from B.C. biomass is really ‘green' at all. If British Columbians want to be certain their biomass bonanza is climate friendly, the province needs to review its policies.
Researcher and frequent Tyee contributor Ben Parfitt, in a 2010 study for the David Suzuki Foundation, urged that the province act to minimize the amount of wood diverted to biofuel as "unsuitable" for lumber, and suggested that plantations dedicated to trees grown for fuel be considered.
At a minimum, the province needs to ensure that when any trees are burned as "zero-carbon" fuel, replacement seedlings immediately start recapturing carbon from the atmosphere. And, that the "credit" for that capture isn't "cashed" before it actually occurs.
Until then, British Columbia is a central player in what amounts to an international carbon-kiting scheme, claiming credit for carbon capture decades before it's occurred, while hawking a product that actually spews more greenhouse gases than the fuels it replaces.
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What are microgreens?
Microgreens are young plants that are harvested when they are just a few inches tall, typically after only one or two weeks of growth. They are essentially miniature versions of many different types of vegetables, herbs, and other plants, and they are harvested at a very early stage in their development.
Microgreens are often used as a garnish, but they can also be used as a flavorful and nutrient-dense ingredient in salads, sandwiches, and other dishes. They come in a wide range of colors and flavors, depending on the type of plant, and are often prized for their fresh, delicate taste and texture.
Because they are harvested so early in their development, microgreens are also incredibly nutrient-dense, with some varieties containing up to 40 times more vitamins and minerals than their mature counterparts. They are also very easy to grow at home, making them a popular choice for home cooks and gardeners alike.
Where can i sell my microgreens online?
Can I grow microgrens at home?
Yes, you can easily grow microgreens at home with just a few basic supplies. Here are some steps to get you started:
- Choose your seeds: You can grow microgreens from a wide range of seeds, including herbs, vegetables, and even flowers. Some popular options include kale, arugula, basil, and radish. Make sure to choose high-quality, untreated seeds from a reputable source.
- Prepare your container: You can grow microgreens in a variety of containers, including seed trays, plastic containers, or even recycled egg cartons. Make sure to poke a few drainage holes in the bottom of the container to prevent waterlogging.
- Add growing medium: Fill your container with a growing medium such as potting soil or seed starting mix, leaving about an inch of space at the top.
- Plant your seeds: Scatter your seeds evenly over the surface of the growing medium, and then gently press them down into the soil. You can plant them quite densely, as the microgreens will not require much space to grow.
- Water your seeds: Use a spray bottle or a watering can with a fine nozzle to water your seeds. Keep the soil moist but not waterlogged, and avoid spraying the seeds directly as this can displace them.
- Provide light: Microgreens require a lot of light to grow, so place your container in a sunny location or under grow lights. A south-facing window is ideal.
- Harvest your microgreens: Your microgreens should be ready to harvest in around 1-2 weeks. Use scissors to snip the stems just above the soil level, and then rinse them thoroughly before using.
With a little bit of care and attention, you can easily grow your own fresh and delicious microgreens at home.
How Much Does It Cost to Start a Microgreens Business?
The cost of starting a microgreens business can vary depending on several factors such as the scale of your operation, location, equipment, and supplies needed, and marketing expenses. Here are some potential costs to consider:
- Equipment and supplies: The equipment and supplies you’ll need to start your microgreens business include growing trays, growing medium, lighting equipment, and seeds. The cost of these supplies can vary depending on the quality and quantity you need. A basic setup for a small-scale operation could cost anywhere from $200-$500.
- Rent and utilities: If you plan to operate your microgreens business from a commercial location, you’ll need to budget for rent and utilities. The cost will depend on the size and location of your space.
- Marketing: To promote your microgreens business, you may need to invest in marketing materials such as business cards, flyers, and social media advertising. The cost of marketing can vary depending on the methods you choose.
- Licensing and permits: Depending on where you’re located, you may need to obtain a business license, food handling permit, or other necessary permits to operate your microgreens business. The cost of these permits can vary by location.
- Labor: Depending on the scale of your operation, you may need to hire employees to help with tasks such as planting, harvesting, and packaging. The cost of labor will depend on the wages you offer and the number of hours your employees work.
Overall, starting a microgreens business can cost anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on your specific needs and circumstances. It’s important to carefully consider your budget and expenses before starting your business to ensure that you can operate it sustainably over the long term.
Where can I sell my microgreens online?
There are several online marketplaces where you can sell your microgreens. Here are a few options:
- Etsy: Etsy is a popular online marketplace for handmade and unique items. You can set up a shop on Etsy to sell your microgreens, along with any other related products or supplies.
- Amazon: Amazon also offers a platform for small businesses and individual sellers to sell their products. You can create a seller account and list your microgreens for sale on the Amazon marketplace.
- LocalHarvest: LocalHarvest is an online directory of small farms, farmers’ markets, and other local food sources. You can list your microgreens on LocalHarvest to connect with potential customers in your area.
- Farmigo: Farmigo is an online marketplace that connects small farmers and local food producers with customers in their area. You can sign up to sell your microgreens through Farmigo and receive orders from customers in your area.
- Facebook Marketplace: Facebook Marketplace is a platform for buying and selling items locally. You can list your microgreens for sale on Facebook Marketplace to connect with potential customers in your area.
Before selling your microgreens online, make sure to check local laws and regulations regarding food safety and selling food products. It’s important to follow proper food safety practices and obtain any necessary permits or certifications to ensure the safety and quality of your microgreens.
Where to sell microgreens in the US?
There are many options for selling microgreens in the US, both online and offline. Here are a few ideas:
- Local farmers’ markets: Many cities and towns have weekly farmers’ markets where local farmers and food producers can sell their products directly to customers. This can be a great way to connect with your local community and build a loyal customer base.
- Health food stores: Many health food stores and co-ops are interested in carrying local, organic produce. Contact your local stores to see if they would be interested in carrying your microgreens.
- Restaurants and cafes: Many restaurants and cafes are interested in sourcing local and sustainably grown produce. Reach out to local businesses and see if they would be interested in purchasing your microgreens for use in their dishes.
- Online marketplaces: As above-mentioned , there are many online marketplaces where you can sell your microgreens, including Etsy, Amazon, LocalHarvest, and Farmigo.
- Community supported agriculture (CSA) programs: CSA programs allow customers to purchase a share of a local farm’s produce for a set period of time. Consider starting your own microgreens CSA program to provide a steady income stream and build a loyal customer base.
- Home delivery services: Many people are interested in home delivery of fresh, local produce. Consider starting your own home delivery service for your microgreens.
These are just a few ideas for selling your microgreens in the US. Keep in mind that regulations and requirements for selling food products can vary by state and local area, so make sure to do your research and follow all applicable laws and regulations.
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As with any infectious disease, the people most vulnerable to problems from the flu include young children. There have been an estimated 30 flu-related pediatric deaths this year.
Here are four expert-backed ways to keep your kids protected from the flu.
Make sure everyone in your family gets the flu shot
You probably should have gotten your flu shot before the end of October—but it’s not too late to do so now. The flu season will likely continue for a few more months, and even if your child already got the flu, it’s still a good idea to get him vaccinated if you haven’t already, says Dr. Flor Munoz, associate professor of pediatrics, infectious diseases, molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine. “You could be protected against other strains,” she says. “This is especially important for people at a high risk of getting sick again.”
It’s also important for everyone in your family who can get the flu shot to do so. Kids and infants who are six months or older should get a yearly flu vaccine. Because kids under that age can’t get the vaccine, it’s important that the people around them do in order to lower the likelihood that the flu will spread among people in a household.
Pay attention to symptoms and get treated fast
If your child is having respiratory issues like sneezing, stuffy nose and sore throat, it’s a good idea to take them to the doctor quickly. “Seeking medical attention early is important because antivirals are more effective if taken early—ideally in the first day or two after symptoms occur,” says Munoz.
Take medication if it’s recommended
If your doctor says a child should take an antiviral, it’s important they follow that treatment, says Munoz. Also, if you are getting your child vaccinated against the flu now, and the child is in direct contact with people who have the flu at school or home, it may be a good idea to have him take an antiviral for one week following the vaccination (the estimated time it takes for the flu vaccine protection to kick in). Consult with your doctor.
Teach coughing etiquette
It may be obvious, but one of the easiest ways to prevent kids from getting the flu is to make sure they follow proper sickness etiquette. That means covering the nose and mouth with a tissue when sneezing and coughing and washing hands often with soap and water. It’s also a good idea to frequently wash off counter tops and other touched surfaces this time of year. “I think it’s important to make sure [parents and kids] are aware of other children who are sick around them,” says Munoz. “Especially if they have a medical problem, they should avoid [contact] with them.”
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- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time
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If Summer’s End Has You In A Jam, Plant Strawberries Now
Strawberries are a classic spring and summer fruit across Texas and the U.S., with the ripest berries found from as early as February to as late as early June.
So fall may be a strange time to think about strawberries, but a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service expert said now is the perfect time to plan for fall planting.
Home gardeners may be accustomed to planting strawberries in the spring, however, they likely won’t get the best results, said Dr. Russell Wallace, AgriLife Extension horticulturist, Lubbock.
“The cooler months, especially during October, is the prime time to start planting strawberries for better springtime yields and quality fruit,” Wallace said. “We oftentimes get nurseries that sell plants in the spring, and that is really the wrong time of year because it gets too hot, too quickly for the strawberries.”
Fall Weather Is Favorable
While strawberries are best enjoyed under the hot sun, they are a cool-season plant. The cooler weather provides chill hours that improve bud development and, ultimately, fruit production, Wallace said.
He said if you do buy strawberry plants in the spring, you can keep them under shade to help keep them cooler. However, the air temperatures may be too warm.
Wallace said strawberry plants prefer an average daytime temperature of about 72-75 degrees. If you’re living in Texas, this means October is a good time to let transplants take root.
“Strawberries require a lot of care,” Wallace said. “They are best planted in the fall so they can get established during cooler weather.”
What, Where And How To Plant Strawberries
Strawberries can thrive in small spaces and are ideal for square-foot gardening, Wallace said. But he stressed the importance of ensuring that they aren’t too close together, keeping them at about one plant per square foot. If plants are too close to each other they compete for nutrients, which may result in fewer and/or smaller berries.
Wallace added strawberry plants also prefer sandy soils, typically with a pH of less than 7.
He said soilless potting soil is effective but can require more daily care than usual because it can quickly dry your plants out. Wallace suggested keeping plants watered uniformly every day and using a water-soluble fertilizer twice a week.
When adding strawberries to your home garden, Wallace said to keep them as cool as possible.
“Try using shade cloth above your plants,” he said. “Place it about five feet or so above the plant to give it room to grow.”
When it comes to choosing the right strawberry variety for Texas, Wallace previously recommended planting June-bearers. However, he said further research revealed that several day-neutral varieties performed very well in Texas.
“My recommendation is to keep testing varieties to see what works best in your area,” Wallace said.
Changing Your Care With The Seasons
Strawberries do require meticulous care, and with the changing weather from planting to harvest, the type of care administered changes. When you are planting in October, Wallace said it is important to keep the soil moist through consistent irrigation. It is also important for home growers to keep weeds and insects at bay.
Fertilizer is also an important amendment for strawberries.
“Keep them fertilized and try to promote as much plant growth as possible in the fall because that will increase more buds and more flowers later on in the spring,” Wallace said.
Depending on your location, Wallace said flowering and fruiting may start as early as January and last into the spring months. He said once you start to see flowers, it is vital to keep those flowers protected from freezing temperatures with plastic or row cover fabric.
For more information, see Wallace’s Low Tunnel Guide for Strawberries for home gardeners.
“You may lose flowers to cold temperatures, but they should reflower after that,” Wallace said. “But it will take about two or three weeks before they get more fruit if they are injured.”
When it comes to harvesting in the spring, Wallace warns against harvesting too early.
“You want to make sure they’re at least 75% red when they are picked to guarantee the best flavor,” Wallace said.
Protecting Your Strawberries
If you live in a cooler climate, you can protect your plants with a low tunnel covered with plastic. Generally, Wallace said if temperatures don’t go below freezing for very long, the plants should survive.
“Some of the leaves may burn off, but the plants should do just fine,” he said.
While you are protecting your plants against weather and insects, it’s also important to be wary of disease. Wallace notes that botrytis disease is very common on strawberry plants for home growers. A symptom of the disease is white or gray mold on the berries.
“It happens under very wet conditions,” Wallace said. “The flowers get infected, and then the fruit gets infected.”
He said if you aren’t using any pesticides, it’s best to pick the infected flowers or berries and put them in a plastic bag. Then, put them in the garbage as soon as possible to help curb the spread of the disease.
Make Your Plant Selections Now
Wallace suggested home growers start buying their plants now, since nurseries can sell out because many people understand this is the time of year to plant.
If you are not happy with the available varieties or are unable to find bare-root strawberry plants in the fall, you can look into online nurseries, he said.
“However, some larger nurseries have a minimum order of 30,000 since it is more cost effective for them,” Wallace said. “But some online nurseries will sell in bundles of 25, which is better for the smaller growers.”
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Picture this: a sunny day at the local dog park, dogs of all shapes and sizes playing, chasing, and enjoying the open space. Among them are Pitbulls, often misunderstood due to misconceptions surrounding their temperament and behavior. In reality, Pitbulls can be gentle, sociable, and loving companions. This article aims to shed light on the social interactions of Pitbulls in dog parks, offering insights and guidance to ensure a positive experience for both your Pitbull and other dogs.
The Pitbull Persona: Debunking Myths
Pitbulls – More Than Meets the Eye
Pitbulls, like any other breed, are unique individuals with varying personalities and temperaments. Debunking common myths about their aggressiveness is essential to understand how they can thrive in social environments such as dog parks.
Misconceptions regarding Pitbulls often stem from their historical use in dogfighting. However, it’s important to separate these unfortunate circumstances from their true nature, which is often affectionate, loyal, and sociable.
The Dog Park Experience: A Joyful Affair
Dog Parks as a Social Hub
Dog parks provide an ideal setting for dogs to socialize, exercise, and exhibit their natural behaviors. For Pitbulls, this can be a wonderful opportunity to interact and build positive relationships with other canines.
Encouraging Positive Encounters
Introducing your Pitbull to the dog park environment gradually can help alleviate any potential anxiety. Start with shorter visits, allowing your pup to become accustomed to the new surroundings and fellow furry friends.
Pitbull Social Etiquette: A Guide for Owners
Training for Dog Park Success
Proper training is key to ensuring your Pitbull behaves appropriately at the dog park. Basic commands like ‘sit,’ ‘stay,’ and ‘come’ are crucial for a well-mannered and controlled playtime.
Reading Your Pitbull’s Body Language
Understanding your Pitbull’s body language is vital when navigating social interactions. Recognizing signs of stress, playfulness, or discomfort will enable you to intervene or let your pup enjoy the play.
Fostering Healthy Play: Tips for Pitbull Owners
Supervision during play is essential, regardless of the breed. Keep a close eye on your Pitbull’s interactions to ensure they’re playing safely and respectfully with other dogs.
Intervening When Necessary
It’s important to step in and redirect play if it becomes too rough or if any signs of discomfort or aggression arise. Intervention can prevent misunderstandings and maintain a positive atmosphere at the dog park.
Building Bridges: Pitbulls and Other Dogs
Facilitating Positive Encounters
Encourage gentle and supervised interactions between your Pitbull and other dogs. Gradually increase the exposure to different breeds, sizes, and temperaments to enhance their social skills.
Socializing Beyond Breed
Promote inclusivity and discourage breed discrimination at the dog park. Advocate for a welcoming environment that focuses on individual behavior rather than breed stereotypes.
Pitbulls, like any dog, can enjoy the benefits of socializing at dog parks when approached with the right training and mindset. Understanding their individuality and fostering positive interactions is key to a harmonious experience for both your Pitbull and the dog park community.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
FAQ 1: Are Pitbulls suitable for dog park environments?
Yes, with proper training and socialization, Pitbulls can thrive in dog park environments and enjoy positive interactions with other dogs.
FAQ 2: How can I train my Pitbull for dog park visits?
Start with obedience training, gradually introducing your Pitbull to new environments and other dogs. Reinforce positive behaviors and always use positive reinforcement techniques.
FAQ 3: Can a Pitbull play with small dogs at a dog park?
Yes, with supervision and proper introduction, Pitbulls can safely play with dogs of all sizes, provided they exhibit gentle and appropriate play behaviors.
FAQ 4: Are Pitbulls more aggressive than other breeds?
No, aggression is not inherent to the Pitbull breed. Like any dog, their behavior is influenced by socialization, training, and individual temperament.
FAQ 5: How can I help change the perception of Pitbulls at dog parks?
Educate fellow dog owners on Pitbulls’ true nature, promote responsible ownership, and showcase positive interactions between Pitbulls and other dogs to challenge stereotypes.
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What is motor oil used for and what are its benefits?
Machines require lubricants in order to run properly, making motor oil an essential element of every vehicle or equipment engine. But what is motor oil specifically used for and what are its benefits?
What is motor oil for?
Motor oil plays a range of roles within the engine, with countless systems and components relying on it.
The main role of motor oil is to lubricate the engine parts, which are constantly subject to friction – the main cause of wear on engine parts. Lubricants reduce friction and wear, in turn reducing maintenance costs.
During combustion, heat from combustion and friction between mechanical parts each cause engine temperatures to rise. Motor oil helps to trap, transfer and release this heat through the lubrication circuit, supplementing the engine coolant, which can only cool certain parts of the engine.
The cleaning power of motor oil is fundamental to engine health. Microscopic deposits consisting of dust or combustion residue build up in the engine as it runs. Without motor oil, this residue would clog the engine and decrease its performance as the flow of motor oil continuously carries these impurities to the oil filter, where they are trapped.
Protection against corrosion
Fuel combustion generates corrosive acids that can damage metal engine parts. The additives within modern motor oils neutralise these acids, reducing the corrosive impact of acids. Nevertheless, when in contact with oxygen, motor oil may oxidise over time, no longer playing its corrosion-inhibiting role. That’s why you should change your motor oil regularly.
Motor oil also enhances engine sealing, specifically the pistons and cylinders. It does it by forming a protective layer between the various components, sealing any clearances that may arise.
What are the benefits of motor oil?
There are several benefits to using motor oil.
Keeps engines safe from damage
The key benefit of motor oil is that it stops the need for costly repairs. Without lubrication, engines can become seriously damaged as heat and friction destroy engine parts.
Ensures a longer engine lifespan
By cleaning the engine from deposits and sludge and reducing friction between parts, motor oil prevents the engine from clogging and becoming damaged. It ensures mechanical parts last longer and corrode slower, helping the engine perform better and have an increased lifespan.
Decreases fuel consumption and CO2 emissions
If there is too little motor oil in an engine, the resulting friction lowers its efficiency, increasing fuel consumption, and with high-performance oils, emissions of gases and particulates are further decreased.
Choose the right motor oil to ensure optimum efficiency
Not all motor oils are alike, and it is important to choose an oil that is suited to your vehicle and the local climate conditions to enjoy all the benefits. To choose the right oil, consult your vehicle owner’s handbook or visit LubAdvisor.
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According to recent projections, the worldwide urban population will increase to more than 70% by 2050. Accompanied by continuous and uncontrolled urban growth, this development poses one of the major infrastructure, climate, and environmental challenges of today’s world. Especially in developing countries and emerging economies, innovative ideas and creative thinking need to be combined with traditional planning approaches to ensure sustainable development and to tackle manifold challenges associated with rapid urbanisation processes. In order for decision-makers and urban thinkers to break out of conventional ways of thinking, the Global Leadership Academy introduced the Urban Innovation and Leadership Lab. The workshop series aims at assisting urban leaders from around the world in gaining new perspectives on urban development, learning essential new skills, discussing pressing topics, sharing their knowledge and co-creating solutions for current and future urban challenges in their home countries. These objectives can be achieved through a cutting-edge innovation and leadership development process and learning in multidisciplinary and diverse international teams.
The Urban Innovation and Leadership Lab consists of three face-to-face modules that were hosted in three major cities and world regions: Durban (South Africa), Berlin (Germany) and Shanghai (PR China). Within the scope of the three modules, international leaders, who are working on different aspects of future challenges with regard to urban life and development, from Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe, were brought together. During the third module, which took place from 9-11 March 2016 at Tongji University in Shanghai, the participants branched out into three teams to work on solutions to specific questions in the three key areas: sanitation, urban transport, and community participation.
While the participants advanced their leadership capacities by using methods of design thinking during the three day workshop, they had the opportunity to listen to two presentations given by distinguished experts from Tongji University on the first day of the Urban Innovation and Leadership Lab. The Director of the Overseas and Business Department, Dr. Su Yunsheng, spoke about the future of the city as well as about expected changes in city governance: on one hand, urban dwellers will live in an advanced technological environment, where the interests of the well-being of the community will be highly prioritised. On the other hand, the city governance concepts will be shifted from PEST (Policy Economy Social Technology) to STEP (Socio Technology Economy Policy). With other words, social and technological benefits will be prioritised instead of the contemporary drivers of a city’s development – policy and economy. Prof. Zhang Shangwu, Vice Dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, talked about the Shanghai 2040 Master Plan. The city’s master plan will be based on three key pillars: innovation, style and sustainability. The plan aims to turn Shanghai into the leading global city; the slogan of its future development is “Better city – better life”.
Following the Urban Lab in Shanghai, the participants will make use of their newly acquired knowledge in their endeavour to improve urban life in their home countries.
The Global Leadership Academy is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and is a central component in GIZ’s range of services for international human capacity development. The Event in Shanghai was supported by Tongji University and the GIZ China Sustainable Transport Programme.
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This scientific, folio copperplate engraving is from Denis Diderot & Jean le Rond d’Alembert’s Encyclopedie ou Dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers, par une societe de gens de lettres. The work was published in Paris between 1751 and 1776.
Encyclopedie was an expansive work including illustrations of natural history, ship building, maps, sports, and much more. It was the first work of it’s kind to feature mechanical drawings. The work truly embodied the thought of the Enlightenment with Diderot noting the goal was “to change the way people think.” It became a strong reference work for the arts and sciences.
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At the meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Slovenia, delegates are considering a highly unusual proposal. They will be asked to consider whales – not as food – but as essential contributors to a healthy marine eco-system.
The IWC meets every two years. It is where the battle is played out between a few whaling countries and those that seek to protect these majestic creatures.
Japan, Iceland and Norway continue to hunt whales in spite of the global moratorium in place since 1986. Using a loophole which allows ‘scientific’ whaling, Japan argues that whales are consuming too many fish. And the only way to study this supposed impact is to kill them.
But research is telling us a very different story, and delegates from Chile, are making sure countries at this year’s IWC will hear it. WDC has been lobbying hard for support of this groundbreaking initiative by supplying scientific background and a comprehensive briefing to delegates.
Proposed by Chile, their Resolution on cetaceans and ecosystem services, asks delegates to consider whales in terms of the ‘services’ they provide to the marine environment. In support of the resolution, WDC has submitted a formal briefing citing multiple peer reviewed scientific articles demonstrating that rebounding whale populations help rebuilding fish stocks and combating climate change.
Evidence is mounting that whales are an essential part of the ecosystem in two main ways;
Firstly, through transferring nutrients within the water column and across latitudes. Because whales feed at depth but defecate at the surface, they recycle and move nutrients to the surface waters where they are available to the tiny plantlike organisms called phytoplankton. As large whales migrate, they continue to free nutrients mobilizing their ecological value for drifting phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are the very base of the marine food web on which all fish stocks ultimately rely. They are also responsible for the production of at least half of the world’s oxygen.
Secondly, whales help combat climate change. Carbon sequestration, or the removal of carbon from the atmosphere is a primary mitigation to climate change for which whales can play a significant role. The eventual sinking of phytoplankton blooms resulting from whale nutrient availability can sequester hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon annually. Furthermore, whale falls. (which occur when a whale dies of natural causes and sinks), are the largest form of natural waste on the ocean bottom. These falls not only result in the development of mini-ecosystems, but also sequester large amounts of carbon. Researchers estimate that as a direct result of whaling, large whales now store approximately 9 million tons less carbon than before whaling.
Research continues to show that the recovery of whales is an important step in the fight against climate change and the Chilean resolution is a vital step towards the global understanding and appreciating of the role whales play in maintaining healthy oceans, healthy fish stocks and even a healthy planet.
WDC believes that there are no thresholds of killing whales that we should consider sustainable. According to Astrid Fuchs, WDC’s Stop Whaling Programme Lead, “we should not be having conversations about managing whale stocks, we should only be talking about how we can promote and enable their recovery as our survival depends on theirs.”
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Tutoring has always been a prevalent support system for children in countries like India. In the last few years, online tutoring has gained a lot of popularity and effectiveness across the world. Tutoring specifically caters to an individual child’s needs and perspectives and has been proven very effective. Bloom’s two sigma shows that, on average, students who receive one on one tutoring performed significantly better than students educated in a classroom environment alone.
But as a teacher, I am not an advocate of putting people into continuous back to back academic classes. Balancing between outdoor sports, hobbies, family activities, academic school learning, and tutoring is a must. This balance helps children in an overall development – emotionally, in raw smartness, and in gaining and assimilating new knowledge.
Key benefits of one on one online tutoring:
- Addresses individual needs and perspectives – At UnicMinds, no two students are taught the same way even if we’re teaching the same subject. It is because each student is different in his or her own way. Even if you’re teaching how to make a game, some students are more interested in the designing of the front-end of the game – they’re very specific about it, how many pixels something has to be, etc. On the other hand, another kid is more interested in making a certain type of game – say a football game because he loves football and he loves Zlatan to be the character. So, a little individual freedom is to be provided for each child to be themselves and learn, while having that freedom to express themselves and make mistakes. Often most children don’t have this freedom in a classroom environment and this can only be done in a one-on-one tutoring environment. Good teachers can always strike a balance in making the child do what is to be done to learn effectively, and at the same time to make the child comfortable and free enough to express themselves.
- Not everyone learns new things the same way. Because when you’re learning something new, you’re vulnerable to making mistakes and embarrassing yourself. It also brings into light some of the other knowledge you didn’t have or had before. Online tutoring provides a private safe space for children to learn on their own pace and terms and gain confidence among their peers. Children can explore their ways of learning and can ask questions freely and unendingly until they learn their way. For a student, asking questions is probably the greatest tool to learn things. As you learn to ask questions, you learn the ways of how to learn.
- Online tutoring provides a high value to spend ratio. Online tutoring just reduces the amount of time people waste in travelling, dropping and picking their children and the logistics costs associated in doing the same. Online tutoring helps students interact with people across cultures, and with the best value to spend ratio teachers across the globe.
- One on one teachers provide great flexibility in timings and deliverance. Tutors are ready to change timings based on the new needs of students, and at the same time, they adjust to support them more in exam preparation and academic success. Often, tutors extend their help to students in subjects that they’re not teaching too to help the child gain effective holistic learning from across subjects. With one on one tutoring, parents need not worry about their exams and academic success in the specific subjects.
- Specific exams such as SAT, ACT, NNAT, CogAT, Coding Tests, Olympiad Test Prep, FIDE Certification, and others are some of the few examples where tutoring really helps children to achieve their goals. Some of these exams are new to parents too, and online tutoring can connect the best teachers with the right expertise in the specific domain to help your child with curated learning plans.
Online 1:1 Tutoring can be used to augment existing skills or create a pathway for learning something totally new and different for your children. At UnicMinds, we provide a range of courses with a clear development plan for each child based on each individual’s starting point.
Hope this is useful, thank you.
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Nestled on an isolated island, the ruins of Fort Dade-Egmont Key in St. Petersburg, Florida, testify to a dark past that lingers in the humid air. The crumbling walls and abandoned structures tell the story of a once fully functioning town that served as a military outpost and a Seminole prison during the Spanish American War. While the island is accessible only by boat, those who venture to this haunting site will be rewarded with a rare glimpse into a bygone era.
The eerie atmosphere of Fort Dade-Egmont Key is sure to captivate history enthusiasts and ghost town hunters alike. The island has a 137-year-old lighthouse, various other military relics, and wildlife sanctuaries. The four full individual fort structures, power stations, observation posts, bunkers, and other remnants of the past can still be explored, despite the slow destruction caused by hurricanes.
The ruins offer a unique and immersive experience that will transport visitors back in time, allowing them to step into the shoes of those who once roamed these grounds.
- Fort Dade-Egmont Key was a fully functioning town with a population of over 300, used as a military outpost and Seminole prison.
- The island has a 137-year-old lighthouse, ruins of Fort Dade, and various other ruins including power stations, observation posts, bunkers, and other military relics.
- The historic 1858 lighthouse is still in operation, and visitors can tour four full individual fort structures on the island.
- The island can be explored only on foot and is accessible only by boat, with a park ranger on duty and ferry and chartered boats available for exploration.
Location and History
Located on a remote island accessible only by boat, Fort Dade-Egmont Key is a historic military outpost that played a significant role in American history.
Originally constructed as a defense against potential Spanish attacks, Fort Dade was later used as a prison for Seminole Native Americans.
During the Spanish American War, the island became a fully functioning town, complete with amenities such as tennis courts, a gymnasium, and a movie theater.
Today, visitors can explore the haunting ruins of this once-thriving community and learn about its notable events.
Exploration options on the island include touring the four full individual fort structures, viewing the various remains of power stations, observation posts, bunkers, and other military relics, and visiting the historic 1858 lighthouse.
A broad sidewalk leads to all of the remains, and any unsafe areas are marked off.
The sidewalk leads to the site of the military town, where the remains of original buildings can be seen.
Despite the hurricanes slowly destroying the ruins of old Fort Dade, the island remains a popular destination for history enthusiasts and those interested in exploring the remnants of a bygone era.
Remains and Touring
The island of Fort Dade-Egmont Key boasts a variety of well-preserved remains that give visitors a glimpse into the island’s rich history. The ruins of Fort Dade, once a fully functioning town with a population of over 300, can still be seen today. The remains of original buildings, including a movie theatre, tennis courts, a gymnasium, and more, can be explored by foot. A broad sidewalk leads to all of the remains, and any unsafe areas are marked off.
In addition to the town site, the island has four fully intact fort structures that visitors can tour. These structures are a testament to the island’s historical significance and the importance of Fort Dade as a military outpost during the Spanish American War.
Along with the forts, various military relics such as power stations, observation posts, and bunkers can be seen throughout the island. The ruins preservation and historical significance of Fort Dade-Egmont Key make it a must-visit destination for anyone interested in history and ghost towns.
Visiting and Wildlife
Access to Fort Dade-Egmont Key is limited to boat transportation, and visitors can observe the wildlife sanctuaries located at the two ends of the island. The island’s unique location and limited human activity have made it an ideal habitat for a variety of wildlife species. Visitors can expect to encounter an array of bird species, including pelicans, ospreys, and seagulls, as well as sea turtles, dolphins, and manatees.
The two wildlife sanctuaries located at the ends of the island are protected areas where visitors are not allowed to enter, but they can observe the wildlife from a distance.
Transportation options to the island include a ferry service and chartered boats. Visitors are advised to book their transportation in advance, as availability can be limited during peak seasons. The island can only be explored on foot, and visitors are advised to wear comfortable shoes and bring water and sunscreen.
The park ranger stationed on the island can provide information on the best routes to explore the remains and wildlife areas.
Overall, Fort Dade-Egmont Key is a must-visit destination for nature enthusiasts and history buffs alike, offering a unique opportunity to explore a haunting ghost town while observing the wildlife and natural beauty of the island.
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of wildlife can be found on Egmont Key?
Egmont Key has wildlife sanctuaries at both ends, making it an ideal location for bird watching and marine life encounters. The island is home to various bird species, including herons, egrets, and ospreys, and also has opportunities for dolphin and manatee sightings.
Are there any overnight accommodations available on the island?
Overnight camping is not allowed on Egmont Key, and there is no option for visitors to stay overnight on the island. Therefore, there are no activities available for visitors staying overnight.
Are there any ghost stories or legends associated with Fort Dade-Egmont Key?
There are no documented ghost stories or legends associated with Fort Dade-Egmont Key. However, the island’s haunted history and eerie experiences may lead visitors to speculate about possible paranormal activity or spectral encounters.
Can visitors bring their own food and drinks, or are there concessions available on the island?
Visitors to Fort Dade-Egmont Key can bring food and beverages for picnics on the island. There are no food or beverage concessions available, so visitors should plan accordingly.
What is the best time of year to visit Fort Dade-Egmont Key?
The best time to visit Fort Dade-Egmont Key is during the peak season, from November to April. This season provides the most pleasant weather conditions, allowing visitors to enjoy the historical and natural attractions of the island fully.
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‘Prehistoric’ Remains of a Man Were Found In An Iowa River
The Marshall County Sheriff's Office announced their investigation of some human remains that were found in the Iowa River, which they believe may actually be prehistoric in nature.
In early August, Marshall County Conservation authorities directed Marshall County Deputies to a remote area of the Iowa River where a lower human jawbone was discovered by staff as they conducted a biological wildlife survey.
The original announcement was that the sheriff's office was investigating possible human remains.
The announcement from the sheriff's office said that the jawbone was intact, but its condition was determined to be deteriorated and indicated that the jawbone was several years old.
A search of the area was conducted to see if there were any other human remains in the area, and the search turned up three additional potential human bones nearby, believed to be linked to the jawbone that was found.
The Marshall County Examiner collected the suspected human remains, they were sent to the Iowa State Medical Examiner's Office for further testing.
The bones were then transferred to the Office of the State Archaeologist at the University of Iowa for further examination. It was determined that the remains most likely belonged to a 'prehistoric; Native America - like a middle to older age male.
Additional research in the area is expected in the future.
Read more at the Marshall County Sheriff's Office
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Daily-Vape Smokers Are More Likely to Quit
According to “Ramchandar Gomajee” a researcher at “Pierre Louis Institute of Epidemiology and public Health” in France, Adult smokers who tend to vape daily are more likely to quit. The study revealed that smokers can succeed to quit smoking by the help of e-cigarettes, but still, they require to be monitored closely by health experts and doctors to prevent relapse in the long term.
The research reveals that the use of electronic cigarettes has different impacts on the former and current smokers. The high chances are that they help the individuals addicted to smoking quit this habit but also they might draw individuals who already had stopped back to this habit.
Does Vaping Help One Quit Smoking?
Vaping advocates have always promoted it as a method of helping smokers to quit. Although it is hard for one to give up nicotine products, there a lot of health benefits for individuals who become a long-term vaper instead of remaking a smoker.
A new study has compared vaping with various approaches of nicotine replacement, a method of aiding smokers to quit. The results backed up the idea of vaping helping some smokers. The researches took a sample of 900 individuals who wished to quit smoking, and assigned randomly to half of them to be given electronic cigarettes, and the rest were offered with other products of nicotine replacement.
All participant in the study received individual counseling for four weeks. After one year, cessation of smoking was revealed by the amount of carbon monoxide exhaled. In that case, it should be low if an individual quitted smoking and high if one is still smoking. The following are some of the findings:
·The study participant who were assigned to receive e-cigarettes, 18 percent had already quitted the habit while those 10 percent of those assigned other nicotine replacement products had also stopped smoking.
·It was found that among those who succeeded to quit smoking, 80 percent of individuals offered e-cigarettes were still vaping while only 9 percent in the other group were again using those nicotine replacement products.
·There were fewer complains of cough and also phlegm production in the group of e-cigarettes than in the other group.
While the use of e-cigarette was associated at least twice smoking quitting rate, 80 percent or more participants continued to smoke year later. Also, it is good to note that electronic cigarettes used in this research contained less nicotine than other available brands. Therefore, the importance of this difference is still unclear, but probably a high level of nicotine would have increased the rate of addiction to electronic cigarettes.
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Exploring the vast cosmos has been a longstanding human endeavor and space agencies around. The world have been instrumental in unraveling the mysteries of the universe. India with its chandrayaan-3 launch date remarkable strides in space technology is all set to embark on another lunar adventure with Chandrayaan-3. This article delves into the anticipated Chandrayaan-3 launch date and its significance in India’s space exploration journey.
A Brief History of Chandrayaan Missions
Chandrayaan-1: Pioneering Lunar Exploration
Chandrayaan-1, launched in 2008, marked India’s maiden voyage to the Moon. Equipped with sophisticated instruments, it made significant discoveries, including confirming the presence of water molecules on the lunar surface.
Chandrayaan-2: Unraveling Lunar Mysteries
Chandrayaan-2, launched in 2019, aimed to explore the south pole of the Moon. While the orbiter continues to provide valuable data, the lander Vikram unfortunately crash-landed during its descent.
The Anticipation of Chandrayaan-3
The setbacks faced during Chandrayaan-2 were not discouraging for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Instead, they fueled the determination to succeed. Chandrayaan-3 is the refined response to those challenges.
Collaboration and Innovations
ISRO has collaborated with various national institutes and organizations to enhance its technical prowess. The advancements in propulsion, landing technology, and navigation systems are poised to make Chandrayaan-3 a resilient and successful mission.
Chandrayaan-3 aims to achieve what its predecessor couldn’t—an intact soft landing on the lunar surface. It will carry advanced payloads to conduct experiments, analyze soil samples, and study the Moon’s composition.
The Eagerly Awaited Launch Date
The preparation for any space mission is a complex process involving rigorous testing and meticulous planning. Chandrayaan-3 is no exception, as engineers and scientists work relentlessly to ensure the mission’s success.
Targeted Launch Window
While an exact launch date has not been officially announced, ISRO has hinted at a targeted launch window. The factors influencing the launch date include alignment of celestial bodies, optimal lighting conditions, and technical readiness.
The Power of Anticipation
Expectation is a strong mental power that can transform an item send off into a far-reaching development. Contemplate the furor that encompasses the arrival of a new cell phone or an exceptionally expected film. This energy to encounter something new makes a buzz that is both elating and infectious.
Crafting a Compelling Teaser Campaign
A well-executed teaser campaign can set the stage for an epic launch. By offering cryptic glimpses and tantalizing hints, companies can spark curiosity and keep their audience engaged. Teasers create a sense of mystery, prompting conversations and speculations that further amplify the buildup.
Generating Pre-launch Buzz
The pre-launch phase chandrayaan-3 is a golden opportunity to generate buzz and excitement. Brands can leverage various channels, from social media to email newsletters, to share sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes stories, and teaser videos. This drip-feed of information keeps the audience invested and invested.
Fostering Consumer Engagement
Engagement is the cornerstone of a successful launch. Companies can involve their audience by running contests, polls, and interactive campaigns. This not only builds excitement but also creates a sense of ownership among consumers, as they feel like they are part of the journey.
While anticipation is valuable, it comes chandrayaan-3 with the challenge of managing expectations. Companies need to strike a balance between generating hype and delivering on promises. Overpromising and underdelivering can lead to disappointment and erode trust.
The Art of Surprise
Surprise is a potent tool in the marketer’s arsenal. A well-timed reveal, an unexpected feature, or an exclusive partnership can generate shockwaves of excitement. The element of surprise keeps the audience hooked and eager for more.
Countdown to Launch: Building Suspense
Countdowns create a sense of urgency and anticipation. Brands often use countdown timers on their websites or social media platforms to build excitement as the launch date draws nearer. This visual representation of time ticking away intensifies the eagerness.
Leveraging Social Media Hype
Social media platforms offer an ideal playground for pre-launch hype. chandrayaan-3 Companies can use catchy hashtags, interactive stories, and live sessions to keep the audience engaged. User-generated content adds authenticity to the excitement.
India’s Space Exploration Future
Inspiring the Masses
The Chandrayaan missions have captured the imagination of the Indian populace especially the youth. These missions inspire young minds to pursue careers in science technology engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Chandrayaan-3 is a stepping stone for India’s ambitious lunar program. The data collected from this mission will inform future endeavors, including potential manned lunar missions.
Chandrayaan-3 represents India’s determination to excel in space exploration despite challenges. chandrayaan-3 As the nation eagerly awaits the official launch date, the mission embodies the spirit of innovation, collaboration, and relentless pursuit of knowledge.
- Why is the launch date so important? The launch date represents the realization of a vision and generates excitement that can propel a product or service to success.
- How can I keep the audience engaged before the launch? Engage your audience through teaser campaigns, interactive content, and behind-the-scenes glimpses.
- What if there are delays in the launch schedule? Transparent communication about delays helps maintain trust and understanding with your audience.
- What role does social media play in launch campaigns? Social media is a powerful platform for generating buzz, interacting with the audience, and showcasing your product.
- How do I measure the success of my launch? Analyze metrics such as website traffic, social media engagement, and sales numbers to evaluate the impact of your launch.
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Divided between the Himalayas and the jungle, Nepal constitutes one of the poorest countries in Asia. Currently experiencing a major economic crisis, the country is still severely affected by political instability and corruption.
25th April 2015 - An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale strikes the country. Nepal finds itself scattered and destroyed.
The country has progressively been reconstructing itself, despite the profound impact the earthquake has had on the urban landscape.
The Nepalese education system is still struggling to educate future generations.
Differing from the English and French education systems, Nepalese students pass an educational certificate equivalent to the high school diploma at the end of grade 10, when they are only 16 years old. Because of their young age, they then enter Higher Secondary Levels, consisting of two more years of study before beginning university.
State schools, often under-equipped and with poorly qualified teachers, have only a 30% success rate in the certificate at the end of grade 10. Teaching in these schools is based on authority and learning by heart, which leaves no room for the development of open-mindedness and social values.
In response to this, many private schools have been established. Although they achieve better results, the school fees are sometimes exorbitant which does not allow equal chances and opportunities among children. Moreover, this encourages work abroad, at the expense of Nepalese society.
Once qualified in France and having returned to Nepal, Pramod Khakurel and his wife Saru decided to solve this problem.
After several attempts, together with Tristan Lecomte, they found the Victor Hugo Manjushree Vidyapith school in , in the village of Chapali. Their objective: to offer a quality education that is accessible to all.
Victor Hugo, a famous French writer, actively engaged against poverty and for education, embodies all the school values.
Manjushree represents wisdom and knowledge in Hindu and Buddhist tradition and culture.
Vidyapith, a Sanskrit word, translates to "temple of education".
The school has, therefore, adopted this name as a reminder of its mission and its values. It is a sanctuary for learning open to all, regardless of ethnic or social origins, where students are given the necessary tools to become responsible and ethical actors of the Nepalese society of tomorrow.
The school has been developing itself for several years now.
Today, amongst its infrastructures, the school has an art room, a library, a science room equipped with microscopes and an IT room with twenty or so computers.
A building has also been constructed to welcome pre-school and allow the children to evolve in an innovative environment.
Finally, the school disposes of a garden with a vegetable patch, a canteen and a boarding school, offering the students a pleasant setting that is favourable for their studies.
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By Thibaud Cassel.
Central Europe – Economic competition confronts Europe with the rest of the world, but first of all European countries with each other. The political dispute over migration quotas has recently crystallized one of the economical tensions that runs across the continent: some comparative advantages of Central Europe vis-à-vis Western Europe and the relevance of the distribution of European Structural Funds.
This article aims to unravel the web of European interdependencies, analyze the economic and political logics at work and identify, as much as possible, some perspectives.
I. The collapse of the Eastern Bloc
1. 1990s: economic transition or transition of civilization?
The IMF dates the transition to the capitalist economy of China in 1978, that of Vietnam in 1986, but this same IMF does not take into account Perestroika in 1986 for the Soviet Union, or 1982 for Poland, with the declaration of urgency and the concomitant program of economic reforms, nor 1968 with the first economic changes implemented in Hungary: for the countries of the Warsaw Pact, only the date of the collapse is retained. (Communism had certainly lobotomized its satellite economies: Czechoslovakia, the world’s 10th largest industrial power in the interwar period, ranked 40th in 1990). But this choice has the consequence, if not the aim, of delegitimizing, beyond the socialist regimes, the countries themselves and the affirmation of their economic interests. They then had to be educated by the exclusive neo-liberal principles, which triumphed in the United States under R. Reagan as in the EEC with the adoption of the European Single Act (1986).
To this end, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) was founded in 1990. Headquartered in London, its first president is none other than Jacques Attali. The speech pronounced on April 15, 1991 by François Mitterrand, at the inauguration of the Bank, exposes in a remarkable way the different logics at work in this project and their current consequences.
The restored unity of the great European family, proclaimed with emphasis, naturally constitutes a cornerstone of the speech. The other two important aspects are complementary: a market economy and a modern democracy, like the two perspectives of the same horizon of the “end of history”: European civilization arrived safely to its outcome.
We can see how much the EU yoke of 2018 is already in place, while the EEC of the 12 has not yet adopted the Maastricht Treaty …
2. Foreign capital and emerging markets: from complementarity to grabbing
In the early 1990s, the mature economies of the west saw a windfall in these so-called “emerging” countries, which are only emerging markets, and open to quasi-colonial development: the absorptive capacity of productions of rich countries (especially their multinationals) and use of their labor force to increase the profits of these same multinationals (offshoring). These countries have not been left with the choice of their role. They have been deindustrialized before being reindustrialized, to suit the needs of Western European capitalism.
What defines the level of colonialism is the degree of political independence of the emerging market; and the whole difference between the CEECs and China is that the latest set the rules for its economic transition, while the CEECs had nothing to do with the complacency of the socialist elites who jumped from an ideology to an other without caring to defend their national interest, these elites cultivating the habit of serving foreign interests. Thus, the change of regime is called “change of gangsters” in Hungarian.
The weakness of the states, the shocking effect of an unexpected collapse and the fervent desire to return to the European family have concurred, in the CEECs, to give way without measure to Western, and especially German, investors. As Thomas Pikkety recalls on his blog, they “have gradually become the owners of a considerable proportion of the capital of the ex-Eastern European countries. This amounts to roughly a quarter if we consider the complete stock of fixed capital (including housing), and over half if we restrict ourselves to the ownership of firms (and even more for large firms).”
II. A “Profiteering East” or a “Predatory West”?
1. ERDF, ESF, EAFRD: what is the use of the EU Structural Funds?
The Structural Funds are part of the same “development” logic as the EBRD. What differs is the origin of the funds. They come mainly from the pocket of the West European taxpayer and not from shareholders. They are therefore not loans but tools put in place by the EU to make Europe a coherent economic whole, and then enjoy mutual benefits. Moreover, in this same spirit of cooperation, the co-financing of projects requires the participation of the recipient countries.
From a strictly economical point of view, the structural funds are the institutional aspect of the liberal double logic: to develop the market and the society the most adapted for its optimal florescence (the so-called “open” society). This double development operates under the rule of law.
2. A balance that benefits Western capitals
The balance of Central Europe between inward public transfers and outflows is clearly in deficit. This is again demonstrated by Thomas Pikkety on his blog. “The rate of return on the private investment from the West was high and that the flows of profits paid today to the owners of the firms far exceeds the European transfers going in the other direction.” The Structural Funds are not alms, but a lucrative investment: “a considerable share of the higher incomes from the East European capital are paid abroad.”
The economist thus explains his graph: “Between 2010 and 2016, the annual outflow of profits and incomes from property (net of the corresponding inflows) thus represented on average 4.7% of the gross domestic product in Poland, 7.2% in Hungary, 7.6% in the Czech Republic and 4.2% in Slovakia, reducing commensurately the national income of these countries
By comparison, over the same period, the annual net transfers from the European Union, that is, the difference between the totality of expenditure received and the contributions paid to the EU budget, were appreciably lower: 2.7% of the GDP in Poland, 4.0% in Hungary, 1.9% in the Czech Republic and 2.2% in Slovakia (as a reminder, France, Germany and the United Kingdom are net contributors to the EU budget of an amount equivalent to 0.3% – 0.4% of their GDP.”
3. A ruthless economic logic
Tax optimization …
The trend is not encouraging. Multinational companies are organizing to pay less and less taxes, as the Visegrád Post recently detailed. While Romania has experienced a growth in its GDP of 7% last year … the tax revenues of the Romanian State from corporate profit tax decreased by 7%. The benefits of this legal fraud are thus added to the already huge surpluses that the low cost of labor can generate in Romania as in the other CEECs.
… and monopolization of distribution networks
Another aspect of the economical subservience of this region: the large-scale distribution. The NGO Impact 2040, based in Latvia, which aims to defend consumer rights, echoed in July 2017 the problematic use of EBRD credits, of which, as we have seen, J. Attali has been the first President.
It is the use of EBRD funds that is in question, which are mostly public funds because the EU, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Member States together constitute 62.8% of the bank’s capital. The NGO observed contributions of several hundred million euros to develop a famous supermarket chain, namely Lidl, in the CEECs. With such public financing, Lidl announced in 2016 the opening of 100 new stores in Romania in one year, in addition to the 200 existing stores.
This leads to a monopolistic situation in some regions, and the effects are quick to be seen:
Exclusion of local products, even if they are of superior quality, for the benefit of the brand’s products, especially industrial food from Western Europe (the German agricultural surplus can be partly explained in this way).
Dumping to eliminate local players in small distribution, where the average quality of products is higher, and taking advantage of the public financial windfall.
4. The Western middle class, the other loser
It will be understood that the antagonism is not between the economies of Central and Western Europe, but between those who produce, wherever they are, and those who reap the greatest benefits from it. But at the end of the chain, the ultimate loser seems to be the Western worker: by his taxes, he contributes significantly to the European funds. And the investments allowed by this manna develop a market that does not bring him anything! Indeed, the profits generated by a German or French company do not return to France or Germany but to shareholders and other happy few of the globalized economy. Although a good part of German society still manages to benefit from this situation, Latin Europe, including France, loses on both sides: it contributes to the exploitation (or enhancement) of countries from which it gets no benefit. Posted workers are the symmetrical process of this same economic reality. This is the inevitable consequence of free trade in term of factors of production: capital goes where profits are highest.
III. The economy in the face of politics
1. Economic inferiority and political isonomy
The economic reality is clear: the 100 million European citizens of the CEECs are cash cows for the German economy, the guarantee of its continental predominance and its global reach. Central Europe does not yet have the weight or the strength to tackle the great question of the increase of wages and standard of living. In addition to coordinating the different countries of the region, this issue can not be solved without the full co-operation of their respective central bank, whose independence from political power is a crippling handicap.
But the diplomatic successes of the Visegrád Group, and the real improvement that has been seen in this region for several years, prove that economic subservience is neither complete nor overwhelming. Far from limiting its political weight to its low salaries, the Visegrád Group exploits its profitability to defend its primary political interests.
From this point of view, Germany does not face subordinate economies but historical nations. And it is as much the medieval past as the most current European political framework that allows such a claim.
2. History’s weight vs. money’s weight
The countries of Central Europe gauge an evil by comparing it with another: they knew the Russian occupation and do not want it at any price; they know that Ottoman power is never far away and dread it even more. On the other hand, they belong, for the better and for the worse, to the Western Christianity of which they constitute the Eastern flank for more than 1000 years. And this civilizational determinism outweighs economic conjectures.
This common legacy which, according to the V4 countries, justifies the European Union and determines its future, seems to have been forgotten by Germany. It has momentarily lowered itself to consider no other dimension of existence than the economic dimension. To the point of seeing nothing in a “migrant” as a potential economic agent. The current German government does not understand Central Europe because one claims what the other is trying to forget.
In the eyes of Central Europe, since economic wealth is not the highest honor, relative poverty is not the greatest fall. And, in addition to holding firmly on migratory and societal issues, these countries exploit their economic leeway as much as possible.
3. The establishment of a national economic model
From his first term as Prime Minister, between 1998 and 2002, Viktor Orbán displayed a deliberate desire to build a Hungarian capitalism, on the shoulders of an enterprising middle class committed to national values. “The volume of public works significantly increased. As a result of public investment, 10 – 15,000 new homes were built and 46,000 jobs were created. In 2002, the construction industry grew by 23%. Domestic firms enjoyed significant advantage when applying for tenders, which of course naturally resulted in negative reactions from the countries in which foreign companies working in Hungary (for example, road construction) were headquartered, primarily in Austria. When Austrian politicians ask the question of when their companies would be able to take part in the construction of Hungarian motorways, Orbán frankly replied that this would happen when Hungarian companies would be able to participate in construction projects in Austria.” (I. Janke, In the History of the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, p.179)
Back in power after the 2002-2010 eclipse, Viktor Orbán has continued to strengthen and develop the capacities of the national economy. This is the main reason for the dispute with Brussels. In 2013, the Tavares report attacked the Orbán government’s policy for very slight pretexts of “breaches of the rule of law”, but it was the framework favorable to the defense of national interests that Brussels aimed at. After eight years of continuous efforts, Orbán was able to flatter himself on February 18: “We have Hungarian utilities, and families do not pay the profits of multinationals through their utility bills” (State of the Nation Address – 2018). This is to be compared to the sale of motorways by the French State to multinationals built with public money. It is a State, and not Brussels, which in these two cases chooses whether to defend the users against the multinationals or defend the multinationals against the users.
This national voluntarism also has the merit of sustaining the combativeness of policy makers in all circumstances. To a journalist who questioned him on December 7, on the quarrel of European funds and quotas of migrants, Orbán swept the blackmail that is done to Hungary: “they induce that we gave up our freedom for money? “
Hungary has been the pilot fish of a national recovery within the EU. In 2015, the victory of the PiS committed Poland on this same path, and the Czech Republic led by Andrej Babiš following the elections of autumn 2017 reinforces this dynamic, both national and European.
IV. Europe divided: two uncertain situations
1. Lesser degree of community integration
With the exception of Slovakia, the Visegrád Group countries have not yet joined the Eurozone. The currency is an essential instrument of a national economic policy. The exchange rate allows to maintain this competitiveness which is the key to their success, and the pressure of the European Central Bank which is exercised so powerfully on each government of Euroland is spared them. As explained recently the Polish Prime Minister: “We are only coming out of communism and our enormous dependence on foreign capital imposed on us by the economic model chosen more than a quarter of a century ago means that we face very different challenges from the ones faced by the southern or by the northern countries of the euro zone. If the structure of our economy and our per capita disposable income become similar to those of the Netherlands, Austria or Belgium, then we will be able to talk about the euro again.“
2. Discomfort and viability
In the early 1990s, France, like Italy and to a lesser extent Spain, had a mature economy characterized by high wages and saturated consumption: the interest of multinational companies was then to invest the profits elsewhere in order to develop a new market where to generate new profits. François Mitterrand may have thought, with the EBRD, of building a counterweight to German power in Central and Eastern Europe. But it’s absolutely the opposite that happened. And already during the 1990s, France has not been able to prevent the dismantling of Yugoslavia, which was one of these counterbalances.
Today, if Central Europe can strive in a relationship that it considers win-win with the Germanic world, the stalemate is more obvious for France, Italy, Spain and Greece. The question of the euro, again, is central. As the economist Charles Gave predicted even before the introduction of the single currency, “the euro will lead to too many houses in Spain, too many factories in Germany and too many officials in France”. We can today observe that the situation in Central Europe is uncomfortable, and that in Latin Europe it is no longer viable.
V. A central European model?
1. What does really mean the federal option ?
The structural deficits of Latin countries in the face of the phenomenal surplus of the German trade balance condemn the Eurozone to eventually implode, unless the Euroland is completely federalized, with, therefore, the increasing economic specialization of the continent which will make Germany a huge factory where will work by millions Italians, French and Spaniards. The fruit of their labor would then be transferred to their country, a little like the charity to the deserted French departments surviving on the Paris region’s financial redistribution. This ruination of whole nations is as unhealthy as it is absurd. It is to plunge entire countries into a deadly atony, to deny centuries of glorious history and to flout the very dignity of peoples to justify the adventure of the brilliant brains who imagined the euro.
Yet it is the option of the headlong rush that is recognized today, in various ways. The most grotesque is that of free thinkers on the left, who think basically that money solves all problems, and that paying may overcome troubles. But the myth of redistribution is peppered with democracy and dialogue, so that the dignity of a man who has succumbed to being assisted is believed to be restored by political status. The fruits of such widespread productivity would cover the problems and let them ferment, while the competition of the most mobile ones would continue ruthlessly until the next crisis.
It can be noted that the defenders of this line fear protectionism, because it would open Pandora’s box of retaliatory measures. But if we fear more harm from the retaliation towards others than we expect from what we can build, it is to base little esteem on our work and to rely on the outside as Providence. From this point of view it’s morally blameworthy, but it is also politically absurd not to defend our interest on the pretext that it has a price.
2. The outline of another European economy
This is where Hungary, which moreover loyally assumes its membership of the European Union, has another lesson to give us. It is in fact from the foundations that Viktor Orbán obstinately defends a strong Hungary, through strong cities and dynamic regions, themselves strong through families and committed citizens. This good citizen is called “Polgár” in Hungarian, and Orbán’s party made it a real political notion and popularized it in the mid-1990s. “The Polgár is a conscientiously thoughtful citizen who knows the country’s history and its traditions, is aware of the place he occupies in society, owns property (one or more flats and/or houses), has a family and had earned the respect of their neighbors” (id., p156). We are quite the opposite of the decline described above, and this prospect seems to us the ferment of the best that can happen in all European countries.
Facing the Carolingian core, in the meantime so hegemonic and so insane, the Latin countries and Central Europe would win to agree to “stop Brussels” and refuse the specialization of European economies under the pressure of alienating rather than stimulating competition. If the continent’s civilizational unity is expressed by nations, and not against them, likewise, complementarity and European partnerships develop on the basis of robust national economies, which draw their strength from their own local dynamism.
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Worthlessness and Restlessness Come Home
For the director of music. According to gittith. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.
How lovely is your dwelling place,
My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.
Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
LORD Almighty, my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
they are ever praising you. Selah
Here is a palm text of longing, of intense yearning for God. It is written by the “Sons of Korah”, a musical guild appointed by King David to “minister with song” (I Chronicles 6:31-32). They composed about 25 psalms that express a deep longing for God. For example, perhaps their best known expression is in Psalm 42:1: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.”
It appears from today’s text that the Sons of Korah are absent from the temple in Jerusalem and thus longing for God’s sacred courts in which they might worship. It was in the temple that God had promised to meet with His people and manifest His presence (I Kings 8). This holy place was precious to the Sons of Korah and they sang: “How lovely is your dwelling place, LORD Almighty” (Psalm 84:1).
But while the Sons of Korah are separated from God’s temple they remember sparrow and swallow at home in God’s house. They thought of those birds living in God’s courts as blessed because they were always near God’s presence. The psalmists envy the little creatures for being in God’s house, and feel sorrow that they are not. So they sing of the sparrow and swallow
For the ancient Hebrews the sparrow was a frequent symbol for worthlessness and insignificance. They came to represent that person looked down upon by the community and regarded as a neer-do-well. Yet he finds a home in God.
The fast-flitting sparrow that made its nest near God’s altar was a recurrent symbol for the restless soul. The swallow represented that person ever leaving and ever returning, never settling down, trying this, and trying that. He too, finds a home with God. And all this makes the Sons of Korah long to be in God’s presence, declaring: “Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.”
Of course today God makes His home and dwelling place in His people. He lives in us! So the apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians of this precious truth: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in your midst?” (I Corinthians 3:16).
Today we might feel a little bit worthless, perhaps even looked down upon by others. But it is God’s sheer delight to make His home in us, and for us to make our home in Him. Sparrows and swallows can all come home to Him!
READ REFLECT RESPOND REST
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National Historical Places of India | Symbols of India
India is rich in culture, traditions, heritage buildings, and Historical Places. Each dynasty and empire left behind their legacy in the form of a monument. It may be a fort, palace, or any other historical structure. Apart from that, there are many temples and caves which bear testament to the artistic excellence attained in the past ages. Famous Indian Monuments include the Old Churches of Goa, The Taj Mahal, Qutab Minar of Delhi, Charminar, Red Fort, and Jantar Mantar, these are also the few most visited Heritage Sites in India.
1. Taj Mahal, Agra
Taj Mahal is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with an uninterrupted flow of adjectives – magnificent, outstanding, amazing, and incredible. Located on the banks of river Yamuna, this ivory-white marble mausoleum was built by Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz. It is a monument of true love as the imperial court depicts the grief of Shah Jahan over Mumtaz’s death. Mumtaz was Shah Jahan’s most beloved wife out of 11 and she died delivering her 14th child. As per the last wish of Mumtaz, Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal to signify their eternal love.
2. Red Fort, Delhi
Red Fort is a must-visit place in Delhi. Built by Shah Jahan, this fort is a testament to the glorious architectural pride of the Mughal Empire. Visit the fort and soak in the tremendous historic ambiance. It is a symbol of the Mughal Empire at its peak. The enormous size, aesthetic proportions, and style, all represent an age of unrestrained opulence.
3. Ghats at Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
Varanasi, one of the top spiritual places in India, is a city quite unlike any other. This mystical holy city openly reveals its rituals along the many riverside ghats, which are used for everything from bathing to burning the bodies of the dead. It provides invaluable insight into ancient traditions in India. Two highlights are wandering along the riverside ghats and attending the evening Ganga Aarti ceremony.
4. Meenakshi Amman Temple, Madurai
Dedicated to the Hindu deities Parvati and Lord Shiva, Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai is a typical Dravidian style temple, with a prominent Gopuram that reaches almost 50 meters high. The current structure was built during the 17th century, although the temple has existed since ancient times.
5. Amritsar, Punjab – “Gateway to Punjab – home to Golden Temple”
Home of the glorious Golden Temple, the iconic city of Amritsar, portrays the heroic character of Punjab. A day in this peaceful city starts with the spiritual prayers from Gurudwaras. The original name of first the ancient lake, then of the temple complex, and later the surrounding city, meaning “pool of ambrosial nectar.”
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In my early days of teaching paleontology I had an enthusiastic trading program with colleagues around the country. I would supply fine fossils from the Upper Ordovician of southern Ohio for what I considered exotic specimens from elsewhere. In one of the trades I received a block of limestone from the Road Canyon Formation found in the Glass Mountains of southwestern Texas. It was from the Roadian Stage of the Guadalupian Series of the Permian System, so about 270 million years old.
This limestone is famous for its silicified fossils. The original calcite shells of the fossils were replaced by silica (similar to the mineral quartz), yet the matrix of the limestone remained mostly calcite. This meant that my students and I could immerse the limestone block in hydrochloric acid and watch the calcite matrix dissolve and the silicified shells remain as an insoluble residue. What emerged from the acid were beautiful fossils where even the finest spines are preserved.
Our particular block was part of a reef complex in which the primary framework was made by conical brachiopods attached to each other by long spines. These brachiopods are unlike any that came before or since. Each shell consists of two valves: the ventral valve is an open cone and the dorsal valve attaches to it as a hinged lid. The spines come from the ventral valve and wrap around other shells to make a wave-resistant structure — a reef. These brachiopod reefs were unique to the Permian.
The species we have, Hercosestria cribrosa Cooper & Grant 1969, belongs to the Superfamily Richthofenioidea in the Order Productida, so they are often called richthofenids and productids. Hercosestria had its moment of paleontological fame in the mid-1970s. Two prominent paleontologists, Richard Cowen and Richard Grant, debated the role of models in assessing the functional morphology of extinct species. Richthofenid brachiopods were used as an example: did they flap their dorsal valves to create a current (Cowen’s suggestion), or did they crack the valves open and pump the water in and out with their fleshy lophophores? Grant showed a specimen of Hercosestria cribrosa with another brachiopod living on its dorsal valve, convincingly demonstrating that the valves did not likely flap.
To make it even more interesting, by the 1980s there was considerable support for the idea that richthofenid brachiopods like Hercosestria had algal symbionts in their tissues and thus were effectively photosynthetic!
To see the other Wooster’s Fossil of the Week posts, please click on this link or the appropriate tag to the right.
Cooper, G.A. and Grant, R.E. 1969. New Permian brachiopods from west Texas. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 1: 1-20.
Cowen, R. 1975. ‘Flapping valves’ in brachiopods. Lethaia 8: 23-29.
Cowen, R. 1983, Algal symbiosis and its recognition in the fossil record: in Tevesz, M.J.S. and McCall, P.L., eds., Biotic Interactions in Recent and Fossil Benthic Communities: Plenum Press, New York, p. 431-478.
Grant, R.E. 1975. Methods and conclusions in functional analysis: a reply. Lethaia 8: 31–33.
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Williams BBA 2501 Assignment 04
1. (Market Structure) Define market structure. What factors are considered in determining the market structure of a particular industry?
2. (Perfect Competition Characteristics) Describe the characteristics of perfect competition.
3. (Demand Under Perfect Competition) What type of demand curve does a perfectly competitive firm face? Why?
4. (Short-Run Profit Maximization) A perfectly competitive firm has the following fixed and variable costs in the short run. The market price for the firm’s product is $150.
Output FC VC TC TR PROFIT/LOSS
0 $100 $0
1 $100 $180
2 $100 $180
3 $100 $300
4 $100 $440
5 $100 $660
6 $100 $780
a. Complete the table.
b. At what output rate does the firm maximize profit or minimize loss?
c. What is the firm’s marginal revenue at each positive level of output? Its average revenue?
d. What can you say about the relationship between marginal revenue and marginal cost for output rates below the profit-maximizing (or loss-minimizing) rate? For output rates above the profit-maximizing (or loss- minimizing) rate?
5. (Minimizing Loss in the Short Run) Explain the different options a firm has for minimizing losses in the short run.
6. (Short-Run Loss) Suppose a firm decides to shut down in the short run. What is the resulting loss?
7. (The Short-Run Firm Supply Curve) Use the following data to answer the questions below:
Q VC MC AV
a. Calculate the marginal cost and average variable cost for each level of production.
b. How much would the firm produce if it could sell its product for $5? For $7? For $10?
c. Explain your answers.
d. Assuming that its fixed cost is $3, calculate the firm’s profit at each of the production levels determined in part (b)
8. (The Short-Run Firm Supply Curve) Each of the following situations could exist for a perfectly competitive firm in the short run. In each case, indicate whether the firm should produce in the short run or shut down in the short run, or whether additional information is needed to deter- mine what it should do in the short run.
a. Total cost exceeds total revenue at all output levels.
b. Variable cost exceeds total revenue at all output levels.
c. Total revenue exceeds fixed cost at all output levels.
d. Marginal revenue exceeds marginal cost at the current output level.
e. Price exceeds average total cost at all output levels.
f. Average variable cost exceeds price at all output levels.
g. Average total cost exceeds price at all output levels.
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With 23 active volcanoes across the Philippines, many communities in this archipelago nation are preparing for the next big eruption.
“Areas where there are frequent explosions are naturally more prepared than others,” Renato Solidum, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), told IRIN. “Local officials appreciate the importance of being ready.”
Recent high-profile disasters around the world have resulted in a bigger appetite for risk reduction, Solidum said, with people asking for more preparedness training.
“They want to know what has to be done. They want to be aware of the appropriate tools to avoid disaster,” he said.
Bulusan action plan
For the past four years, the Bulusan volcano has been sporadically spewing ash. Since its first explosion on 26 October this year, the volume of ash has already reached an estimated 466,000 cubic metres, state scientists report.
And with recent explosions sending thick columns of ash up to 2km high, covering roofs, damaging crops and resulting in respiratory problems for local residents, communities are already gearing up.
The Bulusan volcano, in central Sorsogon Province, has erupted 15 times since 1886, most recently in 1995.
In 2006 when the volcano started showing abnormal activity again, the province drafted an Action Plan, detailing the preparedness drills to be undertaken, evacuation strategies, transportation requirements, search and rescue operations, and the emergency management system in place.
Communities around Bulusan are at alert level one, with five the highest. At level one, the public is reminded not to venture inside the 4km radius permanent danger zone (PDZ) given the risk of a sudden steam or ash explosion.
Moreover, aircraft are advised against flying close to the summit, while residents near valleys and rivers are recommended against using sediment-laden water from streams.
At the same time, contingency measures are in place should the alert level need to be raised.
“We are continuously updating our hazard maps. When the volcano calmed down in 2008, we started relocating people out of danger zones. The permanent mitigation is to vacate,” Jose Lopez, chief of Sorsogon’s provincial disaster risk reduction management office.
The Philippine Army led a preparedness drill recently, and about 200 families living near the volcano were evacuated.
Meanwhile, local hospitals, with the help of national organizations, continue to distribute masks and attend to residents with respiratory ailments.
The government is also prepared to evacuate up to 90,000 residents within a 9km radius of Bulusan, in case it begins erupting and a total evacuation is necessary, Lopez added.
“It always depends on how often the volcano erupts. Areas where there are frequent explosions are naturally more prepared than others. Local officials appreciate the importance of being ready. It’s the same case with Albay province because of Mayon volcano,” Solidum said.
For people in Irosin, Juban and Casiguran (towns around Bulusan) where volcanic activity is more common, it is a way of life, Lopez added.
The 2,460m high Mayon volcano, 45km northeast of Bulusan, is described as one of the country’s most active.
In December 2009 PHIVOLCS raised the area to alert level four for fear of a hazardous explosion and tens of thousands were evacuated.
Given the risk, Albay has installed a Geographic Information System naming all residents who would need to be evacuated in the event of another eruption. The system is being replicated in Sorsogon.
The provinces of Sorsogon and Albay are two of 14 where PHIVOLCS has trained people to properly respond to the dangers of volcanic eruptions.
To be fully prepared, Solidum says, coordination and cooperation with local authorities is vital.
“We have to make sure that the local government units understand the situation and they are ready to act,” he said.
Theme (s): Natural Disasters,
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
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It’s Not Easy Being Green: Fashion Companies Need To Be Careful Making Sustainability and Green Claims Without Substantiation
Both the US and the EU have started to monitor such claims and take action. Specifically, in an annual review of digital advertising, European consumer protection authorities concluded that 42 percent of “green” advertising claims were exaggerated, false, or deceptive, and could potentially qualify as unfair commercial practices under European Union rules.
To keep up with the rising trend of climate and environmental consciousness, businesses across industries have gone to great lengths to create and promote eco-friendly products that appeal to the environmentally-conscious consumer. However, the rise in eco-friendly offerings has brought with it heightened scrutiny by regulatory agencies across the globe.
Over the past few years, consumer protection authorities in the US and abroad have signaled their intent to crack down on advertising claims that exaggerate or overstate the environmental benefits of the advertised product or service, otherwise known as “greenwashing.” Notably, given the now commonplace marketing of fashion brands as “sustainable,” “eco-friendly,” and/or as utilizing “recycled” material or components, the fashion industry, in particular, is often a target of these efforts.
The European Commission “Greenwashing” Sweep
Every year, the European Commission (EC) and national consumer protection authorities throughout the European Union conduct screenings, or “sweeps,” of the digital marketplace to identify potential breaches of EU consumer protection law. This year, for the first time ever, the sweep focused on greenwashing.
In its review, the EC identified 344 potential greenwashing cases of which 37 percent included vague and general terms, such as “conscious,” “eco-friendly,” and “sustainable.” According to the EC, these claims “convey the unsubstantiated impression to consumers that a product had no negative impact on the environment.” The EC also found that over half of the identified claims lacked sufficient information for consumers to judge their accuracy.
The findings of the sweep will inform an ongoing EC initiative to develop a more detailed legislative framework to protect consumers from “greenwashing,” with a legislative proposal expected later this year. European national authorities have also announced their intent to contact the identified companies regarding their green claims and request information to demonstrate compliance with EU consumer protection rules.
What This Means for US Fashion Brands
While the sweeps were conducted by European regulators, “greenwashing” is disfavored on both sides of the Atlantic. These recent developments in the EU may presage additional enforcement action in the US under the Biden Administration. As in Europe, US state consumer protection agencies and federal regulatory bodies regularly monitor environmental claims in advertising and marketing materials, including “sustainable,” “eco-friendly,” and “recyclable” claims oft-utilized by fashion brands. Under US law, such claims would likely be classified as “general environmental benefit” claims.
The US Federal Trade Commission has cautioned US advertisers that “they should not make unqualified general environmental benefit claims” because “it is highly unlikely that marketers can substantiate all reasonable interpretations of these claims.” As we’ve seen, unsubstantiated environmental claims can also lead to class actions with potentially hefty price tags. Before making any environmental claims, fashion brands should ensure that the claims are properly qualified and adequately substantiated.
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The Science of Artificial Intelligence :
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly growing field that has the potential to revolutionize many aspects of our lives. It is a multidisciplinary field that encompasses computer science, mathematics, psychology, philosophy, and many other disciplines. At its core, AI is the science of creating intelligent machines that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and language translation.
The History of AI :
The history of AI can be traced back to the 1940s, when the first computers were developed. In 1956, the term “artificial intelligence” was coined at a conference in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. The field experienced rapid growth in the 1960s and 1970s, but progress slowed in the 1980s due to funding cuts and disappointing results. However, in the past decade, advances in computing power, data storage, and machine learning algorithms have led to a resurgence in AI research and development.
The Building Blocks of AI :
At its core, AI is based on a set of building blocks that enable machines to perform intelligent tasks. These building blocks include:
Machine Learning: Machine learning algorithms enable machines to learn from data, without being explicitly programmed. These algorithms can identify patterns in data and use these patterns to make predictions or perform tasks.
Natural Language Processing (NLP): NLP algorithms enable machines to understand and interpret human language. This includes tasks such as speech recognition, language translation, and sentiment analysis.
Computer Vision: Computer vision algorithms enable machines to understand and interpret visual information. This includes tasks such as object recognition, image classification, and facial recognition.
Robotics: Robotics is the field of AI that focuses on the design and development of robots. Robots can perform a wide range of tasks, from manufacturing to healthcare to space exploration.
The Challenges of AI :
While AI has the potential to transform many aspects of our lives, it also poses significant challenges. One of the biggest challenges is the ethical implications of AI. As machines become more intelligent, there is a risk that they could be used to harm humans or perpetuate bias and discrimination. There is also a concern about the impact of AI on employment, as machines are increasingly able to automate tasks that were previously done by humans.
Another challenge is the need for large amounts of data to train machine learning algorithms. This data must be diverse, accurate, and representative, or else the algorithms will produce biased or inaccurate results. There is also a concern about the environmental impact of AI, as training machine learning algorithms requires significant amounts of energy and computing power.
The Future of AI :
Despite these challenges, the future of AI looks bright. AI has the potential to revolutionize many industries, from healthcare to transportation to education. It can help us solve some of the world’s most pressing problems, from climate change to disease prevention. However, it is essential that we address the ethical and social implications of AI as it becomes more prevalent in our lives.
To ensure that AI benefits society, policymakers and developers must work together to develop regulations that protect individuals from the potential harm of AI. This includes regulations that ensure the ethical use of AI, protect privacy, and prevent bias and discrimination. Additionally, investments must be made in education and training to prepare the workforce for the changes that AI will bring.
In conclusion, the science of artificial intelligence is a rapidly growing field that has the potential to transform many aspects of our lives. While AI poses significant challenges, the future looks bright if we work together to address these challenges and ensure that AI benefits society as a whole.
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Overcoming Fears and Phobias with CBT Treatment8/5/2013
A specific phobia is an intense fear of a particular thing like a dog, or a situation like flying in an aeroplane.
People’s fear of the object or situation is so severe that they may experience physical symptoms of anxiety, and even have panic attacks, when confronted with it, or even anticipating having to deal with it.
People with a specific phobia either avoid the thing/situation they fear or endure the situation or object with distress.
The adult phobia sufferers knows their fear of the object or situation is excessive or unreasonable. Simple phobias impact on the sufferers ability to function be it at work, socialise, study or cause significant distress.
Common phobias include:
- Fear of the dark
- Fear of water
- Fear of heights (heights phobia)
- Fear of animals (e.g. dog phobias, bird phobias, insect phobias, mice phobias, spider phobias)
- Fear of enclosed spaces or being trapped (e.g. tunnels, lifts, flying in a plane)
- Fear of blood and injury ( e.g. seeing blood or an injury or having a needle phobia)
- Fear of water
- Fear of vomiting (vomiting phobia)
- Fear of the dentist
Specific phobias are very common, with 10-20% of the population developing a phobia during their lives. Phobias often start in childhood but can occur at any age. Phobias are roughly twice as common among women than men,
CBT TREATMENT OF SIMPLE PHOBIAS
Psychological treatment of phobias involves: education about anxiety, slow breathing to control hyperventilation, and relaxation training (e.g. progressive muscle relaxation, isometric relaxation), graded exposure therapy and cognitive therapy.
Melbourne Clinical psychologist Catherine Madigan offers CBT treatment for phobias so call 9819 3671 or 0419 104284 to schedule an appointment or email anxietyaustralia.com.au @gmail.com
American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.
Burns, D.D. (1999) The Feeling Good Handbook, New York, New York. Plume.
Please note, it is important to consult a qualified mental health practitioner such as e.g. a psychologist or psychiatrist to confirm any diagnosis you think you might have. You must not rely on the information on this site as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. No assurance can be given that the information on this site will always include the most recent developments or research with respect to a particular topic.
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Despite their distinctive appearance, the salvinias are floating aquatic ferns.
The leaves are usually rough and arranged on either side of a floating horizontal
axis. They reproduce by means of runners, and can rapidly invade a tank, although
they are sensitive to drops of condensation falling from the lid.
The floating leaves of the salvinia are more than 1 cm long, which distinguishes
it from the closely related, and otherwise biologically identical, S. minima. If
the lighting is good, it grows quickly in neutral, soft water. It is recommended
as a haven for fry in rearing tanks. Size of a floating leaf: 2 cm.
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| 0.925561 | 137 | 2.71875 | 3 |
The Imprimātur of A∴A∴
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Imprimātur is Latin for “let it be printed”. The term has been widely used by the Catholic Church in two senses: a) in old times, for authorizing the publication of a book, otherwise to be censored; b) in modern times, as an endorsement of the contents of a book, stating they represent the view of the Church. The Imprimātur must be issued by a proper Authority from the Church.
In A∴A∴, the Imprimātur is used as a way to issue certain writings as official instructions of the Order, and in most of the cases it also assigns a number and a class to that instruction.
An official instruction of A∴A∴usually is called a liber, Latin for “book”, and its plural form is librī, “books”.
Most of the librī of A∴A∴and O.T.O. are assigned to a Roman number:
- Liber III vel Jugorum.
- Liber Trigrammaton sub figūra XXVII.
- Liber CCCXXXV, Adonis.
“Title sub figūra x” is Latin for “Title under the number x”.
Those numbers do not follow a sequential order: A Note on Genesisis attributed to the number MMCMXI (2911), but it is not the 2911th official instruction of A∴A∴.
Actually the numbers are chosen as a reference to the nature of the liber itself:
- Liber III vel Jugorum: “III. Refers to the threefold method given, and to the Triangle as a binding force.”
- Liber Trigrammaton sub figūra XXVII: “XXVII. The number of permutations of 3 things taken 3 at a time, and (of course) the cube of 3.”
- Liber CCCXXXV, Adonis: “CCCXXXV. The Numeration of Adonis in Greek.”
In The Equinox Vol. I No. 10, Crowley explains the A∴A∴classification system:
The publications of the A∴A∴divide themselves into four classes.
Class “A” consists of books of which may be changed not so much as the style of a letter: that is, they represent the utterance of an Adept entirely beyond the criticism of even the Visible Head of the Organization.
Class “B” consists of books or essays which are the result of ordinary scholarship, enlightened and earnest.
Class “C” consists of matter which is to be regarded rather as suggestive than anything else.
Class “D” consists of the Official Rituals and Instructions.
Some publications are composite, and pertain to more than one class.
In 1919, Crowley started to issue Class “E” publications:
Class “E” consists of public announcements and broadsheets.
The Three Chiefs
When the A∴A∴was founded, it inherited the three ruling offices from its predecessor Order, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Such offices are explained in the Ritual of the Neophyte of the H.O.G.D. as published in The Equinox Vol I. No. 2:
The Three Chiefs
At the East of the Temple before Paroketh sit the three Chiefs who govern and rule all things and are the viceroys in the Temple of the Second Order beyond. They are the reflections therein of the 7°=4°, 6°=5°, and 5°=6° Grades, and are neither comprehended in, nor understood by, the Outer Order. They represent, as it were, Veiled Divinities […]
Now the Imperator governeth, because in Netzach — which is the highest grade of the First Order — is the fire reflected from Geburah.
The Praemonstrator is second, because in Hod is the water reflected from Chesed.
The Cancellarius is third, because in Yesod is the air reflected from Tiphereth.
But in each Temple these three chiefs are coeternal and coequal, thus figuring the Triad in Unity, yet are their functions different:
The Imperator to command
The Praemonstrator to instruct.
The Cancellarius to record.
Other functions are mentioned, for example: Chancellor (see the first pages of The Equinox Vol. I Nos. 7-10), Praemonstrātor-General (see Book Four Parts 1 and 2), and Grand-Neophyte (see One Star in Sight), but we do not have much information on them.
Certain librī list officers in the Imprimātur page, others don’t.
At the time A∴A∴was founded, these were the three chiefs of the Order, ruling from the Collēgiō Internō (Inner College) and authorizing all official instructions:
- Frater D.D.S., George Cecil Jones, as the Praemonstrātor. He was an Adeptus Exemptus 7○=4□.
- Frater O.M., Aleister Crowley, as the Imperātor. He was a newly formed Magister Templi 8○=3□, however, since the office of Imperātor is attributed to Geburah, his 6○=5□ motto is listed.
- Frater N.S.F., John Frederick Charles Fuller, as the Cancellārius. He was only a Probationer 0○=0□, but in order to serve as the Cancellārius, he received an honorary 5○=6□.
Eventually Jones and Fuller withdrew from A∴A∴ and Crowley became the sole leader. Crowley still regarded Jones as Praemonstrātor in later years, but Fuller was completely disregarded:
The Chancellor of the A∴A∴ wishes to warn readers of The Equinox against accepting instruction in his name from an ex-Probationer, Captain J. F. C. Fuller, whose motto was “Per Ardua.” This person never advanced beyond the Degree of Probationer, never sent in a record, and has presumably neither performed practices nor obtained results. He has not, and never has had, authority to give instructions in the name of the A∴A∴.
In 1919, a new governing triad was announced in The Equinox Vol. III No. 1. Now the Chiefs were chosen from the External College (prō Collēgiō Externō):
- Frater V.N., George Cecil Jones, as the Praemonstrātor.
- Frater P., Aleister Crowley, as the Imperātor.
- Frater Achad, Charles Stansfeld Jones, as the Cancellārius.
Note that these are all magickal mottos for Grades below Tiphereth.
George Cecil Jones was no longer involved with A∴A∴since around 1911, but Crowley still recognized him as the source of instruction.
As far as 1936 (The Equinox of the Gods), this was the governing Triad of A∴A∴, although Charles Stansfeld Jones was no longer active in A∴A∴and even joined the Roman Catholic Church in 1928. In 1936 he was officially expelled from the O.T.O. after starting to publicly attack Crowley and Thelema.
In July 18, 1941, Crowley appointed Karl J. Gemer as his representative:
All persons in authority under me in connection with the A∴A∴ and O.T.O. are to recognize him as their chief.
After Crowley’s death in 1947, Gemer never organized a new governing triad.
Years after Germer’s death in 1962, different A∴A∴claimant groups emerged, and they formed their own governing triads. One governing triad has no power over the others. Their authority reaches as far as their line of succession goes, or as far as their students recognize them as chiefs.
The Three Colleges
Usually the Imprimātur is issued from the Second Order (Collegio Interno), but there are also instances including authorities from the Third Order and even officers from the First Order:
- Collēgiō Summō, “highest college”, the Third Order, from 8○=3□ to 10○=1□.
- Collēgiō Internō, “inner college”, the Second Order, from 5○=6□ to 7○=4□.
- Collēgiō Externō, “external college”, the First Order, from 0○=0□ to 4○=7□.
Thus, for example, where we read “Pro. Col. Sum.” (prō Collēgiō Summō) it is meant “on behalf of the Highest College”.
The Seal of A∴A∴
Around 1912, the Seal of A∴A∴was designed and published for the first time in Book Four Part I (Liber ABA, Part 1: Meditation). Its Seal was only going to figure as part of the Imprimātur page on 1919, with the release of The Equinox Vol. III No. 1.
The Egyptian Portal Cover
The Egyptian portal figuring as the cover of many A∴A∴ librī was designed in 1909, figuring in the privately printed volumes of ΘΕΛΗΜΑ, composed by most of the Holy Books of Thelema. However, the portal design only became public with the release of The EquinoxVol. III No. 1 in 1919. See the images below, the 1909 portal on the left and the 1919 portal on the right:
The Egyptian hieroglyphs at the bottom of the cover came from the Stele of Revealing:
N. Fra. A∴A∴
At times when no governing triad was formed, Crowley employed the “N. Fra. A∴A∴” as the authority for an Imprimātur. Let’s consider some information regarding that obscure authority:
- “N. Fra. A∴A∴” is only used when the governing triad is not complete.
- However, sometimes even with no triad the motto of the Imperātor stands alone, there is no “N. Fra. A∴A∴”.
- Book Four Parts 1 & 2 display “N. ·.· Praemonstrātor General”
- The Book of the Lies displays “Imprimatur [new line] [new line] Fra∴A∴A∴”.
- Liber Astarté vel Berylli (Imprimatur: “N. Fra A∴A∴”) has a single footnote, attributed to one called “N. Fra. A∴A∴.”
- Liber HAD and Liber NV have “N. Fra A∴A∴” between “V.V.V.V.V. …” (8○=3□) and “O.M. 7○=4□”.
- In a footnote in Book Four, Part I, Chapter X: The Lamp, we have: “NEMO is the Master of the Temple, whose task it is to develop the beginner. See Liber CDXVIII, Æthyr XIII.”
- In the commentary to the 49thchapter of The Book of the Lies, we have: “NO MAN is of course NEMO, the Master of the Temple, Liber 418 will explain most of the allusions in this chapter.”
- In Liber 418, Æthyr XIII, we have multiple references to Nemo, such as “No man hath beheld the face of my Father. Therefore he that hath beheld it is called NEMO. And know thou that every man that is called NEMO hath a garden that he tendeth”, with the following footnote “Every Magister Templi has a Work to do for the world.”.
Considering these, N. Fra. A∴A∴seems to mean “Nemo, Frater of A∴A∴”, Nemo being a generic term for a Magister Templi, in this case Aleister Crowley.
List of Authorities
These are the persons behind the mottoes found in the Imprimātur pages across the years. Each A∴A∴ claimant group has its own group of authorities filling the three offices. Thus a publication that got an Imprimātur from one A∴A∴ claimant group governing triad does not necessarily is an official publication for another A∴A∴ claimant group.
Please note that:
- This list only includes names found in Imprimātur pages in published books. There are many other A∴A∴claimant groups out there.
- I do not vouch for the authenticity of these grade claims. Some of these people may have worked the grades of A∴A∴by themselves.
- Some of these grades are clearly honorary, they do not mean actual attainment in the proper Sephirah.
We have representatives from three separate colleges here, plus O.S.V. as Imperātor. Curiously the offices of Cancellārius and Praemonstrātor are not indicated.
1909, The Equinox, Vol. I, No. 1, An Account of A∴A∴.
We have the three chiefs with their Grades. Their offices are not indicated.
1909, The Equinox, Vol. I, No. 1, Liber Exercitiorum.
Now we have the chiefs and their respective functions:
1909, The Equinox, Vol. I, No. 2, Liber O vel Manus et Sagittae.
In this sample the Grades are omitted; we only have the offices:
1910, The Equinox, Vol. I, No. 4, Liber III vel Jugorum
Here the word “Imprimātur” is used:
1910, Liber Collegii Sancti
This book was privately printed. In the photo below, we can see Crowley’s handwriting, probably revision marks to guide the editor for including it in The Equinox, Vol. III, No. 2, a book which was announced, but never released. Here Equinox No. 1 actually refers to The Equinox Vol. III No. 1, and in the page 100 is found the Imprimātur for De Lege Libellum.
1911, The Equinox, Vol. I, No. 5, Liber HHH
After George Cecil Jones and John F. C. Fuller quitted A∴A∴, Crowley used the expression “N. Fra A∴A∴” and variations to indicate that no governing triad issued the publication.
1912, Liber ABA, Book Four, Part 1
Here we have a curious variation that makes us speculate about the meaning of “N. Fra A∴A∴”. Clearly we have someone named “N. ·.·” who has the office of a “Praemonstrātor General”. Giving the many references to “Nemo” as a generic name for a Magister Templi, it may be possible that this “N.·.·” is “Nemo ·.·”.
1912, The Equinox, Vol. I, No. 7, Liber NV
Liber NV and Liber HAD have this peculiar Imprimātur, where we have the Egyptian hieroglyphs for “the gods”, followed by V.V.V.V.V. (Aleister Crowley’s 8○=3□motto and/or the Chief of A∴A∴), N. Fra A∴A∴(mostly used when no governing triad exists) and O.M. (Aleister Crowley’s 7○=4□motto).
1913, The Book of Lies
This seems to be a hybrid of Book Four’s “N.·.·” and the “N. Fra A∴A∴” found in The Equinox:
1919, The Equinox, Vol. III, No. 1, Liber II
Now we finally have a new governing triad in A∴A∴ and representants from all three colleges, but the chiefs operate from the External College, not from the Inner College as in 1909. Note that George Cecil Jones, long gone, is still referred to as the Praemonstrātor.
1929, Magick in Theory and Practice
Book Four Part 3, Magick in Theory and Practice, has no Imprimātur page. It includes appendices with the main official instructions issued by A∴A∴, most of them published in The Equinox, but none of them include an Imprimātur.
1936, The Equinox of the Gods
Here D.D.S. (George Cecil Jones) was replaced by I.W.E. (Martha Küntzel) in the Inner College, but he remains as V.N. and as Praemonstrātor in the External College.
1938, The Heart of the Master
Once again, a governing triad is not listed, only the Imperātor O.S.V., as in 1909.
1938, Little Essays Towards Truth
Once again, a governing triad is not listed, only the Imperātor O.S.V., as in 1909.
1939, Eight Lectures on Yoga
Once again, a governing triad is not listed, only the Imperātor O.S.V., as in 1909.
1944, The Equinox, Vol. III, No. 5, The Book of Thoth
Curiously here we have two mottoes listed as members of the R.R. et A.C., the second order of the old Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Allan Bennett was one of Crowley’s teachers in H.O.G.D., but he was dead and he has never been a member of Crowley’s A∴A∴.
1961, The Equinox, Vol. III, No. 6, Liber Aleph: The Book of Wisdom or Folly, edited by Marcelo Ramos Motta
This is the first number of The Equinox released after Crowley’s death, in a partnership between Karl Germer and his student Marcelo Motta. This book was edited and printed in Brazil, and sold in USA. Germer never entitled Motta as the Imperātor of A∴A∴, but at the time of the release of the book Motta sent letters to Germer claiming to be a 6○=5□in another plane, the grade corresponding to the office of Imperātor.
1975, The Equinox, Vol. V, No. 1, The Commentaries of AL, by Marcelo Ramos Motta
This is a new volume of The Equinox prepared by Marcelo Ramos Motta thirteen years after Karl Germer’s death. it does not list the officers, but we have mottoes of Marcelo Ramos Motta spanning the three colleges.
1984, Magick Without Tears Unexpurgated Commented Part 1
1984, Magick Without Tears Unexpurgated Commented Part 2, by Marcelo Ramos Motta
After issuing the four numbers of his new volume of The Equinox, Motta fallbacks to the usage of “N. Frater A∴A∴”.
1987, Thelemic Magick Unexpurgated Commented Part 1, by Marcelo Ramos Motta
1987, [Brazil] A Deusa Negra, by Euclydes Lacerda de Almeida
Here we have an Imprimātur in the name of an organization, Horus-Maat Lodge.
1996, The Equinox, Vol. IV, No. 1: Commentaries on the Holy Books and Other Papers, by J. Daniel Gunther et al, Liber Vesta
Nine years after Motta’s death, three of his ex-students, all of them who resigned or were cut contact with from Motta’s instruction in A∴A∴while he was still alive, formed a new governing triad for their A∴A∴claimant group:
1998, The Equinox, Vol. IV, No. 2: The Vision and the Voice with Commentaries and Other Papers, by J. Daniel Gunther et al.
Here we have the same governing triads, with no grades or colleges:
2000, The Mystical and Magical System of A∴A∴(3rd Revised Edition), by James A. Eshelman: One Star in Sight.
Here we have three people from second order rankings and “N. Fra. A∴A∴”:
2009, Magick Revised, by Ray Eales
2009, Initiation in the Aeon of the Child, by J. Daniel Gunther
In his solo book, the Praemonstrātor of one of the claimant groups above listed himself as in “R.R. et A.C.” plus “N. Fra: A∴A∴”, as Crowley did in his last years. We have no information regarding his association with the actual R.R. et A.C., the second order of the old H.O.G.D. Perhaps he meant the R∴C∴, the second order of A∴A∴.
2014, Private publications (The Hell Fire Club), by unknown
2017, Winds of Wisdom, by David Shoemaker
Here we have three officers in the External College, representatives in the Inner College, and the exquisite “N. Fra. A∴A∴” in the Highest College.
Love is the law, love under will.
CROWLEY, Aleister. ΘΕΛΗΜΑ. London: Self-Published, 1909.
CROWLEY, Aleister. Book Four, Part I, Meditation. South Kensington: Wieland & Co., 1912.
CROWLEY, Aleister. Book Four, Part II, Magick: Preliminary Remarks. South Kensington: Wieland & Co., 1913.
CROWLEY, Aleister. Liber Collegii Sancti. London: self-published, 1910.
CROWLEY, Aleister. The Book of Lies. South Kensington: Wieland & Co., 1913.
CROWLEY, Aleister. Magick in Theory and Practice, being Book Four, Part III. Paris: The Lecram Press, 1929.
CROWLEY, Aleister. The Equinox of the Gods, being Book Four, Part IV; and The EquinoxVolume III Number 3. London: Privately published, 1936.
CROWLEY, Aleister. The Heart of the Master. London: Privately published, 1938.
CROWLEY, Aleister. The Book of Thoth, being The Equinox Volume III Number 5. London: Privately published, 1944.
CROWLEY, Aleister. Liber Aleph: The Book of Wisdom or Folly, being The Equinox Volume III Number 6. West Point: Thelema Publishing Company, 1961.
CROWLEY, Aleister; et al. The Equinox Volume I Number 1. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & CO. LTD., 1909
CROWLEY, Aleister; et al. The Equinox Volume I Number 2. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & CO. LTD., 1909.
CROWLEY, Aleister; et al. The Equinox Volume I Number 3. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & CO. LTD., 1910.
CROWLEY, Aleister; et al. The Equinox Volume I Number 4. London: self-published, 1910.
CROWLEY, Aleister; et al. The Equinox Volume I Number 5. London: self-published, 1911.
CROWLEY, Aleister; et al. The Equinox Volume I Number 6. London: Wieland & Co., 1911.
CROWLEY, Aleister; et al. The Equinox Volume I Number 7. London: Wieland & Co., 1912.
CROWLEY, Aleister; et al. The Equinox Volume I Number 8. London: Wieland & Co., 1912.
CROWLEY, Aleister; et al. The Equinox Volume I Number 9. London: Wieland & Co., 1913.
CROWLEY, Aleister; et al. The Equinox Volume I Number 10. London: Wieland & Co., 1913.
CROWLEY, Aleister; et al. The Equinox Volume III Number 1. Detroit: Universal Publishing Company, 1919.
CROWLEY, Aleister; et al. Commentaries on the Holy Books and Other Papers, being The Equinox Volume IV Number 1. York Beach: Samuel Weiser, 1996.
CROWLEY, Aleister; et al. The Vision and the Voice with Commentaries and Other Papers, being The Equinox Volume IV Number 2. York Beach: Samuel Weiser, 1998.
CROWLEY, Aleister; MOTTA, Marcelo Ramos. The Commentaries of AL, being The EquinoxVolume V Number 1. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1975.
CROWLEY, Aleister; MOTTA, Marcelo Ramos. The Equinox Volume V Number 2. Nashville: Thelema Publishing Company, 1979.
CROWLEY, Aleister; MOTTA, Marcelo Ramos. The Equinox Volume V Number 3: The Chinese Texts of Magick and Mysticism. Nashville: Thelema Publishing Company, 1980.
CROWLEY, Aleister; MOTTA, Marcelo Ramos. The Equinox Volume V Number 4: Sex and Religion. Nashville: Thelema Publishing Company, 1981.
CROWLEY, Aleister; MOTTA, Marcelo Ramos. Magick Without Tears Unexpurgated Commented Part 2, being The Oriflamme Volume VI Number 4. Society Ordo Templi Orientis, 1984.
CROWLEY, Aleister; MOTTA, Marcelo Ramos. Thelemic Magick Unexpurgated Commented Part 1, being The Oriflamme Volume VI Number 5. Rio de Janeiro: Society Ordo Templi Orientis, 1987.
ESHELMAN, James A. The Mystical and Magickal System of A∴A∴. College of Thelema: 2000.
Explanation of Egyptian Art around Liber. Available at: <http://www.heruraha.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4752>. Accessed on: Feb. 4th2019.
Imprimatur. Available at: <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/imprimatur>. Accessed on: February 4th2019.
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Commencing with the First fleet in 1788, there was a steady stream of ships bringing migrants predominantly from Europe to Australia until the 1970s, the flow of which was interrupted only by the two world wars. By the 1970s, the Boeing 747 aircraft or Jumbo Jet as it was affectionately known, had so revolutionised intercontinental travel, much of the travelling public had abandoned ocean liners for any kind of travel except recreational cruising. The Australian Government, which was still subsidising most fares of migrants coming to Australia, had been the shipping lines’ biggest customer. But when airfares became cheaper than sea travel, it began bringing migrants to Australia by air. As its charter contracts with the shipping companies expired, they were not being renewed.
The era of migrant sea travel to Australia from Europe came to a close in 1977 when Chandris Line’s migrant charter expired. The line’s Australis made its last voyage on the Southampton-Piraeus-Australia migrant run in October 1977, bringing to a close a 189-year era in Australia’s history. This fall off in business, combined with a jump in fuel prices caused by the oil crisis of the early 1970s, forced the shipping lines servicing the Australian migrant runs to have a major rethink about how they did business. Some, like P&O;, sent all their older ships to the scrap yard and retained just a handful of newer vessels to maintain and develop their cruising business.
The vessels listed here were the main carriers of migrants to Australia during the post-World War II boom period from the 1950s to the withdrawal of migrant passenger ships and the assisted passage migrant scheme. Other vessels were used from time to time, but it is mainly the names of these ships that are recalled when families and friends get together and reminisce about that life-changing voyage across the world that brought them to a new life in Australia during the post-war years.
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What is Kellogg?
Kellogg Company, founded in 1906 by W.K. Kellogg, is a multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Michigan, USA. It is one of the world's leading producers of breakfast cereals and a prominent player in the global packaged food industry. Kellogg's iconic brands include Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes, Special K, and Rice Krispies, which have become household names in many countries. Kellogg operates a diverse portfolio of food products beyond cereals, including snacks, frozen waffles, vegetarian foods, and cookies. Kellogg's products are available in more than 180 countries, and the company has manufacturing facilities worldwide.
Kellogg Company (stock ticker symbol: K) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
What affects the K stock price?
Kellogg's stock price can be influenced by a wide range of factors, including:
- Earnings reports: Kellogg's quarterly and annual financial results play a significant role in determining its stock price. Positive earnings reports and revenue growth can drive stock prices higher, while disappointing results can have the opposite effect.
- Changing consumer preferences and health-conscious trends can influence Kellogg's stock price. For example, shifts towards healthier eating habits or away from certain types of processed foods may impact sales and, in turn, stock performance.
- Commodity prices: The cost of raw materials like grains, which are key ingredients in Kellogg's products, can impact the company's profitability. Fluctuations in commodity prices can affect Kellogg's stock.
- Competition: Kellogg operates in a highly competitive industry. Rival companies' actions, such as pricing strategies, product innovations, or market share gains, can affect Kellogg's stock price.
- Currency exchange rates: Kellogg is a global company, so changes in currency exchange rates can impact its financial performance, especially if it derives a significant portion of its revenue from international markets.
- Government regulations related to food safety, labelling, and advertising can affect Kellogg's operations and potentially impact its stock price.
- Mergers and acquisitions can significantly influence investor sentiment and stock performance.
- Market sentiment, which includes investor perception, sentiment towards Kellogg, and sentiment towards the stock market, has the potential to influence its stock price. Short-term price changes can be caused by news, rumours, and general market sentiment.
- Economic conditions: Broader economic conditions, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, unemployment rates, and consumer spending patterns, can impact Kellogg's stock price. In times of economic growth, consumer spending on food products like those offered by Kellogg may increase.
- Dividends and buybacks: Kellogg's dividend policies and share buyback programmes can attract income-focused investors and provide support for the stock price.
What to watch out for when trading K stock?
When considering trading Kellogg (K) stock, it is important to keep an eye on:
- Kellogg‘s corporate earnings results (released quarterly)
- Kellogg‘s annual report releases
- Kellogg‘s corporate announcements
- News and media stories featuring Kellogg
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https://www.axi.com/uk/trade/cfds/shares/kellogg
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| 0.928284 | 656 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Solar cells will doubtless play a significant part in a sustainable energy future. Polymer solar cells (PSCs) specifically provide an excellent option because they are cheap to produce and can be both flexible and semitransparent.
New solar cell devices that are cheaper and easier to make could soon make their way to market thanks to materials made at Imperial College London.
A detailed view of how electrical charges behave inside perovskites could guide efforts to improve the performance of next-generation solar cells based on these materials, KAUST research has shown.
Perovskites are a family of materials that are currently the leading contender to potentially replace today's silicon-based solar photovoltaics. They hold the promise of panels that are far thinner and lighter, that could be made with ultra-high throughput at room temperature instead of at hundreds of degrees, and that are cheaper and easier to transport and install.
A German research team has developed a tandem solar cell that reaches 24 per cent efficiency – measured according to the fraction of photons converted into electricity (i.e. electrons). This sets a new world record as the highest efficiency achieved so far with this combination of organic and perovskite-based absorbers.
The technology enables completely new types of implants that can be used to stimulate nerve cells and was developed in a joint effort by researchers from Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), the Medical University of Graz (Med Uni Graz), the University of Zagreb and the Czech CEITEC. The basis of this technology involves colour pigments from the food industry, such as those used in organic solar cells.
For a greener and more sustainable economy, building better and more powerful solar cells is a key research goal within the clean energy sector. But, in a typical single-junction solar cell, performance is capped at what is called the Shockley–Queisser limit (a theoretical limit for the maximum efficiency that a solar cell can reach).
About 750 million people in the world do not have access to electricity at night. Solar cells provide power during the day, but saving energy for later use requires substantial battery storage.
A team co-led team by the University of Surrey has successfully increased the levels of energy absorbed by wafer-thin photovoltaic panels by 25%. Their solar panels, just one micrometre thick (1µm), convert light into electricity more efficiently than others as thin and pave the way to make it easier to general more clean, green energy.
Materials scientists at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and colleagues from five other universities around the world have discovered the major reason why perovskite solar cells — which show great promise for improved energy-conversion efficiency — degrade in sunlight, causing their performance to suffer over time.
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July is UV Safety Awareness Month, and no wonder! With the summer sun out in full force, it’s now more important than ever to protect your eyes from harmful UV rays.
During this month, people who have suffered from UV ray damage and their loved ones are encouraged to share their experiences and advice. Use the hashtag #UVSafetyAwareness on your social media channels to support others in your community.
Did You Know?
Your eyes can get sunburned. It isn’t only your skin that’s at risk, but your eyes, too. When your cornea is exposed to too much UV radiation, a condition known as keratitis can occur. Keratitis can actually cause a temporary loss of vision, often after using a tanning bed or being out in the sun too long. UV radiation can also cause small growths on the white part of your eye, which are called pterygium and pinguecula. They can make your eyes feel dry, irritated, and scratchy.
If you experience any of these symptoms, Bagwasi Family Eyecare can help.
UV ray exposure is a risk factor for eye conditions and diseases. In 20% of cataract cases, cataract growth has been linked to UV ray damage. Cataracts develop when the normally clear lens of the eye becomes cloudy. UVA rays are a known risk factor for macular degeneration – the leading cause of blindness in people over the age of 65. Macular degeneration occurs when the macula of the eye, which is responsible for clear central vision becomes damaged. It’s critical to be aware of UV ray exposure, especially if you or a family member are in this age group.
What Exactly Are UV Rays?
You may have heard about UV rays without knowing what they actually mean. UV stands for ultraviolet light. That’s a potentially harmful type of radiation, which is typically found in fluorescent lights, tanning booths. But its main source is from the sun, and it’s invisible to the naked eye, so you don’t even feel it as it touches your skin or body.
Why Are UV Rays Dangerous?
So why are they considered dangerous? Well, too much of a good thing isn’t really a good thing. Sunlight helps us make vitamin D, which is healthy. Too much sun exposure, though, can cause premature aging in the skin, burns in the eye, and may even change the shape of your cornea and other serious eye damage, leading to vision problems. It’s even more dangerous for younger people, especially children, because children's lenses are more transparent and transmit UV rays more easily.
If you or a loved one is experiencing vision problems or eye diseases, we can help. Dr. Thebe Bagwasi sees patients from all over the O'Fallon, Missouri area, and can treat your condition with a number of advanced solutions. Regular eye exams and checkups are critical for keeping your vision healthy, especially during the summer.
UV Safety Can Go a Long Way
Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to protect yourself from long-term exposure to UV rays. Check out our top 3 UV safety tips:
- Put on Those Shades
Snag a pair of sunglasses with 100% UVA and UVB blocking power. Anything less than that won’t protect your eyes from harmful rays. Concerned about your look? Don’t worry, There are plenty of awesome sunglass designs, so you’ll protect your eyes without compromising on incredible style. Ask the optometrist which lens is best for you.
- Sunscreen and More Sunscreen
Mothers and doctors say it all the time, and with good reason! Use sunscreen before going outdoors and make sure it has a good SPF (Sun Protection Factor) number. If you’re in the water, reapply it every 2 hours. UV rays can reflect off of water, so if you’re hitting the pool or beach, take extra precautions.
- I Tip My Hat to You
Protect your head and the skin on your scalp with a hat. A wide-brimmed hat is best for a good amount of sun-blocking coverage, since it also protects the tops of your eyes which might not be shaded by your sunglasses, and is too sensitive for sunscreen. For the fashion-conscious, there are endless styles to choose from, so go shopping!
During this UV Safety Awareness Month, we encourage you to share your stories and successes. If you have any questions, Dr. Thebe Bagwasi is here to help.
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Written by Editorial Team
Toddler Learning Games play an essential role. Their games are specifically designed to learn with fun for the toddlers. These games develop their mental ability to handle complicated tasks, their absolute power, increase their attention span, etc. This is the age when they start to acquire different skills, which will also be useful for their education. Games will actively engage their brains. Some games even help to foster imagination and creativity in them.
These Toddler Learning Games increase memory, problem-solving, critical thinking, and ability to retain the information. These games are helping them expand their learning ability and improve their sophisticated functions. These toddler games help young children to develop their hand-eye coordination, cognitive skill ability, and social skills. The challenges that they face in the game help them to sharpen their minds. Such games help to improve their verbal abilities and communication skills and also increase their attention span.
In this article, you will find some of the toddler learning games, which will help in your child’s development.
It is a top-rated toddler learning game. In this game, you are Simon, and Simon has to give commands which the children have to follow. You can call out authorities as- ‘Simon Says Touch your nose!’ ‘Simon Says Touch your fingers!’ If the commands are called out without the preface ‘Simon Says,’ and any player acts on it, then that player gets eliminated. This is a great way to teach your child to follow instructions and make them learn different parts of the body.
Puzzles are a great way to show your toddlers some valuable skills while they are having fun. When your child arranges and makes the pieces fit, that develops their physical base. When your child solves that puzzle, that strengthens their cognitive skills and when your child does the problem with a lot of patience, which enhances their emotional abilities. Solving puzzles can also improve your little champ’s memory skills. Puzzles are also a great way of teaching them about different shapes.
Hide your kid’s favorite toy in the room and tell him/her to search it. If your kid is away from the hidden toy, then tell him, ‘he’s cold.’ But, if your kid is somewhat near to the hidden toy, then tell him ‘he’s warm,’ the nearer he goes, ‘he’s warmer,’ the nearest he goes, ‘he’s HOT.’ A kid may get frustrated a few times while playing this game. At that time, hold his hand and help him to find the hidden object. This game will instill patience and perseverance in your kid, which will be helpful to him in every walks of his life.
Matching cards are also known as ‘Smart cards.’ There are many varieties of such tickets available in the market. You may arrange six cards upside down with two same cards of each. Show these cards to your child for a few seconds and turn the cards around immediately and tell your child to match the cards according to the cards he memorized. This game will improve your toddler’s memory power and comparing ability. This toddler learning game is one of the popular games used for memory development.
Toddlers are asked to create different structures using Toy Blocks. These toy blocks are of varying sizes and shapes depending upon the toddler’s choice. This will expand their vision and also will improve their problem solving and analytical thinking skills. Moreover, the child can also learn the art of organizing and management of different toys systematically.
This is an exciting Toddler Board Game. It has got multiple ways to play. You may tell the child to roll up the dice and take turns to complete a picture using different shapes and colors. This will allow the child to learn about different shapes and colors. Also, your toddler can relate these colors and shapes with the real-life things in your place to enhance recognizing and memorizing skills.
Many free toddler games can be found online. Visual Intelligence Game is one of the toddler games online. In this game, a picture is divided into many different parts, and these parts are scattered in different ways. The child has to rotate the parts of the image and arrange them appropriately to complete the picture. This will increase the analytical skills and decisive power of the child.
Some Final Words
The Toddler learning games help to develop different skills in the child with little and exciting efforts. These skills are helpful to them in every walks of their life. So, the toddler board games are crucial for the child’s brain development, and they are not to be ignored. Parents and teachers should encourage such toddler learning games as they are building the base of the child’s personality development. Never forget to congratulate your toddlers for their small victories in these games as your congratulations will be the encouragement to their significant achievements in their life.
With a rich experience in pregnancy and parenting, our team of experts create insightful, well-curated, and easy-to-read content for our to-be-parents and parents at all stages of parenting.Read more.
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| 0.965892 | 1,060 | 2.8125 | 3 |
What is a bad working environment?
“A toxic work environment is any that makes you feel uncomfortable, unappreciated, or undervalued. This can range from all out bullying, screaming and talked down to, to more subtle forms of poor communication, setting people up for failure, mismanagement and an air of hostility.
What are the top three work strengths?
From this, you identify your top three workplace strengths as communication, teamwork and problem-solving.
How can we improve our work environment?
Seven ideas to improve your workplace environment
- Consider staff when choosing an office.
- Invest in the physical environment.
- Listen and share.
- Encourage work-life balance.
- Facilitate social interaction.
- Show appreciation and support.
- Don’t forget the wider workplace.
What activities should be done for healthy environment?
Some environmental changes can help people weave activity into their everyday routines, such as promoting active transportation, so people can walk or ride bikes to shops, school, and workplaces; instituting land use practices that discourage pedestrian-unfriendly sprawl; or designing buildings with attractive stairs.
How can you create a positive environment at home?
Simple Tips to Create a Positive and Peaceful Home Environment
- Clean out the House and take the Clutter Away. While this probably reads like obvious advice, it’s also the most useful tip on the list.
- Store the Things You are Not Using.
- Reorganise Your Furniture.
- Put Some Plants across the House.
- Try Aromatherapy.
- Play Some Music.
Why do we need to study environment?
Our environment is very important to us because it is where we live and share resources with other species. Environmental science enlightens us on how to conserve our environment in the face of increasing human population growth and anthropogenic activities that degrade natural resources and ecosystems.
What are the 4 main objectives of the Health and Safety at Work Act?
provide a safe place of employment. provide a safe working environment. provide a written safety policy/risk assessment. look after the health and safety of others, for example the public.
What is a positive environment?
A positive environment is one in which students feel a sense of belonging, trust others, and feel encouraged to tackle challenges, take risks, and ask questions (Bucholz & Sheffler, 2009).
Why Environmental Health is an important field of employment?
Environmental health professionals work to improve public health by identifying, tracking and addressing environmental risk factors. Most environmental health professionals specialize in a particular area, such as: Reducing air, water, soil, noise or radiation pollution. Protecting our food supply.
What is a safe and healthy environment?
A healthy working environment is one in which there is not only an absence of harmful conditions that can cause injury and illness, but an abundance of health promoting ones (WHO, 2010).
What is the duty of environmental health officer?
Environmental Health Officers (also known as Public Health Inspectors or Environmental Health Practitioners) are responsible for carrying out measures for protecting public health, including administering and enforcing legislation related to environmental health and providing support to minimize health and safety …
What is a good working environment?
A positive working environment is a workplace that promotes employee safety, growth and goal attainment. Companies can achieve a positive working environment by focusing on their overall culture, supporting employee growth and making employees feel safe and comfortable.vor 4 Tagen
How can you promote a clean and safe environment?
7 Ways to Keep Our Environment Clean and Safe
- Make your voice heard: vote, sign petitions, contact your leaders.
- Refuse single-use items (especially plastic)
- Buy locally, eat more plants, and compost your food waste.
- Plant trees and landscape with native plants.
- Green your transportation and travel habits.
- Conserve water.
What are the benefits of studying environmental health?
Responsible action is taken to better the environment EE helps students understand how their decisions and actions affect the environment, builds knowledge and skills necessary to address complex environmental issues, as well as ways we can take action to keep our environment healthy and sustainable for the future.
What qualifications do environmental health officers need?
To become an environmental health officer, you’ll need to study either an undergraduate or postgraduate degree that has been approved by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH). You will then need to complete a period of work-based training and pass a series of professional exams.
How you can attain environmental health?
Environmental Wellness Challenge Ideas
- Ride your bike, walk or take public transportation instead of driving.
- Recycle and compost.
- Plant and tend a garden.
- Use natural cleaning products.
- Choose your own healthy habit in this category.
- Remove clutter from your home or office.
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From a child’s point of view, life can often seem difficult–but this brightly illustrated book–one in a set of twoLive and Learn titles–encourages children never to be afraid of a challenge. It’s all right to be a little scared about things that seem hard to do, but whatever the challenge, determination and practice can get them through. Boys and girls will empathize with the little girl in this book. She has to go to school, do homework, and eat vegetables that she doesn’t like. It seems to her that grownups are lucky, because they can do as they please. This story demonstrates that everybody has obligations to meet–especially grownups–and most of the time, it’s more fun to be a kid. The text is simple and the illustrations on every page are appealing. Four pages presenting activities for children appear at the back of each book, followed by a two-page section for parents, with tips on explaining the subject in more detail.
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CC-MAIN-2023-50
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https://www.books53.shop/product/its-hard-being-a-kid/
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New Delhi, March 4 Several patients have reported a rise in flu cases with symptoms including high grade fever and persistent cough, said the Indian Medical Association on Saturday, while cautioning against use of antibiotics.
The mounting infections are due to the H3N2 influenza virus, which lasts between five to seven days, the association said in a statement on Twitter, noting that it is seasonal.
Recent data from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) also shows that H3N2 - a sub-type of the influenza virus - has been in wide circulation for the last two-three months.
"A sudden increase in the number of patients having symptoms of cough, nausea, vomiting, sore throat fever, bodyache and diarrhoea in some cases," the IMA wrote on Twitter.
"While fever goes away at the end of three days, coughs can persist for three weeks," it added, advising doctors to avoid prescribing antibiotics to such patients.
Further, the IMA said that the cases are typically seen in people over the age of 50 and below 15. Some are also reporting upper respiratory infection along with fever. "Air pollution" is also a precipitating factor.
It advised medical practitioners to give only symptomatic treatment as there is no need for antibiotics.
The IMA pointed out that people have started taking antibiotics like Athreycin and Amoxiclav etc without caring for dose and frequency and they stop once they start feeling better. They added that "this needs to be stopped as it leads to antibiotic resistance."
"Whenever there will be a real use of antibiotics, they will not work due to the resistance," the IMA wrote.
The medical association advised avoiding crowded places, practising good hand and respiratory hygiene practices as well as flu vaccination.
Harshal R. Salve, Professor at the Centre for Community Medicine, AIIMS, said the increase in the transmission of flu virus is due to abrupt "climatic conditions currently prevalent".
"Serological surveillance through established mechanisms in the public health system by the government is essential to determine serotype of the virus and its endemic," Salve told .
Doctors from Primus Hospital, Chanakyapuri, noted that patients with asthma, and those with severe lung infections are finding difficulty in breathing.
Elderly people, children and pregnant women are most vulnerable to getting infected. Therefore, they must remain extra cautious while venturing outside, the doctors said.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
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|Contact dermatitis rash.|
Contact dermatitis is a type of acute or chronic inflammation of the skin caused by exposure to chemical or physical agents. Symptoms of contact dermatitis can include itchy or dry skin, a red rash, bumps, blisters, or swelling. These rashes are not contagious or life-threatening, but can be very uncomfortable.
Contact dermatitis results from either exposure to allergens (allergic contact dermatitis), or irritants (irritant contact dermatitis). Allergic contact dermatitis involves a delayed type of hypersensitivity and previous exposure to an allergen to produce a reaction. Irritant contact dermatitis is the most common type and represents 80% of all cases. It is caused by prolonged exposure to irritants, leading to direct injury of the epidermal cells of the skin, which activates an immune response, resulting in an inflammatory cutaneous reaction. Phototoxic dermatitis occurs when the allergen or irritant is activated by sunlight. Diagnosis of allergic contact dermatitis can often be supported by patch testing.
Contact dermatitis constitutes 95% of all occupational skin disorders. There are few accurate statistics on the incidence and prevalence of contact dermatitis. The results of the few studies that have been undertaken cannot be compared because of methodological differences.
Signs and symptoms
Contact dermatitis is a localized rash or irritation of the skin caused by contact with a foreign substance. Only the superficial regions of the skin are affected in contact dermatitis. Inflammation of the affected tissue is present in the epidermis (the outermost layer of skin) and the outer dermis (the layer beneath the epidermis).
Contact dermatitis results in large, burning, and itchy rashes. These can take anywhere from several days to weeks to heal. This differentiates it from contact urticaria (hives), in which a rash appears within minutes of exposure and then fades away within minutes to hours. Even after days, contact dermatitis fades only if the skin no longer comes in contact with the allergen or irritant. Chronic contact dermatitis can develop when the removal of the offending agent no longer provides expected relief.
Irritant dermatitis is usually confined to the area where the irritating substance actually touched the skin, whereas allergic dermatitis may be more widespread on the skin. Irritant dermatitis is usually found on hands whereas exposed areas of skin. Symptoms of both forms include the following:
- Red rash: This is the usual reaction. The rash appears immediately in irritant contact dermatitis; in allergic contact dermatitis, the rash sometimes does not appear until 24–72 hours after exposure to the allergen.
- Blisters or wheals: Blisters, wheals (welts), and urticaria (hives) often form in a pattern where skin was directly exposed to the allergen or irritant.
- Itchy, burning skin: Irritant contact dermatitis tends to be more painful than itchy, while allergic contact dermatitis often itches.
- The surface appearance of skin: Skin is dry and fissured in the irritant contact dermatitis whereas vesicles and bullae are seen in allergic contact dermatitis.
- Lichenified lesions:
While either form of contact dermatitis can affect any part of the body, irritant contact dermatitis often affects the hands, which have been exposed by resting in or dipping into a container (sink, pail, tub, swimming pools with high chlorine) containing the irritant.
The percentage of cases attributable to occupational contact dermatitis varies substantially depending on the industries that predominate, the employment that people have, the risks to which they are exposed, the centers that record cases, and variances in defining and confirming diagnoses.
Common causes of allergic contact dermatitis include: nickel allergy, 14K or 18K gold, Balsam of Peru (Myroxylon pereirae), and chromium. In the Americas they include the oily coating from plants of the genus Toxicodendron: poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac. Millions of cases occur each year in North America alone. The alkyl resorcinols in Grevillea banksii and Grevillea 'Robyn Gordon' are responsible for contact dermatitis. Bilobol, another alkyl resorcinol found in Ginkgo biloba fruits, is also a strong skin irritant.
Common causes of irritant contact dermatitis include solvents, metalworking fluids, latex, kerosene, ethylene oxide, paper, especially papers coated with chemicals and printing inks, certain foods and drink, food flavorings and spices, perfume, surfactants in topical medications and cosmetics, alkalis, low humidity from air conditioning, and many plants. Other common causes of irritant contact dermatitis are harsh alkaline soaps, detergents, and cleaning products.
There are three types of contact dermatitis: irritant contact dermatitis; allergic contact dermatitis; and photocontact dermatitis. Photocontact dermatitis is divided into two categories: phototoxic and photoallergic.
Irritant contact dermatitis
The irritant's direct cytotoxic impact on epidermal keratinocytes causes Irritant contact dermatitis. This disrupts the skin barrier and activates the innate immune system. Keratinocytes in the epidermis can be actually affected by irritants. It is a complicated reaction that is influenced by genetic and environmental elements, both of which have a role in the pathogenesis of the disease. It can be seen in both occupational and non-occupational environments but it's more common in the occupations dealing in low humidity conditions.
Irritant contact dermatitis (ICD) can be divided into forms caused by chemical irritants, and those caused by physical irritants. Common chemical irritants implicated include: solvents (alcohol, xylene, turpentine, esters, acetone, ketones, and others); metalworking fluids (neat oils, water-based metalworking fluids with surfactants); latex; kerosene; ethylene oxide; surfactants in topical medications and cosmetics (sodium lauryl sulfate); and alkalis (drain cleaners, strong soap with lye residues).
Physical irritant contact dermatitis may most commonly be caused by low humidity from air conditioning. Also, many plants directly irritate the skin.
Allergic contact dermatitis
Allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) is accepted to be the most prevalent form of immunotoxicity found in humans, and is a common occupational and environmental health problem. By its allergic nature, this form of contact dermatitis is a hypersensitive reaction that is atypical within the population. The development of the disease occurs in two phases, which are induction and elicitation. The process of skin sensitization begins when a susceptible subject is exposed to the allergen in sufficient concentration to elicit the required cutaneous immune response. This causes sensitization and when exposure to the same allergen at a later time at the same or different skin site leads to a secondary immune response at the point of contact. The mechanisms by which this reaction occurs are complex, with many levels of fine control. Their immunology centres on the interaction of immunoregulatory cytokines and discrete subpopulations of T lymphocytes.
Allergens include nickel, gold, Balsam of Peru (Myroxylon pereirae), chromium, and the oily coating from plants of the genus Toxicodendron, such as poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac. Acrylates, rubber chemicals, emulsifiers and dyes, epoxy resin chemicals are just several of the substances that might induce Allergic Contact Dermatitis. Much of the allergic contact dermatitis that arises is caused by occupational exposure. Non-occupational exposure to allergens in medicaments, clothing, cosmetics, and plants are also a significant cause of allergic contact dermatitis.
Sometimes termed "photoaggravated", and divided into two categories, phototoxic and photoallergic, PCD is the eczematous condition which is triggered by an interaction between an otherwise unharmful or less harmful substance on the skin and ultraviolet light (320–400 nm UVA) (ESCD 2006), therefore manifesting itself only in regions where the affected person has been exposed to such rays.
Without the presence of these rays, the photosensitiser is not harmful. For this reason, this form of contact dermatitis is usually associated only with areas of skin that are left uncovered by clothing, and it can be soundly defeated by avoiding exposure to sunlight. The mechanism of action varies from toxin to toxin, but is usually due to the production of a photoproduct. Toxins which are associated with PCD include the psoralens. Psoralens are in fact used therapeutically for the treatment of psoriasis, eczema, and vitiligo.
Photocontact dermatitis is another condition in which the distinction between forms of contact dermatitis is not clear-cut. Immunological mechanisms can also play a part, causing a response similar to ACD.
Since contact dermatitis relies on an irritant or an allergen to initiate the reaction, it is important for the patient to identify the responsible agent and avoid it. This can be accomplished by having patch tests, one of various methods commonly known as allergy testing. The patch tests were based on the concept of a type IV hypersensitivity reaction where there is exposure of allergens to skin and checking for the development of contact dermatitis in that area. This test involves the application of suspected irritant to a part of the skin and cover it with impermeable material and attached to the skin with the help of adhesive plaster. The top three allergens found in patch tests from 2005 to 2006 were: nickel sulfate (19.0%), Myroxylon pereirae (Balsam of Peru, 11.9%), and fragrance mix I (11.5%).
The patient must know where the irritant or allergen is found to be able to avoid it. It is important to also note that chemicals sometimes have several different names, and do not always appear on labels.
The distinction between the various types of contact dermatitis is based on a number of factors. The morphology of the tissues, the histology, and immunologic findings are all used in diagnosis of the form of the condition. However, as suggested previously, there is some confusion in the distinction of the different forms of contact dermatitis. Using histology on its own is insufficient, as these findings have been acknowledged not to distinguish, and even positive patch testing does not rule out the existence of an irritant form of dermatitis as well as an immunological one.
In an industrial setting the employer has a duty of care to its worker to provide the correct level of safety equipment to mitigate exposure to harmful irritants. This can take the form of protective clothing, gloves, or barrier cream, depending on the working environment. It is impossible to eliminate the complete exposure to harmful irritants but can be avoided using the multidimensional approach. The multidimensional approach includes eight basic elements to follow. They are:
- Identification of possible cutaneous irritants and allergens
- To avoid skin exposure, use appropriate control measures or chemical substitutes.
- Personal protection can be achieved by the use of protective clothes or barrier creams.
- Maintenance of personal and environmental hygiene
- Use of harmful irritants in the workplace should be regulated
- Efforts to raise knowledge of potential allergies and irritants through education
- promoting safe working conditions and practices
- health screenings before and after employment and on a regular basis
Topical antibiotics should not be used to prevent infection in wounds after surgery. When they are used, it is inappropriate, and the person recovering from surgery is at significantly increased risk of developing contact dermatitis.
- If blistering develops, cold moist compresses applied for 30 minutes, 3 times a day can offer relief.
- Calamine lotion may relieve itching.
- Oral antihistamines such as diphenhydramine (Benadryl, Ben-Allergin) can relieve itching.
- Avoid scratching.
- Immediately after exposure to a known allergen or irritant, wash with soap and cool water to remove or inactivate most of the offending substance.
- For mild cases that cover a relatively small area, hydrocortisone cream in nonprescription strength may be sufficient.
- Weak acid solutions (lemon juice, vinegar) can be used to counteract the effects of dermatitis contracted by exposure to basic irritants.
- A barrier cream, such as those containing zinc oxide (e.g., Desitin, etc.), may help protect the skin and retain moisture.
If the rash does not improve or continues to spread after 2–3 of days of self-care, or if the itching and/or pain is severe, the patient should contact a dermatologist or other physician. Medical treatment usually consists of lotions, creams, or oral medications.
- Corticosteroids. A corticosteroid medication like hydrocortisone may be prescribed to combat inflammation in a localized area. It may be applied to the skin as a cream or ointment. If the reaction covers a relatively large portion of the skin or is severe, a corticosteroid in pill or injection form may be prescribed.
In severe cases, a stronger medicine like halobetasol may be prescribed by a dermatologist.
- Antihistamines. Prescription antihistamines may be given if non-prescription strengths are inadequate.
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- Matsumoto K, Fujimoto M, Ito K, Tanaka H, Hirono I (February 1990). "Comparison of the effects of bilobol and 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate on skin, and test of tumor promoting potential of bilobol in CD-1 mice". The Journal of Toxicological Sciences. 15 (1): 39–46. doi:10.2131/jts.15.39. PMID 2110595.
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- DermNet dermatitis/contact-allergy
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Researchers and professionals working in engineering and related sectors need access to data to help drive innovation required to address a variety of social, economic, and environmental challenges. If we are unable to access necessary data, then we risk limiting our ability to benefit from new technologies and approaches. When increasing access to data, we must also consider potential negative impacts, for example, on privacy, and ensure we are building capabilities necessary to guide and support its use. This paper introduces a manifesto designed to help drive the behavior change necessary to help unlock the value of data. The nine principles cover a range of factors that will build capability, opportunity, and motivation for sharing and using data. The goal is to help a variety of stakeholders across industry, government, and academia to understand their role in driving change and highlight how a range of existing activities align with these principles.
The ability to easily collect, store, and use large volumes of data is driving change across our economy. Data is helping to increase productivity, support the application of new technologies, enabling innovative research, and the development of new products and services.
Many studies have attempted to assess the value of the data economy and from increasing access to data. For example, European Commission (2017) estimates that the European Union (EU) data economy was worth €300 billion in 2016, and estimates that this will have increased to €739 billion in 2020. McKinsey (2018) projected that data-enabled applications of artificial intelligence (AI) will generate $13 trillion in new global economic activity by 2030.
European Data Portal (2020) estimates that the value of open data for the EU28+ was €184 billion in 2019, and forecast it to reach between €199.51 and €334.21 billion by 2025. The report also looked at employment figures, with 1.09 million open data employees in 2019 and 1.12–1.97 million open data employees forecast by for 2025.
However, as a recent report by the Bennett Institute (Coyle et al., Reference Coyle, Tennison and Kay2020) has highlighted, putting a precise figure to the value of data is extremely difficult. This is in part due to the variety of types of data, and the unanticipated ways in which they can be reused. The report argues that the specific economic characteristics of data, and the data economy, mean that market forces alone will not be able to realize its full potential. One contributing factor (London Economics, 2019a) is the mutual uncertainty across data producers and consumers of the potential uses, users, volume, variety, or quality of data that is available.
Based on this research, it is clear that to increase the social, economic, and environmental value from data, will require the activities of a range of stakeholders across government, businesses, and academia. Specifically, there is a need to change how data are being accessed, used, and shared.
2. Realizing the Value of Data in Engineering and Related Sectors
The open data, open government, and open research communities are examples of movements whose goals are to increase access to data by changes to norms, practices, and approaches across a broadly defined set of organizations, disciplines, and communities.
Driving behavior change requires organizations that are collecting and stewarding data need to have the capability, motivation, and opportunity to share and open up data (see Michie et al., Reference Michie, van Stralen and West2011). While broad movements can help to build motivation, these need to be supplements by more focused programs that can help to build stronger alignment across stakeholders.
There are variety of examples of more targeted sectoral approaches to driving change in ways that are intended to help address a range of social, environmental, and economic challenges. These include Open Banking in finance (Open Data Institute, 2019a), OpenActive in the physical activity sector (McKenna, Reference McKenna2019) and GODAN (n.d.) in agriculture.
The sharing and use of data are governed by a variety of nested rules. Legislation, to protect privacy, or regulation to mandate access to data to create more equitable markets provide the broader legal context within which organizations and institutions operate. Within that context, specific sector programs, contracting standards, and principles will also shape the governance of data. Professional and organizational norms and policies provide a more specific set of rules. As the open research movement has shown, individual incentives and capabilities are also a factor in driving behavior change (Fane et al., Reference Fane, Ayris, Hahnel, Hrynaszkiewicz, Baynes and Farrell2019).
Changing these rules and developing a culture of trusted sharing of data requires a range of stakeholders to take co-ordinated action.
3. Exploring a Manifesto for Change
In our recent report (Lloyd’s Register Foundation, 2019b), we explored a range of potential benefits for increasing access to data in engineering and a range of related sectors, including construction, transport, and health and safety. Our report includes some short case studies and identifies a number of existing barriers to change. Many of these are common to those we have encountered in other sectors.
Recognizing the need for co-ordinated action, we presented a manifesto (Open Data Institute, 2019e) for sharing engineering data. We believe that the principles outlined in that manifesto can help to fulfil two goals.
First, we believe it presents a shared vision of a world where we are able to realize increased value from data, to help to improve safety, engineer a more resilient built environment and adapt to a changing climate.
Second, the principles provide a useful framework for understanding how a variety of existing initiatives are contributing toward delivering that vision for the future. By understanding overlaps and complementary approaches across programs and policy initiatives we hope to help those leading these existing activities identify opportunities for closer collaboration. If gaps are identified, then we hope to incentivize individual stakeholders in taking a leading role within their community or profession. With this in mind, the manifesto includes recommendations for a range of stakeholders including government, professional bodies, funders, the privacy sector, and academia.
In the following sections, we provide some additional background on each of the principles in the manifesto with pointers to relevant work.
3.1 Data is infrastructure
The “Data for the Public Good” report (National Infrastructure Commission, 2017) highlights that
Data is now as much a critical component of national infrastructure as steel, bricks and mortar. Data is part of infrastructure and needs maintenance in the same way that physical infrastructure needs maintenance.
Data infrastructure consists of data assets, technologies, standards, and guidance that inform their collection and use, and the organizations and communities that manage, use, and benefit from it (Dodds and Wells, Reference Dodds and Wells2019).
The concept of spatial data infrastructure dates back to 1993 (National Research Council, 1993). Since then, governments and the geospatial standards and data community have organized around developing, using and maintaining national data infrastructure to support use of spatial data. This has delivered a variety of economic benefits (ESRI, 2010). Assessment of the state of national spatial data infrastructure is now routinely used to review the marketplace for geospatial data and services (GeoBuiz, 2019).
While there are likely to be challenges in adoption of common standards and approaches (Lyubka and Temenoujka, Reference Lyubka and Temenoujka2017) a stronger focus on shared data infrastructure across the engineering and related sectors will help to ensure access to data, drive standards adoption, maintain quality, and ensure security.
3.2. Data must be stewarded
Stewardship involves the responsible management of a resource. When applied to data within an organization, stewardship involves a focus on managing data as an asset, to maximize is value while mitigating potential harms, within a well-defined data governance process that will include, for example, ethical and responsible approaches to data collection and use, maintaining quality, managing access to data, and ensuring legal compliance.
At an organizational level, stewardship of data will take a broader perspective with a goal of delivering responsible, trustworthy, and sustainable access to data across a business ecosystem, to an industry and society as a whole.
Good stewardship helps to make data discoverable and accessible. Stewardship requires a range of activities across the lifecycle of collecting, using, managing, and archiving of data.
The Gemini Principles, developed by the Center for Digital Built Britain emphasize the importance of value creation, curation, and public good benefits of data (CDBB, 2019). These are all important elements of good stewardship.
While there have been efforts to document and understand what good stewardship and management of engineering data looks like in a research context (Howard et al., Reference Howard, Darlington, Ball, Culley and McMahon2010), these approaches are not widely adopted, especially outside of academia.
Lack of clear rights and responsibilities around the stewardship of data and digital resources leads to poor stewardship. Initiatives like Project 13 (Infrastructure Client Group, 2018) aim to address these issues by encouraging strong collaboration, better sharing of digital resources and data, and supporting the wider digital transformation required to support delivery of construction projects.
4. Opening and Sharing Data Unlocks Value
Data exists on a spectrum from closed, to shared, to open (Open Data Institute, 2017). As access to data increases, then more people can access data, allowing us to unlock more value from that same dataset. But, further value can be unlocked by linking and combining this data with other data which is already more accessible.
The Royal Academy of Engineering data-sharing project (RAENG, 2018) illustrated a variety of benefits of increasing access to data, explored some practical challenges and provided guidance on approaching trustworthy sharing of data.
If, due to the economic characteristics of data, the market will be unable to realize its full value, then an alternative approach is required. This requires governments, businesses, and communities to be more intentional about deciding where on the data spectrum, different types of data should reside. Making data as open as possible, while protecting people’s privacy, commercial confidentiality, and national security.
This is particularly important for “foundational” datasets, like geospatial data, which might typically be combined with a large number of other types of data assets.
Wherever data exists on the data spectrum, making it Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR, see Wilkinson et al., Reference Wilkinson, Dumontier and Aalbersberg2016) are important activities.
4.1. Explore new data sharing models
There are a wide variety of different technical, legal, practical, and institutional approaches that support increasing access to data (Open Data Institute, 2019b). These approaches include research data portals, data review boards, and a growing variety of institutional data stewardship models (Manohar et al., Reference Manohar, Kapoor and Ramesh2020), including data trusts (Open Data Institute, 2019c).
New technical approaches to sharing data are also emerging. These use a combination of cloud computing platforms, synthetic data (Thereaux, Reference Thereaux2019), virtualization, and similar techniques to provide scalable, secure sharing of sensitive data. Practical applications include the variety of data commons approaches explored by Sage Bionetworks to support health research (Kellen, Reference Kellen2019) and the “data safe havens” framework (Alan Turing Institute, 2019).
Building appropriate incentives and support into funding models to ensure that researchers are able to make data FAIR and as open as possible, to comply with open access and open data mandates is also important.
4.2. Use challenges to drive innovation that solves problems
The open data movement has progressed from a standpoint of “open by default” to one of “publish with purpose” (Calderon, Reference Calderon2018). Greater impact has been achieved where opening up and sharing data has been driven by the needs of addressing a specific social, environmental, or economic challenge.
Clarity around which categories of data have higher value, for example, to address specific problems in international development (Open Data Institute, 2015) or as a means to drive economic growth (European Commission, 2020), is helping to prioritize further release of data. But, continued investment and engagement in challenge prizes and similar models can help to inspire innovative approaches (NESTA, 2019).
For example, the EU funded DataPitch program supported innovators in startups and academia to work on a variety of sector-wide and organization specific challenges. The program has helped to encourage collaboration across a wide range of different types of organization, overcoming a variety of data sharing challenges (London Economics, 2019b). The individual projects have led to cost savings from participating organizations and supported the development of new products and services (Open Data Institute, 2020).
In engineering, programs like the Construction Innovation Hub (Construction Innovation Hub, 2019), the Lloyd’s Register Safety Accelerator (Lloyd’s Register Foundation, 2019a), and the Data-centric engineering program (Alan Turing Institute, 2020) are demonstrating the value of a challenge lead approach.
4.3. Regulation must adapt to new technologies and uses of data
The pace of change around new approaches to data collection and applications of machine-learning and AI is creating a variety of regulator challenges, for example, in addressing privacy concerns, or in assuring the safety of digital, robotic, and autonomous systems.
Existing regulation of the engineering and related sectors will need to be extended or adapted to meet this changing environment. Drawing on recommendations from the Council for Science and Technology (Council for Science and Technology, 2018), a recent UK government white paper on modernizing regulation to support the industrial strategy, included the creation of a “Regulatory Horizons Council” as a means of supporting responses to this changing environment (BEIS, 2019).
The regulators themselves will also need to develop their own capacity to use data, their understanding of the increased role data plays in engineering and infrastructure projects, and an understanding of when, where and how to intervene in the sector. Approaches like the regulatory sandboxes being explored in the financial sector (FCA, 2015) illustrate one way in which regulators might work more closely with innovators to develop this understanding.
4.4. Building data literacy and skills
There is ongoing demand for data scientists and data engineering skills (RAENG, 2019). Meeting this need will be necessary for organizations to build the capacity to make use of data, and an understanding of how to safely share it.
But, the growing importance of data and digital skills in a variety of engineering professions (RAENG, 2020) and disciplines means that, while not everyone needs to be a data scientist, there is a need to increase data literacy and skills across a much wider audience.
This will require not just embedding the development of data skills into updated curricula in universities and apprenticeship schemes, but a review of existing professional development, certification and training programs to build necessary skills across the sector.
4.5. Ensure data is used legally and ethically
The engineering profession has always had strong ethical principles and codes of practice (NSPE, 2018). Concerns over applications of machine-learning, algorithmic decision making and uses of data has led to the publication of “ethical AI” principles from a range of organizations around the world. A recent review compared 36 different sets of principles to help identify areas of potential convergence (Fjeld et al., Reference Fjeld, Achten, Hilliglos, Nagy and Srikumar2020).
Moving forward requires guidance that will help turn these principles into practices (Morley et al., Reference Morley, Floridi, Kinsey and Elhalal2019) that will inform the design and delivery of data projects. Tools like the Data Ethics Canvas (Open Data Institute, 2019d) are being successfully applied by a range of public and private sector organizations.
Researchers and data practitioners will need to stay abreast of an evolving legal and regulatory environment, to adapt their working practices, and deploy appropriate privacy preserving technologies to help comply with data protection regulations.
4.6. Share knowledge and insight
To deliver on our wider vision for unlocking value of data for public good requires more than just opening data. Sharing of data, code, models, guidance, and insights is all necessary to maximizing value of data for society. Open access, open source, and open data all have a role to play.
Using the full range of open approaches will be necessary to create value for the public good, and a world where data works for everyone.
In this paper, we have discussed how increasing access to data across the engineering and related sectors can help to address a variety of social, economic and environmental challenges. We have identified the need for action by a range of stakeholders to support behavior changes by creating the necessary capabilities, opportunities, and motivation to increase access to and use of data.
Our manifesto for change is intended to articulate a shared vision and help to build alignment across a range of existing initiatives and programs. We have discussed some of the rationale for the individual elements of the manifesto with reference to recent research and policy debates.
We are building on this work by working with a range of organizations across the engineering, built environment, transport and related sectors on practical projects. We welcome feedback on, and further endorsements of the manifesto.
We look forward to continuing to work with stakeholders across the engineering sector to support the creation of an open, trustworthy data ecosystem.
This research was supported by a grant from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Grant Number GA100182.
The authors declare no competing interests.
Data Availability Statement
Data availability is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.
Writing-original draft, L.D.; Writing-review & editing, L.D., P.L., J.M., and D.Y.
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Food borne virus detection
By Suzanne Jordan - 13 June 2014
Two major issues with foodborne virus detection are that viruses need a host cell in which to replicate (they do not grow on food), and that viral RNA or DNA, even if present, may or may not be infective.
Over recent years there has been an increase in the level of food borne illness associated with food contaminated with viruses. Of significant importance are hepatits A (HAV) and norovirus (NoV). Virus related foodborne illness is becoming a major issue, as highlighted by the recent outbreaks of HAV in Italy and NoV in Germany. Epidemiological data show that NoV is a major cause of infectious intestinal disease in the UK (and the world). Over the last 10 years there has been a significant increase in the number of reported cases of NoV in England and Wales, with nearly 11,000 recorded in 2012. The route of NoV infection is known to be through one of two routes: person-to-person spread and the consumption of contaminated food, although the percentage contribution of these two vectors in outbreaks is not always known. Evidence has shown, however, that large outbreaks of NoV and HAV have occurred due to contaminated foods, so manufacturers may want to check that process controls that they have in place to control viruses are effective. An ACMSF report on food borne viruses in the food chain has been open for consultation recently and this document could influence what controls are deemed necessary.
One of the characterising features of viruses is that they require host cells for replication. This creates unique challenges for the detection of foodborne viruses which are reliant on molecular based techniques to provide sensitive analysis. An ISO technical standard has been published which details the method to be followed for the detection of HAV and NoV in food products. It uses a real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (real time RT-PCR) assay for detection and the protocol has 3 distinct steps:
- Virus recovery from the food sample
- RNA extraction
- Detection of virus RNA using real time RT PCR
Matrix specific virus recovery is required to cope with the complexity of the matrices being analysed and the potential low level of contamination of virus particles in the sample.
RNA extraction is required to reduce the potential impact of PCR inhibitors within the sample that may prevent the detection of virus particles. The extraction process involves the purification of the RNA using silica coated magnetic beads. At the end of the wash steps, the purified viral RNA is released from the beads into an elution buffer prior to PCR analysis.
Results generated using this method give an indication of the presence of virus particles in samples, although it cannot provide information on the potential for their infectivity. Further development is required to create assays that provide information on the presence of infective viruses in foods and food related environments. This assay could be used in conjunction with effective controls to monitor food safety in relation to virus contamination.
We can provide expert advice and analysis to the food industry with:
- State-of-the-art virus detection in foods using methods compliant with the new ISO standard for virus testing
- Optimised, validated protocol for the detection of HAV and NoV in soft fruit salad and related products with additional capability to detect HAV and NoV on food processing surfaces
- Advice on controls and interpretation of results
Following a Food Science degree, Suzanne completed a PhD at the University of Nottingham in the Food Microbiology group. During her career to date she has participated in multidisciplinary research projects.
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This course provides an introduction to community psychology. This discipline is a justice-oriented field of psychology that is uniquely rooted in interconnection and context. In this course, learners will examine the definitions, principles, history, values and methods of community psychology. The course will also explore major theories guiding community psychology practices and the applications of community psychology. Key concepts will be applied to analyze real-world social problems from a community psychology perspective and to identify appropriate social interventions.
45 credits of 100-level or higher coursework including PSYC 100 and PSYC 101
PSYC 329 is an approved Self and Society course for Cap Core requirements.
PSYC 240 is recommended.
Please note: Course outlines of record posted may vary from the section syllabus distributed by each instructor (e.g. textbooks, assignments, timing of midterms).
|Spring 2022 onwards|
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What is Zero Trust Network Architecture? A crash course
In simple terms, zero trust is based on these principles: apply granular access controls and do not trust any endpoints unless they are explicitly granted access to a given resource. Zero Trust Network Architecture is simply a design that implements zero trust principles and yields what is known as Zero trust Network Access (ZTNA).
Zero Trust Architecture represents a fundamental shift from traditional castle-and-moat solutions such as Internet-based VPN appliances for remote network access. With those traditional solutions, once an endpoint authenticates, they have access to everything on the same network segment and are only potentially blocked by application-level security.
In other words, traditional solutions trusted everything on the internal network by default. Unfortunately, that model doesn’t hold up well for the modern digital business. The reason zero trust has become necessary is enterprise networks have changed drastically over the last decade, and even more so over the last six months.
Remote work is now the norm, critical data flows to and from multiple public clouds, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is common practice, and WAN perimeters are more dynamic than ever. This means enterprise networks that have a broader attack surface are strongly incentivized to both prevent breaches and limit dwell time and lateral movement in the event a breach occurs. Zero Trust Architecture enables micro-segmentation and the creation of micro-perimeters around devices to achieve these goals.
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4 Common Myths About a Healthy Heart—Debunked
HEALTH & WELLNESS
When you think about it, our heart is pretty darn amazing. This one little fist-shaped muscle on the left side of our chest keeps us alive. And yet, so many of us put more effort and energy into buffing, oiling, and keeping our cars in top-notch condition than we do our heart’s health.
One reason is that there’s a lot of misinformation circulating about how to keep the heart healthy—why we’re addressing these myths here.
This way, you’ll have the information you need to keep your heart ticking for a long, long time to come.
Heart disease doesn’t run in my family — why I don’t really worry about it.
You’re right: heart disease does typically run in families. In fact, your risk of heart disease increases if your father or a brother was diagnosed with cardiovascular disease before 55 years of age, or if your mother or a sister was diagnosed with cardiovascular disease before 65 years of age.1
But heart disease doesn’t only occur in those with a family history of it. Heart disease can occur even in those with no genetic link to heart disease. What causes it? Heart disease is the result of plaque buildup, also called atherosclerosis, in your arteries that changes the arteries from being smooth and elastic to narrow and rigid—preventing blood from flowing normally to the heart.
In fact, this plaque starts to deposit in your arteries from the time you’re young based on your diet (typically a diet rich in red meat and other foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol)—and can slowly accumulate in the walls of your arteries as you get older, inflaming them and increasing your risk of heart attack and stroke.
The bottom line is that heart disease is a progressive disease, which means it can get worse as you get older—family history or not.
I eat a pretty healthy diet and exercise, so I’m not at risk for any heart problems.
Eating healthy and exercising are two of the key ways to prevent heart disease, but there are other risk factors for heart disease that you should know about:
High blood pressure: Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps blood. If this pressure rises and stays high over time, it can damage the arteries.
High cholesterol levels—including LDL or “bad” cholesterol levels: Cholesterol, particularly LDL cholesterol, is what contributes to plaque buildup in arteries. HDL or “good” cholesterol, on the other hand, helps remove cholesterol from your arteries. The higher your HDL, the lower your risk of heart disease.
Stress and/or depression: Stress can cause your arteries to narrow, raising your blood pressure. Also, people who are depressed are up to three times more likely to develop heart disease than people who aren’t depressed. Two reasons: The mental stress that accompanies depression may increase plaque formation in the arteries. Depression may also increase the production of compounds called free radicals that can damage the lining of the blood vessels.
Anemia (having a lower than normal number of red blood cells—which carry oxygen to cells): You can develop anemia if your red blood cells don’t contain enough hemoglobin (an iron-rich protein that carries oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your organs). This means your organs aren’t getting enough oxygen-rich blood, which means your heart has to work harder to compensate for the lack of oxygen—putting you at higher risk of heart disease.2
Inadequate nutrition is the most common cause of anemia. Production of hemoglobin depends upon the mineral iron, most prominent in meat, poultry, and egg yolks. It’s also found in green leafy vegetables, dried beans, and whole grains.
Also important: Foods rich in vitamin C, which help the body absorb iron, and B vitamins. Taking a daily multivitamin with iron and these nutrients, like Centrum® Silver® Women Multivitamin, can also help you give the nutrients you need to prevent anemia.
Diabetes and pre-diabetes. These two conditions raise your risk of cardiovascular disease more in women than in men. In fact, having diabetes doubles a woman's risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The reason: high blood glucose levels, over time, can damage nerves and blood vessels.3
So while eating healthy and exercising are key to a healthy heart—there are plenty of other factors that can put your heart at risk.
I smoke, but I eat healthier and exercise more than most people. My heart is doing fine.
Smoking is one of the worst things you can do for your heart. It exposes you to carbon monoxide, a chemical that robs your blood of oxygen and triggers a buildup of plaque in your arteries (even if you are eating a healthy diet).
Smoking also increases the risk of blood clots forming in your arteries. Blood clots can block plaque-narrowed arteries and cause a heart attack. Add to this that smoking can lower your levels of HDL cholesterol—and quitting smoking can raise HDL levels by up to 10 percent.4
Bottom line: The longer you smoke, the greater your risk for a heart attack. Stopping smoking—while maintaining your healthy diet and exercising—will keep your amazing heart even healthier.
I’ve got a strong heart! I exercise regularly.
Exercising is one key to a healthy heart. In fact, people who don’t exercise are nearly twice as likely to develop heart disease as those who are physically active.5 But diet is another key part of the equation. In fact, foods that contain too much saturated fat, trans fats, and dietary cholesterol can contribute to high levels of blood cholesterol (which can get deposited in the arteries over time, narrowing them and restricting blood flow to the heart).
Saturated fat is found in foods like whole milk, high-fat cheese, butter, whole-milk ice cream, palm and coconut oils, high-fat cuts of meat like rib eye and T-bone steaks, and sausages and hot dogs (and other processed meats). It’s generally recommended that you keep saturated fat to less than 7% to 10% of your total daily calories.
Trans fats are types of fat found in foods that contain partially hydrogenated oil. They’re found in fried foods and fast foods, as well as in processed foods like cakes, cookies, frozen pizza, and microwave popcorn. Opting for 0 grams of trans fats when choosing foods is best.
Dietary cholesterol is found in animal products, such as eggs, meat, and cheese. Cholesterol is a waxy substance that can combine with fat, calcium, and other substances in the blood to form plaque in the arteries.
When it comes to a healthy heart, knowing how to mitigate your risk factors, detailed above, is key—as your risk of heart disease rises with the number of risk factors you have. Having just one risk factor doubles your risk for cardiovascular disease. Having two risk factors increases your risk for cardiovascular disease fourfold. Having three or more risk factors increases your risk for cardiovascular disease more than tenfold.
Hope this information helps you stay healthy. Be well!
1 “Who is at Risk for Heart Disease?” National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute;
2 “Anemia as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease in the atherosclerosis risk in communities (aric) study,” Mark J Sarnak, MD*; Hocine Tighiouart, MS, et al., Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Vol. 40, 1, July 2002;
3 “Diabetes, Heart Disease, and Stroke,” National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse;
4 “HDL Cholesterol: How to Boost Your ‘Good’ Cholesterol”, MayoClinic.com;
5 “Your Guide to Physical Activity and Your Heart,” U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services; National Institutes of Health; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute;
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Diet for a healthy pregnancy
Should I eat differently now I'm pregnant?
Now that you're a mum-to-be, it is important to eat well. This will make sure you get all the nutrients you and your developing baby need.
If you know you haven't been eating as well as you could, it is even more important to start having nutritious, well-balanced meals. Your daily meals should include a variety of foods from the four main food groups shown in the Food Standards Agency's eatwell plate:
- Fruits and vegetables. You can buy these fresh, frozen, tinned, dried or juiced. Aim for at least five portions each day.
- Starchy food. These include bread, pasta, rice and potatoes. Try to choose wholegrain options.
- Foods rich in protein. These include lean meat and chicken, fish, eggs and pulses (such as beans and lentils). Try to aim for at least two portions of fish a week, including of oily fish.
- Dairy foods. These include milk, cheese and yoghurt, which contain calcium.
Dairy products, along with sea fish and sea salt are all good sources of iodine (NHS 2011). You need plenty of iodine in your diet to help your baby's development (Vanderpump 2011).
Do I need to eat more now I’m pregnant?
Your body becomes more efficient when you're pregnant, and makes even better use of the energy you get from your food. This means you don’t actually need any extra calories for the first six months of pregnancy. Then you only need about 200 extra calories per day for the last three months. Two hundred calories is equivalent to:
- a slice of wholemeal toast with a small can of baked beans
- a toasted pitta bread with two tablespoons of reduced-fat hummus
- a slice of malt loaf or fruit scone with butter or spread
- one slice of cheese on toast
Your appetite is your best guide of how much food you need to eat. You may find your appetite fluctuates throughout your pregnancy:
- In the first few weeks your appetite may fall away dramatically and you may not feel like eating proper meals, especially if you have nausea or sickness.
- During the middle part of your pregnancy your appetite may be the same as before you were pregnant or slightly increased.
- Towards the end of your pregnancy your appetite will probably increase. If you suffer from heartburn or a full feeling after eating you may find it helpful to have small, frequent meals.
The best rule to remember is to eat when you are hungry. Have a good balance of foods every day and you will gain weight steadily as your baby grows.
Should I take any vitamin supplements?
In an ideal world, free of morning sickness or food aversions, a balanced diet would be all you'd ever need. But an antenatal vitamin-mineral supplement may be good insurance to make sure you’re getting the right nutrients.
It's recommended that you take two important supplements during your pregnancy:
- 400 micrograms (mcg) folic acid a day for the first 12 weeks
- 10mcg of vitamin D a day throughout your pregnancy
Later on in your pregnancy you may need to take an iron supplement (NICE 2008). Your iron levels will be checked during your pregnancy, and your doctor or midwife will advise you about your needs. Calcium is also important while you’re pregnant, as you'll now need twice as much each day.
You could take a special pregnancy multivitamin that contains folic acid, vitamin D, iron and calcium. Look for one that also contains vitamin C, vitamin D, B vitamins such as B6 and B12, potassium, zinc, iodine and vitamin E.
Don't take any supplements which contain retinol, the animal form of vitamin A. In large quantities, this can be toxic to unborn babies (EVM 2003). However, the plant-based carotene type of vitamin A is safe in pregnancy (EVM 2003). Also don’t take megadoses of vitamins and minerals, as this could be harmful to your baby.
Talk to your doctor or midwife about special supplements you might need if you:
- are a strict vegetarian or vegan
- have diabetes or gestational diabetes
- have pre-eclampsia
- have anaemia
- have had a baby with a low birth weight before
Are there any foods I shouldn’t eat during pregnancy?
There are some foods that you’ll have to steer clear of during pregnancy, because they could be unsafe for your baby:
- Cheeses with a white, mouldy rind, such as brie and camembert, and blue-veined cheeses such as roquefort (FSA n.d.b). All these cheeses could contain listeria, a bacteria that could harm your baby.
- Pate, and raw or undercooked meat and eggs. All are possible sources of bacteria that can harm your unborn baby. When cooking meat and eggs, make sure they are cooked properly (FSA n.d.b).
- Raw seafood, such as oysters, or sushi that has not been frozen before making (FSA n.d.a).
- Shark, swordfish or marlin. These fish contain unsafe levels of naturally occurring mercury (FSA 2004a, FSA 2004b). Tuna contains some mercury too, so it's best you don't eat more than four medium-sized cans, or two fresh tuna steaks per week (COT 2003, FSA 2004a).
- Don't eat liver and liver products (such as pate or liver sausage), because they may contain large amounts of the retinol form of vitamin A. Too much of this could be harmful to your developing baby (FSA n.d.b).
- You should stop or cut down on drinking alcohol during pregnancy, too (BMA 2007, DH 2007). If you want to drink during your pregnancy, some experts recommend that you leave it until after your first trimester (NHS 2013). Even then, don’t drink more than one or two units of alcohol, once or twice a week, and don't get drunk (DH 2007, FSA n.d.b, RCOG 2006).
- It's best not to have more than 200mg of caffeine a day. That’s two mugs of instant coffee or four cups of tea or five cans of cola a day (FSA n.d.c). You could switch to decaffeinated hot drinks and colas, instead.
Starchy foods, such as potatoes and bread, are an important part of your diet, but try not to over-cook or over-bake them. When starchy food is fried, baked, roasted or grilled at high temperatures a natural chemical, called acrylamide, forms.
Some research has suggested that eating a lot of acrylamide-rich food in pregnancy may be associated with low birth weight (FSA 2012, Pedersen 2012). Experts say more research is needed to be sure. But it's easy to reduce levels of acrylamide in your diet, so you may think it's worth doing anyway:
- Fry potatoes and chips so they take on only a light colour.
- Toast bread so it’s pale brown.
- Cook pre-prepared foods that need frying or oven-heating according to the packet instructions. (NHS 2011)
- Try not to eat too many packet biscuits or ready meals, as acrylamides have been found in processed foods.
Store potatoes somewhere dark, cool and dry, but not in the fridge. Putting them in the fridge can increase the amount of sugar they hold, which could lead to higher levels of acrylamide when you bake, roast or fry them (NHS 2011).
Can I go on a diet?
Dieting during pregnancy could harm you and your developing baby. Some diets can leave you low on iron, folic acid, and other important vitamins and minerals. Remember, weight gain is one of the most positive signs that you’re having a healthy pregnancy.
So if you're eating fresh, wholesome foods and gaining weight, just relax. You're supposed to be getting bigger!
If you are overweight, you can improve your diet by cutting out foods high in fat and sugar and taking some exercise. However, see your doctor first for advice before changing how much you eat or doing more exercise.
What's a healthy way to put on weight?
It's best to gain weight gradually. You'll probably gain between 10kg and 12.5kg during your pregnancy (DH 2009).
Bear in mind that weight gain varies among women, and how much weight you put on during your pregnancy depends on many factors. So concentrate on eating a healthy diet of plenty of starchy carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables, protein, and milk and dairy foods, and just a little in the way of fats and sugars.
When you put on weight may be as important as the amount you put on. You may gain the least weight during the first trimester. Your weight should then steadily increase throughout the second trimester, and you may put on the most weight over the third trimester, when your baby is growing the most.
How many meals should I eat?
Even if you're not hungry, chances are your baby is, so try to eat regularly. Aim for three meals and two to three healthy snacks in between. And if morning (or all-day) sickness, food aversions, heartburn, or indigestion make eating a chore, eat less, more often. You may find that eating five or six small meals is easier on your body.
Eating high-fibre and wholegrain foods will help to keep you feeling full, and will be more nutritious, too.
Can I still have occasional treats?
You don't have to give up all your favourite foods just because you're pregnant. But foods and snacks high in fat, salt and sugar shouldn't be the main part of your diet, either.
So as far as snacks are concerned, try a banana rather than a packet of crisps or tinned fruit in juice rather than ice cream. But don't feel guilty if you fancy the occasional biscuit. Enjoy every bite!
Image Credits: Ermolaev Alexander/Shutterstock.com
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Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
Occupying less than a third of the world’s land mass, forests provide $250 billion in income, are essential to the livelihoods of 1 out of every 4 people on the planet, contain 80% of Earth’s terrestrial biodiversity, and absorb up to a third of all carbon emissions.
Since 1990, more than 300 million hectares of forests have been destroyed. Deforestation contributes 10–15% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, reduces agricultural productivity, and undermines food security globally. Forest loss endangers both biodiversity and the livelihoods of a quarter of the world’s population.
CIFOR envisions a more equitable world where forestry and landscapes enhance the environment and well-being for all.
The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) is a non-profit, scientific facility that conducts research on the most pressing challenges of forest and landscape management around the world. Using a global, multidisciplinary approach, we aim to improve human well-being, protect the environment, and increase equity. To do so, we help policymakers, practitioners and communities make decisions based on solid science about how they use and manage their forests and landscapes.
CIFOR’s work is based on three pillars, all of which are essential for achieving our mission:
- Research for impact
- Capacity development
- Outreach and engagement
Research focuses on the following six thematic areas:
- Forests and human well-being
- Sustainable landscapes and food
- Equal opportunities, gender, justice and tenure
- Climate change, energy and low-carbon development
- Value chains, finance and investment
- Forest management and restoration
CIFOR is proud to work with local and international partners. CIFOR is a CGIAR Center and leads the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry.
CIFOR is headquartered in Bogor, Indonesia, and maintains hubs in Nairobia, Kenya, Yaounde, Cameroon, and Lima Peru. Research in the six thematic work areas is underway in more than 50 countries.
Feature image: Silas Matoke and his wife Yordana Yawate, harvesting sago known as ‘pangkur‘ on the banks of the Tuba river in Honitetu village, West Seram regency, Maluku province, Indonesia on August 22, 2017. Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/CIFOR
Physical Address: Jalan CIFOR, Situ Gede, Bogor Barat 16115, Indonesia
Mailing address: P.O. Box 0113 BOCBD, Bogor 16000, Indonesia
Media & Communications
Jeremy Van Loon
Team Leader, Outreach and Engagement
News from Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
New TRANSITONS program tackles three roadblocks to scale up agroecology24.11.22
Empowering farmers is critical across all TRANSITONS projects, speakers say Agroecology, as an appro…Read more
Long road ahead to translate NBS into practice23.11.22
Successful Nature-based Solutions (NBS) are made in the details Nature-based solutions (NBS) have qu…Read more
OECMs: An opportunity to turn ‘coercive conservation’ upside down21.11.22
Fuller Symposium 2022 calls on new conservation approach to follow Indigenous People’s lead People…Read more
Publications from Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
Research support to address barriers and accelerate the impact of the Great Green Wall Initiative27.01.23
Climate adaptation & mitigation
Analysis of policies relevant to the Great Green Wall Initiative in Senegal27.01.23
Climate adaptation & mitigation
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Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) usually contain a liquid electrolyte and lithium-intercalating electrode materials for anode and cathode. For a high energy density, the use of metallic lithium anodes is essential. Unfortunately, their application is hindered by the highly nonuniform electrochemical deposition of lithium during recharging. This leads to the formation and growth of needle-like crystals (dendrites), which ultimately cause a short circuit of the battery.
Previous efforts to prevent dendrite growth included the use of lithium-ion conduction ceramics (LICCs), which mechanically suppress dendritic growth. However, they have to be of substantial thickness, which prevents practical application.
Ho-Cheol Kim, IBM Research, San Jose, CA, USA, and colleagues describe a flexible lithium-ion conducting membrane, which consists of only a single layer of LICC particles (pictured dark blue) firmly embedded in a polymer matrix (light blue), with their top and bottom surfaces exposed to allow lithium-ion transport. The membrane shows high lithium-ion conductivity as well as high mechanical stability at a thickness of only 100 μm. The researchers showed that the membrane successfully prevents the growth of lithium dendrites, thus enabling the use of metallic lithium anodes in lithium-ion batteries.
- Flexible Ion-Conducting Composite Membranes for Lithium Batteries,
Nagaphani B. Aetukuri, Shintaro Kitajima, Edward Jung, Leslie E. Thompson, Kumar Virwani, Maria-Louisa Reich, Miriam Kunze, Meike Schneider, Wolfgang Schmidbauer, Winfried W. Wilcke, Donald S. Bethune, J. Campbell Scott, Robert D. Miller, Ho-Cheol Kim,
Adv. Energy Mater. 2015.
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