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- Enter a word for the dictionary definition.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Unappealable \Un`ap*peal"a*ble\, a. 1. Not appealable; that
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- Enter a word for the dictionary definition.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Unappealable \Un`ap*peal"a*ble\, a. 1. Not appealable; that can not be carried to a higher tribunal by appeal; as, an unappealable suit or action. [1913 Webster] 2. Not to be appealed from; -- said of a judge or a judgment that can not be overruled. [1913 Webster] The infallible, unappealable Judge [God]. --South. [1913 Webster] We submitted to a galling yet unappealable necessity. --Shelley. [1913 Webster] -- Un`ap*peal"a*bly, adv. [1913 Webster]
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Today in Germany, black cohosh is a main ingredient of three commercial drugs used for menopausal discomforts. Germany's Commission E, a governmental panel that studies and makes recommendations about medicinal herbs, has found black cohosh to be a safe
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Today in Germany, black cohosh is a main ingredient of three commercial drugs used for menopausal discomforts. Germany's Commission E, a governmental panel that studies and makes recommendations about medicinal herbs, has found black cohosh to be a safe and reasonably effective treatment of nervous conditions associated with menopause. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1986 found no pharmacologic evidence of therapeutic value in black cohosh and cautioned against its overuse.
(also known as black snakeroot,
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Ancient Carving Shows Stylishly Plump African Princess - Yahoo! News
A 2,000-year-old relief carved with an image of what appears to be a, stylishly overweight, princess has been discovered in an "extremely
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Ancient Carving Shows Stylishly Plump African Princess - Yahoo! News
A 2,000-year-old relief carved with an image of what appears to be a, stylishly overweight, princess has been discovered in an "extremely fragile" palace in the ancient city of MeroŽ, in Sudan, archaeologists say.
At the time the relief was made, MeroŽ was the center of a kingdom named Kush, its borders stretching as far north as the southern edge of Egypt. It wasn't unusual for queens (sometimes referred to as "Candaces") to rule, facing down the armies of an expanding Rome.
The sandstone relief shows a woman smiling, her hair carefully dressed and an earring on her left ear. She appears to have a second chin and a bit of fat on her neck, something considered stylish, at the time, among royal women from Kush.
Team leader Krzysztof Grzymski presented the relief, among other finds from the palace at MeroŽ, at an Egyptology symposium held recently at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.
Researchers don't know the identity of the woman being depicted, but based on the artistic style the relief appears to date back around 2,000 years and show someone royal. "It's similar to other images of princesses," Grzymski told LiveScience in an interview. He said that the headdress hasn't survived and it cannot be ruled out that it actually depicts a queen. [Image Gallery: Amazing Egyptian Discoveries]
Why royal women in Kush preferred to be depicted overweight is a long-standing mystery. "There is a distinct possibility that the large size of the Candaces represented fertility and maternity," wrote the late Miriam Ma'at-Ka-Re Monges, who was a professor at California State University, Chico, and an expert on Kush, in an article published in The Encyclopedia of Black Studies (Sage Publications, 2005).
An ancient palace
The discovery occurred in 2007 as Grzymski's team was exploring a royal palace in the city, trying to determine its date. The sandstone blocks that made up its foundation were "extremely fragile," according to Grzymski, and the team found that the palace dated to late in the life of Kush's existence. The blocks were re-used in antiquity by the palace's builders and were originally from buildings that stood in earlier times.
When they found the relief it "was loose and falling apart so we just took it out," Grzymski said. It was brought to a museum in Khartoum, Sudan's modern capital, for safekeeping. "There's always a danger of robbers coming and taking [them] out, so many of those decorated blocks were in danger."
They found many other decorated blocks as well, Grzymski said. Because they had been re-used in antiquity the blocks were out of order and presented researchers with a giant jigsaw puzzle.
"Ideally, I would like to dismantle this whole wall, this foundation wall, and take out the decorated blocks and see if we would be able reconstruct some other structures from which the blocks came," Grzymski told the Toronto audience.
It's one of many, many, tasks that need
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Handouts for Week Five
5” Chalice Lighting and Opening Reading
20” Activity 1: Cheap Labor for Cheap Goods
20” Activity 2: Economic Development
20” Activity 3: The Profitability of Prisons
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Handouts for Week Five
5” Chalice Lighting and Opening Reading
20” Activity 1: Cheap Labor for Cheap Goods
20” Activity 2: Economic Development
20” Activity 3: The Profitability of Prisons
Chalice Lighting and Opening Reading
In order to address the issue of mass migration to the U.S., we must understand the root causes of this migration: poverty, conflict, oppression. Part of our responsibility is to study what effect U.S. foreign and economic policies may have on increasing poverty and oppression in the countries from which many immigrants come. As the Catholic Bishops of the US said... "We oppose efforts to stem migration that do not adequately address its root causes and that permit the continuation of the political, social, and economic inequalities that contribute to it.
—Statement of Principles on Immigration Issues, Interfaith Worker Justice Board of Directors
Participants are invited to share where they are spiritually/emotionally with respect to the class.
Activity 1: Cheap Labor for Cheap Goods
Based on what we learned in session three about the economic pressures on immigration and handouts 5.1 and 5.3, who is it that benefits from this large pool of undocumented workers? Who is hurt? In what ways are we as U.S. consumers complicit?
Activity 2: Economic "Development"
Much of our economic/trade policies with "developing" countries is based on the assumption that free-trade and globalization are beneficial to the poor. Based on handout 5.2, are these assumptions valid. Who is it that benefits from "economic development" and "free trade"? Tying in from session three, what is the effect on the workers as goods are shipped freely across borders?
Activity 3: The Profitability of Prisons
As we have learned from session one, being in the U.S. without proper documentation is a civil offense, not criminal. Yet in recent years there has been an increasing movement towards criminalizing undocumented immigration in order to "get tough" on those who come (or stay) without proper papers. Based on handouts 5.4 and 5.5, what other motivations are at work? Regardless of one's feelings about undocumented immigration, how do people feel about our tax dollars being spent this way?
Participants are invited to share anything that strongly moved them during the session.
Closing Reading and Extinguishing the Chalice
May God bless us with discomfort
at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships,
so that we may live deep within our hearts.
May God bless us with anger
at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
so that we may work for economic justice for all people.
May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer
from pain, hunger, homelessness and rejection,
so that we may reach out our hand to comfort them
and to turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless us with enough foolishness
to believe that we can make a difference in the world
so that we can do what others claim cannot be done.
—Franciscan Prayer to End Poverty
Homework for Week Six
To explore the topics covered in this session, as well as related topics, see the resources listed in section II.E (PDF, 12 pages) of the study guide.
For more information contact socialjustice @ uua.org.
This work is made possible by the generosity of individual donors and congregations.
Please consider making a donation today.
Last updated on Tuesday, October 11, 2011.
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More Ways to Search
Immigration Curriculum - Week Five, PDF version (26 pages)
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Learn more about the Beliefs & Principles of Unitarian Universalism, or read our online magazine, UU World, for features on today's Unitarian Universalists. Visit an online UU church, or find a congregation near you.
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One of the ironies of world tourism is that Western travelers flock in droves to locations in hot, sunny climates to experience different cultures, yet many of them demand that their hotel rooms feel just as cool as their homes. Usually, this involves
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One of the ironies of world tourism is that Western travelers flock in droves to locations in hot, sunny climates to experience different cultures, yet many of them demand that their hotel rooms feel just as cool as their homes. Usually, this involves some kind of energy-hogging air-conditioning device that can tax the overloaded grids of these rural locations.
Fortunately, there are some natural forms of A/C that get the job done without turning an exotic natural location into a sealed-off American suburb. On the Spanish island of Ibiza in the Mediterranean Sea, the Hotel de Ushüaia has incorporated an ingenious method to keep its guests cool using a living vertical garden and the magical properties of evaporation.
The hotel’s undulating terracotta wall, called the Eco.bin Greenwall System, was designed by Urbanarbolismo and built with the help of construction firms Alicante forestal and Alijardín. Urbanarbolismo describes it as the first use of a green wall specifically as an air-conditioning tool.
Eco.bin is made of hundreds of hollow ceramic containers that are turned on their sides and interconnected in a grid pattern, forming a perforated wall. Inside each opening, plants native to the Mediterranean climate are placed in substrates. Through a regular schedule of drip and mist irrigation, the plants retain moisture, which is enhanced by the porosity of the terracotta.
As the sea breezes blow through the openings, evapotraspiration, or the release of water vapor from the plants, cools the air around them and helps lower the temperature in the hotel’s courtyard. The ventilation also allows for the roots to trap and absorb pollutants from the air.
Plants used in the Eco.bin wall include aeonium, crassula, echeveria, euphorbia, kalanchoe, sedeveria, and sedum. Because these succulent plants are so well suited to the island’s semi-arid climate they don’t require much substrate and are fairly hardy. Some of the plants that get most of their water and nutrients directly from the air, reducing the need for drip irrigation.
If the Hotel de Ushüaia has any problems with the plants, the staff can easily replace individual plants without the need for extensive knowledge of gardening. As an added benefit, the high curved wall at the hotel also acts as a sound absorption barrier.
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In January 1929, Adolf Hitler appointed Himmler as head of the SS. Within a few years, Himmler built the SS from a force of 200 men into an organization 50,000 men strong with its own distinctive
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In January 1929, Adolf Hitler appointed Himmler as head of the SS. Within a few years, Himmler built the SS from a force of 200 men into an organization 50,000 men strong with its own distinctive black uniform, personal devotion to Hitler, and ethos. In 1934, Reichsführer (leader) of the SS Himmler gained control of the Gestapo. Hitler rewarded him for his active role in the 1934 Blood Purge by making the SS an independent organization second only to his own immediate authority. In June 1936, Himmler also gained control of all the police forces of Germany.
Although he was physically far removed from the ideal Aryan type, Himmler was a fanatical adherent of Nazi racial theories. He busied himself with fantastic schemes to breed a new race of "pure Aryans"—an SS version of the medieval knights—who would rule Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals. He set up special Lebensborn homes for unmarried mothers with impeccable racial antecedents, and special schools (the SS Junkerschulen) for training the SS future elite. Hitler, despite his promise to the German army, allowed Himmler to establish armed SS formations, known as the SS Verfügungstruppen (emergency troops), from which came the divisions of the Waffen-SS during World War II. The SS also came to have considerable economic interests, including armaments factories. By 1939, Himmler's influence overshadowed the Nazi Pa
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A podiatrist, also called a doctor of podiatric medicine, is a specialist who provides medical diagnosis and treatment of foot and ankle problems, including, but not limited to sprains and fractures, bunions, heel pain/spurs, hamm
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A podiatrist, also called a doctor of podiatric medicine, is a specialist who provides medical diagnosis and treatment of foot and ankle problems, including, but not limited to sprains and fractures, bunions, heel pain/spurs, hammertoes, neuromas, ingrown toenails, warts, corns and calluses.
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At the beginning of the Millennium, Ethiopia’s human development indicators were amongst the very lowest in the world. The government has committed to significant progress to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), supporting decentralized basic service delivery. Despite good progress towards these
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At the beginning of the Millennium, Ethiopia’s human development indicators were amongst the very lowest in the world. The government has committed to significant progress to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), supporting decentralized basic service delivery. Despite good progress towards these goals, the outcome and subsequent social unrest following the 2005 elections strained the relationship between Ethiopia and its donor partners, resulting in the suspension of budget support, and posing a significant risk to the continued roll out of the government’s targeted poverty spending program. Focusing on joint commitment to reach the MDGs, the Protection of Basic Services (PBS) Program seeks to ensure uninterrupted support to basic services such as education, health, water, and agriculture, while strengthening local government capacity and improving accountability in the management of public resources.
The International Development Association (IDA) supports the government commitment to expand access to decentralized basic services and it follows a nationwide, programmatic approach across several sectors, channeling resources through government public financial systems directly to district governments. IDA’s role to organize a coalition of development partners to support these block grants to the district governments is crucial to the program’s success. In the interest of fairness and transparency, regional governments distributed block grants to local governments according to intergovernmental fiscal rules. Over the course of the PBS Program, total basic service spending by regions and district governments almost doubled, from US$505 million in 2005 to US$1,149 million in 2009.
The program complements these block grant resources with capacity building to promote transparency and local accountability, maintain fiduciary standards and generate accurate results. As part of this overall effort to strengthen capacity, the PBS Program includes a pilot effort for local governments to plan and manage capital investments in a transparent and participatory manner; a US$12 million initiative to promote social accountability, the largest social accountability program in Africa; and a financial transparency and accountability program to make local budget and service delivery information available to service users.
The PBS Program is aimed at increasing access and quality of basic services, while building government systems capacity and supporting the government of Ethiopia’s decentralization drive. The project has already shown significant results, including the following:
- With support from the project, local governments were able to hire an additional 100,000 primary school teachers nationwide. This has contributed to increasing the net primary school enrollment rate increased from 68.5 percent (2005) to 87.9 percent (2010Child immunization rate increased from 70 (2005) to 82 percent (2010) through placement of 35,000 health extension workers nationwide, so that two trained workers are in every new health post in every community in the country and essential immunization materials are available in each of these health posts;
- Rural access to potable water increased from 46 percent (2005) to 65.8 percent (2010);
- Improved transparency as all regions and 90 percent of local governments posted budgets in public places; and
- Strengthened accountability and fiduciary systems since quarterly audits took place for 95 percent of local governments nationwide (730 out of 770).
The original 2006 IDA allocation to the ongoing Ethiopia PBS Program was a US$215 million credit. Additional grant financing was provided in 2008 for another US$215 million equivalent. A follow-up operation (PBS II) was approved in May 2009 with an IDA commitment of US$540 million equivalent. In February 2011, IDA committed US$420 million in additional financing for the PBS II. Total project costs for the PBS 2, reached US$4,148.1 million, with the government of Ethiopia providing a total of US$1,951.6 million. Outside of IDA funding, development partners have contributed US$869.7 million for the PBS 2 and are anticipated to cover a remaining financing gap of US$366.8 million.
As an effective instrument to support the government’s commitment to local basic services, in addition to IDA, the PBS Program has been supported by 10 other development partners (the African Development Bank, the Governments of Austria, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the German Development Bank (KFW) and the European Commission.). The guiding principles for donor participation in the PBS Program are harmonization of aid and integration with the government of Ethiopia’s financial systems. As the program’s primary motivator, IDA took responsibility for harmonizing donor contributions, co-chairing the PBS Development Partners group to seek consensus, and channeling funding on donors’ behalf. The PBS 1 involved donor contributions of US$814 million. Most PBS 1 donors provided their financ
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KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO) - It’s been one thing after another for west Michigan Fruit growers. First came the early spring, and then the frosts of April wiped out most of their crops. The fruit that did
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KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO) - It’s been one thing after another for west Michigan Fruit growers. First came the early spring, and then the frosts of April wiped out most of their crops. The fruit that did survive including blueberries is now being threatened by a prolonged drought.
WMU meteorologist Robert Ruhf says just as the spring started warm in March and then became a pretty typical spring, he thinks summer has also gotten off to a warmer than normal start, but will settle down to a more normal pattern. He says the second half of the year could be quite different than the first half due to a shift in the El Nino out in the Pacific.
He says he is expecting a normal amount of rain too for the rest of the summer, but none at all for the next two weeks, and because July and August are typically the driest of the year.- that may be a problem in the fields.
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|All about diverticular disease causes of diverticular disease symptoms of diverticular disease diagnosis of diverticular disease complications of diverticular disease treatment for diverticular disease high fiber diet for diverticular diseases diverticulitis complications of diverticulitis causes
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|All about diverticular disease causes of diverticular disease symptoms of diverticular disease diagnosis of diverticular disease complications of diverticular disease treatment for diverticular disease high fiber diet for diverticular diseases diverticulitis complications of diverticulitis causes of diverticulitis symtoms of diverticulitis diagnosis of diverticulitis treatments for diverticulitis diverticulitis surgery diverticulosis causes of diverticulosis symptoms of diverticulosis complications of diverticulosis diagnosing diverticulosis treatment of diverticulosis
What causes diverticulitis?
Diverticulitis can only occur in people who have diverticulosis. Both conditions are more common in people older than 50. Diverticulosis is more common in people who have a low intake of fiber in their diets. Diverticula usually occur in the left side
of the large bowel or colon. This may be due to higher pressure in this part of the bowel. Once a diverticulum has formed, it may become infected. This infection causes the inflammation and symptoms of diverticulitis.
The etiology of diverticulitis remains unclear, but a low-fiber diet is considered a predisposing factor. Diets that are low in fiber lead to low-bulk stool, which, in turn, causes an increase in segmentation of the colon during propulsion. Intraluminal pressure is increased, and diverticula are created. Diets that are high in fat and beef content are thought by some to cause increased intraluminal pressure. Aging causes changes in collagen structure that may lead to a weakening of the colonic wall. Colonic motility disorders, ingestion of corticosteroids, and ingestion of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may be predisposing factors. Genetics is also believed to play a role, as evidenced by the fact that Asian people tend to have a predominance of right-sided diverticula, while Western people tend to have left-sided disease.
More information on diverticular disease
What is diverticular disease? - Diverticular disease is a condition in which small pouches, called diverticula, develop in the wall of the colon, or large intestine.
What causes diverticular disease? - Diverticular disease essentially results from eating a diet with too little fiber. Fiber is the part of fruits, vegetables, and grains that the body cannot digest.
What are the symptoms of diverticular disease? - The major symptoms of diverticular disease are abdominal pain, diarrhea, cramps, alteration of bowel habit and occasionally, severe rectal bleeding.
How is diverticular disease diagnosed? - A complete diagnostic work-up for diverticular disease including colonoscopy, and radiological examinations are the basic tools for initial investigation.
What are the complications of diverticular disease? - Complications of diverticulosis include bleeding, infection, perforation, abscess fistula formation, and obstruction.
What is the treatment for diverticular disease? - The only treatment for mild diverticulosis is to increase fiber in the diet. For diverticulitis, antibiotics will be prescribed.
High fiber diet for diverticular diseases - Good sources of fiber for diverticular diseases include whole grains, nuts and seeds, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and a dietary supplement of fiber products.
What is diverticulitis? - Diverticulitis is a common condition in which abnormal pouches (diverticula) in the wall of the colon become inflamed.
What are the complications of diverticulitis? - Complications of diverticulitis may include a blockage in colon, an abscess or a fistula. Peritonitis is a medical emergency and requires immediate care.
What causes diverticulitis? - Diverticulitis can only occur in people who have diverticulosis. Diverticulosis is more common in people who have a low intake of fiber in their diets.
What're the symtoms of diverticulitis? - Symptoms of diverticulitis are due to the muscle abnormality and consist of pain, often abdominal distension, an irregular bowel habit with pellet-like stools.
How is diverticulitis diagnosed? - Diverticulitis is suspected after a history and physical examination. Diverticulitis is usually diagnosed during an acute attack.
What are the treatments for diverticulitis? - Treatment of diverticulitis depends on the severity of symptoms and whether this is a first attack of diverticulitis.
What's the diverticulitis surgery? - Emergency surgery is necessary for people whose intestine has ruptured; intestinal rupture always results in infection of the abdominal cavity.
What is diverticulosis? - Diverticulosis is a condition in which small outpouchings of the colon wall develop through time. Diverticula may develop anywhere in the large intestine.
What causes diverticulosis? - A low fibre diet can lead to small, hard stools which are difficult to pass. The pouches that develop are called diverticula.
What are the symptoms of diverticulosis? - Diverticulosis do not have any signs or symptoms. Diverticulosis can sometimes cause unexplained painful cramps, diarrhea or other bowel movement disturbances.
What are the complications of diverticulosis? - Diverticulitis can lead to complications such as infections, perforations or tears, blockages, or bleeding.
How is diverticulosis diagnosed? - Diverticulosis is suspected when symptoms such as unexplained painful cramps, diarrhea or other bowel movement disturbances, or rectal bleeding are present.
What is the treatment for diverticulosis? - The goal of treatment for diverticulosis is usually to reduce intestinal spasms, which is best achieved by maintain
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I hesitate to even begin to speak of this travesty, because I wasn’t there the night Trayvon was killed. I wasn’t present during the trial to listen to the facts and arguments of both sides. I wasn’t in the room while
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I hesitate to even begin to speak of this travesty, because I wasn’t there the night Trayvon was killed. I wasn’t present during the trial to listen to the facts and arguments of both sides. I wasn’t in the room while the jury deliberated, eventually handing down a “not guilty” verdict.
Trayvon’s death has brought an uncomfortable truth back into the light—we are racist. Little has changed. His death asks that we examine who we are as individuals and as a country. Trayvon’s death begs that we and our society change.
I work with people who have largely adopted and parent transracially (a child of a racial or ethnic group different than theirs), primarily white parents (73%) adopting nonwhite children. I’m also a white mama of a multiracial family. Because of what I do and how I live, race is always a consideration, an issue… For example, as his mother I am charged with teaching my Hispanic son to:
- Embrace his cultural heritage, authentically feel connected to his racial and ethnic group,
- Understand that although there is no racial hierarchy, people continue to support a social construct of one,
- Understand the stereotypes and biases that will be assumed to be true about him, and that people may seek to limit him because of their beliefs,
- Understand racism,
- Drive under the speed limit,
- Strictly adhere to curfews,
- Park his attitude and remain clam even though flooded with anxiety, in the presence of white authority,
- Understand how he is viewed by others, because he is brown (and feels white),
- Be cautious in predominately white neighborhoods and communities, even though he has white parents (he is not accepted as white), and
- Use Spanish in the presence Hispanic people (he is seen as Hispanic, and speaking Spanish is an expectation).
I am not Trayvon Martin, but in a sense I do parent him. And as his mother, as a compassionate human, I care with every fiber of my being. I ache to keep him safe—physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I will continue to advocate for others to accept and embrace him for the fine young man he is.
For Discussion: How has Trayvon’s death impacted you? What can you do as a parent to arm your child, and to advocate for change?
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(Mammography, Breast X-ray)
What is a mammogram?
A mammogram is an x-ray examination of the breast. It is used to detect and diagnose breast disease in women who either have breast problems such as a lump, pain,
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(Mammography, Breast X-ray)
What is a mammogram?
A mammogram is an x-ray examination of the breast. It is used to detect and diagnose breast disease in women who either have breast problems such as a lump, pain, or nipple discharge, as well as for women who have no breast complaints. The procedure allows detection of breast cancers, benign tumors, and cysts before they can be detected by palpation (touch).
Mammography cannot prove that an abnormal area is cancer, but if it raises a significant suspicion of cancer, tissue will be removed for a biopsy. Tissue may be removed by needle or open surgical biopsy and examined under a microscope to determine if it is cancer.
Mammography has been used for about 30 years, and in the past 15 years technical advancements have greatly improved both the technique and results. Today, dedicated equipment, used only for breast x-rays, produces studies that are high in quality but low in radiation dose. Radiation risks are considered to be negligible.
The development of digital mammography technology allows for improved breast imaging, in particular, for women less than 50 years of age, women with dense breast tissue, and women who are premenopausal or perimenopausal. Digital mammography provides electronic images of the breasts that can be enhanced by computer technology, stored on computers, and even transmitted electronically in situations where remote access to the mammogram is required. The procedure for a digital mammography is basically performed the same way as a standard mammogram.
With computer-aided detection (CAD) systems, a digitized mammographic image from a conventional film mammogram or a digitally acquired mammogram is analyzed for masses, calcifications, or areas of abnormal density that may indicate the presence of cancer. The images are highlighted by the CAD system for further analysis by the radiologist.
What are the different types of mammograms?
According to the National Cancer Institute:
Screening mammogramA screening mammogram is an x-ray of the breast used to detect breast changes in women who have no signs or symptoms of breast cancer. It usually involves two x-rays of each breast. Using a mammogram, it is possible to detect a tumor that cannot be felt.
A diagnostic mammogram is an x-ray of the breast used to diagnose unusual breast changes, such as a lump, pain, nipple thickening or discharge, or a change in breast size or shape.A diagnostic mammogram is also used to evaluate abnormalities detected on a screening mammogram. It is a basic medical tool and is appropriate in the workup of breast changes, regardless of a woman's age.
What is an x-ray?
X-rays use invisible electromagnetic energy beams to produce images of internal tissues, bones, and organs on film. Standard x-rays are performed for many reasons, including diagnosing tumors or bone injuries.
X-rays are made by using external radiation to produce images of the body, its organs, and other internal structures for diagnostic purposes. X-rays pass through body structures onto specially-treated plates (similar to camera film) and a "negative" type picture is made (the more solid a structure is, the whiter it appears on the film).
Anatomy of the Breasts
Each breast has 15 to 20 sections, called lobes, which are arranged like the petals of a daisy. Each lobe has many smaller lobules, which end in dozens of tiny bulbs that can produce milk.
The lobes, lobules, and bulbs are all linked by thin tubes called ducts. These ducts lead to the nipple in the center of a dark area of skin called the areola. Fat fills the spaces between lobules and ducts.
There are no muscles in the breast, but muscles lie under each breast and cover the ribs.
Each breast also contains blood vessels and vessels that carry lymph. The lymph vessels lead to small bean-shaped organs called lymph nodes, clusters of which are found under the arm, above the collarbone, and in the chest, as well as in many other parts of the body.
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Almost every country in the world is affected by the scourge of human trafficking, a UN report will reveal today.
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which has compiled the first such study from open sources, there
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Almost every country in the world is affected by the scourge of human trafficking, a UN report will reveal today.
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which has compiled the first such study from open sources, there are 127 countries of origin, mainly developing countries, and 137 destination countries, mainly in the industrialised world.The report also highlights 98 transit countries.
"The fact that slavery - in the form of human trafficking - still exists in the 21st century shames us all," said UNODC's chief, Antonio Maria Costa.
The report, to be presented to the UN crime commission meeting in Vienna, calls for the protection of victims, particularly women and children, and for the systematic prosecution of offenders. "Traffickers are evil brokers of oppressed people whom they deliver in the hands of exploiters," Mr Costa said. "They capitalise on weak law enforcement and poor international co-operation. I am disappointed by the low rates of convictions for the perpetrators of human trafficking."
Germany, Greece and France are among about a dozen countries identified as having a "high" incidence of acting as transit countries. Ten countries are named as the top destinations for trafficking victims: Belgium, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Thailand, Turkey and the US. Britain is on the "high" index of destination countries.
Human trafficking for sexual exploitation is reported more frequently than trafficking for forced labour at the global level, the report says. It calls for governments to publicise the risks to vulnerable people through information campaigns. "A main challenge is to reduce demand, whether for cheap goods manufactured in sweatshops, or for under-priced commodities produced by bonded people in farms and mines, or for services provided by sex slaves. If people are aware of the dangers of human trafficking, the chances of avoiding its consequences should be improved," Mr Costa said.
The absence of data has been a major handicap in tackling the crime of human trafficking, the report says. "Some countries of destination have great difficulty in acknowledging the level of trafficking within and across their borders," Mr Costa said. He urged governments to "try harder" in reporting abuse, saying that efforts to understand the scale of the problem have so far been inefficient and uncoordinated.
The report also acknowledges possible dangers in interpreting the available data. Som
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Most people know that The King's Highway was a very important route between Boston and New York in early colonial times. Over time it's been called the Main Country Road, the Ordinary Road, the Stage Road, the Turnpike Road and the West
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Most people know that The King's Highway was a very important route between Boston and New York in early colonial times. Over time it's been called the Main Country Road, the Ordinary Road, the Stage Road, the Turnpike Road and the Westchester Path. A Toll House was set up on the road in 1792 near where Post Road Iron Works exists toda
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In a recent study, scientists have demonstrated that a hybrid system of hydrogen and carbon can produce a sufficient amount of liquid hydrocarbon fuels to power the entire U.S. transportation sector. Using biomass to produce the carbon, and solar energy to produce hydrogen
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In a recent study, scientists have demonstrated that a hybrid system of hydrogen and carbon can produce a sufficient amount of liquid hydrocarbon fuels to power the entire U.S. transportation sector. Using biomass to produce the carbon, and solar energy to produce hydrogen, the process requires only a fraction of the land area needed by other proposed methods.
According to Purdue University scientists Rakesh Agrawal, Navneet Singh, Fabio Ribeiro, and Nicholas Delgass, this appealing scenario is well within reach of current or near-future technology.
“Enough technology exists to build the main concept of this process today,” Agrawal told PhysOrg.com. “H2CAR could also endure sustainably for thousands of years. [We hope that] this process will lead to the birth of a new economy, a ‘hybrid hydrogen-carbon economy.’”
The hybrid hydrogen-carbon (H2CAR) process takes advantage of the energy density of liquid hydrocarbons (currently provided from oil), but it uses a sustainable and environmentally-friendly method. Because the fuel is essentially the same, though, the H2CAR process could conveniently merge into the existing infrastructure and bypass delivery problems associated with other alternative energy carriers.
In their paper published in PNAS, Agrawal et al. analyzed and compared different variations of the H2CAR process. They found that an optimal method would use biomass (such as switchgrass or corn) to provide the carbon. The main source of energy driving the process would come from hydrogen. The hydrogen could be generated from solar energy or another carbon-free energy source, such as nuclear or wind power.
“Conventional processes treat biomass as a source of carbon atoms as well as a source of energy,” Agrawal explained. “This leads to the formation of a large amount of CO2 during the conversion process. The significance of the H2CAR process, on the other hand, lies in the fact that we are treating carbon in biomass or coal as primarily a source of carbon atoms and not a source of energy. This preserves all the carbon in the biomass and converts it to liquid fuel.”
The scientists explain how the gasification and liquid conversion processes work: In a conventional process biomass, O2 and steam are fed together to a gasifier, where they are transformed to gaseous products—primarily CO, CO2 and H2—through a gasification and combustion process. In this gasification gives CO plus H2 and a huge amount of CO2.
The next step is to transform the gas to a liquid fuel in a Fischer-Tropsch process, where an additional quantity of CO2 is produced. Usually, this large quantity of CO2 formed is released in the atmosphere and requires large amounts of land for the biomass-to-liquid process.
“The H2CAR method has a solution to these problems,” Agrawal explained. “H2 from a carbon-free energy source, along with CO2 from the gas to liquid conversion step, is co-fed to the gasifier. The presence of excess H2 in the gasifier not only suppresses formation of CO2 but also reacts with some of the recycled CO2. The same happens with CO and H2, which are unreacted in a ‘gas to liquid fuel process’ and also recycled. As a result, we don't lose any carbon atoms as CO2, a greenhouse gas, from the H2CAR.”
One concern about the use of biomass to produce fuel is the estimated amount of land area: in conventional methods, biomass would require 25-58% of the total U.S. land area to provide fuel for the country. Based on the current scenario of growth rates and gasifier efficiencies, the scientists estimate the H2CAR process to require about 15% of the land—and with reasonable future projections, just 6%. Significantly, this scenario would avoid the land competition with food growth.
This study comes nearly on the heels of the 2005 “Billion Ton Biomass Study,” which estimated that the current amount of recoverable biomass could meet just 30% of the U.S. transportation needs. But because the H2CAR process supplements biomass with hydrogen, the same amount of biomass could provide liquid fuels for nearly 100% of U.S. transportation needs, according to Agrawal et al.’s estimates.
“The reason for significant decrease in land area requirement for the H2CAR process as compared to conventional processes is that hydrogen production from solar energy is an order of magnitude more efficient than biomass growth, which typicall
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A Company/Exporter has to learn many things before deciding to sell a product/service in a foreign land. One has to acquire a thorough understanding of the international marketing environment. These environmental dimensions are to be reckoned with irrespective of the techniques of foreign
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A Company/Exporter has to learn many things before deciding to sell a product/service in a foreign land. One has to acquire a thorough understanding of the international marketing environment. These environmental dimensions are to be reckoned with irrespective of the techniques of foreign market entry or the kind of involvement. We have seen that an exporter has to cope with variables of both national and international environment. The international environment has undergone tremendous changes since 1945, creating both new opportunities and new problems. The most significant changes are:
Any Exporter/International marketer, looking abroad, must start with an appreciation of the International trade system. Each nation has unique features that must be grasped. A nation's readiness for different products and services and its attractiveness as a market to foreign firms depend on its economic, political, cultural and business environment. We have to appraise these environments and also the domestic environment for successful outcome.
I. DOMESTIC ENVIRONMENT:
The main aspects of domestic environment within the limitations of which a firm has to carry out its foreign marketing/exports, consists of a large variety of factors, the relative importance of which keeps on changing from one point of time to another. These factors are broadly related to the domestic, economic and political conditions, including existing and potential resources, level and trend of economic growth, industrial base and structure, and the existence of facilitating and supporting agencies for foreign trade. Another important factor is the domestic demand and the availability of surpluses for export. Import-Export policies and the procedures have a direct bearing on the conduct of foreign marketing.
In a fast developing economy like India, the following aspects of national export expansion policies and measures are gaining importance:
And many more facilities supporting and strengthening the export supply, organisation and the management base. Thus the political economic, procedural and regulatory elements constitute the domestic environment for an exporting firm.
Structure of India's foreign trade can be classified into three parts:Composition of India's Export Trade:
The following is the classification of India's traditional and non traditional export
Recent trends in India's foreign trade
Before 1947 India was colonial and basically agricultural and the trade was confined mainly to commonwealth countries and UK. After 1947 and one Plan after another, there is a remarkable increase in the volume and value of foreign trade from traditional items to manufactured goods, capital goods. The direction of India's trade also diversified to developed countries such as USA, Germany, Canada, ex-USSR, Japan, etc. through trade bilateral agreements.
II. FOREIGN ENVIRONMENT:
The home-based or the domestic export expansion measures are necessarily related to the conditions prevailing in possible markets. An Exporter has to overcome various constraints and adapt plans and operations to suit foreign environmental conditions. The main elements of foreign environment affecting marketing activities of a firm in a foreign country consist of the following.
A) POLITICAL DIMENSION:
Nations greatly differ in their political environment. Govt. policies, regulations and control mechanisms regarding the countries, foreign trade and commercial relations with other countries or groups of countries. At least four factors should be considered in deciding whether to do business in a particular country. They are
III) CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT:
The manner in which people consume their priority of needs and the wants they attempt to satisfy, and the manner in which they satisfy are functions of their culture which moulds and dictates their style of living. This culture is the sum total of knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, customs and other capabilities acquired by humans as members of the society. Since culture decides the style of living, it is pertinent to study it especially in export marketing. e.g. when a promotional message is written, symbols recognisable and meaningful to the market (the culture) must be used. When designing a product, the style used and other related marketing activities must be culturally acceptable.
Every country (even regional groups within each country) has cultural traditions, preferences and taboos that the market must study.
An Exporter must have an understanding of the religious, educational, familiar and social institutions in the target market which influence his marketing system. Consumer preferences, life styles, tastes, consumption habits etc. would be visibly different from one culture to another even though there may be closer similarities in economic and political conditions.
E.g.: A Frenchman uses almost twice as many cosmetics and beauty aids as does his wife.
Only one Frenchman out of three brushes his teeth The Dutch never touch Vodka.
Germans eat more spaghetti and more often than the Italians.
Similar cultural differences or similarities in consumption habits, attitudes and behaviour are found all over the world, an understanding and knowledge of which would prove an effective tool in competitive marketing of consumer goods in foreign countries.
IV) ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT:
In considering the international market, each Exporter must consider the importing country's economy. Two economic characteristics reflect the country's attractiveness as an export market. They are the country's industrial structure and the country's income distribution by employment industrialisation and socio economic justices.
The country's industrial structure shapes its products and services, the requirements, income levels, employment levels and so on.Four types of industrial str
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Vitamin E functions best with adequate levels of selenium as selenomethionine, and vice versa, as antioxidants and cell membrane protectors. Vitamin E is found naturally in vegetable oils and nuts and seeds, with a little in the germ
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Vitamin E functions best with adequate levels of selenium as selenomethionine, and vice versa, as antioxidants and cell membrane protectors. Vitamin E is found naturally in vegetable oils and nuts and seeds, with a little in the germ of whole grains such as wheat and rice. It reduces carcinogen production and strengthens immune cells and cell membranes against the penetration of viruses and toxic chemicals.
Selenium helps regulate the glutathione peroxidase enzyme, a strong antioxidant enzyme. Low selenium levels in the soil and in our body are clearly associated with increased rates of leukemia and cancers of the breast, lungs, colon, rectum, prostate, ovary, skin, and pancreas. If soils are low in this mineral, the foods grown in them will not contain much selenium. It is wise to increase selenium-rich foods, such as the whole grains and legumes or brewer’s yeast, if tolerated, as well as to take a supplemental 100 mcg. per day to be safe. High copper levels can reduce selenium absorption and utilization as well.
Zinc is another important mineral. It is an immune supporter and is important to the formation and function of many enzymes that work on detoxifying chemicals. Low levels of zinc in the body have been associated with higher rates of prostate, bronchial, esophageal, and colon cancers. Low levels of molybdenum in the soil have also been shown to be associated with increased levels of esophageal cancer. Calcium protects against colon cancer by protecting and correcting irregular cells in the colon. Other minerals that may have anticancer qualities include iron and iodine.
Fiber is another important anticancer substance and is a part of many foods which can also be taken as a supplement, such as psyllium seed husks or the bran of wheat or oats. Adequate dietary fiber improves intestinal transit time and binds carcinogens, thus reducing exposure to them. A high-fiber diet clearly reduces the incidence of colon cancer and diverticular disease (and may lower blood cholesterol), whereas a high-fat, low-fiber diet increases the risk of colon, breast, and other cancers.
Lactobacillus acidophilus is, I believe, a useful anticancer agent, mainly to prevent colon cancer. Lactobacilli cultures in the colon decrease other bacteria that can change bile salts into irritating carcinogens, as well as reduce yeast overgrowth and inflammation that result from these organisms, which also contribute to allergies and immune suppression.
A few other immune-supporting nutrients include gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), extracted from evening primrose oil or other sources; GLA helps increase certain prostaglandins that support lymphocyte immune activity, and there is some indication that it has an anticancer effect. More research is also needed on the anti- or procancer effects of L-arginine, a semiessential amino acid. L-carnitine may also be helpful for improving fat utilization, as poor fat metabolism and free-radical fat molecules can cause cellular and tissue irritation. Organic germanium may also be effective in cancer prevention, although it is more clearly useful in cancer treatment.
BHA and BHT are antioxidant food chemicals (preservatives) that some researchers feel have potential to lower chemically induced cancers; other authorities believe these chemicals are too toxic to use as supplements. I prefer the natural antioxidant nutrients that are commonly found in foods.
Garlic and echinacea are thought to help support immune function, and thus may play a role in preventing cancer. Aside from garlic, no herbs have been studied well enough to determine their possible cancer preventive effects. (There may be some herbs, both Western and Eastern, that have anticancer effects; these will be discussed more in Staying Healthy with Modern Medicine, my next book, which will include cancer therapy. Among those that may have properties effective in preventing cancer development are intestinal detoxicants, such as the algins and kelps; herbal blood cleansers (alteratives) such as chapparal, cayenne pepper, burdock and yellow dock roots, and blue flag root; colon cleansers such as rhubarb root and black walnut; diuretics and kidney cleansers such as cleavers, uva ursi and dandelion; lymph cleansers such as echinacea; and nutritives, such as alfalfa.
The following program is particularly geared to protect those with added cancer risks, although it may also be used periodically, for a month or two several times yearly, for the average individual. With aging, or during times of stress or emotional traumas, this program may also be helpful. The following values can include nutrients in the diet and/or additional supplements.
Cancer Prevention Nutrient Program
|Vitamin A||5,000–10,000 IUs||
||Iron ||10–20 mg.|
|Vitamin D||400 IUs||
|Vitamin E||400–800 IUs||
|Vitamin K||150–300 mcg.||
|Thiamine (B1)||50–100 mg.||
|Riboflavin (B2)||25–75 mg.||
||Selenium, preferably||200–300 mcg.|
|Niacinamide (B3) ||50–100 mg.||
|Niacin (B3)||50 mg.||
|Pantothenic acid (B5) ||250–500 mg.||
|Pyridoxine (B6) ||50–100 mg.||
||Lactobacillus||1–2 billion organisms|
|Cobalamin (B12)||100 mcg.||
||Garlic oil or powder||2–3 capsules|
|Folic acid||800 mcg.||
||Essential fatty acids,||2–4 capsules|
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- Map of China Administrative Divisions
Provides locations of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities with an overview of each area covering population, ethnic groups, industry, and more.
- TravelChinaGuide.com: China
Offers city maps including travel guide
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- Map of China Administrative Divisions
Provides locations of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities with an overview of each area covering population, ethnic groups, industry, and more.
- TravelChinaGuide.com: China
Offers city maps including travel guide of Beijing, Guilin, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and more.
- Oriental Travel: China
Offering a map of China with city travel information.
- Lonely Planet: China Map
Interactive China map with city information.
- National Geographic: Map of China
Find interactive road and satellite maps, as well as facts about China.
- China Maps
Offers a collection of country, city, historical, and administrative maps of China. From the Perry-Casta?eda Map Collection.
- China Provinces Maps
Offering city, province, and regional maps of principal areas in China along with local hotel information.
- Map of Modern China
From the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1994.
- Political Map of China
Basic political map of the country.
- Merriam-Webster's Atlas: China
General maps of the Eastern and Western halves of the country.
- Infoplease Atlas: China
Map of China highlighting the country's major cities.
- Maps of World: China Map
Features maps of China and its cities, Beijing and Shanghai. Find information about economy, culture, tourism, and airlines of China.
- China Highlights: China Map
Offers various maps of China including provincial, cities, ancient, and tourist regions.
- China Maps and Travel Guide
Collection of maps of the country, provinces, cities, and tourist attractions of China.
- WorldAtlas.Com: China
Interactive map outlining China as well as its landforms and rivers. Includes country profile with recommended links.
- Geology.com: China Map
Includes physical and satellite images of China and country information.
- Maps of China
Offers a variety of political, geographical, and historical maps of China.
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for National Geographic News
The depth of human tragedy resulting from the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster is incalculable, even though the scale of visible devastation to coastal towns is now shockingly clear.
But what of marine life? When the tsunami struck
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for National Geographic News
The depth of human tragedy resulting from the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster is incalculable, even though the scale of visible devastation to coastal towns is now shockingly clear.
But what of marine life? When the tsunami struck, land and ocean merged in a most terrifying way. People and uprooted trees were carried out to sea, while stingrays and sharks were left stranded in fields and parking lots.
The impacts are difficult to gauge. Scientists and conservationists say the future of coastal towns will be closely intertwined with that of fragile marine ecosystems. If coral reefs and mangroves aren't nursed and protected, they say, many human livelihoods will be hard to revive.
The most obvious marine casualties of the tsunami waves were washed up in their wake. In Thailand, for instance, dolphins were swept 500 yards (500 meters) inland. Many dead and injured sea turtles were left high and dry, and a three-foot (one-meter) shark ended up in a hotel swimming pool. Beaches were littered with dead fish as well as human bodies.
And while there are fears for some marine speciessuch as threatened dugongs and saltwater crocodiles in the Andaman Islandsscientists are most concerned about the habitats these animals depend on.
While it says the overwhelming priority remains the human relief effort, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has begun to assess environmental damage caused by the tsunami triggered by the massive earthquake off northern Sumatra on December 26.
Early reports indicate that many coral reefs have been extensively damaged, according to Stefan Hain, head of the Coral Reef Unit at UNEP's World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, England.
Researchers are particularly worried about the backwash of mud and other debris as the tsunami waves receded. "We have satellite images of regions such as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands which show that a huge amount of sediment and debris has been washed from the land and back into the sea," Hain said.
Hain said experts are working to determine
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Tampa, Fla. (July 19, 2012) – The search for medical technologies through'medical travel' can change the lives of patients and their family members, according to medical anthropologists Cecilia Vindrola-Pad
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Tampa, Fla. (July 19, 2012) – The search for medical technologies through'medical travel' can change the lives of patients and their family members, according to medical anthropologists Cecilia Vindrola-Padros and Linda M. Whiteford, who examined the lives of Bolivian and Paraguayan families who traveled to Buenos Aries, Argentina, seeking pediatric oncology care for their children. In a study published in the current issue of Technology and Innovation – Proceedings of the National Academy of Inventors®, Vindrola-Padros and Whiteford, who are both at the University of South Florida, examined the diverse and complex causes that lead to medical travel in quest of new and better medical technologies, and also analyzed the role of the host country.
"Rather than focus on issues of equality of access, many academic discussions related to technology focus on technology innovation and adaptation to suit the needs of users," said Vindrola-Padros.
In their study, she and Whiteford accessed the medical travelers' reasons for seeking the technologies, analyzed the impact on the families, and reviewed the health care policies of the host nation.
According to Vindrola-Padros, the migration and health care policies of the host country play a significant role.
"The host country's resources available for medically traveling families also determine the ease with which families can settle and adapt," she explained.
Vindrola-Padros and Whiteford noted that a new Argentinian government initiative called "Medicina Argentina," along with a reduction in the prices of medical procedures in Argentina, are driving an increase in medical travelers to that nation. In addition, Argentina has permissive immigration and health policies under a model of universal health care in which public health care is not viewed in terms of financial gain or citizenship but, said Vindrola-Padros, as a universal human right.
"In 2009 Argentina received between 6,000 and 8,000 foreign patients," said Vindrola-Padros. "The government is aiming to raise that number to 100,000."
Vindrola-Padros, who collected and reviewed narrative accounts of family members who left home to seek medical technologies in Argentina, found that medical travel can be a strategy to overcome barriers to access to both health care and the advanced technologies that might not be available at home.
She uses the term'medical travel' rather than'medical tourism' for a good reason.
"Medical travel is often a strategy used by economically challenged patients who see travel as the only way to save their lives," concluded Vindrola-Padros. "The term'medical tourism' suggests stereotyped images of wealthy patients traveling abroad for elective procedures rather than for life-or-death treatments."
Yet, the medical travel strategy carries with it drawbacks and challenges, reported Vindrola-Padros and Whiteford. Medical traveling families must disrupt a child's
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Joshua Gans, Contributor
I write about economics and parenting with a touch of technology.
Ericsson have produced a new video on the Future of Learning. It is about what technology can do for education.
There is often a sense that technology
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Joshua Gans, Contributor
I write about economics and parenting with a touch of technology.
Ericsson have produced a new video on the Future of Learning. It is about what technology can do for education.
There is often a sense that technology is a toy. That if it engages kids it is because it is more exciting and bright than tired, old books. This is, in many respects, the rhetoric at the heart of moves towards ‘interactive’ textbooks. The issue, of course, is that while that may be true, the real potential for technology in education is to break us from the requirements of standardization.
Standardization in education came from resource constraints. We have a fixed number of teachers and, in the past, a lack of access to technology. But that resource constraint is being shattered. That means that standardization can feasibly be challenged. No longer do we have to education children based, as Sir Ken Robinson would say, on “their date of manufacture.” We can allow both self pace but also multiple channels that may resonate and work with different children. One example of that highlighted in the video is Knewton. But it is just one of many experiments in non-standardized learning including Khan Academy and Codeacademy.
Perhaps no place more does this issue arise than on the issue of memorization. My biggest parental challenge in education comes from convincing my children to memorize things. Now when it comes to a foreign language or even spelling that may make some sense (but it isn’t a given). But just last night my daughter was busy learning the countries and capitals of the EU. She was suffering immensely from a problem I didn’t face when I was growing up; that break-up of Yugoslavia. That made the memory challenge exponentially harder.
So I helped her by testing her on what she had learned. But all the way, the question was why? Why was she memorising this? Why in this way? The best we have is that sometime in the future some political issue could arise and it will be important to know what the capital of Slovenia is. But even that is weak. Can’t she learn that later? There is no clear rationale.
What is more, the exercise was even obscuring the point of about the EU. Along the way, I asked her: what’s the capital of the EU? “The EU has a capital?” she responded. “Yes, it’s a form of government. It needs a home.” In other words, the forest had been completely obscured for the trees. (By the way, it turns out that, in this case, there is no one capital).
Anyhow, if you haven’t been following these developments, this video is a good place to start.
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Pollyfilla is a brand of plaster-like stuff that is used for filling cracks in plaster.
I believe in this poem Pollyfilla is used in its real meaning as well as a metaphor for the father smoothing relationships with his daughter. It
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Pollyfilla is a brand of plaster-like stuff that is used for filling cracks in plaster.
I believe in this poem Pollyfilla is used in its real meaning as well as a metaphor for the father smoothing relationships with his daughter. It serves as a substitute for loving words. He apparently isn't comfo
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Japan's Aging Economics
JAPAN'S DEMOGRAPHIC CRISIS
Japan's population is aging faster than that of any other country in the world. The unprecedented increase in retirees relative to the size of Japan's work force will force radical change
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Japan's Aging Economics
JAPAN'S DEMOGRAPHIC CRISIS
Japan's population is aging faster than that of any other country in the world. The unprecedented increase in retirees relative to the size of Japan's work force will force radical change if the nation is to avoid a fiscal crisis, or worse. These seemingly innocent demographic changes will force Japan to shrink its famously high savings rate, reverse its proud trade surplus, send more industry overseas, liberalize its tightly controlled markets, and take on a more active, high-profile foreign policy. Ultimately, these changes will shift the balance of power in East Asia.
Japan's demographic problem has its roots in decreasing birth rates and longer lifespans. The former have begun to starve the country for young workers to replace those retiring, while the latter ensure that a growing population of retired citizens will be dependent on a diminishing working population. Although every industrialized country faces this problem, Japan's situation is by far the worst, not least because Japan has no hope of an influx of youthful immigrants to mitigate the problem. According to Japan's Ministry of Health and Welfare, in less than five years the country's demographic trends will give it a population profile like Florida's. By 2015, one in four Japanese citizens will be 65 or older. In about 2010, according to official projections, Japan will have fewer than half the workers per retiree it has today, a mere 2.5 people of working age for every pensioner. And since not all of working age choose to work or can find employment, it is likely that in the early 21st century Japan will have fewer than two people at work for every retiree.
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Flowering dogwood is known scientifically as Cornus florida, and it is a popular ornamental throughout the United States. Typically, flowering dogwood is a spreading tree that produces white flowers and it does well in wet climates and loamy soil.
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Flowering dogwood is known scientifically as Cornus florida, and it is a popular ornamental throughout the United States. Typically, flowering dogwood is a spreading tree that produces white flowers and it does well in wet climates and loamy soil. There are many different varieties of flowering dogwood that might suit your tastes and your garden.
‘Rubra’ Flowering Dogwood
‘Rubra’ flowering dogwood trees can produce white flowers or flowers in a variety of shades of pink. They have curved oval leaves, and in the fall, they produce red or purple foliage. The flowers drop and leave behind bright red winter berries. Rubra flowering dogwood requires a rich organic soil that is well drained and slightly acidic. It does best in partial shade, but you can plant it in full sun if you give it enough water. It is a medium-sized tree that grows to a full height of 20 feet, according to the Backyard Gardener.
‘White Cloud’ Flowering Dogwood
White Cloud flowering dogwood produces dense clusters of creamy white flowers. It can grow to a height that is between 15 and 30 feet, and it does well in full sun or partial shade. It has medium water requirements. One of the advantages of this variety of flowering dogwood, according to the Backyard Gardener, is that it begins to flower early within the first few years of its growth, making it a good choice for gardens where some visual variety is required immediately.
‘Cherokee Chief’ Flowering Dogwood
‘Cherokee Chief’ flowering dogwoods have deep red blooms, which distinguishes them from the paler blooms of many flowering dogwood trees. Although they have only a moderate growth rate, they are resistant to mildew, making them a good choice for damper areas, especially if planted in the shade, notes North Carolina State University. In the fall, this cultivar produces bronze-colored leaves.
‘Golden Nugget’ Flowering Dogwood
The greatest appeal of the ‘Golden Nugget’ flowering dogwood is its variegated golden leaves, according to the Washington State University Clark County Extension. This variety of flowering dogwood reaches a height b
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Prince of Grão-Pará
The Prince of Grão-Pará was the title bestowed on the eldest son of the Prince Imperial of Brazil. The title holder was the second in the line of succession to the throne of the Empire of
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Prince of Grão-Pará
The Prince of Grão-Pará was the title bestowed on the eldest son of the Prince Imperial of Brazil. The title holder was the second in the line of succession to the throne of the Empire of Brazil, after the Prince Imperial. The title was established by article 105 of the 1824 Brazilian Constitution, which read:
- O Herdeiro presumptivo do Imperio terá o Titulo de "Principe Imperial" e o seu Primogenito o de "Principe do Grão Pará" todos os mais terão o de "Principes". O tratamento do Herdeiro presumptivo será o de "Alteza Imperial" e o mesmo será o do Principe do Grão Pará: os outros Principes terão o Tratamento de Alteza.
- (The heir presumptive of the Empire will have the title of "Prince Imperial" and his first born son the title of "Prince of Grão-Pará", all the others shall have that of "Prince". The style of the heir presumptive and the Prince of Grão-Pará will be "Imperial Highness": the other princes will have the sty
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Reduction of adverb_clauses_to_modifying_adverbial_phrasesPresentation Transcript
Reduction of adverb clauses to modifying adverbial phrases.
Some adverb clauses may also be changed to modifying phrases, and the ways in which the
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Reduction of adverb_clauses_to_modifying_adverbial_phrasesPresentation Transcript
Reduction of adverb clauses to modifying adverbial phrases.
Some adverb clauses may also be changed to modifying phrases, and the ways in which the change are made are the same:
Omit the subject of the dependent clause and the be form of the verb. Some adverb clauses may also be changed to modifying phrases, and the ways in which the change are made are the same If there is no beform of a verb, omit the subject and change the verb to –ing.
Adverb Clause. While I was walking to class, I ran into an old friend. Phrase Modifying While walking to class, I ran into an old friend.
While I was sitting in class, I felt asleep While Ann was sitting in class, she felt asleep.. While sitting in class, Ann felt asleep. While sitting in class, I felt asleep.
An adverb clause can be change to a modifying phrase. Only when the subject of the adverb clause and the subject of the main clause are the same.
No Change Possible: While the teacher was lecturing to the class, I felt asleep. While we were walking home, a frog hopped across the road in front of us.
Clause: Since Maria came to this country, she has made many friends. Phrase: Since coming to this country, Maria has made many friends
Expressing the Idea of "During the Same Time" in Modifying Adverbial Phrases. Sometimes while is omitted but the -ing phrases at the beginning of the sentence gives the same meaning (during the same time).
Expressing cause and Effect in modifying adverbial phrases. Often an -ing phrases at the beginning of a sentence gives the meaning of "because“.
Expressing cause and Effect in modifying adverbial phrases.
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According to the SANS Institute, a nonprofit that provides research and best practices for computer security, on average a computer will be attacked within four minutes on the Internet if its vulnerabilities are not patched. The most common attack is controlling a computer to send
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According to the SANS Institute, a nonprofit that provides research and best practices for computer security, on average a computer will be attacked within four minutes on the Internet if its vulnerabilities are not patched. The most common attack is controlling a computer to send spam or viruses to other computers. These computers become part of a "botnet" — a network of computers controlled by malicious parties — which in turn will search for other vulnerable computers.
Since the attacks are automated and continuous, you need automated solutions to defend yourself. In most organizations, network devices should be the front line of defense, (along with properly patched computers). We'll discuss both technical and non-technical, or operational, considerations when acquiring and implementing a security device in your network.
Operational Considerations for a Security Device
Although we often dive in to the technical specifications of a new device, it's better to think about the management and maintenance of it first. You may think that you need a certain feature, but unless you dedicate the resources to setup, implement, and monitor it, you may be better off getting a less advanced piece of equipment.
Therefore, a primary factor in choosing a device is whether you have the in-house expertise to properly configure and manage it, or will you need external technology support. If you already use an external service provider, does it have certain recommendations or preferred devices? Measure your expertise against the size and complexity of the security device you're buying. That way, your network will be properly secured. If you have a device setup but left orphaned or with default settings, it could end up making your network even less secure.
Often, your service provider will configure and maintain your security device for a price. On the other hand, if you don't understand fundamental security concepts, you might end up paying your ISP for security device features that you don't actually need. Also, how responsive will your service provider be when you need to change the access rules on your security device? In other words, you have to know at least enough to ask the right questions and evaluate the answers.
Lastly, different devices have different prices, depending on how much functionality they have and how much traffic they can handle. Although the budget often is the biggest consideration for most organizations, you need to determine the most important feature based on your current and future requirements and resources.
Once you have determined your operational resources situation, you can l
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Hancock, Winfield Scott (1824–1886), a United States army officer. Hancock fought in most of the major battles of the Union Army of the Potomac during the Civil War. He became commander of the II Army Corps
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Hancock, Winfield Scott (1824–1886), a United States army officer. Hancock fought in most of the major battles of the Union Army of the Potomac during the Civil War. He became commander of the II Army Corps in 1863. Hancock was seriously wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg when his corps repulsed Pickett's charge, but returned to action in early 1864. General U. S. Grant called him "the most conspicuous figure of all the general officers who did not exercise a separate command."
Hancock was born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He graduated from West Point in 1844 and served creditably in the Seminole War, in Florida; the Mexican War; and the Kansas border struggles. After the Civil War Hancock received the thanks
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Search Engine Censoring (“Banning” and “Penalization”)
Search Engine Honesty (http://www.searchenginehonesty.net/ )
See Impact of Search Engine Editorial Policies on Small Business and Freedom of Information for a newer
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Search Engine Censoring (“Banning” and “Penalization”)
Search Engine Honesty (http://www.searchenginehonesty.net/ )
See Impact of Search Engine Editorial Policies on Small Business and Freedom of Information for a newer and more comprehensive treatment of this subject.
The Internet Censoring Problem
It has recently become widely known that Google is censoring search results displayed to their Chinese language users (Google.cn) to conceal the existence of sites that the Chinese government considers objectionable.
It is much less widely known that the major search engines also censor access by their English language users to many web sites. They all have internal organizations responsible for executing the censoring policies of their company. We can be confident that none of these organizations is called the “Censoring Division”. The people in these organizations may also sincerely believe that what they are doing is in the best interests of their users and that every single site that they block is “doing something wrong”.
The problem with Internet censoring is the same as any other form of censoring. As history has repeatedly demonstrated, once you start censoring it is very hard to stop. It is always possible to rationalize that people would be better off if they didn't have access to certain information.
Search engines (especially Yahoo Search) talk about the idea that they are censoring access to improve the “quality” of the “user’s experience”. Just like the Chinese government, search engines say they are censoring to protect their users. However, the user is not given a choice in either case. There is no message on the search results page that says: “We have excluded results from sites that we conside
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Replacing damaged ties on cotton bales on-site is now made simpler with a device invented by an Agricultural Research Service scientist in Stoneville, Miss.
Bale-restraining ties fail when they are defective, improperly connected or when bales are compressed
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Replacing damaged ties on cotton bales on-site is now made simpler with a device invented by an Agricultural Research Service scientist in Stoneville, Miss.
Bale-restraining ties fail when they are defective, improperly connected or when bales are compressed to the wrong density. Also, the straps or wire ties fail when cotton is distributed unevenly in the bales or has low moisture content. Improper storage and handling can cause tie failure, too. Bales damaged by a lack of ties are rejected by mill customers because they are more susceptible to contamination and less conforming to a mill's processing machinery.
The new device's inventor, W. Stanley Anthony, is the research leader at the ARS Cotton Ginning Research Unit in Stoneville.
According to Anthony, an agricultural engineer, the patented device replaces multiple failed bale ties by recompressing damaged bales only in the specific area of the bale where one or more ties need to be replaced. There is no need to move the bale to replace more than one tie because components of the device move internally.
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Diagnosis and Treatment of COPD for the Physician Assistant Exam
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a serious condition and the Physician Assistant Exam (PANCE) will expect that you know the basics. COPD is an
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Diagnosis and Treatment of COPD for the Physician Assistant Exam
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a serious condition and the Physician Assistant Exam (PANCE) will expect that you know the basics. COPD is an inflammatory disease of the lungs caused by one of two medical conditions:
Chronic bronchitis: A productive cough for at least 3 months per year for 2 consecutive years
Emphysema: A lung disease characterized by airway inflammation and loss of elasticity of the alveoli over time, secondary to destruction of the walls of the alveoli; continued smoking makes this process worse
How to diagnose COPD
Here are the key points concerning COPD:
The biggest risk for developing COPD is cigarette smoking. Environmental exposures, such as long-term exposure to second-hand smoke, are also important predisposing factors. Other risk factors include occupational exposures to chemicals and other pulmonary irritants. Alpha-1 antitrypsin (ATT) deficiency is a genetic cause of emphysema.
Clinical presentations of an acute COPD exacerbation include shortness of breath and productive cough.
Physical examination can show tachypnea, a decreased pulse oximetry, and cyanosis if hypoxemia is present.
COPD isn’t diagnosed by chest radiograph findings. However, radiography can be suggestive, especially if you see hyperinflation of both lung fields. Emphysematous bullae may or may not be present on a chest radiograph.
CT scan findings can show two patterns of emphysemas: centrilobular or panacinar. Centrilobular emphysema, which is due to chronic tobacco use, causes changes that predominantly affect the upper lobes as seen on CT scan. Panacinar emphysema causes changes in the lower lobes as seen on CT scan and commonly occurs with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency is characterized by elevated liver function tests and worsening emphysema. The condition, which is autosomally inherited, can be either homozygous or heterozygous, and it usually affects people at a very young age. You diagnose it by checking an alpha-1 antitrypsin level.
For people with lung involvement, treatment can involve administering alpha-1 antitrypsin protein. This condition can also cause liver failure in a young person, especially if the affected person is homozygous for this condition. In cases of fulminant liver failure, the patient may need a liver transplant.
Physiologic characteristics in a question can help tip you off that COPD is present. For example, the classic description of someone with chronic bronchitis is an obese individual with cyanosis, often termed the blue bloater.
This is also known as the Pickwickian syndrome, named after the character Samuel Pickwick, the main character in Charles Dickens’s novel The Pickwick Papers. Joe, a fat boy, eats lots of food and constantly falls asleep. Joe and others with chronic bronchitis often have alveolar hypoventilation and suffer from obstructive sleep apnea also. Indications of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome include being overweight and falling asleep at any time of day.
The diagnosis of COPD is confirmed via a pulmonary function test (PFT). Changes from baseline can be followed by spirometry in a pulmonologist’s office. To determine the severity of COPD, look at three basic parameters:
FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in 1 second): The FEV1 is how much air can be forced out in 1 second. You look at the FEV1 level to see how far from the predicted value it lies. If the FEV1 is < 50 percent of what the predicted value should be, then the patient has severe COPD. After establishing the FEV1, see whether the FEV1 improves after administering a bronchodilator.
FVC (forced vital capacity): The FVC is how much air can be forced out during a forced exhalation, like when doing a PFT.
FEV1/FVC ratio: A normal value for many people is > 0.7, or 70 percent. If the FEV1/FVC ratio is less than 70 percent, then there’s likely some degree of airflow obstruction.
Knowing someone’s FEV1 level and FEV1/FVC ratio and how far off they are from their predicted values is important because you may see significant decreases in these levels before a person becomes symptomatic.
Treatment of COPD
The treatment for an acute COPD exacerbation consists of intravenous steroids and a combination of short-acting beta-2 agonists and anticholinergic agents, usually given via a nebulizer. If there’s evidence of an acute infection, antibiotics are administered as well.
Other agents used to treat COPD include theophylline, which increases the contractility of the diaphragm. Oxygen is given if hypoxemia is present. The long-term treatment is for the patient to stop smoking.
If you see a question in which a
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View your list of saved words. (You can log in using Facebook.)
Chain of small islands, Alaska, U.S. They form a border of the Bering Sea, extending in an arc about 1,100 mi (1,800
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View your list of saved words. (You can log in using Facebook.)
Chain of small islands, Alaska, U.S. They form a border of the Bering Sea, extending in an arc about 1,100 mi (1,800 km) west from the tip of the Alaska Peninsula to Attu Island. The major island groups, from east to west, are the Fox Islands (including Unimak and Unalaska), Islands of the Four Mountains, Andreanof Islands (including Adak), and Near Islands (including Attu). The main settlements are on Unalaska and Adak. Originally inhabited by Aleuts, the islands were explored by Russian-sponsored ships in 1741. As Siberian fur hunters moved eastward through the islands, the Russians gained a foothold in North America but nearly caused the extinction of the Aleuts. Russia sold the islands, with the rest of Alaska, to the U.S. in 1867.
This entry comes from Encyclopædia Britannica Concise. For the full entry on Aleutian Islands, visit Britannica.com.
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Mars: Closest Approach 2007
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took this close-up of the red planet Mars when it was just 55 million miles - 88 million kilometers - away. This color image was assembled from a series
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Mars: Closest Approach 2007
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took this close-up of the red planet Mars when it was just 55 million miles - 88 million kilometers - away. This color image was assembled from a series of exposures taken within 36 hours of the Mars closest approach with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. Mars will be closest to Earth on December 18, at 11:45 p.m. Universal Time (6:45 p.m. EST).
Mars and Earth have a "close encounter" about every 26 months. These periodic encounters are due to the differences in the two planets' orbits. Earth goes around the Sun twice as fast as Mars, lapping the Red Planet about every two years. Both planets have elliptical orbits, so their close encounters are not always at the same distance. In its close encounter with Earth in 2003, for example, Mars was about 20 million miles closer than it is in the 2007 closest approach, resulting in a much larger image of Mars as viewed from Earth in 2003.
The two dominant dark swatches seen just south of the equator on this part of the planet are well observed regions that were originally labeled by early Mars observers. The large triangular shape to the right is Syrtis Major. The horizontal lane to the left is Sinus Meridani. One of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, named "Opportunity," landed at the western end of this region in January 2004. At the intersection of these two features is the prominent Huygens crater with a diameter of 270 miles (450 kilometers). South of Huygens is the Hellas impact basin, with a diameter of 1,100 miles (1,760 km) and a depth of nearly 5 miles (8 km). Hellas was formed billions of years ago when an asteroid collided into the Mars surface.
The planet appears free of any dust storms during this closest approach, however, there are significant clouds visible in both the northern and southern polar cap regions. The resolution is 13 miles (21 kilometers) per pixel.
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What is Semantic Search?
What is Semantic Search?
10 Things that Make Search a Semantic Search
We illustrate 10 points below that define semantic search using our online demo where we compared hakia's enterprise search system with Pubmed's search engine,
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What is Semantic Search?
What is Semantic Search?
10 Things that Make Search a Semantic Search
We illustrate 10 points below that define semantic search using our online demo where we compared hakia's enterprise search system with Pubmed's search engine, while QDEXing 20 million documents on Pubmed.
1- Handling morphological variations
A semantic search engine is expected to handle all morphological variations (like tenses, plurals, etc.) on a consistent basis. In other words, the results should not change whether you type "improve, improves, improving, improved, improvement". The example query "improving quality of life" illustrates that hakia results contain morphological variations of the query.
2- Handling synonyms with correct senses
A semantic search engine is expected to handle synonyms (cure, heal, treat,.. etc.) in the right context and with correct word senses. For example, the word "treat" can mean doing social favors as in trick and treat, which would not be correct in the medical sense. The example query "is there a cure for ALS" shows that hakia brings results with synonyms with the correct senses. The level of sense disambiguation in a semantic search engine is a sign of its progress.
3- Handling generalizations
A semantic search engine is expected to handle generalizations (disease = GERD, ALS, AIDS, etc.) where the user's query is expressed in generalized form and the result is expected to be specific. The example query "Which disease has the symptom of coughing?" brings a result set in hakia such that GERD is recognized by the system as the specific answer.
4- Handling concept matching
Perhaps the most challenging functionality among all, a semantic search engine is expected to recognize concepts and bring relevant results. Usually, the depth of this capability is increased in verticals of operation, and it would be unrealistic to expect coverage in all subjects under the sun. The example query "what treats headache" brings a result set in hakia including concept matching such that migraine belongs to the concept of headache in the medical sense.
5- Handling knowledge matching
Very similar to the previous item, a semantic search engine is expected to have embedded knowledge and use it to bring relevant results (swine flu = H1N1, flu=influenza.) Knowledge match and concept match are similar in principle, yet different in practice in the way the capability is acquired. The example query "swine flu virus" brings a result set in hakia where these kinds of matches are visible.
6- Handling natural language queries and questions
A semantic search engine is expected to respond sensibly when the query is in a question form (what, where, how, why, etc.) Note that a "search engine" is different than a "question answering" system. Search engine's main task is to rank search results in the most logical and relevant manner whereas a question answering system may produce a single extracted entity. The example query "how fast is swine flu spreading?" brings a result set in hakia to shed light to this capability.
7- Ability to point to uninterrupted paragraph and the most relevant sentence
Unlike conventional search engines where a query points to documents, semantic search is expected to do much better. A query must point not only to documents but also to relevant sections of them. This eliminates 2nd search where the user is supposed to open the documents to find the relevant sections. The previous example query "how fast is swine flu spreading?" shows this capability as displayed below.
8- Ability to Customize and Organic Progress
Every search application tied to a specific business objective will have some speci
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Mary Davis,Managing Director of Special Olympics Europe/Euraisa. People with disabilities want to participate in PE, physical activity and Sport for all the same reasons as those who do not have a disability. Special Olympics has proven that when given the
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Mary Davis,Managing Director of Special Olympics Europe/Euraisa. People with disabilities want to participate in PE, physical activity and Sport for all the same reasons as those who do not have a disability. Special Olympics has proven that when given the opportunity adults and children with intellectual disability can excel, train, win, lose, work as a team
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Teacher resources and professional development across the curriculum
Teacher professional development and classroom resources across the curriculum
| About This Workshop
Making Civics Real is a video workshop for high school civics teachers, consisting of eight one-hour video programs, a print
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Teacher resources and professional development across the curriculum
Teacher professional development and classroom resources across the curriculum
| About This Workshop
Making Civics Real is a video workshop for high school civics teachers, consisting of eight one-hour video programs, a print guide to the workshop activities, and this Web site. Use these components for professional development in two-hour weekly group sessions, or on your own.
The workshop aims to improve civic education across the nation for grades nine through 12 through professional development of civics teachers. Each of the eight programs presents authentic teachers in diverse school settings modeling a variety of teaching techniques and best practices. These methodologies are applied to a variety of social studies courses from a ninth-grade government/civics/economics course to a 12th-grade law course.
This workshop is appropriate for both novice and experienced high school social studies teachers and recognizes the importance of meeting national standards for civic education. Each lesson references the national standards of the Center for Civic Education and the National Council for the Social Studies.
© Annenberg Foundation 2013. All rights reserved. Legal Policy.
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Q: I bought a butternut squash at the grocery and would like to save the seeds to plant later. What do I do with them once they are dried out?
A: The fruit you harvest from the saved seeds will certainly be edible
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Q: I bought a butternut squash at the grocery and would like to save the seeds to plant later. What do I do with them once they are dried out?
A: The fruit you harvest from the saved seeds will certainly be edible but it may not look or taste like the original butternut squash. If the seeds came from being pollinated by a nearby butternut squash, you have no worries. But if pollen came from a different member of the Curcurbita moschata family, the offspring in your garden may look unusual. My advice? Save the dry seed in a paper envelope in your refrigerator until late April and plant them in a sunny spot. You’ll definitely have something to eat and talk about later in summer.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Cloth)
Cloth, textile or fabric are similar names for manufactured clothing material or drapery. They are made by weaving or knitting natural or artificial fibres together. It is often used
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Cloth)
Cloth, textile or fabric are similar names for manufactured clothing material or drapery. They are made by weaving or knitting natural or artificial fibres together. It is often used to make clothing.
Cloth made of Felt
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cloth|
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Health rules!: fitness and nutrition for kids
In this publication, you will find web sites that provide information for teachers as well as lesson plans and activities for use in the classroom. In addition to looking at how we can help children to establish good
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Health rules!: fitness and nutrition for kids
In this publication, you will find web sites that provide information for teachers as well as lesson plans and activities for use in the classroom. In addition to looking at how we can help children to establish good habits, you will find web sites that look at the health issues facing preteens and teenagers today. How many kids need help evaluating their diets and taking a good look at their food consumption? Most likely all of them. With this in mind, there will be many opportunities to examin
The Psychology, Biology and Politics of Food
This course encompasses the study of eating as it affects the health and well-being of every human. Topics include taste preferences, food aversions, the regulation of hunger and satiety, food as comfort and friendship, eating as social ritual, and social norms of blame for food problems. The politics of food discusses issues such as sustainable agriculture, organic farming, genetically modified foods, nutrition policy, and the influence of food and agriculture industries. Also examined are prob
This brochure looks at how genes work, exceptions to Mendel's rules, how DNA gets replicated, genes and disease, current research and recent discoveries, and how applications of genetic research (biotechnology) are being used in agriculture, health, and pharmacogenetics (medicine) to change our world for the better.
Clear Sunscreen: How Light Interacts with Matter
This unit explores issues related to size and scale, specifically the effect of the size of nanopowders on the interactions of energy and matter (e.g., the absorption of light, addressing the electromagnetic spectrum and associated wavelengths). For example, old sunscreens use "large" zinc oxide particles, which block ultraviolet light but scatter visible light, giving the cream a white color. If nanopowders of zinc oxide are used instead, the cream is transparent, because the diameter of each n
International Space Station
This lesson was created to enable students in middle school to research the possibility of sustaining life in outer space. These students would be about 11 or 12 years old. The students would address the questions: What essentials would be necessary for maintaining the space station, what would it look like and why, how would food be supplied and replenished, what health factors might need to be addressed, how would they fuel the space station and various other instruments, how would families li
Interlinked Challenges features bits of information about global challenges from the last 400,000 years. Challenges include: biodiversity, climate change, eco-migrations, economy, energy, food, health, hunger, population growth, poverty, security, sustainability, transportation, urbanization, and water. Info bits are drawn from articles, podcasts, blogs, press releases, institutional reports, testimonies, encyclopedias, books, and documentaries. Each bit is referenced, date stamped, linked to t
Trust, Transparency And Care.
The lecture will discuss some of the issues facing the health and social care system following the election.
Tom Wujec: Build a Tower, Build a Team
Tom Wujec from Autodesk presents some surprisingly deep research into the "marshmallow problem" -- a simple team-building exercise that involves dry spaghetti, one yard of tape and a marshmallow. Who can build the tallest tower with these ingredients? And why does a surprising group always beat the average?
Sewing club girls
Caption: "Sewing club girls, Annamerle Arant, home agent, in charge." July 10, 1928,JPEG image from black-and-white photograph. Size: 1191 x 900 pixels.
This square contains a section of the valley of the River Calder, in which road, canal and railway run close together, parallel to the river, and there are a...
MIT Convocation E-vite animation
MIT Convocation E-vite animation
Lesson #039, Thursday ricevere = to receive vivere = to live chiedere = to ask sentire = to hear, to feel (1st form of 'ire' verbs) servire = to serve (1st form of 'ire' verbs) spedire = to send (2nd form of 'ire' verbs) STOP THE PODCAST - conjugate each of these verbs out loud. Then start the podcast again and I'll give you the answers. Io ricevo Tu ricevi Lei/lui/lei riceve Noi riceviamo Voi ricevete L
ricevere = to receive
vivere = to live
chiedere = to ask
sentire = to hear, to feel (1st form of 'ire' verbs)
servire = to serve (1st form of 'ire' verbs)
spedire = to send (2nd form of 'ire' verbs)
STOP THE PODCAST - conjugate each of these verbs out loud. Then start the podcast again and I'll give you the answers.
2010 College of Charleston Highlights
2010 was a record setting year! College of Charleston continued to attract attention for its academics (Parade Magazine named us a "Best Small College") and amazing extra-curricular opportunities (our Quidditch team is ranked No. 12 in the world). Jason Mraz gave the first ever concert in the Carolina First Arena, we launched an accelerated M.B.A. Program, Activist and Nobel Prize nominee Greg Mortenson inspired students and we restored the Cistern Yard and surrounding buildings. Get more in
Interactive maps developed by MSU researchers show, rather than simply tell, how urban residents are losing access to fresh produce.
London looks to lure Chinese firms
The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry l
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The changes we’re starting to go through now are so big that we need to step back and take a very long view to get any sort of handle on them. I’m struggling to do this now. This book has been very helpful:
•
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The changes we’re starting to go through now are so big that we need to step back and take a very long view to get any sort of handle on them. I’m struggling to do this now. This book has been very helpful:
• Tim Lenton and Andrew Watson, Revolutions That Made the Earth, Oxford U. Press, Oxford, 2011.
There’s a lot in it, and I’d love to tell you about all of it… but for now, let me just list 8 major transitions life on Earth may have gone through:
1. Compartments. This transition takes us from self-replicating molecules to self-replicating molecules in ‘compartments’—membranes of some sort. A compartment separates ‘self’ from ‘other’, and it’s crucial to life as we know it. When did this transition happen? Certainly after 4.4 billion years ago, when the Earth first got a solid crust. Probably after 3.85 billion years ago, when the Late Heavy Bombardment ended. Certainly before 3.3 billion years ago, when the earliest well-established microfossils are found. Probably before 3.8 billion years ago, which is the age of the Isua greenstone belt—a formation that contains graphite specks with less carbon-13 than average, a hint of life.
2. Groups of genes. This transition takes us from independent self-replicating molecules to self-replicating molecules linked into long chains, probably RNA. When did this happen? I have no idea; I’m not sure anyone does. Probably sometime between 4.4 and 3.3 billion years ago!
3. Genetic code. This transition takes us from a world where RNA both stored information and catalyzed reactions to a world where DNA stores the information used to build for proteins, which catalyze reactions. When did this happen? Again, probably sometime between 4.4 and 3.3 billion years ago!
Eukaryotes—like animals, plants, fungi and protists—have cells with lots of internal parts called organelles. Here are some things you might see in a eukaryotic cell:
It’s now believed some organelles were originally independent prokaryotes that got swallowed up but survived as symbiotic partners: so-called endosymbionts. The evidence is especially good for mitochondria and chloroplasts, which have their own DNA. When did this transition occur? Some experts say around 1.85 billion years ago. Nick Butterfield has seen fossils of red algae dating back to 1.2 billion years ago, so eukaryotes were definitely around by then. The authors of this book date eukaryotes to “roughly 2 billion years ago, give or take 0.5 billion years.”
5. Sex. This transition takes us from populations of asexually reproducing clones to populations that reproduce sexually. When did this happen? Roughly around the time eukaryotes arose. The authors write:
We would like to know if the evolution of sex is really separate from the evolution of eukaryotes, or whether the two are so closely related that sex co-evolved with the eukaryotic cell. It would help if we knew precisely why organisms bother with sex, but we don’t.
6. Cell differentiation. This transition takes us from single-celled protists to multi-celled animals, plants and fungi where different cells specialize to play different roles. When did this happen? The oldest known animal fossils are some early sponges in the Trezona Formation in South Australia… they go back 665 million years. Plants may go back 1.2 billion years, and fungi perhaps around 1.4 billion years. Just for fun, here’s a typical plant cell:
but of course the point is that thanks to differentiation, different cells in the organism look different!
7. Social colonies. This transition takes us from solitary individuals to social organizations such as colonies of ants, bees and termites, or the somewhat different societies of birds and mammals. Sociality has arisen independently many times, but it’s hard to say when because it’s hard to find fossil evidence! In the early Triassic, about 250 million years ago, we find fossilized burrows containing up to twenty cynodonts of a type known as Trirachodon:
Cynodonts are classified as synapsids, a group of animals that includes mammals but also ‘proto-mammals’ like these. By the late Triassic, there’s also evidence for social behavior among termites. It would be funny if proto-mammals beat the insects to sociality. I bet the insects got there first: the fossil record is not always complete!
8. Language. This is the transition from societies without language (for example, earlier primates) to societies with (for example, us). When did this happen? Alas, it’s even harder to read off the beginning of language from the fossil record than the arrival of social behavior! I’ll just quote Wikipedi
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Nov. 12, 2008 Clemson physics professor Apparao Rao and his team are researching nano-scale cantilevers that have the potential to read and alert us to toxic chemicals or gases in the air. Put them into a small handheld
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Nov. 12, 2008 Clemson physics professor Apparao Rao and his team are researching nano-scale cantilevers that have the potential to read and alert us to toxic chemicals or gases in the air. Put them into a small handheld device and the potential is there for real-time chemical alerts in battle, in industry, in health care and even at home.
“The ability to build extremely small devices to do this work has been something we’ve only seen so far in science-fiction movies,” Rao said.
The width of a human hair or smaller, the micro- and nano-scale cantilevers look like tiny diving boards under an electron microscope. The researchers have advanced the method of oscillating cantilevers that vibrate much like a guitar string and measure amplitude and frequency under different conditions, creating highly reliable sensors that can relay a message that there’s trouble in the air.
“The current way of sensing involves an optical method that uses a relatively bulky and expensive laser beam that doesn’t translate well to use in nano-scale cantilevers. Our method is fully electrical and uses a small AC voltage to vibrate the cantilever and simple electronics to detect any changes in the vibration caused by gaseous chemical or biological agents,” Rao said. “This method enables the development of handheld devices that would beep or flash as they read gas and chemical levels on site.”
The potential applications are varied, he said. In addition to simultaneously reading multiple kinds of toxins in the environment, these electromechanical sensors have been shown to measure changes in humidity and temperature.
Preliminary results indicate that this fully electrical sensing scheme is so sensitive that it can differentiate between hydrogen and deuterium gas, very similar isotopes of the same element. Since the whole process is electrical, the size limitations that plague competing detection methods are not a problem here. The cantilevers can be shrunk down to the nano-scale and the operating electronics can be contained on a single tiny chip. Rao’s research has shown that a single carbon nanotube can be used as a vibrating cantilever.
Rao credits Clemson Profes
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Delft is in the Netherlands. Its a beautiful, unspoiled town with traditional architecture, canals, bikes, and the world famous blue and white ceramics.
Delft is more than 750 years old. Its name is derived
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Delft is in the Netherlands. Its a beautiful, unspoiled town with traditional architecture, canals, bikes, and the world famous blue and white ceramics.
Delft is more than 750 years old. Its name is derived from 'delven' which means digging. Delfts oldest canal is called The Old Delft (de Oude Delft). In 1246 Delft got city rights, granted by Holland's Duke William II. Delft grew prosperous and new neighbourhoods were added to the city. In 1355 it reached the size it would remain at until the 1900s.
In 1536 a big fire destroyed 2300 houses. Most likely lightning struck the tower of The New Church. About 100 years later, in 1654, an explosion destroyed large parts of town; a warehouse with 80,000 pounds of gunpowder blew up. A new warehouse (Kruithuis) was later built, outside the city perimeter.
Delft has long been a centre of art and science. With the foundation of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) in 1602, Delft also became a trading center. The VOC was at one time the largest trading company in the world, with a huge fleet and offices all over Asia. One of the Dutch offices was in Delft.
In 1842 the Royal Academy for Civil Engineering (Koninklijke Acedemie voor Burgerlijke Ingenieurs) is founded. Nowadays know as Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) it is Delfts biggest employer. About 13.000 students study in Delft.
Delft has two railway stations: Delft (near the city center and best connection towards the universtity) and Delft Zuid (Delft southern parts).
(Direct) train connections run from:
Den Haag Central Station or Hollands Spoor(10 mins, €2)
Schiphol Airport (45 mins, €8) (the train from Schiphol does not stop in Delft, one needs to change train in Leiden or Den Haag HS).
Amsterdam (1 hour, €11)
Rotterdam (15 mins, €3)
Delft is easily reached by car. Coming from Amsterdam or Schiphol, it is at the end of the A4 motorway; coming from Rotterdam, Delft has several exits off the A13 motorway. The old city center has been made largely car-free, but there are two large parking houses at the edge of the center (Zuidpoortgarage and Phoenixgarage).
Buses from Den Haag and Rotterdam terminate at the Delft bus terminal, which is located in front of Delft railway station. Tram line 1 from Den Haag runs to Delft and has stops near the city center and railway station.
New: for a limited period (2007) all public transport in Delft on Saturdays is free from 11.00 am to 6.00 pm. If you travel with public transport (excluding trains) from Delft to other areas you only have to stamp you strippenkaart (public transport card) for the zones outside Delft. You stamp the card the moment you cross into a non-Delft zone (other zone than 5426 that is).
Walk - the centre is small enough to walk across in ten minutes. If you want to go further, hire a bike near the railway station or take a bus or tram.
Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), Markt 80, +31 15 2123025,. Closed on sundays. Located on the Markt square, this church was built in 1496. The royal burial chamber is located in this church. Prince William of Orange was the first to be buried here, after being shot in 1584. It is possible to climb the 108,75 meter tower to get a impressive view of Delft and surroundings. €3 (€2,50 extra to climb the tower).
Oude Kerk (Old Church), Heilige Geestkerkhof 25, +31 15 2123015,. Closed on sundays. This is Delfts oldest Church, being built in 1246. The interior of this church is excellent. Famous Dutchmen are buried in this church, including: Piet Hein, Maerten Tromp and Johannes Vermeer. €3.
Het Prinsenhof, Sint Agathaplein 1, +31 15 2602358,. Open M-F 10AM-5PM, Sa,Su 1PM-5PM. In medieval Delft Sint Agathaklooster was the biggest cloister in Delft. After 1650 it was split in two parts. Part of the chapel remained for religious service (Waalse Kerk). Prince William of Orange held court in the rest of the complex. He was killed here in 1584. Nowadays the complex houses some musea, including the city museum. €7,50.
Synagoge, Koornmarkt 12, +31 15 2563371. Open Jun-Oct only on sat 14-17. This former synagogue was built in 1862 as temple, to a design of Ir. Leon Winkel. The building houses a permanent exposition to the remembrance of the Jewish victims in WWII.
Hofje van Gratie, Van der Mastenstraat 26-38. This was a hofje for single women, founded in 1575 by Pieter Sasbout. Originally situated on Korte Geer, but with expansion of the Armamentarium it was relocated to its current location.
Hofje van Pau
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A learning object is best described as a representation designed to be reused in different educational contexts. In this page you will references to my papers and examples of various learning objects develop either by my self or by my students. Learning objects might reside in digital
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A learning object is best described as a representation designed to be reused in different educational contexts. In this page you will references to my papers and examples of various learning objects develop either by my self or by my students. Learning objects might reside in digital repositories, ready to be located and utilized by those involved in educational activit
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updated 09:25 am EST, Mon January 29, 2007
New Intel chip technology
Intel has introduced new chip technology that it claims could increase computing performance as well as reduce power consumption and said the technology that could make its
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updated 09:25 am EST, Mon January 29, 2007
New Intel chip technology
Intel has introduced new chip technology that it claims could increase computing performance as well as reduce power consumption and said the technology that could make its way into Macs as early as the end of 2007. The world's biggest chip manufacturer said that it is using two "dramatically new" materials to build its next-generation 45 nanometer (nm) transistors, which will be used in the next versions of the the company's Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Core 2 Quad and Xeon families of multi-core processors. It also said it has five early-version products up and running -- the first of fifteen 45nm processor products expected from Intel. Codenamed "Penryn," the early versions of the technology are targeted at five different computer market segments, including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux systems and the company said it remains on track to deliver to shipments of its fi
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Fish Hatchery Water Reuse Evaluation – Chelan County, WA
The Chelan County Public Utility District (PUD) in Washington State produces over four million juvenile anadromous and resident Pacific salmonids annually for stocking the Upper Columbia River
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Fish Hatchery Water Reuse Evaluation – Chelan County, WA
The Chelan County Public Utility District (PUD) in Washington State produces over four million juvenile anadromous and resident Pacific salmonids annually for stocking the Upper Columbia River and surrounding waters. These fish are currently raised in a series of facilities that employ traditional flow-through rearing units. As water supply and discharge permits in the region become increasingly restricted, PUD managers are looking ahead at the possibility of adopting new technologies, such as partial water reuse systems, for raising fish. Water reuse systems are capable of conserving water, concentrating waste for ease in removal and increasing overall production capacity.
In order to choose the partial reuse technology over traditional raceway rearing units, hatchery managers expect comparable, if not superior, fish health and performance from fish raised in the new systems.
During the winter of 2008 a partial water reuse system was installed at the Eastbank Hatchery in Wenatchee, Washington. The Freshwater Institute was commissioned as a third party to evaluate the health of fish reared in the pilot system relative to those raised in the older f
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Regulation of Prana (vital force) is called Pranayama. The Prana is not merely the breath. The breathing process, (inhalation, exhalation and retention) does not constitute the Prana by itself
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Regulation of Prana (vital force) is called Pranayama. The Prana is not merely the breath. The breathing process, (inhalation, exhalation and retention) does not constitute the Prana by itself, but is an indication that the Prana is working. We cannot see the Prana as it is not a physical object. But we can infer its existence from the process of respiration. Air is taken in and thrown out by a particular action of the Prana. Some hold that there are many Pranas and others think it is one. The Prana is really a single energy, but appears to be many when viewed from the standpoints of its different functions. Pranayama is a method of harmonising not only the breath, but also the senses and the mind. Through the practice of Pranayama, the body becomes strong and healthy. Too much of fat is reduced. There will be lusture in the face of the practitioner who will be free from diseases like cold, cough etc.
By the practice of Pranayama, the apices of the lungs will get proper supply of oxygen. There will be an improvement in the quality and quantity of the blood in the system. All the tissues and cells will be nourished with plenty of pure blood and lymph. The process of metabolism will be carried out in an efficient manner.
Important Note: (i) Pranayama exercises should be preceded by relaxation in Savasana, so that the body and mind may be calm and undisturbed before starting Pranayama.
(ii) All the Pranayama exercises should be practised in any one of the sitting postures with head, neck and spine erect.
Deep Breathing Exercise
After relaxing in Savasana, sit in any one of the sitting postures according to your convenience. Inhale and exhale through both the nostrils, without producing any sound. During inhalation, expand the chest and lungs and feel that fresh oxygen is entering the system, and during exhalation,contract the lungs as much as possible and also feel that all the impurities are going out.
If you feel that the nostrils are blocked due to cold, gently press the right nostril with the right thumb and breathe in; and breathe out through the left nostril, without producing any sound. Then close the left nostril with the help of the little and ring fingers of the right hand, slowly inhale and exhale through the right nostril, without producing any sound. Do this process six times. Gradually increase it to twelve times. This is one round. You can increase the number of rounds according to your strength and capacity.
This clears the bronchial and nasal passages, frees one from cold, headache, etc., and increases the breathing capacity of the lungs.
'Kapala' means skull and 'Bhati' means shine. This exercise cleanses the skull. Thus it becomes a purificatory exercise. The regular practice bestows a shining (skull) face to the practitioner. This prepares the student for the practice of Bhastrika Pranayama (see item 3 below).
Sit in any one of the sitting postures and keep the spine and neck erect. Exhale quickly through the nostrils with a slight movement of the lower abdomen. Concentrate on the tip of the nose. You should not contract the face muscles. Short inhalation should follow each exhalation. To start with, you can have a speed of one expulsion per second and you can practise one or two rounds, each round consisting of eight or ten expulsions. Take rest with normal breaths after each round. When one is sufficiently advanced in the practice one can increase at the rate of ten expulsions for each round, per week, till one gets 120 expulsions in each round. Two or three rounds may be done in the morning and evening.
This exercise cleanses the skull, the respiratory system and the nasal passages. It destroys diseases
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Posted by plosbiology on 30 Aug 2012 at 10:36 GMT
Formal Correction: This article has been formally corrected to address the following errors.
Natural Killer (NK) cells are innate immune cells that secrete ly
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Posted by plosbiology on 30 Aug 2012 at 10:36 GMT
Formal Correction: This article has been formally corrected to address the following errors.
Natural Killer (NK) cells are innate immune cells that secrete lytic granules to directly kill virus-infected or transformed cells across an immune synapse. However, a major gap in understanding this process is in establishing how lytic granules pass through the mesh of cortical actin known to underlie the NK cell membrane. Research has been hampered by the resolution of conventional light microscopy, which is too low to resolve cortical actin during lytic granule secretion. Here we use two high-resolution imaging techniques to probe the synaptic organisation of NK cell receptors and filamentous (F)-actin. A combination of optical tweezers and live cell confocal microscopy reveals that microclusters of NKG2D assemble into a ring-shaped structure at the centre of intercellular synapses, where Vav1 and Grb2 also accumulate. Within this ring-shaped organisation of NK cell proteins, lytic granules accumulate for secretion. Using 3D-structured illumination microscopy (3D-SIM) to gain super-resolution of ~100 nm, cortical actin was detected in a central region of the NK cell synapse irrespective of whether activating or inhibitory signals dominate. Strikingly, the periodicity of the cortical actin mesh increased in specific domains at the synapse when the NK cell was activated. Two-colour super-resolution imaging revealed that lytic granules docked precisely in these domains which were also proximal to where the microtubule-organising centre (MTOC) polarised. Together, these data demonstrate that remodelling of the cortical actin mesh occurs at the central region of the cytolytic NK cell immune synapse. This is likely to occur for other types of cell secretion and also emphasises the importance of emerging super-resolution imaging technology for revealing new biology.
Natural Killer (NK) cells are immune cells that can recognise and kill virus-infected and cancerous cells. This killing requires an intercellular contact —termed an immune synapse—between the NK cell and its target cell through which molecules can be delivered to trigger lysis. Reorganisation of the NK cell cytoskeleton is essential for the delivery and release at the synapse of granules containing the cytolytic molecules. Understanding precisely how the cytoskeleton is involved in these cytolytic events has been hampered by our inability to resolve cytoskeletal structure at immune synapses by conventional light microscopy. Very recent advances in imaging technology have now provided the resolving power to see previously undetectable cellular structures. Here, we have used 3D super-resolution imaging to observe the structure of the actin cytoskeleton at the NK immune synapse. We found that a dense mesh of actin underlies the immune synapse and that it is remodelled upon NK cell activation. Domains within the actin meshwork open up specifying where the lytic granules dock and also where the microtubule-organising centre moves towards. Thus, actin remodelling occurs at the immune synapse during secretion and this may be important for the regulation of lytic granule secretion.
Citation: Brown ACN, Oddos S, Dobbie IM, Alakoskela J-M, Parton RM, et al. (2011) Remodelling of Cortical Actin Where Lytic Granules Dock at Natural Killer Cell Immune Synapses Revealed by Super-Resolution Microscopy. PLoS Biol 9(9): e1001152. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001152
Academic Editor: Philippa Marrack, National Jewish Medical and Research Center/Howard Hughes Medical Institute, United States of America
Received: January 19, 2011; Accepted: August 3, 2011; Published: September 13, 2011
Copyright: © 2011 Brown et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: This work was funded by the Medical Research Council (www.mrc.ac.uk; G0500563 and G1001044), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (www.b
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Magic Tree House
Junie B. Jones
Thematic and curriculum connections for picture books, beginning readers, and middle grade books. Prepared by educators, these guides are designed to excite students about literature while saving you valuable lesson preparation time.
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Magic Tree House
Junie B. Jones
Thematic and curriculum connections for picture books, beginning readers, and middle grade books. Prepared by educators, these guides are designed to excite students about literature while saving you valuable lesson preparation time. Browse below by title, author, grade, or theme—or use the search box on the right for a general guide search.
One by one, 10 very hungry rabbits find 10 very yummy vegetables for Mama Rabbit's soup pot. Caldecott Honor Book artist Anita Lobel combines learning to count with color concepts in this mouth-watering...Download Resource
ABOUT THIS BOOK
A collection of nine short stories that deal with adolescent emotions, set mainly in contemporary times and places.
1. “The Moustache” begins and ends...
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Rabies is a ‘zoonotic’ disease meaning it is caused by a virus which can be passed from animals to humans. It is found on all continents and infects wild and domestic animals. Worldwide, more than 50,000 people
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Rabies is a ‘zoonotic’ disease meaning it is caused by a virus which can be passed from animals to humans. It is found on all continents and infects wild and domestic animals. Worldwide, more than 50,000 people die of rabies every year, most of whom are aged 15 years or less.
People are at risk if they are bitten by an infected animal, typically a rabid dog. While dogs cause around 99% of cases, bat rabies has also recently emerged as a public health threat in Australia, Latin America and Western Europe. Human deaths following exposure to foxes, raccoons, skunks, jackals, mongooses and other wild carnivore host species can occur but are very rare.
If left untreated, rabies is nearly always fatal but swift administration of post-exposure prophylaxis with rabies immunoglobulins can prove highly effective.
Is it preventable?
Yes, rabies can be prevented by immunisation. However, despite the development of a safe and effective vaccine against rabies, the disease continues to threaten human life, particularly in Asia and Africa where 95% of cases are recorded.
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By Jodie Dawson, Psy.D.
While parents invite their kids to share their experiences of having a learning difference, they don't always believe that they're getting the "full story" from their kids.
In the spring of 2000,
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By Jodie Dawson, Psy.D.
While parents invite their kids to share their experiences of having a learning difference, they don't always believe that they're getting the "full story" from their kids.
In the spring of 2000, we set out to capture the experiences of elementary school kids who are struggling in school. We talked to kids with learning disabilities (LD) about their day-to-day lives, hopes, dreams, and fears. Each child interviewed expressed a unique experience with school and life, but some common themes emerged.
If you had to guess what the number one thing kids daydream about, what would you say? Have lots of friends? Look good? The truth is that kids do have an interest in learning and being smart. They want self-satisfaction and recognition from parents and teachers that they are indeed smart. So, it's no wonder that when kids don't do well in school, even when given extra help, they feel dumb. They get embarrassed, frustrated, laughed at, and angry with themselves for not succeeding. "I get disappointed in myself and it makes me not want to go back to school."
It's very clear to kids when they're not told the whole story about their learning struggles. They don't feel included in conversations about their learning difficulties, both at home and school. In a way, they feel like things are being done "to" them and not "with" them. They get pulled out of classes, taken out of familiar schools, and spend extra time on schoolwork instead of participating in fun activities like their siblings and peers.
Once a child is identified with a learning disability (LD), the changes that occur at home and school seem endless. One overarching theme expressed by kids was that they truly didn't understand what was happening to them. "One day, my mom told me that I had to go to another school. I was really mad because I had to leave my friends and all the stuff that I knew. I still don't know why she made me go."
Kids in general feel alone in their experiences, but kids who are struggling to learn feel even more isolated. They feel like no one understands them. Struggling in school is definitely not a topic they would bring up with other people, especially their friends, for fear of being made fun of them. "It would feel good to talk to my family and friends about my learning because then I wouldn't feel out of place anymore. But I know I can't."
Your child needs to be recognized and encouraged for things that he CAN do well. Is he a great runner, musician, or artist? Does he help around the house? Make an effort to give him praise for the little things he does. For example, you can say, "I really liked the way you did your chores tonight. I didn't even have to remind you. I don't know what I'd do without your help." When you take notice, you'll see that these opportunities are around every corner.
For parents it's natural to try to protect kids from life's harms and upsets, but at what expense? The less you tell your child, the more serious he thinks his problems are. Kids suspect the worst if parents don't talk to them. The more open and honest you are with your child, the more trust he'll have in your relationship. Let him know that you're going to get through this together. Include him in as many family meetings and appointments with professionals as possible. Tell your child what to expect in the meetings and talk about them afterwards to get his opinion on how it went. Simply, speak the unspoken to your child, and you will both benefit.
Let him know that you're available to listen to him, you won't tell him how he should feel, and you promise not to make judgments about what he tells you. You might have to take the first step and model the type of discussions you'd like to have with him. If you're nervous, you can write down some notes beforehand to organize your thoughts. Share your own childhood experiences - times you might have felt bad or embarrassed about school. This lets him know that he's not alone. You know what it can be like. You DO know what he's going through. You'll have to say it often, just be sure to say it - "I'm here for you if you want to talk."
© 2008 GreatSchools Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally created by Schwab Learning, formerly a program of the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation
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|Look up idem in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.|
Id. (masculine and neuter) and Ead. (feminine) (Latin, short for idem and eadem, "the same")
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|Look up idem in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.|
Id. (masculine and neuter) and Ead. (feminine) (Latin, short for idem and eadem, "the same") are the terms used to denote the previously cited source (compare ibid.). Id. is particularly used in legal citations. They are also used in academic citations where the term replaces the name of a repeated author. Id. is used extensively in Canadian legislation to apply a short description to a section with the same focus as the previous. Notice that Id. is an abbreviation where the last two letters of the word are not present; thus, it always takes a period (or full stop) in both British and American usage.
- United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543, 545 (1976).
- Id. at 547.
Here, the first citation re
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By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor
Stephen Hawking has put forward a new theory that changes the way scientists view black holes, saying he was wrong about them in the past.
Hawking presented his new position to a
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By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor
Stephen Hawking has put forward a new theory that changes the way scientists view black holes, saying he was wrong about them in the past.
Hawking presented his new position to a packed lecture hall
The physicist told a conference on gravitation in Dublin that he has revised his belief that black holes destroy everything that falls on them.
He now believes that black holes may allow information to get out.
His new research could even help solve the "black hole information paradox", a crucial puzzle for modern physics.
He spoke to a packed lecture hall at the 17th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation, giving his new views in a presentation entitled The Information Paradox For Black Holes.
He is revising his 1975 ideas that are regarded as the most astonishing breakthrough in black hole studies.
A black hole is an object from which once inside it is not possible to escape. Its boundary is called its "event horizon".
But now Hawking believes that it might not be a one-way trip after all.
Gary Gibbons, a physicist at Cambridge University, said Hawking's newly defined black holes did not have a well-delineated event horizon that hid everything in them from the outside Universe.
Kip Thorne, a leading cosmologist from the California Institute of Technology said of Hawking's new idea: "This looks to me on the face of it to be a lovely argument, but I haven't yet seen all the details".
No escape, no hair
In 1975, Hawking calculated that once a black hole forms, it radiates energy and starts losing mass by giving off "Hawking radiation".
Scientists were astounded because Hawking's work on a mathematical description of the ever-shrinking black hole forged a link between gravity and entropy - a measure of how energy changes from one form to another.
It was said that black holes had no hair, meaning that it did not matter what came together to make them.
All a black hole had was mass, charge, and spin. There was no information about matter inside the black hole, and once the hole disappeared, all the information went with it.
Black holes in space: Hawking says all is not lost
"It used to be thought that once something had fallen into a black hole it was gone and lost forever and the only information that remained was its mass and spin," the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University told the BBC.
"The Hawking radiation seemed to be random and featureless so it appeared that all information about what fell into a black hole was lost."
But this runs contrary to the laws of quantum physics, which describe the behaviour of the Universe at the smallest scales. These dictate that information can never be completely lost.
Whether information is or is not lost has practical and philosophical consequences.
"We could never be certain of the past or predict the future precisely. A lot of people therefore wanted to believe that information could escape from a black hole but they didn't know how it could get out," he said.
For years, the physicist argued that the extreme gravitational fields of black holes somehow overturned the quantum laws. Now, he has dropped this idea.
Professor Hawking's new black holes never completely destroy everything that falls in. Instead, they continue to emit rad
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Reference:Overpeck et al. 2006
From Global Warming Art
Overpeck, Jonathan T., Bette L. Otto-Bliesner, Gifford H. Miller, Daniel R. Muhs, Richard
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Reference:Overpeck et al. 2006
From Global Warming Art
Overpeck, Jonathan T., Bette L. Otto-Bliesner, Gifford H. Miller, Daniel R. Muhs, Richard B. Alley, Jeffrey T. Kiehl (2006). "Paleoclimatic Evidence for Future Ice-Sheet Instability and Rapid Sea-Level Rise". Science 311 (5768): 1747-1750. DOI:10.1126/science.1115159.
"Sea-level rise from melting of polar ice sheets is one of the largest potential threats of future climate change. Polar warming by the year 2100 may reach levels similar to those of 130,000 to 127,000 years ago that were associated with sea levels several meters above modern levels; both the Greenland Ice Sheet and portions of the Antarctic Ice Sheet may be vulnerable. The record of past ice-sheet melting indicates that the rate of future melting and related sea-level rise could be faster than widely thought."
The following pages on Global Warming Art refer to this reference:
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Free/Open Source Software is software that is made available along with source code as a distinctive feature. It is often available at no cost.Users can use and distribute the software. And if they so wish, they can study the source code and modify it
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Free/Open Source Software is software that is made available along with source code as a distinctive feature. It is often available at no cost.Users can use and distribute the software. And if they so wish, they can study the source code and modify it to suit their needs. The modified version of the software can also be redistributed. In contrast, proprietary software is licensed to users for a fee and the source code is usually closely guarded and not made available to users. It is illegal to make copies and distribute proprietary software without paying additional licensing fees.
There is a fine distinction between Free Software and Open Source Software. The Free Software movement focuses on moral and ethical issues relating to the freedom of users to use, study, modify and redistribute software. Open Source advocates take a more corporate approach, focusing on the advantages of the Open Source software development method. For most purposes, Free Software and Open Source Software can be considered to be the same and we refer to it as Free/Open Source Software (FOSS). For more information on the general aspects of FOSS, please refer to the companion primer Free/Open Source Software - A General Introduction which is available at http://www.iosn.net
FOSS can play an importan
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Ya like this self pro claim indigidious person Cindi Alvitre who in her own words stated " there is no one tribe called tongva" and introduced the term tongva in 1990s.
By Matt Coker
By R
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Ya like this self pro claim indigidious person Cindi Alvitre who in her own words stated " there is no one tribe called tongva" and introduced the term tongva in 1990s.
By Matt Coker
By R. Scott Moxley
By Charles Lam
By Nick Schou
By Gustavo Arellano
By Gustavo Arellano
By Steve Lowery
By R. Scott Moxley
"The purpose of nature is to utilize it, not to look at it," 37-year-old Buena Park resident Matt Teutimez says, as he and his father stand in the middle of the Bolsa Chica wetlands during a crisp, winter morning. All around them, suburbanites zip along the ecological preserve's cement-covered paths, strolling, jogging, walking dogs, basking in what Teutimez considers holy land under siege.
Off in the distance is suburban sprawl, inching closer and closer. Nearby is a graded mesa of dirt, the proposed site for a luxury community designed by Hearthside Homes. In 2005, construction workers unearthed the remains of 174 people, the ancestors of the Teutimezes and hundreds of others in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Here stood a village that held special significance for the people who called themselves Kizh but whom the Spaniards called Gabrieleños, after the mission they herded them into during the 18th and 19th centuries. When activists demanded Hearthside halt construction to properly reinter the dead and take scope of the stunning discovery, a Hearthside vice president dismissed their concerns as "just another obstacle to overcome" and carried on with construction for a planned development where new residents are promised "an intimate connection with nature."
This morning, though, standing by a fence with "KEEP OUT" signs serving as sentries, Teutimez and his father are busy doing what their ancestors did for hundreds of years: identifying wildlife, examining plants and discussing their uses. Matt, a biologist, says the area is so fertile he can make a full meal from the bounty that grows beyond the wire fence and never go hungry: nasturtium, stinging nettle, salt bush, elderberries, among other native plants.
"This habitat is unique because you would have fresh water from the Santa Ana River and salt water," he says. "There would have been an abundance of animals and plants, clams, mussels, abalone. This area is perfect for a village."
But Teutimez cannot legally harvest this bounty; though this was his ancestors' land for generations, he now has no claim to it.
Nevertheless, he and others try. Remaining descendants of the Gabrieleños in Orange County and beyond are gamely trying to retain and revive their heritage via actions sweeping and subtle: by mapping out old village sites, by reconstructing languages and customs through a combination of archive searches and word-of-mouth stories, by protesting loudly whenever another development unearths a part of their past and treats it as just another shovel of dirt or opportunists come to divide and conquer. Fear burned into the subconscious of elders from past slaughters of California Indians kept generations of Gabrieleños living in the shadows. But this new wave is proud and ready to save what is left of its culture—and with only about 650 documented Gabrieleños left, many middle-aged to elderly, time is running short.
"You can't separate them in the Indian mind," Teutimez says of nature and spirituality, of his people's Bolsa Chica and Southern California. "Our ancestors never thought they could do it better than God. They accepted what God gave them, and God gave them plenty. Now what we've said is 'We can do it better.'"
* * *
The Gabrieleños are associated primarily with Los Angeles County because their villages in what's now Orange County fell under the domain of LA in the days of the padres. But they thrived across north, central and coastal OC. Local villages included Lopuuknga, Hotuuknga, Pasbenga and Motuucheynga, located roughly where Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Santa Ana and Seal Beach, respectively, now exist. Gabrieleño domain extended to Aliso Creek, where they had close ties with their neighbors to the south, the Acjachemen, or Juaneños, says Andy Tautimez Salas, Matt's cousin and chairman of the Kizh-Gabrieleño. Salas and others recently learned their pre-colonial ancestors referred to themselves as the Kizh (pronounced "keech," a name derived from their homes, built with willow-branch roofs) and now disavow the widely used term "Tongva," saying it's not really a word, but rather an Anglo bastardization of the name the village Toviscangna.
"There is no such thing as 'Tongva,'" Salas explains. "It wasn't who we were. My grandmother was born in 1912, and she never used that word."
But they're almost universally known as Gabrieleños—even among tribal members—due to the longtime repression and stigma attached to being Indian in Southern California. The Catholic Church forced the Kizh into servitude at Mission San Gabriel upon its inception in 1771 and changed their
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Summary: A classic developmental skills text for intermediate to advanced students of English, Understanding and Using English Grammar is a comprehensive reference grammar as well as a stimulating and teachable classroom text. While keeping the same basic approach and material as in earlier editions,
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Summary: A classic developmental skills text for intermediate to advanced students of English, Understanding and Using English Grammar is a comprehensive reference grammar as well as a stimulating and teachable classroom text. While keeping the same basic approach and material as in earlier editions, the Fourth Edition more fully develops communicative and interactive language-learning activities. Some of the new features are: * Innovative warm-up exercises that precede the g...show morerammar charts and introduce points to be taught * Structure-based listening exercises ranging from casual speech to academic content * Academic readings that highlight the targeted grammar structures * Greatly expanded speaking practice with extensive pair, group
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The red dwarf honey bee (Apis florea) is a species of small, wild honey bees in the family Apidae, genus Apis, subgenus Micrapis. It's found in southern and southeastern Asia. The honey of this species
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The red dwarf honey bee (Apis florea) is a species of small, wild honey bees in the family Apidae, genus Apis, subgenus Micrapis. It's found in southern and southeastern Asia. The honey of this species is considered the best and is very expensive as compare to the honey of other species, particularly domesticated honey bees. In our area the population of Apis florea have been decreased by about 80 percent in the last 15 years. According to the local people this drastic decrease is due to domesticated honey bees, which pest on them. The other common reason which comes in my mind is the excessive spray of pesticides. Last year I observed only one nest, which you see in the last photo.
Red Dwarf Honey Bee-Apis florea
Red Dwarf Honey Bee Hive
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Canada logging may ignite "carbon bomb": Greenpeace
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Canada threatens to ignite a "carbon bomb" that could drastically worsen global warming if it continues heavy logging in areas of its vast
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Canada logging may ignite "carbon bomb": Greenpeace
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Canada threatens to ignite a "carbon bomb" that could drastically worsen global warming if it continues heavy logging in areas of its vast northern forest, Greenpeace warned in a report on Thursday.
Logging and other developments in the boreal forest release the carbon that the trees have trapped from the atmosphere over decades, potentially producing more greenhouse gases than from burning fossil fuels, the environmental group charged.
Greenpeace called for a moratorium on new logging in areas of the forest that still have large, unfragmented blocks of older-growth trees, and warned it had similar fears about the boreal forests that stretch across Russia and northern Europe.
"Research is starting to show that the forest is tipping from being an annual carbon sink to being an annual carbon source," said Christy Ferguson, Greenpeace's forests campaigner in Toronto.
The "Turning Up the Heat" report, prepared by researchers at the University of Toronto, surveyed a variety of separate scientific studies on the boreal forest in recent years.
Canada's boreal forest, characterized by the predominance of conifers like pine and spruce, stretches in a vast curve across the country below the Arctic, from the Yukon territory in the northwest to the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland.
A 1993 study estimated it stored about 186 billion metric tons of carbon, equal to about 27 times what the world produces from burning fossil fuel each year.
Two-thirds of the carbon is stored in the forest's soil, which decays when the tree cover is removed.
Greenpeace says the carbon released as trees are harvested contrib
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After Iowa and Vermont legalized gay marriage, and with bills also pending in Maine and New Hampshire, are gay rights gaining momentum?
In a relatively short time, the number of states giving gay couples the right to marry doubled from two to four. On
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After Iowa and Vermont legalized gay marriage, and with bills also pending in Maine and New Hampshire, are gay rights gaining momentum?
In a relatively short time, the number of states giving gay couples the right to marry doubled from two to four. On Thursday, New York put in a bid to become the fifth.
Gov. David Paterson announced his determination to shepherd a "marriage equality" bill through the state legislature this year, in order to build on the momentum generated earlier this month by the legalization of gay marriage in Iowa and Vermont.
"For too long, the gay and lesbian communities have been told their rights and freedoms have to wait," the Democratic governor said Thursday, framing the issue as a civil rights issue as compelling as the 19th century battle for abolition. "This is the real reform, and the time has come to act.... The time has come to bring marriage equality to the State of New York."
Of the states where same-sex marriage is legal, only Vermont adopted it through the legislative process. In Iowa, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, the courts have ruled that it could not be prohibited under their constitutions.
During the past decade, state legislatures have sided overwhelmingly with those who oppose gay marriage. Forty-four states have enacted laws that define marriage as between a man and a woman, known often as Defense of Marriage Acts (DOMAs). Thirty others have amended their constitutions to define marriage in a similar way.
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I have to write a math proof for the following rule:
A number is divisible by 3 if and only if the sum of its digits are divisible by 3.
My teacher gave us an example of a mathematical proof of the divisibility rule
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I have to write a math proof for the following rule:
A number is divisible by 3 if and only if the sum of its digits are divisible by 3.
My teacher gave us an example of a mathematical proof of the divisibility rule for 9 which is the same as 3 - A number is divisible by 9 if and only if the sum of its digits are divisible by 9
9 divides N
I do not understand this process. Can anyone show me the proof for the divisibility rule for 3?
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Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
The females mate in March through May, laying a clutch of 4-23 eggs in soft or sandy soil.
These snakes prefer sandy, graveled areas that occur in grassland, prairie and mixed forest habitats
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Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
The females mate in March through May, laying a clutch of 4-23 eggs in soft or sandy soil.
These snakes prefer sandy, graveled areas that occur in grassland, prairie and mixed forest habitats. Although hognose snakes are not poisonous to humans, they do have a venom that is released through hollow back teeth into their prey. These snakes will eat almost anything they can swallow, including toads, lizards, snakes, reptile eggs, small birds, and rodents.
When hognose snakes are disturbed or cornered they put on an amazing display. They will inflate their bodies, hiss loudly, open their mouths wide and attempt to strike. It is a pretty good show for a nonpoisonous snake. If this display fails to deter a predator, they will roll over and play dead. It is a very convincing act, with their mouths open and tongues hanging out. These snakes will remain limp and motionless if handled. They lose their credibility when placed right side up, for they are convinced they should be dead, and immediately roll over exposing their bellies. Hognose snakes have many different names, such as puff adders, hissing adders, and sand adders to name a few. These names carry with them the element of fear. Many of these snakes are killed needlessly. Hognose snakes are easily handled and prized as pets.
Hognose snakes have been collected throughout the state. Most of the specimens have been found in north cen
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FTP was designed as an easy mechanism for exchanging files between computers at a time when networks were new and information security was an immature science. In the 1970s, if you wanted to secure a server from unwanted access, you simply locked the
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FTP was designed as an easy mechanism for exchanging files between computers at a time when networks were new and information security was an immature science. In the 1970s, if you wanted to secure a server from unwanted access, you simply locked the computer room door. User access to data was controlled by the basic User ID and password scenario. (Right is a reminder of how much technology has advanced since the 1970s. The photograph, taken December 11, 1975, is the Apollo Project CSM Simulator Computers and Consoles. Photo Courtesy of NASA.)
The Internet did not yet exist and the personal computer revolution was still a decade away.
Today, the security of business file transfers is of paramount importance. The exchange of business records between computing systems, between enterprises, and even across international borders has become critical to the global economy.
Yet, the original native FTP facility of TCP/IP wasn’t designed for the requirements of the modern, globally connected enterprise. FTP’s basic security mechanisms – the User ID and password — have long ago been outdated by advances in network sleuthing technologies, hackers, malware, and the proliferation of millions of network-attached users.
Risks associated with using native (standard) FTP include:
- Native FTP does not encrypt data.
- A user’s name and password are transferred in clear text when logging on and can therefore be easily recognized.
- The use of FTP scripts or batch files leaves User IDs and passwords in the open, where they can easily be hacked.
- FTP alone, does not meet compliance regulations. (For example: HIPAA, SOX, State Privacy Laws, etc.)
- When using an FTP connection, the transferred data could “stray” to a remote computer and not arrive at their intended destination leaving your data exposed for third parties or hackers to intercept.
- Conventional FTP does not natively maintain a record of file transfers.
The first step is to examine how FTP is being used in your organization. The next step is to identify how your organization needs to manage and secure everyone’s file transfers. The final step is to evaluate what type of Managed File Transfer Product your company needs.
For more information download our White Paper – Beyond FTP: Securing and Managing File Transfers.
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Hairy Fungus Beetles
Several insects that feed on fungi are commonly found in grains stored on Pennsylvania farms. One of the more common species is the hairy fungus beetle, Typhaea stercorea (L.). This insect does not
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Hairy Fungus Beetles
Several insects that feed on fungi are commonly found in grains stored on Pennsylvania farms. One of the more common species is the hairy fungus beetle, Typhaea stercorea (L.). This insect does not feed on the grain itself, but on fungi which grow on high moisture grain. Its presence is an indication of moldy grain. It is seldom the primary insect species in an infested grain bin.
The adult is a small, brownish beetle about 1/10 of an inch long and covered with hairs. It resembles the drugstore beetle, but is smaller and has club-like antennae instead of saw-like, antennae. Other stages of the insect are seldom seen in grain bins.
In its natural environment, the adult hairy fungus beetles feed on molds growing on stored grains, where females deposit their eggs. The insects are frequently found in cornfields, where they are attracted to decaying kernels of exposed ears. Adults may also be introduced into grain bins on newly harvested grain. Very little information is available on the life cycle of this pest.
The hairy fungus beetle does not damage stored grain. Its presence in a bin indicates mold growth on the grain or introduction of moldy field corn during harvest. Well managed grain is typically not infested with the hairy fungus beetle. However, populations of the hairy fungus beetle are kept under control if proper sanitation techniques are used and the grain moisture level is maintained at 13 to 15 percent. When grain is placed in storage and not monitored periodically, moisture can accumulate in the bin and molds then develop. This is true even in grain that was originally dried below 15 percent moisture. The presence of molds and insects in the grain can cause rejection of a sale or reduced market value.
Current government programs and low crop values encourage more on-farm, long-term storage of grain. Grain in storage over extended periods of time requires good management practices to prevent moldy grain. The presence of fungus-feeding insects in grain indicates the need to control grain temperature and moisture and perhaps to fumigate infested bins.
Control of this insect begins with good management. Before new grain is placed in a bin, the old grain should be thoroughly removed from the walls, floors, and augers inside the bin. Harvest equipment should also be cleaned before reuse. If possible, the grain should be screened to remove broken kernels and other contaminants.
After being placed in a clean bin, the grain should be checked, at two week intervals during warm months and one month intervals during cooler months, for the presence of hotspots, moldy areas, and insects. If any of these conditions exist, the grain should be aerated to lower the moisture level and temperature.
Fumigants should be used only as a last resort. Because of the high toxicity of registered fumigants and the technical knowledge needed for their proper use, a qualified pesticide applicator should be contacted if fumigation is required.
Pesticides are poisonous. Read and follow directio
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The Cascade Range includes many impressive stratovolcanoes along its north-south extent, some active during the past few hundred years. Mount Shasta in northern California is among the largest and most active (over the past 4,000 years)
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The Cascade Range includes many impressive stratovolcanoes along its north-south extent, some active during the past few hundred years. Mount Shasta in northern California is among the largest and most active (over the past 4,000 years) of the volcanoes in the Cascades. The summit peak stands at an elevation of 4,317 meters (14,160 feet) above sea level, and is formed by the Hotlum cone—the location of the most recently recorded volcanic activity (in 1786). Shasta’s summit is high enough to retain snow cover throughout the year, and several small glaciers are present along the upper slopes.
Immediately to the west of the summit peak (but still on the upper slopes of Shasta) lies the Shastina lava dome complex, reaching 3,758 meters (12,330 feet) above sea level. (Note that the image is rotated so that north is to the lower left.) Two dark lava flows that originated from the Shastina complex and flowed downslope (toward the northwest) are visible in the lower center of this image. The flows contrast sharply with the surrounding vegetated lower slopes and the barren upper slopes of Shasta. The Black Butte lava dome complex forms another isolated hill on the lowermost slopes of Shasta, near the town of Weed, California.
Geologists have mapped prehistoric pyroclastic flow and mudflow deposits (or lahars) from Hotlum cone and the Shastina and Black Butte lava dome complexes to distances of 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the summit of Shasta. As Mount Shasta has erupted within the past 250 years and several communities are within this hazard radius, the U.S. Geological Survey’s California Volcano Observatory actively monitors the volcano for signs of activity.
Additional astronaut photographs of Cascade Volcanoes:
- NASA Earth Observatory (2009, August 17) Mount Hood, Oregon.
- NASA Earth Observatory (2009, January 1) Mount St. Helens, October 2008.
- NASA Earth Observatory (2006, September 18) Crater Lake, Oregon.
- NASA Earth Observatory (2005, September 26) Mount Rainer, Washington.
- NASA Earth Observatory (2004, June 14) Mount Baker, Washington—a Hazardous Beauty.
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This week the FDA issued a warning about the antibiotic azithromycin (Zithromax). The media stories have some patients terrified and some of them are calling me convinced that azithromycin is poison, a reliable agent for suicide.
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This week the FDA issued a warning about the antibiotic azithromycin (Zithromax). The media stories have some patients terrified and some of them are calling me convinced that azithromycin is poison, a reliable agent for suicide.
What’s the hubbub about?
Azithromycin is in a family of antibiotics called macrolides, which also includes erythromycin and clarithromycin (Biaxin). Erythromycin and clarithromycin have long been known to very rarely cause fatal abnormal heart rhythms. It was thought that azithromycin didn’t have this rare side effect.
In May of last year the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published a study that tried to confirm this. The study compared rates of sudden death while taking a course of azithromycin to the risk while taking amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, or no antibiotic. The study was not randomized. It simply matched hundreds of thousands of antibiotic prescriptions to death certificates.
The study found a tiny increased risk in patients taking azithromycin. How tiny? Compared to taking amoxicillin, taking azithromycin contributed 47 additional cardiovascular deaths per 1 million antibiotic courses. That’s one extra death per 21,276 courses. If you took 5-day azithromycin courses continuously, it would take 291 years to take that many courses of antibiotics. That’s a much slower way to die than, say, hemlock.
All patients did not have the same risk of having a fatal heart rhythm abnormality. Older patients, patients taking medications for heart rhythm abnormalities, and patients with heart disease, certain EKG abnormalities, and certain electrolyte abnormalities were at greater risk of this side effect. The patients at highest risk face one additional death every 4,100 courses of antibiotics, while those at lowest risk have one additional death every 110,000. These are very, very small risks.
So doctors should try to avoid all macrolides in high risk patients. But patients should probably forget the whole thing and avoid azithromycin for a different reason.
The reason you should avoid azithromycin is the same as the reason you should avoid all antibiotics. The risk of Clostridium difficile infection and the risk of antibiotic resistance is much greater than the miniscule risk of a fatal rhythm abnormality. That’s what should be scaring you about antibiotics. This is especially true of azithromycin because its convenient 5-day course, the Z Pack, has become a household name and patients ask for it even when antibiotics are very unlikely to help. It is very likely that the last Z Pack you took was for a cold, or for acute bronchitis, or for an early sinus infection, all of which resolve without antibiotics.
It would be a sad irony if we needed the irrational fear of extremely rare side effects to counter the irrational exuberance that patients have for unnecessary antibiotics. I hope instead that educated patients armed with reliable information will make good decisions.
F.D.A. Raises Heart Alert on Antibiotic in Wide Use (New York Times)
FDA Strengthens Warnings On Pfizer Antibiotic (Wall Street Journal)
FDA says Zithromax can cause fatal irregular heart rhythm (Reuters)
Azithromycin (Zithromax or Zmax) and the risk of potentially fatal heart rhythms (FDA Drug Safety Communication)
Azithromycin and the Risk of Cardiovascular Death (NEJM, May 2012)
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excerptedfWrom: Racial Profiling: a Covertly Racist Nation Rides a Vicious Cycle, 20 Law and Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice 53-90, 67-81 (Winter
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excerptedfWrom: Racial Profiling: a Covertly Racist Nation Rides a Vicious Cycle, 20 Law and Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice 53-90, 67-81 (Winter 2002) (292 Footnotes)
At first glance, the United States appears replete with laws that speak directly to racial profiling: the Fourth Amendment protects citizens against "unreasonable searches and seizures," the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments protect citizens from deprivation of liberty and promise equal protection of the laws, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides various remedies for discrimination. However, Supreme Court rulings have limited, and in some cases eradicated, these remedies for victims of racial profiling.
A. The Fourth Amendment
Until recently, crimi
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Adi Parva, Mahabharata/Mahabharata Book I Chapter 95 shloka 8 tells us that Yayati had two wives, viz., Devayani, the daughter of Usanas, and Sarm
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Adi Parva, Mahabharata/Mahabharata Book I Chapter 95 shloka 8 tells us that Yayati had two wives, viz., Devayani, the daughter of Usanas, and Sarmishtha the daughter of Vrishaparvan.
- ययातेर दवे भार्ये बभूवतुः उशनसॊ दुहिता देव यानी वृषपर्वणश च दुहिता शर्मिष्ठा नाम अत्रानुवंशॊ भवति (I.90.8), (1.95)
Maharaja Ushna performed hundred Ashvamedha Yagyas and got the title of yat. According to the historian Ram Lal Hala, the word Jat is derived from word 'Yat'. The king 'Yat'(Ushna) was in Chandravansh was ancestor of Lord Krishna. The Jats are descendants of King Yat. 'Yat' later changed to 'Jat'.
Yat is a Cyrillic alphabet
Yat or Jat (Ѣ, ѣ) is the name of the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet, or of the sound it represents. Its name in Old Church Slavonic is yět’ (ѣть) or yat’ (ıать), in Bulgarian yat (ят) or e dvoyno (е двойно, double e), in Russian and Ukrainian yat’ (ять), in Serbian yat (jat, јат), Croatian jat. In the common scientific Latin transliteration for old Slavic languages, the letter is represented by e with caron: ě (taken from Czech alphabet).
- Ram Lal Hala: Jat Kshatriya Itihasa
Back to The Ancient Jats
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18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, October 15, 1913:
10/13 – 10/17: Nothing worth writing about for these days. Don’t go any place or do
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18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Wednesday, October 15, 1913:
10/13 – 10/17: Nothing worth writing about for these days. Don’t go any place or do anything of much importance.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
I’m still fascinated by the 1913 textbook I found called Rural Arithmetic by John E. Calfee that I mentioned the previous two days. Since Grandma didn’t write anything specific for this date a hundred years ago, I am going to share a few more problems today.
Here are the problems:
1. If a cord of wood for cooking purposes lasts a family 3 weeks, how much does the family pay out in the course of a year for cook-stove wood when wood is $2 per cord?... when wood is $3 per cord?
2. If a quail, in the course of a year, eats 25¢ worth of grain, and destroys $2 worth of harmful insects and weed seed, how much has a farmer injured himself by killing 3 pairs of quails if a pair raise a brood of 12 each year?
3. If the water running from a piece of land that has been planted with corn contained 1 pound of sediment for every 250 gallons of water, how much soil was carried away from a 40-acre corn field after a 2-inch rainfall, with 1/4 of the water running off?
4. If a team travels 16 1/2 miles a day with a breaking plow, how many days work can a man save in plowing 30 acres (110 rod by 43 7/11 rod) by using a 16-inch instead of a 12-inch plow?
5. A county store on a gravel road pays 1¢ a mile for each 100 pounds of freight hauled from the railroad station.; a county seat of the same road 24 miles from the railroad, 18 miles of which are not gravel, pays 2¢ a miles for hauling 100 pounds of freight. What is the annual bad-road tax paid by this county seat upon 300,000 pounds of freight?
It’s amazing how much you can learn about routine activities (as well as issues and challenges) a hundred years ago from word problems.
It’s also intriguing to think about how pedagogical experts a hundred years ago must have believed that it was important to have textbooks with problems that were designed specifically for the rural context that the students experienced in their day-to-day lives.
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7 December 2012
In last week’s Friday fold, I featured this image…
…which prompted commenter Lynn David to ask,
What’s going on to the west side of that red/green rock cored syncline in #2?
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7 December 2012
In last week’s Friday fold, I featured this image…
…which prompted commenter Lynn David to ask,
What’s going on to the west side of that red/green rock cored syncline in #2? It looks like some sort of disconformity but then I looked closer (and man, does that rock redden up) and it appears that the synclinal axis suddenly gets smashed up against “something” – possibly a fault of a different trend than the folding? Could be a folded thrust in the mix??
This was a good question. I hadn’t looked too closely at it when I snapshotted it – I had assumed a big round igneous intrusion, if I gave it much thought at all, but Lynn’s comment prompted me to go and take a closer look. And, wow, am I glad I did. You should too: Here’s a link to the spot on Flash Earth.
After poking around for ten minutes and looking at some of the details, here’s what I sketched out:
You’ll notice (a) I interpret the contact as a east-verging thrust fault (hanging wall is green colored rocks on the west), and (b) that I’ve drawn into two subsidiary faults at sites where the red bedding gets truncated. Close-ups of these two appear below:
I tried to check my off-the-cuff interpretation with One Geology, but the resolution is nowhere near sufficient, and Pakistan doesn’t have a good map laid out in the geological layer. But I found this great big jpg instead, and sure enough, there are a series of faults there with more or less the pattern I interpreted:
Awesome. That’s gratifying. What a cool area. I’d love the opportunity to do mapping there – with the proper human-safety controls, of course.
Lynn has a map, too, and says,
Ok… looked at my map of Pakistan and the core of that syncline is Miocene-Oligocene (M/O) and there is a fault there on the west that is possibly reverse (thrust?) faulting Oligocene-Eocene (O/E) age rocks over the M/O. But the synform continues west and you get back into the M/O sequence.
And the M/O syncline is bounded by faults to both the north and south. Although the southern fault plays out as you go east. But the northern one has Eocene age rocks up on the M/O to the east. So I’m guessing the thrusting is from north to south, even though there is a east-west trending Jurassic/Triassic cored anticlinorium to the south.
There’s some serious controls going on there trending west-southwest from where that syncline gets truncated by the fault off toward the city of Quetta, the J/Tr anticlinorium get smooshed up against the trend and it includes some intrusions along the way.
Great stuff. Lynn, thanks for the prompt to take a closer look. Happy Friday, all.
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DARPA wants gamers to design medical training software
- By Henry Kenyon
- May 03, 2012
The Defense Department’s research and development organization wants to use video games to teach medical first responders. By reaching out to
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DARPA wants gamers to design medical training software
- By Henry Kenyon
- May 03, 2012
The Defense Department’s research and development organization wants to use video games to teach medical first responders. By reaching out to game designers, the government wants to apply the interactive techniques found in computer games to create an educational application that can be used on mobile devices.
Traditional computer-based simulations focus on training specific skills and techniques as a part of a larger, usually classroom-based, instructional program. But with game-based graphics and techniques, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants to develop a system combining skills training with broad educational applications.
For example, instead of merely teaching where to apply a tourniquet, the computer-based system would also reinforce the lesson with demonstrations and discussions of the circulatory system. This allows students to learn why wounds in slightly different areas of the body respond differently, and why and when to apply pressure under certain conditions.
DARPA developing contact lenses with 'Terminator'-like abilities
Power of play: Gamers solve 15-year scientific puzzle in 3 weeks
“We are not seeking standard computer-based learning systems, but game-based interactive systems that are engaging and challenging to the user,” stated the agency’s request for proposals. DARPA wants design and development proposals to meet professional game standards.
The proposed game concepts must be “compelling, innovative, and designed to motivate users for continued interactions. Innovative approaches for visualization and interaction with these different types of information are required,” the document said.
By combining skills training with an understanding of biology and physiology, DARPA expects students to be more well-rounded and able to react to unusual situations. The application must also be flexible enough to be used in both medical training and in civilian science classes, DARPA officials said.
DARPA’s other goal is to create a game-based application for smart phones and tablets to teach first responders through “intelligent tutoring systems.” These software-based routines would not only teach basic skills, but also answer essential questions about why students should or should not have responded the way they did. Using the application, students should learn both basic skills and the basic principles of human physiology, DARPA officials said.
Another requirement is for the system’s underlying architecture to be accessible to users, allowing them to both analyze and optimize the software.
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When studying colour theory we are given an understanding of the colour wheel and the harmonious relationships that can be forged between these brothers of reflecting light… It is here that we are given a cheat sheet on how to use colour effectively to communicate the right
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When studying colour theory we are given an understanding of the colour wheel and the harmonious relationships that can be forged between these brothers of reflecting light… It is here that we are given a cheat sheet on how to use colour effectively to communicate the right message.
Below we use this knowledge to go behind the scenes of colour theory in logo design while looking at various case studies of logo designs that use these principles. Enjoy.
The Colour Wheel – Our Cheat Sheet.
This wheel, that shows the relationships of colours, is a handy little tool to understand. Without going into any great detail of how the colours of the wheel are established (which is pretty interesting to know), we’ll just tip or toes into the water.
The panels that have an outline above, with their linking lines, show the relationships colours have. For example, complementary colours are the colours directly opposite each other. In our illustration above (the first wheel highlights the relationship), red and green are directly opposite, so they’re complementary. Just as the blue on the left and the yellow on the right are complementary, the orange and light blue, and so on.
These aren’t the be-all and end-all of colour combinations obviously, but they’re good places to start when choosing what colours you might want to use for a project. As you’ll see in the following examples, sometimes you might use three out of four tetrad colours, or go for an analogous harmony but stretch it out one more and skip one.
The wheel is our simple guide into the world of colours – something to use when you find yourself in a place of bother, or something you may choose to ignore. With that in mind, sometimes one may decide to ignore the wheel, but work with colour meanings and psychology instead. It should be noted that it isn’t exactly a science. Ask a hundred people what red means and you’ll likely get dozens upon dozens of different answers – none wrong. But again, it’s a great starting point and gives you insight into how your audience may instinctively perceive something you’ve put together.
Colour Meanings & Theory
Colour can make or break a design so it is vital that you know what colours mean and what they can communicate. Below are some ‘meanings’ of colour. [Source]
- Red evokes aggressiveness, passion, strength and vitality
- Pink evokes femininity, innocence, softness and health.
- Orange evokes fun, cheeriness and warm exuberance.
- Yellow evokes positivity, sunshine and cowardice.
- Green evokes tranquility, health and freshness.
- Blue evokes authority, dignity, security and faithfulness.
- Purple evokes sophistication, spirituality, costliness, royalty and mystery.
- Brown evokes utility, eart
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Allusions to Hebrew or Yiddish song are most frequently assumed to connote popular, folk, folklike, commercial, pedagogic, or theatrical genres and, in the case of Hebrew, kibbutz, ḥal
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Allusions to Hebrew or Yiddish song are most frequently assumed to connote popular, folk, folklike, commercial, pedagogic, or theatrical genres and, in the case of Hebrew, kibbutz, ḥalutz (pioneer), aliya, and other Zionist-related songs of a folk character that are known collectively as “songs of the Land of Zion” (shirei eretz yisra’el). Rarely, if at all, outside a small and dwindling group of aficionados, however, do unmodified references to Hebrew or Yiddish song evoke association with the classical genre of lieder—or art song—that constitutes serious vocal chamber music for solo voice and piano as an interactive ensemble. It is this last genre that is the exclusive focus of this volume.
From a purely philological or linguistic standpoint, the German word lieder translates simply and generically as “song” (with reference to music, since it can also mean a lyrical, usually strophic poem in other contexts). The German equivalent of the English designation “art song”—referring to the type of classically cultivated solo song for voice and piano that rose to prominence in the Romantic era and has continued to be a staple genre of serious vocal music linked to poetic literature—is Kunstlieder. As a musical term, however, by the 19th century lied (and especially its plural, lieder) came to imply Kunstlied, so that although in theory the two words might be viewed as interchangeable, it long ago became customary in classical music parlance to refer to what we would call art songs simply as lieder. In fact, the term has entered the English language with that meaning in the classical context. (A folksong, on the other hand, might require its full German equivalent, Volkslied, for clarification or differentiation—as it would in Yiddish as well.)
While at one time the term lieder was generally used only for art songs in German (or written originally in German), it has come more inclusively to transcend German culture and to embrace art songs generically. It can thus apply not only to a recital devoted exclusively to German lieder, but equally so to a mixed program of songs by composers of German, French, Russian, English, American, or other nationalities and cultural backgrounds whose songs are settings of poetry in the corresponding languages. Some, however, would still prefer to call such a mixed program simply a “song recital,” assuming that the word “recital,” along with the venue and context of the event, indicates classical music as opposed to folk or popular songs. “Art song” is used in this essay interchangeably with the term lieder.
Curator's Note: The term “art song” is used throughout this website as a genre tag to denote songs of the lieder variety, as well as closely related works—not necessarily comprising a voice and piano duo—that display a similar compositional approach to setting poetry and/or folk songs (i.e., Jean Berger’s Two Songs from Ecclesiastes or Harold Shapero’s Three Hebrew Songs, both for tenor and orchestra, or Herbert Fromm’s Yemenite Cycle for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble).
|Ultimately, it was under Weiner’s pen that the American Yiddish art song—and quite possibly Yiddish lieder of any geographical or cultural origin—attained its most profound expression and reached its richest bloom.
Like virtually every art form associated with a particular period of origin, the seminal German lied of the Romantic era had its forerunners and antecedents. Those include the polyphonic lied of the late medieval period and the Renaissance; the Baroque continuo lied; and the Classical period art songs—all of which are now relatively obscure repertoires outside the academy, which do not, for the most part, represent the more enduring, significant legacies of those same periods. Beginning in the first quarter of the 19th century, however, with Schubert’s more than six hundred songs (cycles as well as individual pieces) and Beethoven’s song cycle, An die ferne Geliebte (op. 98, 1815–16), as well as some individual songs, lieder became firmly established as a major genre within classical music. As an intimate, introspective, expressive medium for solo voice and piano in a duo ensemble capable of exploring and interpreting serious poetry, it has attracted the talents of composers in nearly every generation since.
The lieder genre was a creature of the confluence of literary, sociological, aesthetic, commercial, and even technological developments that had emerged in Europe by the 19th century. Chief among these were the steep escalation of interest in Romantic lyric poetry as part of a wider, heightened attention by the educated public to serious poetry in general; the growth of midd
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What are the major causes of Learning Disabilities?
About 85 to 90 percent of learning difficulties are due to poor underlying learning skills. These skills include:
Attention/Concentration: the ability to stay on task or ignore distractions. For example,
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What are the major causes of Learning Disabilities?
About 85 to 90 percent of learning difficulties are due to poor underlying learning skills. These skills include:
Attention/Concentration: the ability to stay on task or ignore distractions. For example, continuing to read a book while another group is in a discussion.
Phonetic awareness: the ability to blend sounds, segment (unglue) sounds, and analyze sounds. Problems with reading new words or spelling errors in writing result from poor phonetic awareness.
Memory: the ability to recall short or long term information. For example, copying from a board (short term) or taking a final history exam (long term).
Comprehension: the ability to understand.
Visualization: the ability to create mental pictures. For example, seeing "in the mind" a math word problem before trying to solve it.
Processing Speed: the ability to handle and process information quickly.
Are learning difficulties due to a lack of instruction?
This is easy to determine. If you or your child is able to understand and perform as others do with extra help or tutoring, then the cause of the struggle is poor or inadequate instruction. But if good performance is achieved only after long hours, sweat, or many mistakes, then the problem is deeper.
Is the lack of motivation the cause of learning problems?
Very few enter school or a job not wanting to succeed. It is only after they find it difficult, experience failure, or are ridiculed that they avoid the activities that give them pain. In other words, a lack of motivation is usually the result of a learning problem – not the cause.
Are learning difficulties inherited?
Heredity does play a role, but it is minor. It is generally believed that between 40% and 70% of our mental abilities are learned, not inherited. Therefore, we can accomplish far more if we stop blaming the problems on genes, which we can't change, and start enhancing the skills that are learned and can be changed.
Can a child with normal intelligence have a problem with learning?
Absolutely. IQ is only an average of many different learning skills, which means it's possible for someone who has "normal" intelligence to have scored high on some skills and low on others. And if those "low" scores are in the skills required for reading or math, then reading or math achievement will be low even though IQ is "normal."
If learning skills are learned, then why are they not learned in school?
Every school activity a child does has the potential to further develop an underlying learning skill. But this will only happen if the activity is challenging. School lessons are often either too hard (frustrating) or too easy (boring) because children seldom have equal learning skills. Therefore, to make significant improvement in these skills, individual attention is required.
Many schools simply don't have the time or funds to provide this very intensive and structured one-on-one training. Also, most teachers tend to teach to the child's stronger skills. By avoiding the weak skills, they don't get developed. The result may be a life-long learning handicap.
What is a training task like?
Brain training procedures are made up of tasks that are designed to meet specific goals. The tasks are related, make repetitive demands on a deficient skill, and progressively increase in difficulty. This is a process-specific approach to training (as opposed to a general stimulation approach). A process-specific approach targets the same function systematically and repetitively with related tasks.
Do the results last?
Yes. The skills developed are used each day the student is in school or at work. They are constantly being used and therefore don't regress. This retention is reflected in a study that showed that 98.7% of the one year follow-up cognitive test scores were at least as high as they were at the completion of their brain training programs (specific to PACE)
Can you tell about Processing and Cognitive Enhancement (PACE) Program?
Yes, here is a very quick 11 point overview:
PACE is based on the best scientific research available and is continually modified to incorporate new scientific data.
PACE targets and trains those skills that are most likely to have a meaningful impact on learning performance and academic abilities.
PACE is provided individually to achieve significant results quickly.
PACE consists of sequenced procedures to challenge – not bore or frustrate – the student.
PACE is provided on a one-on-one basis to allow immediate feedback (error correction and positive reinforcement).
PACE improves the student's self-esteem by allowing him or her to actually see the difference in his or her own performance.
PACE drives new skills to the subconscious so that they become habitual and automatic.
PACE procedures appear to be non-academic so that they are different from the schoolwork with which the student may have had negative experiences.
PACE develops meaningful skills that are used in the student's daily activities so that there is a high level of retention.
PACE produces valuable results (there is a high return) when considering committed effort, time, and finances.
Do you have a passion for working with children? Are you presently looking to make a career change? If yes, apply today for your spot in the upcoming brain trainer certification course.
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There has been a persistent historiographical tradition from the beginning of the nineteenth century that the earliest settlers of Newfoundland were Puritans who were guided religiously by dissenting ministers. Anspach, the Anglican missionary and schoolmaster in St
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There has been a persistent historiographical tradition from the beginning of the nineteenth century that the earliest settlers of Newfoundland were Puritans who were guided religiously by dissenting ministers. Anspach, the Anglican missionary and schoolmaster in St. John's and Harbour Grace, wrote in his History of the Island of Newfoundland (1819): "A considerable colony, composed chiefly of Puritans, accompanied to Newfoundland Captain Edward Wynne, whom Sir George [Calvert] had sent with the commission of Governor, to prepare every thing necessary for his reception..."(1) Judge Prowse, reproducing information from a now entirely lost pamphlet by Mrs. Siddall, the wife of the Congregational minister G. Ward Siddall at St. John's, on The Origin of Nonconformity in St. John's, Newfoundland, in his History of the Churches in Newfoundland (1895), a supplement to the influential History of Newfoundland (1895), popularized from fact and fiction the most comprehensive picture of Puritanism on the island. Its beginnings can according to Prowse be traced to the time of Queen Elizabeth when "some of the English separatists (Independents) were banished to Newfoundland..., and in the small scattered settlements then existing about St. John's and Conception [Bay], these victims of Elizabeth's ecclesiastical tyranny could easily hide themselves away." We are told that the "separatists were the extreme branch of the Puritans, who had broken away from the Church and the Hierarchy."(2) The story did not end here, but "Guy's colonists and their zealous Puritan pastor, Erasmus Stourton, would join with these exiles, and in this mann
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Bill Long 1/3/05
From Theology to Rocks to Corals to Monasteries
We saw in the previous essay that a theology of the cross, a staurology, emerged from both Paul's and Martin Luther's
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Bill Long 1/3/05
From Theology to Rocks to Corals to Monasteries
We saw in the previous essay that a theology of the cross, a staurology, emerged from both Paul's and Martin Luther's writings. Yet, the word was never invented. In contrast, by the 17th century, the word staurolatry (worship of the cross) appears in a negative connotation, to attack the Catholic faith. For example, we have from the English Puritan divine John Owen: "They will not hearken to the Angels preaching the everlasting Gospel, that men should worship...the God of heaven...in opposition to all their Iconalatry..Staurolatry, and Masse abominations." Or, from the most famous American Puritan writer Cotton Mather, "Satans design in advancing staurolatry to the destruction of thousands of Souls."
From these two quotations we see that staurolatry probably means the (Catholic) adoration or celebration of the crucified Christ on the cross, which was abhorrent to the Puritans. It may even have been that the dropped their "theology of the cross," or at least muted it, in the wake of this Catholic practice. For example, one of the most famous works of the aformentioned John Owen was "The Death of Death in the Death of Christ," a long tome pointing out the redemptive way in which Christ's death works on behalf of the sinner. Though I didn't read his entire work, what is striking to me in his title and exposition is that the notion of cross has temporarily disappeared from Owen's theology--to be replaced by the more purely ideological word "death." After all, if you focus too much on the cross, there is lots to explain, such as blood and sacrifice and punishment and Romans, while the concept of Christ's death redeeming our life and achieving victory over the forces of death has such a straightforward ring to it that its appeal is powerful.
Whatever can be said for this thesis, of the temporary deemphasis of the cross of Christ (and no English word to describe the concept), by the 18th and 19th centuries, the cross became central in Evangelical Christianity. Evangelicals warm embrace in our day of Mel Gibson's the Passion of the Christ, where the Cross is the most potent symbol of the last days of Jesus, confirms this notion.
Another Religious Reference
Even after we leave the rarified air of Puritan theology and descend towards the earth, we still meet up with a religious usage in the stauropegion. Derived from two Greek words meaning "to set up a cross," a stauropegion is a term from Russian and Greek Orthodox religion. It is a substantive and is used to designate a church or, especially, a monastery which is exempt from the jurisdiction of a local bishop and subject directly to the higher authority (usually the Patriarch). The monastery is so designated because the Patriarch would send a cross which would be set up on the site as a sign of the special relationship with the monastery. For example, the Valaam Monastery, located on an island in the chilly waters of Lake Lagoda in Russia, is a stauropegion. Other web sites talk about stauropegia in the Greek world.
Getting Down to Earth
Now that we have descended from the heavens, let's get to earth and return to mineralogy. Staurolite is a metamorphic material famous for its twinned crystals that form into the shape of a cross. Some mineralogists are only interested in the interesting cases of twinning. Twins form as a result of an "error" during crystallization--instead of the "normal" single crystal, some crystals appear doubled. A twin's formation is never random and follows identified rules called "twin laws." For more information on this unique form of twinning, click here. A stauroscope is an optical instrument, developed by the Munich mineraologist Wolfgange Von Kobell in 1855 to deterimine the position of planes of light-vibration in crystals.
Other Examples of Stauro--
If we began in the heavens of Puritan theology and then descended to the earth, we can go yet deeper and find stauros in the seas both shallow and deep. One of the more arresting uses of the term is to describe a kind of jellyfish. Stauromedusae is the name of the order (phylum Cnidana) and describes little jellyfish, many of which are in the Pacific Northwest and the coasts of Japan, which spend their entire lives attached to their substrates rather than swimming freely in the water like other jellyfish. As one commentator describes them: "Swimming is never an option for these lovers of laid-back sedentary lifestyle." They are so designated because they have eight arms or tentacles that are arranged in pairs, forming a sort of a cross.
Then, if we traveled quickly from botany to paleontology, a stauria favosa is defined as a "Silurian rugosa coral." Blow up photos o
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Better Students Ask More Questions.
Compare and contrast the respective approaches of Herbert Hoover and Franklin D....
1 Answer | add yours
The approaches of these two presidents did have something in common. Both presidents used the federal government more than any previous president had
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Better Students Ask More Questions.
Compare and contrast the respective approaches of Herbert Hoover and Franklin D....
1 Answer | add yours
The approaches of these two presidents did have something in common. Both presidents used the federal government more than any previous president had to try to get the economy back to full strength. Hoover is commonly blamed for not doing anything to end the Depression, but he actually did have the government do quite a bit (like the Hoover Dam and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation) to try to end the Depression.
There are two major differences between their approaches. First, Roosevelt was willing to do much more than Hoover to combat the Depression. He was willing to have the government get much more involved in the economy. Hoover did more than any previous president, but Roosevelt did much, much more than Hoover. Second, Roosevelt did more to try to boost the morale of the people. Roosevelt tried to convince people that things would get better and that the government would be there to help. Hoover did not do nearly as much to try to improve public morale.
Though Hoover did do more than he is given credit for, his approach to the problems of the
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Index of Multiple Deprivation
Overview of the Index of Multiple Deprivation
The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) combines a number of indicators, chosen to cover a range of economic, social and housing issues, into a single deprivation score
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Index of Multiple Deprivation
Overview of the Index of Multiple Deprivation
The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) combines a number of indicators, chosen to cover a range of economic, social and housing issues, into a single deprivation score for each small area in England. This allows each area to be ranked relative to one another according to their level of deprivation. The 2007 and 2004 Indices have been produced at Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) level, of which there are 32,482 in the country. The two previous IMD scores (1998 and 2000) were released to ward level, of which there are 7936 (in 2007).
The methodology underpinning the ID 2004 and the ID 2007 are largely the same though there have been small changes to some of the underlying indicators. Comparison between the two Indices is therefore acceptable.
The Indices are used widely to analyse patterns of deprivation, identify areas that would benefit from special initiatives or programmes and as a tool to determine eligibility for specific funding streams.
Hartlepool Borough Council is not responsible for the content of any external websites and does not endorse any product or organisation contained therein
Communities and Local Government
This link will take you to a page about the Indices of Deprivation 2007 on the Communities and Local Government website
English Indices of Deprivation 2007 Summary
This document has been produced by Communities and Local Government and provides a summary of the English Indices of Deprivation for 2007
JSU IMD 2007 - Changes
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Parents and educators hear time, and again, how crucial it is to introduce quality literature into
the lives of children. Reading is one of the most enjoyable ways to learn new skills, expand
imagination and develop critical thinking skills. Books make
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Parents and educators hear time, and again, how crucial it is to introduce quality literature into
the lives of children. Reading is one of the most enjoyable ways to learn new skills, expand
imagination and develop critical thinking skills. Books make excellent gifts and the following
tips will help you select the right book for your favorite reader! If the book is not a gift, bring
your child along to choose a book and guide the selection process.
1. The best place to begin is with what interests your child. Is your child into sports?
Futuristic adventures? Mysteries? Rhymes? Silly poetry? Fairy tales and princesses? Animals
or how-to books? When your child is interested in the topic, he or she is more likely to read the
2. Selecting the correct reading level for your child is important. A book that is too difficult will
frustrate your child and a book that is too easy will result in boredom. Talk with your child’s
teacher to the general reading level. If you need specific title suggestions for your child’s
reading level, Google search “Accelerated Reader book lists”. Book titles will display a
numeric code which suggests a reading level. For example, 1.2 = First grade, second month,
3.6 = Third grade, sixth month.
3. Think about what the book will offer your child. A fun tale? A moral? Interaction by
encouraging participation? Open up imagination and worlds of wonder? Introduce new
vocabulary or a new skill? If the book doesn’t offer something worthwhile, keep searching.
4. A good book will offer enjoyable, quality illustrations. An early reader should have vibrant
and engaging illustrations that match the text. A chapter book will offer fewer pictures, but
may have diagrams, maps and charts to appease the curiosity of older children.
5. Another quality of a well thought out book is the addition of support materials. Is there a
parent guide, teacher guide, companion journal, or audio CD? Is there a movie based on the
book? Additional materials will help you extend learning and keep discussions open about
your child’s latest reading adventure!
6. If you plan to read the book only once, check it out from the library. If you and your child
plan to read it again and again, obtain a durable, hardcover copy for your home library.
7. Some terrific books will be award winners, but not all great books win a shiny medal. Award-winning
books have been selected by a committee of experts, including librarians, teachers and
booksellers, as having excellent qualities. Award winning books can be a good choice, especially
if the topic and illustrations are appealing to your child.
Books can become a treasured item. They make a great gift, especially when inscribed for a
special occasion such as a holiday or birthday. I still have special books from my childhood,
dedicated to me by thoughtful relatives. I plan to share these worn literary treasures with my
own family. I hope you find some great books and start your own reading traditions!
Julie Rebboah has been a professional educator since 1998. She has been an Early Reading Intervention instructor, an English language development teacher, and a private tutor. Julie wrote Magic Letters; The Keys to the World of Words and Magic Words; Discovering the Adventure of Reading out of a need to provide materials to support and extend lear
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Vegetarianism and religion
Vegetarianism is strongly linked with a number of religions that originated in ancient India (Jainism, Hinduism and Buddhism). In Jainism, vegetarianism is mandatory for everyone; in Hinduism and
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Vegetarianism and religion
Vegetarianism is strongly linked with a number of religions that originated in ancient India (Jainism, Hinduism and Buddhism). In Jainism, vegetarianism is mandatory for everyone; in Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism, it is advocated by some influential scriptures and religious authorities. Comparatively, in the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and in Sikhism, vegetarianism is not promoted by mainstream authorities, although in all these faiths there are small groups actively promoting vegetarianism on religious grounds.
- 1 Indian religions
- 2 Abrahamic religions
- 3 Other religions
- 4 See also
- 5 Notes
- 6 Further reading
- 7 External links
Most Indian religions have philosophical schools that forbid consumption of meat and Jainism institutes an outright ban on the same. Consequently, India is home to more vegetarians than any other country. About 30% of India's 1.2 billion population practices lacto vegetarianism, with overall meat consumption increasing. The per capita meat consumption in India in 2002 was 5.2 kg, while it was 24 times more in the United States at 124.8 kg. Meat consumption in the United States and India grew at about 40% over the last 50 years. In 1961 Indian per capita meat consumption was 3.7 kg, while the US consumption was 89.2 kg. (1 kg = 2.205 lb)
Vegetarianism in Jainism is based on the principle of nonviolence (ahimsa, literally "non-injuring"). Vegetarianism is considered mandatory for everyone. Jains are either lacto-vegetarians or vegans. No use or consumption of products obtained from dead animals is allowed. Moreover Jains try to avoid unnecessary injury to plants and suksma jiva (Sanskrit for subtle life forms; minuscule organisms). The goal is to cause as little violence to living things as possible, hence they avoid eating roots, tubers such as Potatoes, garlic and anything that involves uprooting (and thus eventually killing) a plant to obtain food.
Every act by which a person directly or indirectly supports killing or injury is seen as violence (himsa), which creates harmful karma. The aim of ahimsa is to prevent the accumulation of such karma. Jains consider nonviolence to be the most essential religious duty for everyone (ahinsā paramo dharmaḥ, a statement often inscribed on Jain temples). Their scrupulous and thorough way of applying nonviolence to everyday activities, and especially to food, shapes their entire lives and is the most significant hallmark of Jain identity. A side effect of this strict discipline is the exercise of asceticism, which is strongly encouraged in Jainism for lay people as well as for monks and nuns.
Jains do not practice animal sacrifice as they consider all sentient beings to be equal.
Vegetarianism is an integral part of most schools of Hinduism although there are a wide variety of practices and beliefs that have changed over time. An estimated 20 to 30% of all Hindus are vegetarians. Some sects of Hindus do not observe vegetarianism.
The principle of nonviolence (Ahimsa) applied to animals is connected with the intention to avoid negative karmic influences which result from violence. The suffering of all beings is believed to arise from craving and desire, conditioned by the karmic effects of both animal and human action. The violence of slaughtering animals for food, and its source in craving, reveal flesh eating as one mode in which humans enslave themselves to suffering. Hinduism holds that such influences affect he who permits the slaughter of an animal, he who cuts it up, he who kills it, he who buys or sells meat, he who cooks it, he who serves it up, and he who eats it. They must all be considered the slayers of the animal. The question of religious duties towards the animals and of negative Karma incurred from violence (himsa) against them is discussed in detail in Hindu scriptures and religious law books.
Hindu scriptures belong or refer to the Vedic period which lasted till about 500 BCE according to the chronological division by modern historians. In the historical Vedic religion, the predecessor of Hinduism, meat eating was not banned in principle, but was restricted by specific rules. Several highly authoritative scriptures bar violence against domestic animals except in the case of ritual sacrifice. This view is clearly expressed in the Mahabharata (3.199.11-12; 13.115; 13.116.26; 13.148.17), the Bhagavata Purana (11.5.13-14), and the Chandogya Upanishad (8.15.1). For instance, many Hindus point to the Mahabharata's maxim that "Nonviolence is the highest duty and the highest teaching," as advocating a vegetarian diet. It is also reflected in the Manu Smriti (5.27-44), a particularly renowned traditional Hindu law book (Dharmaśāstra). These texts strongly condemn the slaughter of animals and meat eating.
The Mahabharata (12.260; 13.115-116; 14.28) and the Manu Smriti (5.27-55) contain lengthy discussions about the legitimacy of ritual slaughter and subsequent consumption of th
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In case you missed it, the San Jose Mercury News had an interesting article over the weekend about a recently opened fabrication lab designed especially for middle- and high-school students at Castilleja School in Palo Alto. Known as the Bourn Lab,
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In case you missed it, the San Jose Mercury News had an interesting article over the weekend about a recently opened fabrication lab designed especially for middle- and high-school students at Castilleja School in Palo Alto. Known as the Bourn Lab, the facility is part of the FabLab@School program, which was created by Paulo Blikstein, PhD, an assistant professor of computer science at Stanford.
Blikstein developed the FabLab@School program to re-create the role of labs in schools, promote exploration in education and inspire innovation. The Bourn Lab offers students access to 3-D printers, a 3-D scanner, a laser-cut printer and other equipment, which they have used in various projects such as constructing cancer diagnostics prototypes.
As the Mercury News story explains, Blikstein is collaborating with teachers at Castilleja and East Palo Alto Academy to study the effectiveness of the fab lab learning model:
Fifteen out of the 60 teachers at Castilleja — representing every department — have been through a lab training headed by Blikstein, and more teachers will take part. In addition to training and regularly meeting with the teachers, Blikstein is heading a team of about 20 people at Stanford to study how well the FabLab@School concept works. “Research is the best way to ensure it’s going to continue,” he said.
As part of its partnership with Blikstein, Castilleja also is helping with the cost of another school fab lab, at East Palo Alto Academy, which will open later this year. Blikstein said he’s currently talking with teachers at both schools — he has w
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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved. Contact us for information about using this image.
Most people, by the mid-1800s, purchased locally made soaps rather than made their own
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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved. Contact us for information about using this image.
Most people, by the mid-1800s, purchased locally made soaps rather than made their own: the soap-making process was long, hot and filled with fumes. Soap had been commercially made in the American Colonies beginning in 1608. By the 1860s there were few soap manufacturers able to ship their goods much further than their home cities and few markets for their products, which were considered expensive luxuries. Commercial cakes of soap began to be distributed to wider networks beginning in the 1840s but most local stores continued making their own soap until around 1900. This flyer is for a soap that was made according to a very specific formula and uses the generic phrase "patent soap" to describe itself. Although the formula could have been printed entirely, without any handwritten sections, it provided a greater security for the vendor to give the crucial items at the point of sale. Soap made according to this method was sold at a store. It was stored in a single large block; individual chunks of soap were cut to the customer's order.
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This item is available under a Creative Commons License for non-commercial use only
2. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, 5.3 EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES, Information Science
This chapter explores students’ perspectives on the transformations that the use of technology
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This item is available under a Creative Commons License for non-commercial use only
2. ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY, 5.3 EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES, Information Science
This chapter explores students’ perspectives on the transformations that the use of technology has brought to higher education. The use of technologies in higher education facilitates flexible learning environments but the benefits to students who engage with these technologies will only be realised if the design is pedagogically sound. The pedagogic approach employed by lecturers when designing their e-learning platforms or learning management systems has the capability to transform learning. The author’s discipline is Information Technology and Business Information Systems; from experience and case studies there is ample evidence to suggest that the use of technology does not always necessarily meet user requirements. Students are the end users of the technologies that educators use to enhance students’ lea
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Balaenoptera bonaerensis occurs in polar to tropical waters of the southern hemisphere. It occurs in large numbers south of 60º S, throughout the Antarctic. The distribution is more difficult to assess north of the Antarctic because of its co
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Balaenoptera bonaerensis occurs in polar to tropical waters of the southern hemisphere. It occurs in large numbers south of 60º S, throughout the Antarctic. The distribution is more difficult to assess north of the Antarctic because of its co-occurrence with Balaenoptera acutorostrata. As a result, the boundaries of the species’ winter distributions remain largely undefined. Balaenoptera bonaerensis is observed off the coast of Brazil and South Africa and there have been occasional sightings in Peru. An unknown proportion of the species remains in Antarctic waters during the winter. (Mead and Brownell Jr, 2005; )
Balaenoptera bonaerensis can be found in marine waters from polar to tropical regions, generally within 160 km of the edge of pack ice. While mostly found at the ice edge, B. bonaerensis can also be found within the pack ice and in polynyas. Association with pack ice is especially pronounced during winter. (Thiele, et al., 2004; Mead and Brownell Jr, 2005; Schueller, 2004)
Balaenoptera bonaerensis is among the smallest rorqual species. Mature males average 8.36 m in length and weigh 6.85 tons, but th
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Joel Fry, Curator at Bartram’s Garden, answers the question….
Yes, and no, as with any story. There are 3 or more species of rhubarb, and Bartram grew them all, and received
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Joel Fry, Curator at Bartram’s Garden, answers the question….
Yes, and no, as with any story. There are 3 or more species of rhubarb, and Bartram grew them all, and received 2 species from Peter Collinson in the 1730s and one from Franklin later in 1770. Bartram is the first documented to grow rhubarb in North America.
There is quite a bit of confusion over the several species of rhubarb and the names used in the past. Rhubarb was a very important and valuable medicine in the 18th c. (a gentle laxative). It came primarily from China, and the importation to Europe and America was a great expense. Europeans tried over the course of many years to get seeds or live plants of the true medicinal rhubarb, but usually wound up with something else. John Bartram is the first documented to grow one or more kinds of the common garden rhubarb, Rheum rhabarbarum.
Here’s a short history about what we know of rhubarb at Bartram’s Garden:
Early in the Bartram-Collinson correspondence, probably prior to 1737, Peter Collinson sent John Bartram seeds of a rhubarb. This was probably what Collinson called “Rhapontick rhubarb,” (probably the common garden rhubarb, Rheum rhabarbarum). In the summer of 1737, Collinson sent seeds of “Siberian Rhubarbe” a second species or variety of rhubarb which he thought was the true medicinal plant from Russia, (this was more likely just another variety of garden or culinary rhubarb, but maybe not). Bartram grew these 2 types for a number of years, in the summer of 1741 he mentions both kinds in his garden. [Apparently one of the central research efforts of the St. Petersburg apothecary's garden and botanic garden was the cultivation of medicinal rhubarb. They sent several expeditions to Siberia to obtain wild plants. There were two competing plant collections in St. Petersburg under two different government bureaucracies--the science academy had the botanic garden and the medical bureau the apothecary's garden. A German, Amman, controlled the botanic garden, and a Swede, Siegesbeck, controlled the medical garden.]
On September 22, 1739, Collinson wrote Bartram that both the Siberian and R
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Pollution takes heavy toll on Shallabugh wetland
Authorities in slumber
Shallabugh (Ganderbal): Unabated pollution coupled with lack of conservation measures have drastically affected eco-system of Shallabugh wetland here.
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Pollution takes heavy toll on Shallabugh wetland
Authorities in slumber
Shallabugh (Ganderbal): Unabated pollution coupled with lack of conservation measures have drastically affected eco-system of Shallabugh wetland here.
Lakhs of migratory birds mostly from Siberia, Northern Europe, China and Central Asia, throng the Shallabugh wetland annually during winter. Some of the popular migratory birds spotted in Shallabugh include Goose, Bar goose, White heeled duck, Shoveller, red-crested Pochard, white-eyed Pochard, common Teal, Pintail, Mallard, Gadwall, Coot, Hoonk and Graylag, Pintail, Common Teal and Gadwall.
However in absence of conservation measures the flora and fauna of the wetland has been affected posing serious threat to the migratory birds.
Spanning over 14 kilometers, Shallabugh mainly receives its waters from Aanchar lake in Srinagar. Comprising of 36,000 kanals Shallabugh spreads from Takenwari Srinagar to Sangam Ganderbal.
The locals said unabated pollution has turned the wetland’s water blackish.
“Over the years the wildlife authorities have failed to take measures to check the unabated pollution. The pollution levels have crossed all parameters. From past few months many bird species including goose locally called Aenz is local parlance have moved to adjoining wetlands as they could not withstand pollution in the wetland,” they said.
The locals said till few decades ago, the wetland was a favorite haunt of tourists. “The visitors used to pitch tents and enjoy bird watching. But due to unabated pollution they have stopped to come here,” said Fayaz Ahmad, a local youth.
Environmentalists said that inflow of sewage and bio-medical waste from SKIMS Soura has destroyed flora and fauna of the wetland.
“Besides use of pesticides, DDT and insecticides on agricultural land in catchments has affected the habitats of migratory birds and affected their mating,” said a research scholar.
Sources said that the Pollution Control Board (PCB) had taken up the matter with the Director SKIMS few years ago and recommended construction of a sewage treatment plant to prevent influx of pollution. But nothing substantial has been done in this regard.
Muhammad Amin Bhat forester of Shallabugh wetland acknowledged that pollution is a major threat to its flora and fauna.
“Pollution from mostly Anchar lake and SKIMS coupled with influx of sewage from hamlets in the catchments areas have taken a heavy toll on the wetland,” he said
“Lack of staff is hampering our conservation works. To save the wetland from pollution inflow of Aanchar and Sangam waters should be stopped,” he added.
Lastupdate on : Th
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At the height of her popularity in the 1880s, the beautiful Madame X was practically mobbed wherever she appeared; people stood on chairs to catch a glimpse of her. But she was also the subject of a portrait painted by the American
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At the height of her popularity in the 1880s, the beautiful Madame X was practically mobbed wherever she appeared; people stood on chairs to catch a glimpse of her. But she was also the subject of a portrait painted by the American artist John Singer Sargent that was furiously criticized. The public’s hatred of the painting was so intense that Sargent eventually left Paris, because nobody in Paris wanted a portrait by the man who had painted That Picture of That Woman.
That Woman, Madame X, was an American heiress born in New Orleans, who had been brought to Paris as a salable item on the Paris marriage market. She had been duly married off at the age of 19 to the highest bidder, a 40-year-old banker and dealer in fertilizer (bat guano, to be precise). As the eye-catching young wife of a dull older man, she became celebrated in Paris societ
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St John's Wort Flowers
From Natural WellBeing
St. John’s Wort Flowering Tops
St. John’s Wort flowering tops (Hypericum perforatum) may also be known as Tipton’s Weed or Klamath weed.
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St John's Wort Flowers
From Natural WellBeing
St. John’s Wort Flowering Tops
St. John’s Wort flowering tops (Hypericum perforatum) may also be known as Tipton’s Weed or Klamath weed. It is native to temperate regions of the globe and can be found throughout parts of North America, Europe, Russia, India, Turkey and as well as in China. It is considered to be a perennial plant that has yellow green leaves with bright yellow colored flowers that have 5 petals in all. Traditional use of St. John’s Wort flowering tops is for the treatment of mild depression in children and in adolescents, and for treating major depression in adults as well.
History and Origin
St. John’s Wort has been used for many years as a treatment for acute and chronic mental disorders. Since the discovery of the effectiveness of St. John’s Wort as a treatment for depression in Germany, many have studied the effect of this plant for other psychiatric and neurotic illnesses. Towards modern times, St. John’s Wort were considered as a “noxious weed” growing uncontrollably in pastures and meadows poisoning grazing livestock in many countries.
St. John’s Wort flowering tops was widely accepted as the most effective antidepressant drug during ancient times. From treatment of depression, it was also used as a sedative for surgical procedures for diagnosis and treatment of diseases. St. John’s Wort flowering tops was also used as a treatment for malaria and extracts or poultice of the plant is used for wounds, burns and various insect bites.
Although studies about St. John’s Wort flowering tops were very limited during ancient times, the plant was highly regarded for its psychiatric illness use taking these medical breakthroughs up to the present.
St. John’s Wort flowering tops was used as an ingredient in teas, were made into tablet form and extracts were made as topical preparations or ointments for skin and wound treatment.
In modern times, St. John’s Wort flowering tops is still considered as a treatment for mild cases of depression. There have been extensive studies of the effects of this plant especially in the cure for major depression in adults and children but it is still unclear up to the present.
St. John’s Wort flowering tops may be more effective for the treatment of depression than a placebo but have been shown to be as effective as well known antidepressants for the short term treatment of mild and moderate depression in both children and adults.
There has been research and studies about the possibility of St. John’s Wort flowering tops to be used as treatment of the withdrawal symptoms of alcoholism and also antibacterial properties as well. Other experts are looking into the possible use of St. John’s Wort for people with Parkinson’s disease and for the treatment of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) in women.
St. John’s Wort flowering tops have a number of reactions when combined with other medications. It may retard the effect of antidepressants, birth control pills, arrhythmia medications, drugs for HIV infection, anti seizure drugs and anticoagulants. Some people who have tried using St. John’s Wort flowering tops reported increased sensitivity to sunlight, anxiety, gastrointestinal upset, headaches, fatigue and anxiety.
St. John’s Wort flowering tops must not replace other medication or treatment for depression. If you or any member of the family is suffering from depression, you should contact a medical professional at once to determine the ideal treatment.
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Simulation teaches students how to respond to medical errors
April 17, 2013 - A patient receives care from a health care team, so when a medical error occurs, it’s best that the entire team is involved in disclosing it to the
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Simulation teaches students how to respond to medical errors
April 17, 2013 - A patient receives care from a health care team, so when a medical error occurs, it’s best that the entire team is involved in disclosing it to the patient.
That’s not always easy. To address this important issue, Quinnipiac University held a daylong training exercise in April to help students—future health professionals from several fields—learn how to work together to disclose an error to a patient and family member and make a plan to correct it.
The interprofessional event was the first of its kind at Quinnipiac, and also the first of many more to come. The event included 20 student volunteers from programs in athletic training, cardiovascular perfusion, diagnostic imaging, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy and physician assistant.
Teams of students faced a scenario involving an injured BMX bike rider (a patient simulation mannequin) and a parent, played by a medical actor. Each team encountered medical errors related to their respective fields, such as administering the wrong prescription, using contaminated equipment or applying the wrong physical therapy treatment, and the ways each team member contributed to the error.
“We work as a team. We must all acknowledge our personal role and acknowledge the error,” says Cory A. Boyd, associate professor of nursing. “We are trying to teach our students that they need to do this disclosure in a blame-free way.”
Boyd was one of nearly two-dozen faculty and staff who developed the training over six months, as a program of the Center for Interprofessional Healthcare Education at Quinnipiac. The center is collaboration among faculty in the School of Nursing, the School of Health Sciences and the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine. The center’s interprofessional simulation learning and assessment committee, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson New Careers in Nursing grant, organized the event.
Students developed communication skills around possible patient and family reactions, such as anger or sadness. They discussed new trends in disclosing errors, how to prevent errors and how to begin regaining the trust of the patients.
Informing patients of mistakes is the ethical thing to do. In addition, hospitals that disclose errors face fewer lawsuits and have smaller settlements, Boyd explains.
“What patients want by and large is a sincere apology a
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#15: Royal Gorge Bridge, Cañon City, Colo.
Panoramic Views, Millions of Years in the Making
From our partners
The highest bridge in the world for more than 70 years, Colorado's Royal Gorge
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#15: Royal Gorge Bridge, Cañon City, Colo.
Panoramic Views, Millions of Years in the Making
From our partners
The highest bridge in the world for more than 70 years, Colorado's Royal Gorge Bridge was built in just six months in 1929. It spans more than 1,200 feet across the Arkansas River near Canon City, Colo., within a 360-acre theme park with 21 rides. (joevare/flickr.com)
Suspended about 1,000 feet over the Arkansas River in central Colorado, just over 110 miles south of Denver, the Royal Gorge Bridge was built in 1929 purely for pedestrian use as a tourist attraction – it's surrounded by a theme park – and was the world's highest bridge until 2001, when China's Liuguanghe Bridge claimed that honor.
When the bridge was completed in November 1929, the final cost was estimated at $350,000. Today, it would cost in excess of $18 million and likely take far longer to complete the 1,260-ft.-long bridge.
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- upper respiratory infection or common cold
- deviated septum (when the wall of tissue that separates your nostrils is displaced to one side)
- nasal polyps (noncancerous growths in the lining of your sinuses or
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- upper respiratory infection or common cold
- deviated septum (when the wall of tissue that separates your nostrils is displaced to one side)
- nasal polyps (noncancerous growths in the lining of your sinuses or nasal passages)
- dental infections
- enlarged adenoids (sections of tissue located behind your nasal cavity where your nose meets your throat)
- swimming (water can block the flow of your nasal secretions)
- exposure to secondhand smoke
- trauma to the nose and face
- foreign objects in the nose
- facial swelling
- runny nose lasting longer than seven to 10 days
- thick nasal secretions
- post-nasal drip (mucus that moves down the back of your throat)
- sore throat
- bad breath
- decreased sense of smell and taste
- over-the-counter pain relievers, such as acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and aspirin
- steroid nasal drops, such as fluticasone (Flonase)
- antibiotics, such as amoxicillin or azithromycin (Zithromax)
- decongestants, such as pseudoephedrine (Sudafed)
- nasal irrigation (using a saline solution to flush out your sinuses)
- warm compress
- inhaling steam
- oral steroids
- nasal irrigation
- staying hydrated
- inhaling steam to cleanse the nasal passages
- using a humidifier, especially in dry environments
- using saline drops to keep nasal passages moist
- sleeping with your head elevated
- avoiding blowing your nose too often
- blowing your nose gently when necessary
- avoiding antihistamines, unless directed by your doctor
- avoiding the overuse of decongestants
Ethmoid sinusitis refers to an infection that has developed in the ethmoid sinuses, which are located near the bridge of your nose. Sinuses are air-filled pockets located in your skull and facial bones. There are four sets of sinuses: maxillary, sphenoid, frontal and ethmoid. While the exact function of the sinuses is unknown, it is commonly accepted that they filter and humidify the air we breathe. The sinuses drain into the nose.
Sinusitis occurs when mucus gets backed up in your sinuses and they become infected. This is usually due to swelling of the nasal passages, which can be caused by upper respiratory infections or allergies.
An infection of the ethmoid sinuses can also affect the frontal and maxillary sinuses, which are located in the forehead and cheekbone. This is because the fluid from these sinuses needs to drain out through the ethmoid sinuses.
Sinusitis may also be called rhinosinusitis or nasal congestion.
Conditions that affect the structure of the sinuses or the flow of nasal secretions can cause sinusitis. Causes of sinusitis include:
Ethmoid sinusitis tends to cause pain between the eyes and tenderness when touching the bridge of your nose. Sometimes, the area around your eyes will swell, especially upon waking.
However, even if your infection is in the ethmoid sinuses, you may not feel pain in this area. Many people with sinusitis feel pain throughout the face, regardless of which sinus the infection is actually located.
Other symptoms of sinusitis include:
Usually, ethmoid sinusitis can be diagnosed based on your symptoms and an examination of your nasal passages. Your doctor will use a special light called an otoscope to look up your nose and in your ears for evidence of a sinus infection. The doctor may also take your temperature, listen to your lung sounds, and examine your throat.
If your doctor notices thick nasal secretions, he or she may use a swab to take a sample. This sample will be sent to a lab to check for evidence of a bacterial infection. Your doctor may also order blood tests to check for evidence of infection.
Sometimes, doctors will order imaging tests to check for sinusitis and to rule out other potential causes of your symptoms. X-rays of your sinuses can help identify any blockages. A computerized tomography (CT) scan, which provides much more detail than an X-ray, can also be used to check for blockages, masses or growths, and infection.
Your doctor may also use an endoscope (a small tube fitted with a camera) to check for blockages in your nasal passages.
Treatment for ethmoid sinusitis involves treating the infection and easing your symptoms. Treatment varies depending on the severity of your symptoms and the cause of your sinusitis.
Ethmoid sinusitis treatment may include:
Ethmoid sinusitis usually improves with these treatments. However, if these techniques are not successful, s
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the biological clock; regular bodily rhythms that occur on a 24-hour cycle
decreased state of activity with the consequent feeling of being refreshed
state of rest accompanied by altered consciousness
The two major stages of sleep
Non rapid eye
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the biological clock; regular bodily rhythms that occur on a 24-hour cycle
decreased state of activity with the consequent feeling of being refreshed
state of rest accompanied by altered consciousness
The two major stages of sleep
Non rapid eye movement (NREM), rapid eye movement (REM)
75 percent of sleep is____
Non rapid eye movement sleep has___stages
Light sleep, where a person can be roused easily, is:
Stage l and Stage ll of NREM sleep.
Ten percent of total sleep time is spent in___
___stage lll and stage lV of NREM sleep.
Stage lll and Stage lV of NREM is also called___sleep.
The parasympathetic nervous system___
___dominates NREM sleep.
It is more difficult to arouse a person during___sleep
REM sleep consumes ____% of sleep time.
During REM sleep_____INCREASES
__pulse, resp, BP, metabolism, temp__
During REM sleep____DECREASES
___general skeletal muscle and deep tendon reflexes___
REM rebound (def).:
:when deprived of REM sleep on successive nights, the person will have more REM sleep at a later time to make up for the loss.
Sleep cycle (p.1082, fig. 34-2) -
Wake --> NREM l --> NREM 2 --> NREM 3 --> NREM 4 --> NREM 3 --> NREM 2 --> REM --> NREM 2
Q: How many cycles do people go through on an average night?
A: 4-5 cycles
: the term coined for the alternating between NREM and REM cycles
Deep sleep occurs more at the___of the night
Factors affecting sleep:
: culture, development, lifestyle/habits, motivation, environment, psychological stress, illness, medication
Culture effects on sleep:
:differences in bedtime rituals
development effects on sleep:
:age affects sleep time, ex., babies - 16-24hr; toddlers, 8-10,12; pre-schoolers, 9-16; school age, 8-10, adults, 8
motivation effect on sleep:
:situations arise where a person wants to stay up, and also not.
Physical activity/exercise effects on sleep:
:increases fatigue and promotes relaxation, UNLESS w/in 2 hours of bedtime, where it can hinder
Diet effects on sleep:
: alcohol = sleep, lots of alcohol = bad sleep, caffeine, smoking = hinders sleep
Environment effects on sleep:
: home is best. Noisy, big city, small city. What's around you effects how you sleep and if you have adapted to it or not.
Stress and sleep:
: High stress, low sleep.
Illness and sleep:
:Certain illnesses disturb certain stages. (p. 1087)
Medications and sleep:
:Drugs that decrease REM - barbiturates, amphetamines, anti-depressants. Diuretics, anti-hypertensives, steroids, decongestants cause problems. zoloft and ambien assist in sleep.
: sleep disorders characterized by insomnia or excessive sleepiness.
:patterns of waking behavior that appear during sleep.
Insomnias usually last for___
___ a few weeks
:insomnia over 5 weeks to 6 months.
: insomnia 4 weeks or less.
Approximately___suffer from chronic insomnia
: non-pharm steps to get better sleep. (Examples on p. 1088)
: uncontrollable desire to sleep.
:absence of breathing (apnea) or diminished breathing (hypopnea)
Restless Leg Syndrome:
:creeping, crawling, tingling in legs. People with iron deficiency and end stage renal disease seem to have this, but others as well.
URGE diagnosis for restless leg:
:U - urge to move legs, R - rest-induced, G - gets better with activity, E - evening symptoms more severe.
: Debilitating lack of sleep. Causes stress. Life shortening
:Patterns of waking that occur during REM and NREM
When 'Disturbed Sleep' is the problem, it receives either of two etiologies -
- 'Disturbed Sleep Pattern' is the problem is time-limited, or 'Sleep Deprivation' if the problem is prolonged.
Etiologies for 'Disturbed Sleep' (common ones):
: Physical discomfort or pain, Emotional discomfort or pain, Changes in bedtime rituals, Disruption of circadian rhythm, * Exercise before sleep, (list is on p. 1095)
When 'Disturbed Sleep' is the etiology, there are many diagnoses that are manifested from it, like -
- Anxiety related to inability to fall asleep, Activity intolerance, *Ineffective coping related to insomnia, (list on p. 1095)
Abnormally long sleep cycles can be the result of damage to the:
The Cerebral cortex and peripheral sensory organs stimulate the ________to bring about wakefulness.
__reticular activating system__
Eyes darting back and forth quickly is indicative of which type of sleep?
Circadian synchronization -
When an individual's sleep-wake patterns follow the inner biologic clock.
What is the name of the medical instrument that receives and records electrical currents from the brain?
The Arousal Threshold is usually the greatest in Stage ____ of NREM sleep.
Which patients admitted to a healthcare agency should have a sleep history taken?
NREM sleep deprivation is characterized by:
:fatigue, lethargy, depression, and difficulty with ADLs.
An individual's sleep cycle is fully developed by age:
The reticular activation system extends___
__upward toward the medulla, the pons, and the midbrain, into the hypothalamus.
During sleep the RAS experiences__
__few stimuli from the cerebral cortex and the periphery of the body.
Characteristics of REM sleep:
:Respirations are irregular and sometimes interspersed with apnea; Metabolism and body te
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George W. Bush styles himself a cowboy president. One job of cowboys is to claim the American wilderness for ranching, so it's little surprise the Bush administration is behind a new effort to suppress—and perhaps slaughter—one of the last symbols of
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George W. Bush styles himself a cowboy president. One job of cowboys is to claim the American wilderness for ranching, so it's little surprise the Bush administration is behind a new effort to suppress—and perhaps slaughter—one of the last symbols of untamed America: our wild horses.
Since 1971, wild horses and burros have been federally protected by the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Protection Act, a pitched battle piece of legislation won in 1971 by Velma Johnston, aka Wild Horse Annie. (Wild Horse Annie was an intrepid Nevada character who, after seeing blood spilling out of a truck that was hauling mustangs to the slaughterhouse, campaigned for the act.) Legend had it that, apart from the war in Vietnam, Congress received more mail about protecting wild horses than about any other issue in its history.
Now the trucks that caught Wild Horse Annie's attention may be revving their engines again, thanks to a stealth rider attached in November to a federal spending bill. The new law, pushed by ranching interests, Western senators, and Bush's Department of the Interior, probably condemns thousands of wild horses to the slaughterhouse—where they're likely to be made into dinner for Europeans.
Wild horses were indigenous to North America, populating this continent before the Ice Age. They moved north across the Bering land bridge, fanned out from Siberia to the rest of Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, then became extinct here. When Europeans reintroduced horses to the Americas in the 16th century, some escaped and formed wild herds. By 1900, there were 2 million wild horses in America. Their major predators, such as the mountain lion, were all but wiped out, and for more than a century their biggest enemy has been man. Horse roundups and massacres went unchecked for decades until Wild Horse Annie came along.
In 1971, when the act was passed and signed by Richard Nixon, perhaps 50,000 horses remained, according to the Bureau of Land Management, the Department of Interior agency in charge of them. It's hard to count horses, but today, according to the BLM, there are 36,000 on public lands. Wild horse advocates dispute that number and say there are no more than 20,000 still roaming the range. Everyone agrees that the numbers are dwindling and most of the horses are in Nevada, which is where the wild mustang is making its last stand. (The state gives the mustang props everywhere—brothels name themselves after it, downtown Vegas features wild horse statues, its picture hangs in every dive bar in the desert—but in real life, it gets no respect.)
Today's fight over wild horses is a strange battle, in which cattlemen and ranchers—the traditional enemies of the wild horse—have inadvertently teamed up with environmental groups, which generally regard wild horses as an invasive, non-native species. Along with the oil and gas lobbies, the ranching industry largely determines BLM policy toward public lands, which is where wild horses and burros roam. Many ranchers who lease grazing land from the BLM for meager fees—a situation opponents call "welfare ranching"—see wild horses as pests that destroy the land and take food from cattle, although study after study indicates that cattle do more damage to the range than horses. Moreover, public lands west of the Mississippi, which is where most of the country's remaining wild horses live, supply just 3 percent of our beef.
Under a myriad of management schemes and subsequent legislation, the 1971 law meant to protect the horses has been gradually weakened in order to deal with what the BLM says are "excess" horses. The BLM established "herd management areas" and "appropriate management levels" aimed not, as the act mandated, at preserving wild horses but removing more and more horses from the range. In 1971, there were 303 herd management areas; today there are 201. According to advocates who gathered recently for a conference in Carson City, Nev., the BLM has been grabbing small herds of horses in surprise sweeps. Periodically, the BLM enforces a policy of "zeroing out" horses, which means completely eliminating horses from a particular herd management area, thus opening it up to drilling and the introduction of more cattle.
Under Bush, slow-motion neglect has been replaced by a vigorous assault on mustangs. The BLM's wild horse removal policy has escalated ferociously. The "gathers," as the BLM calls them, are carried out by helicopter and are reminiscent of The Misfits, the Marilyn Monroe movie about the cruel mustang roundups outside Reno in the 1950s and '60s. Although helicopter roundups aren't as traumatic for the horses as the fixed-wing aircraft roundups dep
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Supply-side Economics is a school of macroeconomic thought that argues that economic growth can be most effectively created by lowering barriers for people to produce (supply) goods and services, such as lowering income tax and capital gains tax rates, and by allowing greater
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Supply-side Economics is a school of macroeconomic thought that argues that economic growth can be most effectively created by lowering barriers for people to produce (supply) goods and services, such as lowering income tax and capital gains tax rates, and by allowing greater flexibility by reducing regulation.
According to Supply-side Economics, consumers will then benefit from a greater supply of goods and services at lower prices.
Typical policy recommendations of supply-side economists are lower marginal tax rates and less regulation.
The term "Supply-side Econ
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Well,The United Nations Organisation(UNO) defines Blood diamonds as,
"Diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments, and are used to fund military action in oppositio to those governments
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Well,The United Nations Organisation(UNO) defines Blood diamonds as,
"Diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments, and are used to fund military action in oppositio to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the Security
Blood diamonds captured the attention of the world in the late 1990’s due to the extremely brutal conflict in Sierra Leone. In the 1990’s approximately 15% of the world’s total diamond production was represented by blood diamonds. But this amount has been reduced to less than 1% in this millennium.
What happens is that in many African countries,like Sierra Leone,Liberia,Angola,Ivory Coast etc,Whenever a commodity is valued,locals die in great number!
This is because,whenever a valued substance is identified,The forces or fractions opposed to the recognised governments take advantage of it.They create terror among the areas they get a stronghold upon and very soon start forcing the people to get those things.Earlier this was true of Ivory,Gold,Oil but now its also for diamonds.
They come,create terror,kill people,get the diamonds,smuggle it out to neighbouring Liberia and after a series of events,they get millions and millions of dollars for arms purchase!
And the unsuspecting buyer never knows that He/She has brought a diamond and in a way Financed the war!
Given Below Are Some Basic Statistics Of The Countries Where Blood Diamond Trade Is/was Rampant.
Area- 71,740sq km Population-6,017,634 Capital- Freetown Official Language- English Currency- Leone Sierra Leone became independent from the British rule in 1971. But the
country was in a state of civil war from 1991-2002. Thousands of people
were killed during the civil war and many thousands were left homeless.
Sierra Leone has rich diamond and gold deposits. Due to its political
problems Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries of the world now.
A large percentage of the population is unemployed and people live on
less then US $2 per day
Area- 1,246,700sq km Population- 11,190,786 Capital- Luanda Official Language- Portuguese Currency- Kwanza Angola became independent from the Portuguese rule in 1975, and since
then in has been in a constant state of civil war. The country is rich
in diamond and oil deposits. The country suffers from many financial and
Area- 111,369sq km Population- 3,482,211 Capital- Monrovia Official Language- English Currency- Liberian dollar This country to the west of Africa was founded by freed American
slaves. It has been independent since 1847.
IVORY COAST Area- 381,000sq km Population- 17,298,040 Capital- Yamoussoukro Official Language- French Currency- CFA Franc Ivory Coast also known as co^te d’Ivoire in French became independent
from France in 1960. It was a peaceful country until its military
problems began in 1999. Then trouble began in between the government and the
rebels and is still yet to stop.
WHERE IT HAPPENS
The areas highlighted with yellow shows the areas where blood diamonds are traded and exported.
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Our Galaxy, the Milky Way, contains about 100 billion stars, and is about 100,000 light-years in diameter (1 light-year = 9.46 x 1017 centimeters). All of the stars visible to the naked
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Our Galaxy, the Milky Way, contains about 100 billion stars, and is about 100,000 light-years in diameter (1 light-year = 9.46 x 1017 centimeters). All of the stars visible to the naked eye and through moderately large telescopes are in our Galaxy. The Milky Way consists of three main parts: the bulge, disk, and halo.
Bulge: The bulge is a spherical structure of stars
at the center of the Galaxy
with a radius of about 5000 light-years. At the
very center of the bulge is the nucleus of the Galaxy
which contains a supermassive black hole. This black hole may
be 1-10 million times the mass of the Sun, where the mass of the Sun is
Disk: Most of the stars in the Milky Way are in the disk. The diameter is about 100,000 light-years while the thickness is just 1,000 light-years. The Sun is located in the disk about 28,000 light-years from the center of the Galaxy, and rotates around the center of the Galaxy with a velocity of 220 km/s. The disk contains a mixture of old and young stars, dust, and gas. The youngest stars in the Galaxy are located in the disk. These stars form in large clouds of gas that collapse in the spiral arms of the Galaxy.
Halo: The halo, which has a radius of about 300,000 light-years, is a much more extended spherical distribution of older stars and globular clusters. Globular clusters are large, spherical condensations of millions of relatively old stars. The halo also contains about a dozen dwarf galaxies that orbit the center of the Milky Way.
The globular cluster M13 in Hercules, courtesy of NOAO/AURA/NSF
The dwarf spheroidal galaxy Leo I, courtesy of the Anglo-Australian Telescope
Dwarf galaxies are very small galaxies that have masses from 1/10 to 1/100 that of the Milky Way. The three main types of dwarf galaxies are dwarf irregular (dIrr), dwarf spheroidal (dSph) and dwarf elliptical (dE) galaxies, which are all much smaller and fainter than normal irregular, spiral, and elliptical galaxies. The different types of galaxies (not including dwarfs) are summarized in the famous "Hubble Tuning Fork" diagram below.
There are several dwarf spheroidal galaxies orbiting the Milky Way. There is evidence that these satellite galaxies can be disrupted by the gravitational pull of the Milky Way. Theoretical work has shown that stars can be torn from galaxies orbiting the Milky Way, resulting in thin streams of debris trailing or leading the satellite around its orbit.
Movie: Interaction of a small dwarf galaxy with a Milky Way-like parent galaxy, made by Key Project team member Kathryn Johnston.
In 1995, a new satellite galaxy of the Milky Way was discovered in the constellation Sagittarius, which is clearly showing signs of having been disrupted. Although the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy (Sgr) is the closest satellite galaxy to the Milky Way, it was the last to be discovered because of its position behind the bulge of the Milky Way.
The Majewski group and others have now mapped this satellite's tidal arms to be wrapping 360 degrees around the Milky Way.Movie: A new model of the Milky Way, made by recent UVa B.A. student David Law, incorporates the newly mapped tidal tails of the disrupting Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, as mapped with the 2MASS catalogue by UVa department members Steve Majewski, Mike Skrutskie, David Law and Jamie Ostheimer, and Martin Weinberg (UMass). The yellow dot marks the position of the Sun and the red dots represent stars stripped from the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy by the Milky Way.
Thus, our Galaxy is a cannibal!
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3D printers have been used to produce everything from blood vessels to dinosaur bones, but the structural quality of the results have been inconsistent. Researchers at Purdue University and Adobe's Advanced Technology Labs are looking to alleviate the problem by developing software that analyzes the
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3D printers have been used to produce everything from blood vessels to dinosaur bones, but the structural quality of the results have been inconsistent. Researchers at Purdue University and Adobe's Advanced Technology Labs are looking to alleviate the problem by developing software that analyzes the 3D design before it reaches the printer.
According to Purdue News, the program can identify points of weakness and compensates by increasing the thickness or adding support structures. In addition to improving the object's rigidity, the adjustments also make production more cost effective by optimizing the weight and amount of materials used in the process. The group recently presented their findings at the SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference in Los Angeles, though cautions that significant testing still must be performed before the software is ready for wider implementation.
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The medical community has created and agreed upon new guidelines that define remission for rheumatoid arthritis, or RA. It’s intended to help researchers set standards during clinical trials, but doctors say this is a milestone for patients too: The definitions underscore
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The medical community has created and agreed upon new guidelines that define remission for rheumatoid arthritis, or RA. It’s intended to help researchers set standards during clinical trials, but doctors say this is a milestone for patients too: The definitions underscore that remission is possible and can help patients understand when they get to that point.
“It will give a person a gauge as to how well they’re doing,” explains David T. Felson, MD, a professor of medicine at Boston University and a practicing rheumatologist who was involved in creating the new definitions. “I think there are a lot of nice things about being able to measure something and agree on its measurement – especially something that we all hope will occur more often. If we can define what we all desire, we are more likely to achieve it more often.”
Doctors say one of the big problems with the old definition of remission, created in 1981, was that it defined remission as the elimination of all disease. “That’s a very hard target. We’re more likely to be able to reach limited or small amount of disease,” Dr. Felson explains.
With that in mind, The American College of Rheumatology and the European League Against Rheumatism were part of a committee that analyzed RA clinical trial data and surveyed committee members to create two new RA remission definitions that are published in the March issues of Arthritis & Rheumatism and the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
One definition says to be considered in remission, patients need to meet four goals:
1. One or fewer swollen joints
2. One or fewer tender joints
3. An assessment by the patient that on a zero-to-10 scale, the arthritis activity is one or less
4. A blood test showing little or no inflammation in their levels of C-reactive protein, a key biomarker of inflammation.
A second definition uses something called the Simplified Disease Activity Index to measure disease activity. It consists of a sum score of the four measures in the first definition plus a physician assessment.
“It’s really important. We’ve recently done so well with treatments that patients are getting into remission and now with this definition we’ll be able to assess patients,” Dr. Felson explains.
David Pisetsky, MD, a professor of medicine at Duke University in Durham, N.C., says it means a lot that RA remission is even being discussed. “Thirty years ago when I started, getting into remission was quite unusual. Now it happens frequently, so it’s good for patients to know you can get there,” he explains.
Dr. Pisetsky says some people are likely to complain that the new remission definitions don’t involve X-rays to assess permanent damage to joints. “It doesn’t bother me, but some people would say if you’re looking at damage, part of the definition should be no [further] damage,” he explains. “There are people who have had RA for a long time who have damage to their joints. A lot of time unfortunately the damage is permanent. We can get rid of inflammation and they will still be symptomatic because there is damage.”
He also says for those that can view remission as a realistic goal, there is more research that needs to be done for them.
“To me there is another question which is, how much therapy do you need to maintain remission, not just achieve it,” Dr. Pisetsky says. “That is a serious question that still needs to be answered.”
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We already mentioned the different types of substations. Before more in-depth discussion about each type of substation it is better to know few common essential features of a substation. Here we discuss about the bus schemes commonly implemented in an electrical substation
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We already mentioned the different types of substations. Before more in-depth discussion about each type of substation it is better to know few common essential features of a substation. Here we discuss about the bus schemes commonly implemented in an electrical substation. The Bus scheme is the arrangement of overhead bus bar and associated switching equipments in a substation. The operational flexibility and reliability of the substation greatly depends upon the bus scheme.
Here I reiterate that the electric substation is a junction point where usually more than two transmission lines terminate. Actually in most of EHV and HV substations more than half a dozen of lines terminate. In many large transmission substations the total numbers of lines terminating exceeds one or two dozens. In this scenario obviously the first requirement is avoidance of total shutdown of the substation for the purpose of maintenance of some equipment(s) or due to fault somewhere. Total shutdown of substation means complete shutdown of all the lines connected to this particular substation. So the switching scheme is adopted depending upon the importance of the substation, reliability requirement, flexibility and future expansion etc.. Of course substation construction and operational cost is also to be considered. Clearly a EHV or UHV transmission substation where large numbers of important lines terminate is extremely important and the substation should be designed to avoid total failure and interruption of minimum numbers of circuits.
There are mainly six bus schemes. these are:
- Single Bus
- Main Bus and Transfer Bus
- Double Bus Double Breaker
- Double Bus Single Breaker
- Ring Bus
- Breaker and Half
Before we proceed further I would like to discuss in brief about the Circuit Breaker and Isolator. It will be helpful for novices. See the figure below where two buses are connected by circuit breakers and isolators as shown. A circuit breaker is a device whose main purpose is to break the circuit carrying load current or fault current. As the breaker is opened then current is interrupted in the circuit. But it is not safe to work with opened breaker as one or both sides of the breaker terminals may be still energised. The breaker is then isolated from the rest of the circuit by opening the isolators on both sides of breaker. The isolators are used to isolate the breaker or circuit. It should be remembered that the isolators are never opened or closed to interrupt or make the circuit. That means when the circuit is to be made on, first the isolators on both sides of a breaker are closed then breaker is closed to allow current flow. When the circuit is to be made off or interrupted, first the breaker is opened(tripped), hence load current is interrupted. Then to isolate the breaker, isolators are opened. Isolators are designed to interrupt small current. Breakers are designed to interrupt large load current and heavy fault current. Both breaker and isolator carry load current in normal state.
As the name indicate the substation with this configuration has a single bus (Fig-B). All the circuits are connected to this bus. A fault on the bus or between the bus and a breaker results in the outage of the entire bus or substation. Failure of any breaker also results in outage of the entire bus. Maintenance of any circuit breaker requires shutdown of the corresponding circuit/line and maintenance of bus requires complete shutdown of the bus. A bypass switch across the breaker should be used for maintenance of the corresponding breaker. This case the protection system is disabled.
Single Bus configuration is the simplest and least cost of all configurations. The system can be easily expanded. This configuration requires less area. The reliability of this system being low, it is not to be implemented in the substation where high reliability is expected. Large substations usually do not utilize this scheme. By sectionalising of the bus the reliability and availability of the single bus system can be improved.
In this scheme one more bus is added. See Figure-C how the equipments are arranged and circuits are connected between main and transfer bus. In this arrangement one more breaker may be used, known as tie circuit breaker. No circuit is associated with this tie breaker.
When the tie CB is not present, for maintenance of a circuit breaker, the transfer bus is energized by closing the isolator switches to transfer bus. Then the breaker to undergo maintenance is opened and isolated (opening isolators on both sides of CB) for maintenance. In this arrangement there is no protection for the circuits. The circuits can be protected from outside the substation.
When the tie breaker is present, for maintenance of a breaker the transfer bus is energised by closing the tie breaker. Then the isolator near the transfer bus of the breaker of circuit to be maintained is closed. Now the breaker to be maintained is opened. Then corresponding isolators on both sides of breaker are opened. The breaker is removed for maintenance. The circuit is transferred to transfer
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Recently the natural gas business has been booming in the US due to a new "mining" technique which allow companies to access natural gas deposits that were inaccessible before. This new technique is called fracking, and it is in desperate need of federal regulation
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Recently the natural gas business has been booming in the US due to a new "mining" technique which allow companies to access natural gas deposits that were inaccessible before. This new technique is called fracking, and it is in desperate need of federal regulation.
The fracking process involves drilling a very deep welling, and then pumping a mixture of water, sand, and some unknown
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Source: UK Mail
- Tree ring study gives first accurate climate reading back to 138BC
- World has been slowly cooling for 2,000 years
- World was warmer in Roman and Medieval times than it is now
- Study
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Source: UK Mail
- Tree ring study gives first accurate climate reading back to 138BC
- World has been slowly cooling for 2,000 years
- World was warmer in Roman and Medieval times than it is now
- Study of semi-fossilised trees in Finland
Measurements stretching back to 138BC prove that the Earth is slowly cooling due to changes in the distance between the Earth and the sun.
The finding may force scientists to rethink current theories of the impact of global warming.
It is the first time that researchers have been able to accurately measure trends in global temperature over the last two millennia. (more…)
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