prompt
stringlengths 18
524
| text
stringlengths 70
11.4k
|
|---|---|
(NaturalNews) A new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School shows that over a 22-year period, the number of overweight babies born to U.S. mothers has increased by nearly 74 percent.
"Even our youngest children are gaining excess | (NaturalNews) A new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School shows that over a 22-year period, the number of overweight babies born to U.S. mothers has increased by nearly 74 percent.
"Even our youngest children are gaining excess weight, not just adults and adolescents," says Dr. Matthew Gillman, the study's lead author and associate professor of ambulatory care and prevention at Harvard. Gillman says his study suggests that "obesity prevention efforts need to start at the earliest stages of human development."
The researchers believe a number of factors contribute to the increase in fat babies, including the fact that more American women are entering pregnancy overweight and then developing gestational diabetes, and more babies are being overfed in the first few months after birth, which leads to rapid weight gain.
"This is an urgent warning sign," said consumer health advocate Mike Adams, "that we must take immediate action to teach expectant mothers the truth about processed foods, sugary drinks, and even the very definition of healthy weight. Because the number of obese expectant mothers is downright alarming, and doubly so when you consider that most of them have no idea they are overweight, or that their own health status is harming their unborn baby."
Though there is no definitive "overweight" limit established for very young children, the researchers adjusted infants' weight for height and considered those at or above the 95th percentile on growth charts as overweight. The researchers tracked such infants who were less than six months old, and found that by 2001, overweight babies accounted for 5.9 percent of all U.S. infants -- an increase from 3.4 percent in 1980, which equates to more than 242,000 babies each year.
Gillman warns that being overweight early in life is strongly correlated with overeating and being obese later in life, which can in turn lead to diabetes and other diseases.
The researchers do not advise parents with overweight babies to put them on diets, but rather to re-examine how much they are feeding the infant and to see a medical professional about proper nutrition.
FREE online report shows how we can save America through a nutrition health care
revolution. "Eating healthy is patriotic!" Click here to read it now...
Healing Power of Sunlight and Vitamin D
In this exclusive interview, Dr. Michael Holick reveals fascinating facts on
how vitamin D is created and used in the human body to ward off chronic diseases
like cancer, osteoporosis, mental disorders and more. Click here to read it now...
Get the Full Story
The International Medical Council on Vaccination has released, exclusively through
NaturalNews.com, a groundbreaking document containing the signatures of physicians,
brain surgeons and professors, all of which have signed on to a document stating
that vaccines pose a significant risk of harm to the health of children.
Click here to read it now...
Ranger Storable Organics
GMO-free, chemical-free foods and superfoods for long-term storage and preparedness.
See selection at www.StorableOrganics.com |
The Body's Themoregulation During Sleep
The temperature of both the brain and the body fall during NREM sleep. The longer the NREM-sleep episode, the more the temperature falls. By contrast, brain temperature increases during REM sleep | The Body's Themoregulation During Sleep
The temperature of both the brain and the body fall during NREM sleep. The longer the NREM-sleep episode, the more the temperature falls. By contrast, brain temperature increases during REM sleep. The control of body and brain temperature is closely tied to sleep regulation.
Human beings are endotherms - able to thermoregulate -, that is, maintain their body temperature. Body temperature is regulated through a balance of heat absorption, production and loss. Human temperature must be maintained within a fairly small range, up or down from the resting temperature of 98.6. Temperatures above 104.9 degrees Fahrenheit or below 92.3 degrees generally cause injury or death.
Humans have two zones to regulate, their core temperature and their shell temperature. The temperature of the abdominal, thoracic, and cranial cavities, which contain the vital organs, is called the core temperature. Core temperature is regulated by the brain. The shell temperature includes the temperature of the skin, subcutaneous tissues, and muscles, and it is more affected by external temperature. The core is able to conserve or release heat through the shell.
When the core temperature is too high, blood vessels in the skin dilate and heat is lost through their walls. (This is hardly news to observers; in Ancient Greece Hippocrates speculated that sleeping bodies feel cool to the touch because blood flows away from the skin,) Sweat is also produced, which evaporates and lowers temperature. If a human is too cold, the blood vessels constrict, conserving heat. Blood is preferentially shunted to the internal organs and away from the skin and peripheral structures like limbs.
The hypothalamus regulates body temperature between 96.8 and 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit over each 24 hour cycle. During the normal human circadian rhythm, sleep occurs when the core temperature is dropping. Sleep usually begins when the rate of temperature change and body heat loss is maximal. The average adult’s lowest temperature is at about 5 AM, or two hours before waking time.
Graph courtesy of National Center on Sleep Disorders Research
Many mammals lose significant thermal regulatory capacity during sleep. Some animals like squirrels go into a torpor state during sleep, in which their body temperature dips well below the normal level for hours at a time. However, most research to date seems to indicate that humans do not have significant difficulty thermoregulating during sleep.
In one study, subjects were exposed to a range of temperatures during sleep. Based on animal models, the researchers expected REM sleep to cause difficulty in thermoregulation, but the results showed that there was very little disruption of thermoregulation during REM and other sleep stages. The subjects shivered slightly in cold temperatures during sleep stages 1 and 2. Although skin temperature increased as the subjects were exposed to higher temperatures, their core temperature readings did not change.
A recent Dutch study shows just how important temperature is when it comes to sleep quality and fragmentation. Fitting human subjects with thermosuits, the scientists were able to lower skin temperature less than a degree Centrigrade without affecting core body temperature. The changes were dramatic. People didn't wake up as much during the night and the percentage of the sleep spent in stages 3 and 4 (deep sleep) increased. The effects were most pronounced in the elderly and in people who suffered from insomnia. A 0.4 C decrease in skin temperature caused a decline in the probability of early morning waking from 0.58 to 0.04.
The same researchers found that people with narcolepsy tend to have higher skin temperature when asleep, and also when awake. They speculated that that hypocretin (orexin) deficiency in the brains of narcolepics affects skin-temperature regulation. It was also found that increasing the skin temperature can promote sleep.
Other studies have showed different thermoregulatory responses of human subjects, depending on the sleep stage and temperature of the environment. In a different study of adult humans, thermoregulatory efficiency during REM sleep was fairly well maintained. However, thermoregulation was less efficient during Slow Wave Sleep (SWS). When subjected to different environmental temperatures, regulatory processes were affected. An overly warm |
If you are looking for a good quality, super-insulated and super-strong house, a modular home using structural insulated panels, or SIPs, may be the right choice.
SIP homes offer two very important benefits. First, they are two | If you are looking for a good quality, super-insulated and super-strong house, a modular home using structural insulated panels, or SIPs, may be the right choice.
SIP homes offer two very important benefits. First, they are two to three times better insulated than traditionally built modular homes because the walls are made of solid foam sandwiched between two layers of oriented strand board (or OSB), which makes it airtight. Second, the SIP wall system is three to five times stronger than a traditional modular home’s wall system due to its design.
History of Structural Insulated Panels
Homes constructed of structural insulated panels are only about 10 years old. In 2000, the first all-energy-efficient foam SIP-manufactured home was built by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in partnership with Champion Enterprises, Precision Panel Structures, Premier Building Systems, and other partners. It was constructed to lower heating and cooling costs up to 50 percent compared to a manufactured home built to the minimum housing code.
When construction was completed in the manufactured housing factory, the structural insulted boxes were put on trailers and underwent a 300-mile trip to where they were to be set. This “road test” turned out to be a great indicator of the house’s structural performance. Unlike a traditionally framed modular home, there were very few cracks in the gypsum board finish materials used on the walls and ceiling, meaning less patch work and less money to pay a contractor.
The University of Virginia’s School of Architecture is just one institution that is looking at alternatives to traditional stick-built houses. It offers a research and design/build/evaluation project called the ecoMOD, which has been creating ecological, modular, and affordable house prototypes since 2004.
Use of SIPs Today
A modular home constructed with structural insulated panels offers a fast, energy-efficient, and healthy approach to building. These homes are made in a factory-controlled environment so they are standardized and reliable. Since SIPs are prefabricated in the factory, there is less job site waste, since less material needs to be sent to the landfill. Factory fabrication is often processed with optimization software and many manufacturers recycle factory scrap to make other foam products.
A SIP building envelope provides high levels of insulation and is extremely air-tight, meaning the amount of energy use |
Letter to a Holocaust Survivor
Concept(s) Historical Significance
Prepared for Grade(s) 11
By Tom Morton
Time Period(s) 1900-present
Time allotment two periods for culminating task; more for the whole | Letter to a Holocaust Survivor
Concept(s) Historical Significance
Prepared for Grade(s) 11
By Tom Morton
Time Period(s) 1900-present
Time allotment two periods for culminating task; more for the whole unit
Brief Description of the Task
This task is the culminating one for a unit on the Holocaust. Students write a letter of appreciation to one or several Holocaust survivors whose testimony is on the Open Hearts, Closed Doors web site, www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/orphans/english/ and http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/orphans/french/ in French. In doing this, they also reflect on why the survivors' experience is historically significant using the criterion of revealing.
Students will be able to establish historical significance based on the criteria of revealing: the event/person sheds light on enduring issues in history and contemporary life
Required Knowledge & Skills
general knowledge of the Holocaust
This task was originally designed for a letter of thanks to a Holocaust survivor who visited my classroom and has been rewritten for use of the Open Hearts, Closed Doors: War Orphans Project web site, www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/orphans/english/ in English and http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/orphans/french/ in French. For this site, the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre has interviewed eight orphans who survived and came to Canada after World War II, provided background and reproductions of various artefacts from each of the survivors as well as given additional resources such as a timeline on 20th century immigration to Canada and a teacher's guide that can be downloaded.
The letter is intended to be the culminating task for a unit on the Holocaust. The lesson procedure assumes that the students have some prior understanding of the criteria for determining historical significance. When considering historical significance, students find it easiest to use the criterion of resulting in change. In this case, the death of six million is quite a clear example. However, how the Holocaust is revealing of the past and of contemporary issues, the second criterion, is more challenging.
1. Introduce the unit with an essential question as a guide. The question related to historical significance might be "If most people alive in Canada have no experience of World War II and even less of the Holocaust, why are there so many books, movies and monuments about these events?"
Refer to this question often as the unit progresses, possibly posting it on the board. Check for student understanding periodically.
At some point • at the beginning of the unit or early on • introduce the task of reading an account of a surviving orphan and writing a thank you letter.
2. The primary sources featured in the Open Hearts, Closed Doors site could be used to introduce the unit and the task. The home page has a list of themes on the left hand side and pictures of the orphan survivors at the top. If one clicks on either one of these, there are photographs with accompanying stories. The stories are hidden, however, until the cursor is moved over it. This allows the teacher to project the photograph and ask students to study it before showing them the context. (This could also be used to explore the concept of evidence.)
For example, if one opens the theme of the Holocaust on the left hand side, there is a photo of a cloth Star of David belonging to Delia Van Haren as a young woman in Gorinchem, Holland. The accompanying story explains how she had to wear it sewn onto her clothes even on her wedding day. She goes on to say that of the twenty-three Jewish families in her town before the war, she was one of only three to survive.
Another photograph accompanies the interview with Mariette Rozen, a woman who impressed my students and me very much when she spoke at our school. This photograph shows her in a room with other young girls in an orphanage in Europe after the war. She has her palms together as if she were praying, the only girl doing so. The caption explains that this is because she had been trained to do so by nuns who were protecting her by having her pretend to be Christian.
Once students have explored the meaning of these artefacts and their context, make the links to the unit, for example, why would anyone insist that you wear a symbol of your religion? Why would one need to hide one's religion? Why did the Nazis want to kill children? Why are these events so significant that almost seventy years later people still study the meaning of this time and commemorate the dead? Which is repeating the essential question.
3. Once students have enough background knowledge, review with them the letter writing task and the criteria of revealing. The lives of these survivors might be significant because they inform us about the Holocaust and they might be revealing because they help us understand ongoing issues, problems and events today. Read with students the handout Letter to a Survivor and discuss the assignment's requirements.
4. Distribute to students Chart 1 and Chart 2 on possible topics about which the testimony might reveal something to us. Ask them to read one or more of the testimonies on the web site and complete the chart.
For further s |
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and tradition transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads | Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and tradition transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants. (Wiki)
It is a world-wide phenomenon in early cultures from the Middle East to the Americas, Scandinavia to Australia and every place in between. In African societies, oral tradition is the method in which history, stories, folktales and religious beliefs are passed on from generation to generation. Webster's dictionary defines "oral" as, "spoken rather than written," and it defines the word "tradition" as, "transmittal of elements of a culture from one generation to another especially by oral communication." Oral tradition delivers explanations to the mysteries of the universe and the meaning of life on earth. In African religion, it is the guiding principle in which to make sense of the world. Language is regarded as a powerful force. The human voice is the key element in Oral tradition.
|Pendant Mask Iyoba, 16 century, Nigeria|
The Creation Story, an extract
At the beginning there was a huge drop of milk.
Then Doondari came and he created the stone.
Then the stone created iron;
And iron created fire;
And fire created water;
And water created air.
Then Doondari descended the second time
And he took the five elements
And he shaped them into man.
But man was proud.
Many modern African poets draw from these roots to write performance poetry, which relies on the cadences of voice and interaction with audience, to enhance the experience of the written word.
Sounds of a Cowhide Drum was one of the first books of poems by a black South African poet to be written in English. Oswald Mtshali brought the oral tradition to life in his poetry, using it to protest against the oppression of his people.
The Birth of Shaka, from Fireflames (1980)
His baby cry
was of a cub
tearing the neck
of the lioness
because he was fatherless.
boiled his blood
in a clay pot of passion
to course in his veins.
His heart was shaped into an ox shield
to foil every foe.
his muscles into
thongs as tough
as wattle bark
as sharp as
His eyes were lanterns
that shone from the dark valleys of Zululand
to see white swallows
coming across the sea.
His cry to two assassin brothers:
"Lo! you can kill me
but you'll never rule this land!
My challenge today does not ask you to write to an African theme. Rather, I would like you to investigate the Oral Tradition of the land that you call home: draw your motifs, themes, stories from the rich mythology of its indigenous peoples. Weave a tale of creation, tricksters, magical entities or heroes or use it in a modern context, to emphasize social commentary of the plight of those people today. The idea of spoken word should be present in the style. Imagine it is a poem to be told to an audience seated close to the knee of the storyteller, gathered in firelight to learn of the past or the present day.
Sources for this challenge include Wikipedia, and a paper written by Sharon Wilson. |
This first Moodle course will cover the basics of Moodle,setting up and laying out a Moodle course, adding text, images, files and folders. Personalising the site to suit you.
- This is a back-up copy of physics as of June | This first Moodle course will cover the basics of Moodle,setting up and laying out a Moodle course, adding text, images, files and folders. Personalising the site to suit you.
- This is a back-up copy of physics as of June 2009
This unit looks at complex numbers. You will learn how they are defined, examine |
Last week Republicans in Congress deleted a Democratic amendment designed to make AIDS drugs cheaper in Africa from the Africa Free Trade Bill. A few days later, President Clinton issued an executive order that is almost identical to the deleted amendment. His critics say the president | Last week Republicans in Congress deleted a Democratic amendment designed to make AIDS drugs cheaper in Africa from the Africa Free Trade Bill. A few days later, President Clinton issued an executive order that is almost identical to the deleted amendment. His critics say the president is using the executive order to circumvent Congress and a |
24 December 2009
Food additives can be:
- Natural, e.g. the red colouring from bet root juice (E162).
- Nature-identical, i.e. man-made but identical to a naturally ocurring substance such | 24 December 2009
Food additives can be:
- Natural, e.g. the red colouring from bet root juice (E162).
- Nature-identical, i.e. man-made but identical to a naturally ocurring substance such as vanillin (found naturally in vanilla pods).
- Artificial, i.e. man-made but not found in nature, such as saccharin, a sweetener used to replace sugar (E954).
- Antioxidants and vitamins are also added such as E300 ascorbic acid (vitamin C ) and E306-E309 tocopherols (vitamin E).
Some food additives may cause problems in a small percentage of children who are sensitive to them.
Food labels list ingredients in order of decreasing weight. Try to choose foods that are low in sugar, salt and saturated fat. If sugar or saturated fat appear near the top of the list, think again before buying that product. Remember, fresh is best but if you are buying pre-prepared foods you may want to avoid those with large amounts of colourings and artificial flavouring. For babies and children under the age of two, sugar and sodium (found in salt) are the main nutrients to check on food labels.
Fat and fibre
The amount of fat and fibre is not really an issue as children of this age need a more nutrient-dense diet with more fat and less fibre. However, from two years upwards, children should gradually move towards an adult-type diet. When looking at labels, it may be useful to check that the amount of saturates is not a large percentage of the total fat. Saturated fat is generally derived from animal origin so would be found in creamy soups, biscuits and cakes made with butter and full-fat milk. Foods such as crisps contain high levels of salt and fat.
Salt is made up of 40 per cent sodium and 60 per cent chloride. Too much sodium in the adult diet may contribute to high blood pressure, which can increase the risk of a stroke, coronary heart disease and kidney disease. It is therefore a good idea for the whole family to become accustomed to less salt in the diet. Try not to add too much salt while cooking and avoid salt on the table.
Babies under one year should not have any salt added to their food as a baby's kidneys are too immature to cope with added salt All baby foods should be free of added salt. A child's salt consumption should not be more than 3 g (just under 1 teaspoonful) of salt a day. However, most children exceed this figure because foods like pot noodles, sausages and burgers, pizza and snacks like crisps and nuts are all high in salt.
Labels often break carbohydrates into starch and sugars and it is useful to know that 5 g of sugar makes one teaspoon. However, if only carbohydrate is listed, this includes both complex carbohydrates (starches) and simple carbohydrates (sugars). We should be eating more starchy food and less sugary food so giving only a single carbohydrate figure is not much help.
Sugar may come in many disguises such as sucrose, glucose, glucose syrup, maltose, dextrose, fructose, golden syrup, honey and fruit juices. And manufacturers can hide the amount of sugar in a product by using three different types of sugar, e.g. sugar, corn syrup and honey, and by listing each sugar separately. Each appears lower down the list, making it more difficult to judge the total amount of sugar in the product. The term 'No added sugar' can also be misleading, for the product could still contain honey, glucose, corn syrup and concentrated apple juice, which are just as harmful to your child's teeth.
Most soft drinks are packed with sugar. A can of Coke or similar fizzy drink can contain 35-40 g (1 1/4 - 1 1/2 oz) sugar, which is equivalent to about eight teaspoons. Take care when choosing fruit juices as pure unsweetened juices should contain no added sugars except the 15 g (1/2 oz) per litre that manufacturers are allowed. There are some individual cartons of fruit juice on the market that contain 25 a (1 oz) of sugar, which represents more than seven teaspoons of sugar, and even fruit sugars will cause tooth decay. Likewise, watch out for juice drinks, which can contain as little as 5 per cent juice.
Yoghurts and fromage frais are a good source of calciu |
4/10/2012 | Share this article: View CommentsBy Carl S. ~
Before we start, an actual statement by a student in a political history class:
“If God rules Heaven, then a monarchy ends up being the highest kind | 4/10/2012 | Share this article: View CommentsBy Carl S. ~
Before we start, an actual statement by a student in a political history class:
“If God rules Heaven, then a monarchy ends up being the highest kind of government."Pierre is a six year old boy who resides in Liseux, France. He is home schooled by his mother, a former teacher. This is one of his most important history lessons, so "pay attention."
Pierre’s mother said, “Once upon a time, there was a great nation composed of many states, and yes, a bit like the European Union, with different cultures and philosophies. A boy could go from the northern areas to the southern and find himself unwelcome in places because he saw things differently. War was fought over some states’ demands that their king be recognized in his giving the o.k. to slavery. The other states said that they also honored the king, but that he wouldn't o.k. such a thing. The king was silent and did not intervene, so they had to fight a war.”
Pierre asked, "But mom, you said that a duel between two people was a stupid way to settle an argument, so how come states decided that it was good between thousands of people?"
“Well Pierre, I'll have to think about it. Let's continue. Anyhow, right from the start, the citizens had a problem: they all honored the same invisible monarch. Remember how I told you about the last emperor of China inside his palace compound? No one could see him outside, so they didn't know if he was alive or not, but he was alive because those who spoke for him said so. And everyone agreed, or almost everyone. And, in some states, certain rights were taken for granted over time, and in others, soundly rejected or condemned. But basically, they agreed that the people would abide by governing themselves, behaving, and allowing others to do the same. And if they didn't, rules were set up to punish them that most people thought were fair. If they didn't, there was always the possibility that they could be changed. That is how it used to be.
“But there were always people in all those states who thought that the king they all honored should be the one to rule everyone, and that this would be the best kind of government, so throughout history, everywhere you know, they tried to get the king's rules to dominate. You see, by agreement, the king was all-wise, all-merciful, and infallible.”
“That word means that someone can't make mistakes or make failures.“
"Oh mom, that's silly. Everybody makes mistakes. You know that.”
“I do know that, dear, but you just couldn't tell them that. They would push you out of the room or the town if you said that about their king.
“Well, this state of affairs really went on for ages. And, to be truthful, their traditions said that the king already had rules for government in place, that everyone already knew the rules, that the king was the wisest and most fair, so, what’s the problem? The problem was always that it was never settled in the first place whether or not the king actually laid down the rules for his monarchy, or that his spokesmen had just made them up. That is one reason they got together, agreed to stop the arguments about the 'whether or not,' and just make mutually-agreed rules themselves that were fair to all. In the meantime, the king said nothing, so it was taken by many that his silence was consent. This is what is called an "assumption," something I warned you about before.
“The supreme-monarchists didn’t give up. By and by, they infiltrated themselves into every level of government, until they had the power to change things favorable to the monarchy. They said it was a moral "imperative right" to do so. The king did not dispute this, nor make an appearance to refute this; perhaps he was secretly chuckling or rejoicing. Some say he was happy to see his reign triumph, but they were the ones who had fought for it. So, the monarchists triumphed. And now it's time for lunch.“
After Pierre's lunch break.
“Remember I told you about the supreme-monarchists? I was just thinking about some of the peculiar things they believed. Remember the Natural History Museum in Paris we went to? It used to be a church. You've heard about churches. Well, some of those kinds of people in our own country, used to go to that Church, the Church of St. Phallus. Every year, on the saint's special day, his member, kept in a reliquary, was sprinkled with "holy” water, and became rigid.
“Pierre, that's the way they are. They take the silliest things very seriously, and get very angry and disturbed when you tell them so. I guess it's always been that way, and it's too bad that those people in power there are so gullible as to believe things like that.
“Well, with the invisible monarch firmly in place, all that could be done was to enforce his rules, and all of a sudden, the "infallible" showed signs of being very fallible indeed. There was no r |
Reported from WHO Western Pacific Regional Office, Manila, April 30, 1996 :
On 17 April 1996, a local newspaper reported 2 monkeys from the Philippines died from Ebola infection in Hazleton, Alice, Texas, | Reported from WHO Western Pacific Regional Office, Manila, April 30, 1996 :
On 17 April 1996, a local newspaper reported 2 monkeys from the Philippines died from Ebola infection in Hazleton, Alice, Texas, USA. The monkeys were found positive for Ebola-virus Reston strain. Although the Ebola virus-Reston strain has not been found to cause illness among humans, the Department of Health in collaboration with DENR/PAWB and the Department of Agriculture/BAI started investigation on April 18 1996 to determine the health-related effects to humans and monkeys exposed to the virus.
A multi-agency committee was formed to conduct an investigation. The members of the committee are:
- The Department of Health (Field Epidemiology Training Programme, Research Institute of Tropical Medicine and the Bureau of Research Laboratories)
- Department of Environment and Natural Resources (Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau)
- Department of Agriculture (Bureau of Animal Industry)
Methodology: An FETP team visited and interviewed personnel of Ferlite Scientific Research Inc. Using a standard symptom survey questionnaire. The signs and |
Proceedings of epiSTEME 3
teaching boys is different from teaching girls. But, thereason for difference in teaching is ascribed to boys beingintelligent and asking deep questions and girls being hardworking, paying attention, and | Proceedings of epiSTEME 3
teaching boys is different from teaching girls. But, thereason for difference in teaching is ascribed to boys beingintelligent and asking deep questions and girls being hardworking, paying attention, and trying to learn not askingquestions. Boys are naughty because they are interested ina lot of activities and have a lot of energy, while girls areshy, well behaved and easy to teach. Teachers appear to provide justification for boys’ lack of attention and applica-tion by ascribing it to their involvement in other activities.These views about the expected and acceptable behaviour from boys and girls suggest that the girls’ classroom wouldhave a different ethos as compared to a boys’ classroom.The difference would be in terms of the roles that the stu-dents play in the classroom and the relationship that theywould have with their teacher – boys being more active,asking questions, and being encouraged to learn throughmotivational strategies. Girls on the other hand would be provided with rules which they are expected to follow. Their hard work and attentive nature would ensure that they par-ticipate in classroom work, irrespective of motivational strat-egies. Indeed, these different classroom ethos and rela-tionships could mean that boys and girls learn differentmathematics, even where curriculum content and materialsare the same. Serious implications arise for mathematicsteacher education as noted in this paper.Findings also indicate that to create mathematics classroomswhich are equitable on the lines of gender, key beliefs and perceptions of societal roles and expectations from boysand girls need to be challenged. For example, data showsthat the perception of boys as better mathematicians aredeeply and crucially linked to perception of gender roles insociety.
Yes, boys are better mathematicians because they think in(sic) deeply and try to find better solutions. To some extentI agree with this. And probably the reason for it is thatAllah has made man superior to a woman. It is natural thatfrom childhood they (boys) ask questions why, what, how.And comparatively girls from the beginning you explain tothem and they accept it. They have curiosity but from thestart that element of curiosity is bounded so that it stops.This is the reason that our experience tells us that boyslearn better. (
Hence, the notion that “Allah has prepared males as supe-rior to females” or the view that “Girls are naturally shyand not prone to questioning” were evident in the responsesthat the teachers made, and have a strong role in how inter-actions in the mathematics classrooms are shaped. Hence,creating gender equity in mathematics is in fact changingthese deep-rooted beliefs and perceptions of boys and girls,and of the roles that they play in society. Teacher educa-tion curriculum need to make these links explicit and bringthem in the realm of discussions so that they may be problematised, challenged and modified. Nature of mathematics knowledge as objective, fixed andrational would need to be challenged and replaced with aview of mathematics as socially constructed and culturallyembedded. This view of mathematics would lead to thelearners playing an active role in developing understandingthrough active engagement with the mathematical tasks andideas.Teachers tended to assume that with the “same nationalcurriculum and prescribed textbooks” boys and girls hadthe same opportunities for mathematics learning providedthey had access. However, micro analysis of classroom processes and interviews with teachers showed otherwise.In the single sex classrooms gender equity pedagogy re-quired a nuanced and subtle approach to teaching, and cre-ating conducive environment in the classroom. It requiredteachers to question their deep rooted assumptions aboutgender roles in society, perception of themselves as math-ematics learners and its implications for positive or weak role models for mathematics learners. Teachers needed to pull back from the limited world of the classroom andcontextualize their teaching in the broader social setting torecognize the gender disparity in the quality of mathematicsteaching and develop a response to it.
Implications and Recommendations
These findings reported above have major implications andrecommendations for teacher education curricula in math-ematics. First teacher education curricula need to focus onteachers’ life experiences within which are rooted their viewsand perceptions of gender. Hence, curriculum and courseswhich make a sharp distinction between personal and pro-fessional could result in false dichotomies with very little, if any, impact of the course work on changing teachers’ be-lief and perceptions about gender (in this case) and math-ematics teaching and learning. This bias towards boys wasevident in the findings where an overwhelming majoritystill considered boys as better mathematicians. Teacher education curricula need to make |
“We have other sources of (energy),” said Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District. “We don't have other sources of water.”
Threat of pollution
New uranium-mining claims within five miles of the river | “We have other sources of (energy),” said Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District. “We don't have other sources of water.”
Threat of pollution
New uranium-mining claims within five miles of the river have more than tripled – to 1,195 from 395 – in the past six years, according to a review of BLM records by the Environmental Working Group, a national organization that conducts research on a wide variety of health and ecological issues.
The region already suffers from a decades-long record of contamination. The Metropolitan Water District points to a 16 million-ton pile of radioactive waste near a mill in Moab as a warning of what can happen when mining isn't carefully controlled.
The mill closed in 1984, but the Grand Canyon Trust estimates that 110,000 gallons of radioactive groundwater still seep into the river each day. The first loads of waste aren't scheduled to be hauled off until next year.
Industry officials say the Moab case is an outdated blight from the past.
“What gets my ire up is when we get compared to stuff that happened in the '60s. There is no argument from us now about being careful – with an eye to preserving the environment,” said Peter Farmer, CEO of Denison Mines, a Canadian company that operates seven U.S. uranium mines and a uranium mill in Blanding, Utah.
Denison recently spent more than $5 million to triple-line a waste pit and outfit it with leak-detection sensors.
Roger Haskins, a specialist in mining law at the BLM, said landmark environmental regulations in the 1970s prepared the industry for the 21st century. While it's still easy to stake a mining claim, projects now must undergo extensive environmental review before they can operate as mines.
“Whatever happens out there is thoroughly manageable in today's regulatory environment,” Haskins said.
Scientists say some degree of pollution is inevitable.
Drilling for uranium creates pathways where raw, radioactive material can migrate into underground aquifers that drain into the river. Surface water can seep into the drill holes and mine shafts, picking up traces of uranium and then percolating into underground water sources.
“There has to be some impact to downstream water,” said David Naftz, a hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Salt Lake City who studies uranium mining.
A recent study found contaminated surface water at 15 of 25 mines t |
Use the ‘define’ keyword on Google to quickly learn the meaning and proper spelling of a word [Tip]October 3, 2012 6 Email article | Print article
Yesterday I posted a tip about how Google is the best spell | Use the ‘define’ keyword on Google to quickly learn the meaning and proper spelling of a word [Tip]October 3, 2012 6 Email article | Print article
Yesterday I posted a tip about how Google is the best spell checker, ever. As is typical of dotTechies, some of you posted tips related to using Google for spell checking purposes. One of these very useful tips is to use ‘define’ as a modifier for your search query.
When you type ‘define [word]‘ in Google (e.g. ‘define acword’, as shown in the above screenshot), Google provides you with not only the proper spelling of the word (if you misspelled it) but also the definition, plus synonyms, an audio pronunciation of the word, and links to learn more. It is an extremely handy way to quickly check your spelling and, if needed, learn what a word means. Try it yourself if you don’t believe ole Ashraf. |
Sussex research helps create first-ever national oral archive for Women’s Liberation at British Library
Sisterhood And After, a unique national oral history archive that tells the stories of the women involved in the Women’s Liberation Movement, is to be launched | Sussex research helps create first-ever national oral archive for Women’s Liberation at British Library
Sisterhood And After, a unique national oral history archive that tells the stories of the women involved in the Women’s Liberation Movement, is to be launched on International Women’s Day (8 March) by the British Library in partnership with the University of Sussex and The Women’s Library, London.
A University of Sussex team comprising Research Fellow Dr Rachel Cohen, documentary film-maker Lizzie Thynne (assisted by ex-Media Film and Music MA student Peter Harte) and led by Dr Margaretta Jolly, Reader in Cultural Studies in the department of Media and Film, was funded to interview key activists about their experiences to ensure that their stories endure.
From Spare Rib to Greenham Common, the Southhall Black Sisters to the Northern Ireland Women’s Rights movement, the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s transformed the lives of men and women and shaped the world we live in today.
The oral history archive brings together the diverse experiences of the women involved in this movement for the first time, including issues ranging from reproductive rights, equality and independence to marriage and sexual rights.
Dr Jolly says: “The generation of women who powered the Women’s Liberation Movement in its heyday are mostly now in their 60s and 70s. For many, memories of a youth in which feminism was part of everyday life are vivid. For others, those memories are difficult, or fading. It is important to record their stories for future generations, before it’s too late.”
Over 400 hours of unedited recordings from the archive will be made available in the reading rooms of the British Library, and highlights from the archive, including edited clips, ten bespoke films and stories will be launched in a new learning website from 8 March.
The project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, was developed over the last four years in response to a demand from the activists themselves, who felt their stories had never been recorded in full before.
Around 60 women have taken part in the project so far, and the archive hopes to continue adding voices and stories over time.
Participants include well-known figures such as Susie Orbach, author of Fat is a Feminist Issue and Jenni Murray, the voice of Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, as well as lesser known stories, such as:
- Una Kroll, a former doctor and nun who campaigned for women’s right to be priests;
- Rowena Arshad, a trade union activist who co-organised a pioneering black women’s refuge in Scotland;
- Betty Cook, a miner’s wife who became politicised during the miners’ strike, forming ‘Women Against Pit Closures’;
- and women involved in campaigns such as the Miss World protest, the Grunwick Strike, Reclaim the Night, the Equal Pay Act and many more.
Dr Jolly says: “An oral history archive lends itself perfectly to the nature of the Women’s Liberation Movement, capturing the diverse and wide-ranging thoughts and experiences of the women themselves rather than the official history. By listening to the oral histories we are able to hear first-hand the stories of these women, and we hope to bring the history of the Movement to a new generation of young people for whom these debates and issues still resonate today.”
Dr Polly Russell, Lead Curator in Social Sciences at the British Library, says: “Oral history is a powerful means of recording the unique memories and life experiences of people, whose stories might otherwise have been lost. This oral history archive will be an invaluable resource to researchers now and in the future to understand what this generation achieved, and to learn about the women’s liberation movement in their own wo |
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A hybrid citrus tree derived from grapefruit and tangerine, having aromatic fruit with a thin, smooth, moderately loose rind.
- n. | from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A hybrid citrus tree derived from grapefruit and tangerine, having aromatic fruit with a thin, smooth, moderately loose rind.
- n. The fruit of this tree.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A citrus fruit that is a cross between a tangerine and a pomelo or a grapefruit.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A hybrid between the tangerine orange and the grapefruit, or pomelo; also, the fruit.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A class of hybrids of the tangerine orange and the grape-fruit or pomelo. At least three of these hybrids have been secured by the United States Department of Agriculture.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. hybrid between grapefruit and mandarin orange; cultivated especially in Florida
- n. large sweet juicy hybrid between tangerine and grapefruit having a thick wrinkled skin
Blend of tangerine and pomelo.(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Blend of tangerine and pomelo (Wiktionary) |
A teaching game for children “Alice: English in Wonderland” is an entertaining journey to the fairytale. This is a kind game with illustrated lessons written in effervescent poems. It is based on the motives of the well known and beloved | A teaching game for children “Alice: English in Wonderland” is an entertaining journey to the fairytale. This is a kind game with illustrated lessons written in effervescent poems. It is based on the motives of the well known and beloved book à Lewis Carroll “Alice in Wonderland”. During this adventure Alice will visit some absolutely incredible places, which are inhabited by the amazing characters. She will visit a wonderful garden and meet it’s Flowers ensemble, she will look on the clouds and will share some unforgettable moments of her journey with the clouds inhabitants. In the mysterious castle she will become good friends with sculptures that have come alive somehow, reflection of the knight in the mirror. After that Alice will be able to go through the doors which stand in the middle of the hall, will see the most sudden corners of Wonderland and will go even further that it could be expected. Persistent player will help Alice to rescue the fairytale characters from the different problems, will find some new good friends and will not even notice that he has learned many new English words during fifteen learning mini-games.
And parents will have opportunity to check child’s knowledge by the marks got in mini-games and to look at the passed studying material.
Download Video "Alice: English in Wonderland" |
NASA's Voyager 1 Spacecraft, Launched in 1977, Continues Explorations
Voyager 1 has entered interstellar space, where it is bathed in particles that came not from our sun but from other stars | NASA's Voyager 1 Spacecraft, Launched in 1977, Continues Explorations
Voyager 1 has entered interstellar space, where it is bathed in particles that came not from our sun but from other stars.When NASA's Voyager 1 space probe launched Sept. 5, 1977, its mission was to explore Jupiter and Saturn and help scientists learn more about our solar system. Amazingly, 36 years later, Voyager 1 is still providing extraordinary discoveries. NASA recently learned that Voyager 1, which has now traveled more than 15.8 billion miles from Earth, has moved so far from our planet that it is now in what is called interstellar space, or a region of our solar system, where it has come into contact with particles that were released by stars other than our sun. That's significant, according to NASA, because it means that the Voyager 1 probe is now in contact with particles in an area of the solar system that's beyond our sun and the eight planets that revolve around it. For scientists, it means that the space probe is being bathed in interstellar space plasma that is 40 times as dense as particles seen during the earlier parts of its travels. "Scientists were wowed about this because no spacecraft has been there before," Enrique Medina, Voyager 1's guidance and control manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told eWEEK. "Only in the simulation models that scientists use have we been able to predict what's out there. Now, we're going to know more and find out whether the models match reality."
Medina, who joined the Voyager project in 1986, said that scientists back on Earth only learned about Voyager 1's interstellar space activities in late August 2013, after data that was recorded by the probe a year ago—back in August 2012—was downloaded, analyzed and prepared for use. The delay in getting the information was due to a complex system that's used to record and retrieve data on an on-board tape recorder, which is actually an old eight-track tape recorder, which wasn't old when it was placed aboard the space probe before its launch, said Medina. |
Blanched in death, with a rising odor, a giant squid -- one of the best-preserved examples of this rarely seen species -- lay thawing on a plastic-sheathed workroom floor at the American Museum of Natural History last week | Blanched in death, with a rising odor, a giant squid -- one of the best-preserved examples of this rarely seen species -- lay thawing on a plastic-sheathed workroom floor at the American Museum of Natural History last week. A worker misted its arms and tentacles with a spray bottle. Another gently turned the tip of a 20-foot tentacle to photograph the squid's suckers. A press photographer straddled the head and aimed his flash directly at the visually confusing region where head and mantle become mouth and arms.
A crowd of museum staff members looked on, and beyond them, through a pair of swinging doors, an enormous freight elevator began to ferry up the television crews, as though this were the start of a science fiction movie that could not really begin until the ingenue-scientist walked in fresh from makeup.
The squid was caught by commercial fishermen at a depth of about 2,000 feet off New Zealand in December. It was frozen aboard ship and eventually flown to New York City, where it arrived last Wednesday. It is male, perhaps 5 to 6 years old, and it had been frozen along with an immature giant squid lacking the two long tentacles of its fellow. What particularly pleased Dr. Neil Landman, curator of invertebrates at the museum, was the condition of the squid's beak, which has the shape of a parrot's beak but looks, in fact, more like a beautifully modeled seashell, deep chocolate brown at its sharp ends and paling as it thickens. The rusty mottling that would have covered the squid's mantle in life -- a life about which virtually nothing is known -- still persisted in the tentacles. |
- Year Published: 1900
- Language: English
- Country of Origin: United States of America
- Source: Baum, F. L. (1900). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. New York: George M. Hill | - Year Published: 1900
- Language: English
- Country of Origin: United States of America
- Source: Baum, F. L. (1900). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. New York: George M. Hill.
- Flesch–Kincaid Level: 6.0
- Word Count: 190
Baum, L. (1900). Introduction. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Lit2Go Edition). Retrieved December 12, 2013, from
Baum, L. Frank. "Introduction." The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Lit2Go Edition. 1900. Web. <>. December 12, 2013.
L. Frank Baum, "Introduction," The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Lit2Go Edition, (1900), accessed December 12, 2013,.
Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations.
Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as “historical” in the children’s library; for the time has come for a series of newer “wonder tales” in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident.
Having this thought in mind, the story of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.
L. Frank Baum
Chicago, April, 1900. |
We are going to be looking for similarities and dis-similarities between the French Revolution and the current revolution in Egypt.
French Revolution // Egyptian Revolution
1. Compare / Contrast Louis XVI and Mubarak.
2. In each case, WHY | We are going to be looking for similarities and dis-similarities between the French Revolution and the current revolution in Egypt.
French Revolution // Egyptian Revolution
1. Compare / Contrast Louis XVI and Mubarak.
2. In each case, WHY were the people protesting? (Cite primary sources).
3. What role did women play?
4. What concerns are their about the current situation in Egypt? How might they relate to the days following the fall of Louis XVI?
5. How did/are people express(ing) their views?
6. Are the current protests violent?
7. What do people on the ground in Cairo think is going to happen now? (Directly contact reporters and bloggers in Egypt via Twitter during this class period).
8. Based on your study of the French Revolution and your current observations of the situation in Egypt, what do you think are possible outcomes? How are the possible outcomes in Egypt alike or different with outcomes in France -- both in the short and long term.
Sources on French Revolution
Sources on Egypt
New York Times |
Supporting HTTP Access
Topic Last Modified: 2007-02-01
Whether generated by a browser or a specialized client, HTTP requests from the client computer are sent to the front-end server. The front-end server uses Active Directory to | Supporting HTTP Access
Topic Last Modified: 2007-02-01
Whether generated by a browser or a specialized client, HTTP requests from the client computer are sent to the front-end server. The front-end server uses Active Directory to determine which back-end server to proxy the request to.
After determining the appropriate back-end server, the front-end server forwards the request to the back-end server. Apart from specific header information that indicates the request was passed through a front-end server, the request is almost the same as the original request sent from the client. In particular, the HTTP host header, which matches the name of the front-end server to which the request was sent (meaning the hostname or fully qualified domain name that the user entered in the browser), remains unchanged. The front-end server contacts the back-end server using the hostname of the back-end server (for example, backend1), but in the HTTP headers of the request, the front-end server sends the host header used by the client, for example, www.adatum.com. The host header setting ensures that the appropriate back-end Exchange virtual server handles the request. For more information about configuring virtual servers on a back-end server, see Configuring a Back-End Server.
For HTTP requests, the front-end server always contacts the back-end server over TCP port 80 (the default HTTP port), regardless of whether the client contacted the front-end server through port 80 or 443 (the SSL port). This means that:
HTTP virtual servers on the Exchange front-end server can listen only on port 80 (HTTP) or 443 (HTTPS).
Note: No other ports other than port 80 and port 443 can be used for HTTP virtual servers on the Exchange front-end servers.
SSL encryption is never used between the front-end and back-end servers, although the client should use it to communicate with the front-end server.
HTTP virtual servers that differentiate themselves from other servers only by port number are not supported in a front-end and back-end topology. For example, if a back-end server has an HTTP virtual server listening on port 8080, a client can access that back-end server only if the client is pointed directly to the back-end server (for example, http://backend1:8080/data). A client connecting to the front-end server cannot access this data.
The back-end server processes the HTTP request from the front-end normally, and the response is sent unchanged through the front-end server back to the client. This whole process is not visible to the client, which just interacts with the front-end server. The client is unaware of how the request was handled internally.
To provide access to mailbox folders through HTTP, you must have a virtual directory on both the Exchange front-end and back-end servers that points to the mailboxes.
|User mailboxes cannot be stored on the front-end server.|
When you install Exchange, a virtual directory named "Exchange" is created in the default virtual server. This directory points to the default SMTP domain for the Exchange organization. When you configure additional virtual directories on the front-end server through Exchange System Manager, you can select the SMTP domain name. In Exchange
In the dialog box where the SMTP domain is selected, the list of domains is a list of all domains for which there are recipient policies. Therefore, you might see duplicates in the list; it is not important which one you select.
When the front-end server detects a request to a location in the mailbox store (based on the setting of the virtual server or directory), it contacts an Active Directory global catalog server in the domain using Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and determines which back-end server contains the user's mailbox.
Users can log on to Outlook Web Access using either implicit logon or explicit logon.
If the front-end server is configured to authenticate users, users can access their mailboxes by omitting the username from the request, and pointing their browser to their mailbox virtual directory. The usual URL is https://<server>/exchange/. After authenticating t |
Editor’s note: This article was written by Gerald Higginbotham, extension dairy specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension services and first appeared in the California Dairy Newsletter.
Methionine and lysine are two amino acids which have | Editor’s note: This article was written by Gerald Higginbotham, extension dairy specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension services and first appeared in the California Dairy Newsletter.
Methionine and lysine are two amino acids which have been suggested to be potentially limiting milk and milk component production by dairy cows. If true, this means that high producing dairy cows need to be fed protein from sources which have both a good amino acid profile and have resistance to degradation by bacteria in the rumen.
Methionine and lysine contents of proteins vary greatly among feeds. Fish meal and by-products produced from cereal grains (including corn), tend to have higher concentrations of methionine and lower lysine than soybean meal and blood meal. However, a high concentration of methionine or lysine in a feed does not ensure that large amounts of it will pass to the small intestine for absorption, because the ruminal bacteria degrade amino acids to different extents.
The degradability (how much is degraded in the rumen) of protein in feeds, along with the amount of protein that is indigestible in feeds, needs to be considered when evaluating feed sources of methionine and lysine. Soybean meal and corn gluten feed tend to supply similar amounts of methionine, and some by-product feeds supply two to five times as much available methionine as soybean meal or canola meal. Relative to lysine, blood meal supplies the most available lysine, soybean and canola meal an intermediate amount, and cereal grain by-products the smallest amount per unit of crude protein.
Several companies that supply feed additives have developed rumen protected forms of methionine and lysine. Such technology makes it possible to augment dairy rations with methionine and lysine in order to provide a desired methionine and lysine balance in the protein that enters the small intestine and is available for absorption. However one must be cautious in assuming responses of cows to ruminally protected forms of amino acids as data are limited (and conflicting) on the dietary conditions under which methionine and/or lysine limit performance of lactating dairy cows.
The milk price will affect the return to feeding a ruminally protected methionine and/or lysine, but producers may see a higher 0.05 to 0.10 percent units of fat test with ruminally protected methionine. More research is needed to determine the conditions under which ruminally protected methionine and lysine are needed by California dairy cows. Some groups of cows may respond to ruminally protected methionine, while some may respond to ruminally protected lysine, if they are in fact limiting milk production.
Source: California Dairy Newsletter |
Definitions of equity
n. - Equality of rights; natural justice or right; the giving, or desiring to give, to each man his due, according to reason, and the law of God to man; fairness in determination of conflicting claims | Definitions of equity
n. - Equality of rights; natural justice or right; the giving, or desiring to give, to each man his due, according to reason, and the law of God to man; fairness in determination of conflicting claims; impartiality. 2
n. - An equitable claim; an equity of redemption; as, an equity to a settlement, or wife's equity, etc. 2
n. - A system of jurisprudence, supplemental to law, properly so called, and complemental of it. 2
The word "equity" uses 6 letters: E I Q T U Y.
No direct anagrams for equity found in this word list.
List shorter words within equity, sorted by length
All words formed from equity by changing one letter
Browse words starting with equity by next letter |
ATLANTA -- About 300,000 U.S. children have been diagnosed with autism, according to the largest national study so far of the prevalence of this complex behavioral disorder.
That means about 5.5 out of every 1, | ATLANTA -- About 300,000 U.S. children have been diagnosed with autism, according to the largest national study so far of the prevalence of this complex behavioral disorder.
That means about 5.5 out of every 1,000 school-age children have been diagnosed with autism. Past estimates have ranged from 1 to 9 out of every 1,000 children, based on smaller studies in individual states or cities.
The government-run study released Thursday reports findings from national surveys of tens of thousands of families.
The study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also found boys are nearly four times more likely than girls to be identified with the condition. And it found Hispanics had lower autism rates, though it's possible that may be related to health care access problems.
The new research is being published this week in the CDC publication, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Autism is a complex disorder usually not diagnosed in children until after age 3. It's characterized by a range of behaviors, including insistence on sameness, difficulty in expressing needs and inability to socialize.
Schieve's study pulls together results from two surveys done in 2003 and 2004. In both, parents were asked: Has a doctor or health care provider ever told you your child has autism?
In the first survey, conducted through personal interviews, 102 of the 18,885 children in the sample were identified as autistic. When the numbers were statistically adjusted to account for families that didn't respond and to better represent the U.S. population, the resulting prevalence rate was 5.7 per 1,000. In the second survey, done through random-digit-dialed telephone questioning, 465 of the 79,590 children in the sample were identified as autistic. The adjusted rate was 5.5 per 1,000.
Researchers believe some parents may have answered "yes" for two similar but less severe diagnoses, Asperger's disorder and pervasive developmental disorder (which is sometimes called "atypical autism").
For that reason, the study's prevalence rates may reflect other autism spectrum disorders and not just autism alone, CDC officials said. |
Last year we formed the “Scientists Against Malaria” (SAM) collaboration to apply modern drug design and modelling techniques in combination with industry standard infrastructure and interdisciplinary science to help develop new treatments against Malaria. The group’s first project assembles a | Last year we formed the “Scientists Against Malaria” (SAM) collaboration to apply modern drug design and modelling techniques in combination with industry standard infrastructure and interdisciplinary science to help develop new treatments against Malaria. The group’s first project assembles a number of leading academic researchers together with smaller innovative companies who are collaborating to develop novel inhibitors active against the Plasmodium parasite.
This is our first step in creating a collaboration learning machine for our community to enable and accelerate knowledge flow to progress the scientific research needed to develop new treatments against neglected diseases, which include other parasitic and tropical diseases, and diseases such as ALS which devastate people's health and are currently without any available treatment solutions.
Our drug design project involve situations when a number of partners collaborate to jointly solve molecular design problems as an early stage step in a drug discovery situation. The partners may involve commercial organisations, academic labs, and individual consultants who form a Virtual Organisation (VO) to collaborate on running the project, that typically has been historically carried out at a pharmaceutical organisation. The knowledge and experience of the partners involved i |
Maree Cali presented the results of this excellent study at the 2010 Australasian Bat Society Conference in Darwin, Australia, last summer. The paper received the Bat Conservation International Prize as the best conservation report of the conference. Through | Maree Cali presented the results of this excellent study at the 2010 Australasian Bat Society Conference in Darwin, Australia, last summer. The paper received the Bat Conservation International Prize as the best conservation report of the conference. Through extremely strenuous fieldwork and outstanding analyses, Cali and her colleagues gathered essential data on this vulnerable bat species and documented its conservation requirements. They took this new knowledge through government channels to help protect vital habitat for one of Australia’s unique bat species.
Australian Biologist Greg Richards
Scrambling along rocky shorelines between sea cliffs and the incoming tide, “commando crawling” through boulder piles and dodging waves to skip from boats onto slippery rocks are all in a day’s work when searching for roosting sites of Australia’s elusive coastal sheath-tailed bat.
This cave-dwelling bat (Taphozous australis) is found only in a narrow strip of Australia’s northeastern coast and islands, along with scattered reports from the southern coast of Papua New Guinea, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) distant. The species is listed as vulnerable at the state level and as near-threatened by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). Its total population is believed to be declining.
The coastal sheath-tailed bat is relatively large for a cave-dwelling bat with a wingspan of roughly 15.5 inches (39.5 centimeters) and an average head-and-body length of 2.75 inches (7 centimeters). It has a foxlike head with soft gray-brown fur. Males have a distinctive throat pouch, while females have a rudimentary pouch. When roosting, these bats are readily identified by the unusual, spiderlike way they cling to cave walls with both feet and thumbs.
Previous observations suggest the coastal sheath-tailed bat is a rather solitary animal, with colonies that normally range from 2 to 25 individuals, although as many as 100 have been reported historically. Known roosts, all within a few miles of the coastline, are primarily in sea caves (formed by wave action) or abandoned mines. These bats typic |
August 21, 2013—The HIV/AIDS epidemic is changing in unexpected ways in countries around the world, showing that greater attention and financial investment may be needed in places where the disease has not reached epidemic levels, according to a new study | August 21, 2013—The HIV/AIDS epidemic is changing in unexpected ways in countries around the world, showing that greater attention and financial investment may be needed in places where the disease has not reached epidemic levels, according to a new study from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.
HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of disease burden in 21 countries concentrated in four regions: Eastern and Southern Africa, Central Africa, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia. In another seven countries, it's the second leading cause of disease burden. Despite widespread declines in HIV/AIDS mortality, between 2006 and 2010 HIV/AIDS deaths increased in 98 countries.
In 2005, 68.7% of global HIV/AIDS burden was in countries where HIV/AIDS is the leading or second leading cause of the burden of disease. In 2010, 59.4% of the burden was in countries where HIV/AIDS ranked first or second, meaning countries where the disease ranked lower represented a larger share of the burden.
In 2010, for example, 20% of health loss due to HIV/AID was in countries where HIV/AIDS was not in the top 10 causes of disease burden compared to only 15.5% in 2005.
The findings were published August 21st in the study "The Burden of HIV: Insights from the GBD 2010" in the peer-reviewed journal AIDS.
IHME researchers also underscore the achievements that have been made against HIV—in terms of raising public awareness and increasing access to antiretroviral treatment—as well as the unrelenting challenges that AIDS poses to health around the world.
Millions of people, including many in low- and middle-income countries, now receive antiretroviral treatments (ARTs). There has been significant progress made against HIV/AIDS since global mortality due to the disease peaked in 2006; it has been steadily declining at an average annual rate of 4.2% since then.
The epidemic has peaked at different times in different countries, showing different rates of progress. In Botswana deaths are down 74%; in Mexico deaths are down 69.2%; and in Kazakhstan deaths are down 66.6%.
Yet HIV/AIDS remains a global issue; in 2012, 186 countries reported HIV cases or deaths. The disease is among the top five causes – but not the leading cause – of burden in 26 countries ranging from the Ukraine to Myanmar to Guyana.
"We cannot afford to become complacent when HIV/AIDS remains a tremendous threat," said researcher and lead study author Katrina F. Ortblad o |
Why do we need RDM?
The DMX512 standard has served the industry well for over 17 years. It made possible the independent development and sale of controllers, dimmers, and moving lights. DMX512 is a simple system of | Why do we need RDM?
The DMX512 standard has served the industry well for over 17 years. It made possible the independent development and sale of controllers, dimmers, and moving lights. DMX512 is a simple system of transferring “live level data” from a console to a dimmer, moving light or fixture accessory. Clever schemes have been developed to extend this to other types of control such as lamp on/off, fixture recalibration and the like.
As systems using DMX512 have become increasingly more complex, the limits of these schemes have been reached. Further, DMX512 is “talk only”: there is no cross-manufacturer method of returning information from fixtures or dimmers.
RDM allows explicit commands to be sent to a device and responses to be received from it without the use of typical “set a value on channel 1 and then wiggle channel 10″ schemes. Functions such as lamp control, recalibration requests, and fan control become standardized commands for all devices. Further, since RDM is bi-directional, devices can send back confirmation of the command as well as responses that indicate state or status: lamp condition (on or off), lamp hours, temperature, voltage, etc.
In the past, proprietary control systems have been developed to provide these capabilities. RDM offers both users and manufacturers a standard protocol on which to build interoperable consoles, controllers, intelligent fixtures, dimmers, and fixture accessories, which can communicate with each other.
Manufacturers, however, are not limited to the standard commands. RDM provides for manufacturer-specific commands that can be defined as needed in order to cope with the requirements of introducing new equipment.
What equipment is required for an RDM control system?
A basic RDM system consists of a controller and one or more RDM devices. The controller can be part of the lighting console, a separate box that connects in line between the console and the controlled devices, or part of an Ethernet DMX512-type distribution system. An RDM Controller could also be part of a gateway to an ACN system. As only the primary DMX512 pair on pins 2 and 3 are used, all existing DMX512 cable remains usable with RDM. Existing DMX splitters and opto-isolators will need to be replaced with RDM capable bi-directional units.
How does RDM work?
The RDM protocol allows data packets to be inserted into a DMX512 data stream without adversely affecting existing non-RDM equipment. By using a special “Start Code,” and by complying with the timing specifications for DMX512, the RDM protocol allows a console or dedicated RDM controller to send commands to and receive messages from specific moving lights, dimmers, color scrollers, and other RDM enabled devices.
Each RDM device is assigned a Unique Identifier (UID) by its manufacturer. This UID is composed of the Manufacturer’s ID and a “serial” number to uniquely identify the device. The RDM controller or console can search for and identify all of the RDM devices connected to it using a process called “discovery.” Once discovered, the controller can communicate with devices individually or in groups by manufacturer.
All of this RDM communication takes place during the time between standard DMX512 “Null START code” frames of level data and is ignored by existing DMX512 compliant equipment. At any time, all RDM traffic may be disabled, removing any speed penalty or compatibility issues with non-compliant equipment in a show critical environment.
When can I have RDM?
The RDM standard was released in 2006, and manufacturers have been implementing it in their products since then. Having said that, just because your product was purchased after 2006 does not immediately mean it will work with RDM.
Manufacturers are adopting the RDM logo on their products to indicate RDM enabled firmware is installed. You may even already have it!
Who made RDM?
RDM was created by the Control Protocols Working Group, a group of manufacturers with a particular interest in control protocols within the entertainment industry. The basis of the RDM protocol was the High End Systems Talkback Protocol, which was implemented in a number of High End Systems products. A need was identified for cross compatibility of these messages, so a group of engineers from manufacturers across the industry decided to create an official industry standard for bi-directional communication. In 2006, the RDM protocol became a formal ANSI standard (ANSI E1.20-2006).
How much does RDM cost?
The good news is that RDM is generally free of charge, either as an upgrade or already installed in new products that you’re buying. Certain manufacturers do charge for software updates, so please check with the manufacturer of your equipment for exact details. |
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Anvil
|←Anuradhapura||1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 2
|Anville, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'→|
| 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Anvil
|←Anuradhapura||1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 2
|Anville, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'→|
|See also Anvil on Wikipedia, and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.|
ANVIL (from Anglo-Saxon anfilt or onfilti, either that on which something is “welded” or “folded,” cf. German falzen, to fold, or connected with other Teutonic forms of the word, cf. German amboss, in which case the final syllable is from “beat,” and the meaning is “that on which something is beaten”), a mass of iron on which material is supported while being shaped under the hammer (see Forging). The common blacksmith’s anvil is made of wrought iron, often in America of cast iron, with a smooth working face of hardened steel. It has at one end a projecting conical beak or bick for use in hammering curved pieces of metal; occasionally the other end is also provided with a bick, which is then partly rectangular in section. There is also a square hole in the face, into which tools, such as the anvil-cutter or chisel, can be dropped, cutting edge uppermost. For power hammers the anvil proper is supported on an anvil block which is of great massiveness, sometimes weighing over 200 tons for a 12-ton hammer, and this again rests on a strong foundation of timber and masonry or concrete. In anatomy the term anvil is applied to one of the bones of the middle ear, the incus, which is articulated with the malleus. |
Climate, evolution top science standards
- Article by: Justin Gillis
- New York Times
- April 10, 2013 - 2:13 PM
The guidelines also take a firm stand that children must learn about evolution, | Climate, evolution top science standards
- Article by: Justin Gillis
- New York Times
- April 10, 2013 - 2:13 PM
The guidelines also take a firm stand that children must learn about evolution, the central organizing idea in the biological sciences for more than a century, but one that still provokes a backlash among some religious conservatives.
The guidelines, known as the Next Generation Science Standards, are the first broad national recommendations for science instruction since 1996. They were developed by a consortium of 26 state governments, including Minnesota, and several groups representing scientists and teachers.
States are not required to adopt them, but 26 states have committed to seriously considering the guidelines. They include Arizona, Arkansas, California, Iowa, Kansas and New York. Other states could also adopt them.
Educators involved in drawing them up said the guidelines were intended to combat widespread scientific ignorance, to standardize teaching among states, and to raise the number of high school graduates who choose scientific and technical majors in college, critical for the U.S. economic future.
The focus would be helping students become more intelligent science consumers by learning how scientific work is done: how ideas are developed and tested, what counts as strong or weak evidence, and how insights from many disciplines fit together into a coherent picture of the world.
Leaders of the effort said that teachers may well wind up covering fewer subjects but digging more deeply into the ones they do cover.
In some cases, traditional classes like biology and chemistry may disappear entirely from high schools, replaced by courses that use a case-study method to teach science in a more holistic way.
In many respects, the standards are meant to do for science what a separate set of guidelines known as the Common Core is supposed to do for English and mathematics: impose and raise standards, with a focus on critical thinking and primary investigation.
To date, 45 states and Washington have adopted the Common Core standards.
“This is a huge deal,” said David L. Evans, the executive director of the National Science Teachers Association. “We depend on science in so many aspects of our lives. There’s a strong feeling that we need to help people understand the nature of science itself, as an intellectual pursuit.”
The climate and evolution standards are just two aspects of a set of guidelines containing hundreds of new ideas on how to teach science.
But they have already drawn hostile commentary from conservative groups critical of mainstream scientific thinking.
For instance, as the standards were being drafted, a group called Citizens for Objective Public Education, which lists officers in Florida and Kansas, distributed a nine-page letter attacking them.
The letter warned that the standards ignored evidence against evolution, promoted “secular humanism” and threatened to “take away the right of parents to direct the religious education of their children.”
Advocates of climate literacy hailed the new standards, saying they could fill a critical gap in public awareness.
“Quite simply, students have a right to know about climate science and solutions,” said Sarah Shanley Hope, the executive director of the Alliance for Climate Education, which offers one-day programs in schools.
Many states are expected to adopt the guidelines over the next year or two, but it could be several years before the guidelines are translated into detailed curriculum documents, teachers are trained in the material and standardized tests are revised.
And all of this has to happen at a time when state education departments and many local schools are under severe financial strain. Inevitably, educators said, some states will do it better than others.
Educators want to introduce students to topics that can be made comprehensible only by drawing on the ideas and methods of many scientific disciplines, one of the reasons that climate change and other large-scale environmental problems are seen as holding so much potential in the classroom.
© 2013 Star Tribune |
Research is increasing regarding what we know about liver cancer. Scientists are learning more about its causes. Following are common risk factors for the disease:
- Viral hepatitis is one of the largest risk factors for this type of cancer. Hepatitis viruses are | Research is increasing regarding what we know about liver cancer. Scientists are learning more about its causes. Following are common risk factors for the disease:
- Viral hepatitis is one of the largest risk factors for this type of cancer. Hepatitis viruses are viruses that infect the liver. Two common types are Chronic Hepatitis B (HBV) and Chronic Hepatitis C (HCV.) Carriers of Hepatitis B virus face up to a 100-fold increased risk of developing adult primary liver cancer.
- Cirrhosis is a disease in which liver cells become damaged and are replaced by scar tissue. People with cirrhosis have an increased risk of liver cancer. Most (but not all) people who develop liver cancer already have some evidence of cirrhosis.
There are several possible causes of cirrhosis. Most cases in the United States occur in people who abuse alcohol or have chronic HBV or HCV infections.
Age and Gender
- Liver cancer is much more common in males than in females. The fibrolamellar subtype of HCC occurs in about equal numbers in both sexes. In the United States, adult primary liver cancer occurs most often in people over age 60
- In the United States, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have the highest rates of liver cancer, followed by American Indians/Alaska Natives and Hispanics/Latinos, African Americans, and whites.
Inherited Metabolic Diseases
- Certain inherited metabolic diseases can lead to cirrhosis. People with hemochromatosis absorb too much iron from their food. They are more likely to develop cirrhosis because of the high levels of iron in their liver. Other rare diseases that increase the risk of liver cancer include tyrosinemia, alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency, porphyria cutanea tarda, glycogen storage diseases, and Wilson disease.
Diabetes and Obesity
- Diabetes can also increase the risk of liver cancer, usually in patients who have other risk factors such as heavy alcohol consumption and/or chronic viral hepatitis. Obesity may increase the risk of developing liver cancer, probably because it can result in fatty liver disease and cirrhosis.
- Anabolic steroids are male hormones used by some athletes to increase their strength. Long-term anabolic steroid use can slightly increase the risk of hepatocellular cancer. Cortisone-like steroids, such as hydrocortisone, prednisone, and dexamethasone, do not carry this same risk.
- Chronic exposure to drinking water contaminated with naturally occurring arsenic, such as that from some wells, increases the risk of some types of liver cancer. This is more common in parts of East Asia but may be a concern in some areas of the United States.
Signs and Symptoms
Because signs and symptoms of liver cancer do not usually appear until it is in its later stages, it is seldom diagnosed early.
Many patients who develop liver cancer have long-standing cirrhosis. If a patient with cirrhosis becomes worse without any known reason, doctors will probably suspect that liver cancer is the cause and do appropriate tests.
The increasing size of the liver and its inability to perform its functions as cancer cells multiply can cause warning signs in people with liver cancer. Following are the most common health problems experienced by people with liver cancer or liver disease:
A hard lump or swelling found on the right side of the abdomen, just below the ribs
Pain or discomfort on the upper side of the abdomen or by the right side of the shoulder blade
Jaundice, or the yellowing of the skin or the whites of the eyes or dark-colored urine
Nausea, loss of appetite or feeling full shortly after you begin to eat
Unexplained weight loss
Swollen abdomen, bleeding (the symptoms of cirrhosis) |
Introductiondialysis (dĪălˈĭsĭs) [key], in chemistry, transfer of solute (dissolved solids) across a semipermeable membrane. Strictly speaking, dialysis | Introductiondialysis (dĪălˈĭsĭs) [key], in chemistry, transfer of solute (dissolved solids) across a semipermeable membrane. Strictly speaking, dialysis refers only to the transfer of the solute; transfer of the solvent is called osmosis. Dialysis is frequently used to separate different components of a solution. For example, a solution of starch and sodium chloride in water can be separated by placing the mixture in a vessel on one side of a semipermeable membrane and placing pure water on the other side. The smaller particles of sodium chloride (which dissolve in water to form sodium and chloride ions) will diffuse across the membrane; diffusion of the much larger starch particles (which are not truly in solution but are in colloidal suspension) is hindered and may be completely prevented. By continuously or periodically replacing the solvent with fresh solvent, almost all of the sodium chloride can be removed. The method was originated by Thomas Graham, who termed the substance that remained within the membrane a colloid and the substance that diffused a crystalloid.
An extension of the method makes possible the separation of mixed colloids by the use of a semipermeable membrane (usually synthetic) of known selectivity, i.e., one that will permit the diffusion of one colloid and hinder the diffusion of others. Mixed macromolecules, such as proteins, may be similarly separated. By the use of graded semipermeable membranes chosen to allow successively smaller molecules to pass, mixtures can be separated into components of graded ranges of molecular weight.
Sections in this article:
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Chemistry: General |
- published: 20 Sep 2012
- views: 70
- author: insidermedicine
In a nationally representative sample of U.S. children, higher levels of bisphenol A (BPA) in the urine have been | - published: 20 Sep 2012
- views: 70
- author: insidermedicine
In a nationally representative sample of U.S. children, higher levels of bisphenol A (BPA) in the urine have been linked with a greater risk for obesity. The...
|Jmol-3D images||Image 1
|Molar mass||228.29 g mol−1|
158-159 °C, 431-432 K, 316-318 °F
220 °C, 493 K, 428 °F (4 mmHg)
|Solubility in water||120–300 ppm (21.5 °C)|
|Flash point||227 °C (441 °F)|
| Y (what is: Y/N?)
Except where noted otherwise, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C, 100 kPa)
Bisphenol A (BPA) is an organic compound with the chemical formula (CH3)2C(C6H4OH)2. It is a colourless solid that is soluble in organic solvents, but poorly soluble in water. Having two phenol functional groups, it is used to make polycarbonate polymers and epoxy resins, along with other materials used to make plastics.
BPA is controversial because it exerts weak, but detectable, hormone-like properties, raising concerns about its presence in consumer products and foods contained in such products. Starting in 2008, several governments questioned its safety, prompting some retailers to withdraw polycarbonate products. A 2010 report from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) raised further concerns regarding exposure of fetuses, infants, and young children. In September 2010, Canada became the first country to declare BPA a toxic substance. In the European Union and Canada, BPA use is banned in baby bottles.
World production capacity of this compound was 1 million tons in the 80s, and more than 2.2 million tons in 2009. In 2003, U.S. consumption was 856,000 tons, 72% of which was used to make polycarbonate plastic and 21% going into epoxy resins. In the U.S., less than 5% of the BPA produced is used in food contact applications, but remains in the canned food industry and printing applications such as sales receipts.
Bisphenol A was first synthesized by the Russian chemist A.P. Dianin in 1891. This compound is synthesized by the condensation of acetone (hence the suffix A in the name) with two equivalents of phenol. The reaction is catalyzed by a strong acid, such as hydrochloric acid (HCl) or a sulfonated polystyrene resin. Industrially, a large excess of phenol is used to ensure full condensation; the product mixture of the cumene process (acetone and phenol) may also be used as starting material:
A large number of ketones undergo analogous condensation reactions. Commercial production of BPA requires distillation – either extraction of BPA from many resinous byproducts under high vacuum, or solvent-based extraction using additional phenol followed by distillation.
Bisphenol A is used primarily to make plastics, and products using bisphenol A-based plastics have been in commercial use since 1957. At least 3.6 million tonnes (8 billion pounds) of BPA are used by manufacturers yearly. It is a key monomer in production of epoxy resins and in the most common form of polycarbonate plastic. Bisphenol A and phosgene react to give polycarbonate under biphasic conditions; the hydrochloric acid is scavenged with aqueous base:
Polycarbonate plastic, which is clear and nearly shatter-proof, is used to make a variety of common products including baby and water bottles, sports equipment, medical and dental devices, dental fillings and sealants, CDs and DVDs, household electronics, and eyeglass lenses. BPA is also used in the synthesis of polysulfones and polyether ketones, as an antioxidant in some plasticizers, and as a polymerization inhibitor in PVC. Epoxy resins containing bisphenol A are used as coatings on the inside of almost all food and beverage cans, however, due to BPA health concerns, in Japan epoxy coating was mostly replaced by PET film.
Bisphenol A is also a precursor to the flame retardant tetrabromobisphenol A, and formerly was used as a fungicide. Bisphenol A is a preferred color developer in carbonless copy paper and thermal paper, with the most common public exposure coming from some thermal point of sale receipt paper. BPA-based products are also used in foundry castings and for lining water pipes.
There are seven classes of plastics used in packaging applications. Currently there are no BPA labeling requirements for plastics.
"In general, plastics that are marked with recycle codes 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 are very unlikely to contain BPA. Some, but not all, plastics that are marked with recycle codes 3 or 7 may be made with BPA."
Type 7 is the catch-all "other" class, and some type 7 plastics, such as polycarbonate (sometimes identified with the letters "PC" near the recycling symbol) and epoxy resins, are made from bisphenol A monomer.
Bisphenol A was discovered in 1891 by Russian chemist Aleksandr Dianin. In the early 1930s the British chemist Charles Edward Dodds recognized BPA as an artificial estrogen. During that time BPA had two initial uses. The first use of BPA was to enhance the growth of cattle and poultry. The second use of BPA in the mid 1930s was as an estrogen replacement for women. BPA was only briefly used as an estrogen replacement and was replaced by diethylstilbestrol (DES). Based on research by |
Goiter is the enlargement of the thyroid gland and is not cancerous. A person with goiter can have normal levels of thyroid hormone (euthyroidism), excessive levels (hyperthyroidism) or levels that are too low ( | Goiter is the enlargement of the thyroid gland and is not cancerous. A person with goiter can have normal levels of thyroid hormone (euthyroidism), excessive levels (hyperthyroidism) or levels that are too low (hypothyroidism).
The thyroid is a gland, shaped like a butterfly, located at the base of the neck, just below the Adam's apple. If the thyroid gland grows larger than normal the patient has a condition known as goiter. Goiters are generally painless; however, if the gland gets very large the patient may have problems sw |
XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language) is a code-name for the Microsoft 'Longhorn' Markup Language. This XAML is not to be confused with "Transaction Authority Markup Language (XAML)."
"'Longhorn' application development raises | XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language) is a code-name for the Microsoft 'Longhorn' Markup Language. This XAML is not to be confused with "Transaction Authority Markup Language (XAML)."
"'Longhorn' application development raises abstraction to the level of a declarative programming model. To facilitate programming for this model a new XML-based declarative programming language (XAML) is being developed. XAML is based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) and enables developers to specify a hierarchy of objects with a set of properties and logic. The primary use of XAML is for 'Longhorn' client applications but you can use it to specify a hierarchy of any common language runtime objects. XAML enables you to create a UI without using code. You can create quite elaborate doc |
Urgent action needed to combat hunger as number of undernourished in the world increases
Contrary to the declining trend in the total number of chronically undernourished people in developing countries since 1970, the new report | Urgent action needed to combat hunger as number of undernourished in the world increases
Contrary to the declining trend in the total number of chronically undernourished people in developing countries since 1970, the new report puts the number of undernourished people in the world at 828 million for the 1994-96 period, up from 822 million in 1990-92. The percentage of undernourished people in the world is estimated to have dropped slightly over the same period, from 20 to 19 percent, but this has not been sufficient to compensate for population growth.
The largest absolute numbers of undernourished people are in Asia, while the largest proportion of the population that is undernourished is in Africa, south of the Sahara, according to the report.
"Efforts to meet the World Food Summit goal of reducing, by at least half, the 1996 number of hungry people in the world by the year 2015 are all the more urgent," said Jacques Vercueil, Director of FAO's Agricultural and Economic Development Analysis Division, which produced SOFA 98. In November 1996, heads of state and government from 186 countries gathered in Rome for the World Food Summit and pledged their commitment to reducing by half the number of chronically undernourished people in the world by the year 2015.
The increase in the number of hungry people has been caused mainly by lack of progress in reducing poverty in the world. "SOFA 98 notes that the widening gap in income distribution in many parts of the world is also a worrying trend for undernourishment," according to Vercueil.
Data show that hunger and poor economic performance form a vicious circle. Over the decade 1985-95, the countries with the highest proportion of undernourished - 50 percent or more of their population - have all had a stagnant or worsening per caput income. Similarly, income growth has stagnated or declined in most of the countries where more than 30 percent of the people are chronically hungry. The only group of countries within which most have registered gains in per caput income consists of those where less than 20 percent of the population is undernourished.
Special features on feeding cities and rural non-farm income
FAO's annual flagship report analyses global and regional developments in food and agriculture, including fisheries and forestry, and examines key issues faci |
Serving XHTML with Apache
This technique gives a possible implementation for the CategoryBpContentFormatSupport using Apache.
Apache attaches a given media type to a resource based on the extension of the relevant file; for instance, by default, Apache is | Serving XHTML with Apache
This technique gives a possible implementation for the CategoryBpContentFormatSupport using Apache.
Apache attaches a given media type to a resource based on the extension of the relevant file; for instance, by default, Apache is configured to serve file with a.html extension as text/html.
XHTML Basic is not supposed to be served as text/html (see XHTML Media Types ) and is best served as application/xhtml+xml, which allows user agents to use it as an XML language. The extensions associated by default with this media type are ".xhtml" and ".xht", so writing your content in files ending with that names should be enough to serve them properly.
NB: A well-known issue with this media type is that it is not supported by Internet Explorer; you may want to serve your content under the two content types.
Back to BestPracticesList |
Alexander Fleming’s 1928 discovery of penicillin is one of medical history’s most famous moments. But the original wonder drug languished in laboratories until a World War II research program that rivaled the Manhattan Project-at times literally-brought it | Alexander Fleming’s 1928 discovery of penicillin is one of medical history’s most famous moments. But the original wonder drug languished in laboratories until a World War II research program that rivaled the Manhattan Project-at times literally-brought it to hospitals and battlefields.
By the summer of 1941, Oxford University researchers led by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain had shown that penicillin could cure people of deadly bacterial infections. But making the drug was difficult: The Oxford group started out growing the antibiotic-producing Penicillium mold in bedpans, and even resorted to collecting penicillin from treated patients’ urine. Still, they amassed enough of the drug to treat only six patients. With bombs falling on Britain, Florey and a collaborator went to the United States for help.
A critical stop on their tour was the Department of Agriculture’s Northern Regional Research Laboratory (NRRL) in Peoria, Ill. Quickly convinced of penicillin’s importance, the NRRL researchers went to work. One of their key developments was submerged or “deep” fermentation, a way of culturing the mold within a liquid medium, rather than floating on top. Within a few years, penicillin producers abandoned the thousands of glass flasks or milk bottles needed each day for surface culture in favor of tank fermenters that held thousands of liters like those at Merck and Co.’s Rahway, N.J., plant shown above.
The NRRL also led the search for better-producing variants of Penicillium. They analyzed molds from cheese factories, kitchens and soil samples c |
How to Read: Have a pen or pencil handy. Make sure your mind focuses on the text. Don't let your mind wander. Concentrate on the story or poem at hand. If your mind wanders, start over. You have to | How to Read: Have a pen or pencil handy. Make sure your mind focuses on the text. Don't let your mind wander. Concentrate on the story or poem at hand. If your mind wanders, start over. You have to train your mind to focus. It may be hard at first, but it must be learned. Try creating a picture of what you're reading in your head. Give characters a face, and settings a description.
Initial Reading: As you read the text through the first time, concentrate on the tone of the author and the message and/or plot. Try to read all the way through without pausing too much. Underline or circle parts of the text that confuse you, or when there are words you don't know. Star or mark any parts you like or think are important to the piece's development, i.e. any interesting phrases or literary devices such as symbolism, allusion, metaphors, or similes, or what you think is the climax of a story. Remember, try not to spend too much time underlining. Make quick marks to remind you of things, but remember that you're trying to get an overall feel for the piece. As you read, ask yourself, What is going on here and WHY? What is the author trying to say or create for you the reader, if anything?
Second Reading: The next step is to skim over the entire piece, but spend time examining the parts you've marked. This is the time to carefully read through any parts you were confused about or look up words you don't know. Also, review parts and wordings you did like. Ask yourself WHY? Was it unique? Did it cause you to look at something differently? Write down questions for discussion about parts you still don't understand.
Final Reading: Finally, read the piece a third time. Is the piece any different for you now? If so, why? Make sure that by this point you're familiar with the work's plot |
Definition of Antidepressant, MAOI
Antidepressant, MAOI: Monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI), a potent class of medications used to treat depression. This group of antidepressants have many serious drug interactions, which may limit | Definition of Antidepressant, MAOI
Antidepressant, MAOI: Monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI), a potent class of medications used to treat depression. This group of antidepressants have many serious drug interactions, which may limit their use.Source: MedTerms™ Medical Dictionary
Last Editorial Review: 9/20/2012
Medical Dictionary Definitions A - Z
Search Medical Dictionary
Get tips on therapy and treatment. |
College prevention: a view of present (and future) web-based approaches.
College campuses in the United States may be the most electronically "wired" environments on earth. College students use the Internet not only to write term papers and receive correspondence but | College prevention: a view of present (and future) web-based approaches.
College campuses in the United States may be the most electronically "wired" environments on earth. College students use the Internet not only to write term papers and receive correspondence but also to report (and keep track of) friends' personal status, download music, view classroom lectures, and receive emergency messages. In fact, college students spend considerably more time online than the average person. In a recent survey of U.S. college students (Jones et al. 2009), nearly all respondents (94 percent) stated that they spent at least 1 hour on the Internet each day, with the main tasks including social communication, entertainment, and class work. In keeping with this trend, Web-based programs that address alcohol consumption among college students have become widely available in the United States. This sidebar provides an overview of currently available programs as well as of the advantages and disadvantages of this approach and the future outlook of Web-based programs.
Web-based programs that address alcohol consumption among college students now are widely used on U.S. college campuses. Alcohol 101-plus, AlcoholEdu, Alcohol-Wise, and e-CHECKUP TO GO are among the most popular Web-based alcohol prevention programs in the United States (see the table for a list of Web sites linking to these and other programs.) Alcohol 101-plus, a free program created by the Century Council, has distributed star |
2013-14 Greek & Latin Courses
Learn the language of ancient Romans, medieval monks, and Renaissance humanists--a language with nearly 2000 years of literature and history!
The three course sequence (LAT 101, 102, | 2013-14 Greek & Latin Courses
Learn the language of ancient Romans, medieval monks, and Renaissance humanists--a language with nearly 2000 years of literature and history!
The three course sequence (LAT 101, 102, 103) fulfills the B.A. language requirement.
No previous foreign language experience needed.
Offered Terms 5 or 6, and 7 or 8 next year.
Why take Latin?
- Knowing Latin puts you in touch with the writers and the thinkers who created western civilization.
- You will understand the culture, literature, politics, and social life of ancient Rome first-hand, in the words of Cicero, Vergil, and Horace
- Latin is an excellent way to improve your vocabulary and grammar in English since over 60% of English vocabulary is derived from Latin.
- Latin is the key to learning other modern languages, especially French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish.
- The Romans' achievements in government, art and architecture, city-planning, literature, medicine, and law continue to shape our modern world.
- Knowing Latin is an excellent preparation for further study in law, literature, medicine, philosophy, science, theatre, theology.
- Unlike modern languages, you need only three courses of Latin to fulfill the B.A. language requirements
- Here is another view on Why learn Latin?
GRE 1-205 Introduction to Greek Literature and Culture
|Follow in the footsteps of the Roman travel writer Pausanias, reading (in Greek) his Description of Greece and exploring ancient sites around Greece. On the way to Corinth, we'll hear about Theseus' exploits and visit the pan-hellenic sanctuary of Poseidon at Isthmia. In ancient Corinth, we'll learn how the Roman general Mummius sacked Corinth, how Medea poisoned the king's daughter Glauce, and what happened to her children. In Olympia, we'll train as Olympic athletes, make an offering on the great altar of Zeus, and stand in awe of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the cult statue of Zeus sculpted by Pheidias. Finally, we'll travel to Sparta to read about Helen and Menelaus and the Spartan way of life. In short, we'll explore Greek myth, religious sanctuaries, art and architecture, Roman
interaction with Greeks, and Greek self-definition. Prerequisite: GRE
103. Offered every third year. Gruber-Miller
Readings and discussion of original Greek texts that cast light on the history, politics, society, and culture of Greece and the ancient Mediterranean. In this course, Herodotus, the father of history, is our primary text. Topics will include the Greeks interaction with Persia and Egypt during the fifth century BCE. Prerequisite: GRE 205. Offered every third year. (Humanities)
Fall of the Roman Republic, as seen through the eyes of Cicero and his contemporaries, Catullus, Lucretius, and Sallust. Prerequisite: LAT 205. Offered every third year. (Humanities) Gruber-Miller |
Step 4: Communicate in a Documentary Video
Your goal is to create a documentary video production that communicates your thesis and supporting points.
“Kodak sells film, but they don't advertise film. They advertise memories.”
About this step | Step 4: Communicate in a Documentary Video
Your goal is to create a documentary video production that communicates your thesis and supporting points.
“Kodak sells film, but they don't advertise film. They advertise memories.”
About this step
This step presumes that after having completed steps 1, 2 and 3, that the student comes to some conclusions regarding the topic and is now ready to share those conclusions in a video documentary.
Producing video requires teamwork. (Think of the credits that roll at the end of all films.) After students have completed the first three steps individually, consider having groups of three to five students work together on creating a video to communicate the results of the research on their topic. In order for this to work successfully, roles and responsibilities must be clearly defined for each task- writer, director, editor, camera person, etc.
Communicating in video format requires careful consideration of the technology resources available to your students in your school or district. Review the Technical Considerations and ensure that you know what resources are available and what students need to be aware of.
About this step
Your |
Institutional affiliation: 1928 - 1981
In 1928, when Adolf Meyer brought Austrian-born Leo Kanner to Hopkins, childhood thoughts, feelings, and behavior were immensely fascinating to Freudian psychiatrists insofar as they | Institutional affiliation: 1928 - 1981
In 1928, when Adolf Meyer brought Austrian-born Leo Kanner to Hopkins, childhood thoughts, feelings, and behavior were immensely fascinating to Freudian psychiatrists insofar as they revealed the seeds of future adult neurosis. Kanner, in contrast, became concerned with severe psychiatric problems in children.
In his nearly 30 years as the first director of child psychiatry at Hopkins, and in a productive career after that, Kanner wrote the first textbook of child psychiatry and was the first to provide a systematic description of childhood autism, which occurred in children as a “disability to relate themselves in the ordinary way to people and situations from the beginning of life.” (1944) He was, in essence, the first child psychiatrist—the first psychiatrist to be primarily concerned with the mental problems of children.
Dean MacKinnon, M.D |
THIS DAY IN VIRGINIA HISTORY
Click image for larger view.
November 09, 1893
An Anti-Catholicism Lecture Was Held
This pamphlet advertised the speaking engagement of Margaret Lisle Shepherd (b. 1859 | THIS DAY IN VIRGINIA HISTORY
Click image for larger view.
November 09, 1893
An Anti-Catholicism Lecture Was Held
This pamphlet advertised the speaking engagement of Margaret Lisle Shepherd (b. 1859) in Richmond. Shepherd toured the United States and abroad denouncing Catholicism and convents in particular. She gave four sensationalist lectures on November 9 and 10, with afternoon lectures open only to women and evening engagements open to men and women. Shepherd wrote a |
Aquarium of the Pacific - Online Learning Center - Species Print Sheet
Conservation Status: Safe for Now
California Brown Sea Hare
(Aplysia californica)Invertebrates • Mollusks
The California brown sea | Aquarium of the Pacific - Online Learning Center - Species Print Sheet
Conservation Status: Safe for Now
California Brown Sea Hare
(Aplysia californica)Invertebrates • Mollusks
The California brown sea hare, a mollusk, is also called a sea slug. It is a marine snail that has an interior small remnant of a shell and no external shell. The common name, sea hare, is derived from the large anterior tentacles that are ear-like and were thought by some to resemble the ears of a hare. This species “inks”, that is, expels a thick cloud of purple ink.
At the Aquarium
In keeping with their vegetarian diet in the wild, our sea hares are fed kelp and nori. They also graze on algae that grows naturally in their Aquarium habitat.
Most of the California coast and some areas of the Gulf of California
Sea hares are found in sheltered coastal waters, usually where vegetation is thick. The depth of water where they can be found depends on whether they are adults or juveniles. Adults prefer shallow middle and lower tidal zones. Juveniles inhabit deeper waters to depths up to 18.3 m (60 ft).
California brown sea hares have two pairs of tentacles on the top of the head, one pair near the mouth and the other behind the eyes. The anterior are an aid in locomotion, and the posterior are used for smelling. The mantle, which covers the gills, has external wing-like extensions that extend almost the entire length of the animal’s body, up over each side of the back meeting at or close to the center. These extensions are called parapodia.
The color of these sea hares is dependent on the color of algae that they eat. Coloration ranges from reddish-brown to greenish-brown with some mottling.
Although California brown sea hares can be as long as 40 cm (16 in) and weigh up to 2.3 kg (5 lb), most are only half this length and weight.
Diet and Feeding
These animals are herbivores that change their food preferences as they grow. As larvae, they settle out on red algae in deeper water to eat, gradually moving into shallow water as they become adults. In water closer to shore they forage on eelgrass and tougher brown and green algae. They use a pair of jaws and a rasp-like radula to graze.
Brown sea hares have a very complicated digestive system that includes an alimentary canal, a crop where horny plates chew the food, and a multi-chambered stomach where digestion takes place.
Sea hares are hermaphrodites with a full set of both male and female reproductive organs; however, they do not self-fertilize. Any individual sea hare can act as either a male, a female, or simultaneously as both. At breeding time they come into eelgrass beds to mate, often in large numbers that pile up in lines or circles to make a chain of mating animals. The sea hare at the front of the line is female only. The ones that follow “her” are male to the animal in front of it and female to the one behind. The sea hare at the end of the line bringing up the rear is male only.
Up to 80 million jelly-encased, yellow eggs are laid in long strings that can form a mass as large in diameter as a grapefruit. The mass is usually attached to eelgrass where the eggs turn brown in 8-9 days and hatch in 10-12 days.
Free–swimming larvae are planktonic for about 30 days and then settle on algae, (usually red algae), where they gorge and metamorphose, doubling their weight every 10 days for the next three months.
Although predominately quiet, brown sea hares exhibit a behavior called head waving in which the head is moved side to side in a series of movements separated by pauses. During head waving the anterior two-thirds of the animal’s body is free to move, but most movement takes place immediately behind the head portion of the animal’s body.
This sea hare species releases a cloud of irritating, slimy, reddish-purple ink from a gland in the mantle cavity. The color comes from a concentrated secretion of compounds derived from their red algae diet. Some researchers believe the ink is a screen or decoy to ward off predators while others believe it is merely used to release waste by-products of the animal’s diet.
California brown sea hares can adapt to a loss of 30% of their body weight due to drying out.
Sea hares have a short life. They usually die after laying eggs but their life can be extended in water that is 14-25o C (57-77o F). Cooler water delays spawning and extends longevity somewhat.
California brown sea hares are important laboratory animals, valuable in neurobiology. They have very large neurons, the largest in the animal kingdom, and very few of them, making it possible to identify individual nerve cells that are responsible for specific behaviors. They have been and are being used extensively in studying memory, behavior, and learning. To eliminate the variables created when wild-caught animals are used in research, a national federally funded laboratory has been developed that has shipped over 25,000 sea hares bred and raised in a contro |
The electron is a fundamental subatomic particle, which carries a negative electric charge. Electrons generate an electric field. In organized motion they constitute electric current and generate a magnetic field. Electric current over time is a form of energy (electricity) | The electron is a fundamental subatomic particle, which carries a negative electric charge. Electrons generate an electric field. In organized motion they constitute electric current and generate a magnetic field. Electric current over time is a form of energy (electricity) that may be harnessed as a practical means to perform work. Electrons are found within atoms and surround the nucleus of protons and neutrons in a particular electron configuration. It is the electonic configuration of atoms that determines an element’s physical and chemical properties. The exchange or sharing of electrons constitute chemical bonds, and they are thus important in demonstrating the relational nature of physical existence.
The word electron was coined in 1894 and is derived from the term “electric,” whose ultimate origin is the Greek word 'ηλεκτρον, meaning amber.
The electron is one of a class of subatomic particles called leptons which are believed to be fundamental particles. As an elementary particle it is not considered to have any substructure (at least, experiments have not found any so far) and there is good reason to believe that there is not any. Hence, it is usually described as point-like, i.e. with no spatial extension. However, if one gets very near an electron, one notices that its properties (charge and mass) seem to change. This is an effect common to all elementary particles: the particle influences the vacuum fluctuations in its vicinity, so that the properties one observes from far away are the sum of the bare properties and the vacuum effects (see renormalization).
Charged particles, monatomic ions and larger particles, arise from an imbalance in the total number of electrons and protons in the particle. When there is an excess of electrons, the object is said to be negatively charged. When there are fewer electrons than protons, the object is said to be positively charged. When the number of electrons and the number of protons are equal, the object is said to be electrically neutral. A macroscopic body can acquire charge through rubbing, i.e. the phenomena of triboelectricity.
Electrons have a negative electric charge of −1.6 × 10−19 coulombs (this is usually just stated as a charge of −1) and a mass of about 9.11 × 10−31 kilograms (0.51 MeV/c2), which is approximately 1⁄1836 of the mass of the proton. These are commonly represented as e−. The electron has spin ½, which implies it is a fermion, i.e., it follows the Fermi-Dirac statistics. While most electrons are found in atoms, others move independently in matter, or together as an electron beam in a vacuum. In some superconductors, electrons move in Cooper pairs, in which their motion is coupled to nearby matter via lattice vibrations called phonons. When electrons move, free of the nuclei of atoms, and there is a net flow of charge, this flow is called electricity, or an electric current. There is also a physical constant called the classical electron radius, with a value of 2.8179 × 10−15 meters. Note that this is the radius that one could infer from its charge if the physics were only described by the classical theory of electrodynamics and there were no quantum mechanics (hence, it is an outdated concept that nevertheless sometimes still proves useful in calculations).
Electrons in theory
As applied to electrons the word "particle" is somewhat misleading. This is because electrons can also behave like a wave; that is they exhibit wave-particle duality. The wave behavior of electrons can be demonstrated in the interference patterns produced in a double-slit experiment, and is employed in the electron microscope. The wave nature of electrons is essential to the quantum mechanics of the electromagnetic interaction, where electrons are represented by wavefunctions. From the square of the wavefunction the electron density can be determined. Also, the exact momentum and position of an electron cannot be simultaneously determined. This is a limitation described by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which, in this instance, simply states that the more accurately we know a particle's position, the less accurately we can know its momentum and vice versa.
In relativistic quantum mechanics, the electron is described by the Dirac Equation. Quantum electrodynamics (QED) models an electron as a charged particle surrounded a sea of interacting virtual particles, modifying the sea of virtual particles which makes up a vacuum. Treating the electron as a dimensionless point, however, gives calculations that produce infinite terms. In order to remove these infinities a practical (although mathematically dubious) method called renormalization was developed whereby infinite terms can be cancelled to produce finite predictions about the electron. The correction of just over 0.1 percent to the predicted value of the electron's gyromagnetic ratio from exactly 2 (as predicted by Dirac's single particle model), and it's extraordinarily precise agreement with the experimentally determined value is viewed as one of the pinnacles of modern physics. There are now indications that string theory and its descendants may provide a model of the electron and other fundamental particles where the infinities in calculations do not appear, because the electron is no longer seen as |
Boys and girls may be opposites, but new research shows that in the classroom, separating the two sexes may not be the best way for either gender to learn and grow.
A new report, published in the journal Science, states that students | Boys and girls may be opposites, but new research shows that in the classroom, separating the two sexes may not be the best way for either gender to learn and grow.
A new report, published in the journal Science, states that students who attend single-sex schools are no better educated than those who attend co-ed schools. Plus, children are more likely to accept gender stereotypes when they go to an all-boys or all-girls school.
"There's really no good evidence that single-sex schools are in any way academically superior, but there is evidence of a negative impact," said Lynn Liben, professor of psychology and education at Penn State and co-author of the study. "Kids' own occupational aspirations are going to be limited, and there could be long-term consequences where, for example, girls are used to being in roles only among other girls, then they have to face the real world where that's not the case."
Supporters of single-sex schools argue that boys' and girls' brains are wired differently, and therefore require different teaching styles to maximize education, but study authors note that neuroscientists have not found hard evidence that show differences in girls' and boys' different learning styles.
Read more » |
Jiang Bing, Director of the Development and Planning Department of the National Energy Administration (NEA), said on October 23 that on top of the provincial energy cap that will be released soon, the central government is also setting a renewable energy deductible | Jiang Bing, Director of the Development and Planning Department of the National Energy Administration (NEA), said on October 23 that on top of the provincial energy cap that will be released soon, the central government is also setting a renewable energy deductible plan. According to Jiang, this plan will allow local consumption of hydropower, wind, solar, and energy to be deducted from each government's overall energy consumption total.
We see this news as a positive step forward in putting China onto the path of diminishing its reliance on coal while opening new windows for renewable energy. But it's worth noting that the effectiveness of this deductible plan is largely depended on whether the provincial energy consumption ceiling is strictly controlled. Therefore, we're asking for an ambitious local energy consumption target. This target, if carefully designed, will initiate healthy competition between coal and renewable energy and eventually bring China with a cleaner energy structure.
Our energy campaigner Li Ang comments: "for the deductible plan to work, the key is to have enough pressure over the energy consumption target."
Previously a Greenpeace report, China Energy [r]evolution, found that an increase in energy efficiency |
] is a turning or growth movement by a plant
in response to gravity
. Charles Darwin
was one of the first Europeans to document that roots
show positive gravitropism
and stems show negative gravitropism
. That | ] is a turning or growth movement by a plant
in response to gravity
. Charles Darwin
was one of the first Europeans to document that roots
show positive gravitropism
and stems show negative gravitropism
. That is, roots
grow in the direction of gravitational pull (i.e., downward) and stems
grow in the opposite direction (i.e., upwards). This behaviour can be easily demonstrated with a potted plant. When laid onto its side, the growing parts of the stem
begin to display negative gravitropism, bending (biologists say, turning; see tropism
) upwards. Herbaceous (non-woody) stems are capable of a small degree of actual bending, but most of the redirected movement occurs as a consequence of root or stem growth in a new direction.
Gravitropism in the root
If the root cap
is removed, root growth ceases to respond to gravity. The root cap is vital for gravitropism since it contains cells with sensors called statoliths
, which are amyloplasts
packed with starch
. Amyloplasts are a type of plastid
similar to chloroplasts
. Statoliths are dense organelles
that settle to the lowest part of the root cap cells in response to a change in the gravity vector. This initiates differential cell expansion in the root elongation zone
causing a reorientation of the root growth (see below). The location of the elongation zone is many cells above the root cap, so intercellular signal transduction
must occur from the site of gravity perception, in the root cap, to the growth response in the elongation zone. As of 2002, the nature of this signal is an active area of research in plant biology
Roots bend in response to gravity due to a regulated movement of the plant hormone auxin known as polar auxin transport. In roots, an increase in the concentration of auxin will inhibit cell expansion, therefore, the redistribution of auxin in the root can initiate differential growth in the elongation zone resulting in root curvature.
A "tropism" is a plant movement triggered by stimuli. The term "geotropic" refers to a plant whose roots grow down into the soil as a response to gravity. Plants commonly exist in a state of "anisotropic growth," where roots grow downward and shoots grow upward. Anisotropic growth will continue even as a plant is turned sideways or upside down. In other words, no matter what you do to a plant within Earth's atmosphere, it will still grow roots down, stem up. The reason for this comes from the nature of a plant, and it's general response to gravity.
Gravitropism in the stem
A similar mechanism is known to occur in plant stems except that the shoot cells have a different dose response
curve with respect to auxin. In shoots, increasing the local concentration of auxin promotes cell expansion; this is the opposite of root cells.
The differential sensitivity to auxin helps explain Darwin's original observation that stems and roots respond in the opposite way to the gravity vector. In both roots and stems auxin accumulates towards the gravity vector on the lower side. In roots, this results in the inhibition of cell expansion on the lower side and the concomitant curvature of the roots towards gravity (positive gravitropism). In stems, the auxin also accumulates on the lower side, however in this tissue it increases cell expansion and results in the shoot curving up (statolithic gravitropism).
Hypothetical models of gravitropism
As the mechanism of gravitropism is still up for question, several hypothetical models have been asserted.
Sedimentation of the amyloplasts play the role of the statoliths.
Protoplast pressure hypothesis
The weight of the entire protoplast changes the gravity perception of the plant. Some sort of sensing mechanism detects the pulling and/or pushing forces of the protoplast on the cell walls and adjusts growth accordingly.
The word tensegrity is a contraction of tensional integrity
. This model postulates that the interaction of falling amyloplasts with the structural integrity of the cell is responsible for gravitropism. Actin filaments form a structural meshwork anchored to the plasma membrane. The amyloplasts create tension which leads to disruption of the actin meshwork. Because actin tension affects calcium channels on the plasma membrane, we expect a transient increase in cytosolic Ca2+
level. Presumably, the Ca2+
activates tryptophan transcription factors that synthesize auxin. Alternativley localized changes in calcuim could alter membrane dynamics, alter auxin transport activity, or act in other pathways as a second messenger in gravity signaling. The involvement of actin in such a model must be considered carefully in light of experiments showing that treatment of Arabidopsis thaliana
with Latrunculin B (an actin de-polymerizing drug) at levels sufficient to disrupt fine actin structures in the root cap actually increases gravity sensitivity as well as increasing the magnitude of several downstre |
In 1951 George Gey (pronounced Guy) was successful in growing the first "human" cells in his laboratory at John Hopkins University Hospital. The cells belonged to a black woman named Henrietta Lacks who was being treated for cervical | In 1951 George Gey (pronounced Guy) was successful in growing the first "human" cells in his laboratory at John Hopkins University Hospital. The cells belonged to a black woman named Henrietta Lacks who was being treated for cervical cancer. Because of their ability to grow so quickly and so well, these cancer cells became the most famous and most used cells for research in the world. Gey named the cell line HeLa (Hee-Lah) for the first and last name of the donor.
"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot chronicles both the history of the HeLa cells and Henrietta's family. The author's research on the uses of the HeLa cell line to cure various diseases is as fascinating as the story of the Lacks family. Her writing style makes science interesting and understandable to the layman. Skloot also raises ethical questions about the use of human subjects and human tissue in research.
Henrietta Pleasant Lacks was born in August 1920 and died in October 1951. Before she died, she had five children with husband David Lacks. Her family did not know that Henrietta's cells were being used in research until June, 1973 -more than 20 years after her death. Scientists needed blood samples from the Lacks family to figure out Henrietta's DNA. The family members were not told why the blood samples were being taken or what samples were going to be used for. The treatment of the Lacks family by the scientific community and the family's expectations for financial rewards for the use of Henrietta's cells are an important part of Skloot's book.
HeLa cells have been workhorses in the cell industry. In 1952 HeLa cells were grown by the millions at Tuskegee Institute for polio testing. Over the years, HeLa cells have been exposed to herpes, measles, mumps, chicken pox, encephalitis and HIV viruses. They have been used to test cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Scientists use HeLa cells to examine the effects of steroids, chemotherapy drugs, hormones, vitamins and environmental stress. They were used in the Human Genome Project to advance DNA research.
In 1984, German virologist Harald zur Hausen detected how Henri |
Adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT) deficiency is an underrecognized, autosomal recessive disorder of adenine metabolism, leading to 2,8-dihydroxyadeninuria that causes radiolucent neph | Adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT) deficiency is an underrecognized, autosomal recessive disorder of adenine metabolism, leading to 2,8-dihydroxyadeninuria that causes radiolucent nephrolithiasis and kidney failure in a significant proportion of untreated patients. A minority of patients may, however, be asymptomatic. APRT deficiency occurs in both men and women and affects both children and adults. Most reported cases come from Japan, France and Iceland but an increasing number of patients are being identified in other countries, including the United States.
Estimated prevalence is 0.5 to 1 per 100,000 in the Caucasian population, 0.25 to 0.5 per 100,000 in the Japanese population and in Iceland the estimated point prevalence is 8.9/100,000. Likely explanation for the low prevalence in other countries include lack of awareness of the disorder, inadequate evaluation of patients with kidney stones, and erroneous diagnosis of 2,8-dihydroxyadenine (2,8-DHA) stones as uric acid or xanthine stones as they are all radiolucent.
The diagnosis of APRT deficiency is simple as the typical 2,8-DHA urinary crystals are readily detected by urine microscopy. All patients with radiolucent kidney stones and patients with presumed uric acid stones, who do not respond to alkali therapy but improve with allopurinol treatment, should be screened for APRT deficiency. The diagnosis can also be made with APRT mutation analysis of or measurement of APRT enzyme activity in red cell lysates. Analysis of 2,8-DHA crystals and stone material with infrared and ultraviolet spectrophotometry and/or x-ray crystallography easily differentiates 2,8-DHA from uric acid.
Allopurinol, when administered in the dose of 5-10 mg/kg/day (maximum suggested daily dose 600-800 mg) effectively prevents 2,8-DHA crystalluria and new stone formation and significantly improves kidney function in most patients with reduced renal function. In patients who do not tolerate allopurinol therapy febuxostat (Uloric®) treatment should be considered. Treatment should be monitored with urine microscopy at follow-up visits. The prognosis of adequately treated patients is excellent.
Lack of recognition of the disorder by clinicians is likely to remain a problem leading to unnecessary morbidity and mortality in affected patients. Increased awareness of APRT deficiency among physicians is needed to improve outcome in this group of patients. |
- Enter a word for the dictionary definition.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Quadrennial \Quad*ren"ni*al\, a. [L. quadriennium a space of | - Enter a word for the dictionary definition.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Quadrennial \Quad*ren"ni*al\, a. [L. quadriennium a space of four years; quattuor four + annus year; cf. L. quadriennis. See Quadrate, and Annual.] 1. Comprising four years; as, a quadrennial period. [1913 Webster] 2. Occurring once in four years, or at the end of every four years; as, quadrennial games. [1913 Webster] |
Dsungaripterus weii (Young 1964) ~4 m wingspan, Early Cretaceous was derived from a sister to Noripterus. Together these dsungaripterids represent the last of their lineage.
Distinct from | Dsungaripterus weii (Young 1964) ~4 m wingspan, Early Cretaceous was derived from a sister to Noripterus. Together these dsungaripterids represent the last of their lineage.
Distinct from Noripterus, the skull of Dsungaripterus was more robust with upturned jaw tips. Bone grew over the rear teeth during maturation. The suborbital region was further ossified. The mandible was more robust.
The sternal complex was rectangular. Posteriorly two sternal ribs (or gastralia) were massive. The gastralia were few and robust. The wing was more gracile.
The femur was more robust. The fibula was fused to the tibia.
The family tree of the Ornithocephalia and Germanodactylia is here. The expanded family tree of the Pterosauria is here.
Above: In phylogenetic order the descendants of a sister toGermanodactylus cristatus in the clade Dsungaripteridae, Lonchognathus, "Phobetor," Noripterus and Dsungaripterus.
Young CC 1964. On a new pterosaurian from Sinkiang, China. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 8: 221-256. |
King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria. When he saw the altar that was in Damascus, King Ahaz sent a model of the altar and complete plans for its construction to Uriah the priest | King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria. When he saw the altar that was in Damascus, King Ahaz sent a model of the altar and complete plans for its construction to Uriah the priest.a11
Uriah built the altar according to all [the instructions] King Ahaz sent from Damascus. Therefore, by the time King Ahaz came back from Damascus, Uriah the priest had made it.
When the king came back from Damascus, he saw the altar. Then he approached the altar and ascended it.
He offered his burnt offering and his grain offering, poured out his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his fellowship offerings on the altar.
He took the bronze altar that was before the Lord in front of the temple between [his] altar and the Lord's temple, and put it on the north side of [his] altar.
Then King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, "Offer on the great altar the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, and the king's burnt offering and his grain offering. [Also offer] the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their grain offering, and their drink offerings. Sprinkle on the altar all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of sacrifice. The bronze altar will be for me to seek guidance."b16
Uriah the priest did everything King Ahaz commanded.
Then King Ahaz cut off the frames of the water cartsc and removed the bronze basin from [each of] them. He took the reservoirdefrom the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone pavement.
To satisfy the king of Assyria, he removed from the Lord's temple the Sabbath canopy they had built in the palace, and [he closed] the outer entrance for the king. |
Conquest, Control, and Interconnections: The History of the Roman Empire
One Section Available to Choose From:
|Course Dates||Weeks||Meeting Times||Status||Instructor(s)||CRN|
|July 21, 201 | Conquest, Control, and Interconnections: The History of the Roman Empire
One Section Available to Choose From:
|Course Dates||Weeks||Meeting Times||Status||Instructor(s)||CRN|
|July 21, 2014 - July 25, 2014||1||M-F 12:45-3:35P||Open||Bryan Brinkman||10542|
Spanning from Britain to Iraq, the Roman Empire connected vast areas and different cultures in a time before the internet, telephones, or mass media. How did the Romans gain such an Empire, how did they govern it, and ultimately why did it fall? This course examines the history of the Roman Empire and considers the unique social, cultural, and political concerns of an imperial world.
There will be an overlapping set of questions that will be the focus of the course: 1) What is the nature of Empire? This is a broader theme that will form the methodological and theoretical basis of the historical questions being asked. In this sense, the course contributes greatly to the students’ understanding of how historians approach complex questions. For this reason, the course is a benefit for students interested in any historical field or period. 2) How did the Romans acquire, govern, and lose their Empire? These are the specific questions that will be examined throughout the course. Here, there will be a focus on the ‘techniques of the Ancient Historian’. Students will look at primary sources from antiquity (including, texts, archaeology, coins, and inscriptions) and learn about the particular challenges facing Ancient Historians "how can we use small bits of lots of different types of evidence to fill in a more complete historical picture. These learning goals will be achieved through lecture, discussion, and “practical skills” units that are mini workshops on different techniques of Ancient history (e.g. “what info can an ancient inscription tell us”?).
The two goals most important for the course are reading critically and gaining a realistic knowledge of how historians, and other scholars, actually use data to form larger arguments about the past. The first of these will be achieved through daily assigned reading of both modern and ancient texts as well as the active discussion of those texts. The students will, throughout the course, take turns at presenting the readings (probably in small groups) and will be required to come up with discussion questions for the rest of the class. The se |
The Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism
Shakra[帝釈] (Skt; Jpn Taishaku)
Also known as Shakra Devanam Indra, or simply Indra. The lord or king of gods | The Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism
Shakra[帝釈] (Skt; Jpn Taishaku)
Also known as Shakra Devanam Indra, or simply Indra. The lord or king of gods in early Vedic and Hindu belief, and one of the two principal protective gods of Buddhism, the other being Brahma. The Sanskrit word shakra means powerful. Indra was originally the god of thunder in Vedic mythology, and Shakra was one of his many titles. Buddhist texts adopted Shakra as his primary name, though the name Indra also appears. He is also one of the twelve gods of Esoteric Buddhism said to protect the world. Residing in a palace called Joyful to See in the Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods on the summit of Mount Sumeru and served by the four heavenly kings, he is said to govern the other thirty-two gods of that heaven. Shakra is depicted in many sutras as testing Buddhist practitioners' resolve. This he often |
Since there is no cure for the common cold, treatment has two goals: to make you feel better and to help you fight off the virus.
Lots of rest is the key treating a cold. You may find you need 12 hours of sleep | Since there is no cure for the common cold, treatment has two goals: to make you feel better and to help you fight off the virus.
Lots of rest is the key treating a cold. You may find you need 12 hours of sleep each night, so don't set that alarm. You'll be most comfortable in a warm, humid environment. It's also important to stay hydrated by drinking lots of water and avoiding alcohol and caffeine. This makes mucus flow more freely and helps with congestion.
No specific treatment exists for the virus that is causing your cold, but in treating the symptoms you can find relief. For aches and pains accompanied by a fever of 100.5 degrees or higher, give Tylenol rather than aspirin to avoid the risk of Reye syndrome, a sometimes fatal condition that occurs in children with viral illnesses, especially if they have taken aspirin. If your throat is sore, gargle as often as you like |
A lot of good science is driven by the availability of technology. The laser and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRI) have had an incredible impact on science, medicine, and Western society in general. One key stage in many of these technological developments | A lot of good science is driven by the availability of technology. The laser and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRI) have had an incredible impact on science, medicine, and Western society in general. One key stage in many of these technological developments has been a transition from something like a national facility (through an institute-level facility) to an in-house instrument that individual research groups have and use on a routine basis.
Accelerator facilities, which provide beams of high energy electrons and/or X-ray photons, are still at the national facility stage. A new accelerator technology, however, is promising to change all that. In the not-so-distant future, every science department may have ready access to high-energy electrons and X-ray lasers right in their basement.
Currently, accelerators that can provide beams of electrons in the Giga-electronVolt (GeV) range are massive devices. For instance, the electrons that power the X-ray laser at Stanford are accelerated to around 17GeV over a distance of 1 km. Not only is this simply not feasible to build at every university, but many Western countries can't even afford one of these, so the few that exist end up serving scientists from around the world.
You'll notice that the example I used is an X-ray laser source. The only way to generate intense laser pulses in the X-ray region is by deliberately accelerating electrons in such a way that they generate coherent light. These devices, called free electron lasers, have been around for many years. But they are big devices that require their own staff to operate and maintain.
To get to do an experiment at a free electron laser facility, you have to put in a proposal. Both you and the scientific staff at the facility have to agree that the experiment will generate something useful and interesting. That makes applicants think very hard about what sort of experiments they want to do. Unfortunately, this means they tend to choose relatively safe experiments. There are no Friday night, do-it-to-see-what-happens experiments at free electron laser facilities.
This would change if it were possible to generate beams of high-energy electrons in the confines of your own basement. This is not an easy task, and the usual approach is to gently accelerate electrons up to the required energy over rather long distances. An alternative, however, is laser wakefield acceleration, which achieves very high energy in a very short distance.
Ride that electron
Laser wakefield acceleration is one of the coolest things in physics. And the best way to see it is to take a ride on one of the electrons. So there you are, meandering around your home atomic nucleus with your friends. The community is a bit spread out because you are part of a dilute gas in a vacuum chamber. But all is calm and happy.
In the distance, you observe a big, angry-looking light pulse that is rapidly approaching. Having experienced the disruption of a passing light field before, you brace yourself for a bit of a bouncy ride. However, this ride exceeds even your worst expectations. The light field grabs you and all your friends and shakes you so violently that you are thrown out of your comfy atomic home and into the vacuum. Then, without so much as an "oops, sorry," the light pulse moves on.
All those lovely bare nuclei just seem so attractive now—they should, being positively charged and you negatively charged—and there are so many of them, so close, just waiting to be neutralized. This sets up the equivalent of a massive downhill slope, with you and your electron-friends perched precariously at the top in a soapbox derby car that has no brakes. You accelerate down the potential hill toward the waiting nuclei.
But by the time you get there, the light pulse has created even more attractive-looking nuclei in the distance—you know the sort, with a jacuzzi and a bit of backyard to call your own. The hill steepens and seems without end, and there is no other direction but down. You race on down the potential hill, still accelerating.
You keep chasing the light pulse, driven by the cloud of electrons racing behind you and all those positive charges right in front of you. All of a sudden, the light pulse accelerates away and vanishes. Shortly afterward, you blow through the last of the charged nuclei and find yourself drifting in the vacuum at a speed that is very close to the speed of light, and a kinetic energy of around a GeV.
All of this happens over a distance of a just a centimeter or so, and over a few picoseconds. It is truly the electron's equivalent of being struck by a tornado and finding out that the promised basement is actually a third-floor balcony.
We need MOAR power
The latest development is a good new |
The Placebo Effect: Studies Reveal How Fake Medicine Actually Reduces Pain
Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email.
A team of researchers smears a cream said to contain a powerful anesthetic on the skin of your forearm. | The Placebo Effect: Studies Reveal How Fake Medicine Actually Reduces Pain
Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email.
A team of researchers smears a cream said to contain a powerful anesthetic on the skin of your forearm. Then, in their mad-scientist way, they apply an electric heating pad that can be dialed up to painfully hot levels.
Imagine being pleasantly surprised to find that the cream works — the heat seems quite bearable. The researchers even run a brain scan to document just how well this cream works.
But picture your dismay at learning that the cream was actually inert and contained no anesthetic. Nada.
Guileless lab rat that you are, you have been punked. By a placebo.
Scenes like this are playing out in U.S. and European laboratories as neuroscientists try to figure out how our brains can be tricked by sham treatments into producing potent pain-blocking effects that rival (and may sometimes enhance) the effects of real drugs.
The details of the emerging picture are still being sketched in, but it seems that our expectations — whether shaped through conditioning or a simple verbal instruction — can trigger our native pain-control networks, some of which extend from higher cognitive regions deep into the brain stem and spinal cord.
In recent papers published in Science and Neuron, a team of scientists led by Falk Eippert and Ulrike Bingel at University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany explored how placebos activate the brain's "descending pain control system," which involves structures in the brain stem. It's a complex process that relies on opioids — naturally produced substances that chemically resemble opium and block the transmission of pain signals.
The scientists induced the placebo effect in their 48 test subjects by falsely telling them they were applying a cream containing lidocaine, a topical anesthetic. But some subjects also received naloxone, a drug that blocks the effects of opioids (the rest got an inert injection of saline solution).
Next, the scientists studied their subjects' brains with a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner and asked them to subjectively rate the pain intensity.
The subjects who received naloxone (which blocked opioid activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and midbrain structures like the rostral anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, hypothalamus, the periaqueductal gray and the rostral ventromedial medulla) saw markedly lower pain relief than those who had received saline, the team reported.
"Until now it was believed that placebo was just a psychological phenomenon that has no neurobiological basis, but that's really not the case," Eippert said. He noted that naloxone did not completely erase the pain-relief effect, suggesting that placebo treatment may also engage other less-studied brain networks.
The placebo effect is probably at work even when proven opiates are administered for pain relief, Eippert said. Experiments have shown that patients experience some pain relief when they are given opiates without their knowledge, which is no surprise. "However, when you give this drug and tell the patient, the pain relief is going to be much, much stronger," he said. "The interesting thing is if you give naloxone at the same time, then this additional effect of telling the patient is completely canceled. There's a placebo component in treatment as well."
Tor Wager, an associate professor of psychology at Columbia University, has shown that placebos are associated with increased activity in the brain's frontal cortex, which sends projections deep into the brain stem, where physiological responses to emotional events are regulated.
Wager hailed Eippert's study for conclusively showing the role of opioids in placebo pain control and for showing how much of the effect happens in the spinal cord.
"These are new insights," Wager said. "It's surprising that you could get a signal in a spinal cord... much less influence it with a placebo treatment." |
Most of the drone-related news these days may focus on military or police use, but those are far from the only applications for the unmanned aerial vehicles. Case in point: the World Wildlife Fund, which has now received a $5 million grant from | Most of the drone-related news these days may focus on military or police use, but those are far from the only applications for the unmanned aerial vehicles. Case in point: the World Wildlife Fund, which has now received a $5 million grant from Google's Global Impact Awards program to fund UAVs designed to monitor endangered species. Details on the drones themselves remain light, but the WWF says they'll be used to detect poachers and tagged animals on the ground, and then relay that information to a command center and mobile law enforcement units. What's more, while that initial funding will only provide something of a testbed, the WWF says it's focusing on "easily-replicable technologies," with its ultimate goal being to create an "efficient, effective network that can be adopted globally."
[Image credit: WWF] |
Pollination – The Bees Second Shift
In addition to gathering nectar to produce honey, honey bees perform another vital function; pollination of agricultural crops, home gardens, orchards and wildlife habitat. As bees travel from blossom to blossom in | Pollination – The Bees Second Shift
In addition to gathering nectar to produce honey, honey bees perform another vital function; pollination of agricultural crops, home gardens, orchards and wildlife habitat. As bees travel from blossom to blossom in search of nectar, they transfer pollen from plant to plant, thus fertilizing the plants and enabling them to bear fruit.
Almonds, apples, avocados, blueberries, cantaloupes, cherries, cranberries, cucumbers, sunflowers, watermelon and many other crops all rely on honey bees for pollination. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that about one-third of the human diet is derived from insect-pollinated plants and that the honey bee is responsible for 80 percent of this pollination.
A 2000 Cornell University study concluded that the direct value of honey bee pollination to U.S. agriculture is more than $14.6 billion.
Alternative Pollinators: Native Bees
Horticulture Technical Note
By Lane Greer
NCAT Agriculture Specialist
This publication discusses using solitary or native bees as pollinators. Some of the larger groups of bees are discussed, including alkali bees, leafcutter bees, alfalfa leafcutter bees, bumblebees, sweat bees, squash bees, digger bees, orchard mason bees, shaggy fuzzyfoot bees, and hornfaced bees. Information is also presented on how to attract and conserve populations of wild bees for pollination purposes. There is also a list of suppliers of native bees and bee equipment.
There are more than 3500 species of solitary bees in North America. Also called pollen bees or native bees, these efficient pollinators often do the lion's share of pollinating crops. Pollen bees have a number of advantages over honeybees as pollinators (1). Many are active early in the spring, before honeybee colonies reach large size (1). Pollen bees tend to stay in a crop rather than fly between crops, providing more efficient pollination (1). Because they fly rapidly, pollen bees can pollinate more plants (1). Unlike honeybees, the males also pollinate the crop (1). Pollen bees are usually gentle, with a mild sting, and do not get disoriented in greenhouses (1).
The drastic decline in feral and domestic honeybees in the last few years, because of decimation by Varroa mites, has made it even more important to conserve and study wild bee populations. Dr. Hachiro Shimanuki, head of the USDA's Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, has charted a 25 percent decline in managed honeybees in the last decade (2). Although the number of pollen bees has also declined, due to pesticide use and habitat destruction, pollen bees are unaffected by mites and Africanized bees, and many can be managed and used in commercial agriculture.
Often, growers don't realize the amount of pollination that is performed by native bees, and signs of inadequate pollination are often misinterpreted as weather problems or disease. Dr. Suzanne Batra of the USDA's Bee Research Lab in Beltsville, Maryland conducted a three-year study to discover the natural mix of bees in a West Virginia forest (3). She found that, of the 1700 bees trapped in the first year of the study, only 34 were honeybees. This means that pollen bees were performing almost all pollination.
Although pollen bees make small amounts of honey, it is not collectable, so the sole purpose of managing them is for pollination. According to Dr. Peter Kevan, "The economic value of pollination, seed set, and fruit formation greatly outweighs that suggested by more conventional indices, such as the value of honey and wax produced by honeybees" (4). In order for an insect to be used as a pollinator, however, it should be easily handled and readily available in large numbers (5).
Encouraging Native Bees
One of the first steps for a grower to take is to observe what kinds of native bees exist in the area. Most solitary bees are highly seasonal, timing their emergence with peak flowering in their area (6), and are more diverse and abundant in undisturbed natural habitats. Bumble, digger, and sweat bees make up the bulk of pollen bees in most parts of the country.
Dr. Batra notes that Europeans have made significant advances in the field of bee study. There, native bees have been evaluated and encouraged in much the same way that hummingbirds and butterflies are accommodated in U.S. gardens (7). In order to encourage pollen bees, we must:
* understand their biologies,
* provide nesting habitats,
* stop using harmful pesticides,
* and furnish suitable crops and wild forage.
Understand Bee Biology's
Although bees are recognized as some of the most important pollinators in almost all ecosystems where flowers occur, their precise roles in pollination are not well documented (4). At this point, only a few species have been studied. Most wild bees, unlike honeybees, are solitary and don't form large colonies. Bumblebees form small colonies of one to five hundred workers, but most bees are independent, with the females producing and laying eggs in single cells. Many pollen bees hibernate for most of the year—up to 11 mo |
- 2 Post By Raymott
what is the difference between surf and browse?
In the context of surfing/browsing the web? Not much.
Originally Posted by sash2008
In other contexts, you can't browse a wave | - 2 Post By Raymott
what is the difference between surf and browse?
In the context of surfing/browsing the web? Not much.
Originally Posted by sash2008
In other contexts, you can't browse a wave or surf through a bookshop.
By janmarchi in forum Editing & Writing Topics
Last Post: 14-Oct-2008, 09:20
By Unregistered in forum Ask a Teacher
Last Post: 06-Oct-2008, 20:49
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO |
Hepatitis B is a contagious liver disease that results from infection with the hepatitis B virus. When first infected, a person can develop an “acute” infection, which can range in severity from a very mild illness with few or no symptoms to | Hepatitis B is a contagious liver disease that results from infection with the hepatitis B virus. When first infected, a person can develop an “acute” infection, which can range in severity from a very mild illness with few or no symptoms to a serious condition requiring hospitalization. Acute hepatitis B refers to the first 6 months after someone is exposed to the hepatitis B virus. Some people are able to fight the infection and clear the virus. For others, the infection remains and leads to a “chronic,” or lifelong, illness. Chronic hepatitis B refers to the illness that occurs when the hepatitis B virus remains in a person’s body. Over time, the infection can cause serious health problems.
Yes. Hepatitis B is very common worldwide. In the United States, approximately 1.2 million people have chronic hepatitis B. Most people with hepatitis B were infected with the virus at birth or during early childhood and developed a lifelong chronic infection. Many of those infected are unaware that they have hepatitis B, especially since they may not have symptoms. As a result, they can unknowingly spread the disease to others, including people they live with, sexual partners, and—for women—their newborns.
Hepatitis B is usually spread when blood, semen, or other body fluids from a person infected with the hepatitis B virus enter the body of someone who is not infected. This can happen through sexual contact with an infected person or sharing needles, syringes, or other injection drug equipment. Hepatitis B can also be passed from an infected mother to her baby at birth.
Hepatitis B is not spread through breastfeeding, sharing eating utensils, hugging, kissing, holding hands, coughing, or sneezing. Unlike some forms of hepatitis, Hepatitis B is also not spread by contaminated food or water.
Many people with chronic Hepatitis B do not have symptoms and do not know they are infected. Even though a person has no symptoms, the virus can still be detected in the blood. Symptoms of chronic hepatitis B can take up to 30 years to develop. Damage to the liver can silently occur during this time. When symptoms do appear, they can be a sign of advanced liver disease.
Over time, approximately 15–25% of people with chronic hepatitis B develop serious liver problems, including liver damage, cirrhosis, liver failure, and liver cancer. Every year, approximately 3,000 people in the United States and more than 600,000 people worldwide die from hepatitis B-related liver disease. In fact, 80% of liver cancer worldwide is caused by hepatitis B infection.
Hepatitis B is diagnosed with specific blood tests that are not part of blood work typically done during regular physical exams. Those living with chronic hepatitis B should be evaluated for liver problems and monitored on a regular basis. Even though a person may not have symptoms or feel sick, damage to the liver can still occur. Several new treatments are available that can significantly improve health and delay or reverse the effects of liver disease.
Yes. The best way to prevent hepatitis B is by getting vaccinated. For adults, the hepatitis B vaccine is given as a series of three shots over a period of 6 months. The entire series is needed for long-term protection. Booster doses are not currently recommended. To prevent mother-to-child transmission, infants born to infected mothers must receive a birth-dose of hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth, followed by three additional doses. |
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. The process of flowing out.
- n. That which has flowed out.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. The | from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. The process of flowing out.
- n. That which has flowed out.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. The act of flowing out; effusion.
- n. That which flows out; effluvium; emanation.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of flowing out.
- n. That which flows out; an emanation.
From efflux + -ion, from Latin effluxus, from effluō ("flow out or away"), from ex ("out of, from") + fluō ("flow"). (Wiktionary) |
Found 0 - 10 results of 26 programs matching keyword "antarctic muon and neutrino detector array"
At the South Pole, the Ice Stories crew met up with correspondent Zoe Courville just before she and her team embarked on their | Found 0 - 10 results of 26 programs matching keyword "antarctic muon and neutrino detector array"
At the South Pole, the Ice Stories crew met up with correspondent Zoe Courville just before she and her team embarked on their 3,000 km traverse across the desolate and frigid East Antarctic Ice Sheet. In this video, Zoe gives us a tour of the vehicles they |
BAMAKO, Soumaila T. Diarra (IPS) - In the southern Senegal village of Kael Bessel, female genital mutilation is no longer a taboo subject. Sexagenarian Fatoumata Sabaly speaks | BAMAKO, Soumaila T. Diarra (IPS) - In the southern Senegal village of Kael Bessel, female genital mutilation is no longer a taboo subject. Sexagenarian Fatoumata Sabaly speaks freely about female circumcision and girls’ rights with her friends.
“We’ve found it necessary to abandon cutting – abandoning the practice has advantages for women,” she told IPS. “Female circumcision has consequences such as haemorrhaging and it can even lead to death.”
In Senegal, like other West African countries, grandmothers like Sabaly are generally the ones who decide girls should be circumcised. A 2008 survey in Vélingara, also in the south of Senegal, found nearly 60 percent of older women supported female genital mutilation. But a 2011 survey carried out by the Grandmother Project found fully 93 percent of the same group are now against FGM.
The Grandmother Project, an international non-governmental organisation which promotes community dialogue about cultural issues, has helped organise regular meetings in thirty-odd villages around Vélingara, to enable people to discuss questions relating to local traditions and values, particularly “koyan” – the rite of passage associated with FGM.
Religious leaders, traditional chiefs, local officials, youth and elders all take part. The public debates allow people to talk openly about the pros and cons of their cultural practices.
“Since excision has more disadvantages than advantages, people are slowly abandoning the practice,” said Falilou Cissé, a community development advisor at the Grandmother Project in Vélingara.
“People have stopped the practice themselves. We have never asked people to stop it,” she stressed.
The meetings emphasise the educational role of grandmothers in African societies, but beyond that they help break the silence around taboo subjects like FGM.
“I was for excision, personally, like many people, but the public discussions have helped me to change my position, to accept that in our culture, there are some values to preserve and others to abandon,” Abdoulaye Baldé, the imam of a mosque in Vélingara, told IPS.
Today, thanks to Baldé’s participation in the meetings, people around Vélingara know that FGM is not a religious obligation for Muslims. The involvement of opinion leaders has had a huge impact on changing the outlook on excision among grandmothers.
Fatoumata Baldé, a nurse-midwife in Kandia, a village near Vélingara, told IPS that she couldn’t remember coming across a case of excision in the area since 2010.
“Previously, we were used to handling lots of cases of cutting gone bad at the clinic, because it’s done without medical assistance,” explained the nurse, also a regular participant in the debates.
Boubacar Bocoum, a Malian consultant who has studied FGM in several countries, sees in the Vélingara experience grounds for hope that the practice could be definitively abandoned across West Africa.
“The projects fighting against this practice generally target excisors, while it’s really a community problem,” he said. “If only one part of the community abandons it, the practice persists because the rest of the people are not engaged.”
According to a st |
SPDIF stands for “Sony/Philips Digital Interconnect Format”. It is a digital audio format, it is also called S/PDIF, S/P-DIF, and IEC 958 type II.
What is SPDIF used | SPDIF stands for “Sony/Philips Digital Interconnect Format”. It is a digital audio format, it is also called S/PDIF, S/P-DIF, and IEC 958 type II.
What is SPDIF used for? It is used on systems which receive or transmit stereo Digital Audio such as PC audio cards, CD players, DVD players, car audio systems, and others.
For S/PDIF, the left and right channel data (two 192 bit blocks) are divided into 12 words of 16 bits each. The first 6 bits of the first word are a control code.
The Audio Data Rate of SPDIF
There is no specific data rate or resolution for the SPDIF protocol. The data rate “hand shake” is determined in the actual equipment containing the SPDIF connectors from the mutual SPDIF signal accepted by both pieces of audio hardware.
It is flexible since it uses the Bi-phase mark code (which has either 1 or 2 transitions for each bit). The initial word clock can then be directly extracted from the base signal itself.
The most common SPDIF data rates are the 44.1khz data rate for stereo CD audio and 48khz data rate for DAT -Digital Audio Tape-.
Typical SPDIF transmissions are limited to 16-bit audio due to the limitations of CD audio, but the SPDIF protocol can support up to 20-bit audio.
It may even be adapted to support 24 bit audio in the aftermarket. but this kind of audio is not directly supported by SPDIF.
The unnecessary bits will automatically be “shaved” to zero (off) in order to transmit S/PDIF signals that have less than 20 bits of bit rate sample accuracy.
The Format´s Data Transmission.
SPDIF data transmission is a stream of 32-bit data words. Each data frame consists of 384 words in total (A stereo channel: 192 data words, B stereo channel: 192 data words).
The SPDIF Specification is documented in the German patent EP000000811295B1 and it is defined by IEC standard 60958-3.
The Format is part of a larger collection of IEC-60958 standards (also known as the AES/EBU standard, and designated IEC-958 type II).
It is merely just another adaptation of the original AES/EBU standard that requires cheaper hardware, but at the protocol level the S/PDIF Audio Data Format remains identical to AES/EBU.
The physical connectors were switched from commercial and professional audio equipment (XLR) to either RCA jacks with electrical coaxial cable or TOSLINK optical fiber (sometimes known as “EIAJ Optical”).
It aims to be a more cost-efficient and simpler to use version for consumer applications.
The cabel itself was changed as well: the S/PDIF cable went from a 110? balanced twisted pair to the more economical and common 75? coaxial cable which is good to up to 10 meters with RCA connectors.
This way, plus the use of cheaper RCA jacks and plugs opened the door for consumers to enjoy audio quality previously previously unheard of except in the most expensive niches.
The real difference between the AES/EBU and S/PDIF protocol is the Channel Status Bit.
There is one channel status bit in each sub-frame,this translates to 192/8 = 24 bytes available (per audio block).
If the Channel Status Bit is not changed then it looks like this:
1- Normal/compressed data
2- Copy prohibit/copy permit
3- 2 channels/4 channels
5- No pre-emphasis/pre-emphasis
Applications for the S/PDIF Interface.
Since one of the primary purposes of the S/PDIF interface is to transfer compressed digital audio as defined by the IEC 61937 standard, and the other purpose is to carry the signal between the output of a computer or DVD player to a DTS surround or Dolby Digital home theater system, the S/PDIF interface is widely used to inter-connect commercial and professional audio equipment.
Most CD and DVD-ROM drives contain a S/PDIF interface, and today´s high-end sound cards like the Sound Blaster Live also have an external SPDIF output.
When compared to the older analog transmissions,The SPDIF Digital transference has the advantage of noise immunity.
Older Digital/Analog CD-ROM drives generated all kind |
Jornal de Pediatria
Print version ISSN 0021-7557
CAETANO, Michelle C. et al. Inadequate dietary intake of children and adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis and systemic lupus erythem | Jornal de Pediatria
Print version ISSN 0021-7557
CAETANO, Michelle C. et al. Inadequate dietary intake of children and adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus. J. Pediatr. (Rio J.) [online]. 2009, vol.85, n.6, pp. 509-515. ISSN 0021-7557. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0021-75572009000600007.
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the dietary intake of children and adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE) using a 24-hour diet recall and relating it to the patients clinical and anthropometric characteristics and to the drugs used in their treatment. METHODS: By means of a cross-sectional study, we assessed the 24-hour diet recalls of outpatients. Their nutritional status was classified according to the CDC (2000). The computer program NutWin UNIFESP-EPM was used for food intake calculation. The Recommended Dietary Allowances and the Brazilian food pyramid were used for quantitative and qualitative analysis. RESULTS: Median age was 12 years for JIA patients and 16.5 years for JSLE patients. Among the JIA patients, 37.5% had active disease, and among the JSLE patients, 68.2% showed Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) > 4. Malnutrition was found in 8.3 and 4.5% of the JIA and JSLE patients, respectively, and obesity was present in 16.7 and 18.2%. For JIA patients, the excessive intake of energy, protein, and lipids was 12.5, 75, and 31.3%, respectively. For JSLE patients, the excessive intake of energy, protein, and lipids was 13.6, 86.4, and 36.4%, respectively. Low intake of iron, zinc, and vitamin A was found in 29.2 and 50, 87.5 and 86.4, and 87.5 and 95.2% of the JIA and JSLE patients, respectively. There was not a significant association between intake, disease activity, and nutritional status. CONCLUSION: Patients with rheumatic diseases have inadequate dietary intake. There is excessive intake of lipids and proteins and low intake of mi |
The Secret CodeMath brain teasers require computations to solve.
A man wanted to get into his work building, but he had forgotten his code. However, he did remember five clues. These are what those clues were:
The fifth number plus the | The Secret CodeMath brain teasers require computations to solve.
A man wanted to get into his work building, but he had forgotten his code. However, he did remember five clues. These are what those clues were:
The fifth number plus the third number equals fourteen.
The fourth number is one more than the second number.
The first number is one less than twice the second number.
The second number plus the third number equals ten.
The sum of all five numbers is 30.
What were the five numbers and in what order?
Answer7, 4, 6, 5, 8
See another brain teaser just like this one...
Or, just get a random brain teaser
If you become a registered user you can vote on this brain teaser, keep track of
which ones you ha |
China has emerged as the world's largest market for smuggled endangered animal species. Just as some of our own environmental transgressions are born of the Western notion of man's hegemony over the natural world, China's destruction of its natural heritage | China has emerged as the world's largest market for smuggled endangered animal species. Just as some of our own environmental transgressions are born of the Western notion of man's hegemony over the natural world, China's destruction of its natural heritage is rooted in social and cultural mores that include the role of animal parts in traditional Chinese medicine. The freedom to spend currency abroad and the rise of the Chinese middle class have, despite government avowals to the contrary, increased trade on protected and threatened species worldwide. Tigers, rhinos, and bears are some of the most publicized and emblematic victims of smuggling and butchery, but there is another, nearly silent extinction epidemic underway in Asia -- the decimation of Asian turtles.
Included among these is the Giant Asian Forest Tortoise, Manouria emys, which occurs as far south as the Indonesian Island of Sumatra, and as far north as the Chinese border with Burma. Reaching as much as 100 lbs., but more typically half that, the Giant Asian Forest Tortoise -- the largest tortoise in Asia and fourth largest terrestrial turtle in the world -- is losing habitat daily, and is wantonly slaughtered for both medicine and food. Despite its bleak outlook, the species (both the smaller, southern, lowland race and the rarer, darker, larger, mountain variety) may ultimately owe their survival not to sweeping law enforcement or local fieldwork, but to the passion of unlikely conservation hero living not in Asia, but in a small town in North Florida.
63-year-old Vic Morgan has no idea where his love of animals came from. As far as he knows, he's the first in his family tree to be happier in the woods than in town -- his father sold insurance -- but after moving from Virginia to Florida when he was six years old, he lived the life of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn along the St. Johns River, catching snakes, frogs, lizards, toads, and yes, turtles. Later he went into the business, wholesaling reptiles, trading, and eventually breeding. Yet this is no simple pet fancier. In December of 1987, Morgan caught sight of his first Giant Asian Forest tortoise, and if it wasn't love at first sight, it might as well have been. A history of "going against the grain" and a familiarity with animal genetics arising from breeding an unusual strain of German Shepherd dog (it's red) gave him a leg up on figuring out how to make the giant reptiles happy enough to reproduce. The first private sector keeper to consistently produce multiple generations, these days Morgan produces Manouria in sufficient numbers to sell to others interested in saving and breeding the rare giants. His enclosures are huge and naturalistic, and a credible version of the natural habitat.
The practiced eye of the reptile lover finds a great deal in Manouria emys that others might miss. There is, for example, what Morgan calls "a keen awareness of human presence. The big tortoises are quite territorial and watch Morgan carefully as he walks their generous pens, sometimes even following him for a bite of food or to nip at his ankles. The more he works with them, the more intelligent and aware he finds them. This is all the more remarkable because the great beasts are quite primitive, bearing anatomical characters directly traceable to the ancestral Eocene era ancestors from which Asian turtles sprang. Primitive doesn't mean dumb, Morgan explains, but rather that they |
This study was conducted with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under cooperative agreement U48DP000057-SIP4-04, “Evaluation of Abstinence-Only and Abstinence-Plus HIV, STI and Pregnancy Prevention for Middle | This study was conducted with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under cooperative agreement U48DP000057-SIP4-04, “Evaluation of Abstinence-Only and Abstinence-Plus HIV, STI and Pregnancy Prevention for Middle School Students.”
Sexual Initiation, Parent Practices, and Acculturation in Hispanic Seventh Graders
Article first published online: 12 JAN 2012
© 2012, American School Health Association
Journal of School Health
Volume 82, Issue 2, pages 75–81, February 2012
How to Cite
Morales-Campos, D. Y., Markham, C., Peskin, M. F. and Fernandez, M. E. (2012), Sexual Initiation, Parent Practices, and Acculturation in Hispanic Seventh Graders. Journal of School Health, 82: 75–81. doi: 10.1111/j.1746-1561.2011.00669.x
- Issue published online: 12 JAN 2012
- Article first published online: 12 JAN 2012
- Received on January 26, 2011, Accepted on April 21, 2011
- sexual intercourse;
- parental monitoring;
- parent-child communication;
BACKGROUND: Hispanic youths have high rates of sexually transmitted infections and pregnancies, yet little research has targeted multiple protective/risk factors for early sexual initiation in this group. This study examined two main factors—parenting practices and acculturation—on early sexual initiation among Hispanic middle school students in Texas.
METHODS: Using data from Hispanic seventh graders (N = 655) in 15 urban middle schools in southeast Texas, we examined the association between parental monitoring/parent-child communication about sexual health and sexual initiation.
RESULTS: After controlling for age, gender, parent/guardian education, family structure, acculturation level, and intervention status, the likelihood of ever having sex decreased 50% for every 1-point increase in the parental monitoring score (AOR = 0.50;95%CI = 0.34,0.75). No association was found between ever having sex and parent-child communication scores (AOR = 1.29;95%CI = 0.76,2.18). Furthermore, parental monitoring differed significantly between acculturation levels, 1-way analysis of variance F(2,652) = 5.07, p < 0.007. This finding was unrelated to the parental monitoring-initiation association in the multivariable model.
CONCLUSION: Parental monitoring may delay sexual initiation among Hispanic middle school students. Parental monitoring differs by acculturation levels, warranting further investigation. These findings can inform school-based, parent-involved interventions designed to delay sexual initiation among Hispanic youth. |
French and Raven's five bases of power
In a notable study of power conducted by social psychologists John R. P. French and Bertram Raven in 1959, power is divided into five separate and distinct forms. In 1965 Raven | French and Raven's five bases of power
In a notable study of power conducted by social psychologists John R. P. French and Bertram Raven in 1959, power is divided into five separate and distinct forms. In 1965 Raven revised this model to include a sixth form by separating the informational power base as distinct from the expert power base.
As we know leadership and power are closely linked. This model shows how the different forms of power affect one's leadership and success. This idea is used often in organizational communication and throughout the workforce. "The French-Raven power forms are introduced with consideration of the level of observability and the extent to which power is dependent or independent of structural conditions. Dependency refers to the degree of internalization that occurs among persons subject to social control. Using these considerations it is possible to link personal processes to structural conditions".
Bases of power
French & Raven introduce five bases of power: Coercive, Reward, Legitimate, Referent, and Expert. This was followed by Raven's identification of a sixth separate and distinct base of power: Informational
This type of power is based upon the idea of coercion. The main idea behind this concept is that someone is forced to do something that he/she does not desire to do. The main goal of coercion is compliance. According to Changingminds.org "demonstrations of harm are often used to illustrate what will happen if compliance is not gained". The power of coercion has been proven to be related with punitive behavior that may be outside one's normal role expectations. However coercion has also been associated positively with generally punitive behavior and negatively associated to contingent reward behavior. This source of power can often lead to problems and in many circumstances it involves abuse. Mindtools.com states that "coercive power can cause unhealthy behavior and dissatisfaction in the workplace". These type of leaders rely on the use of threats in their leadership style. Often the threats involve saying someone will be fired or demoted.
The second type of power involves having the ability to grant another person things which that person desires or to remove or decrease things the person does not desire. present subordinates with outcomes that the subordinate regards in a positive manner. This type of power is based on the idea that we as a society are more prone to do things and to do them well when we are getting something out of it. Social exchange theorists as well as Power-Dependence theorists continue to focus on the idea of reward power. The most popular forms are offering raises, promo |
Arnold Hamilton Maloney Biography (1888-1955)
- Trinidadian, African American
- physician, pharmacologist
Arnold Hamilton Maloney began his career planning to be a druggist in his native Trinidad, but his ultimate | Arnold Hamilton Maloney Biography (1888-1955)
- Trinidadian, African American
- physician, pharmacologist
Arnold Hamilton Maloney began his career planning to be a druggist in his native Trinidad, but his ultimate influence in the field of pharmacology was tobe far greater than the local level. Maloney immigrated to the United Statesin 1909 where he completed his education and eventually became the first black professor of pharmacology in the nation. He had a varied career as ordainedminister in the Episcopal Church, professor, researcher, consultant, and author. Through his research, he is perhaps most known for discovering an antidote for barbiturate poisoning (or an overdose of sedatives). He was also the second person of African descent to obtain both a medical degree and a doctorate of philosophy in the United States.
Maloney, the oldest male of ten children, was born July 4, 1888, in Cocoye Village, Trinidad, British West Indies. His father, Lewis Albert Maloney, was abuilding contractor and grocery chain operator, and his mother, Estelle Evetta (Bonas) Maloney, taught needlework to young women and later operated a general store. As a student, Maloney excelled and won numerous awards. He had alove of learning that led him to pursue many different interests as an adult.He studied at Naparima College in Trinidad, which is affiliated with Cambridge University, England, earning his bachelor's degree in 1909. That same year, he immigrated to the United States where he attended Lincoln University inPennsylvania. In 1910, he received his master's degree from Columbia University. Maloney then received a bachelor of science degree in theology from the General Theological Seminary, New York, in 1912. He began his ministry at age23 with the distinction of being the youngest minister in the Protestant Episcopal Church.
After practicing for several years, Maloney felt that the Episcopal Church was neglecting young black men. A suggestion he made prompted the church to establish St. Augustine in Raleigh, North Carolina, as a college for black youth. Although there were aspects of the ministry that Maloney enjoyed, he becamedisillusioned and left the church in 1922. He published a book outlining hisviews, The Essentials of Race Leadership, in 1924. On leaving the ministry, Maloney turned to teaching, accepting a professorship of psychology |
SLEEPING BEAUTYOriginal Medium: Traditional story
Produced as a cartoon by: Walt Disney Productions
First appeared: Antiquity
Please contribute to its necessary financial support.
Amazon.com or PayPal
Most Disney animated features were based | SLEEPING BEAUTYOriginal Medium: Traditional story
Produced as a cartoon by: Walt Disney Productions
First appeared: Antiquity
Please contribute to its necessary financial support.
Amazon.com or PayPal
Most Disney animated features were based on stories that appeared in specific books, by specific authors. But there were a few that came from stories going back to antiquity, and if Disney's version came from that appearing in a particular book, then it was a book collecting such traditional tales, not one
for which the author claimed full creation. Three such features were made during Disney's lifetime — Snow White (1937), Cinderella (1950) and Sleeping Beauty, which premiered on January 28, 1959 and went into general release the following day. After Sleeping Beauty, the next such Disney feature was The Little Mermaid, which didn't come out until three full decades had gone by.
The fairy-tale features had certain similarities in basic outline, with beautiful maidens (usually princesses) undergoing tribulation at the hands of strong female villains until right at the end, when they find happiness in the arms of their handsome princes. In the first two, the princes were mere props, without even names of their own — Snow's had no name at all, while Cindy's, who was at least a little more involved with the plot, was only called Prince Charming. In Sleeping Beauty, however, Prince Phillip was present at the beginning, and entwined with the story throughout. Even if his victory over the evil fairy Maleficent, author of Princess Aurora's woes, was less glorious than it might have been (facilitated, as it was, by magical help from the three good fairies who had raised her), he, more than the others combined, earned his "happily ever after".
This closer integration of the necessary plot elements represented the greater sophistication in story values those in the Disney organization had developed over the years. The art, too, represented an advance over the softer, more rounded, more easily animated styles of the earlier features. All through the 1950s, from Alice in Wonderland to Lady & the Tramp, the Disney studio had been moving toward the more angular yet fluid style exemplified by '50s start-up UPA (Gerald McBoing-Boing, Mr. Magoo). In Sleeping Beauty it was fully realized, making that film's look far closer to its successors, such as 101 Dalmatians and The Jungle Book, than to what had gone before.
The story had elements taken from both the Charles Perault and the Brothers Grimm versions, but was very much altered by Disney. Traditionally, the princess slept for a century after falling victim to the curse, and the prince who rescued her was necessarily a stranger before bestowing love's first kiss. In the movie, after setting up the situation on the day she was born, all the action, from showing her life as the forest-dwelling commoner Briar Rose with the three good fairies as her guardians, to Phillip's final rescue, took place on her 16th birthday.
The supervising director of Sleeping Beauty was Clyde Geronomi, whose directorial work on Disney features went all the way back to Victory through Air Power (1943), the studio's foray into World War II propaganda and and now the most seldom-seen of its features. Sequence directors included Eric Larson (who hadn't directed before, but whose animation was seen in Pinocchio, Bambi and elsewhere), Wolfgang Reitherman (Winnie the Pooh shorts) and Les Clark (the last few Goofy theatrical releases).
The voice of Aurora/Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty was done by Mary Costa, and Prince Phillip was Bill Shirley. Both were face actors whose cartoon work was confined to this film. Maleficent was Eleanor Audley (Lady Tremaine in Cinderella). The good fairies, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, were, respectively, Verna Felton (mother-in-law Pearl Slaghoople in The Flintstones), Barbara Jo Allen (a scullery maid in The Sword in the Stone) and Barbara Luddy (Lady in Lady & the Tramp).
At $6 million, Sleeping Beauty was the most expensive animated movie up to its time. Nonetheless, it was poorly received by both critics and audiences, possibly because of its departures from what had been seen before — it didn't quite have the "feel" of a Disney movie. None of its characters became Disney regulars. Still, it spawned the usual ton of merchandise (including comics adaptations from Dell, later reprinted by Gold Key, and King Features Syndicate), and the public gradually changed its mind. Today, it's regarded as one of Disney's classics. |
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.Let’s face it, due diligence | Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.Let’s face it, due diligence in rectifying the crimes of the past hardly wins you any merit badges in Mississippi, a state where 46% of “hardcore repugican voters” polled in 2011 thought inter-racial marriage should be against the law, and in which a middle school in 2010 couldn’t understand why it was a problem that only white students were permitted to run for class president.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
So it’s little wonder that “someone forgot” to file the paperwork to officially get rid of slavery until 148 years after the 13th amendment became a permanent part of the US Constitution in 1865. Oops.
Now, defenders of Mississippi will argue that this isn’t entirely true. Mississippi didn’t just officially end slavery. The year Mississippi took its brave stand against enslaving African-Americans was not 2013. It was 1995. Only 130 years too late. So there.
I knew I forgot something.But in the ensuing years, everyone in Mississippi simply “forgot” to officially notify the US Archivist of the amendment’s ratification by their state, so it never counted, until now. It seems someone was watching the movie “Lincoln,” saw that Mississippi had yet to ratify, and he raised enough trouble back home to get the thing done.
But seriously. Come on. They just forgot?
You forget to get toothpaste. You forget to pick up the laundry. You might, on a really horrifically bad day forget your anniversary. But you forget to end slavery? Really, Mississippi?
You know what else Mississippi forgot? To ratify the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote in 1920. Mississippi finally got around to that one in 1984 – 64 years too late, and dead last among the states.
We can all laugh at this story, but these are the kind of people we have to deal with, negotiate with in Congress, to get things done in this country. These are the kind of people who make up a good part of the base of the Republican party. If it’s not about God, gays or guns, they’re not interested. So it’s no wonder America is falling behind the rest of the world with regards to the civil rights of gays and trans people in comparison to, say, Mexico. Mexico doesn’t have to deal with Mississippi.
In Mississippi’s defense, when the resolution passed in 1995, it was unanimous. Sort of.
“It was unanimous,” Frazier recalled. “Some didn’t vote, but we didn’t receive a ‘nay’ vote.”Yes, not everyone voted to end slavery, but no one voted against ending slavery. And in Mississippi, you take your civil rights victories however, and whenever, you can get them. |
As we go on, we’re going to want to focus right in on a point in a topological space. We’re interested in the subsets of in which we could “wiggle around a bit” without leaving the subset. These subsets we | As we go on, we’re going to want to focus right in on a point in a topological space. We’re interested in the subsets of in which we could “wiggle around a bit” without leaving the subset. These subsets we’ll call “neighborhoods” of.
More formally, a neighborhood of is a subset of which contains some open subset, which contains the point. Then we can wiggle within the “nearby” set and not leave. Notice here that I’m not requiring itself to be open, though if it is we call it an “open neighborhood” of.
In fact, any open set is an open neighborhood of any of its points, since clearly it contains an open set containing — itself! Similarly, a subset is a neighborhood of any point in its interior. But what about a point not in its interior? If we take a point, but, then is a neighborhood of if and only if there is an open set with. But then since is an open set contained in, we must have, which would put into the interior as well. That is, a set is a neighborhood of exactly those points in its interior. In fact, some authors use this condition to define “interior” rather than the one more connected to orders.
So the only way for a set to be a neighborhood of all its points is for all of its points to be in its interior. That is,. But, dually to the situation for the closure operator, the fixed points of the interior operator are exactly the open sets. And so we conclude that a set is open if and only if it is a neighborhood of all its points — another route to topologies! We say what the neighborhoods of each point are, and then we define an open set as one which is a neighborhood of each of its points.
But now we have to step back a moment. I can’t just toss out any collection of sets and declare them to be the neighborhoods of. There are certain properties that the collection of neighborhoods of a given point must satisfy, and only when we satisfy them will we be able to define a topology in this way. Let’s call something which satisfies these conditions (which we’ll work out) a “neighborhood system” for and write it.
First of all (and almost trivially), each set in must contain. We’re not going to get much of anywhere if we don’t at least require that.
If is a neighborhood of, and, then must be a neighborhood as well since it contains whatever open set satisfies the neighborhood condition. Also, if and are two neighborhoods of then. That is, there must be a neighborhood contained in both and. We can sum up these two conditions by saying that is a “filter” in the partially-ordered set.
So, given a topology on we get a filter for each point. Conversely, if we have such a choice of a filter at each point, we can declare the open sets to be those so that implies that.
Trivially, satisfies this condition, as it doesn’t have any points to be a neighborhood of. The total space satisfies this condition because it’s above everything, so it’s in every filter, and thus is a neighborhood of every point.
Now let’s take two sets and, which are neighborhoods of each of their points, and let’s consider their intersection and a point. Since is in both and, each of them is a neighborhood of, and so since is a filter we see that must be a neighborhood of as well. We can extend this to cover all finite intersections.
On the other hand, let’s consider an arbitrary family of sets, each of which is a neighborhood of each of its points. Now, given |
The latest news about environmental and green
technologies – renewables, energy savings, fuel cells
Posted: Nov 22, 2012
Climate change: Believing and seeing implies adapting
(Nanowerk News) To communicate climate change | The latest news about environmental and green
technologies – renewables, energy savings, fuel cells
Posted: Nov 22, 2012
Climate change: Believing and seeing implies adapting
(Nanowerk News) To communicate climate change and adaptation to stakeholders such as European forest owners is a challenge. A capacity to adapt to climate change has, until now, mainly been understood as how trees and forest ecosystems can adapt to climate change and which socio-economic factors determine the implementation of adaptive measures. The new study lead by Kristina Blennow from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), shows, for the first time, the importance of two personal factors; when forest owners believe in and see the effects of climate change, they are more likely to have taken adaptive measures. These two personal factors almost completely explain and predict forest owners' adaptation to climate change. The paper was published online in the journal PLOS ONE on 21 November 2012 ("Climate Change: Believing and Seeing Implies Adapting
Foresters and forest owners from Skandinavia informing themselves o |
Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane by S. Frederick Starr
In this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia’s medieval enlightenment | Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane by S. Frederick Starr
In this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia’s medieval enlightenment through the eventful lives and astonishing accomplishments of its greatest minds—remarkable figures who built a bridge to the modern world. Because nearly all of these figures wrote in Arabic, they were long assumed to have been Arabs. In fact, they were from Central Asia—drawn from the Persianate and Turkic peoples of a region that today extends from Kazakhstan southward through Afghanistan, and from the easternmost province of Iran through Xinjiang, China.
Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects. They gave algebra its name, calculated the earth’s diameter with unprecedented precision, wrote the books that later defined European medicine, and penned some of the world’s greatest poetry. One scholar, working in Afghanistan, even predicted the existence of North and South America—five centuries before Columbus. Rarely in history has a more impressive group of polymaths appeared at one place and time. No wonder that their writings influenced European culture from the time of St. Thomas Aquinas down to the scientific revolution, and had a similarly deep impact in India and much of Asia. |
Contents - Previous - Next
II. Incorporating nutrition concerns into forestry projects
Define individual roles
Obtain background information
Define nutritional objectives
Decide on forestry and nutrition activities
Use nutrition indicators to monitor and evaluate projects
The first section | Contents - Previous - Next
II. Incorporating nutrition concerns into forestry projects
Define individual roles
Obtain background information
Define nutritional objectives
Decide on forestry and nutrition activities
Use nutrition indicators to monitor and evaluate projects
The first section of this manual described the theoretical links between forestry and nutrition. It will now address a series of questions such as: how can foresters incorporate nutrition into forestry projects; how do foresters link their knowledge of trees with the nutritional well-being of villagers?
The following guidelines provide an approach to incorporating nutrition into forestry projects when nutritional well-being is an overall project goal. They correspond to five steps: define roles; obtain background information; define specific objectives; decide on activities; and monitor and evaluate the project. The steps are not arranged in a sequence, they need to be adjusted to suit individual circumstances. For example, often the goals and objectives of the project will need to be determined prior to defining roles as they relate to nutrition objectives. Several steps, information collection for example, may have to be repeated as the project evolves. Finally it must be noted that the steps cannot be followed individually. That is, they must be completed keeping in mind the other elements of the process. Objectives may need to be reexamined given time and personnel limitations. The worksheets should be used to help tailor the approach.
An essential element of this methodology is the active participation of community members in all aspects of the project. By increasing the attention that is paid to local needs and uses of trees and forests in all forestry projects (not just community forestry projects), forestry can have a positive influence on nutritional well-being.
Define individual roles
If there are no nutritionists involved, who will be responsible for the nutrition part of the project? If a nutritionist is involved, at what stage and level will she/he be included? Worksheet A contains a list of some of the questions that may help clarify individual roles in the project.
Obtain background information
Identify resources and collect data
Review basic information
Obtaining background information is an ongoing process. Team members must identify resources, including local people, sources of existing information, and methods for obtaining additional information. Then, together with the community, the team reviews basic information and/or collects additional information about the physical and socioeconomic characteristics, nutrition/food security concerns, and the use of forests and trees in the project area. Appendices 2 and 3 contain a list of sources and detailed background questions.
Identify resources and collect data
Rapid rural appraisal in northeast Thailand
rapid appraisal techniques, Somnasang et al.
examined the use of natural food resources in northeast
Thailand. Specifically, the researchers were interested
in the sources of foods; kinds of foods; quantities and
availability; factors influencing quantity and source;
methods of acquisition; preparation and cooking methods;
roles of taste, attitudes and beliefs; and methods of
preparation. The information was used to evaluate effects
of changes in farming patterns on nutrition. The primary
techniques for gathering information were semi-structured
interviewing, direct observation, and photography. The
methods were fast, comprehensive and ideal for planning a
more detailed study. Using a set of guidelines for the
interviews, researchers visited eight villages in three
provinces once during each of the different seasons in
1984-1985. In total 15 days were devoted to the field
portion of the study (Somnasang et al. 1988).
Many individuals are potential sources of information. Interviews provide valuable insights into who has access to resources and how local people define poor diet. Possible key informants are health officials, project staff, extension workers, NGO workers (including religious organizations), teachers, leaders, and local nutritionists. In regard to nutrition, it is especially important to interview women's groups as women are generally in charge of feeding and caring for the family. Often, these groups can supply information about food, medicine and health in the community. Moreover, they will be able to suggest nutrition objectives and indicators that are of local concern. Project managers and planners may also want to visit a limited number of carefully selected men and women farmers of different strata and the landless to discuss issues of crops, income, and uses of trees and their products. Once the nutritionally vulnerable have been defined, they, themselves, may be able to provide critical information about their situation, its causes, and how they would like to see the problems addressed.
In addition to interviews, visual inspection can be extremely helpful. Direct observation and photographs of routine activities in the forests (or involving trees) will provide some information about who uses the land and for what purposes. Photographs of children may provide an indication of acute nutrition problems.
Other possible resources are printed materials. A literature search of the area describing class/caste distinctions, and resource uses in terms of tenure and access, can contain information about nutrition and forest use. The search should be done across different fields of thought, among them history, political science, economics, anthropology, and ethnobotany. The search will help to determine those groups that may be nutritionally vulnerable, those who benefit from activities aimed at particular resources, and possibly, the uses of trees and forests. Health studies (including those on traditional health practices) and records of malnutrition and infection will give a picture of the nutrition problems in the area. Nutritional surveys and studies of the causes of malnutrition in an area provide additional information about the nutrition situation in the project area. Appendix 2 lists some sources of information and Table 1 in Section I lists different types of information used in determining nutritional well-being.
When defining the resources that will be tapped for useful information, the planners always need to consider the personnel, time and resource availa |
In order for a coupling to resist internal or external hydrostatic pressure and root intrusion, a minimum contact pressure (P1) is required between the coupling and pipe. To ensure a satisfactory design life, the minimum contact pressure should be used over a | In order for a coupling to resist internal or external hydrostatic pressure and root intrusion, a minimum contact pressure (P1) is required between the coupling and pipe. To ensure a satisfactory design life, the minimum contact pressure should be used over a 50 year duration. The pressure (P1) is a function of the pressure applied to the elastomeric sleeve by the tension clamps (P2) and the stress relaxation characteristics of the elastomer.
The pressure applied by the clamp is a function of the tension (T) in the clamp band combined with the width of the clamp and the diameter of the pipe. The tension is created by torque (N) which is applied using the tightening mechanism. The required torque is a function of the length of the band between tightening mechanisms, the friction between the band and elastomer and also the efficiency of the tightening mechanism.
There are three types of clamps available depending on the size of the coupling. The first type is a unique design of bolted clamp. The two other types are worm drive clamps. A worm drive clamp uses perforated bands as this design is self clearing if the clamp is coated in mud or sand. In addition all elastomeric sleeves are coated in silicon to reduce the friction between the clamp and the sleeve.
These use heavy duty 'Hi Torque' worm drive clamps irrespective of the assembly torque required. For diameters over 180mm all clamps incorporate double worm drives. This is due to the nature of their application on public sewers, to improve their tolerance range and reliability of seal.
The recommended tightening torque required to give a contact pressure sufficient for satisfactory long term performance is shown in Graph 1 (overleaf). Installation tools are available and recommended from Flexseal.
These use a new unique bolting clamp system that optimise the sealing qualities of the coupling and provide ease of assembly and tightening on site. The design enables the bolt to be set at the perfect angle to the tangent of the coupling which optimises the conversion of torque applied to the tension in the clamping bands. This maximises the sealing pressure for a given torque.
The bolt is coated with a metal based lubricant which reduces the friction within the bolting mechanism and stops the tendency for stainless steel components to seize.
The recommended tightening torque required to give a contact pressure sufficient for satisfactory long term performance is shown in Graph 2 (overleaf).
All bolted clamps have dual bolt mechanisms that provide optimum performance and reliability. |
- 4. Migrant workers move from country to country in search of work.
1. the activity of looking thoroughly in order to find something or someone
2. an investigation seeking answers;
- "a thorough search of the ledgers revealed | - 4. Migrant workers move from country to country in search of work.
1. the activity of looking thoroughly in order to find something or someone
2. an investigation seeking answers;
- "a thorough search of the ledgers revealed nothing"
- "the outcome justified the search"
3. an operation that determines whether one or more of a set of items has a specified property;
- "they wrote a program to do a table lookup"
- synonym： lookup
4. the examination of alternative hypotheses;
- "his search for a move that would avoid checkmate was unsuccessful"
5. boarding and inspecting a ship on the high seas;
- "right of search"
1. try to locate or discover, or try to establish the existence of;
2. search or seek;
- "We looked all day and finally found the child in the forest"
- "Look elsewhere for the perfect gift!"
- synonym： look
3. inquire into
4. subject to a search;
- "The police searched the suspect"
- "We searched the whole house for the missing keys"
- 2. 探索
- Sexism, Ethnicity, Ageism, Racism, Culturalism, and Homophobia
- Southwestern Endangered Aridland Resource Clearing House
- Study of Environmental Arctic Change (University of Washington Applied Physics Lab; Seattle, WA)
- Scan, Examine, Act, Review, Connect, And Hunt
- Scan, Examine, Act, Review, Connect, and Hunt (reading strategy)
- Screening Elders To Access Referrals Care And Health
- Search Envisioned As Relation & Class Hierarchizing (black box optimization framework)
- Seek, Evaluate, Analyze, Research, Challenge, and Hypothesize (education)
- Self-Employed Arts-Related Contractors for Hire (Vancouver, BC, Canada)
- Servitude and Emancipation Archival Research Clearinghouse
简介基本发音 search 发音 ：[英][sə:tʃ] [美][sɚtʃ] 具体例子 vt. 1. 搜查；在。..中搜寻[(+for)] Police searched everyone present at the scene of crime. 警察搜查了在犯罪现场的每一个人。 He searched every room in the house. 他搜查了这房子的每一个房间。 2. 细看；仔细检查；锛堄猛饪埔瞧黠級探查锛埳孙級[(+for)] I've searched my memory, but I can't rememb本内容来源于 查看更多内容>> |
Figure 1 is a conceptual diagram (three stages) of the environmental impacts of transportation from a life cycle perspective. Phases (Stage 1) of transportation include fuel production and delivery, infrastructure development and operation, vehicle1 and parts manufacture, | Figure 1 is a conceptual diagram (three stages) of the environmental impacts of transportation from a life cycle perspective. Phases (Stage 1) of transportation include fuel production and delivery, infrastructure development and operation, vehicle1 and parts manufacture, travel, maintenance and support, and disposal of vehicles and parts. Activities occurring during the phases result in environmental outcomes include land consumption and alterations, emissions of air pollutants, generation and release of hazardous and nonhazardous materials, noise and transportation of species. Outcomes can, in turn, affect the environment and human health, creating impacts (effect2 on: habitat, wildlife, ecosystems, human health and public welfare) that are usually negative (e.g., cancers, birth defects, asthma, stunted tree growth, and fish kills). Impacts, which can be chronic or acute, are highly dependent on two variables: concentration and exposure.
1 Vehicle here includes highway vehicles, airplanes, marine vessels, railroad cars and locomotives, and transit equipment.
2 Dependent on ambient levels or concentrations of pollutants and exposure to those outputs.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,Indicators of the Environmental Impacts of Transportation (Washington, DC: October 1999), figure 1-1. |
The five-coloured barbet is a South American forest-dwelling bird with distinctive plumage and a heavy bill (2). The male and female differ quite significantly in appearance, with the male having a bright red crown, a yellow ‘V | The five-coloured barbet is a South American forest-dwelling bird with distinctive plumage and a heavy bill (2). The male and female differ quite significantly in appearance, with the male having a bright red crown, a yellow ‘V’ shape on the jet black back, and a white chest turning to yellow on the belly. The female lacks the vivid crown, which is instead yellowish-olive in colour and streaked with black, and has yellowish underparts with black streaks and spots (3). Like all barbets, this five-coloured barbet is a chunky bird, with a short neck, short legs, and bristles surrounding the stout bill (3). The song of both sexes is a low-pitched trill, and a guttural ‘churr’ call has also been described (2).
The five-coloured barbet forages predominantly in the forest canopy and occasionally at mid-tree level, although individuals inhabiting areas of secondary growth have also been observed foraging in the understorey. It feeds primarily on fruits and less frequently on insects, and has been known to form flocks with other bird species when searching for food (2).
Little is known of the breeding habits of the five-coloured barbet, although it is thought to breed between the months of April and July, when it is often seen in pairs (2). The male performs a mating display in order to attract a female, in which he bows the head and inflates the throat, pumping the head downward and forward with each note he sings (2).
The five-coloured barbet is thought to inhabit around 14 lowland sites in central Colombia and northern Ecuador (4). It is believed to be uncommon across much of this range (5), except for at two sites in the foothills of the Esmeraldas Province (Ecuador) and Nariño Department (Colombia) (5)(6).
The five-coloured barbet inhabits wet lowland forests, |
January 29th, 2009
An unusual report for the British Isles is the Two-banded Sea Bream which has been sighted off Guernsey’s north coast. The sea bream, Diplodus vulgaris, has an | January 29th, 2009
An unusual report for the British Isles is the Two-banded Sea Bream which has been sighted off Guernsey’s north coast. The sea bream, Diplodus vulgaris, has an oblong body that can grow to 45 cm although they usually reach 20-25 cm. They are generally grey, brownish or greenish in colour with a broad black band. These fish are carnivores and feed on crustaceans and molluscs.
Click for photo of Diplodus vulgaris
Added by Rachelle Long |
May 25, 2004 > D-Day - Sacrifice Remembered
D-Day - Sacrifice Remembered
by Susana Nuñez
Every year, Americans recognize and celebrate patriotic historical events including soon to be observed Memorial Day and | May 25, 2004 > D-Day - Sacrifice Remembered
D-Day - Sacrifice Remembered
by Susana Nuñez
Every year, Americans recognize and celebrate patriotic historical events including soon to be observed Memorial Day and Independence Day. June 6th, "D-Day," a pivotal date in U.S. and world history, is less celebrated yet equally important. Some citizens not only remember the day, but participated in the Allied armed forces operation while others may view it as simply a page of a history book. Just as the date September 11, 2001 is indelibly stamped on the minds of most Americans, previous conflicts have also been monumental and their remembrance is a time for sober reflection.
The Allied invasion of Normandy, called "D-Day," marked the beginning of the end of German control of Europe. World War II had been raging in Europe for five years, with mixed results until the Battle of Stalingrad marked a turn in the Allies favor. The Soviet Army was advancing through Eastern Europe and the time had arrived for the liberation of a suppressed Western Europe. The Allied response was the largest amphibious assault in the history of war. On June 6, 1944, hundreds of Allied ships were used to transport soldiers, vehicles, and supplies from Britain to invade German-held French territory across the English Channel.
Three Allied airborne divisions were dropped in German territory just hours before the amphibious landings were to commence. The task for these soldiers was to secure roads and bridges necessary for advancing troops from the beaches. To prepare landing areas for troops on transport ships, a massive bombardment from both air and sea was necessary. Between the hours of 0300 and 0500 on the morning of June 6, over 1,000 British aircraft dropped more than 5,000 tons of bombs on the German defenses and beaches. Official British history describes the effects of the preliminary attack saying, "Never has any coast suffered what a tortured strip of French coast suffered that morning: both naval and air bombardments were unparalleled."
H-Hour had arrived. Bombardment stopped and amphibious ships moved towards the beach to deposit their cargo of men and vehicles. At approximately 0700, the first ships hit five beaches and over 86,000 soldiers swarmed out of them. The cost of human life was staggering; of all the beaches, the most resistant was the area labeled, "Omaha." Bombardment had been less effective at this beach due to its rough terrain. Omaha consisted of steep bluffs and heavy defenses with defenses largely unscathed by preliminary air and sea a |
ChristianAnswers.Net WebBible Encyclopedia
Meaning: Jehovah is his father
One of the three sons of Zeruiah, David's sister, and “captain of the host” during the whole of David's reign (2 Sam. | ChristianAnswers.Net WebBible Encyclopedia
Meaning: Jehovah is his father
One of the three sons of Zeruiah, David's sister, and “captain of the host” during the whole of David's reign (2 Sam. 2:13; 10:7; 11:1; 1 Kings 11:15).
His father's name is nowhere mentioned, although his sepulchre at Bethlehem is mentioned (2 Sam. 2:32). His two brothers were Abishai and Asahel, the swift of foot, who was killed by Abner (2 Sam. 2:13-32), whom Joab afterwards treacherously murdered (3:22-27). He afterwards led the a |
Mid-October marks the end of the ruby-throated hummingbird migration season, so it’s time to take down nectar feeders, clean them thoroughly, and store them until April, right?
Generally, that’s good advice, but | Mid-October marks the end of the ruby-throated hummingbird migration season, so it’s time to take down nectar feeders, clean them thoroughly, and store them until April, right?
Generally, that’s good advice, but if you’re a hopeful birder, keep one feeder filled all winter. You may get to see a wandering hummingbird from the west.
Hummingbird experts report that ruby-throated hummingbirds, the common species here in the east, head south by mid-October. In fact, adult males left in late August, and adult females and juveniles left several weeks later. Any hummers seen in recent weeks have been migrants from the north.
Hummingbirds seen after you read this are likely to be strays from the west and should be reported.
In recent years the Hummer/Bird Study Group has documented 14 species of hummingbirds wandering east during the fall and winter. Most have been rufous hummers, but other species include ruby-throated, black-chinned, Allen’s, Anna’s, calliope, buff-bellied, broad-tailed, white-eared, green violet-ear, magnificent, green-breasted mango, broad-billed, and Costa’s.
Bob Sargent, founder of the Hummer/Bird Study Group urges hummingbird enthusiasts to maintain one feeder all winter, keep it clean, and place it where it can be easily viewed.
“If you live in the range for the ruby-throated hummingbirds,” Sargent explains, “you will not make them stay if you leave a feeder out in winter. When it’s time, they will migrate with or without your feeder.”
The Hummer/Bird Study Group Web site offers instructions for heating a nectar feeder to keep the nectar from freezing.
I first learned of winter hummingbird sightings back in October 1997 when a female rufous hummer showed up at a feeder in Delmont, Pa. just east of Pittsburgh.
“Ruthie,” as she came to be known, became a popular topic for discussion on my radio show (listen live on Sunday afternoons from noon to 2 p.m.).
In December 1997, banders from the Hummer/Bird Study Group captured and banded the bird.
Amazingly Ruthi |
Interpreting Folk Songs in History
People who experience an important historical event may
express their views or perspectives in the form of folk songs.
Such songs may be simple, but historians often find them a rich source of
information about how people | Interpreting Folk Songs in History
People who experience an important historical event may
express their views or perspectives in the form of folk songs.
Such songs may be simple, but historians often find them a rich source of
information about how people felt,
and how they expressed their feelings and opinions.
Because feelings ran high during the confederation debate, it is not
surprising that events, issues, and opinions were expressed in song.
On April 5, 1948, The Independent carried the
"Hero of '48".
The Confederate carried the
"Battle Song of Newfoundland"
on May 12, 1948.
People who feel strongly about an issue use a variety of techniques
to convince the listener of the superiority of their viewpoint.
Some techniques will rely on honest, reasonable arguments; others
may distract the reader from the real issues. Some techniques
- Everyone is doing this or agrees with this position.
- Categorical statements
- These statements are presented as if they are absolutely true and
- Deductive reasoning
- Since two statements are true, then the third statement is true (e.g.,
if a and b are true, then c is true). If there is no connection
between the statements, then this technique is flawed.
- Personal attack
- A statement may attack an individual personally rather than
challenge his or her ideas.
- A statement that refers to a famous person or group in order to
support a position or opinion.
The following exercises will help you to find evidence of these
"The Hero of '48"
"Battle Song of Newfoundland", an
anti-confederate and a pro-confederate song respectively.
- a) The Hero of '48"
Find an example of each of the following:
b) In this song, what use is made of stereotyping?
- personal attack
- categorical statement
- deductive reasoning
- a) "Battle Song of Newfoundland"
b) Why is personification used extensively in this song?
- In verses one, three, five and eight, identify the techniques used to support the arguments. |
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A student under the direct supervision of a teacher or professor.
- n. Law A minor under the supervision of a guardian.
- n. The apparently | from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A student under the direct supervision of a teacher or professor.
- n. Law A minor under the supervision of a guardian.
- n. The apparently black circular opening in the center of the iris of the eye, through which light passes to the retina.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. An orphan who is a minor and under the protection of the state.
- n. A student under the supervision of a teacher or professor.
- n. The hole in the middle of the iris of the eye, through which light passes to be focused on the retina.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. The aperture in the iris; the sight, apple, or black of the eye. See the Note under eye, and iris.
- n. A youth or scholar of either sex under the care of an instructor or tutor.
- n. A person under a guardian; a ward.
- n. A boy or a girl under the age of puberty, that is, under fourteen if a male, and under twelve if a female.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A youth or any person of either sex under the care of an instructor or tutor; in general, a scholar; a disciple.
- n. A ward; a youth or person under the care of a guardian.
- n. In civil law, a person under puberty (fourteen for males, twelve for females), over whom a guardian has been appointed.
- Under age; in a state of pupilage or nonage; minor.
- n. The orifice of the iris; the hole or opening in the iris through which light passes.
- n. In zoology: The central dark part of an ocellated spot. See ocellus, 4.
- n. A dark, apparently interior, spot seen in the compound eyes of certain insects, and changing in position as it is viewed from different sides.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. a young person attending school (up through senior high school)
- n. a learner who is enrolled in an educational institution
- n. the contractile aperture in the center of the iris of the eye; resembles a large black dot
Middle English pupille, orphan, from Old French, from Latin pūpillus, diminutive of pūpus, boy.
Middle English, from Old French pupille, from Latin pūpilla, little doll, pupil of the eye (from the tiny image reflected in it); see pupil1.(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
From Anglo-Norman pupille ("orphan"), from Latin pūpillus ("orphan, minor"), variant of pūpulus ("little |
Temporal range: Early Pleistocene - Recent
The water voles are large voles in the genus Arvicola. They are found in both aquatic and dry habitat through Europe and much of northern Asia. A water vole found in Western North | Temporal range: Early Pleistocene - Recent
The water voles are large voles in the genus Arvicola. They are found in both aquatic and dry habitat through Europe and much of northern Asia. A water vole found in Western North America was historically considered a member of this genus, but has been shown to be more closely related to members of the genus Microtus (Conroy and Cook, 2000; Musser and Carleton, 2005).
Head and body length are 12–22 cm, tail length is 6.5–12.5 cm, and the weight is 70–250 g. The animals may exhibit indeterminate growth. They are thick-furred and have hairy fringe on feet that improves their swimming ability.
- European (or Northern) Water Vole (Arvicola amphibius or Arvicola terrestris)
- Southwestern (or Southern) Water Vole (Arvicola sapidus)
- Montane Water Vole (Arvicola scherman)
- Conroy, C. J. and J. A. Cook. 2000. Molecular systematics of a Holarctic rodent (Microtus: Muridae). Journal of Mammalogy, 81:344-359.
- Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. pp. 894–1531 in Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
- Nowak, R. M. 1999. Walker's Mammals of the World, Vol. 2. Johns Hopkins University Press, London.
- Townsend, C., Begon, M. and Harper, J.L. 2003. Essentials of Ecology: second edition. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.
|This Arvicolinae article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.| |
Our Rivers and Streams
Rivers and streams have been important to human existence from the beginning of time, first as a source of drinking water and food, and later becoming a means of transportation. The rivers and streams of our watershed are no different | Our Rivers and Streams
Rivers and streams have been important to human existence from the beginning of time, first as a source of drinking water and food, and later becoming a means of transportation. The rivers and streams of our watershed are no different. The native people, and later colonists, were able to sustain their communities with the abundant supply of water, food, and shelter materials in our region. Rivers became pathways into interior lands, where new communities were settled, and the rivers were used for transporting goods to and from those towns. As the industrial age began, the power of the rivers was harnessed to provide energy to mills of all types. Today, the rivers flowing through our cities are a catalyst of economic revitalization, while the rivers flowing through our smaller communities provide numerous recreational opportunities. The rivers also serve as an indicator of the environmental health of the entire region’s ecosystem, because what we do on the land is reflected in the quality and quantity of our water.
So what rivers and streams flow through the Nashua River watershed? To answer t |
Big River, Big Sea — Untold Stories of 1949
|Big River, Big Sea — Untold Stories of 1949
|Subject||Modern history of China (Chinese Civil War)|
|Publication date||31 August, | Big River, Big Sea — Untold Stories of 1949
|Big River, Big Sea — Untold Stories of 1949
|Subject||Modern history of China (Chinese Civil War)|
|Publication date||31 August, 2009|
|Preceded by||Imperial and Taiwan|
Big River, Big Sea — Untold Stories of 1949 (Chinese: 大江大海一九四九) is a collection of stories written by Taiwanese author Lung Ying-tai published in August 2009. It tells in detail, the events from the surrounding the conclusion of the Chinese Civil War including Chinese families that were broken up by the civil war that ended in the Kuomintang’s defeat in 1949, with some two million escaping to Taiwan. Lung Ying-tai spent more than 10 years researching material for the book and spent 400 days in Changchun, Nanjing, Shenyang, Taiwan's Mazu islands, Taidong, and Pingdong paying a visit to survivors of the Chinese Civil War in order to record their stories.
Leo Lee Ou-fan (李歐梵) wrote in Muse that 'the problem [of the book] lies in the author's over-ambitious intent to write a testimonial saga of mammoth historical scope - all in 450 pages or 150,000 words. It should have been three times that size.'
Lung had said in the public that she especially wanted readers from mainland China to read this book. However, since the books covered various misdeeds of the Chinese Red Army during this era, it was banned by the People Republic of China government. However, this book is still obtainable to readers in mainland China through online purchase.
Responding this book, Li Ao(李敖) addressed the Big River, Big Sea has fooled you(大江大海騙了你).
- Yu, Verna (6 October 2009). "Untold Stories of China and Taiwan". The New York Times.
- Lee, Leo Ou-fan (12 2009). "'The nobility of losing'". Muse Magazine (35): 102.
|This literature-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.| |
WAHAWAHJA RAPATA - 1865 -- 1868
edmondsallan -Hello - This ngati porou warrior chief ancestry and his deeds is well known in the area. Rapata, a leading lay member | WAHAWAHJA RAPATA - 1865 -- 1868
edmondsallan -Hello - This ngati porou warrior chief ancestry and his deeds is well known in the area. Rapata, a leading lay member of the Anglican diocese of Waiapu, was attending a church opening at Popoti in June 1865 when the Reverend Mohi Turei brought news that Hauhau had arrived in the Waiapu Valley and were at Pukemaire. Rapata led 40 men, mostly of Te Aowera hapu, against them. Although the Hauhau won the battles of Mangaone and Tikitiki, Rapata distinguished himself by killing a Hauhau chief in single combat at Tikitiki. After Henare Nihoniho was killed at Mangaone, Rapata became the leader of Te Aowera. The Hauhau held the advantage in these early encounters, in numbers, arms and ammunition. Loyalist Ngati Porou appealed to Donald McLean, the provincial superintendent and agent for the general government; war material was sent, and James Fraser with 100 Hawke's Bay volunteers landed at the mouth of the Waiapu River to relieve Te Hatepe, the pa of Mokena Kohere. Without government assistance Ngati Porou territory might have become a Hauhau stronghold.
Having beaten the Hauhau from Te Hatepe, Fraser and Mokena stormed their position at nearby Pakairomiromi, and Rapata won a small battle at Te Horo. Rapata then went to relieve Te Mawhai, the pa built by Henare Potae at Tokomaru Bay. They drove off the Hauhau and took the neighbouring pa of Tautini and Pukepapa. After these victories Rapata shot Hauhau captives who belonged to Te Aowera. Having skirmished towards Tolaga Bay and killed 12 Hauhau in an engagement at Tahutahu-po, Rapata and his men returned to the Waiapu Valley. They joined Fraser's troops and 50 Forest Rangers in an attack on the Hauhau fortifications on Pukemaire hill. Although the attack was beaten off, the Hauhau abandoned the pa and retired to Hungahunga-toroa, further north. They surrendered there after Rapata and Major R. N. Biggs scaled the cliff above the pa and fired down into it. At the request of Mokena, Hauhau of Ngati Porou were spared and called from the pa, hapu by hapu. They were later made to swear an oath of allegiance to Queen Victoria. Most Hauhau from other tribes, captured fighting in Ngati Porou territory, escaped into the bush, but those that remained were executed. The surrender at Hungahunga-toroa eliminated the Hauhau in Waiapu, and thereafter Ngati Porou as a whole supported the government. But Hauhau continued to control Poverty Bay; in October 1865 Rapata and Mokena led 300 Ngati Porou south. Fighting on the East Coast now became intertribal. With other government troops Ngati Porou besieged the Hauhau at Waerenga-a-hika. A mass charge by Hauhau carrying white fighting flags was defeated, and after a cannon was brought into action, the pa surrendered. Prisoners from Rongowhakaata and Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki were deported by the government to the Chatham Islands. It was after this battle that Te Kooti was arrested.
Fighting continued further south. On 4 January 1866 Rapata and 150 Ngati Porou landed at Wairoa to assist pro-government Ngati Kahungunu leaders Kopu Parapara and Ihaka Whaanga. The Hauhau retreated inland to Lake Waikaremoana and while pursuing them Ngati Kahungunu were ambushed at Te Kopane. Defeat and military disaster seemed imminent but Rapata fired the bush and the flames drove the Hauhau from their positions. Many prisoners were taken in the pursuit; Rapata wished to spare local Ngati Kahungunu and only execute those of Ngati Porou, Tuhoe and Rongowhakaata. This was not acceptable to Ngati Kahungunu and all the prisoners were shot. By the winter of 1866 the East Coast was largely pacified, although the Hauhau leaders Te Waru Tamatea and Eru Tamaikowha were undefeated and the Urewera was beyond the control of government forces. As you can read, their is a lot of movement and fighting going on.How did they manage to survive? Till we meet again - Regards - edmo |
Roles of a Federal Climate Change Research Program
The roles of a federal climate change research program are to
Much has been written about programs that are needed to implement the various roles listed in Box 3.1. Principles and recommendations on improving management | Roles of a Federal Climate Change Research Program
The roles of a federal climate change research program are to
Much has been written about programs that are needed to implement the various roles listed in Box 3.1. Principles and recommendations on improving management and strategic planning (role 1) for the CCSP are discussed in NRC (2004c) and NRC (2005b). Below we discuss the management challenges that a coordinated multiagency program will face as it moves toward building the knowledge needed to inform decisions. The biggest research gap in the current program (role 2) concerns the human dimensions of global change (e.g., NRC, 1992, 2004c, 2007c), and the discussion below focuses on the importance of adaptation, mitigation, and vulnerability research to support the scientific-societal issues outlined in Chapter 2.
Priorities for space-based observations (part of role 3) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are identified in the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Decadal Survey (NRC, 2007b). This chapter discusses observations that were not included in the Decadal Survey but are needed to understand the climate–human–environment system, as well as data |
The Hegel Reader
October 1998, ©1998, Wiley-Blackwell
Part I: Early Writings.
Part II: Phenomenology of Spirit.
Part III: Logic.
Part IV: Philosophy of Nature and Philosophy | The Hegel Reader
October 1998, ©1998, Wiley-Blackwell
Part I: Early Writings.
Part II: Phenomenology of Spirit.
Part III: Logic.
Part IV: Philosophy of Nature and Philosophy of Subjective Spirit.
Part V: Philosophy of Objective Spirit: Philosophy of Right and Philosophy of History.
Part VI: Philosophy of Absolute Spirit: Aesthetics, Philosophy of Religion and History of Philosophy.
* Contains a clear and helpful general introduction and short introductions to each part.
* A comprehensive bibliography includes a list of almost all the available English translations of Hegel's works.
"Houlgate's collection is the best and most thoughtful assembly of Hegel's key writings in one volume to date. In some ways, this is the 'encyclopaedic' presentation of Hegel's thought that Hegel should have collected himself instead of the Encyclopaedia that he actually wrote." Terry Pinkard, Georgetown University |
NIH Research Matters
August 27, 2012
Implanted Heart Cells Stifle Irregular Rhythms
Heart cells derived from human stem cells can protect injured guinea pig hearts against abnormal rhythms, a new study showed. Similar | NIH Research Matters
August 27, 2012
Implanted Heart Cells Stifle Irregular Rhythms
Heart cells derived from human stem cells can protect injured guinea pig hearts against abnormal rhythms, a new study showed. Similar heart cell transplants might one day hold promise for treating damaged human hearts.
Scientists showed that transplanted human heart cells (green) could beat in sync with neighboring guinea pig cells (pink) and prevent abnormal rhythms. Image by Shiba et al., courtesy of Nature.
Heart attacks are a leading killer of men and women nationwide. Survivors have damaged heart tissue and an increased risk for life-threatening arrhythmia—an irregularity in the rate or rhythm of the heartbeat.
Scientists have been exploring the potential of repairing injured hearts with infusions of heart cells derived from human embryonic stem cells. Earlier research led by Drs. Charles E. Murry and Michael A. Laflamme at the University of Washington showed that these cells could improve the structure and the function of damaged hearts in rats and mice. But it was unclear if the transplanted cells could properly beat in sync with heart muscle inside the animals' bodies. Mice and rats have rapid heartbeats—about 400 to 600 beats per minute. But in a culture dish, the fastest rhythm achieved by heart cells derived from human stem cells was 240 beats per minute.
To see if transplanted human cells could beat in rhythm with a functioning heart, the scientists turned to the guinea pig. Its heart rate is about 200 to 250 beats per minute. The research was funded by NIH's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), along with the Geron Corporation. Results appeared online on August 5, 2012, in Nature.
The scientists transplanted the human stem-cell-derived heart cells into more than a dozen guinea pigs with damaged hearts. The cells were delivered along with a “pro-survival cocktail,” a chemical mixture that enhances engraftment. For comparison, some animals received the cocktail along with non-heart cells derived from human embryonic stem cells. Others received only the pro-survival cocktail.
A month later, all the animals still had evidence of heart damage. But those treated with heart cells had grown some human heart tissue within scarred regions of the animals' hearts. The heart cell group also had fewer episodes of ventricular tachycardia, an arrhythmia marked by a too-fast heartbeat. When later challenged with electrical stimulation to the heart, only about 7% of heart cell recipients developed arrhythmia, compared to at least 50% in the other 2 groups.
The researchers next assessed how well the transplanted cells could sync with the rhythm of the guinea pig heart. They tagged the stem-cell-derived heart cells with fluorescent molecules that flashed with each contraction. Labeled cells transplanted to uninjured hearts became strongly coupled to the animals' heart rhythms under a variety of conditions. Transplants to injured hearts generally included both coupled and uncoupled regions.
“In our study, we discovered that the heart cell grafts do, in fact, couple to the guinea pig hearts,” Laflamme says. “We show that the transplantation of these cells also reduces the incidence of arrhythmias.” These results are encouraging, but the researchers note that long-term studies of safety and effectiveness must be done in larger animals before this type of therapy could be considered for humans.—by Vicki Contie
Stem Cell Treatment Repairs Damaged Rat Hearts:
- Stem Cell Basics:
Reference: Nature. 2012 Aug 5. doi: 10.1038/nature11317. [Epub ahead of print]. PMID: 22864415.
NIH Research Matters
Bldg. 31, Rm. 5B64A, MSC 2094
Bethesda, MD 20892-2094
About NIH Research Matters
Editor: Harrison Wein, Ph.D.
Assistant Editors: Vicki Contie, Carol Torgan, Ph.D.
NIH Research Matters is a weekly update of NIH research highlights from the Office of Communications and Public Liaison, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health. |
Two-day old baby with a good case of jaundice.
Jaundice is an extensive topic, one that student midwives need to research on their own. Here, I will share the bare basics, merely enough to act as a spring | Two-day old baby with a good case of jaundice.
Jaundice is an extensive topic, one that student midwives need to research on their own. Here, I will share the bare basics, merely enough to act as a springboard to the enormous amount of information out there. Even as an experienced midwife, when I have babies with jaundice, I head onto the Net to check for new information and to reinforce/remind me what I have already learned. (The article linked to the word "jaundice" has an extremely comprehensive, medically-oriented, but understandable article. Bookmark it.)
Jaundice can be benign or serious. The causes are generally the distinction between the two, but even normal jaundice can be exacerbated by outside influences. Jaundice that occurs within the first 24 hours is cause for serious investigation.
Benign types of jaundice include:
Normal physiologic jaundice - When the baby's liver is too immature to keep up with the bilirubin that's breaking down in the blood.
Breast milk jaundice - Breast milk is thought to have properties that inhibit the breakdown of bilirubin, causing some babies to develop jaundice between four and seven days in that first week and lasting several weeks. From what I have found, there hasn't ever been a case of kernicterus (Kernicterus is a form of brain damage caused by excessive jaundice) with breast milk jaundice.
Breastfeeding jaundice - This mimics normal physiologic jaundice but seems to abate once the mother's milk is in. Too often, babies are taken off the breast for a couple of days, waiting for the milk to come in, before allowing the baby with a higher bili count to nurse again. Of course, we know that delaying nursing delays the milk coming in and interferes with mother and baby togetherness.
The more serious types of jaundice can be:
ABO Incompatibility - When the mom has the blood type O and the baby does not.
Birth trauma - Bruising that occurs during the birth, including the cranial suffusion caused by a shoulder dystocia, can set the baby up for serious jaundice.
Premature babies - The liver is what helps process the bilirubin, so in a premie, the liver is already immature and unable to keep up with the needs of their new neonatal body; most premature babies deal with jaundice after birth.
Bilirubin is measured in the blood by any or all of these tests:
The fear of a bili level getting too high is kernicterus (mentioned briefly above). Kernicterus can cause brain damage and even death in babies. One serious issue with kernicterus is there is no absolute number when a baby topples into it; each baby has their own threshold, meaning some babies will be treated needlessly, whereas others should have been treated earlier. Guidelines do exist regarding when to initiate treatment with Bili-Lights (phototherapy), but I have found that each hospital and even each doctor seems to have their own numbers in mind. (I am sure that, as with all us birthy folks, they are a product of their experiences and if they had a baby with kernicterus at a lower-than-standard number, they might act more conservatively than the recommendations suggest.)
Treatment for serious jaundice is putting the baby under bili-lights (pic below), sometimes for days, until the bili level drops to a safer number.
The bili-lights help to break down the bilirubin in the system, lowering the numbers faster than if left alone. (This is an extremely simplistic explanation.) The set-up seen above has been used for decades. Today, with a bili count in the moderate range, the doctor might prescribe a BiliBlanket instead. Both the blanket and overhead lights can now be done at home as long as the baby isn't terribly ill; insurance would rather pay the lower cost of home bili treatment anyway.
As I said, please use this minimal information as a beginning to learn about newborn jaundice. This is, in no way, enough information for you to make a decision about you and your baby.
But, I loved the picture at the beginning and wanted to share it. I haven't gotten a really great pic of a yellow baby; glad I have one now. |
Year of Jubilee, also called Holy Year, in the Roman Catholic church, a celebration that is observed on certain special occasions and for 1 year every 25 years, under certain conditions, when a special indulgence is granted to members of | Year of Jubilee, also called Holy Year, in the Roman Catholic church, a celebration that is observed on certain special occasions and for 1 year every 25 years, under certain conditions, when a special indulgence is granted to members of the faith by the pope and confessors are given special faculties, including the lifting of cen |
The 40 acre Pickering Brook salt marsh was one many marshes on the Atlantic Coast that was ditched and drained in the 1930’s in an attempt to control mosquitoes. What resulted was the loss of semi-permanent open water on | The 40 acre Pickering Brook salt marsh was one many marshes on the Atlantic Coast that was ditched and drained in the 1930’s in an attempt to control mosquitoes. What resulted was the loss of semi-permanent open water on the marsh surface, critical for black ducks, wading birds, shorebirds, and fish. Prior to earth-moving activities DU, the University of New Hampshire and the NH Coastal Program and volunteers documented the degraded “health” of Pickering Brook marsh by examining fish and bird use, mosquito larvae abundance, and groundwater and salinity levels.
Restoration activities were designed to be completed in two phases over two years. In order to determine success, the “health” of the 2 phases will be compared (prior to and after each phase) to a nearby ditched salt marsh (with no restoration activities planned) to determine success.
Sections of the ditches are filled and semi-permanent open-water on the marsh surface is re-created with specialized wetland equipment (see photo). By increasing the amount of water available on the marsh surface, we will re-create essential open water habitat that will allow native salt marsh dependant species – waterfowl (such as black ducks and green-winged teal), fish, songbirds and shorebirds, etc., to return and increase in number. This restoration will also naturally manage the mosquito population and improve water quality.
Funds received from DU donors, the Fuller Foundation, the Town of Greenland, and from the sale of the Conservation License Plate (Moose Plate) under the NH State Conservation Committee (NH SCC) grant program combined with volunteer time, will match federal funds from the NH Coastal Program/NOAA partnership, the NH Estuary Project/Environmental Protection Agency partnership, and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to restore the Pickering Brook salt marsh to its former beauty and function. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.