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Officials working to restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem have released more details on a proposed pump-building project that would boost water supplies to farms and cities.
The California Natural Resources Agency released thousands of pages in the preliminary draft of the Bay | Officials working to restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem have released more details on a proposed pump-building project that would boost water supplies to farms and cities.
The California Natural Resources Agency released thousands of pages in the preliminary draft of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan on Wednesday.
The 50-year plan calls for building two tunnels to divert water around the delta and keep water pumps away from fish. It also outlines the creation of nearly 120,000 acres of fish and wildlife habitat to mitigate the tunnels' impact.
Documents show the project initially could harm some fish species, but would benefit them in the long run.
Officials say they hope to finalize the plan later this year. It still needs state and local approval before building can begin.
The Associated Press |
From Geriatric Pharmacy Intern Dana Ross Pharm.D. (c) Palm Beach Atlantic University School of Pharmacy
Shingles, among stroke risk factors such as tobacco use, hypertension, or high blood pressure, and diabetes has shown increased chance of stroke. | From Geriatric Pharmacy Intern Dana Ross Pharm.D. (c) Palm Beach Atlantic University School of Pharmacy
Shingles, among stroke risk factors such as tobacco use, hypertension, or high blood pressure, and diabetes has shown increased chance of stroke. Investigators found shingles, an infection of herpes zoster, to be a risk factor for stroke. Shingles is caused by varicella zoster virus, which also causes chickenpox. It manifests as a painful, tingling rash that begins as a blistered rash unilaterally, or one side of the body. This rash typically scabs in about five days and clears within four weeks, sometimes two weeks. When people get the chickenpox the virus stays in the cells and for most people it does not resurface, but for some it will reoccur and cause shingles. The study looking at 7,760 patients with a history of shingles and 23,280 patients without a history of shingles found people with a history of shingles had a risk of stroke 30% higher than those without. The risk was quadrupled when the infection was near and involving the eye. The participants with average age 47 were followed up after 12 months after treatment for shingles. It was found that 1.7% of patients with history of shingles had a stroke and 1.3% of controls (those with no history of shingles) had a stroke. Patients had a 31% greater chance to have a stroke if they had a history of shingles. It was also found that those with the infection in the eye and near the eye were 4.28 times greater chance for stroke. These findings uncovered an emerging risk factor for stroke that is a step further for stroke prevention and management. Attention should be paid to patients with history of shingles and other stroke risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, and tobacco use. |
In the movie Back to the Future, all it took was some garbage and a banana peel to fuel a flux capacitor which sent Emmett "Doc" Brown's DeLorean through time. While a device that converts any matter into such immense energy | In the movie Back to the Future, all it took was some garbage and a banana peel to fuel a flux capacitor which sent Emmett "Doc" Brown's DeLorean through time. While a device that converts any matter into such immense energy doesn't yet exist, scientists can make graphene out of just about anything as long as it contains carbon, including Girl Scout Cookies.
To illustrate how graphene can be made from food, insects and waste, Rice University students recently invited a troop of Houston Girl Scouts to their lab to show them how it's done.
Graphene is a "miracle material" made from a single-atom-thick sheet of the same material in pencil lead. It can be used in the fabrication of anything from next-generation transistors to carbon nanotubes, and other exotic materials.
The researchers calculated that at the then-commercial rate for pristine graphene -- $250 for a two-inch square -- a box of traditional Girl Scout shortbread cookies could turn a $15 billion profit. And a sheet of graphene made from one box of shortbread cookies would cover nearly 30 football fields.
Whether it be cookies, grass, polystyrene plastic, or insects, the researchers made from it high-quality graphene via carbon deposition on copper foil. The work is published online today by ACS Nano.
The process takes about 15 minutes and requires a furnace turned up to 1,050 degrees Celsius flowing with argon and hydrogen gas. Graphene forms on the opposite side of the foil as solid carbon sources decompose while the other residues are left on the original side.
James Tour, a professor at Rice University said the Girl Scouts took away an important lesson from their visit: "They learned that carbon -- or any element -- in one form can be inexpensive and in another form can be very expensive." He also pointed to diamonds as a good example. "You could probably get a very large diamond out of a box of Girl Scout Cookies."
As commercial interests develop methods to manufacture graphene in bulk, the cost is expected to drop, said Tour in a release.
My question is: Will the research team retire early? |
SAT Subject Tests
What are the SAT Subject Tests?
SAT Subject Tests are the only national admission tests that measure students' knowledge and skills in particular subject areas, and their ability to apply that knowledge. They are closely linked to the high school curriculum | SAT Subject Tests
What are the SAT Subject Tests?
SAT Subject Tests are the only national admission tests that measure students' knowledge and skills in particular subject areas, and their ability to apply that knowledge. They are closely linked to the high school curriculum and have a proven track record of providing colleges with a highly reliable, objective assessment of student readiness for college-level work. The SAT Subject Tests give students an additional opportunity to distinguish themselves and showcase their skills in a particular subject area.
Helping colleges objectively assess student knowledge and skills
A student's high school grades and course selection are excellent indicators of how well that student is going to do in college. But course content and grading standards vary widely among high schools, making it difficult for colleges to compare the academic records of their applicants. How can colleges effectively and objectively assess a student's mastery of specific content areas?
Educators trust the SAT Subject Tests as a useful part of the college application process because they are:
- Highly reliable and valid
- A recognized, accurate measure of college readiness and subject-area knowledge
- A proven method for placing and advising students based on their individual academic preparation
- A way for students to show their thorough knowledge of a certain subject, as well as their academic interest and determination to succeed
Each year, nearly 500,000 students take SAT Subject Tests to demonstrate their mastery of particular subjects. Colleges across the country use the tests as a common and objective scale for evaluating a student's mastery of specific content areas.
Helping your students with the SAT Subject Tests
Help your students choose the Subject Tests that will best demonstrate their knowledge and skills to colleges. Help them learn about and succeed on the tests by assisting them to:
- Understand the SAT Subject Tests
- Understand what subjects are offered, how the tests are developed, and when they should take them
- Find the best ways to practice for the SAT Subject Tests
- Access free and low-cost resources the College Board offers educators and students to better understand and get ready for the SAT Subject Tests
- Register for the test and find: |
What Is SPSS?
SPSS is a statistical analysis package produced and sold by the multinational company SPSS Inc. SPSS was developed in the late 1960s by Norman H. Nie, C. Hadlai Hull, and Dale | What Is SPSS?
SPSS is a statistical analysis package produced and sold by the multinational company SPSS Inc. SPSS was developed in the late 1960s by Norman H. Nie, C. Hadlai Hull, and Dale H. Brent. Their purpose was to develop “a software system based on the idea of using statistics to turn raw data into information essential to decision-making” (SPSS Inc., n.d., About SPSS, para. 2). Originally, the initials “SPSS” stood for “Statistical Package for the Social Sciences,” but since the market for SPSS is much broader today, SPSS is now simply the name used for the product and company and not an...Click here to see full text |
A constitution is the bedrock-authorizing document of a sovereign state. Without it the government has no legitimate grounds to operate, or even exist. With a constitution, the government is both empowered by its enabling provisions, and constrained from doing anything that | A constitution is the bedrock-authorizing document of a sovereign state. Without it the government has no legitimate grounds to operate, or even exist. With a constitution, the government is both empowered by its enabling provisions, and constrained from doing anything that is expressly prohibited or merely not authorized by it.
Proposal 10-1 was automatically placed on the November 2, 2010 ballot, and asks Michigan voters to decide whether to call a constitutional convention to revise the 1963 Michigan Constitution. The people of Michigan have adopted over four state constitutions over the years. First in 1835, when Michigan achieved statehood, then again in 1850, 1908 and most recently in 1963, after the ballot question passed in the April 1961 election by a margin of about 7,500 votes after a statewide recount.
By comparison, the United States has had only one constitution over the past 220 years. By the terms of the 1963 constitution, the question of whether to convene a constitutional convention is automatically placed on the ballot every 16 years starting in 1978. In 1978, 77 % of voters rejected the constitutional convention. In 1994 a landslide 72% voted no.
There are advocates from across the political spectrum that supports a yes vote on the constitutional convention question. In 2006, a self appointed group of government insiders calling itself “Citizens for Michigan”, made 62 specific recommendations to change the constitution, including the elimination of term limits on elected officials, and urged approval of the call for a constitutional convention in 2010. These and other proponents say Michigan government is broken and needs a constitutional convention to update and overhaul its government structure and fix its problems. Boil down the yes vote argument to, “our state's 47 year-old constitution is out of date and it's time for a new one.”
So the question is whether to embrace change - wholesale change - or to rely on the methods already in place to make incremental change as needed in the Michigan constitution. While it is an aspiration to suppose that, after a yes vote, the people would elect competent visionaries to develop a constitution that would somehow save Michigan, the reality of what happens next, and how much it could cost taxpayers, is very sobering.
If a constitutional convention were called by a yes vote in November, then delegates would be elected in two separate elections. The elections would be partisan, with a primary election held first and then a general election to be held no later than May 3, 2011. One-hundred-forty-eight delegates would be elected, 110 from State House districts and 38 from Senate districts. Millions of taxpayers' dollars spent just to elect delegates to the convention.
Then would come the convention itself, which could last over a year and cost $30 million. The 148 delegates would have to convene in Lansing by October 4, 2011. The convention could be expected to last at least until July 2012 and would be unlimited in scope - they can propose a completely new constitution or offer specific amendments. Any proposed constitution or set of amendments approved by a majority of the delegates would go the voters within 90 days after the convention adjourned.
Therefore, the process itself would require taxpayers to pay for at least three separate statewide elections plus the cost of the convention itself. This cost to taxpayers could total over $45 million.
Tools for Change Already in Place
However, the people of Michigan already have the tools they need to amend their constitution when and where needed. The initiative process allows citizens to propose a constitutional amendment on a particular subject by submitting about half a million voter signatures.
Even the legislature can propose a specific constructional amendment with the support of 2/3 of the legislature acting jointly. Since 1963, our current Michigan constitution has been amended 30 times; 37 proposed amendments have been rejected. Only nine of the 30 amendments were a result of petition drives; the others were referred by joint action of the legislature.
Twenty-one of the 37 proposed amendments rejected by the voters were placed on the ballot by petition. These constitutional amendments generally happen without any extra election costs (the elections are generally held on general statewide election dates), and pose no threat of a runaway convention, which could radically alter the state as we know it.
The prospect of a runaway convention explains why a Con-Con is opposed by the representatives of big labor and big business alike. The very real prospect of radical unwarranted structural change for change's sake poses a threat to business, labor, Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, TEA party activists, and interest groups of all kind.
According to Joseph Lehman, president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, “The prospect of rewriting a constitution could attract some truly exceptional, public-service minded candidates, but it would probably attract even more of those who would typically run for the Legislature, along with term-limited former lawmakers. It might especially draw highly charged, single-issue candidates whose priorities could make the convention agenda read like the contents of Pandora's Box.”
In fact, the Michigan constitution is flawed in some respects, but our state's problems are not due to the institutional arrangements and structures that the constitution establishes - blame is the combined effect of an entrenched political class com |
Definition of Bone marrow aspiration
Bone marrow aspiration: The removal of a small amount of liquid bone marrow through a needle. The needle is placed through the top layer of bone, and a liquid sample containing bone marrow cells is obtained through the needle by | Definition of Bone marrow aspiration
Bone marrow aspiration: The removal of a small amount of liquid bone marrow through a needle. The needle is placed through the top layer of bone, and a liquid sample containing bone marrow cells is obtained through the needle by sucking (aspirating) it into a syringe. The suction causes pain for a few moments. Bone marrow aspiration is done to diagnose and follow the progres |
Te Pito Te Henua, or Easter Island, by William J. Thompson,, at sacred-texts.com
The most ancient monuments of Polynesia are the lithic and megalithic remains, coincident in style and | Te Pito Te Henua, or Easter Island, by William J. Thompson,, at sacred-texts.com
The most ancient monuments of Polynesia are the lithic and megalithic remains, coincident in style and character with the Druidical circles of Europe, and the exact counterpart of those of Stonehenge and Carnac in Brittany. These earlier efforts of the human art are invariably the remains of temples, places of worship, or of edifices dedicated in some way to the religion and superstitions of extinct generations, whose graves cover every island and reef. The most numerous, and perhaps the most ancient structures, are quadrangular in shape, and are composed of loose lava stones, forming a wall of great firmness and strength. These temples frequently exceed 100 feet in length, with a
proportionate width, and were designed to be roofless. They contain remains of altars composed of the same materials as the wall of the main inclosure, generally located at one end, and in shape resembling parallelograms. In many cases, these edifices are in as perfect a state of preservation as when countless numbers of human victims were immolated upon their altars, though time has obliterated all traces of everything perishable.
In the search for prehistoric remains, the diversified character of the many islands that dot the South Sea should be borne in mind. Coral groups and atolls, these wonderful formations produced by the ceaseless work of zoöphytic animals, being of comparatively recent creation, were perhaps merely tide-water reefs, when the islands of purely volcanic character were peopled by lawless and turbulent tribes, constantly engaged in warfare and in making depredations upon each other. Even where there is sufficient evidence of antiquity to warrant the search, the absence of monuments upon the low-lying islands of coral formation, may be accounted for by the lack of suitable material for their construction, or to the destroying hurricanes that occasionally sweep across this part of the Pacific, which are accompanied by a furious sea that breaks completely over the narrow atolls, carrying death and devastation to all things animate and inanimate.
The height of the atolls, in many cases, does not exceed 5 or 6 feet above the normal level of the sea surrounding them, and instances are unfortunately abundant, of islands that have been transformed in a few hours, from a scene of tropical luxuriance and with a contented people surrounded by nature's most bountiful gifts, to one of titter barrenness and desolation. The largest and most important islands of Polynesia are of volcanic character, and bear evidences of having been inhabited from a remote period. Here may be duplicated the Teocallis of Palenque, Copan, and Uxmal. In some islands these ancient monuments were searched out with great difficulty, having been so completely overgrown with dense tropical vegetation that their existence was not suspected by the indifferent people of to-day.
While the islanders never advanced to a high civilization, and their best efforts consist in cromlechs, dolmens, and elevated platforms or truncated pyramids, their handiwork is still preserved, and points with abundant interest to the history of a rude and early age.
The primitive Polynesians, like their contemporaries, the Incas of Peru, may be judged in regard to their condition and history, by the monuments, they have left, for with the exception of Easter Island, there is no trace of their having possessed a written language. Tribes flourished, were conquered and passed out of existence, without leaving a trace behind them except perhaps, a shadowy tradition. The natives in this genial climate have always dwelt in rude structures of thatch and cane, which after a few years of abandonment would decay and leave no sign behind, unless it be a few broken implements lying about. Among
them, traditions have always been preserved with care, and it is wonderful to find how the history of a people call be followed in this way for hundreds of years. The Samoans claim a complete chronicle dating through twenty-two generations of the reigning family of Malietoa, and extending over a period of eight hundred years, while the Tongans can chronicle a fairly accurate history of their priesthood through twelve centuries. 1
The priests have usually been the custodians of the national traditions, and there is sufficient evidence to show that every precaution was taken to have them handed down front one generation to another, pure and unchanged, for oral record was their only means of committing to posterity the deeds of their ancestors.
To be intrusted with the traditions, constituted of itself an office of high dignity, and the holder was afforded the protection of a taboo of the most rigorous character.
Family records were perpetuated with the national history, but as might be expected, |
“Faithless” is the word that dominates this section of Malachi. It occurs five times in Malachi 2:10-16 (10, 11, 14, 15, 16) and only here in Mal | “Faithless” is the word that dominates this section of Malachi. It occurs five times in Malachi 2:10-16 (10, 11, 14, 15, 16) and only here in Malachi. “Faithless” comes from the root bagad that means to deal with another treacherously. This word characterizes Israel’s covenantal relations and thus epitomizes what is broken in the life of post-exilic Judah.
“One” (‘ehad) is another key word. It is used four times in this brief section–twice in 2:10 and twice in 2:15. The one God makes one community, one family, one marriage. This oneness, a unity in community, is rooted in the oneness of God. Israel, as God’s child, is to exhibit this fundamental unity.
But the intended oneness is marred and subverted by the faithlessness of God’s people.
This answers the question which Malachi’s prophetic word raised for the people. Malachi (2:13) noted that Judah covers the altar of God with tears and sighs. They bring their sacrifices but there is no joy because God does not accept their offerings. This allusion reminds us of the previous section in Malachi–two addresses to the priests–which describes how God has rejected the sacrifices of the people.
The people, however, ask, “Why does he not?” Malachi’s answer is two-fold: (1) faithlessness in their relations with each other whereby they profaned the sanctuary (2:10-11a) and (2) faithlessness in their relations to their spouses (2:11b-12, 14-16). The latter receives the emphasis but it is set against the broad backdrop of the first.
The meaning of “faithless” (bagad) is related to the use of “garment” (beged). The verb is probably related to the noun such that the meaning of the verb has the sense of “garmenting” others or “covering up” others. To “cover up” another is to treat them in ways that reflect inequity; it is to dishonor another through fraud, cheating or swindling. It is a failure to act in good faith with another person. This has application both to the wider community and particularly to marriage. We see the fruit of this in Malachi 3:5 where such faithless acts are listed.
The unity of the community is assumed because Israel has “one Father” and “one God” who created or begat this community. This communal consciousness should be a barrier to treacherous activity toward another community member, but, alas, Malachi complains that “we are faithless to one another” (or, more literally, a man is faithless to his brother). This, in effect, “profanes the covenant of our fathers” and even “profanes the sanctuary” of Yahweh (2:10-11).
Malachi had used this word to describe how the priests had profaned or defiled the sacrifices by their words and actions (1:12). The faithlessness of Judah has dishonored the divine presence (sanctuary) and disrupted the covenant relationship with God. Covenant and sanctuary are at the heart of Israel’s way of life and faithlessness subverts both of them.
Malachi, in this section, focuses attention on a significant post-exilic problem. His attention is squarely set on the faithless act of marrying “the daughter of a foreign god.” Ezra and Nehemiah dealt decisively with this problem in Ezra 9-10 and Nehemiah 13:25-27. The language of Nehemiah parallels Malachi’s accusation. Nehemiah asked, “Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?” Marriage to a foreign wife was itself an act of faithlessness which violated the covenant between Yahweh and Israel as it opened the covenant community to potential, if not de facto, idolatry.
Malachi does not pass over this pervasive post-exilic problem with just a few words. He confronts Judah |
The emancipation of women, the achievement of full equality between the sexes, is essential to human progress and the transformation of society.
Two Wings of a Bird:
The Equality of Women and Men
The emancipation of women, the achievement of full | The emancipation of women, the achievement of full equality between the sexes, is essential to human progress and the transformation of society.
Two Wings of a Bird:
The Equality of Women and Men
The emancipation of women, the achievement of full equality between the
sexes is essential to human progress and the transformation of society.
Inequality retards not only the advancement of women but the progress of
civilization itself. The persistent denial of equality to one-half of the
world's population is an affront to human dignity. It promotes
destructive attitudes and habits in men and women that pass from the
family to the work place, to political life, and ultimately to
international relations. On no grounds, moral, biological, or traditional
can inequality be justified. The moral and psychological climate
necessary to enable our nation to establish social justice and to
contribute to global peace will be created only when women attain full
partnership with men in all fields of endeavor.
The systematic oppression of women is a conspicuous and tragic fact of
history. Restricted to narrow spheres of activity in the life of society,
denied educational opportunities and basic human rights, subjected to
violence, and frequently treated as less than human, women have been
prevented from realizing their true potential. Age-old patterns of
subordination, reflected in popular culture, literature and art, law, and
even religious scriptures, continue to pervade every aspect of life.
Despite the advancement of political and civil rights for women in
America and the widespread acceptance of equality in principle, full
equality has not been achieved.
The damaging effects of gender prejudice are a fault line beneath the
foundation of our national life. The gains for women rest uneasily on
unchanged, often unexamined, inherited assumptions. Much remains to be
done. The achievement of full equality requires a new understanding of
who we are, what is our purpose in life, and h |
LIMA – Peru is broadening restrictions on commercial fishing to prevent the collapse of an important global fishery that has been ”pillaged” to worrisome lows, the government said on Tuesday.
The government has decreed a large strip of | LIMA – Peru is broadening restrictions on commercial fishing to prevent the collapse of an important global fishery that has been ”pillaged” to worrisome lows, the government said on Tuesday.
The government has decreed a large strip of Peru’s coastal waters off limits to industrial fishing in a bid to ensure future generations of anchovy, which reproduce and spawn in shallow waters.
Big boats can no longer fish within 10 miles (16 km) of the shore along Peru’s central and northern coast, or within seven miles (11 km) of its southern shores.
Production Minister Gladys Triveno said poor industry practices – such as throwing away unintended catches of young fish to avoid government fines – have largely caused the anchovy’s population to dwindle.
Other species are also affected because they are picked up indiscriminately in industrial nets, she said.
Last year her ministry slashed the anchovy quota for industrial fishing operations for the November-February season to its smallest allowance in decades after government scientists found the species’ population had shrunk 40 percent in just one year.
Most of Peru’s anchovy catch is ground up and exported as protein-rich fishmeal to feed pigs in China or farmed fish in Europe.
Peru is the world’s top fishmeal exporter and produces about a third of the global supply.
Anchovy prefer the cold waters of the nutrient-rich Humboldt current, which is home to a fifth of the world’s fish catch and flows northward from Chile to Peru.
Triveno said the new policy will likely mean the anchovy catch will come in below last year’s 3.7 million tonnes, which itself was a 38 percent reduction over 2011.
To boost domestic consumption of anchovy – high in protein and omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids – the new rule allows small and medium-sized boats to fish where industrial ships cannot as long as their catches end up in food markets in Peru.
”We insist on putting direct human consumption of anchovy first,” said Triveno.
But critics, including environmentalists and a group that represents fishmeal producers in Peru, say |
Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
- Main article: Implosive therapy
Flooding is a form of behaviour therapy for the treatment of phobias and other anxiety disorders.. It | Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
- Main article: Implosive therapy
Flooding is a form of behaviour therapy for the treatment of phobias and other anxiety disorders.. It is called an exposure treatment, where the patient is exposed to their feared object. In doing so the realisation that they have encountered their most dreaded object or situation, and come to no actual harm, can be a powerful form of therapy. Flooding was invented by psychologist Thomas Stampfl in 1967..
Theoretically the anxiety provoked is thought to habituate over time and, by remaining in the situation until the intense fear passes, people can more easily make the cognitive changes and parallel behaviour changes to overcome their phobia.
The exposure may occur in the actual presence of the feared object (eg a spider), in which case this is said to be in vivo exposure,. Alternatively the procedure may involve looking at pictures of the feared stimulus, or producing internal imagery (so called imagianal approach)
Psychiatrist Joseph Wolpe carried out an experiment which demonstrated flooding. He took a girl who was scared of cars, locked her in a car and drove her around for hours. Initially the girl was hysterical but she eventually calmed down when she realised that her situation was safe. From then on she associated a sense of ease with cars.
Flooding therapy is not for every individual, and the therapist will discuss with the patient the levels of anxiety they are prepared to endure during the session.
- Desensitization (psychology)
- Direct therapeutic exposure
- Exposure therapy
- Immersion Therapy
- Systematic desensitization
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||Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge
||For students in grades 5-8, this contest fosters the exploration, understanding | Back to Resource Topics
By Subject Area: Science
, For Gifted Students: Academic Competitions
||Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge
||For students in grades 5-8, this contest fosters the exploration, understanding and communication of science. More than 60,000 children from around the country enter science projects in one of the science and engineering fairs affiliated with Science Service. Between June (the deadline for entering) and early September, judges choose 400 semifinalists among the entries. In October, 40 finalists receive an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. for the competition finals, consisting of a series of team challenges and oral presentations. The winners receive scholarships and semifinalists receive prizes.
The appearance of any information in the Davidson Institute's Database does not imply an endorsement by, or any affiliation with, the Davidson Institute. All information presented is for informational purposes only and is solely the opinion of and the responsibility of the author. Although reasonable effort is made to present accurate information, the Davidson Institute makes no guarantees of any kind, including as to accuracy or completeness. Use of such information is at the sole risk of the reader. |
Absorption of water.
Found op http://www.encyclo.co.uk/visitor-contributions.php
[n] - (chemistry) the absorption of a liquid by a solid or gel
Found op http://www.webdictionary.co.uk/definition | Absorption of water.
Found op http://www.encyclo.co.uk/visitor-contributions.php
[n] - (chemistry) the absorption of a liquid by a solid or gel
Found op http://www.webdictionary.co.uk/definition.php?query=imbibition
Im`bi·bi'tion noun [ Confer French imbibition.] The act or process of imbibing, or absorbing; as, the post-mortem imbibition of poisons. Bacon.
Found op http://www.encyclo.co.uk/webster/I/11
1. Absorption of fluid by a solid body without resultant chemical change in either.... 2. Taking up of water by a gel, thereby increasing its size.... Origin: L. Im-bibo, to drink in (in + bibo)... (05 Mar 2000)...
Found op http://www.mondofacto.com/facts/dictionary?imbibition
(im″bĭ-bish´әn) absorption of a liquid.
Found op http://www.encyclo.co.uk/local/21001
• (n.) The act or process of imbibing, or absorbing; as, the post-mortem imbibition of poisons.
Found op http://thinkexist.com/dictionary/meaning/imbibition/
(from the article `Sachs, (Ferdinand Gustav) Julius von`)...der Experimental Physiologie der Pflanzen (1865), he discussed how root hairs remove water from the soil and deliver it to other cells of the...
Found op http://www.britannica.com/eb/a-z/i/10
imbibition The act of imbibing.
Found op http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/296/2
Type: Term Pronunciation: im′bi-bish′ŭn Definitions: 1. Absorption of fluid by a solid body without resultant chemical change in either. 2. Taking up of water by a gel, thereby increasing its size.
Found op http://www.medilexicon.com/medicaldictionary.php?t=43610
Imbibition is defined as the displacement of one fluid by another immiscible fluid. This process is controlled and affected by a variety of factors. In spontaneous imbibition of wetting liquids into porous media (also called wicking), the capillary pressure, created as a result of interplay of the...
Found op http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imbibition
1) Absorption 2) Absorption of water 3) Soaking up
Found op http://www.mijnwoordenboek.nl/EN/crossword-dictionary/imbibition/1
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Which brings us to the second question, namely, how to protect your unvaccinated child from an acute out break of one of these illnesses in the vicinity. The first priority is clearly to know the illness--its signs and symptoms, its | Which brings us to the second question, namely, how to protect your unvaccinated child from an acute out break of one of these illnesses in the vicinity. The first priority is clearly to know the illness--its signs and symptoms, its natural history and vehicles of spread, its prevention and treatment.
Rather than reading this information from a pediatrics text and the passing it along to you, I suggest that you read up on these diseases. Even more importantly, meet with your local pediatrician or primary healthcare provider and plan a course of action. If you cannot immediately find someone whom you can work with or relate to, keep looking. Your local support system is too important to be left for the time when you need to call on it in a hurry.
Taking responsibility for not vaccinating is no different from taking responsibility for a homebirth or any other form of alternative health care. It calls for not a substitute for conventional care, but rather a different relationship to the healing process and the health-care system, based on personal choice and direct participation. We still need help when our children get sick, and we need to know that this help is available to us.
In the event of an outbreak, a great deal can be done to minimize the risk to those exposed and to treat those who actually fall ill--much of which does not involve chemical drugs or vaccines of questionable safety and effectiveness. The homeopathic method, one such approach, uses minute doses of natural substances to stimulate and enhance the natural defense mechanisms of the host. The homeopathic prevention and treatment of specific acute diseases are discussed in detail in the highly recommended book Homeopathy in Epidemic Diseases, by Dr. Dorothy Shepherd, a prominent English homeopath.'
The homeopathic approach to epidemic diseases in general was first employed by Hahnemann in 1799, during an extensive scarlet fever epidemic in the province of Saxony.2 After he had treated a dozen or so cases in the usual homeopathic fashion, giving small doses of remedies capable of producing similar illnesses experimentally, Hahnemann realized that one remedy helped to cure at least 75 percent of the cases, a second remedy covered another 15 percent or so, and the remaining 10 percent required a variety of different remedies corresponding to the unique features of each case. The principal remedy, which corresponded to the genus epidemicus (the main characteristics of the outbreak as a whole), was then given out prophylactically to people exposed to the disease, and also to patients in the early stages of illness--before the critical point, when other remedies would sometimes be needed, was reached.
The results were quite dramatic. Those so treated either did not get sick at all or suffered much milder illnesses, on the whole, than their compatriots who were not treated or who received the drugs and other heroic measures in standard practice at the time. Hahnemann became justly famous for this exploit; and since this time, his method has been used with equal or greater success throughout the world in treating numerous outbreaks of cholera, typhus, smallpox, yellow fever, influenza, and other acute diseases of similar type. Why it has not been more widely influential in this country is a great mystery, and clearly has to do with the historic decline of homeopathy as a thought form until the advent of |
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Parallel programming has been around for decades, but unless one had access to special-purpose hardware, they've probably written mostly single CPU applications. One could distribute truly intensive applications across a network - but doing so was a lot | Download now Free registration required
Parallel programming has been around for decades, but unless one had access to special-purpose hardware, they've probably written mostly single CPU applications. One could distribute truly intensive applications across a network - but doing so was a lot of work and involved a lot of overhead. For several years, programming tools have allowed programmers to use multiple threads in the same program. Multiple threads may be able to run on multiple CPUs within the computer so multi-threading sometimes provides nice speed improvements. This paper provides an introduction to TPL. It explains the main pieces of TPL and provides simples examples.
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DuraPulp is a bio-degradable, composite material invented by the Swedish manufacturer Södra. It is made from wood pulp and PLA (polyactic acid, a biologically degradable polymer produced from corn starch) and can be mould | DuraPulp is a bio-degradable, composite material invented by the Swedish manufacturer Södra. It is made from wood pulp and PLA (polyactic acid, a biologically degradable polymer produced from corn starch) and can be moulded or pressed into any thinkable shape. After being heated the material becomes stiff and durable. The Swedish manufacturer Wästberg already developed a lamp with this promising material and at this year’s Salone Satellite the young Swedish designers Rasmus Malbert and Johannes Tjernberg from Modern Times presented this series of lamps made from DuraPulp. ‘A piece of forest’ is composed of a variable number of hexagonal shingles which are mounted on the wall or on screen or set together to a collar of small lamps. The light source is a short LED strip, glued into the shells. |
Income gap between black, white families grows
Published: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 6:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 6:38 a.m.
WASHINGTON | Income gap between black, white families grows
Published: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 6:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 6:38 a.m.
WASHINGTON - Decades after the civil rights movement, the income gap between black and white families has grown, says a new study that tracked the incomes of some 2,300 families for more than 30 years.
About two-thirds of American families have higher incomes than their parents did 30 years ago, but prosperity is not spreading evenly, according to a series of reports.
Among the findings:
Median incomes for white families, with wage earners in their 30s, increased from $50,262 in 1974 to $60,000 in 2004, when adjusted for inflation. That is an increase of 19 percent.
Median incomes for black families of the same age group increased from $31,833 in 1974 to $35,010 in 2004, an increase of 10 percent.
Children born to the poorest families were more likely to surpass their parents' income than children from any other income level. However, children from the highest-income families were the most likely to grow up to have high incomes.
Source: The Economic Mobility Project
Incomes have increased among both black and white families in the past three decades - mainly because more women are in the work force. But the increase was greater among whites, according to the study being released today.
One reason for the growing disparity: Incomes among black men have actually declined in the past three decades, when adjusted for inflation. They were offset only by gains among black women.
Incomes among white men, meanwhile, were relatively stagnant, while those of white women increased more than fivefold.
"Overall, incomes are going up. But not all children are benefiting equally from the American dream," said Julia Isaacs, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
Isaacs wrote a series of three reports that looked at the incomes of parents in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and of their grown children 30 years later. Isaacs compared the incomes of parents who were in their 30s with the incomes of their children, once they reached the same age group.
Parents have long hoped that their children would grow up to be more successful than they were. Hopes were especially high for black children who came of age following the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
The reports found that about two-thirds of the children surveyed grew up to have higher family incomes than their parents had 30 years earlier.
Grown black children were just as likely as whites to have higher incomes than their parents. However, incomes among whites increased more than those of their black counterparts.
The result: In 2004, a typical black fami |
Technology Research Section
More widespread use of electric vehicles (EVs) is formulated as a national policy and expected by the public, leading to numerous environmental advantages such as the reduction in CO2 emissions in the transportation sector, as well as no exhaust | Technology Research Section
More widespread use of electric vehicles (EVs) is formulated as a national policy and expected by the public, leading to numerous environmental advantages such as the reduction in CO2 emissions in the transportation sector, as well as no exhaust gas emissions and less vibration and noise. Conventional electric vehicles are prone to many technical problems such as a decrease in cell performance and the loss of heating energy, especially in cold and snowy regions. In this regard, it was believed that a lot of time would be required for the introduction and widespread use of electric vehicles. However, thanks to the recent technological development of high-performance lithium-ion batteries and motors, EVs have been developed to a more practical level.
Under the circumstances, the Research & Development Department has obtained data and technological findings in verification test runs of iMiEV (EVs made by Mitsubishi Motors Corporation), and is now examining the feasibility of widespread use of EVs in cold and snowy regions.
［Conditions of verification test runs for iMiEV］
*See Fig.1 and 2 about the comparison of gasoline to electric vehicles
Fig.1 Gasoline vehicle
Fig.2 Electric vehicle
［Results of the verification test runs］
Fig.3 Mileage image per full charge
High-speed chargers which have been installed in the Tokyo metropolitan area on a trial basis are planned to be put on the market and they are expected to be introduced in Hokkaido as well. Therefore, we will extract practical problems on electric charge in cold regions, discuss about their adaptability, and examine the feasibility of EVs, including the surrounding infrustructure. |
Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
The Bethlem Royal Hospital of London, which has been variously known as St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlem Hospital, Bethlehem Hospital and Bedlam, is | Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
The Bethlem Royal Hospital of London, which has been variously known as St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlem Hospital, Bethlehem Hospital and Bedlam, is the world's oldest psychiatric hospital. The word Bedlam has long been used for lunatic asylums in general, and later for a scene of uproar and confusion.
History of BethlemEdit
Bethlem has been a part of London since 1247, first as a priory for the sisters and brethren of the order of the Star of Bethlehem. Its first site was in Bishopsgate Street (where Liverpool Street station now stands). In 1330 it is mentioned as a hospital, and it admitted the mentally ill from 1377, though by 1403 there were only nine inmates. Early sixteenth century maps show Bedlam, next to Bishopsgate, as a courtyard with a few stone buildings, a church and a garden. Conditions were consistently dreadful, and the care amounted to little more than restraint. There were 31 patients and the noise was "so hideous, so great; that they are more able to drive a man that hath his wits rather out of them"'. Violent or dangerous patients were manacled and chained to the floor or wall. Some were allowed to leave, and licensed to beg. It was a Royal hospital, but controlled by the City of London after 1557, but managed by the Governors of Bridewell. Day to day management was in the hands of a Keeper, who received payment for each patient from their parish, livery company, or relatives. In 1598 an inspection showed neglect; the Great Vault (cesspit) badly needed emptying, and the kitchen drains needed replacing. There were 20 patients there, one of whom had been there over 25 years.
Bethlem Royal Hospital became famous and infamous for the brutal ill-treatment meted out to the insane. In 1675 Bedlam moved to new buildings in Moorfields, outside the City boundary. In the 18th century people used to go there to see the lunatics. For a penny one could peer into their cells, view the freaks of the "show of Bethlehem" and laugh at their antics, generally of a sexual nature or violent fights. Entry was free on the first Tuesday of the month. Visitors were permitted to bring long sticks with which to poke and enrage the inmates. In 1814, there were 96,000 such visits. The lunatics were first called "patients" in 1700, and "curable" and "incurable" wards were opened in 1725-34.
Eighteenth century Bethlem was most notably portrayed in a scene from William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress (1735), the story of a rich merchant's son whose immoral living causes him to end up in a ward at Bethlem. This reflects the view of the time that madness was a result of moral weakness, leading to'moral insanity' to be used as a common diagnosis.
In 1815, Bedlam was moved to St George's Fields, Lambeth (into buildings - designed by Sydney Smirke - now used to house the Imperial War Museum), where the inmates were finally referred to as "unfortunates." This building had a remarkable library as an annexe which was well frequented. Although the sexes were separated, in the evenings, those capable of appreciating music could dance together in the great ballroom. In the chapel the sexes were separated by a curtain. Finally, in 1930, the hospital was moved to an outer suburb of London, on the site of Monks Orchard House between Eden Park, Beckenham and Shirley.
In the early modern period it was widely believed that patients discharged from Bethlem Hospital were licensed to beg. They were known as Abraham-men or "Tom O' Bedlam". They usually wore a tin plate on their arm as a badge and were also known as Bedlamers, Bedlamites, or Bedlam Beggars. In William Shakespeare's King Lear, the Earl of Gloucester's son Edgar takes the role of a Bedlam Beggar in order to remain in England unnoticed after banishment. Whether any were ever licensed is uncertain. There were probably far more who claimed falsely to have been inmates than were ever admitted to the hospital.
Bethlem Royal todayEdit
Bethlem Royal Hospital is now part of the South London & Maudsley NHS Trust ('SLaM'), along with the Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell. SLAM provides mental health and substance misuse services to people from Croydon, Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham, together with substance misuse services for Bexley, Greenwich and Bromley, along with national specialist services, eg the National Psychosis Unit. There are a range of services at the Hospital, from substance misuse and eating disorders services to units for children and adolescents.
The hospital also houses an active occupational therapy department, well-known for its vibrant exterior and focus on the arts. The department has its own art gallery that displays the work of current patients, and a number of noted artists have been past patients at the hospital over the years. Several examples of their work can |
OverviewJoan of Arc, born in Domremy in France in 1412, began to hear voices when she was thirteen and, believing they were directives from God, followed them - to the French court, to battle to wrest France from | OverviewJoan of Arc, born in Domremy in France in 1412, began to hear voices when she was thirteen and, believing they were directives from God, followed them - to the French court, to battle to wrest France from the English in the Hundred Years War, and to defeat and capture. She was put on trial for heresy and, on 30 May 1431, burned at the stake. Even today many people are fascinated by this teenage |
Division of Early Childhood Education »DECE Home
Years of research and our experiences in the Abbott school districts have shown that high quality preschool for at-risk children is the single most productive step we can take to improve the quality of education in our state | Division of Early Childhood Education »DECE Home
Years of research and our experiences in the Abbott school districts have shown that high quality preschool for at-risk children is the single most productive step we can take to improve the quality of education in our state. When at-risk children attend high quality preschool, they enter kindergarten more ready to learn. The gap between these children and their more economically privileged classmates is dramatically reduced.
An essential component of the School Funding Reform Act of 2008 is an expansion of high quality preschool to (1) all three- and four-year-olds in District Factor Group (DFG) A and B school districts, (2) to all three- and four-year-olds in DFG C and D school districts with 40% or greater low-income students, and (3) all other low-income three- and four-year-olds in the remaining school districts. This expansion will be phased-in over time. |
Squares and Sticks
LYONSW at UCONNVM.UCONN.EDU
Thu Jun 16 13:05:50 EST 1994
RAS = RAP. I said that if two squares UNIQUELY share | Squares and Sticks
LYONSW at UCONNVM.UCONN.EDU
Thu Jun 16 13:05:50 EST 1994
RAS = RAP. I said that if two squares UNIQUELY share a stick, then
there score would be N-2. If three squares share a stick, RAP (=RAS)
if N-3. N=25.
All sticks shared by any number of squares ARE counted (including
those sticks shared by 3,4,5...24 squares.
I slipped when I wrote RAS; I originated this problem in a phylogenetic
(systematics) context, where similarities unique to groups of
organsims are called "synapomorphies" ( = uniquely derived character
I constructed this analogy to clarify the problem. Here, synapomorphies
are uniquely shared sticks. 2+ squares can share a stick uniquely.
The reason why I call the measure relative apparent proximity is that
1. Counting each stick as a "synapomorphy" to a pair each time
makes the SIGMA RAP score RELATIVE, and
2. Sometimes as stick will be shared by two squares which do not
share a contimerous border, making an individual RAP score APPARENT
The problem really is that I am the colleague, and evolution is
the sender. All we can tell from overall similarity is that
organism A and B are more similar overall. Parsimony measures
are relative, but we constrained by assumptions of economy of
evolution, and because each hypothetical ancestor is |
Definitions for ice hockey rink
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word ice hockey rink
ice hockey rink, ice-hockey rink(noun)
an ice rink for playing ice hockey
Ice hockey rink | Definitions for ice hockey rink
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word ice hockey rink
ice hockey rink, ice-hockey rink(noun)
an ice rink for playing ice hockey
Ice hockey rink
An ice hockey rink is an ice rink that is specifically designed for ice hockey, a team sport. It is rectangular with rounded corners and surrounded by a wall approximately 40-48 inches high called the boards.
Find a translation for the ice hockey rink definition in other languages:
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"ice hockey rink." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2013. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. <http://www.definitions.net/definition/ice hockey rink>. |
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
Character List Essay
Huck depicted on the raft with the "King and Duke"
Mark Twain photographed in 1903
Huckle | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
Character List Essay
Huck depicted on the raft with the "King and Duke"
Mark Twain photographed in 1903
Huckleberry Finn: Also called "Huck," "Finster," or "Rumples" in various parts of the novel. Huck is the title character, hero and narrator. He is poorly educated, rude and rustic, but is also very thoughtful and an excellent banjo player.
Jim: A runaway slave who has escaped from his owner, Miss Watson. He joins Huck and they travel on a raft down the Mississippi.
Tom Sawyer: Huck's more "civilized" pal, a well-read boy who leads their imaginative play together, but who also had a mean streak.
Aunt Polly:Tom Sawyer's guardian.
Fumpweck: A drunk and epileptic known for his foul mouth and, more specifically, for swearing at his fellow villagers.
Widow Douglas: Huck's adoptive mother, a straight-laced, religious woman.
Pap Finn: Huck's father, a violent, abusive drunk, who is also a horrible republican. He schemes to steal Huck's money.
The King and Duke: Two scam artists who claim to be royalty.
The Hangleworfs: A wealthy family that takes Huck in. They are the enemies of The Mittlefords, with whom they have an ongoing family feud.
Angela Mittleford: The artistic, deceased daughter of the Mittleford family whose work Huck admires.
Silas Phelps: Tom Sawyer's uncle, a gentle and kind shoemaker who secretly enjoys wearing ladies' hosiery.
Mrs. Sally Phelps: Tom Sawyer's aunt.
Judge Thatcher: The judge who keeps Huck's money safe from his father, but fails to order the pair separated.
The Silk Sisters: Four sisters from whom the King and Duke attempt to scam an inheritance and with whom Huck and Jim have a brief affair
Miss Watley: A stern and vengeful Christian woman, fond of making people feel guilty and inadequate.
Chapters 1-7: Twain starts the book by providing a notice to readers that the book is a continuation of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" that takes place between the year 1864 and 1865. He warns the reader that several dialects are used in the book, including "Penjooby," a pidgin form of Jamaican spoken widely by slaves in the nineteenth century south.
As the book begins, Huck, the narrator, tells us that he and Tom have recently found a large chest full of gold and valuable French postcards, and that now he is living with Widow Douglas--who has taken him in as her son-- in her apartment. His father, he tells us, went to the store for tobacco and whiskey, but never returned. He lets us know that, though he misses him a little after five years of separation, his father often beat him when he was drunk and he would often hide in the woodshed when his father was at home.
Widow Douglas tries to educate Huck, but Huck makes little progress. Huck has other interests, though: He describes a four-story tree-house he has built that includes an ingenious bathroom with crude indoor plumbing. This is Twain's way of letting readers know Huck is gifted.
Huck, Tom Sawyer, and two other boys meet regularly in the tree-house to hold a meeting of their club, "The Gang of Four." Tom leads the adventures and pranks, but Huck grows bored of their play, saying " "Taint no fun no-how to be make-believin' all the time; I'm-a-itchin' to have some real adventures!" The adventures soon follow:
Suddenly, Pap shows up drunk at Widow Douglas' apartment threatening to take Huck's money. He beats Huck viciously with a Hickory stick and assaults the Widow with a curler-tin and several antimacassars, then he hauls Huck's battered body off in his ox-cart. When Huck comes to, he strikes his father on the back of the head with half-filled sack of buckwheat and Pap is run over by the wheels of the cart. As his father's body lays lifeless in the wheel-rut, Huck heads for the Mississippi. Near the shore, he is able to obtain a birch-bark canoe and provisions from a local Indian woman, trading them for an old vest button, a tin pennywhistle and some used sealing wax. Before he heads down the river, he cleverly stages his own murder: He kills a deer with his pistol, then smears blo |
Trombidium muscae domesticae
Requests: If you need specific information on this remedy - e.g. a proving or a case info on toxicology or whatsoever, please post a message in the Request area www.homeovision.org | Trombidium muscae domesticae
Requests: If you need specific information on this remedy - e.g. a proving or a case info on toxicology or whatsoever, please post a message in the Request area www.homeovision.org/forum/ so that all users may contribute.
Tromb. is a parasite found singly or in groups upon the c |
Konin is a town on the Warta river in central Poland. It is the capital of Konin County. Since 1999, it has been in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. Previously, it was the capital of Kon | Konin is a town on the Warta river in central Poland. It is the capital of Konin County. Since 1999, it has been in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. Previously, it was the capital of Konin Voivodeship (1975-1998). |
The giant jellyfish with arms grasping deep sea equipment.
Remarkable footage of a rarely seen giant deep sea jellyfish has been recorded by scientists.
Using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), they captured a video of the huge Stygiomed | The giant jellyfish with arms grasping deep sea equipment.
Remarkable footage of a rarely seen giant deep sea jellyfish has been recorded by scientists.
Using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), they captured a video of the huge Stygiomedusa gigantea.
The jellyfish has a disc-shaped bell than can be a metre wide, and has four arms that extend up to six metres in length.
The jellyfish has only been seen 114 times in the 110 years it has been known to science, say researchers.
Professor Mark Benfield from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, US, came across the creature as part of the Serpent project, a collaboration between marine scientists and energy companies, including BP, Shell, Chevron and Petrobras, working in the Gulf of Mexico.
Using ROVs provided by the oil and gas companies, scientists are able to explore the deep ocean in more detail, including the so-called mesopelagic and bathypelagic layers of the sea.
In a similar study, researchers recently captured footage of one of the ocean's largest fish, the serpent-like oarfish.
Not much is known about the jellyfish, but it is thought to be one of the largest invertebrate predators in the deep sea ecosystem.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. |
Isabelle Cleary Barnette arrived in Alaska with a ship full of $20,00 worth of goods that she and her husband had purchased in San Fransisco to sell to the miners. Their intention had been to go directly to Tanana | Isabelle Cleary Barnette arrived in Alaska with a ship full of $20,00 worth of goods that she and her husband had purchased in San Fransisco to sell to the miners. Their intention had been to go directly to Tanana Crossing and set up a trading post there, but due to their steamer being unable to navigate the rapids they ended their trip on the banks of the Chena.
On the Chena they built and managed a trading post. In March they left the trading post to go down to the Lower 48 and get more supplies. Isabelle and her husband each drove a dog team over the Alaska Range to Valdez. After the month long journey they still looked great, and according to one man "they looked like they had been on a Sunday drive."
Once they got to Seattle, they bought a new steamboat and supplies. When they returned to their trading post they discovered that there had been a gold strike only sixteen miles away starting a new rush to the area. The Barnettes' named their trading post and the area around it Fairbanks. More and more miners came to Fairbanks to search for gold at the site of this new strike. In a short time a small town had sprung up around the tiny area of Fairbanks. A few months after the rush started there began to be a shortage of food. The miners accused Mr. Barnette of hoarding his food so that he could sell it later at higher prices. The miners grew angry and threatened to attack the place where the Barnettes' were storing their food. Thankfully the confrontation ended peacefully. It was said that this was due to the presence of Mrs. Barnette in the compound where the food was being stored.
The Barnette's had several claims that yielded quite a bit of money. That money combined with the money they received from their trading post was more than enough to make it possible for Isabelle to travel. She took several trips to places including, Washington DC, New York, Kentucky, and Mexico.
In 1910 Isabelle and her two children moved to Los Angeles. And in 1918 she sued for divorce. We have no idea why she divorced her husband, but the settlement gave her $500,000 which was quite a bit of money back then.
|"Isabelle Barnette represents the highest type of that noble class |
Tomorrow marks the fiftieth anniversary of Congolese independence from colonial Belgian rule. On June 30, 1960, the new prime minister of the independent Congolese government, Patrice Lumumba, declared an end to the | Tomorrow marks the fiftieth anniversary of Congolese independence from colonial Belgian rule. On June 30, 1960, the new prime minister of the independent Congolese government, Patrice Lumumba, declared an end to the slavery of colonialism and a new beginning for the country and the liberation of the entire continent of Africa. But today, jubilee independence celebrations in the Democratic Republic of Congo are marred by ongoing violence and increasing political repression, in particular the recent murder of Congo’s leading human rights activist Floribert Chebeya. Meanwhile, repression is on the rise in neighboring Rwanda, as well, ahead of scheduled elections this August, which incumbent president Paul Kagame is widely expected to win. [includes rush transcript]
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Tomorrow marks the fiftieth anniversary of Congolese independence from colonial Belgian rule. On June 30th, 1960, the new prime minister of the independent Congolese government, Patrice Lumumba, declared an end to the slavery of colonialism and a new beginning for the country and the liberation of the entire continent of Africa.
But today jubilee independence celebrations in the Democratic Republic of Congo are marred by ongoing violence and increasing political repression, in particular the recent murder of Congo’s leading human rights activist Floribert Chebeya. He was found dead in his car earlier this month, a day after being called to meet the national police chief. The Joseph Kabila government has announced several investigations and suspended the police chief, but no charges have been filed, and the cause of Chebeya’s death remains unknown.
Meanwhile, repression is on the rise in neighboring Rwanda, as well, ahead of the scheduled elections this August, which incumbent President Paul Kagame is widely expected to win. Two opposition leaders have been arrested. Dozens of opposition party members have been detained. Last week a critical journalist was murdered, a case in which Rwandan authorities deny any involvement.
American attorney and law professor, Peter Erlinder, was also arrested in Rwanda last month, and he was held for nearly three weeks and released on health grounds. Peter Erlinder is a lawyer at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and a past president of the National Lawyers Guild. He was jailed shortly after arriving in Rwanda to help with the legal defense of an opposition presidential candidate charged with “genocide ideology.” Erlinder himself stands accused of violating laws barring the denial of the Rwandan genocide. We turn now to Peter Erlinder, who joins us from the Twin Cities, from Minneapolis.
Peter, welcome to Democracy Now! How are you felling? What happened to you?
PETER ERLINDER: Good morning, Ms. Goodman. Of course, I’m feeling much better now that I’m out of detention, but it strikes me that the earlier piece with Pilger is actually an introduction to this piece, because the reality is that most people in the United States don’t know about the US support for the Kagame dictatorship or the US responsibility for about ten million deaths in the eastern Congo, most of which have been the result of the invasions of the Congo by Rwanda and Uganda in the 1990s and the continued occupation of the Congo today. There’s been a massive disservice done to the American people regarding the truth of their government’s involvement in Central Africa. And unfortunately, until we’re able to find the documents in the UN files that tell the other story, the entire world has been misled with respect to what happened in Rwanda in 1994.
AMY GOODMAN: Why were you arrested? Peter Erlinder, why were you arrested?
PETER ERLINDER: Well, you’ll have to ask that of the Rwandan government, wouldn’t you? I was having breakfast and a croissant, finishing a document that I was working on for my client, and six large men surrounded me and took me away from the hotel. As to why that happened, I suspect that only the Rwandan leaders know.
AMY GOODMAN: They claim that you tried to commit suicide. Is that true?
PETER ERLINDER: Well, it seems to me that there are so many more important issues to talk about, like the ten million people that have been killed in the Congo. The state of my health and getting through that issue, it seems — or that circumstance, seems to me to be not the most important question to talk about. And because it was necessary for me to go public in court, with all of the various ills that I have as a guy who’s getting older, I think I’ve made a complete record of all that up until now, and I’m not talking about that in the media. I’d rather talk about the conditions of the US support for the military dictatorships in Central Africa, which I think is the much larger question.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, why don’t you talk about who you were representing there and what is the situation in Rwanda today —-
PETER ERLINDER: Sure.
AMY GOODMAN: —- and as it relates to Congo, as well.
PETER ERLINDER: OK, thanks a lot. Yeah, I went there to represent Madame Victoire Ingabire, who had left Rwanda before 1994 to study in Europe. She returned at the beginning of this year with the idea of running for the presidency against the current president, Paul Kagame. Within a few ho |
A carpet is any loom-woven, felted textile or grass floor covering. The term was also used for table and wall coverings, as carpets were not commonly used on the floor in European interiors until the 18th century. The | A carpet is any loom-woven, felted textile or grass floor covering. The term was also used for table and wall coverings, as carpets were not commonly used on the floor in European interiors until the 18th century. The hand-knotted pile carpet probably originated in Central Asia between the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC. Carpet-making was introduced to Spain in 10th century by the Moors. The Crusades brought Turkish carpets to all of Europe, where they were primarily hung on walls or used on tables. Only with the opening of trade routes in the 17th century were significant numbers of Persian rugs introduced to Western Europe.
A hooked rug is a simple type of rug handmade by pulling strips of cloth such as wool or cotton through the meshes of a sturdy fabric such |
Type of tree:
The European Olive falls into the following type(s): Evergreens, Flowering Trees, Ornamental Trees
The European Olive grows in acidic, alkaline, drought tolerant, loamy, moist, sandy, well drained soils.
| Type of tree:
The European Olive falls into the following type(s): Evergreens, Flowering Trees, Ornamental Trees
The European Olive grows in acidic, alkaline, drought tolerant, loamy, moist, sandy, well drained soils.
Once established, this tree can be a fantastic conversation piece or source of olives. Unprocessed olives are inedible, but ripe olives can be pressed for oil.
Long-lived trees, olives are planted extensively in Arizona and California as ornamentals. When young, they often require staking and regular yearly pruning. The plant is used in western landscapes.
Insects attracted by the European Olive also become food for birds and reptiles. Wildlife seeks the shelter and protection from predators and the elements that the Olive provides, birds also use it for nesting.
The olive branch is the symbol for peace. This tree dates back nearly 3700 years and its oil is the mainstay of the healthy Mediterranean diet. areas such as Spain, Italy, and Greece
The European Olive tolerates heat, wind and dry conditions very well.
The leaves are green in the summer with little change in the fall.
The blooms on this tree are white.
This tree blooms in the spring..
The fruit of this tree is green to black and 1/2" in diameter. |
Gender Discrimination: Applicable Laws
Below is a list of federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on gender in a number of settings, and links to the full texts of those laws. (Note: Many states have civil rights laws of their own | Gender Discrimination: Applicable Laws
Below is a list of federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on gender in a number of settings, and links to the full texts of those laws. (Note: Many states have civil rights laws of their own which mirror those at the federal level, so your state may have its own laws that are very similar to those identified below. In addition, municipalities like cities and counties can enact ordinances and laws related to civil rights.)
- Civil Rights Act of 1964: Title VII (Equal Employment Opportunities) (FindLaw)
Prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
- The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (FindLaw)
Prohibits creditors from discriminating against credit applicants on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age, or because an applicant receives income from a public assistance program.
- Fair Housing Act (FindLaw)
Prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability.
- Equal Pay Act of 1963 (FindLaw)
Requires that employers pay all employees equally for equal work, regardless of whether the employees are male or female.
- Family and Medical Leave Act (FindLaw)
Gives employees the right to take time off from work in order to care for a newborn (or recently adopted) child, or to look after an ill family member.
- Pregnancy Discrimination Act (EEOC)
Prohibits employment discrimination against female workers who are (or intend to become) pregnant -- including discrimination in hiring, failure to promote, and wrongful termination.
- Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (FindLaw)
Prohibits sex discrimination in education programs that receive federal funds, to increase educational and athletic opportunities for females in schools and colleges nationwide.
- U.S. Code Title 42, Chapter 21 -- Civil Rights (FindLaw)
Title 42, Chapter 21 of the U.S. Code prohibits discrimination against persons based on age, disability, gender, race, national origin, and religion (among other things) in a number of settings -- including education, employment, access to businesses and buildings, federal services, and more. Chapter 21 is where a number of federal acts related to civil rights have been codified -- including the Civil Rights Act of 1866, Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act. |
As climate change progresses it is likely to have dramatic affects on the supply of water. In some areas it may increase, for example at higher latitudes, but water-stressed areas in the mid-latitudes are expected to face a reduction in available | As climate change progresses it is likely to have dramatic affects on the supply of water. In some areas it may increase, for example at higher latitudes, but water-stressed areas in the mid-latitudes are expected to face a reduction in available water.
The projections of per-capita water availability in the maps above were made by Martina Floerke and colleagues at the University of Kassel in Germany, by combining different types of forecast.
- A computer model of climate change developed by the UK Met Office Hadley Centre generates projections of future temperature and rainfall. The Kassel team applied Hadley projections on a finer geographical scale. These projections were fed into a programme that models water flow in river basins.
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) produces "scenarios" suggesting how society may develop economically and socially over time. The Kassel researchers used these scenarios to project water use by various sectors of the economy. (This particular analysis used a scenario where economic growth and technological change are "uneven", and population growth "high".)
Having forecast the availability of water and the demand from industry, it was then possible to calculate how muc |
Path Between The Seas
The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
- reading group guide
- customer reviews
The building of the Panama Canal was one of the most grandiose, dramatic, and sweeping adventures of | Path Between The Seas
The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
- reading group guide
- customer reviews
The building of the Panama Canal was one of the most grandiose, dramatic, and sweeping adventures of all time. Spanning nearly half a century, from its beginnings by a France in pursuit of glory to its completion by the United States on the eve of World War I, it enlisted men, nations, and money on a scale never before seen. Apart from the great wars, it was the largest, costliest single effort ever mounted anywhere on earth, and it affected the lives of tens of thousands of people throughout the world. Here in all its heartbreak and eventual triumph the epic adventure is brought vividly alive by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of such books as The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, Truman, and John Adams.
Filled with vivid detail and incident, The Path Between the Seas is not only a fact-filled account of an unprecedented engineering feat; it is also the story of the people who were caught up in it—some to win fame and fortune, others to have their reputations and even their lives destroyed. For many it was the adventure of a lifetime, an adventure whose like will never be seen again. Out of it came a revolution, the birth of a new nation, the conquest of yellow fever, and the expansion of American power.
Told from many viewpoints, this is an account drawn from previously unpublished and undiscovered sources, from interviews with actual participants and their families, from material gathered in Paris, Bogotá, Panama, th |
There are variety of diet plans available such as low-fat, low-calorie, low-carbohydrate diet plans, and one can also opt for high calorie diet plans to gain weight. Nowadays, with this increasing craze for diet plans, the | There are variety of diet plans available such as low-fat, low-calorie, low-carbohydrate diet plans, and one can also opt for high calorie diet plans to gain weight. Nowadays, with this increasing craze for diet plans, the market has came up with branded diet plans such as 'weight-watchers', 'Jenny Craig', and 'Atkins Diet.'
But mostly, these diet plans fail in providing the desired result. Jessica Bartfield, MD, internal medicine, who specializes in nutrition and weight management at the Loyola Center for Metabolic Surgery and Bariatric Care, in the US, has come up with four reasons behind the failure of diet plans.
The first reason is underestimation of the amount of the amount of calories consumed per day. Next reason is that typically a person needs to cut an average of 500 calories per day, and only exercising and having a diet plan is not enough to cut down those extra calories, it needs 60 minutes or more vigorous activity every day.
The third reason is failing to provide a steady stream of glucose throughout the day to the body, as this is required to maintain the optimal energy in the body, and to carry out metabolism. Finally, the people who sleep for less than six hours, produce a hormone 'ghrelin' in extra amount, and this stimulates the appetite, and in turn leads to weight gain, reported Zee News website. |
Of the more than five thousand varieties of potatoes in the world, the most common variety in the United States is the Red potato. Red potatoes are often labeled as "new potatoes' though this a reference to a potato harvested immaturely
The B | Of the more than five thousand varieties of potatoes in the world, the most common variety in the United States is the Red potato. Red potatoes are often labeled as "new potatoes' though this a reference to a potato harvested immaturely
The Bitter melon is long and slender, similar to the shape of a standard cucumber with a rough, warty edible skin and off-white translucent crisp and bitter flesh bearing flat white bitter seeds.
Rainbow Swiss Chard
Inventory, 12 ct : 28.32
This item was last sold on : 12/07/13
Rainbow Swiss chard is available year round.
Rainbow Swiss chard, also known a 5-color Silverbeet and Bright Lights, botanical name Beta vulgaris subsp. cicla var. Flavescens, is a heritage leafy green often referred to as leaf beet. Chard is distinguished from beets by its lack of enlarged fleshy underground beet. A shared characteristic of both beets and Rainbow Swiss chard is a visible one. They both contain the compound, betalain. Betalains are nitrogen-containing water-soluble compounds that are found only in a limited number of plant lineages. To the naked eye they are simply pigments of red and yellow hues. But in nature, these betalains act as a source of survival, protecting the plant from UV rays while also attracting insects and bees for pollination.
Rainbow Swiss chard is distinguished by its bouquet of wrinkled, slightly savoyed rich green and bronze leaves and bright colored stems. The leaves grow upright and tall from a dense rosette of ribbed stems in a myriad of colors including gold, pink, orange, purple, red, and white with bright and pastel variations. Rainbow Swiss chard is not unique from other chards in its subtle earthy flavors along with slight notes of tang, due to its betalain pigment content. The leaves are succulent and tender when young, the stems, fibrous and sometimes bitter and inedible.
Chard is known to be a nutritional powerhouse vegetable packed with vitamins, nutrients and health benefits. Rainbow Swiss chard contains high levels of vitamins C, K, E, beta-carotene and the minerals manganese and zinc. As noted, it also contains betalain. Betalin pigments have repeatedly been shown to support activity within the body's detoxification process, activating and processing unwanted toxic substances. Betalians are not heat-stable, though, so longer cooking times can decrease their presence.
In the culinary world, Rainbow Swiss chard is used as a salad green and a leaf vegetable, making it a versatile ingredient in the kitchen. It can be used both raw and cooked; cooking will give the leaves a milder flavor. Chard, in general, is used as a substitute for spinach and in tandem with other hardy greens such as kale, leaf mustards and collards. Complimentary ingredients include citrus, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, olive oil, grains such as rice and barley, artichokes, beets, roasted meats and chicken, bacon, cream, cheeses such as pecorino and parmesan and herbs such as basil and arugula.
As its genus, Beta vulgaris, suggests, chard is, in fact, a beet that has been chosen for leaf production at the expense of root formation. All chard varieties are descendents of the sea beet (B. maritima), a wild seashore plant found growing along the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Europe and North Africa. Documentation of Rainbow Swiss chard cultivation dates back to 1636 within the book "The Herball or General History of Plantes", however commercial exposure to Rainbow Swiss chard wasn't until the 19th Century. It was in that era in 1888 that Rainbow Swiss chard first appeared within the Vilmorin Seed Catalog. It is grown both ornamentally and as a food crop. Rainbow Swiss chard plants thrive in cool summer temperatures, but are tolerant of heat and humidity, thus they are adaptable and easy to grow. If you grow chard as a food crop, you will need to protect it from rabbits, deer and birds.
Restaurants currently purchasing this product as an ingredient for their menu.
|Paradise Point Resort Main Kitchen||San Diego CA||858-490-6363|
|US Grant Hotel Main||San Diego CA||619-232-3121|
|Paradise Point Resort Baleen||San Diego CA||858-490-6363|
|The Joint||San Diego CA||619-222-8272|
|Zel's Del Mar||Del Mar CA||858-755-0076|
|La Costa Glen Health Center||Carlsbad CA||760-704-1000|
|P |
Centipedes (Class Chilopoda) are fast-moving venomous, predatory, terrestrial arthropods that have long bodies and many jointed legs. Chiefly nocturnal, centipedes are found primarily in tropical climates but are also | Centipedes (Class Chilopoda) are fast-moving venomous, predatory, terrestrial arthropods that have long bodies and many jointed legs. Chiefly nocturnal, centipedes are found primarily in tropical climates but are also widely distributed in temperate zones. Some species are highly venomous but none can cause death in humans who are not allergic. As in the millipedes, they are highly segmented (15 to 173 segments), but with only one pair of walking legs per segment. Centipedes are dorso-ventrally flattened, and are among the fastest and most agile of non-flying arthropod predators. |
Better Students Ask More Questions.
Show that the mass of sodium hydroxide that would be present in 100 L of the waste...
Show that the mass of sodium hydroxide that would be present in 100 L of the waste water is | Better Students Ask More Questions.
Show that the mass of sodium hydroxide that would be present in 100 L of the waste...
Show that the mass of sodium hydroxide that would be present in 100 L of the waste water is 342 g.
The concentration of sodium hydroxide in waste water from an alumina refinery was found by titrating 20.00 mL aliquots of waste water against 0.150 M hydrochloric acid, using phenolphthalein as indicator. The average titre of several titrations was 11.40 mL.
1 Answer | add yours
High School Teacher
The basic relationship you need to use is:
La*Ma = Lb * Mb
La = liters of acid
Lb = liters of base
Ma = molarity of acid
Mb = molarity of base.
Use your data to solve for the molarity of the base.
The molarity of the base tells you how many moles of base (NaOH) are in one liter. But you have 100 liters. So multiply your answer by 100 to get the number of moles of NaOH in 100 L.
To convert moles to mass, find the formula mass of NaOH and multiply by the number of moles of NaOH you found in the 100 L and you have your |
Last month a task force urged Oklahoma's State Board of Education to require all school districts to extend the school year. If the legislature approves the recommendation, the minimum number of school days would increase from 175 to 190. The national average is | Last month a task force urged Oklahoma's State Board of Education to require all school districts to extend the school year. If the legislature approves the recommendation, the minimum number of school days would increase from 175 to 190. The national average is 180 days.
The idea is being pushed by longtime State Superintendent Sandy Garrett, who also wants to increase the length of the school day from six to seven hours.
The idea is that more time is necessarily better, and it's just not possible to fit in all the required instruction in the time available.
The push for more time in school is not limited to Oklahoma. A longer school year is just the la |
A team of researchers lead by Fatih M. Uckun, MD, PhD, of The Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles has determined that radiation resistance in leukemia can be overcome by selectively attacking a molecular target known as SY | A team of researchers lead by Fatih M. Uckun, MD, PhD, of The Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles has determined that radiation resistance in leukemia can be overcome by selectively attacking a molecular target known as SYK tyrosine kinase.
B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common cancer occurring in children and adolescents. Despite having received intensive chemotherapy, some patients have recurring disease, known as relapse. For these individuals, the prospect of long-term survival is poor.
The standard approach to treating relapsed patients has been additional chemotherapy to achieve a second remission followed by very intensive treatment that could include "supralethal" chemotherapy, total-body irradiation (TBI), and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. However, radiation resistance of leukemia cells hampers the success of these rigorous therapeutic approaches and results in poor survival.
"We knew that we could kill radiation-resistant leukemia cells if we only knew what made them so resistant. So we set out to determine the mechanism," said Dr. Uckun, who is also professor of Research Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. "Once we determined the mechanism, the next step was obvious -- to rationally design a drug that would take out that specific target."
Uckun's research team has now provided the first proof-of-principle that radiation resistance of an aggressive leukemia can indeed be overcome using this rationally-designed specific drug directed against the resistance machinery of leukemia cells.
"Radiation therapy was much more effective against leukemia in mice when it was combined with this new drug candidate that we named C-61," said Dr. Uckun.
Explore further: Cancer drug Xeloda linked to severe skin reactions, official reports
More information: The results of the study will be published in the October 2010 issue of Radiation Research. |
On August 29th
was hit with one of most damaging and costly
hurricanes in the history of the United States
. One of the
disappointing issues of the catastrophe is that the devastation was due
to human engineering failures | On August 29th
was hit with one of most damaging and costly
hurricanes in the history of the United States
. One of the
disappointing issues of the catastrophe is that the devastation was due
to human engineering failures.
would also argue, based on the numerous studies done and warnings
to Katrina, that the magnitude of hurricane damage occurring had been
expected for the area.
Because of the
increasing number of hurricanes predicted to make landfall in the area,
imperative that the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina be examined
and used to prevent future catastrophic results of natural disasters.
In this section, we plan to evaluate the chain
of events surrounding the disaster. |
Free Electron Laser (FEL)
Targets: Antiship cruise missiles, swarms of boats
Confirmed Kills: None
Power: 100-kw class
Range: "Short range tactical"
Platform: Naval Ships
Service: U.S | Free Electron Laser (FEL)
Targets: Antiship cruise missiles, swarms of boats
Confirmed Kills: None
Power: 100-kw class
Range: "Short range tactical"
Platform: Naval Ships
Service: U.S. Navy
In 1989 Boeing was awarded a contract to build a unique laser weapon made from a Free Electron Laseressentially a laser made out of a particle accelerator. Navy ships are the only military platforms big enough to handle such a thing, but the program never really took off. "The USSR went away, and the wall came down," Ed Pogue says.
Two decades ago Pogue worked on the original system; now, he is Boeing's program manager for a new FEL program. This laser tech is back because the beam can be "tuned" to any wavelength, which means it can cut through the misty, salty air at sea. Certain colors of light absorb water better than othersthe trick is to use the color that interacts the least with water and salt.
After all these years, though, Boeing still has plenty of work to do to actually build serious FEL weapons. At minimum, the laser would need to reach 100 kilowatts, and so far the free electro |
|Part of a series on the|
Bengali New Year (Bengali: পহেলা বৈশাখ, Pôhela Boishakh; Bengali: ন� | |Part of a series on the|
Bengali New Year (Bengali: পহেলা বৈশাখ, Pôhela Boishakh; Bengali: ন��বর্ষ, Nôbôbôrshô), occurring on 14 April or 15 April, is the first day of the Bengali calendar, celebrated in the Bangladesh and in the Indian state of West Bengal, by the Bengali people and also by minor Bengali communities in other Indian states, including Assam, Tripura, Jharkhand and Orrisa. It coincides with the New Year's days of numerous Southern Asian calendars. The traditional greeting for Bengali New Year is শুভ নববর্ষ "Shubhô Nôbôbôrshô".
In Bengali, Pohela stands for ‘first’ and Boishakh is first month of the Bengali calendar. Bengali New Year is referred to in Bengali as "New Year" (Bengali: নববর্ষ Noboborsho) or "First of Boishakh" (Bengali: পহেলা বৈশাখ Pôhela Boishakh). Nobo means new and Borsho means year.
The Bengali calendar is loosely tied with the Hindu Vedic solar calendar, based on the Surya Siddhanta. As with many other variants of the Hindu solar calendar, the Bengali calendar commences in mid-April of the Gregorian year. The first day of the Bengali year therefore coincides with the mid-April new year in Mithila, Assam, Burma, Cambodia, Kerala, Manipur, Nepal, Odisha, Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu and Thailand.
Origin of Bongabdo or Bangla Year is debated with primarily two hypothesis but historicity of none could be proved till date.
Mughal Emperor Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, the renowned grandson of Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur, the 3rd Mughal Emperor, introduced the Bengali Calendar. For relatively easier tax collection, Akbar changed the practice of agricultural tax collection according to the Hijri calendar. He ordered an improvement because the Hijri calendar, being lunar, did not agree with the harvest sessions and eventually the farmers faced severe difficulties in paying taxes out of season.
The regal astrologer of Emperor Akbar's reign, Aamir Fatehullah Siraji, developed this calendar, after researching the lunar Hijri and solar calendars. The distinctive characteristic of the Bengali year was that, rather than being a lunar calendar, it was based on a union of the solar and lunar year. This was essentially a great promotion, as the solar and lunar years were formulated in very diverse systems.
Primarily this calendar was named as “Fasli San” and then Bongabdo or Bangla Year was launched on 10/11 March 1584, but was dated from 5 November 1556 or 963 Hijri. This was the day that Akbar defeated Himu in the clash of Panipat 2 to ascend the throne.
Akbar-e-Azam’s ordered to resolve all dues on the last day of Choitro. The next day was the first day of the New Year (Bengali New Year), the day for a new opening; landlords used to allocate sweets among their tenants, and businessmen would commence a “Halkhata” (new financial records book) and lock their old ones. Vendors used to provoke their consumers to allocate sweets and renew their business relationship with them. There were fairs and festivities allover and gradually Poyela Boishakh became a day of celebration.
The Bengali New Year begins at dawn, and the day is marked with singing, processions, and fairs. Traditionally, businesses start this day with a new ledger, clearing out the old.
People of Bangladesh enjoy a national holiday on Pohela Boishakh. All over the country people can enjoy fairs and festivals. Singers perform traditional songs welcoming the new year. Vendors sell conventional foods and artisans sell traditional handicrafts. People enjoy traditional jatra plays.
Village dwellers of Bangladesh traditionally clean their house and people usually dress up in new clothes. Like other festivals of the region, the day is marked by visiting relatives, friends and neighbors. People prepare special dishes for their guests.
The rural festivities have now evolved to become vast events in the cities, especially the capital Dhaka.
In Dhaka and other large cities, the festivals begin with people gathering under a big tree. People also find any bank of a lake or river to witness the sunrise. Artists present songs to welcome the new year, particularly with Rabindranath Tagore's well-known song "Esho, he Boishakh".
People from all spheres of life wear traditional Bengali dresses. Women wear traditional saris with their hair bedecked in flowers. Likewise, men prefer to wear traditional panjabis. A huge part of the festivities in the capital is a vivid procession organized by the students and teachers of Institute of Fine Arts, Universi |
Search the Collection
16 Portraits in set: The Hornby Castle set of early Kings and Queens: paintings by unknown artists, late 16th century-circa 1620
A set of representations of monarchs which formerly hung in | Search the Collection
16 Portraits in set: The Hornby Castle set of early Kings and Queens: paintings by unknown artists, late 16th century-circa 1620
A set of representations of monarchs which formerly hung in Hornby Castle. Similar sets of portraits were popular in later Elizabethan and Jacobean houses, and were used to decorate long galleries. Sets could be purchased from a painter's workshop, but the style of these portraits indicates that they do not all come from the same studio. The portraits of the earliest kings are mostly fictitious; the rest, from Edward III on, are usually related to |
Article By: Kenneth A. Stewart
Physicists at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) are collaborating with researchers at the University of Texas to develop the power supply that will help make ship-born laser weapons a reality on U.S. | Article By: Kenneth A. Stewart
Physicists at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) are collaborating with researchers at the University of Texas to develop the power supply that will help make ship-born laser weapons a reality on U.S. naval vessels.
“The University of Texas is a great partner,” said NPS Distinguished Professor William B. Colson with the NPS Department of Physics. “We have worked with them on these models in the past, we are adapting the old models to the new technology.”
NPS Research Assistant Professor of Physics Keith Cohn insists that current technological advancements have created an opportunity for directed energy weapons.
“The technology has reached a point that it matches the threat that we are trying to counter,” said Cohn.
According to Colson and Cohn, directed energy weapons like both solid-state and free-electron lasers are ideal missile defense weapons and are applicable to a variety of threats to contemporary naval operations.
“The problem with shooting a bullet or a missile at a target is that by the time you have fired the munitions, the target is already half-way to the ship,” said Cohn. “Lasers operate at essentially the speed of light, allowing operators to defeat threats at greater distances.”
“Radar knows exactly where the target is, but if the enemy is being evasive, your bullet goes to the wrong target. The offense always has the disadvantage, except for when you are operating at the speed of light,” added Colson.
Colson has been an integral leader in a long-established research effort in directed energy at the university, noting that lasers are a very cost-effective means of meeting mission requirements.
|Distinguished Professor of Physics Dr. William Colson, center, along with Research Assistant Professor Keith Cohn, left, are using NPS’ long-time directed energy research program to examine potential power supply systems for ship-borne, solid-state lasers. Marine Corps Capt. Miguel Alvarez, right, is examining the laser’s potential application on helicopters.|
“Lasers are essentially electric weapons. As long as you have power to them, you have munitions – you never run out of either bullets or missiles,” said Cohn. “From a cost perspective, laser weapons are beginning to make more and more sense.”
Still, without power, the laser has little hope of defeating modern ballistic threats, and that’s where the work of Colson and his team comes in.
“The power has to come from the ship … We are exploring how to use either batteries or capacitor banks that we have modeled. The laser would draw from the stored power, so the lights stay on inside the ship when the laser is fired,” said Colson.
Colson has been conducting laser research at NPS since 1989. He began working on lasers in the ‘80s with then President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, or “star wars” program, which would have utilized a massive free-electron laser. He continues to explore free-electron laser technology, but acknowledges the value of the solid-state lasers that the Navy is currently testing.
“Instead of going with the big laser, that the Navy still wants, we are focusing on smaller lasers that are still capable,” said Colson. “Having worked on the concept of shooting things down with lasers since the ‘70s, it’s not the laser that I’ve been focusing on, but it is amazing.”
Direct energy weapons bare little resemblance to the blasters and laser weapons popularized in science fiction movies. Modern lasers are complex, precision weapons that target a specific threat area.
“In the movies, you hit a target and the target just disappears,” said Colson. “We are targeting a modest amount of the missile, UAV or boat … The good side is that in modern warfare we not do not necessarily want to destroy the entire target. This is a more ‘surgical’ weapon … We are exploiting vulnerabilities, like blinding a missile so that it is unable to locate where its target is.”
NPS alumnus Dave Keel, one of Colson’s former students, is currently leading an effort to place solid-state lasers on ships. His work was recently featured in the national media, where a laser successfully shot down an airborne drone during a test fire.
Keel utilizes commercial lasers using a tenth of the power gobbled up by free-electron lasers and which are already available commercially.
“Solid-state lasers have about a 20th of the power we want, but if we can get them on ships, we can put them out there and allow the Navy to train on them and work out the tactics, while we work on more complex missions,” said Colson.
NPS researchers are also working with other partners on the tactical usage of a helicopter-borne laser weapon.
U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Miguel Alvarez, a helicopter pilot and NPS student, is working on both the tactics and engineering aspects of a helicopter-borne device. He has identified several key advantages to using direct-energy weapons on helicopters.
“With a 50 caliber, we can do two or three passes and we are out of ammo, and have to return to station to rearm … A laser weapon does not have that limitation,” said Alvarez.
"A laser is a very precise weapon. As Marines, we often need to disable vehicles, particularly at checkpoints, a laser allows us to do that with much greater accuracy,” added Alvarez. “A laser can d |
"The ability to regenerate the needed cell type and place it in the correct spot would have major impact," says Eric Holland, a neurosurgeon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who specializes in the treatment of brain tumors | "The ability to regenerate the needed cell type and place it in the correct spot would have major impact," says Eric Holland, a neurosurgeon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who specializes in the treatment of brain tumors.
Where all this will lead is still debatable, but the research stands alone in terms of detail.
Using a powerful microscope, the researchers photographed the stem cells in the petri dish every five minutes for up to 30 hours. They ended up with a time-lapse movie that shows exactly what changed every time a new chemical was tried out on the cells.
Thus they were able to change the course of the development by chemical manipulation, and that's perhaps the most important aspect of all. That suggests that chemicals, not surgery, may be able to correct a diseased mind that is now almost impossible to treat.
It's a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, and it all could be a mirage. Success would mean so much to so many people that it is almost impossible to hold one's enthusiasm in check. But many promising results in the past have proved disappointing.
There's still no cure for Alzheimer's disease, for example, despite decades of research. The progression of the disease can be slowed with some drugs, but only a little.
If a cure could be found, the financial problems that threaten to cripple Medicare would vanish, and families would no longer have to endure what has become known as "the long goodbye."
Steindler's group is already testing lab animals with neurological diseases to see if they can be coaxed into generating new brain cells to replace those destroyed by the diseases. That would be a major accomplishment, and if it works, "then we will begin to talk about human trials," he says.
It's worth hoping that Steindler and his colleagues are on the right track.
But only time, and much more research, will prove it.
Lee Dye's column appears weekly on ABCNEWS.com. A former science writer for the Los Angeles Times, he now lives in Juneau, Alaska. |
- Plants Punctuation - Can your pupils add the correct punctuation to these sentences? Contributed by Carol Vincent.
- Punctuation Posters - A set of 11 brilliant posters (in PDF), outlining the uses of different types of punctuation. Contrib | - Plants Punctuation - Can your pupils add the correct punctuation to these sentences? Contributed by Carol Vincent.
- Punctuation Posters - A set of 11 brilliant posters (in PDF), outlining the uses of different types of punctuation. Contributed by Neil Hedworth.
- Tarzan Punctuation - A SMART Notebook file, which children can read and then devise actions to represent each missing punctuation mark. Contributed by Zoe Mitchell.
- Fill in the Punctuation - Children need to put the correct punctuation into a piece of text (includes worksheet)
- Punctuation Sheets - A set of useful reminders (in PDF) for children to think about when writing stories. Contributed by Sharon Whitchurch.
Let children have a copy of these cards to refer to while writing, or copy two sets and play Pairs / Snap with them!
Use this fantastic idea to encourage children to use different types of punctuation in their writing.
Lots of resources to help children with their spelling, punctuation and grammar.
- Traffic Lights - Use this very simple methods to reinforce when capital letters and full stops are needed.
- Capital Letters - Use this sheet to get children to practise their use of capital letters. Contributed by Lisa Daniels.
- Fill in the Question Marks - Can your children add question marks to these sentences to make them correct? Contributed by Sherrie Bendjedidi.
- Commas - A simple but effective worksheet requiring children to put commas in the correct place. Contributed by Jim Merrett.
- Speech Mark Sandwich - A fantastic tip to help children remember how to use punctuation within speech marks.
- Using Speech - A worksheet containing ideas and activities, which reinforce using speech properly when writing. Contributed by Kathryn Perkins.
- Speech Marks - Can your pupils rewrite the text in the speech bubbles into sentences using speech marks? Includes two differentiated versions.
- Speech Mar |
Today, we have a special post sent by Miss. Evelyn Golston about teaching dogs new tricks.
|JRT image courtesy of Miss. Golston|
All animals discover new things as a result of consequences. Therefore they are going to repeat behaviors | Today, we have a special post sent by Miss. Evelyn Golston about teaching dogs new tricks.
|JRT image courtesy of Miss. Golston|
All animals discover new things as a result of consequences. Therefore they are going to repeat behaviors which are rewarding and get away from behaviors which are not. If you'd like your dog to perform tricks for you, you should turn it into a rewarding experience for your dog. Sadly, animals don't talk our language so you have to discover a way of helping your pet recognize your demands.
· Create a plan - How would you get the dog to try and do what you would like it to do?
· Think about cues - How will you convey to the dog what you wish it to do? Will you use your body or voice? How would you call that trick? Dogs must be capable of seeing and hearing what you required them to do.
· Reward your dog - Simply what does your pet like? Does it love food, toys, a pat or playing with you? Any one of these things can make an awesome reward. Food is often the easiest if you are just starting to train your dog.
· Be patient - Some tricks take some time and entail a number of steps for your dog to learn.
· Practice makes perfect - Brief, regular sessions can help your pet dog learn best.
· Tools - You should have the tools necessary to teach your pet a specific trick. Get your dog clicker or any props you might need ready.
· Inform your dog of its success - You have to discover a way of letting your pet dog realize that it has accomplished the right thing. Utilizing a word like "yes" helps your dog recognize when it has performed what's right.
· Use tools properly - additionally, you may want to make use of a clicker that is frequently used with dolphins as well as other wild animals. You need to use the word or clicker on the exact moment once the dog does anything that you wanted it to do and promptly follow it up with a food incentive. This stuff will allow the dog to understand that it has done what you want and will be motivated to replicate the trick in the future.
Factors when teaching your dog a different behavior
· Environment -For your dog to know a brand new behavior, it must be taught within the right surroundings. Look for a place that's calm without distractions.
· Luring behaviors - Start out with simple and easy physical gestures to show the dog what you would like it to perform This is known as "luring" behavior. If the dog does what you want, tag the behavior using a "yes" then follow the behavior up with a treat. Continue doing this step 'til the dog does the trick easily.
What if it's not working?
After you have done these steps but your dog seems to have difficulty in learning new things, then consider to ask the following questions.
· Have you captured your dog's full attention? Your pet will find it difficult to learn a new trick when it is concentrating on something else.
· Are you being reasonable? Could it be done? Have you been asking excessively? You shouldn't assume that your pet dog can master any trick in a short period of time whether simple or difficult. Start out simple and work your way up.
· Does your dog comprehend you? Are you making yourself very clear? Your canine cannot be taught a trick if it does't fully grasp your instructions.
It is quite difficult teaching your dog to do new tricks but when you have succeeded on making it perform some tricks; it would be a rewarding experience for sure.
The author is a pet lover who owns a blog about dogs and cats. He loves to share his knowledge on pet caring with others. He is also a contributing writer to essayjedi.com |
Environment Canada’s Environmental Emergency Response Section
Environment Canada's Environmental Emergency Response Section (EERS) exists in order to provide specialized advice and sophisticated modeling which tracks hazardous material that could or does end up in the atmosphere. In addition to providing support to | Environment Canada’s Environmental Emergency Response Section
Environment Canada's Environmental Emergency Response Section (EERS) exists in order to provide specialized advice and sophisticated modeling which tracks hazardous material that could or does end up in the atmosphere. In addition to providing support to the department’s environmental emergencies program, the EERS also provides support for:
- The Montreal Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC);
- The Montreal Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC);
- The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO); and
- Th |
Supermodels of Science Quiz Class Notes
Scientists use many different organisms to study diseases in humans.
They do this because organisms like worms, mice and yeast have many of the same genes as humans, and scientists can make changes in an organism's genes | Supermodels of Science Quiz Class Notes
Scientists use many different organisms to study diseases in humans.
They do this because organisms like worms, mice and yeast have many of the same genes as humans, and scientists can make changes in an organism's genes similar to changes in humans with specific diseases.
These "model organisms" can teach us important information that can help us learn about and find treatments for human diseases. Select a model organism to begin.
C. elegans is a tiny worm that lives in dirt.
Because the worm is transparent, it is easy to observe individual cells and watch how internal organs develop. The adult C. elegans worm consists of only 959 cells.
A scientist had the bright idea of using a glowing protein, called green fluorescent protein (GFP), to identify specific cells in developing C. elegans.
He discovered that brain cells glowed green when he put GFP in them.
The scientist was able to use GFP to make a map of cells in the brain, allowing him to understand how animal brains are organized.
GFP is now used by thousands of researchers in dozens of organisms to identify specific types of cells and to show where specific genes are turned on.
The tiny fly that is attracted to overripe bananas on your kitchen counter is called D. melanogaster, commonly known as the fruit fly.
Scientists have been raising fruit flies in the laboratory for about 100 years, studying how their genes affect development, appearance, behavior, lifespan and many other traits.
One way scientists use fruit flies is to figure out how daily, or circadian, rhythms work.
They have found that mutations in several genes affect the time of day or night that flies walk around, eat and sleep.
In humans, a mutation in one of these genes causes a form of familial advanced sleep-phase syndrome (FASPS). People with this mutation fall asleep very early in the evening and wake up in the middle of the night.
Scientists have also discovered that different forms of another gene determine whether a person is severely affected by sleep deprivation.
Laboratory mice are the most commonly used animal in research.
There are many different types of laboratory mice. These model organisms are easy to house and handle and they reproduce quickly, so scientists can compare grandparents, parents and children at the same time.
Some scientists use mice to study gene changes in Huntington's disease.
Huntington's disease causes affected people to have unusual movements, emotional changes and progressive intellectual loss.
People who have Huntington's disease have very unusual genetic changes. Parts of their Huntington, or HTT, gene are repeated over and over.
Some scientists study what causes these long repeats. If they could prevent the repeats from multiplying, they might find a way to help people with Huntington's.
Many scientists use yeast as a model organism. This yeast, called S. cerevisiae, has been used in baking and making beer and wine.
One way scientists use yeast is to study Friedriech's ataxia, an illness that results from the degeneration of nerve tissue in the spinal cord.
About 1 in 50,000 people in the United States have Friedriech's ataxia. The disease affects coordination, muscle movement and some sensory functions.
Scientists now know that Friedriech's ataxia is caused by a "stutter" in the human FXN gene, located on chromosome 9 in humans.
The same striped zebrafish in home aquariums are model organisms for many studies.
Their large, transparent embryos grow quickly outside the mother, making their development easy to observe.
Some scientists use zebrafish to understand bone problems in I-cell disease.
I-cell disease causes a buildup of proteins and fats inside cells, affecting bone development.
People with this disease are short in stature and have stiff, painful joints.
I-cell disease is caused by changes in the GNPTAB gene, located on chromosome 12 in humans.
By studying bone growth in mutant zebrafish, scientists hope to better understand the abnormal bones in children affected by I-cell disease. |
July 2008: Volume 34, Number 7
Even Mildly Elevated Glucose Poses Risk in Pregnancy
A large international study shows a continuum of risk to fetuses as mothers’ glucose levels rise (NEJM 2008 | July 2008: Volume 34, Number 7
Even Mildly Elevated Glucose Poses Risk in Pregnancy
A large international study shows a continuum of risk to fetuses as mothers’ glucose levels rise (NEJM 2008; 358: 1991–2002). To settle a controversy about whether maternal hypoglycemia that falls short of diabetes is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, a multinational team of researchers tested glucose levels in 25,505 pregnant women at 24 to 32 weeks of gestation at 15 centers in 9 countries. Researchers blinded data for mothers with fasting plasma glucose levels ≤105 mg/dL and 2-hour plasma glucose levels ≤200 mg/dL. Primary outcomes were birth weight above the 90th percentile for gestational age, primary cesarean delivery, clinically diagnosed neonatal hypoglycemia, and cord-blood serum C-peptide level above the 90th percentile. Secondary outcomes were delivery before 37 weeks of gestation, shoulder dystocia or birth injury, need for intensive neonatal care, hyperbilirubinemia, and preeclampsia. For the 23,316 participants with blinded data, the researchers calculated adjusted ORs for adverse pregnancy outcomes associated with an increase of 1 standard deviation in the fasting plasma glucose level (6.9 mg/dL), the 1-hour plasma glucose level (30.9 mg/dL), and the 2-hour plasma glucose level (23.5 mg/dL). For birth weight above the 90th percentile, those ORs (95% CI) were 1.38 (1.32–1.44), 1.46 (1.39–1.53), and 1.38 (1.32–1.44), respectively. For cord-blood serum C-peptide level above the 90th percentile, the ORs were 1.55 (1.47–1.64), 1.46 (1.38–1.54), and 1.37 (1.30–1.44). ORs for primary cesarean delivery were 1.11 (1.06–1.15), 1.10 (1.06–1.15), and 1.08 (1.03–1.12). ORs for neonatal hypoglycemia were 1.08 (0.98–1.19), 1.13 (1.03–1.26), and 1.10 (1.00–1.12). The researchers found no obvious thresholds for increased risk. Associations for secondary outcomes were significant, but weaker.
Longer Cholesterol Testing Intervals Recommended
Physicians should consider a testing interval of 3 years or more for patients who have well-controlled cholesterol levels and adhere to cholesterol-lowering medications, authors of a recent paper suggest (Annals of Internal Medicine 2008; 148: 656–661). Because research has not yet show |
Learn how the New World Quartet uses Yoga to become more in-tune as a band and win the Naumberg Chamber Music Award.
PHOTO: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF
Brief: Congressman James Leach
There are quite | Learn how the New World Quartet uses Yoga to become more in-tune as a band and win the Naumberg Chamber Music Award.
PHOTO: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF
Brief: Congressman James Leach
There are quite a few Washington bureaucrats who wish that Iowa Congressman James Leach had never been assigned to the House Civil Service Committee. As he sat in on the organization's hearings, the Hawkeye Stater learned the wondrous ways of the bureaucracy: how it grows... and grows... and grows. Leach soon decided that work-force bloat didn't have to be a progressive disease, and he proposed that a remedy be tacked onto the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. The congressman suggested that the government reduce — by the end of fiscal year 1979 — the number of federal workers to 1977's level.
Much to everyone's surprise, Leach's amendment passed. And to everyone's even greater astonishment, the program worked! When the Office of Personnel Management made its government employment study last December, it discovered that there were then 2,204,000 federal workers... 68,000 fewer than in 1978! The resulting saving to the taxpayer has been estimated at one billion dollars.
Now Leach has another concern. He's discovered that there are millions of "quasi-employees" of the government... folks who are engaged in what's called "contracted employment". The nice thing — say the bureaucrats — about hiring people on contract is that such workers aren't counted as being federal employees. The not-so-nice side of the coin — says Leach — is that it's almost impossible to get a true idea of the size of the government work force... and that the people in contracted employment are not subject to the normal checks and balances of the civil service. Right now, there are 70 percent more people working for the government on contract than there are on the regular federal payroll (excluding the military and the postal service), so bringing them under some kind of control seems like a pretty good idea.
Leach has a bill in the hopper that would do just that.
Brief: Melvin Calvin
Dr. Melvin Calvin won the 1961 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on photosynthesis. And now, Calvin i |
It turns computers into zombies and spreads viruses, generates spam and commits other types of online crime and fraud
One of the most significant indicators of the evolution of cyber crime is the botnet, an extremely sophisticated and popular type of malware that not only | It turns computers into zombies and spreads viruses, generates spam and commits other types of online crime and fraud
One of the most significant indicators of the evolution of cyber crime is the botnet, an extremely sophisticated and popular type of malware that not only infects systems, but also gives criminals control of the compromised computers. Botnets allow cyber criminals to take control of multiple systems at a time, and turn them into ‘zombie' computers, which operate as part of a powerful ‘botnet' to spread viruses, generate spam, and commit other types of online crime and fraud.
Also known as “Web robots,” bots are usually part of a network of infected machines, known as a “botnet”, which is typically made up of victim machines that stretch across the globe. Since a bot-infected computer does the bidding of its master, many people refer to these victim machines as “zombies.”
The cybercriminals who control these bots are called botherders or botmasters. Networks of “zombie” computers are flourishing across the world, and India is one of the most-infected countries. In fact, 62,623 bot-infected computers were observed in India in 2009, according to Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report XV.
Amongst the cities in India with the highest number of bot-infected computers, Mumbai – the financial capital of India – figured at the top with 50 per cent followed by Delhi at 13 per cent and Hyderabad at 7 per cent. Cities like Bangalore (6 percent), Kochi (5 per cent), Chennai (4 per cent), Ahmedabad (2 per cent) and Pune (3 per cent) too had a sizeable share of bot-infected computers.
Botnets are so dangerous that they can bring down the entire infrastructure of large businesses and even countries. In 2007 the Internet in Estonia was shut down due to denial-of-service attacks that were caused by being overwhelmed by botnet contact, and Georgia was severely disabled by botnets in 2008. Botnets can also disable news sources, transportation websites, or overpower other important websites.
Bots spread themselves across the Internet by searching for unprotected computers to infect. When they find one, they quickly infect the machine and then report back to their master. Their goal is then to stay hidden until they are instructed to carry out a task, such as:
Sending spam, viruses or spyware
Stealing confidential information and communicating it back to the malicious user, including credit card numbers, bank credentials and other sensitive data
Launching denial of service (DoS) attacks against a specified target. Cybercriminals extort money from website owners, in exchange for regaining control of the compromised sites.
Committing “Clickfraud”, by which fraudsters use bots to boost Web advertising billings by automatically clicking on Internet ads.
Several large-scale bot networks have gained attention recently. Zbot, otherwise known as the Zeus botnet, has been around for a quite a while and has been called the “King of Bots”; it has infected millions of computers worldwide.
Zeus is a malware package that is readily available for sale and also traded by Zbot peddlers in underground forums, for as low as $ 700! While Zbot is a generic back door that allows full control by an unauthorised remote user, its primary function is financial gain.
In early October, crime-prevention bodies across the globe — FBI in the U.S., the Netherlands Police Agency and the U.K.'s Metropolitan Police Service, among others — arrested over 100 people who attempted to siphon as much as $220 million through stolen login credentials. Victims' PCs were infected with Zbot, which was used to hijack bank account login information.
Because Zbot is a package that is readily available, vectors of infection vary widely, with popular methods including drive-by downloads and spam. Zbot has been used to impersonate social networking websites and was behind many of the headline-grabbing social networking attacks last year. Zeus is popular among cyber criminals also because it is continuously updated to provide new features and functionality. The ease-of-use of Zeus means the Zeus bot is used widely, allowing even novice hackers to easily steal online banking credentials and other online credentials for financial gain.
Criminals who create and control botnets are not only dangerous, they are also continuously evolving. 2009 saw the first smart phone botnet that took advantage of users' contact lists to spread itself via SMS. Because people use smart phones to check e-mail, bank online, and do all of the little things that they would do on a normal computer, they're becoming bigger targets for malware.
Going by names such as “Sexy View” or “Sexy Girl” and now “Sexy Space,” the threat propagates through suggestive SMSes, which direct-message recipients to download the threat from an external URL. The threat gathers information from the phone and sends it to predetermined addresses in addition to spamming other phones and propagating.
Proliferation of handheld devices, which are largely unprotected, presents attackers with a new window of opportunity to carry out malicious activities. And botnets like Zeus only make it easier for them.
(The author is Vice-President, India Product Operations, Symantec) |
While the farming industry has traditionally been associated with intensive physical and manual labour, urban-folk may be surprised to learn of the industry’s recent push for innovation and its embracing of technology.
Whether through the adoption of cutting-edge technology, or through simple | While the farming industry has traditionally been associated with intensive physical and manual labour, urban-folk may be surprised to learn of the industry’s recent push for innovation and its embracing of technology.
Whether through the adoption of cutting-edge technology, or through simple adaptations of existing farming processes, Singaporeans are modifying conventional methods of food production so as to heighten productivity and remain competitive.
DJ Engineering, a local private engineering company, has tweaked the concept of vertical farming – which has taken off in Europe and Japan – for use in Singapore.
Vertical farming sees plants growing skywards in high-rise farms, which significantly reduces the need for large amounts of land – a plus in land-scarce Singapore.
While the concept of vertical farming isn’t new, DJ Engineering’s collaboration with the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority has resulted in a successful prototype – the first in the world – that caters to growing tropical green leafy vegetables such as xiao bai cai, cai xin, and kai lan.
The six metre-tall device uses multi-layer troughs which rotate around an aluminium frame, providing the plants with uniform amounts of sunlight.
A patent-pending water-pulley system, which uses rainwater collected in overhead reservoirs, powers these rotations.
According to the company, given the same land area, the vertical farming system is able to produce at least five times more vegetables than conventional soil-based farms.
But the pros don’t stop there. Jack Ng, owner, founder, and managing director of DJ Engineering, said that the vertically-farmed vegetables would be competitively priced to land-farmed ones, since the device allows for higher productivity and low operational costs.
‘Manpower and other operational costs of the system can be further lowered since many of the farm processes can be automated, with minimal human intervention,’ said Mr Ng, adding that each tower costs only 14 cents a day to operate.
While companies like DJ Engineering are teaming up with government agencies to experiment with new technology, others are partnering educational institutions to do the same.
Family-run Jurong Frog Farm (JFF) is currently in talks with a partner to develop new ways to manage the farm’s frog waste.
Said Chelsea Wan of JFF: ‘We are looking to incorporate new waste management technology at our farm. The idea is to convert and process frog waste to become frog and fish feed.’
The innovative technology will not only cut costs, but also help to manage the farm’s waste better.
While DJ Engineering and JFF work towards developing state-of-the-art farming technologies, other farms are showing that even the smallest forms of innovation can help to streamline processes and heighten productivity.
Farm 85 Trading is a soil-based vegetable farm in Lim Chu Kang. Each day, it produces more than 15 varieties of green leafy vegetables, such as kai lan, pak choy, and kang kong.
Even though Farm 85 Trading is not engaged in projects involving hundreds of thousands of dollars in research and development, its director, Tan Koon Hua, has taken steps to heighten the farm’s technology in smaller – but equally tangible – ways.
Speaking in Mandarin, Mr Tan stressed how important it is for soil-based vegetable farms to maximise the land it has to grow its crops in the most cost-efficient manner.
To utilise scarce land space, seeds must be sown carefully with sufficient amounts of distance between each plant, to allow for unfettered growth and hassle-free harvesting.
The secret to Farm 85 Trading’s immaculate rows of plants boils down to the way seeds are sown.
To ensure that seeds are placed in optimal positions in each planter tray, Mr Tan built – from hand and from scratch – a contraption that allows seeds to be distributed evenly and error-free each time.
A planter tray is slipped under a hollow wooden block, which has a plastic top with neat rows of holes drilled into its surface. Each hole is just big enough for a single seed to slip through, into the planter tray below, thus allowing for an efficient and fool-proof method of seed-sowing each time.
The seemingly rudimentary wooden block saves farmers time not just during seed-sowing, but also during harvesting, since they are a |
May Is National High Blood Pressure Education Month
NHLBI Urges Americans To Take Control of Their Hypertension
May is National High Blood Pressure Education Month and this year’s theme highlights the threat of uncontrolled hypertension. The National Heart, | May Is National High Blood Pressure Education Month
NHLBI Urges Americans To Take Control of Their Hypertension
May is National High Blood Pressure Education Month and this year’s theme highlights the threat of uncontrolled hypertension. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) urges Americans: “If Your Blood Pressure Is Not Lower Than 140/90, Ask Your Doctor Why.”
The NHLBI is part of the National Institutes of Health. NHLBI sponsors the hypertension month effort with the National High Blood Pressure Education Program (NHBPEP), which it coordinates.
High blood pressure affects about 50 million–or one in four–American adults. Of those with hypertension, about 68 percent are aware of their condition–but only 27 percent have it under control. The reasons for this include not taking drugs as prescribed and/or not taking a medication that sufficiently lowers blood pressure.
Hypertension can lead to stroke, heart failure, or kidney damage. To help prevent that, blood pressure must be lowered to less than 140/90 mm Hg (millimeters of mercury). Normal blood pressure is less than 130/less than 85 mm Hg.
“We advise Americans to talk about their blood pressure with their doctor,” said NHLBI Director Dr. Claude Lenfant. “They should have their blood pressure checked and, if it’s high, ask about adjusting their medication and whether they’ve made the necessary lifestyle changes to bring it to below 140/90.”
The lifestyle changes to control high blood pressure are: lose weight, if overweight; become physically active; choose foods lower in salt and sodium; and limit alcohol intake.
To help spread the word about the dangers of uncontrolled hypertension–and what can be done about it–the NHLBI and the NHBPEP have set up a special web site, which can be accessed through the NHLBI home page at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov.
They also are offering a variety of materials to help Americans learn more about hypertension. The materials are:
- Facts About the DASH Diet*. DASH is an eating plan rich in fruits, vegetables, and lowfat dairy foods and lower in saturated fat, total fat, and cholesterol. It has been shown to reduce high blood pressure. The fact sheet gives an overview of the plan and a week of DASH menus.
- Heart healthy recipes* from the NHLBI Stay Young At Heart Program, as well as special Latino and African American recipe books.
- Controlling High Blood Pressure: A Woman’s Guide*, which tells how to lower high blood pressure. A guide in Spanish* also is available.
- (Facts About) How to Prevent High Blood Pressure*. This fact sheet gives an overview of hypertension.
- Special booklets series for African Americans and Latinos on how to prevent and control cardiovascular risk factors. The Latino series is in Spanish and English.
- I.Q. Quizzes* about the Healthy Heart and Physical Activity.
These materials can be ordered from the NHLBI Information Center, P.O. Box 30105, Bethesda, MD 20824-0105. Single copies of starred items listed above are free; others have a small charge. All are available free at the special hypertension control web site.
Also, check out NHLBI’s new Achieve Your Healthy Weight web site. It can be accessed through the NHLBI home page or the high blood pressure education month site. The site offers practical information on weight loss, including heart healthy recipes, and tips on how to make behavior changes, choose a weight loss program, and shop for low calorie foods.
Finally, for recorded messages about high blood pressure prevention and control, call toll-free 1-800-575-WELL.
“May is an opportunity to make a new start on a healthier heart,” said Dr. Edward Roccella, NHBPEP Coordinator. “The same lifestyle steps that control high blood pressure also may prevent it. So everyone in the family can take action together.”
Roccella is available for comment about the National High Blood Pressure Education Month effort. To arrange an interview, contact the NHLBI Communications Office at (301) 496-4236. |
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
Piano Favourites, Vol. 2
Fryderyk Chopin was born in 1810, the son of a French fatherand a Polish mother. | Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
Piano Favourites, Vol. 2
Fryderyk Chopin was born in 1810, the son of a French fatherand a Polish mother. He spent his early life largely in Warsaw, where he hadhis musical training at the Warsaw Conservatory and gave his first successfulconcerts. He left Poland in 1830 to seek the kind of opportunities that his ownnative country could not then offer. He spent a winter in Vienna, where he hadearlier won brief success on the occasion of another visit, but now that he wasin earnest pursuit of a career, he achieved nothing. He then moved to Pariswhere he would live for the rest of his life.
In Paris, Chopin established himself as a pianist, generallyperforming to private audiences in the elegant salons of the capital, ratherthan competing with more ostentatious performers such as Liszt, Thalberg orKalkbrenner. Instead he found a more congenial position for himself as ateacher with a socially distinguished client?¿le.
Through Liszt, at whose way of life he had previously lookedaskance, Chopin met the blue-stocking writer George Sand (Aurore Dudevant),recently separated from her husband. The two became lovers and in the winter of1838-39 travelled together to Mallorca, where the climate had a deleteriouseffect on his health, with signs of tuberculosis that were alarming not only tothe couple but also to the local people, who had already nurtured suspicions ofthe strange couple, accompanied, as they were, by George Sand's two children.In France again he returned to his life in Paris, generally spending the summermonths at George Sand's country-house at Nohant. The complications ofinvolvement with George Sand's now adult children led to their separation in1846. During the political disturbances of 1848, when normal life wasimpossible in Paris, Chopin accepted an invitation to Britain, but the climategreatly affected his weakened health. He returned to Paris, where he died in1849.
Chopin's compositions were mainly for the piano. He was ableto use the instrument to convey subtle tone-colours, creating new forms to suithis genius. His two Piano Concertos were written before he left Warsaw and wereintended as material for his career as a virtuoso performer. Much of his laterwork, however, was for solo piano, composed in forms that he adopted anddeveloped, such as the Nocturne, the Waltz, the Polish Mazurka, and thePolonaise.
The waltz, a German country dance in origin, had, by the endof the eighteenth century, won considerable popularity in the ball-room, inspite of the warnings of doctors and moralists. With Lanner and the Straussfamily in Vienna it became even more fashionable, making its way into opera andinto ballet. With composers like Chopin it found a further home in the salon,and later, with Mahler and others, in the concert hall. Chopin had first turnedto the form in Warsaw in 1827, having already adapted Polish dances for his ownartistic purposes. The present collection includes two examples, the Waltz in Eminor, with its E major central section, written in 1830 and publishedposthumously, and the more elaborate and adventurous Grande Valse in A flatmajor, Op. 42, written in 1840.
Among the forms that Chopin made his own was the Nocturne,at one time synonymous with the Serenade, but with the Irish pianist John Fieldand Chopin, his successor, a lyrical piano piece, offering, nominally at least,a poetic vision of the night. Chopin's Nocturne in F sharp major, Op. 15, No. 2, was one of a set of three published in Paris in 1833 with a dedication toMendelssohn's friend Ferdinand Hiller. Here the relatively tranquil outersections enclose a passage of greater intensity. The Nocturne in C sharp minor, was written in Warsaw in 1830 but published posthumously in 1875.Something of its character is indicated in the direction Lento con granespressione.
Chopin's single Barcarolle, Op. 60, in F sharp major andwritten in 1845-46, is an extended treatment of the original Venetianboating-song, an example of the composer's later style in its complexity. Therocking motion on which it is based still provides scope for elaboratechromatic figuration above. The Berceuse, Op. 57, in D flat major andwritten in 1843, elevates the cradle-song into a higher art form, setting here,as elsewhere, an example to later composers.
The four Ballades of Chopin ar |
The origin of life lies in unique ocean reefs, and scientists from the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science have developed an approach to help investigate them better.
A new article published in the November issue of Geology reveals | The origin of life lies in unique ocean reefs, and scientists from the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science have developed an approach to help investigate them better.
A new article published in the November issue of Geology reveals how Dr. Miriam Andres' stromatolite investigation – the first of its kind – has begun to "fingerprint" ancient microbial pathways, increasing the understanding of how these reef-like structures form and offering a new way to explore the origins of these living records, which are considered to be the core of most living organisms.
Modern marine stromatolites are living examples of one of the earth's oldest and most persistent widespread ecosystems. Although rare today, these layered deposits of calcium carbonate are found in shallow marine seas throughout 3.4 billion-year-old geologic records. Ancient stromatolites represent a mineral record of carbonate chemistry and the evolution of early life.
In the Geology paper, Dr. Andres and colleagues point out that incorrect assumptions have been made in interpreting stromatolite data: phototrophs, or oxygen-producers, were actually dominated by heterotrophs, or oxygen-consumers, in their contribution to stromatolite formation.
"The motivation for this study is that in ancient stromatolites, direct evidence of microbial activity is lacking," Dr. Andres explained. "Stable isotopes have provided a powerful tool to 'fingerprint' microbial pathways and better understand the sedimentary structures we see in the geologic record. Surprisingly, no study to date has documented this process for modern marine stromatolites."
Stromatolites are the oldest known macrofossils, dating back over three billion years. Dominating the fossil record for 80 percent of our planet's history, stromatolites formed massive reefs in this planet's primitive oceans. While stromatolites look much like coral reefs, they are actually formed from living microorganisms, both animal and plant-like. These microorganisms trap and bind sand grains together and/or produce calcium carbonate to form laminated limestone mounds.
"We knew that the stromatolite ecosystem was dominated by photosynthetic cyanobacteria, and expected to see this reflected in a positive carbon isotopic value. However, we saw the exact opposite." Andres said.
"We still don't understand how stromatolites calicify," Dr. Andres said, referring to her research plans. "This information will be key to understanding how organisms form skeletons and when this process – leaving lasting impressions of historical biological data – first began."
Source: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science
Explore further: Global map to predict giant earthquakes |
Developing nations in danger as swine flu continues to spread.
More than 94,500 swine flu cases in at least 124 countries have been officially reported by the World Health Organization (WHO). Of these, around 430 people across | Developing nations in danger as swine flu continues to spread.
More than 94,500 swine flu cases in at least 124 countries have been officially reported by the World Health Organization (WHO). Of these, around 430 people across five continents have lost their lives to the unrelenting virus. In Germany, after 10 cases of swine flu were reported in Berlin and Bayreuth, officials decided to close schools for a week to halt the spread of the pandemic.
Indeed, authorities fear the upcoming fall, when the virus could mutate and spread more rapidly as children return to school. In the southern hemisphere, countries such as Argentina are seeing numbers continue to rise, with now 60 people who have perished and the country’s health minister saying that 90% of the likely 100,000 unofficial cases could be attributed to swine flu.
On July 6, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that over US$1 billion may be needed to assist less fortunate countries in coping with the virus. Many of these nations are already plagued with other health problems such as AIDS, pneumonia, malaria and tuberculosis.
WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said, “Many of the developing countries have weak health systems. They actually go into this pandemic what I call empty-handed. They don't have antivirals. They don't have vaccines. They don't have antibiotics.”
We appreciate the efforts of Secretary-General Ban, Dr. Chan and all others working to address this global pandemic. Our sympathies and shared loss for the families of those who have succumbed to this illness as we wish a fast recuperation for the afflicted. Praying for humanity’s soon awakening to the factory farming source of this disease for a worldwide switch to the most humane and safe plant-based lifestyle. |
Asthma Medications (cont.)
In this Article
- What are long-term control asthma medications?
- What are quick-relief asthma medications?
- How are inhalers, nebulizers, and pills used as asthma medicines?
- How | Asthma Medications (cont.)
In this Article
- What are long-term control asthma medications?
- What are quick-relief asthma medications?
- How are inhalers, nebulizers, and pills used as asthma medicines?
- How is theophylline used in the treatment of asthma?
- Are there over-the-counter asthma drugs?
- Can allergy shots be used to treat asthma?
- How frequently will I have to take asthma medicines?
- What are the guidelines for asthma medications?
- Find a local Asthma & Allergy Specialist in your town
How Frequently Will I Have to Take Asthma Medicines?
Asthma can't be cured. How often you need to take your asthma medicine depends on how severe your asthma is and how frequently you have symptoms. For example, if your asthma symptoms occur only during the time of the year when your allergies act up, then you may only have to take medications to control your symptoms during that time. However, this is somewhat unusual, and most people with asthma need to take medications every day.
Asthma Medication Guidelines
Asthma medications are the foundation of good asthma control. Learn all you can about your medications. Know what medications are included in your asthma action plan, when these medications should be taken, their expected results, and what to do when they fail. Here are some general guidelines to keep in mind:
- Never run out of asthma medications. Call your pharmacy or doctor's office at least 48 hours before running out of your asthma medications. Know your pharmacy phone number, prescription numbers, and medication names and doses so that you can easily call for refills.
- Refer to your asthma action plan when deciding how or when to use asthma drugs. This plan is designed so you achieve the best possible asthma control. Make sure you understand and can follow the plan.
- Wash your hands prior to preparing or taking asthma medications.
- Take your time. Double-check the name and dosage of all your asthma medications before using them.
- Keep your asthma medications stored according to the instructions given with the prescription.
- Check liquid medications often. If they have changed color or formed crystals, throw them away and get new ones.
- Inform your doctor about any other medications you are taking. Some medications can affect the actions of your asthma medications when taken together. Most asthma medications are very safe. However, side effects can occur and vary depending on the medication and dose. Ask your doctor or pharmacist to describe medication side effects. Report any unusual or severe side effects to your doctor immediately.
- Most asthma medications are very safe. However, side effects can occur and vary depending on the medication and dose. Ask your doctor or pharmacist to describe medication side effects. Report any unusual or severe side effects to your doctor immediately.
Reviewed by the doctors at The Cleveland Clinic Department of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine.
SOURCES: American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology: "AAAI Allergy
& Asthma Medication Guide." Medline Plus: "Asthma." American Academy
of Family Physicians: Family Doctor: "Asthma: Learning to Control Your
Reviewed by Jonathan L. Gelfand, MD, on August 10, 2008
Portions of this page © Cleveland Clinic 2008
Last Editorial Review: 2/4/2009
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Oct. 29, 2013 In middle-income countries such as China, interventions that have a psychological or social component (often referred to as psychosocial interventions) delivered by health workers who are not mental health specialists could help women during the | Oct. 29, 2013 In middle-income countries such as China, interventions that have a psychological or social component (often referred to as psychosocial interventions) delivered by health workers who are not mental health specialists could help women during the perinatal period, according to a study published this week in PLOS Medicine.
The results of the study, conducted by Kelly Clarke and colleagues, from the University College London in the UK, found that psychological and health promotion interventions given to women during the perinatal period were linked to improved mental health compared with usual care. These findings are important given that low-resource settings have limited access to mental health specialists such as psychiatrists and psychologists, and also to medications.
In this study, the authors systematically reviewed published studies to identify randomized and non-randomized clinical trials from low- and middle-income countries. Combining the results from 10 studies, including over 18,000 participants, the researchers found that women receiving psychological and health promotion interventions delivered by providers who were not mental health specialists were less likely to have symptoms after the intervention compared to those receiving usual perinatal care (which included no mental health care component). Furthermore, both group and individual interventions were linked to improvements in symptoms.
Although these findings are encouraging, they should be interpreted with caution given that the results are based on a small number of studies with a large amount of variation in the way the studies were done. Furthermore, no studies were included from low-income countries.
The authors say: "Our results show there is promise for psychosocial interventions delivered by non-mental health specialists for PCMDs in middle-income countries."
They continue: "the lack of trials from low-income countries is striking, and research to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of delivering such interventions in these countries is urgently needed."
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The above story is based on materials provided by Public Library of Science.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
- Kelly Clarke, Michael King, Audrey Prost. Psychosocial Interventions for Perinatal Common Mental Disorders Delivered by Providers Who Are Not Mental Health Specialists in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. PLoS Medicine, 2013; 10 (10): e1001541 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001541
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead. |
Wasps hatched from Lesson Plan 11: Raising Parasitic Wasps, cocoons, dissecting scope or stong magnifying glass.
After the wasps have died, allow students to remove the cocoons and observe them again for | Wasps hatched from Lesson Plan 11: Raising Parasitic Wasps, cocoons, dissecting scope or stong magnifying glass.
After the wasps have died, allow students to remove the cocoons and observe them again for the openings the wasps made to exit. Some will show openings at the top and other more to the side. The different types of hyperparisitoid wasps escape differently than the original parasitic wasp which is Cotesis congregata, and this is an indication of the hyperparasitoid wasp that live off the original parasite; Cotesia congregata. There are approximately 20 species of hyperparasitoids. ( Seven are common at the Sandy Creek Nature Center where there is a Catalpa tree grove planted for a biodiversity project in Athens, Georgia).
Allow students to study the wasps and observe the anttenae, body colors and wings to try to group them on similarities. Students may then use a key to name them or develop a key of their own. You can get help with identification from the insect classification guides. Students should draw diagrams of the life cycles of the parasitic and hyperparisitoid wasps.
Practice classifying other objects or animals. Discuss other types of |
High: 26º Low: 3º
High: 15º Low: 0º
High; 23º Low: 10º
Why is the Rain Moving East to West
Written by: Chief Meteorologist Brian | High: 26º Low: 3º
High: 15º Low: 0º
High; 23º Low: 10º
Why is the Rain Moving East to West
Written by: Chief Meteorologist Brian Neudorff
Many of have observed and asked me on the KMVT Facebook page, “Why are the storms and rain moving the wrong way?” when they say the wrong way, they mean from east to west instead of the traditional west to east that most of us are use to. This goes back to the weather pattern I mentioned yesterday, called the “Rex Block.”
A Rex block occurs when we get an upper level low pressure system south of an upper level high pressure system which is cut off from the main flow of the jet stream and sits roughly in the same location over an extended period of time. We also call this an atmospheric blocking pattern.
The jet stream and other higher altitude winds move and steer weather systems across the Pacific Northwest and the country. Air rotates around low pressure counterclockwise and clockwise around high pressure. When you get a “high” over a “low” it forms the letter “S” with the winds coming from the bottom of the letter instead of the top.
Because of the wind flow around these two systems the winds come up from the south and then move to the west from the east north of the “Low” and south of the “high” across Southern Idaho then around the high pressure off the Washington coast. This brings moisture, along with scattered showers and storms with it until it can be moved by a change in the jet stream pattern.
We will see this pattern break down as we go into Thursday as the high p |
"In conclusion, regardless of the mechanisms used, wild orangutan males indicate future travel directions through their long calls over a span of about one day. This broadcast information is used in turn by their audience to adjust their own range use. These findings strongly | "In conclusion, regardless of the mechanisms used, wild orangutan males indicate future travel directions through their long calls over a span of about one day. This broadcast information is used in turn by their audience to adjust their own range use. These findings strongly suggest the presence of the ability to plan for the future, as demonstrated in captive experiments with the same species. Su |
|August 2, 2012||Posted by joyce under Uncategorized|
Mortality Stats: In recent decades, Gout has increased in frequency, affecting about 1-2% of the Western population at some point in their lives; | |August 2, 2012||Posted by joyce under Uncategorized|
Mortality Stats: In recent decades, Gout has increased in frequency, affecting about 1-2% of the Western population at some point in their lives; believed to be due to increasing risk factors in the population, such as metabolic syndrome, longer life expectancy and changes in lifestyle and diet.
In the latest Gout statistics, however, the top ten countries with deaths due to gout are:
- Thailand with 86 deaths
- USA 69
- Mexico 49
- Japan 36
- South Korea 24
- Brazil 24
- Australia 15
- Canada 8
- Chile 7
- Germany 6
NOTES: These statistics are derived from official causes of death detailed on certificates of death by each country. Rather than being a true indicator of the number of deaths attributed to a particular cause, mortality statistics reveal more about a particular country’s reporting processes.
Incidence of Gout:
Gout accounts for approximately 5% of all cases of arthritis.
In the United States it occurs in approximately 840 out of every 100,000 people.
Gout is 9 times more common in men than women. Gout often affects men in their 40′s and 50′s although gout attacks can occur after puberty which sees an increase in uric acid levels.
Gout attacks are more common in women after the menopausal stage.
Gout attacks are also more common in people with kidney disease.
A diseased kidney is less likely to eliminate uric acidand the risk of gout is increased.
Famous people who had gout include Henry VIII, Benjamin Franklin & Thomas Jefferson. |
Spanish sculpture, traditional ceramics, silver work, comics and theatre are others forms of artistic expression that exist in Spain. Learn more!
In Spain there are many different forms of artistic expression. These art forms give a new vision to the world which surrounds | Spanish sculpture, traditional ceramics, silver work, comics and theatre are others forms of artistic expression that exist in Spain. Learn more!
In Spain there are many different forms of artistic expression. These art forms give a new vision to the world which surrounds us. For centuries these expressions of art have borne witness to the evolution of culture.
Spanish sculpture, traditional ceramics, silver work, the creation of buildings from raw materials, comics, film and theatre are all forms of artistic expression. Spanish art forms serve as a witness to the time in which they were created and provide a historical testimony for future generations.
These artistic expressions are not always found in Spanish museums and are often hidden from the visitor´s eyes. The information in this section will serve as a guide so that you can discover the many artistic curiosities throughout Spain. Remembering and discovering Spanish art will also serve as a pleasant souvenir in the form of a memory that will last a lifetime. |
VATICAN CITY — Bitter memories of Spain's Civil War were on center stage Sunday as the Vatican put 498 slain Spanish priests and nuns from that divisive era on the path to sainthood.
The mass recognizing the Catholic men and | VATICAN CITY — Bitter memories of Spain's Civil War were on center stage Sunday as the Vatican put 498 slain Spanish priests and nuns from that divisive era on the path to sainthood.
The mass recognizing the Catholic men and women killed around the time of the 1936-39 Civil War was the largest beatification ceremony in church history. Thousands of pilgrims who traveled from Spain filled St. Peter's Square, waving their nation's flags and pictures of the newly beatified, whom the church considers to be martyrs.
"For a Catholic Spain, they died," read one huge banner.
However, the beatifications have stirred controversy in Spain, where critics accuse the Vatican of playing politics by promoting recognition of one side in the war.
Moreover, the timing of the ceremony, and the fact it was held at the Vatican with an appearance by Pope Benedict XVI, was seen by many as an ideologically motivated gesture of support for a Catholic Church at loggerheads with the current leftist Spanish government.
The church says the priests and nuns, as well as a handful of lay religious people, were killed decades ago by pro-leftist forces because of their Catholicism.
Many in Spain's Catholic Church sided with the Fascists led by Gen. Francisco Franco, who overthrew the elected leftist government and eventually ruled as a dictator for nearly four decades, granting wide power and influence to the church. Spain remains deeply polarized today and struggles to come to terms with its past.
This week, a hard-fought "historical memory" law goes before the Spanish parliament that acknowledges in the most comprehensive form to date the atrocities of the Franco regime, while also giving a nod to those killed for their religious beliefs.
The Vatican and organizers of Sunday's ceremony insisted it was not political.
"To beatify a martyr, or a group of martyrs, has no political meaning, but only exclusively a religious one," Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, a member of ultra-conservative Opus Dei, which is especially dominant in Spain, told an Italian newspaper. |
Global corn and wheat yields have dropped over the past 30 years because of rising temperatures according to a study published May 5 in the journal Science.
Researchers David Lobell and Justin Costa-Roberts of Stanford and Wolfram Schlenker of | Global corn and wheat yields have dropped over the past 30 years because of rising temperatures according to a study published May 5 in the journal Science.
Researchers David Lobell and Justin Costa-Roberts of Stanford and Wolfram Schlenker of Columbia University examined global yields of four major crops -- corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans -- for the period 1980-2008. They found that corn (maize) and wheat yields dropped 3.8% and 5.5% respectively. Rice and soy harvests were maintaining, as yield losses in some countries were offset by gains elsewhere.
This reported decline of global corn and wheat yields comes the same week the United Nations revised upwards its projections of global population. By century's end the UN says we'll likely exceed 10 billion people, which is a jump from previous projections of about nine billion at mid-century and then leveling off. (see link below)
Interestingly the crops/climate study showed that United States did not (yet) show yield losses during the time period studied, though in some countries climatic change was already offsetting yield increases that come from technology such as irrigation, improved seeds, and fertilizers. "Carbon fertilization" that results from rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide helped plant growth in all regions, offsetting some of the yield losses caused by rising temperatures from that same greenhouse gas.
The study has received press attention:
The Economist: Climate Change and Crops: Hindering Harvests: Changes in the climate are already having an effect on crop yields -- but not yet a very big one |
We tend to equate “technology” with “high-tech,” e.g., devices built on microprocessors. That’s a mistake. “Technology” is broader than that, encompassing any practical application of scientific knowledge. There are many, valuable | We tend to equate “technology” with “high-tech,” e.g., devices built on microprocessors. That’s a mistake. “Technology” is broader than that, encompassing any practical application of scientific knowledge. There are many, valuable low-tech technologies in health care, as in most other areas of human activity. Hand washing to reduce infection is one. Any evidence-based change in insurance design or delivery system reorganization to promote health or health system efficiency would be another.
The U.S. health system (indeed, any system) disproportionately promotes some technologies over others. Which? It’s pretty simple, really. Just follow the money. Whatever technologies earn powerful stakeholders more is what the system disproportionately provides. The playing field is tilted toward high-tech.
The recent work of Bruce Jacobs and colleagues in JAMA offers a case study. Though not couched in these terms, they test the system’s promotion of advanced prostate cancer treatment technologies (intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and robotic prostatectomy) versus its promotion of targeting prostate cancer treatment to those for whom it is most appropriate. The latter is also a technology, but we rarely think of it that way. We do have evidence on who is less likely to benefit from treatment — those at low risk of dying from it — and we know how to use it. We just don’t. It’s an under-exploited technology, and that shows up in the data.
Objective: To assess the use of advanced treatment technologies, compared with prior standards (ie, traditional external beam radiation treatment [EBRT] and open radical prostatectomy) and observation, among men with a low risk of dying from prostate cancer.
Design, Setting, and Patients: Using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare data, we identified a retrospective cohort of men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 2004 and 2009 who underwent IMRT (n = 23 633), EBRT (n = 3926), robotic prostatectomy (n = 5881), open radical prostatectomy (n = 6123), or observation (n = 16 384). Follow-up data were available through December 31, 2010.
Main Outcomes and Measures: The use of advanced treatment technologies among men unlikely to die from prostate cancer, as assessed by low-risk disease (clinical stage ≤T2a, biopsy Gleason score ≤6, and prostate-specific antigen level ≤10 ng/mL [the D’Amico classification]), high risk of noncancer mortality (based on the predicted probability of death within 10 years in the absence of a cancer diagnosis [see Gross et al.]), or both.
Results: In our cohort, the use of advanced treatment technologies increased from 32% (95% CI, 30%-33%) to 44% (95% CI, 43%-46%) among men with low-risk disease (P <.001) and from 36% (95% CI, 35%-38%) to 57% (95% CI, 55%-59%) among men with high risk of noncancer mortality (P <.001). The use of these advanced treatment technologies among men with both low-risk disease and high risk of noncancer mortality increased from 25% (95% CI, 23%-28%) to 34% (95% CI, 31%-37%) (P <.001). Among all patients diagnosed in SEER, the use of advanced treatment technologies for men unlikely to die from prostate cancer increased from 13% (95% CI, 12%-14%), or 129.2 per 1000 patients diagnosed with prostate cancer, to 24% (95% CI, 24%-25%), or 244.2 per 1000 patients diagnosed with prostate cancer (P <.001).
Conclusion and Relevance: Among men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 2004 and 2009 who had low-risk disease, high risk of noncancer mortality, or both, the use of advanced treatment technologies has increased.
The overall proportion of diagnosed patients treated for prostate cancer with the modalities studied from 2004-2009 was positive, but modest, as evident from the figure caption. Use of advanced treatment technologies increased 11 percentage points over the period of study, and use of prior treatment technologies decreased 8 percentage points. However, all of this was for patients unlikely to benefit. In light of the larger expense of advanced technologies, this is not efficiency enhancing even if those advanced technologies deliver treatment with lower rates of complications (itself a subject of debate).
In other words, high-tech is winning even though more emphasis on the low-tech sorting of patients by suitability for treatment would be cheaper and do less harm. For patients with low life expectancy, observation (aka, watchful waiting or WW) is a much lower cost means of care and is associated with greater quality-adjusted life expectancy, as documented in another recent and relevant paper by Julia Hayes et al.
Observation was more effective and less costly than initial treatment. Compared with AS [active surveillance], WW provided 2 additional months of quality-adjusted life expectancy (9.02 vs. 8.85 years) at a savings of $15 374 ($24 520 vs. $39 894) in men aged 65 years and 2 additional months (6.14 vs. 5.98 years) at a savings of $11 746 ($18 302 vs. $30 048) in men aged 75 years.
The overuse of high-tech health care i |
Introduction to CFD
What is CFD?
Fluid dynamics is a field of science which studies the physical laws governing the flow of fluids under various conditions. Great effort has gone into understanding the governing laws and the nature of fluids themselves, resulting in | Introduction to CFD
What is CFD?
Fluid dynamics is a field of science which studies the physical laws governing the flow of fluids under various conditions. Great effort has gone into understanding the governing laws and the nature of fluids themselves, resulting in a complex yet theoretically strong field of research.
Computational Fluid Dynamics or CFD as it is popularly known, is used to generate flow simulations with the help of computers. CFD involves the solution of the governing laws of fluid dynamics numerically. The complex set of partial differential equations are solved on in geometrical domain divided into small volumes, commonly known as a mesh (or grid).
CFD has enabled us to understand the world in new ways. We can now see what it is like to be in a furnace, model how blood flows through our arteries and veins and even create virtual worlds. CFD enables analysts to simulate and understand fluid flows without the help of instruments for measuring various flow variables at desired locations.
Where CFD scores
There are various reasons why CFD is becoming popular, some of which are:
- CFD allows numerical simulation of fluid flows, results for which are available for study even after the anaylsis is over. This is a big advantage over, say, wind tunnel testing where analysts have a shorter duration to perform flow measurements.
- CFD allows observation of flow properties without disturbing the flow itself, which is not always possible with conventional measuring instruments.
- CFD allows observation of flow properties at locations which may not be accessible to (or harmful for) measuring instruments. For example, inside a combustion chamber, or between turbine |
New Science Aimed at Fighting Atomic Terrorism
A new field called “nuclear forensics” is brining scientists together from across the globe with the goal of thwarting atomic terrorism.
Between 1993 and 2007 there were | New Science Aimed at Fighting Atomic Terrorism
A new field called “nuclear forensics” is brining scientists together from across the globe with the goal of thwarting atomic terrorism.
Between 1993 and 2007 there were 1,340 cases reported of illicit trafficking of nuclear materials around the world, according to Anita Nilsson, director of the office of nuclear safety at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria.
“Nuclear terrorism is a global threat, not local or regional,” she said.
Speaking to the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Nilsson said that the threats involve the spreading of radioactive materials, disruption of nuclear facilities, and explosions. |
DESCRIPTION: Strabismus is a term used to describe defects of the eye muscle system. It includes "phorias" (tendencies, or latent muscle imbalances which are controlled by the brain's efforts toward binocular vision) and "t | DESCRIPTION: Strabismus is a term used to describe defects of the eye muscle system. It includes "phorias" (tendencies, or latent muscle imbalances which are controlled by the brain's efforts toward binocular vision) and "tropias" (observable deviations which the brain cannot resolve). Esotropia is the deviation of one eye toward the nose. Exotropia is the deviation of one eye toward the temporal side of the face. Hypertropia is the deviation of one eye upward. Deviations downward are very rare. Deviations may occur with either eye, alternately (e.g., alternating esotropia or alternating exotropia) or may be monocular (always the same eye). Esotropia is the most common defect, is often present at birth, but may appear as late as 4 years of age if due to accommodation; exotropia is less common in infancy and childhood and is usually intermittent. Hypertropia is the least common; and is often compensated for by head tilting. Strabismus is commonly an inherited defect (autosomal dominant) but may also be caused by paresis or secondary to other body defects.
TREATMENT: The goals of correcting strabismus are: good acuity in both eyes, good cosmetic appearance, and binocular vision. Occlusion ("patching") of the good eye forces the deviating eye to develop acuity, and should be initiated as early as possible. It is most effective before age 1, and becomes more difficult by age 5; it is ineffective beyond age 7. Early diagnosis and occlusion are the best first steps in preventing amblyopia. When no further improvement of acuity can be accomplished by patching, surgical realignment of the eye muscles is indicated (occlusion does not straighten the eyes, only improves acuity). Surgery repositions eye muscles through recession (repositioning a muscle to make it "longer") or resection (essentially "shortening" a muscle). Strabismus surgery is rarely precise; more than one opinion may be needed to achieve optimal results. Orthoptics (eye exercises) are sometimes prescribed before or after strabismus surgery, to help improve fusion; an amblyoscope may be used to measure fusion as well as to induce it.
IMPLICATIONS: Since the muscles of the eyes are responsible for coordinated movements and binocular vision, strabismus should be identified and treated as early as possible. The younger a child is, the better the prognosis. Strabismus is never "outgrown" and vision may be permanently lost if strabismus is left untreated. (see Amblyopia)
School vision screening usually happens too late to help most children with strabismus. Preschool vision screening is highly desirable. Alert parents and/or pediatricians can also recognize strabismus and should follow-up with a professional eye examination. |
The Pyrenees, or the Pyrenees and its inhabitants prefer to call referring to a part or region thereof (Catalan: Pirineus; French: Pyrénées; Gascon: Pirenèus; Aragon | The Pyrenees, or the Pyrenees and its inhabitants prefer to call referring to a part or region thereof (Catalan: Pirineus; French: Pyrénées; Gascon: Pirenèus; Aragonese: Perinés; Euskara: Pirinioak or Auñamendiak) are a mountain range located at north of the Iberian Peninsula between Spain and France.
It stretches over 415 km from the Mediterranean Sea (Cape Creus) in the east to the Cantabrian Sea (Cape Higuer) west.
At its core has a width of about 150 km.
In everyday language the word applies to the whole Pyrenean high mountains of Hispanic-French border.
On the northern slopes in France, runs through the regions of Aquitaine, Midi-Pyrenees Roussillon. In the southern slope, in Spain, pass through Navarre, Aragon and Catalonia. The small state of Andorra is located in the Pyrenees between Spain and France in the Pyrenees.
These mountains are home to peaks over 3,000 meters as the Aneto (3,404 m), Posets (3,375 m), Monte Perdido (3,355 m) and Vignemale (3,298 m), small glaciers, lakes and glacial cirques, and a large number of valleys and canyons.
The Pyrenean chain and sister hugging a bunch of lands, languages and cultures. And although this differential may seem insurmountable, there is only one culture and one country in the Pyrenees, which bind all men and women living in the valleys at the foot of the great mountains.
The Aragonese Pyrenees is the purest manifestation of the Ice Age that gave rise to this range, is an area of large glaciers, beautiful forests and green meadows, lakes, countless rivers and streams of high peaks and huge masses of granite.
Cradle of culture and space persistence of old customs and traditions, the Pyrenees are the ideal destination to relax and quietly enjoy the essence of a land still true.
With an area of over 2,000 km. square, nearly 100 of border with France and an extraordinary nature, has remained intact for centuries, the Pyrenees Navarro is offered as a unique option.
This country, located in the heart of the Pyrenees, leads the traveler to try to understand the relationship between man and nature, and try to interpret the signs specific |
I first read this paradox in Martin Gardner's "The improbable hanging..."
A prisoner was sentenced by a judge to hang, the following week, on a day he could not predict.
His lawyer reasoned like the brilliant student here, and he convinced the | I first read this paradox in Martin Gardner's "The improbable hanging..."
A prisoner was sentenced by a judge to hang, the following week, on a day he could not predict.
His lawyer reasoned like the brilliant student here, and he convinced the prisoner he was safe from execution.
On Wednesday, however, the hangman executed him.
Much to his surprise.
To analyze, consider the judge saying simply, "you will be executed next week on an unannounced day."
Now the prisoner fears for his life each day.
Adding the constraint "you can't figure out which day" really adds nothing to the situation.
It means on |
Glossary of Medical Terms
human corticotropin-releasing factor
A substance being studied in the treatment of brain cancer. It is made naturally by the hypothalamus (a part of the brain) and can also be made in | Glossary of Medical Terms
human corticotropin-releasing factor
A substance being studied in the treatment of brain cancer. It is made naturally by the hypothalamus (a part of the brain) and can also be made in the laboratory. Human corticotropin-releasing factor may help reduce symptoms caused by edema (swelling) of the brain. It is a type of neurohormone. Also called hCRF. |
Friday, December 03, 2010
Uh, Life is Cleverer
Than We Thought...
DREXELITES. All right. So space travel isn't about NASA anymore. NASA is about, uh, evolution. Come | Friday, December 03, 2010
Uh, Life is Cleverer
Than We Thought...
DREXELITES. All right. So space travel isn't about NASA anymore. NASA is about, uh, evolution. Come again? Exhibit III:
NASA-funded astrobiology research has changed the fundamental knowledge about what comprises all known life on Earth.
Researchers conducting tests in the harsh environment of Mono Lake in California have discovered the first known microorganism on Earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. The microorganism substitutes arsenic for phosphorus in its cell components.
"The definition of life has just expanded," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. "As we pursue our efforts to seek signs of life in the solar system, we have to think more broadly, more diversely and consider life as we do not know it."
This finding of an alternative biochemistry makeup will alter biology textbooks and expand the scope of the search for life beyond Earth. The research is published in this week's edition of Science Express.
Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur are the six basic building blocks of all known forms of life on Earth. Phosphorus is part of the chemical backbone of DNA and RNA, the structures that carry genetic instructions for life, and is considered an essential element for all living cells.
Phosphorus is a central component of the energy-carrying molecule in all cells (adenosine triphosphate) and also the phospholipids that form all cell membranes. Arsenic, which is chemically similar to phosphorus, is poisonous for most life on Earth. Arsenic disrupts metabolic pathways because chemically it behaves similarly to phosphate.
"We know that some microbes can breathe arsenic, but what we've found is a microbe doing something new -- building parts of itself out of arsenic," said Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a NASA Astrobiology Research Fellow in residence at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., and the research team's lead scientist. "If something here on Earth can do something so unexpected, what else can life do that we haven't seen yet?"
So life isn't what they've been telling us it is. That's cool. But doesn't it make the whole subject a shade less deterministic and accidental than they've been insisting it is? Like, maybe life will find a way to be? And what the hell is life anyway? If it actually, uh, wants to be, independent of the rigid chemical rules organic chemists have been insisting on for two centuries, then shouldn't we be looking harder for some kind of intention or intelligence inside the chemistry?
Nah. I didn't mean to overspeak myself. I'm sure they have a perfect explanation for any deviations from orthodoxy up their sleeve. Intelligence cannot, will not, won't ever be involved in the basic life process. It's simply an emergent property of a certain freakish kind of mammalian brain.
Forget I said anything. I already have. |
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William Hogarth’s Marriage à la mode
Marriage à | |University of Missouri||sitemap | map | parking | directions | contact the museum|
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William Hogarth’s Marriage à la mode
Marriage à la Mode - Plate IV (The Toilette)
Etching with engraving
Gift of Museum Associates
William Hogarth (1697-1764) was an important British painter and engraver. In 1745 he published a series of prints entitled Marriage à la mode, which satirizes a fashionable marriage of convenience between members of the aristocratic and working classes. Contemporary drama and life provided Hogarth with the subjects for the six scenes, which delve into the contemporary debate on marital ethics. At the same time, the prints are a remarkable record of English culture, providing detailed information about eighteenth-century etiquette, costume, material culture, architecture, art collecting, and aesthetics.
Museum of Art and Archaeology | College of Arts and Science | University of Missouri |
The Duluth harbor is home to a growing number of invasive species from spiny water fleas, to zebra mussels and round gobies.
The plants and animals can establish quickly and push out native and arguably more desirable organisms. And it | The Duluth harbor is home to a growing number of invasive species from spiny water fleas, to zebra mussels and round gobies.
The plants and animals can establish quickly and push out native and arguably more desirable organisms. And it is almost certain these creatures arrived from far flung places like the Caspian Sea, hidden in ship ballast water.
There has been a lot of discussion what to do about ballast water, but little action. Now, a court ruling from California is spurring new actions.
The court said federal pollution law requires officials to regulate ships which dump ballast in U.S. waters. And the ruling gives regulators until this October to do it.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is leading the effort in Minnesota. The MPCA's Jeff Stollenwerk said the court's ruling could apply to any kind of water vessel -- even recreational boats.
"Our initial focus has been on ballast water discharges from commercial vessels in the Great Lakes, since they are a suspected source of invasive species introductions, so we felt it was a high priority area," Stollenwerk said. "That's really what the court decision focussed on, and that's where we're concentrating our efforts right now."
Minnesota may be the second Great Lakes state with state-specific rules. Michigan was first, requiring permits for ships that come into Michigan waters from the ocean. Wisconsin is considering a similar program, and Ontario Province has its own rules and permits.
But even as he works to devel |
Children love being outside during the summer, but you need to be careful about exposing them to too much sun. “It is best to stay indoors during the midday hours—when the sun’s ultraviolet rays are most harmful—and head outside in | Children love being outside during the summer, but you need to be careful about exposing them to too much sun. “It is best to stay indoors during the midday hours—when the sun’s ultraviolet rays are most harmful—and head outside in the morning and late afternoon instead,” says Heather K. Dodson, MD, FAAP, pediatrician at Saint Francis Medical Center.
- Stay in the shade as much as possible.
- Always apply sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 15.
- Make sure young children wear a hat that shades the face, neck and ears.
- Find sunglasses that fit your child. “You should look for sunglasses that block as much UVA and UVB rays as possible,” says Dodson.
- Dress your children in clothing that covers as much skin as possible.
For more information call 573-331-3996. |
This replica of the plaque left on the moon by the Apollo 12 astronauts was struck by the Lombardo Mint in Canada. Apollo 12 was launched on November 14, 1969, and landed on the moon five days later. It | This replica of the plaque left on the moon by the Apollo 12 astronauts was struck by the Lombardo Mint in Canada. Apollo 12 was launched on November 14, 1969, and landed on the moon five days later. It returned to earth on November 24. Apollo 12 was the second manned lunar landing mission in the Apollo program. Charles Conrad, Jr., Richard Gordon, Jr., and Alan L. Bean were the astronauts.
Space medal collector Thomas Becker donated this replica to the National Collection in 1972.
Gift of Thomas Becker |
List of birding books
|This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2011)|
The literature relating to birding is vast, however certain books or series are regarded by the birding community as key milestones, setting standards | List of birding books
|This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2011)|
The literature relating to birding is vast, however certain books or series are regarded by the birding community as key milestones, setting standards of quality and influencing the development of birding literature, or birding itself. These works and their impact are dealt with on this page, in chronological order of publication. More information on each of the individual works can be found on their individual pages.
- Bird Neighbors (1897) by Neltje Blanchan was an early birding book which sold over 250,000 copies. It was illustrated with color photographs of stuffed birds.
- The Field Guide to the Birds by Roger Tory Peterson is regarded as the key birding book of the 20th century, due to its impact on the development and popularisation of birding.
- Atlas of Breeding Birds of the West Midlands, produced in 1970 by the West Midland Bird Club; the first modern bird atlas.
- The Birds of the Western Palearctic (BWP) is a comprehensive regional avifauna for the Western Palearctic. It consists of 9 volumes, the first published in 1977 and the ninth in 1996. BWP's format and breadth influenced the development of regional avifaunas for other parts of the world, notably The Birds of Africa.
- The Helm Identification Guides are a series, originally produced by Christopher Helm, covering the identification of groups of birds at a worldwide scale. The first volume produced was Seabirds by Peter Harrison, published in 1983.
- The Macmillan Field Guides to Bird Identification are two small field guides. They adopt an unusual format, in that not all species in the geographical area of coverage are included; instead only groups of species which the authors regarded as difficult to identify are covered. Each such group is given a chapter, where identification is covered discurively rather than in the abbreviated form more usually used in a field guide. The publication of the first volume (covering Britain and Ireland) was the first time that this approach had been used in a European guide; the book undoubtedly had a major influence on improving the identification skills of birders in Britain during the 1990s[.
- The publication of Charles Sibley & Jon Ahlquist's Phylogeny and Classification of Birds in 1990 brought a debate about the higher-level systematics of modern birds to the consciousness of birders. Sibley and Ahlquist proposed a radically different phylogenetic tree for birds, based on the results of DNA-DNA hybridisation studies. More details can be found in the article Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy.
- Handbook of the Birds of the World is the first work to describe and illustrate all of the world's birds. It is currently in production.
- The Sibley Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley was published in 2000, and was widely regarded as setting a new standard for field guides in North America.
- The Collins Bird Guide by Peter J. Grant and Lars Svensson was first published in 2000, and was received extremely warmly by birders. It deals with the birds of the bulk of the Western Palearctic.
- The Big Year by Mark Obmascik (audio spoken by Oliver Wyman) is a fascinating narration of a birding contest lasting one whole year.
- Shearin, Gloria. 2008. Neltje Blanchan. In: Patterson, D., Thompson, R., Bryson, S., et al., Early American Nature Writers. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, ISBN 0313346801. pp.62-69.
- Dunlap, Thomas R. 2011. In the Field, Among the Feathered: A History of Birders & Their Guides, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0199734593. p 47.
- Lord, John; Dennis Johnstone Munns, T. K Beck, A. J Richards (1970). Atlas of breeding birds of the West Midlands. London :: Published for the West Midland Bird Club (by) Collins,. pp. 3–276p(chiefly illus, form, maps) ; 20cm. ISBN 0-00-211040-7.
- Donald, Paul F.; Robert J. Fuller (1998). "Ornithological atlas data: a review of uses and limitations". Bird Study 45: 129–145. doi:10.1080/00063659809461086. |
To the Collector in the Field
Before collecting anything:
- DO acquaint yourself with CITES and national and state controls, and find out which species are protected.
- DO obtain all necessary permits, both for collecting and for export and import to other | To the Collector in the Field
Before collecting anything:
- DO acquaint yourself with CITES and national and state controls, and find out which species are protected.
- DO obtain all necessary permits, both for collecting and for export and import to other countries.
- DO notify interested local organizations of your intentions.
- DO strictly observe restrictions on what may be collected (which species, how many specimens, what kind of material). -Where possible, collect seed, offsets or cuttings, not the whole plant.
- DO leave mature plants for seed production. They are needed to perpetuate the wild population, and are unlikely to transplant successfully.
- DO collect discreetly; Don't lead local people to believe the plants are valuable, or encourage or pay them (or their children) to collect for you.
- DO make careful field-notes, including precise locality, altitude, type of vegetation and soil, date of collection and your own field number. Try to assess the number of individuals and extent of the population, the amount of seed-setting and the frequency of seedlings.
- DO note possible threats to the habitat, e.g. through grazing, drainage or cultivation, urban spread or road-widening.
- DO take photographs and/or preserve representative herbarium material. Submit this material, with a copy of your notes, to an appropriate institution or organization.
- DON'T underrate the value of your field observations: carefully recorded they will be a useful contribution to science and to conservation.
- IF... you plan to collect in commercial quantities, don't.
- IF... you plan to sell any of the plants you collect to defray the cost of your trip, don't
- IF... you plan to collect for research or study obtain the agreement (and preferably the collaboration) of competent scientific authorities, such as a government agency or university department, in the host country.
- IF... you think "two or three plants won't be missed", remember someone else may be thinking the same tomorrow, and the next day, and the next...
To the Importer, Private or Commercial
- Don't import wild plants, even if legally permitted, except as a nucleus for propagation and seed-production. And then:
- Do check the credentials of suppliers offering wild plants and satisfy yourself they are "legal".
- Do observe international and national export/import regulations.
To the Nurseryman
- Do sell nursery-raised or propagated material only; don't advertise or sell un-propagated wild plants under any circumstances, even when legally permitted to do so.
- Do try to propagate all rare or documented material and distribute it to recognized IOS Reference Collections.
- Do keep more than one clone of rare species, even self-fertile ones, for seed production.
- Do keep careful records of the origin of all stock, especially any with collectors' numbers or locality data, and pass on the information to interested purchasers.
To the Grower/Collector at Home
- Do make successful cultivation your prime objective, not the size of your collection or rarity of the plants.
- Don't buy any plant unless you are sure it was nursery-grown; remember that your choice will influence the seller's market.
- Don't buy wild-collected plants even if with the aim of saving the "individual". We want to save the species, not the specimen. Only when importers see their wild-collected plants rotting because nobody buys them they will stop the import of wild-collected plants.
- Do enjoy the satisfaction of raising from seed. Some of the rare or "difficult" species will test your skill and patience, but reward your success accordingly!
- Do record when and from whom you got your plant/seeds, and ask your source for any data: collector's numbers, locality, and so on: all just as vital, to the serious enthusiast, as the name on the label.
- Do try to propagate rare and documented
material and distribute it to other enthusiasts. It's
the old proverb: To keep- a plant, give it away!
- Do notify the IOS secretary if
you suspect a supplier is infringing legal controls.
To the Society and Club
- DO endorse the precepts of this
Code of Conduct, as a guide for responsible and conscientious
- DON'T permit wild plants to be
advertised for sale in your publications, either openly
or by hints.
- DO publicize national and international
regulations on the export, import and sale of wild plants.
- DO sponsor or support national
and international measures to protect the habitats of
rare and threatened species.
- DO inform the competent authorities
of any suspect sale of collected plants. If you know of
people travelling to countries where succulents grow wild,
with the intention to collecting, inform the competent
authorities; the best way to stop habitat exploitation
by collectors is to catch them at the port of entry with
the plants in hand.
To the Show Committee and Judges
- DO include in the schedule some
classes for plants raised from seed by the exhibitor.
- DON'T permit species protected
by CITES Appendix I to be shown in competitive classes,
exce |
from the Center for Biological Diversity:
MIAMI— A new poll finds a majority of Americans believe the world’s growing human population is driving wildlife species toward extinction and is making climate change worse. Respondents also said addressing the human population — which topped | from the Center for Biological Diversity:
MIAMI— A new poll finds a majority of Americans believe the world’s growing human population is driving wildlife species toward extinction and is making climate change worse. Respondents also said addressing the human population — which topped 7 billion in 2011 — is an important environmental issue and that society has a “moral obligation” to address wildlife extinctions related to population growth.
The national poll of 657 registered voters was commissioned by the Center for Biological Diversity. It was conducted by Public Policy Polling on Feb. 22, 23 and 24. The poll has a margin of error of +-3.85 percent.
“It’s now more clear than ever that Americans are concerned about the toll that human population growth is having on wildlife and our planet,” said Jerry Karnas, population campaign director at the Center. “Population is clearly a driving factor in so many of our environmental issues today, whether it’s sprawling development crowding out Florida panthers and sea turtles, loss of wild habitat for San Joaquin kit foxes in California or the climate crisis pushing polar bears ice seals toward extinction. It’s heartening to see that most Americans understand these connections and don’t want to see them ignored.”
“Although it’s an issue that doesn’t get talked about that much, this poll shows population is an emerging environmental issue that Americans recognize, especially when it comes to protecting wildlife from extinction,” said Jim Williams, of Public Policy Polling.
Among the poll’s results released today:
- 64 percent said that, with the human population expected to hit 10 billion by 2050, wildlife will be adversely affected.
- 61 percent said they are already concerned about the rate that wildlife are disappearing.
- 60 percent said they “strongly agreed” or “somewhat agreed” that human population growth is driving animal species to extinction.
- 60 percent said our society has a “moral responsibility” to address wildlife extinctions in the face of a growing population.
- 59 percent said they “strongly agreed” or “somewhat agreed” that addressing the effects of human population gr |
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Researchers find that unusual volcanic episode rapidly triggered Little Ice Age
30 January 2012
AGU Release No. 12 | - My NESTA
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Researchers find that unusual volcanic episode rapidly triggered Little Ice Age
30 January 2012
AGU Release No. 12-05
For Immediate Release
WASHINGTON, DC—New evidence from northern ice sheets suggests that volcanic eruptions triggered the multiple-century cool spell known as the Little Ice Age, and pinpoints the start of the climate shift to the final decades of the 13th century.
According to the new study, the Little Ice Age began abruptly between 1275 and 1300 A.D., triggered by repeated, explosive volcanism and sustained by a self-perpetuating sea ice-ocean feedback in the North Atlantic Ocean.
For more information, see the full press release from AGU at http://www.agu.org/news/press/pr_archives/2012/2012-05.shtml. |
In Greek mythology, maenads (Greek: μαινάδες, mainádes) were the female followers of Dionysus (Bacchus in the Roman pantheon), and the most significant members of the Thiasus, | In Greek mythology, maenads (Greek: μαινάδες, mainádes) were the female followers of Dionysus (Bacchus in the Roman pantheon), and the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god's retinue. Their name literally translates as "raving ones". Often the maenads were portrayed as inspired by Dionysus into a state of ecstatic frenzy, through a combination of dancing and intoxication. During these rites, the maenads would dress in fawn skins and carry a thyrsus, a long stick wrapped in ivy or vine leaves and tipped with a pinecone; they would weave ivy-wreaths around their heads or wear a bull helmet in honor of their god, and often handle or wear snakes. German philologist Walter Friedrich Otto writes that
The Bacchae of Euripides gives us the most vital picture of the wonderful circumstance in which, as Plato says in the Ion, the god-intoxicated celebrants draw milk and honey from the streams. They strike rocks with the thyrsus, and water gushes forth. They lower the thyrsus to the earth, and a spring of wine bubbles up. If they want milk, they scratch up the ground with their fingers and draw up the milky fluid. Honey trickles down from the thyrsus made of the wood of the ivy, they gird themselves with snakes and give suck to fawns and wolf cubs as if they were infants at the breast. Fire does not burn them. No weapon of iron can wound them, and the snakes harmlessly lick up the sweat from their heated cheeks. Fierce bulls fall to the ground, victims to numberless, tearing female hands, and sturdy trees are torn up by the roots with their combined efforts.
The maddened Hellenic women of real life were mythologized as the mad women who were nurses of Dionysus in Nysa: Lycurgus "chased the Nurses of the frenzied Dionysus through the holy hills of Nysa, and the sacred implements dropped to the ground from the hands of one and all, as the murderous Lycurgus struck them down with his ox-goad." They went into the mountains at night and practised strange rites.
In Macedon, according to Plutarch's Life of Alexander, they were called Mimallones and Klodones, epithets derived from the feminine art of spinning wool; nevertheless, these warlike parthenoi ("virgins") from the hills, associated with a shamanic Dionysios pseudanor, routed an invading enemy. In southern Greece they were described as Bacchae, Bassarides, Thyiades, Potniades and given other epithets.
In Euripides' play The Bacchae, Theban maenads murdered King Pentheus after he banned the worship of Dionysus. Dionysus, Pentheus' cousin, himself lured Pentheus to the woods, where the maenads tore him apart. His corpse was mutilated by his own mother, Agave, who tore off his head, believing it to be that of a lion.
In Greek vase painting, the frolicking of maenads and Dionysus is often a theme depicted on Greek kraters, used to mix water and wine. These scenes show the maenads in their frenzy running in the forests, often tearing to pieces any animal they happen to come across.
|This section needs additional citations for verification. (September 2010)|
Nurses and nymphs
The name maenad has come to be associated with a wide variety of women, supernatural, mythological, and historical, associated with the god Dionysus and his worship. In the realm of the supernatural is the category of nymphs who nurse and care for the young Dionysus, and continue in his worship as he comes of age. The god Hermes is said to have carried the young Dionysus to the nymphs of Nysa.
In another myth, when his mother, Semele, is killed, the care of young Dionysus falls into the hands of her sisters, Ino, Agave, and Autonoe, who later are depicted as participating in the rites and taking a leadership role among the other maenads.
Resisters to the new religion
The term'maenad' is also used to refer to a category of women in the mythology who resist the worship of Dionysus, and are therefore driven mad by him, being forced against their will to participate in often horrific rites. The doubting women of Thebes, the prototypical maenads, or'mad women', left their homes to live in the wilds of the nearby mountain Cithaeron. When they discover Pentheus spying on them, dressed as a maenad, they tear him limb from limb.
This also occurs with the three daughters of Minyas, who reject Dionysus and remain true to their household duties, becoming startled by invisible drums, flutes, cymbals, and seeing ivy hanging down from their looms. As punishment for their resistance, they become madwomen, choosing the child of one of their number by lot and tearing it to pieces, as the women on the mountain did to young animals. A similar story with a tragic end is told of the daughters of Proetus.
Not all women were inclined to resist the call o |
Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr
|Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr
Arabic: محمد بن أبي بكر
|Birthplace||Medina, Hejaz (631 AD)|
|Known For||Being a | Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr
|Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr
Arabic: محمد بن أبي بكر
|Birthplace||Medina, Hejaz (631 AD)|
|Known For||Being a loyal companion of Imam Ali|
|Influences||Allah, Prophet Muhammad, Imam Ali, and the Ahl al-Bayt|
|Cause of Death||Assassinated by Mu'awiya ibn Hudayj|
|Parents||Father: Abu Bakr Mother: Asma bint Umays|
|Sister||Aisha (half sister)|
|Children/Descendants||Son: Qasim Descendant: Umm Farwah|
|Religion||Shia Islam(follower of Ali)|
|Opponents||Enemies of Allah, Islam, Prophet Muhammad, and the Ahl al-Bayt|
Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr Arabic: محمد بن أبي بكر was the son of Abu Bakr, a companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and first Rashidun Caliph. His mother was Asma bint Umays. He became the adopted son of the first Imam, and fourth Rashidun caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib and became one of his lifelong supporters (a Shia of Ali).
Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr had a son named, Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr (not to be confused with the Islamic prophet Muhammad's son Qasim ibn Muhammad). The daughter of Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, Umm Farwah, was the mother of the sixth Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq.
After the Battle of Siffin, Ali ibn Abi Talib appointed Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr as the Governor of Egypt, then a newly conquered province of the Islamic empire. In 658 CE (38 A.H.), Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, the then Governor of Syria, sent his general 'Amr ibn al-'As and six thousand soldiers against Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr. Muhammad asked Imam Ali for help. Ali is said to have instructed his foster son to hand the governorship over to his best general and childhood friend, Malik al-Ashtar, whom he judged better capable of resisting Amr ibn al-As. However, Malik died on his way to Egypt. The Shi'a and Institute for Shia Ismaili Studies in London's Shia'ism researcher Wilferd Madelung believe that Malik was poisoned by Muawiyah I.
Ibn Abi Bakr was eventually defeated by 'Amr ibn al-'As. 'Amr's soldiers were ordered to capture him and bring him alive, to Muawiyah I. However, a soldier named Mu'awiya ibn Hudayj is said to have quarreled with the prisoner and killed him out of hand. Ibn Hudayj was so incensed at Ibn Abi Bakr that he put his body into the skin of a dead donkey and burned both corpses together, so that nothing should survive of his enemy. However, Shi'a accounts say that the Muawiyah I who later became the first Umayyad Caliph was the actual killer of Ibn Abi Bakr.
Sunni Muslim view
Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr was a pious Muslim who supported the Rightly Guided Caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib. He had spent considerable time in Egypt and was part of the delegation that complained about the activities of the governor of Egypt to the third Caliph Uthman ibn Affan. The Caliph promised to immediately dismiss the Egyptian governor and replace him with Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr. However, after sensing betrayal from Uthman ibn Affan (but actually perpetrated by Marwan ibn al-Hakam) against the Muslim petitioners from Egypt, Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr rushed back with the petitioners to Madinah where he initially took part in the uprising against Uthman ibn Affan. After realizing his error in getting involved in the Siege of Uthman, he repented and withdrew from the uprising, although he had already led the group of rebels inside Uthman ibn Affan's residence.
The history is related as follows:
A group of seven hundred Egyptians came to complain to Caliph Uthman ibn Affan about their governor Ibn Abi Sarh’s tyranny, so Uthman ibn Affan said: "Choose someone to govern you." They chose Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, so Uthman ibn Affan wrote credentials for him and they returned. On their way back, at three days' distance from Madinah, a messenger caught up with them with the news that he carried orders from Uthman ibn Affan to the governor of Egypt. They searched him and found a message from Uthman ibn Affan to ibn Abi Sarh ordering the death of Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr and some of his friends. They returned to Madinah and besieged Uthman ibn Affan. Uthman ibn Affan acknowledged that th |
Offering diagnosis and treatment of communication, hearing, and swallowing disorders
Published: Aug. 8, 2008
Updated: Nov. 3, 2011
Stuttering is a communication disorder that involves abnormal disfluencies | Offering diagnosis and treatment of communication, hearing, and swallowing disorders
Published: Aug. 8, 2008
Updated: Nov. 3, 2011
Stuttering is a communication disorder that involves abnormal disfluencies in speech, as well as behavioral and emotional reactions.
Typical speech behaviors of stutterers include:
Most adolescent and adult stutterers have also developed behavioral reactions to their stuttering, such as:
Therapy is provided on an individual basis, with sessions ranging from 30 to 60 minutes. All therapy is conducted by a licensed speech-language pathologist who is certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and is licensed in the state of North Carolina.
Weekly home assignments are provided as necessary.
Success is measured differently by everyone. Goals of this program are to provide children, adolescents, and adults with strategies and tools to use in their everyday communication to facilitate more fluent speech.
Home and community practice are essential for success, and the motivation to improve one’s own speech can be a significant factor.
For a child, consider requesting an initial evaluation through your primary care provider, or independently, when:
For an adolescent or adult, consider treatment if you have developed behavioral reactions to your stuttering, or if stuttering has a negative impact on you academically, socially, or professionally.
You can benefit from stuttering therapy if stuttering affects your ability to:
The benefits of participating in Duke’s stuttering program include:
To schedule an evaluation, please contact Duke Speech Pathology and Audiology at 919-684-3859, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
Up next in Food Safety & Freshness (34 videos)
Prevent food poisoning and food-borne illnesses with the advice in this Howcast video series.
You Will Need
Check the color
Look at the avocado's color. Avocados | Up next in Food Safety & Freshness (34 videos)
Prevent food poisoning and food-borne illnesses with the advice in this Howcast video series.
You Will Need
Check the color
Look at the avocado's color. Avocados that aren't yet ripe are pale to dark green. Ripe avocados are dark green to greenish-brown, and an avocado that is dark brown to black is rotten.
Pull out the stem
Determine if an avocado is rotten by prying the stem from the top of the avocado. If the bottom of the stem is mushy, black, or mildewed, the avocado is probably rotten.
Feel the avocado
Pick up the avocado. If it is hard and unyielding, it isn't ripe yet. If it's overly soft and mushy, it's rotten.
Cut it open
Cut open the avocado with a knife. If it's dark green near the skin and pale green near the stone, it's ripe. But if the meat is separated, stringy, and brown or black, it's rotten. If the meat of a ripe avocado is exposed to air, it'll brown quickly, but you can skim off the top layer and still use the avocado. |
The Journal of Jedediah Barstow Discussion Guide
- Grades: 6–8
About this book
To the Discussion Leader
"It's almost two weeks now, and today is the first day I opened this book. It was | The Journal of Jedediah Barstow Discussion Guide
- Grades: 6–8
About this book
To the Discussion Leader
"It's almost two weeks now, and today is the first day I opened this book. It was Mama's journal. I been carrying it since Mr. Fenster gave it to me. Only thing he found in the river, he said, besides me. It's all dried out now, but there's a big watermark like a long peninsula coming out from the binding. Fat at the beginning and skinnier toward the edge of the page. They never found Mama, Pa, and Sally." So begins The Journal of Jedediah Barstow: An Emigrant on the Oregon Trail, Overland, 1845. Praised for her meticulous research and penchant for accuracy, author Ellen Levine allows young readers to experience the joys and sorrows, dreams and bitter realities, struggles and triumphs of orphan Jedediah Barstow during his journey west on the Oregon Trail.
The pioneers who make up Jedediah's wagon train run the gamut from folks who demonstrate selfless concern for others to selfish individuals consumed only with themselves. As he watches these people around him, Jedediah learns what it means to be honest and kind. Jedediah becomes self-reliant. He confronts his own fears and develops into a hardworking man who would have brought great pride to his parents.
Ellen Levine says that as a young person her favorite books were about pioneers and covered wagons. She always thought the adventure of traveling through unsettled territory and making everything you needed for the journey must have been a fascinating experience. Through The Journal of Jedediah Barstow: An Emigrant on the Oregon Trail, a new generation of readers will share Levine's enjoyment and fascination with pioneers and covered wagons.
"Damn Pa! If we hadn't come, we'd still be a family! Maybe I'll be struck down for the blasphemy. But the stars are still up there and the moon is moving regular. I can hear Mama's voice saying what she said to me and Sally every night: 'Don't go to bed with regrets and you won't have them when you get up.'" writes thirteen-year-old Jedediah Barstow in his journal. Jed does have regrets. His mother, father, and younger sister Sally are now dead, swept out of their covered wagon and drowned while crossing the Kaw River. It is May of 1847, and Jed and his family are part of a wagon train traveling on the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri to the Willamette Valley in the Territory of Oregon. When the tragedy occurs, Jed has to decide whether to continue on the journey or be a "turnaround" and head back home. He decides to stay and is taken in by the Henshaw family. Even though Mr. Henshaw is mean, drinks too much, and treats Jed roughly, Mrs. Henshaw is kind, and their seven-year-old daughter Bekky looks up to Jed and reminds him of his sister Sally.
Jed helps out with the many chores, encounters sandstorms, witnesses a buffalo stampede, and narrowly escapes a grizzly bear attack. He becomes friends with other young people on the journey: Charlie Smothers, Jack Simpson, and Lucy Sedlow. He sees young Amos Littleton bitten by a rattlesnake, and days later, watches the amputation of boy's infected leg. The harrowing journey takes almost five months, and during that time there's a wedding on the trail, a baby is born, and Mr. Henshaw is killed when his gun accidentally discharges. After Mr. Henshaw's death, Jed, now, "the male of the Henshaw wagon," is invited to become a speaking and voting member of the wagon train council despite his young age.
Even though Jed seems comfortable with life on the trail, every time the wagons must cross a river, the memories return, and he doesn't want to go into deep water. "Don't like crossing over anything above my knees — I'm not afraid. I just don't like it. Keep seeing Mama and Sally hanging on to the ropes," Jed writes. "But I don't like not wanting to cross." The true test of his courage comes when the travelers have to pass through the Dalles of the Columbia River, a perilous section full of whirlpools. The rough current causes their raft to rock violently, throwing Bekky, Lucy, and baby Seth into the swirling water. Jed dives in and miraculously manages to save all three. When the group arrives at their destination, Oregon City, Jed plans to stay with Mrs. Henshaw. He writes, "I'm going to get where Pa and Mama wanted to be. I just wish I could tell them that, and that I know why they wanted to come out here to Oregon. And that I'm glad they wanted to make the trip."
Thinking About the Book
- Where and how does Jedediah get the journal he writes in?
- One of the most interesting characters in Jededi |
Tro"phy (?), n.; pl. Trophies (#). [F. troph'ee (cf. It. & Sp. trofeo), L. tropaeum, trophaeum, Gr., strictly, a monument | Tro"phy (?), n.; pl. Trophies (#). [F. troph'ee (cf. It. & Sp. trofeo), L. tropaeum, trophaeum, Gr., strictly, a monument of the enemy's defeat, fr. a turn, especially, a turning about of the enemy, a putting to flight or routing him, fr. to turn. See Trope.]
1. Gr. & Rom. Antiq.
A sign or memorial of a victory raised on the field of battle, or, in case of a naval victory, on the nearest land. Sometimes trophies were erected in the chief city of the conquered people.
⇒ A trophy consisted originally of some of the armor, weapons, etc., of the defeated enemy fixed to the trunk of a tree or to a post erected on an elevated site, with an inscription, and a dedication to a divinity. The Romans often erected their trophies in the Capitol.
The representation of such a memorial, as on a medal; esp. Arch., an ornament representing a group of arms and military weapons, offensive and defensive.
Anything taken from an enemy and preserved as a memorial of victory, as arms, flags, standards, etc.
Around the posts hung helmets, darts, and spears,
And captive chariots, axes, shields, and bars,
And broken beaks of ships, the trophies of their wars.
Any evidence or memorial of victory or conquest; as, every redeemed soul is a trophy of grace.
<-- 5. An object memorializing a victory in a sporting contest.
Some trophies(5) are unique, temporary possession of the same object passing to the new victors of some periodic contest in subsequent occurrences. Others are objects of little inherent worth, given by the authority sponsoring the contest to the victor. A trophy is sometimes shaped like a cup, and in such cases may be called a cup, as the America's Cup (in Yacht racing). -->
Trophy money, a duty paid formerly in England, annually, by housekeepers, toward providing harness, drums, colors, and the like, for the militia.
<-- Trophy room, a room in which trophies are kept. -->
© Webster 1913. |
Drawing For Dummies
Discover everything you need to know to get started with drawing, including what supplies and styles to use to create different types of drawings. You'll also find ways to come up with ideas about what to draw.
Get Started Drawing | Drawing For Dummies
Discover everything you need to know to get started with drawing, including what supplies and styles to use to create different types of drawings. You'll also find ways to come up with ideas about what to draw.
Get Started Drawing with Basic Supplies
If you’re new to drawing, you’ll want to gather a few must-have supplies. But these drawing basics aren’t any old pencils, erasers, rulers, and paper. Here are the basic supplies you need to have in hand to get started drawing:
Three to five pencils in a variety of grades: Drawing pencils come in a wide range of grades. The grade of a pencil indicates its softness. The softness of a pencil controls the darkness of its marks. A very soft pencil makes a very dark mark because it leaves more graphite on the paper than a harder pencil. A very hard pencil leaves less graphite on the paper and therefore makes a lighter mark.
Harder pencils are given grades from H to 9H with 9H being the hardest. Softer pencils are given grades from B to 9B with 9B being the softest. An HB pencil is right in the middle of the range between hardest and softest.
A good range to begin with is 2H, HB, 2B, 4B, and 6B. If you only buy three, try the 2H, 2B, and 4B.
Erasers: A variety of erasers, each suited to different jobs, is available. Start with one rectangular vinyl eraser and one kneaded eraser. A vinyl eraser is a hard, white eraser. It’s an excellent choice when you want to erase graphite or charcoal completely. A kneaded eraser is a soft, moldable gray eraser.
Choose a kneaded eraser when you want to lift some graphite or charcoal off your paper without disturbing the whole drawing. For example, if you need to lighten part of your drawing but don’t want to completely erase it, you can pat that part of your drawing with a kneaded eraser.
Ruler and plastic triangle: Get a 12- or 18-inch clear plastic ruler and a 10- or 12-inch plastic triangle with one right angle. Rulers are helpful for drawing straight lines. A clear plastic ruler is a good choice because you can see through it in case you need to make sure something is lining up with something else. You can use a plastic triangle as a guide to draw right angles of any size.
Paper: You need lots of paper. Buy a sketchbook with at least 50 sheets. A good size is 9 inches by 12 inches, because it’s small enough to stow in your bag for the day but large enough that you’re not limited to tiny sketches.
How to Find Drawing Inspiration
Artist’s block (what you have when you can’t think of anything to draw) can strike at any time. Fortunately, inspiration can strike anytime, too! You just have to know where to look. To unclog your creative flow, try these tips:
Go for a walk (or just sit outside for a while) to clear your mind and gather new sensory stimulation. While you’re out, look around. Take in everything you can about your surroundings: light, colors, shapes, sounds, smells, temperature, and so on.
Look at art made by others to get ideas for your own. Looking at art is like food for an artist. You just need it. Visit a local art museum or gallery. Go to the library and browse the art books. Get online and type drawings into a search engine.
Make an inspiration wall or journal. Fill it with postcards, photographs, sketches, and anything else that strikes you. Anytime you find an image you like in a newspaper or magazine, clip it out and add it to your collection. When you do have ideas, make note of them to use later.
If an idea just won’t come, don’t force it. Do something else for a while to take your mind off drawing. In no time, the ideas will come flooding back in.
How to Identify Common Drawing Styles
Style in drawing is a collection of attributes that make drawings unique. Each period in the history of art is characterized by the style of some groundbreaking artists. For example, modernism is characterized in part by Cubism, a style developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.
Here are common drawing styles:
Abstraction/Nonrepresentational: Artists who work in an abstract style make drawings that are usually about shape, line, value, color, and/or texture. Practitioners of the nonrepresentational style of drawing include Piet Mondrian, Joseph Albers, and Al Held.
Art Nouveau: Artists who work in an Art Nouveau style make drawings that are illusionistic but primarily flat, that are highly pattern driven, and that usually incorporate fluid, curving lines. Practitioners of Art Nouveau include Gustave Klimt, Aubrey Beardsley, and Alphonse Mucha.
Manga: Artists who practice the Manga style make drawings based on the Japanese comic book style developed in 19th Century Japan. Practitioners of Manga include Osamu Tezuka and Machiko Hasegawa.
Post-impressionism: Artists who practiced the style called post-impressionism made drawings based on light (the preoccupation of the impressionists) but with more attention to geometric shapes. This style includes some purposefully expressive distortions. Practitioners of post-impressionism include Georges Seurat, Paul Cezanne, and Vincen |
in the UK
There is increasing pressure on teachers in further and higher education to provide assessment systems that are fair, valid, reliable, efficient and effective. Funding bodies demand higher quality, students themselves have sharpening expectations, and there is a new | in the UK
There is increasing pressure on teachers in further and higher education to provide assessment systems that are fair, valid, reliable, efficient and effective. Funding bodies demand higher quality, students themselves have sharpening expectations, and there is a new emphasis on competence-based systems. Traditionally, assessment of students' work has caused teachers more difficulties than any other area, yet the growing number of students and severe financial restraints mean that even existing standards are difficult to maintain. In this completely updated edition of "500 Tips on Assessment", the authors look at the questions and the problems that teachers face and provide them with practical guidance. Their advice is down-to-earth, jargon free and digestible, covering such key issues as: * putting assessment into context: best practice, learning outcomes and monitoring quality of assessment * different examination formats: traditional, open-book, open-notes, oral exams * different assessment formats: essays, reports, practical work, presentations * feedback and assessment * assessing group learning. "500 Tips on Assessment "is an invaluable dip-in aid for hard-pressed lecturers and teachers in further and higher education. It should be read, enjoyed and seriously considered by all those concerned about the quality and appropriateness of their assessment methods.
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Cerberus was a constellation created by Hevelius. It was depicted as a three-headed snake that Hercules is holding in his hand. The constellation is no longer in use. This constellation "figure typified the serpent... infesting the | Cerberus was a constellation created by Hevelius. It was depicted as a three-headed snake that Hercules is holding in his hand. The constellation is no longer in use. This constellation "figure typified the serpent... infesting the country around Taenarum the Μέτωπον of Greece, the modern Cape Matapan." The presence of Cerberus (Kerberos) at Taenarum (Tainaron) is menti |
Drowned out by admirable but deafening calls for debt relief and an end to poverty, masked by the critical debate on climate change, and buried beneath news of the London bombs, the G8 leaders recently took the first steps towards establishing a global | Drowned out by admirable but deafening calls for debt relief and an end to poverty, masked by the critical debate on climate change, and buried beneath news of the London bombs, the G8 leaders recently took the first steps towards establishing a global threat identification and warning system designed to ensure that we are never again caught napping by extreme geophysical hazards.
Drowned out by admirable but deafening calls for debt relief and an end to poverty, masked by the critical debate on climate change, and buried beneath news of the London bombs, the G8 leaders this month took the first steps towards establishing a global threat identification and warning system, designed to ensure that we are never again caught napping by extreme geophysical hazards along the lines of the Asian tsunami, or worse.
On the morning of December 26 2004, the Asian tsunami came as a bombshell to those caught up in it, but soon disbelief was replaced by angry demands for answers. Why was the earthquake risk not known and communicated? Why was no warning transmitted to communities under threat? There is one simple answer: inadequate appreciation of the nature and scale of the threat and an almost total absence of preparedness in the countries affected.
The relative geological serenity of recent centuries is illusory and misleading, and the Asian tsunami provides but a glimpse of comparable and greater catastrophes to come. Will we be ready next time, or will we again be faced with death and destruction on a biblical scale?
The G8 consensus is that mechanisms must be installed now to ensure that we are aware well in advance of any such menace, and that we have systems in place to guarantee that a major hazard is never again translated into a human calamity.
The British government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, was directed to convene an |
AC Inverter Drives Bring New Options for Motion Control
With the addition of memory and processing power, AC inverter drives can perform simple positioning or even run permanent-magnet motors, offering an economical middle ground between high-tech servo motors and AC | AC Inverter Drives Bring New Options for Motion Control
With the addition of memory and processing power, AC inverter drives can perform simple positioning or even run permanent-magnet motors, offering an economical middle ground between high-tech servo motors and AC induction motors.
By: Kristin Lewotsky, Contributing Editor
There was a time DC silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) power motors and DC motors with a permanent magnet field were the main solutions for applications requiring variable-speed performance. Although AC induction motors offered cost savings over their DC cousins, extracting variable-speed performance from an induction motor required either motor/alternator combinations or a mechanical adjustable-speed pulley system. All that changed in the 1980s, when solid-state power electronics enabled the development of a practical AC inverter drive. Advances in power electronics made getting variable-speed performance from an AC motor more practical and cost effective.
In the past decade, solid-state technology has fueled further advances by adding intelligence and memory that allow today’s AC inverter drives to run AC induction motors and AC permanent-magnet-rotor synchronous motors including servo and motion-control functions. As a result, these smart inverter drives provide OEMs with new high-horsepower, cost-effective motion-control and variable-speed performance replacing the original DC motors.
The emergence of AC inverter drives
The development of the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) gave rise to the AC inverter drive and the availability of variable-speed operation from AC induction motors. An AC inverter drive takes AC input and converts it to DC, then applies variable-frequency pulse width modulation (PWM) power to simulate an AC power source. By varying the output frequency and voltage, an inverter drive can generate a simulated AC output waveform to drive the motor at a range of speeds.
The development made AC induction motors practical solutions for a wide variety of applications. Today, more and more industries are taking advantage of variable-speed capabilities, not only for process control but also for increased efficiency. For fan and pump operations in the petrochemical and process industries, for example, adjusting fan output with a variable-speed motor rather than a motor/damper combination provides big savings. “Because of the affinity laws, which reduce the load as the cube of fan speed on a centrifugal application, if you reduce the motor speed by 20%, you can save nearly 50% of the energy,” says Rich Schaefer, Senior Product Manager for variable speed and specialty motors at Baldor – A Member of the ABB Group (Greenville, South Carolina). "So now there is a huge market there in terms of market applications going to variable-speed to save energy.” The AC inverter/induction motor combination provides an economical, robust method to achieve that performance.
AC induction motors do have limitations, however. The design produces torque from a phenomenon known as slip. With an induction motor, the rotor circuit must be induced by the stator winding field, In operation, the motor slips in producing torque relative to the load being applied. Factors like friction, motor heating, and the force of the load itself can further affect motor speed. As a result, the actual speed of an AC induction motor will be somewhat slower than the rated synchronous speed.
The rotor of a PM rotor synchronous motor features permanent magnets, so the designs are inherently free of slip characteristics—they operate precisely at the frequency commanded by the drive. On 60 Hz power, a four-pole PM rotor synchronous motor will run at precisely 1800 rpm, for example, whereas an 1800 rpm induction motor might actually run at 1750 or 1755 rpm. With the addition of a feedback device, an AC induction motor can achieve much more accurate speed control. The AC permanent magnet rotor motor provides even greater performance due to its lower rotor inertia capability and reduced heating.
Of course, not every application needs highest performance. In between variable-speed fans and pack |
COMPARISON OF THE ROCKS FROM THE TWO LOCALITIES
Having described the geological structure of Electric Peak and of Sepulchre Mountain and the occurrence and character of the igneous rocks in each locality, it remains to point out the relationship | COMPARISON OF THE ROCKS FROM THE TWO LOCALITIES
Having described the geological structure of Electric Peak and of Sepulchre Mountain and the occurrence and character of the igneous rocks in each locality, it remains to point out the relationship of the two groups of rocks to each other, and the petrological deductions which may be drawn from their investigation.
To arrive at the relationship of the volcanic rocks of Sepulchre Mountain to the intrusive rocks of Electric Peak it is necessary to observe, in review of the facts already presented, that the latter cut through Cretaceous shales and sandstones and have imparted sufficient heat to them to metamorphose them for a great distance, indicating the passage of large quantities of molten magma through the fissures; while the lavas of Sepulchre Mountain rest on Cretaceous strata and also carry large blocks of black shale inclosed within them. They plainly show by their crushed and dragged portions that a profound fault has separated the block of Sepulchre Mountain from that of Electric Peak, dropping the former down considerably more than 4,000 feet. Consequently the volcanic rocks of Sepulchre Mountain once occupied a higher elevation than the present summit of Electric Peak and its bodies of intrusive rock.
In Electric Peak there is a system of fissures that radiates outward toward the south and southwest, as shown by the dikes of porphyrite. At the west base of Sepulchre Mountain there is a system of dikes and intruded bodies that radiates outward toward the north and northeast. These fissures antedate the great faulting just mentioned and represent the east and west halves of a system of fissures trending from north and south around to northeast and southwest which crossed one another at the point where the broadest body of intruded rock is now found. The axis of this system appears to have been inclined toward the east, that is, to have dipped toward the west, and was cut across by the great fault which dropped Sepulchre Mountain.
The igneous rocks that broke through the strata of Electric Peak consist of a series of porphyrites, occurring in sheets between the strata, and another series of diorites and porphyrites that were erupted through the vertical fissures just alluded to. The central fissure or fissures became the conduit through which the molten magmas followed one another at successive intervals of time. In the outlying narrow fissures the magmas solidified as dikes of porphyrite, while within the heated conduit they consolidated into coarse grained diorites of various kinds. The magmas of this series of eruptions became more and more siliceous. Their succession is indicated in the accompanying table.
TABLE XVI.Order of eruption of the rocks at Electric Peak and Sepulchre Mountain.
The igneous rocks that formed the breccias and lava flows of Sepulchre Mountain with their dikes and larger intruded bodies constitute a series of andesites, basalts and dacites, which reach a degree of crystallization that places part of them among the porphyrites. They commenced with an andesitic breccia that is filled with Archean fragments, which must have been thrown from some neighboring center of eruption located in an Archean area. Such a center exists a few miles to the north. This was followed by a series of magmas that were at first somewhat basic and became more and more siliceous. The series is represented in the right hand column of Table XVI. From this it is seen that the succession of eruption in each locality was the same, after the first period, A, in which the magmas evidently came from different sources. Each series of the second period began with basic magmas and ended with acidic ones. Their division in the table into four groups is not intended to convey the idea that they belong to four distinct periods of eruption. The whole series in each case is more correctly a single, irregularly interrupted succession of outbursts of magma that gradually changed its composition and character. Upon comparing the rocks which have resulted from the corresponding phases of these series of eruptions, the similarity of the porphyritic forms is immediately recognized. The nature and distribution of the phenocrysts in the different varieties of andesite and dacite, which determine their macroscopical habit, have their exact counterpart in the different varieties of porphyrites. The microscopical characters of the phenocrysts in the corresponding varieties of porphyrites and of the intruded andesites and dacites are identical. The character of the various groundmasses, however, is different in the two groups, being more highly crystalline in the porphyritesmany of the andesites being glassy. Many of the finer grained diorites have a habit, derived from the distribution of the ferromagnesian silicates and larger feldspars, which resembles that o |
Germanisation (also spelled Germanization) is either the spread of the German language, people and culture either by force or assimilation, or the adaptation of a foreign word to the German language in linguistics, much like the Romanisation of many | Germanisation (also spelled Germanization) is either the spread of the German language, people and culture either by force or assimilation, or the adaptation of a foreign word to the German language in linguistics, much like the Romanisation of many languages which do not use the Latin alphabet. It was a central plank of German liberal thinking in the early nineteenth century, at a period when liberalism and nationalism went hand in hand.
In Slavic countries, the term Germanisation often is understood solely as the process of acculturation of Slavic and Baltic speakers, after the conquests or by cultural contact in the early dark ages, areas of the modern Eastern Germany to the line of Elbe. In East Prussia forced resettlement of the Prussian people by the Teutonic Order and the Prussian state, as well as acculturation from immigrants of various European countries (Poles, French, Germans) contributed to the eventual extinction of the Prussian language in the 17th century.
Another form of Germanisation is the forceful expansion of German culture, language and people upon non-German people. This was the practice of Prussia, Austria, German Empire, Weimar Republic and German Empire. Non-Germans were often banned from use of their language, the state discriminated their traditions and culture, when those measures were not successful in eradicating non-Germans, colonists and settlers were used to upset the population balance. As even those stepts proved insufficient, the orientiation turned into policy of ethnic cleansing and later into genocide.
Lüchow-Dannenberg is better known as the Wendland, a designation referring to the Slavic people of the Wends from Slavic tribe Drevani — the Polabian language survived until the beginning of the 19th century in what is now the German state of Lower Saxony.
A complex process of Germanisation took place in Bohemia after the 1620 Battle of White Mountain defeat of Bohemian Protestants. The Protestant Bohemian king elected against the Habsburgs by the Bohemian estates in 1619, the German prince Frederick V, Elector Palatine, was defeated in 1620 by Catholic forces loyal to the Habsburg Emperor, Ferdinand II. Among the Bohemian lords being punished and expropriated after Frederick's defeat in 1620 were German- and Czech-speaking landowners as well. Thus this conflict was by far an internal conflict resulting from the feudal system than a clash of different nations. Although the Czech language lost its significance (as a written language) in the aftermath of the events, it is questionable whether this was primarily intended by the Habsburg rulers, whose intentions were in religious and feudal categories.
State legislation and government policies of Germanisation in the Kingdom of Prussia, Imperial Germany and Nazi Germany aimed to expand the German language and culture in areas populated by non-Germans, the eradication of their national identity, and the integration of conquered territories into German states.
Prussia introduced as one of the first countries in Europe compulsory primary school attendance under Frederick William I. People should be able to read the Bible by themselves to make "good Christians" out of them. Education in primary school was done in the mother language and thus primary school was no means of Germanisation in the 18th century.
Prussia and Austria actively participated in the partitions of Poland, a fact that would later on severely stress German-Polish relations which had been uncomplicated until then.
You also have a Fatherland. [...] You will be incorporated into my monarchy without having to renounce your nationality. [...] You will receive a constitution like the other provinces of my kingdom. Your religion will be upheld. [...] Your language shall be used like the German language in all public affairs and everyone of you with suitable capabilities shall get the opportunity to get an appointment to a public office. [...]
and the minister for Education Altenstein stated in 1823:
Concerning the spread of the German language it is most important to get a clear understanding of the aims. Whether it should be the aim to promote the understanding of German among Polish-speaking subjects or whether it should be the aim to gradually and slowly Germanise the Poles. According to the judgement of the minister only the first is necessary, advisable and possible, the second is not advisable and not accomplishable. To be good subjects it is desirable for the Poles to understand the language of government. However, it is not necessary for them to give up or postpone their mother language. The possession of two language shall not be seen as a disadvantage but as an benefit instead be |
25:29 Now Jacob cooked some stew, 1 and when Esau came in from the open fields, he was famished. 25:30 So Esau said to Jacob, “Feed 2 me some of the red stuff – | 25:29 Now Jacob cooked some stew, 1 and when Esau came in from the open fields, he was famished. 25:30 So Esau said to Jacob, “Feed 2 me some of the red stuff – yes, this red stuff – because I’m starving!” (That is why he was also called 3 Edom.) 4
25:31 But Jacob replied, “First 5 sell me your birthright.” 25:32 “Look,” said Esau, “I’m about to die! What use is the birthright to me?” 6 25:33 But Jacob said, “Swear an oath to me now.” 7 So Esau 8 swore an oath to him and sold his birthright 9 to Jacob.
1 sn Jacob cooked some stew. There are some significant words and wordplays in this story that help clarify the points of |
Portrait of Edmond Halley
The Royal Society Library, London.
Edmond Halley was an English astronomer who lived between 1656-1742.
Using historical records, his own observations, and Newton's universal law of gravitation | Portrait of Edmond Halley
The Royal Society Library, London.
Edmond Halley was an English astronomer who lived between 1656-1742.
Using historical records, his own observations, and Newton's universal law of gravitation, he reasoned that the comets which had appeared in 1456, 1531, 1607, and 1682, were one and the same. He then predicted the comet's return about every 76 years. Although Halley died in 1742, the comet reappeared 16 years later, and today bears his name.
In addition to his work on comets, Halley studied the Earth's weather and magnetic field, and the ocean's tides.
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Not long ago, many people thought that comets were a sign that something bad was about to happen to them. People didn't understand how objects in the sky moved, so the sight of a comet must have been...more
Halley's comet is named after Edmond G. Halley who was the first to suggest that comets were natural phenomena of the solar system, in |
SEATTLE – A new study by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center suggests that parents who quit smoking when their children are young may have a big influence on whether their offspring will quit smoking as young adults.
"We found that parents quitting smoking early, | SEATTLE – A new study by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center suggests that parents who quit smoking when their children are young may have a big influence on whether their offspring will quit smoking as young adults.
"We found that parents quitting smoking early, before their children reach third grade, is associated with nearly double the chances that their children would quit smoking in young adulthood," said Jonathan Bricker, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and staff scientist in Fred Hutchinson's Public Health Sciences Division. These findings appear in the March issue of Addiction, which is published by the London-based Society for the Study of Addiction.
Since the early 1990s, the prevalence of daily smoking among young adults has risen by nearly 40 percent, giving those between 18 and 24 the unfortunate distinction of being more likely to smoke cigarettes than any other age group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What's more, low quitting rates among young-adult smokers underscore the need to find ways to help young adults quit, Bricker said.
"Overall, these findings suggest that helping parents quit smoking should be considered in future public-health interventions that target youth smoking," Bricker said.
These findings build on an earlier study by Bricker and colleagues, published in the May 2003 issue of Addiction, which that found parents who quit smoking before their children reached third grade significantly reduced their child's odds of becoming a smoker by their senior year of high school.
"Taken together, these two studies suggest that parents who quit smoking by the time their children are 8 or 9 years old may help prevent their children from becoming adolescent smokers and, if they do start, may help them quit smoking in young adulthood," said Bricker, also a clinical instructor in the University of Washington Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
The most surprising finding of the study, Bricker said, was that parents who quit smoking late, when their child was between third and 12th grade, had no impact on their child's quitting behavior in early adulthood.
"We had thought that parents quitting late might serve as a recent model of behavior that their children could remember and emulate, but our data did not show a significant result for late quitting," Bricker said. One possible explanation, he said, was lack of statistical power in their data; there simply were not enough young-adult quitters whose parents were late quitters enrolled in their study.
"Scientists should look into the late-quitting question," Bricker said. "It is conceivable that parents' late quitting may also help young adults quit, but we simply did not find any significant result for the question." |
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