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Kinematics Equations for Control of Robotic Systems
Controlling the motion of a robotic system often requires knowledge of the relationships between the end effector orientation (often referred to as tool tip or commanded reference frame or commanded coordinate system) and the
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Kinematics Equations for Control of Robotic Systems
Controlling the motion of a robotic system often requires knowledge of the relationships between the end effector orientation (often referred to as tool tip or commanded reference frame or commanded coordinate system) and the orientation of the physically controlled actuators or motors that ultimately manipulate the end effector (also commonly referred to as the controlled reference frame or co...
A three degree-of-freedom (DOF) crane, like the one shown here, lets the user control crane length, rotation angle, and tilt angle, but does not allow the working end of the crane to travel in straight line. Source: www.rki-us.com
Controlling the motion of a robotic system often requires knowledge of the relationships between the end effector orientation (often referred to as tool tip or commanded reference frame or commanded coordinate system) and the orientation of the physically controlled actuators or motors that ultimately manipulate the end effector (also commonly referred to as the controlled reference frame or controlled coordinate system). This knowledge can be generally referred to as the kinematic structure of the robotic system, and is represented by kinematic equations. Some high performance motion controllers have the capability to utilize such equations to generate coordinated motion trajectories, allowing real time position control of a robotic system. In this article, kinematic equations will be developed for two specific robotic systems.
Why use kinematics? 3 DOF crane
A relatively simple robotic system is a three degree-of-freedom (DOF) crane, in which the user can control crane length, crane rotation angle, and crane tilt angle (see crane image from www.rki-us.com ). Often a crane has a fourth DOF, suspension length of the payload, though here it will be ignored, without loss of generality.
Typically a crane will swing its arm around to create a path that looks like an arc from above. In addition, if the tilt angle of the crane arm is increased, the end effector (payload on the end of the crane) will follow an arc path upwards. These naturally curved paths may be acceptable for certain situations, but what if the user wants the payload to follow a path that is comprised of straight lines, or even arbitrary shapes in three dimensions? This could be the case for example, if the payload is some sort of measurement device or even an image acquisition system. A simple example would be to move the payload in a path described by a square, which could be useful for certain systems.
The controlled coordinate system of the crane should actually be familiar for those who have studied coordinate geometry - it is commonly referred to as the Spherical coordinate system. mathworld.wolfram.com
The controlled coordinate system of the crane should actually be familiar for those who have studied coordinate geometry — it is commonly referred to as the Spherical coordinate system. A point in space can be described by 3 parameters in spherical coordinates: distance from origin r, azimuthal angle in the x-y plane from the x-axisθ (with range 0 – 2π), and polar angle from the z axis θ (with range 0 – π). A diagram of this coordinate system is shown in SphericalCoordinates.gif ( mathworld.wolfram.com ).
To command moves that follow line segments, we
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THE FIRST PROVENÇAL GRAMMAR
The small agricultural and industrial centre of Besalu is located on the road between Figueres and Olot. In the Middle Ages it was the capital of a powerful county that extended up to Cor
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THE FIRST PROVENÇAL GRAMMAR
The small agricultural and industrial centre of Besalu is located on the road between Figueres and Olot. In the Middle Ages it was the capital of a powerful county that extended up to Corbières (which is today in the French compartment of Aude). It was the birthplace of a famous “troubadour”, Ramon Vidal who was the author of several poetic works and what can be termed as being the first grammar of the Romance language, consisting of a treatise in Occitane language entitled “Regles o las rasons de trobar”.
The town in this period featured numerous stately houses, and churches as well as a Benedictine monastery, surrounded by walls. Like all commercial towns it had its Jewish quarter, known as the Call. It was reached by a very high bridge which linked the two opposing banks of the Fluvia river. Besalu experienced a turbulent period during the 17th century, during the French wars, and was a century later invaded and pillaged by Napoleonic armies.
Economic prosperity returned at the end of the 19th century with the advent of the industrial revolution. Today this small industrial and agricultural centre has proved able to preserve its architectural heritage.
A BRIDGE AND AN ABBEY
The Pont Vell (Old bridge) over the Fluvia river is undoubtedly the most spectacular monument of Besalu. It was built before 1075, and experienced a turbulent history. It was damaged by flooding on several occasions, and was subsequently bombed during the Spanish civil war and was then rebuilt in identical style. Its five pointed arches, dominate the river forming a very wide angle, thereby enhancing the intrinsic elegance of the construction itself.
The fortifications positioned over the main pillar, and on the western extremity from the town side have also been preserved.Once over the bridge we come to the Jewish Call, where the synagogue is located, of which only the “mikwé” remains, one of the rare ritual baths of the Middle Ages to have remained intact.Particularly worthy of note is the Plaça Major (Main square),with its Romanesque buildings (Casa dels Arcs), Gothic (Curia Reial) or dating back to the 16-17th century (Casa de la Vila). The nearby roads also feature other splendid Medieval residences such as: Can Cambo, Casa Llaudes (Romanesque).But the Romanesque style is perhaps best illustrated in the abbey of Sant Pere, the church of a Benedictine monastery founded in 997 and which continued to exist until 1835. Consisting of three imposing naves supported by large pillars which open out onto a low transept. The cloister is surrounded by a deambulatory along the models of the Romanesque apses of France. The large capitals surrounding the circular column feature excellent sculpted decorations which have unfortunately been damaged by fire.
From the outside, the cloister, deambulatory and smaller apses appear to be incorporated in a more massive apse.Not far away in the town centre is the church of Saint Vincent, which is also Romanesque, featuring an elegant front and an attractive portal at the south end.
THE REIGN OF ALABASTER
A visit to Besalu is not complete without at least a short walk over the hillside which surrounds the town to the north, at the foot of the Mare de Deu del Mont massif, covered by a lush Mediterranean vegetation. Scattered with a series of wealthy farmhouses, built in the 18th century, from where we can reach the alabaster caves of Beuda, the largest in Spain. The stone is quarried here, and often cut into fine slivers and used for the “panels” which reflect a wonderful light into many of the Catalan churches.The village of Beuda is also worthy of a visit for its Romanesque church of San Feliu featuring three naves and a triple apse, and an imposing portal. The nearby woods also conceal the ancient Benedictine priory of Sant Sepulcre which depended on the abbey of Lagrasse in Linguadoca, once again featuring an elegant triple nave, with a two pitch roof and apse, in a wonderful lush setting
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The Lord spoke to Moses:
"Consecrate every firstborn male to Me, the firstborn from every womb among the Israelites, both man and animal; it is Mine."a3
Then Moses said to the people, "Remember
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The Lord spoke to Moses:
"Consecrate every firstborn male to Me, the firstborn from every womb among the Israelites, both man and animal; it is Mine."a3
Then Moses said to the people, "Remember this day when you came out of Egypt, out of the place of slavery, for the Lord brought you out of here by the strength of [His] hand. Nothing leavened may be eaten.
Today, in the month of Abib,b you are leaving.
When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites,c which He swore to your fathers that He would give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you must carry out this ritual in this month.
For seven days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there is to be a festival to the Lord.
Unleavened bread is to be eaten for those seven days. Nothing leavened may be found among you, and no yeast may be found among you in all your territory.
On that day explain to your son, 'This is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.'
Let it serve as a sign for you on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead,de so that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth; for the Lord brought you out of Egypt with a strong hand.
Keep this statute at its appointed time from year to year.
"When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you,
you are to present to the Lord every firstborn male of the womb. All firstborn offspring of the livestock you own that are males will be the Lord's.
You must redeem every firstborn of a donkey with a flock animal, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. However, you must redeem every firstborn among your sons.
"In the future, when your son asks you, 'What does this mean?' say to him, 'By the strength of [His] hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.
When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed every firstborn [male] in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of man to the firstborn of livestock. That is why I sacrifice to the Lord all the firstborn of the womb that are males, but I redeem all the firstborn of my sons.'
So let it be a sign on your hand and a symbolf on your forehead, for the Lord brought us out of Egypt by the strength of His hand."
When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them alo
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The Shadyside, Ohio Flood of 1990
Localized, excessive rainfall fell on saturated ground over southeastern Ohio the evening of June 14, 1990, resulting in a 15-20 foot wall of water that raced down
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The Shadyside, Ohio Flood of 1990
Localized, excessive rainfall fell on saturated ground over southeastern Ohio the evening of June 14, 1990, resulting in a 15-20 foot wall of water that raced down three small tributaries of the Ohio River.
Twenty-six people lost their lives; scores of homes were destroyed. It was similar, though smaller in scope, to the Big Thompson Canyon flood, and was the most deadly and destructive flash flood in the United States in the last ten years.
Weather maps on the morning of June 14, 1990, did not give much hint that a major, localized flood disaster would occur late that day in the eastern Ohio River Valley.
A weak, slow-moving front was draped across the Midwest, and an outflow boundary from nighttime thunderstorms was spreading east across Indiana. Low-level moisture was plentiful over Ohio, but not excessive. It had been a wet spring, however, and soil moisture was nearly 200% of normal.
When slow-moving thunderstorms drenched the hills of southeastern Ohio with 3-4 inches of rain that evening, water that would otherwise have been able to absorb into the ground instead became an almost instantaneous, torrential runoff.
One local resident described ankle-deep water running down the hill side in a "sheet flow" near his house while he was running to higher ground.
On the headwaters of the Pipe and Wegee Creeks and the Cumberland Run (small tributaries of the Ohio River near the town of Shadyside, Ohio), the runoff combined with landslides and developed into a 15-20 foot high wall of mud, water and debris that raced downstream. Buildings, bridges and cars were swept away and into the Ohio River.
Twenty-six people were killed in the flash flood and many others were injured. Two bodies were found in debris 30 miles downstream at the Hannibal Locks and Dam on the Ohio River. Eighty homes were destroyed and nearly 250 others were damaged. Property damage was estimated between $6-8 million.
Flash flooding had never been previously known to occur along the Pipe or Wegee Creeks, though these streams are similar to other flash flood-prone streams common to the eastern Ohio River Valley. Flash flooding had been known to occur in the hills around Pittsburgh under similar weather conditions.
Other historical flash floods include the Johnstown Flood of 1889 and the Big Thompson Canyon Flood of 1976. The Mississippi River Flood of 1993 caused between $15-20 billion in damage.
[Some data courtesy of The Thunderstorm in Human Affairs, Edwin Kessler, Editor, and from Storm Data.]
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Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2010 August 11
Explanation: What could cause such rays of dark? Dark sky rays
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Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2010 August 11
Explanation: What could cause such rays of dark? Dark sky rays were caught in spectacular fashion earlier last month from Pentwater, Michigan, USA, looking west over Lake Michigan. The cause is something surprisingly familiar: shadows. Clouds near the horizon can block sunlight from reflecting off air, making columns outward from the Sun appear unusually dark. Cloud shadows can be thought of as the complement of the more commonly highlighted crepuscular rays, also visible above, where sunlight pours though cloud holes. Sometimes, on the opposite side of the sky, anticrepuscular rays can also be seen.
Authors & editors:
Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official:
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In previous weeks, I began the story of declining groundwater tables in India. In the first post, I talked about the current system of subsidized energy, the need to change it, and the willingness of farmers to adapt to such changes. The second
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In previous weeks, I began the story of declining groundwater tables in India. In the first post, I talked about the current system of subsidized energy, the need to change it, and the willingness of farmers to adapt to such changes. The second post talked about the possible benefits and methods of direct seeding for rice paddy, as opposed to nursery growth and transplantation into flooded fields.
This third and final post considers yet another option: a switch to a more climatically appropriate crop. In water-stressed regions, this strategy asks individual farmers to move away from rice, and towards instead slightly riskier but more water-efficient options such as corn, basmati rice (which requires much less water than regular rice), and fruits and vegetables. This last option would need to be coupled with risk-mitigating mechanisms, investments in product and marketing infrastructure, insurance, and market intelligence.
This third innovation would have to come from individual, progressive farmers who are willing to take some risks and make niche plays. While public sector policy changes and changes to corporate practices are important, the role of the individual is a critical, and often overlooked, ingredient. The willingness of some of these farmers to take significant risks in their crop choice has resulted in both greatly increased income, as well as reduced groundwater consumption.
As we noted earlier, the predominant cropping pattern in the region has become a rice-wheat rotation given the Government of India’s procurement program for these grains and the associated minimum support price. Farmer incomes were stable and actually rose in response to this policy, facilitating the transition. However, in the last 10-15 years the income has stopped increasing and has become stagnant. According to Rajinder Sidhu and Kamal Vatta, professors at Punjab Agricultural University, if just 10% of the agricultural land was moved away from rice and wheat and to less water intensive crops, such as flowers and vegetables, the groundwater depletion problem could be solved.
The issue is getting people to change to these crops and the ability to stabilize the markets. A number of individuals have explored alternatives, often leasing the land from existing farmers to experiment with a new strategy.
One example of the innovative and progressive way of farming is pioneered by Avatar Singh. After graduating from Punjab Agricultural University, Mr. Singh decided to go, not into the rice and wheat industry like most people, but instead into the flower industry. He began by exporting the flowers he grew, but due to flowers wilting in transit, he discovered that by selling the seeds, he could make higher profits. He started by farming 3.5 acres of land, and his profits have been so high that he now controls the farming of several hundred leased acres through contract farming. The land is leased from other farmers at the value of their income from rice-wheat, and then used to grow higher value items. He also contracts to grow his flower crop by his guidelines.
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World History/Ancient Rome
The Ancient Romans
The Ancient Romans were citizens of Rome, a city in Southern Europe that is now the capital of Italy, and its empire. Usually, they are just called "The Romans". The time of
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World History/Ancient Rome
The Ancient Romans
The Ancient Romans were citizens of Rome, a city in Southern Europe that is now the capital of Italy, and its empire. Usually, they are just called "The Romans". The time of the Romans was from 700 BC to 330 AD.
The City of Rome was the capital of the Roman Empire. The Romans were very good at fighting other people, and won their land. At around 200 A.D., the Roman Empire covered all of Northern Africa, Asia Minor and Southern Europe. Eventually, the Roman Empire became hard to control, and was split into two parts: the Eastern half and the Western half. The Huns, a group of Asian invaders, and other groups, destroyed the Western part of the Empire. The eastern half survived as the Byzantine Empire, which lasted into the Middle Ages.
Romans and the Etruscans
Roman history and Etruscan history is closely connected. It is impossible to know the Romans without knowing the Etruscans. They are related because of their alphabets and many of the same types of cloth. When an Etruscan married a Roman, it was called a Roman-Etruscan marriage. Some think that the Etruscans were related to the ancient Greeks.
Etruscan customs included bow-hunting and gazing (looking) at the stars. Their literature is almost all lost, but scientists are working on rediscovering it with new infrared technology.
Although the Romans eventually removed the Etruscans, their story will always survive in the memories of all who study history and Etruscan culture.
Patricians and Plebeians
There were two classes of Romans: the patricians and the plebeians. The patricians were Rome's elites. This means they were rich and powerful. The plebeians were working class people. Rome was dependent on them. In early Roman government, patricians were the only people allowed to take part. Later on in history, the plebeians were allowed to take part in some of the branches of government.
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Next Generation Science Standards: In a state-led process managed by Achieve, new K–12 science standards are being developed that will be rich in content and practice, arranged coherently across disciplines and grades. The NGSS will be based on
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Next Generation Science Standards: In a state-led process managed by Achieve, new K–12 science standards are being developed that will be rich in content and practice, arranged coherently across disciplines and grades. The NGSS will be based on the Framework for K–12 Science Education developed by the National Research Council (NRC) and released in July 2011. The standards that identify content and engineering practices for students from kindergarten through high school will be published on the following website when completed in late 2012 or early 2013:
Web Seminars available on NGSS
A series of eight seminars on Scientific and Engineering Practices as described in the Framework for K-12 Science Education are being presented as NSTA web seminars. All seminars are on Tuesdays, 6:30-8:00pm ET. The 4th (Analyzing and Interpreting Data) and 5th (Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking) in the series are being presented Oct. 23 and Nov. 6.
Go to http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/webseminars.aspx to sign up today.
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Today we’ll look into perhaps the most painful of all body modifications, human branding. Branding is a process that involves burning the skin in a manner that will result in a permanent scar or mark, usually in a pattern or the shape of a
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Today we’ll look into perhaps the most painful of all body modifications, human branding. Branding is a process that involves burning the skin in a manner that will result in a permanent scar or mark, usually in a pattern or the shape of a specific symbol.
Branding works through the process of controlled injury and should never be considered “Safe”. Although if applied by a professional with experience in branding the risk could be considered acceptable.
Types Of Branding
Strike Branding – The process of heating a small piece of metal to the appropriate temperature and striking it against the skin. This can be done with a single or multiple strikes. Strike branding is the most common form of branding in use today.
Electrocautery – This form of branding uses a device which passes electrical current through an electrode which in turn becomes intensely hot. This type of branding can be used to create significantly more intricate patterns then strike branding.
Electrosurgery or Hyfrecator Branding – This form of branding uses a device which passes electrical current directly through the patients skin to, in effect, burn the skin. Several devices and setups are available for this type of branding and is very similar to Electrocautery.
Cautery Pen – This is a medical instrument used to control blood loss. Although previously popular among scarification artist they have fallen out of favor lately as they are just not reliable enough for body modification.
Healing Time And Care
Brands are a quite significant injury to the body and will take a long time to heal. It can take as long as 6 to 12 months to completely heal a brand. Healing time and final appearance of the scar will vary greatly from person to person depending on your body’s natural keloid development.
It is generally accepted that the best way to heal a brand is to just leave it alone. Applying a general antiseptic ointment and keeping the area clean. Be aware that a brand is a third degree burn and can easily get an infection if not taken care of properly.
Some Things You Should Know
Branding does not produce perfect lines like tattooing. Scars will migrate and can heal inconsistently leaving some areas more pronounced then others. Any lines formed during the branding process can be expected to heal to three times the initial wound width.
Brands can be tattooed over but not until the scar has healed completely, this is usually at least 12 months from the initial brand.
If a brand does not heal the way you want it to you can always get it re-branded once all the tissue has healed completely. Just like tattooing over a scar you are going to want to wait at least a year.
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View your list of saved words. (You can log in using Facebook.)
Breed of working dog developed in Apolda, Germany, by Louis Dobermann, a dog-pound keeper, in the late 19th century. This sleek
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View your list of saved words. (You can log in using Facebook.)
Breed of working dog developed in Apolda, Germany, by Louis Dobermann, a dog-pound keeper, in the late 19th century. This sleek, agile, powerful dog stands 24–28 in. (61–71 cm) high and weighs 60–88 lbs (27–40 kg). It has a short, smooth black, blue, fawn, or red coat, with rust markings on the head, throat, chest, tail base, and feet. Dobermans have a reputation for fearlessness, alertness, loyalty, and intelligence. They have been used in police and military work, as watchdogs, and as guide dogs for
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Preventing, Recognizing and Treating Lyme Disease
The warm weather presents more opportunities for outdoor activities like hiking, biking and picnicking. As you plan your next outing, keep in mind that during the summer months you are more likely to
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Preventing, Recognizing and Treating Lyme Disease
The warm weather presents more opportunities for outdoor activities like hiking, biking and picnicking. As you plan your next outing, keep in mind that during the summer months you are more likely to come in contact with ticks and other biting insects; most cases of Lyme Disease are reported during the months of June, July, and August.
Lyme disease is an infection caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, primarily transmitted through deer tick bites. Ticks will attach anywhere on the body, but prefer body creases such as the armpit, groin, and back of the knee. The bacterium travels through the bloodstream, establishes itself in various body tissues, and can cause a number of symptoms, some of which are severe.
- Clear brush and leaves where ticks commonly live. Stack woodpiles in dry, sunny areas off the ground. Treat the environment and your pets with products designed specifically for tick prevention.
- Wear long pants tucked into your socks, long sleeves, enclosed shoes, a hat and gloves. Tie back long hair. Avoid sitting directly on the ground or on stone walls. Apply an insect repellent with a 10 to 30 percent concentration of DEET.
- Check yourself, your children and your pets for ticks, especially after walking through tall grass or wooded areas. Shower as soon as you come indoors. Deer ticks are often no bigger than the head of a pin. Put clothes in the dryer for 20 minutes to kill any unseen ticks.
Symptoms of Lyme Disease include:
- The first sign of infection is usually a circular rash with a bull’s eye appearance. This rash occurs in approximately 80-90 percent of infected persons and begins at the site of a tick bite after a delay of 3 to 30 days and gradually expands.
- General symptoms include fatigue, chills, fever, headache, muscle/joint aches, and swollen lymph nodes.
- Vision changes, difficulty breathing, kidney problems, gastrointestinal distress, sleep disorders, seizures, behavioral changes, cranial nerve involvement, and psychiatric manifestations are some of the other symptoms that have been reported.
- If left untreated or undiagnosed, the infection may spread resulting in Bell’s palsy, severe headaches, neck stiffness, heart palpitations, shooting pains, and dizziness. After several months, approximately 60 percent of patients with the untreated infection may begin to have intermittent bouts of arthritis. Up to five percent may develop chronic neurological complaints months to years after infection.
- When a tick bites, it attaches itself firmly to the skin. To remove it, grasp the tick’s head as close to the skin as possible with tweezers or a tick removal tool. Pull straight up with a steady, slow motion. Disinfect the bite site and tweezers after removal. I
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Harris Dam and hydro station, Indian Pond, ca. 1955Item 74733 info
Maine Historical Society
The development of electric production was gradual. Numerous small companies – formed by factory owners, towns, and a variety of
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Harris Dam and hydro station, Indian Pond, ca. 1955Item 74733 info
Maine Historical Society
The development of electric production was gradual. Numerous small companies – formed by factory owners, towns, and a variety of entrepreneurs – operated generating stations that served limited areas to power small lighting systems, street railroads, or nearby shops and factories. Some powered only one mill or one building.
Companies such as Agamenticus Light and Power Co., Waterville and Fairfield Railway and Light Co., and Kennebec Light and Heat served individual communities; some towns had more than one electric company.
Completed in 1955, Harris Station on the upper Kennebec River in Somerset County was the largest hydroelectric dam in Maine at the time. Its initial capacity of 75,000 kilowatts was later upgraded to 88,000.
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Fluorescent tags illuminate the genetic alphabet
Fluorescent unnatural base pairs light up the structures of DNA and RNA chains with minimal disturbance
The development of fluorescent tags—small, light-emitting molecules attached to DNA strands—has revolution
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Fluorescent tags illuminate the genetic alphabet
Fluorescent unnatural base pairs light up the structures of DNA and RNA chains with minimal disturbance
The development of fluorescent tags—small, light-emitting molecules attached to DNA strands—has revolutionized cell biology over the past two decades, allowing precise tracking of labeled segments in living systems. Because fluorescent tags project outwards from the nucleic acid chains, they can interfere with the mobility and geometry of their targets, skewing the view of critical biological actions.
Now, a research team led by Ichiro Hirao at the RIKEN Systems and Structural Biology Center in Yokohama has synthesized an unnatural fluorescent base pair system that can be incorporated directly into DNA and RNA molecules1. Because this new addition to the genetic alphabet only minimally disturbs the delicate biochemical functions of cells, it holds great potential for advanced medical techniques such as DNA-based diagnostic testing.
Hirao and colleagues had previously discovered that a fluorescent 2-amino-6-thienylpurine molecule containing a thiophene ring, termed ‘s’, formed a base pair with a pyrrole–aldehyde compound known as ‘Pa’2. The new s–Pa pair could be site-specifically incorporated into RNA chains alongside the natural nucleotides; unfortunately, DNA replication processes with the s–Pa system were not as successful.
To solve this problem, the research team altered the structure of ‘s’, removing the amino group and a nitrogen in the purine ring, then adding an extra thiophene ring to give a new nucleotide, called ‘Dss.’ This highly fluorescent molecule retained the same complimentary base pairing with Pa, and could be easily transcribed into specific RNA positions by cell enzymes. Furthermore, single-nucleotide insertion experiments with Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I revealed that the Dss–Pa pairs could be replicated with nearly the same efficiency as natural bases.
Intriguingly, Dss also acted as a universal base—forming thermodynamically stable pairs with the four natural bases of DNA. Hirao says that the mechanisms of duplex DNA formation and polymerase reactions in replication and transcription with Dss are completely different than for natural systems.
Fluorescent imaging of functional DNA and RNA is becoming increasingly important as researchers seek to understand the conformations of these biopolymers in liquid environments. “The fluorescent intensity of the unnatural bases change greatly depending on the three-dimensional structure—providing a powerful tool to analyze the local structure of DNA and RNA molecules in solution,” says Hirao.
Hirao envisages a wide range of basic and applied technologies arising from these bright new pieces of genetic code. “We are now applying Dss to molecular beacons, realtime PCR, and structural analysis,” he says.
The corresponding author for this highlight is based at the Nucleic Acid Synthetic Biology Research Team, RIKEN Systems and Structural Biology Center
Source: Riken Research /...
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Create a file.
Create a new file with the specified filename and size and open it for writing. The file handle is returned in the last parameter, which must be a variable. The loader result code is returned as the value of the function call
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Create a file.
Create a new file with the specified filename and size and open it for writing. The file handle is returned in the last parameter, which must be a variable. The loader result code is returned as the value of the function call. The filename and size parameters must be constants, constant expressions, or variables. A file created with a size of zero bytes cannot be written to since the NXC file writing functions do not grow the file if its capacity is exceeded during a write attempt.
|fname||The name of the file to create. |
|fsize||The size of the file. |
|handle||The file handle output from the function call. |
- The function call result. See Loader module error codes.
- ex_CreateFile.nxc, and ex_file_system.nxc.
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A Humboldt penguin chick born underweight and sickly last month at the Brookfield Zoo has flourished on a weight-gain regimen of fish shakes six times a day, Brookfield Zoo officials said Wednesday.
Zookeepers decided to hand
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A Humboldt penguin chick born underweight and sickly last month at the Brookfield Zoo has flourished on a weight-gain regimen of fish shakes six times a day, Brookfield Zoo officials said Wednesday.
Zookeepers decided to hand-rear the penguin because it could not make the peeping sound necessary to signal its parents when it is hungry, said Darlene Broniewicz, senior zookeeper.
They moved it from a nest near its parents to a temperature-controlled box it shares with a stuffed penguin. The chick is learning to signal its hunger to the plush penguin by peeping and touching its beak, at which point zookeepers feed it.
Regular weigh-ins and the shakes -- made of ground fish, vitamins and electrolytes -- seem to be paying off.
The grayish-brown chick now weighs 334 grams, up from 60 grams at birth Jan. 31. A healthy penguin chick averages 70 grams at birth, Broniewicz said.
"It didn't come out as a strong chick and it was not very vocal," Broniewicz said.
Hand-rearing is not unusual at the zoo -- keepers took over the care of another penguin chick in June -- but Broniewicz said it is a last resort.
She said parents Allegro and Batata may miss their chick and have not left their nests to catch food as they would normally.
Zookeepers haven't yet named the baby penguin and are n
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Color is the first choice when decorating. Either you feel confident about choosing a color scheme or not, take the time and read the principles that follow.
Understanding these fundamentals will help you to alter the space in a room, to set a mood,
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Color is the first choice when decorating. Either you feel confident about choosing a color scheme or not, take the time and read the principles that follow.
Understanding these fundamentals will help you to alter the space in a room, to set a mood, or create a color scheme: monochromatic, with related or complementary colors, or triadic color schemes.
While some know instinctively how to choose paint colors or color combinations, the majority of us need to use a color chart wheel and color theory to select their color schemes.
So, why not understand how it works and make the right choice?
When talking about color, everything revolves around the color wheel chart. It tells us how the colors works, and what are they made of.
We have three primary colors: yellow, red and blue. They are powerful colors, too powerful to be used on a large surface such as a wall.
Orange, green and purple are secondary colors. They are formed by combining equal parts of two primary colors-for example, by mixing yellow and red you get orange. Notice they are not as powerful, or in other words, less strong than the primaries.
Finally they are six tertiary colors which is a primary color combined with the secondary color next to it. These are turquoise(green and blue), lime green(yellow and green), crimson(red and violet), red-orange(red and orange), yellow-orange( yellow and orange), blue-violet(violet and blue).
In color theory you will find these terms:
A hue is the actual color with its qualities of yelowness and blueness. Intensity is the degree of purity, or saturation of the color.The more intense a color, the more of the pure color is added.
A tint is a color mixed with white. The more white in a color the lighter is the value of it.
A shade is a color mixed with black. The more black is added to the color, the darker is the color's value.
A tone is color mixed with grey.
Related colors are located one next to the other on the color wheel chart: like yellow and orange.
Complementary colors are opposite to each other on the color wheel. An example of complementary colors is red and green.
Neutral colors are grey, white and black; beige and cream are often considered part of neutrals.
Sometimes colors are refered to as:
Warm colors - these are yellows, oranges and reds. They convey energy, and will induce a cozy feeling, having a warm psycological effect on us.
Cool colors - they are blues, greens and violet. The have a calming effect on us, and conv
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Meteorological events that happened on September 5th:
One of the many forms of lightning is called sheet lightning. Sheet lightning occurs when either the lightning flash occurs inside of a cloud or intervening clouds obscure the flash such that a portion of the cloud
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Meteorological events that happened on September 5th:
One of the many forms of lightning is called sheet lightning. Sheet lightning occurs when either the lightning flash occurs inside of a cloud or intervening clouds obscure the flash such that a portion of the cloud or clouds appear as a luminous white or blue sheet.
Record late summer heat blasted parts of the Midwest & Missouri Valley. Quincy, IL & Osage, IA set their highest September temperatures on record with 105° & 101° respectively.
Other daily records included: Tulsa, OK: 107°, Sioux Falls, SD: 104°, Dallas-Fort Worth, TX: 104°, Lincoln, NE: 103°, Topeka, KS: 102°, Huron, SD: 102°, Norfolk, NE: 101°, Omaha, NE: 100°, Sioux City, IA: 99°, Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN: 97°, Williston, ND: 96°, Glasgow, MT: 95° and Rochester, MN: 94°.
An intense lightning storm killed two boys taking refuge under a stock of grain in the Seamans District, Saskatchewan Canada.
Searing heat extended from the Midwest to the East. The temperature at Centerville, AL soared to 112° to establish a state record. Every reporting station in Alabama was 100° or above that afternoon. Birmingham was recording its third of seven straight days with temperatures over the century mark. On the 5th and 6th, the temperature at Birmingham topped out at 106°. After a brief reprieve, the temperature would once again reach the century mark on 9/22 the latest Birmingham has ever seen 100°.
Other daily record included: Huntsville, AL: 107°, Athens, GA: 107°, Montgomery, AL: 106°, Jackson, MS: 105°, Mobile, AL: 103°, Evansville, IN: 103°, St. Louis, MO: 103°, Meridian, MS: 103°, Pensacola, FL: 102°, Atlanta, GA: 102°, Augusta, GA: 102°, Nashville, TN: 102°, Tallahassee, FL: 101°, Columbia, SC: 101°, Rockford, IL: 100°, Kansas City, MO: 100°, Knoxville, TN: 100°, Charleston, WV: 100°, Springfield, IL: 99°, Des Moines, IA: 99°, Charlotte, NC: 99°, Greenville-Spartanburg, SC: 99°, South Bend, IN: 98°, Gainesville, FL: 97°, Greensboro, NC: 97°, Jacksonville, FL: 96°, Roanoke, VA: 95°, Asheville, NC: 94° and Mansfield, OH: 91°.
3 inches of early season snow was recorded near Lusk, WY.
A hurricane hit Brownsville, TX causing 40 deaths and an estimated $12 million dollars in damage.
A streak of 10 consecutive days with measurable rainfall for La Crosse, WI began on this date. The streak ran through the 14th, with a total of 6.89 inches falling during the period.
The temperature at Portland, OR soared to 102°, the only time in the city's history the temperature reached the century mark in September.
Other daily records across the country included: Medford, OR: 103°, Salem, OR: 103°, Lewiston, ID: 103°, Augusta, GA: 102°-Tied, Eugene, OR: 101°, Daytona Beach, FL: 99°, Savannah, GA: 99°, Charleston, SC: 99°, Jacksonville, FL: 98°, Gainesville, FL: 97°-Tied and Seattle, WA: 88°.
On this date through the 6th, Hurricane Easy looped twice off the west coast of Florida, moving little from the 4th through the 6th. This slow movement allowed tremendous rainfall amounts to accumulate in some areas. The 24-hour rainfall of 38.7 inches that fell at Yankeetown from this date through the 6th is the highest ever in Florida, and the second highest all-time 24 hour amount in North America. Easy had top winds of 125 mph and a barometric pressure of 958 millibars or 28.30 inHg. The tide at Tampa Bay, FL rose to 6.5 feet. Severe beach erosion was reported from Sarasota to Cedar Key. Cedar Key reported hurricane force winds from 6am to 6pm on this date. The fishing fleet of Cedar Key was destroyed by high wind and waves.
Albany, NY endured their 10th straight day of 90° temperatures, their longest heat wave on record when they set a record high of 90. Other records included: Avoca, PA: 89° and Worcester, MA: 88°.
A dominate heat ridge across the Ohio Valley was responsible for a three day heat wave that started on this date. Daily records included: Paris, IL: 105°, Nashville, TN: 105°, Decatur, IL: 104°, Louisville, KY: 104°, Paducah, KY: 104°, Lexington, KY: 103°, Tupelo, MS: 103°, Knoxville, TN: 103°, Memphis, TN: 103°, St. Louis, MO: 103°-Tied, Evansville, IN: 103°-Tied, Chattanooga, TN: 102°, Oak Ridge, TN: 102°, Charlotte, NC: 101°, Roanoke, VA: 101°, Indianapolis, IN: 100°, Cincinnati, OH: 100°, Richmond, VA: 100°, Huntington, WV: 100°, Detroit, MI: 99°, Cleveland, OH: 99°, Columbus, OH: 99°, Youngstown, OH: 99°, Bristol, TN: 99°, Lynchburg, VA: 99°, Springfield, IL: 99°-Tied, Greenville-Spartanburg, SC: 99°, Akron, OH: 98°, Columbus, GA: 98°-
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The pivotal moments in incumbents' campaigns are policy moves that take months to plan before they're unveiled--and just as long to see their effects. Challengers offer talk about what they believe in, but the five classic moves outlined here show presidents
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The pivotal moments in incumbents' campaigns are policy moves that take months to plan before they're unveiled--and just as long to see their effects. Challengers offer talk about what they believe in, but the five classic moves outlined here show presidents making a credible commitment by paying a price.
Congress Overrides Truman's Veto of Taft-Hartley
Harry Truman's prospects for re-election in 1948 looked bleak. It didn’t help that unions viewed him as the "number one strike breaker" after he interceded in the railroad and mining strikes crippling the country. But when the Taft-Hartley Act came to his desk for his signature in 1947, Truman saw the opportunity to resurrect his candidacy. By vetoing Taft-Hartley--which outlawed secondary strikes, mass picketing and closed shops--Truman positioned himself as the last, best hope of the unions. The Republican-controlled Congress, which overrode the veto with support from nearly half of all Democrats, became an easy, visible enemy for Truman... and the unions. Without the financial support from unions in 1948, he would not have captured the normally Republican farm vote and countered Thomas E. Dewey's urban appeal.
Nixon Visits China
To this day, when Democratic strategists think about dramatic moves a president can make, they ask each other to finish the sentence "If only Nixon could visit China, only a Democrat could..." Nixon's surprising visit to China in February, 1972, was a key part of his re-election strategy. Senator George McGovern's pledge to end the Vietnam War and bring U.S. troops home immediately made Nixon look like an unadulterated hawk by contrast. The trip to China--a historic attempt to restore the relations with the Communist nation--made the rest of Nixon's foreign policy claims credible. It paved the way for Nixon to campaign on the goal of "Peace with Honor," centered on a commitment to a more principled end to the war.
Carter Fails to Rescue Iranian Hostages
Carter is an important reminder that an incumbent's bold moves can backfire badly. With the Iran Hostage Crisis entering its fifth month--and nothing but failed negotiations to show for his efforts--Carter decided to try to rescue the 55 Americans held in Tehran's American Embassy. The rescue attempt, dubbed "Operation Eagle Claw," was aborted when two defective helicopters forced the mission to turn back. Eight U.S. servicemen died, and Carter's administration suffered a very public failure. "If we had it to do all over again," Carter’s media advisor Gerald Rafshoon said after the election, "we would take the 30 million dollars we spent in the campaign and get three more helicopters for the Iran rescue mission."
George H. W. Bush Takes Lee Iacocca to Japan
Although Bush's January, 1992, state visit to Japan is now remembered for the vomit the jet-lagged president deposited in the prime minister's lap, the trip was already a debacle before that incident. Trying to prove that his foreign policy focus could pivot from security to jobs, Bush brought Big Three auto executives along to persuade Japan to import more American cars. The failing CEOs' salaries became the talk of the country; Lee Iacocca, Chrysler's CEO, was paid more than all the Japanese auto companies' CEOs together. The Wall Street Journal was so disgusted, they urged Bush to "Give Iacocca to Japan." And the day after the president's stomach problems, Johnny Carson joked, "If you had to look at Lee Iacocca while eating raw fish, you'd barf too."
Clinton Outmaneuvers Newt Gingrich
In December 1995, the Republican controlled house and senate sent Bill Clinton a budget that would let Medicare, in Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich's words, "wither on the vine." With the same pen LBJ used to sign Medicare into law, Bill Clinton vetoed their budget, forcing a government shutdown. After their brinkmanship backfired, the freshman congressman, George Stephanopoulos wrote, developed a "kamikaze spirit" and "became Newt's Frankenstein monster--and my best friends."
Infuriated by losing the budget battle, Republicans then sent Clinton two welfare reform bills so stringent that he had no choice but to veto them. Though former Senator Bob Dole, now the Republican presidential candidate, begged Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott not to send him something he could sign, Senate Republicans were now worried about their reelection prospects. A compromise bill went through and Clinton signed it in August, 1996. By restoring Clinton's centrist credentials, the Republican senate had sunk the Dole campaign. Said Dole strategist Tony Fabrizio, "they aimed the torpedoes at the hull and then started throwing water at it."
--Samuel L. Popkin
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's razor doesn't just say "pick the simplest explanation", but more specifically applies to concept
). It states that concepts should not be assumed when explanations do not need them.
The canonical example is the theory of ether. In the 19th
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's razor doesn't just say "pick the simplest explanation", but more specifically applies to concept
). It states that concepts should not be assumed when explanations do not need them.
The canonical example is the theory of ether. In the 19th century, physicists explained the transmission of light, and electromagnetic waves in general, by assuming the existence of an invisible substance filling the universe; this substance was called the 'ether'.
Modern physics does not need this concept: the razor has eliminated it.
This nicely illustrates the opening remark: the reason we speak of Occam's razor here is that a concept was eliminated, not that theory was simplified; the hypothesis of ether was in fact replaced by a more complicated theory.
This razor may seem a simple tool of the mind, but it stands for an important shift in attitude in Western intellectual life, that first developed in Ockham's own time, the Renaissance, and gained force, particularly in the Anglosaxon world, up to the present day.
In scholastic thought, wisdom consisted in understanding the words of earlier wise men; it was the task of the intellectual to understand them and apply them in the real world. Words are put first.
In the newer scientific mode of thought, observed reality is put first: words, concepts, theories, are only tools to describe reality, and like all tools, they can be replaced by better ones. Wise words and concepts from the past are simply discarded when better explanations of reality are found that do not rely on them.
To a scholastic thinker, truth is found in books; what we have to do is understand them and see how they apply to our lives. The Bible writes: in the beginning was the word. Plato writes: reality is formed by the imperfect manifestations of absolute concepts. Descartes says: I can build up knowledge by pure reasoning, by carefully defining what my terms mean and exploring the logical consequences.
To a scientific thinker, the truth is out there: to be precise, we do not really have truth, since every truth is stated in terms of concepts, and concepts may turn out to be obsolete; the best we can hope for is certainty. This view is represented in the history of philosophy by Hume and other philosophers of the British school of empiricism.
The present-day battles between religion and science are really manifestations of the battle between scholastic and scientific thought:
In religion, the word is a given. The stories, explanations, concepts and formulations provided by the Holy Scripture are unquestionable: we can annotate them and interpret them, but to consider whether they could be replaced with different, more accurate words, immediately takes us out of the realm of (the Christian) religion.
In science, on the other hand, the word is just a working tool. Darwin makes an honest attempt to explain how evolution works based on what he observed, but his words may be replaced with better explanations, should they come along, since what really matters is not the words, but the actual world and how it works.
This explains why the creationism debate is so thoroughly unproductive; the collision is not about matters of fact or explanations of facts, it is a collision between the scholastic and scientific intellectual attitudes. From a scholastic viewpoint, Occam's razor, or for instance, the notion of a scientific theory held in science, are utterly nonsensical. God-given concepts on the other hand - starting with God - are impossible to understand from a scientist's point of view.
Thanks to Purvis for remarks.
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JASH provides five Educational Programs which comprise our "Continuum of Schools" program to students in grades K- 12. Each of these programs help to teach our very young children the concept of different perspectives.
Japan In A SuitcaseI,
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JASH provides five Educational Programs which comprise our "Continuum of Schools" program to students in grades K- 12. Each of these programs help to teach our very young children the concept of different perspectives.
Japan In A SuitcaseI, II and III for kindergarten through grade 5 teaches young students how to seek alternative viewpoints through easy to comprehend examples. The Japan in a Suitcase programs give students in Hawaii's Elementary Schools a chance to understand the concept of Different Perspectives; learn how to ask questions; and how to look at challenges and new ideas from a different point of view. By doing this, it is hoped that the children will learn how to view objects and issues from different viewpoints and develop their skill of inquiry to become better thinkers.
The other four programs from grades 6-12 provide the actual experience to travel to Japan and reinforce the concept of Different Perspectives introduced and taught in the Japan in a Suitcase programs. JASH sends six 11-year old Junior Ambassadors to Fukuoka, Japan each summer to interact with 225 other 11-year old peers from over 40 countries in the
Asian-Pacific Children's Convention. They also participate in a home-stay where they experience living with a Japanese family in Fukuoka for ten days. The Sister School Relationship Program fosters relationships between Hawaii middle schools and their counterparts in Japan. The first relationship implemented was with Kawananakoa Middle School and Uwajima Minami Junior High School. The second pair is Kapolei Middle School and Kin Junior High School. Twenty students and four teachers from each school visit one another and thus experience the concept of Different Perspectives first hand.
At the high school level, Japan Day, held twice a year, has given public and private high school students an opportunity to gain hands-on experiences with various Japanese cultural activities, such as flower arranging, calligraphy, abacus, bonsai, paper crafts, bon dance, tea ceremony and kimono wearing. This program reinforces teachers' classroom lessons. The Japan Wizards Competition is a statewide academic team competition that tests high school students on different aspects of Japan, such as geography, transportation, economy, food, education, sports, popular culture, history, religion, culture and language. The students who participate in this competition develop learning skills in research, personal responsibility, teamwork and operating under pressure. They also gain an understanding of the concept of Different Perspectives by studying and preparing for the competition. A total of five winning teams are awarded a one-week trip to Japan to experience in real life what they studied in preparation for the competition and what they learned in the classroom
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verb (has /haz, has/, having, had /had/)[with object]
Old English habban, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch hebben and German haben, also probably to heave
1 Have and have got:
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verb (has /haz, has/, having, had /had/)[with object]
Old English habban, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch hebben and German haben, also probably to heave
1 Have and have got: there is a great deal of debate on the difference between these two forms; a traditional view is that have got is chiefly British, but not correct in formal writing, while have is chiefly American. Actual usage is more complicated: have got is in fact also widely used in US English. In both British and US usage have is more formal than have got and it is more appropriate in writing to use constructions such as don’t have rather than haven’t got.2 A common mistake is to write the word of instead of have or've: I could of told you that instead of I could’ve told you that. The reason for the mistake is that the pronunciation of have in unstressed contexts is the same as that of of, and the two words are confused when it comes to writing them down. The error was recorded as early as 1837 and, though common, is unacceptable in standard English.3 Another controversial issue is the insertion of have where it is superfluous, as for example I might have missed it if you hadn’t have pointed it out (rather than the standard... if you hadn’t pointed it out). This construction has been around since at least the 15th and 16th centuries, but only where a hypothetical situation is presented (e.g. statements starting with if). More recently, there has been speculation among grammarians and linguists that this insertion of have may represent a kind of subjunctive and is actually making a useful distinction in the language. However, it is still regarded as an error in standard English.
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What is Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)?
MRI is an imaging method based principally upon sensitivity to the presence and properties of water (more precise: mobile hydrogen protons). “Water” is present in abundance in the body, making MRI a
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What is Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)?
MRI is an imaging method based principally upon sensitivity to the presence and properties of water (more precise: mobile hydrogen protons). “Water” is present in abundance in the body, making MRI a useful tool in assessing physiologic and pathologic processes.
In MR terminology “water” describes both “free water” (liquids like urine, CSF, cystic fluids) and “bound water” (intra- and extracellular fluid in tissues). Pathologic processes change the water content and properties in tissues. Examples include cysts or abscesses (i.e. cavities containing free water), edema (i.e. increase in water content of tissue), inflammation and neoplasia (i.e. presence of cells that normally would not be present).
MRI is very sensitive in picking up these abnormalities in water distribution and composition.
Images are created by subjecting the patients to a magnetic field and monitoring the behavior of tissues in this environment. MRI does not involve radiation, and is therefore considered a very safe imaging modality.
These are computed tomographic and magnetic resonance images of the brain in the same dog. The MR image (right) shows a lesion in the brain parenchyma (arrow), which is not evident on the CT image (left)
View a slideshow of our first patients
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Volunteer for NIAID-funded clinical studies related to tuberculosis on ClinicalTrials.gov.
Tuberculosis continues to exact its terrible toll on humankind. Worldwide, a person is newly infected with TB every second, and overall nearly 2 billion
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Volunteer for NIAID-funded clinical studies related to tuberculosis on ClinicalTrials.gov.
Tuberculosis continues to exact its terrible toll on humankind. Worldwide, a person is newly infected with TB every second, and overall nearly 2 billion people have been exposed to TB bacteria. During the 1990s, bright hopes that the disease would be vanquished by 2025 were extinguished as a variety of medical and social factors helped TB surge back to its familiar position among major causes of death.
Around 1985, cases of TB began to rise in the United States. Several interrelated forces drove the resurgence, including increases in prison populations, homelessness, injection drug use, crowded housing, and increases in populations in long-term care facilities. Along with increased immigration of people from countries where TB is endemic, these forces provided ideal conditions for TB transmission. Adding the most fuel to the fire, however, were the HIV/AIDS epidemic and increases in multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB).
TB is a contagious disease. When people with active TB cough, spit, or even talk, bacteria that cause the disease are propelled into the air. A person needs to breathe in just a few TB bacteria to become infected. Without treatment, a person with an active case of TB will infect between 10 and 15 people a year. Infection with TB bacteria, however, does not necessarily lead to disease. In a person with a healthy immune system, TB germs take up residence in lung cells, but enter a kind of suspended animation and never cause widespread disease. Only between 5 and 10 percent of all healthy people infected with the germ will develop active TB at some point. In people with decreased immune function, whether due to HIV/AIDS, poor nutrition, or old age, the odds are much worse. When infected with both HIV and TB, for example, a person has a one in ten chance of developing active TB each year (compared with a one in ten chance over a lifetime for people without HIV).
TB kills between 2 and 3 million people each year, and is the leading cause of death among young adults and a major cause of death among women of childbearing age. So great was the concern about the worldwide epidemic of TB that in 1993, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared TB a global emergency, the first time a disease had ever achieved that dubious distinction.
Perhaps the most alarming aspect of the present epidemic is the rise in MDR TB. According to a survey conducted by WHO, up to 4 percent of all TB cases worldwide are resistant to more than one anti-tuberculosis drug. In parts of Eastern Europe, nearly half of all TB cases resist at least one first-line drug. Most of the burden of MDR TB falls on poor countries, but the United States has seen outbreaks of drug-resistant TB as well. In early 1990s, New York City had an epidemic of MDR TB that cost almost $1 billion to control.
With proper treatment, almost all cases of TB are curable. But proper treatment is not always easy to attain. Typically, a TB patient takes four different antibiotics for at least two months, then two drugs for four more months. Hitting TB germs with several drugs simultaneously lessens the chance that naturally occurring mutations in the bacteria will allow some to escape destruction. However, because the drugs often cause unpleasant side effects and because patients start feeling better after a month or so, not everyone completes the full course of treatment. In many less developed countries, where TB is most common, drug supplies may be inadequate and medical services spotty.
Unfortunately, partial treatment for TB is worse than no treatment at all. TB bacteria that linger following incomplete therapy are likely to resist anti-tuberculosis drugs in future flare-ups. Worse still, people with active cases of MDR TB can pass those superbugs on to new victims.
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Last Updated August 12, 2010
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Organic Juice : What is it?
|Organic juices are processed, stored, and handled in accordance with precise technical standards and certified as "organic" by the USDA or another internationally recognized labeling authority. |
The best varieties are “direct”
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Organic Juice : What is it?
|Organic juices are processed, stored, and handled in accordance with precise technical standards and certified as "organic" by the USDA or another internationally recognized labeling authority. |
The best varieties are “direct” juices that are cold pressed from organic fresh fruit; they are not from concentrate and contain no additional sugar, colorants, preservatives, GMOs, or hormones. However, some brands add juice concentrate and ascorbic acid. Most are bottled without filtering the pulp, which is one of the healthiest parts of fruits. Many brands also use flash pasteurization to keep the flavor and the nutrients intact, as well as to lengthen shelf life. Organic juice can be very rich in vitamins and potassium and can help increase resistance to infections.
Kinds of Organic Juices include the following:
|Organic vegetable juices |
- Made primarily from blended organic vegetables, but may be mixed with fruits like grape or tomatoes to improve flavor
- Can be used as a soup base with the addition of chicken stock, vegetables, onions, garlic, etc.
- May help reduce risk of cancer, heart disease, cataracts, arthritis, and other degenerative diseases
- Some brands contain the full serving (5 servings of vegetables per day); however, vegetable juices are only recommended as supplements to whole vegetables and are not replacements
Organic fruit juices
- The three most popular are orange juice (rich in vitamin C, potassium, folic acid, and bioavailable antioxidant phytochemicals), prune juice (good for digestion), and cranberry juice (prevents bladder infections).
- Fruit juices are often criticized for having higher sugar content (fructose content) than soft drinks like Coca Cola. However, unlike soft drinks, juices do not cause oxidative stress and insulin resistance. In fact, they raise offset the oxidative stress normally set off by meals that are high in fat and sugar.
|Buy in bulk. If your family consumes organic juice regularly, you’ll save more money buying in packs of 6 or more. |
Packaging. Choose organic juices that come in aseptic containers, which maintain the sterility of the product. Aseptic packaging is recyclable using a method called hydrapulping.
Make your own. You may also buy fresh organic fruits and vegetables and make your own juice. Simply peel the produce and them in the blender.
recommended organic juices
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Semiotic anthropology. Historical anthropology. Material culture. Language and communications. Oceania. Middle Ages. United States. Written extensively on the semiotic theory of the American philosopher, C.S. Peirce.
Deals with the comparative sem
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Semiotic anthropology. Historical anthropology. Material culture. Language and communications. Oceania. Middle Ages. United States. Written extensively on the semiotic theory of the American philosopher, C.S. Peirce.
Deals with the comparative semiotic analysis of material culture in three sites: megaliths on the Micronesian island of Palau (Belau), art and architecture in the European High Middle Ages, and advertising images in contemporary mass media.
University of Chicago, Ph.D.
University of Chicago, M.A.
Princeton University, B.A.
Awards and Honors
Mouton d'Or Prize for best 1997 publication in Semiotics (The Pragmatic Semiotics of Culture) (1997 - 1998)
AB Summa Cum Laude Independent Concentration in Anthropology Princeton University (1971)
|ANTH||108b||History, Time, and Tradition|
|ANTH||114b||Verbal Art and Cultural Performance|
|ANTH||121a||Crossing Cultural Boundaries|
|ANTH||126b||Symbol, Meaning, and Reality: Explorations in Cultural Semiotics|
|ANTH||201a||History of Anthropological Thought|
|ANTH||203b||Contemporary Anthropological Theory|
|GS||202b||Critical Global Issues|
|USEM||54a||Ideas of Equality, Systems of Inequality|
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A malicious program that bears sufficient similarity to a previously identified program to be categorized as a member of the same "family" of malware.
Variants are generally created when a malware author takes the source code for a previously released malware, modifies it,
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A malicious program that bears sufficient similarity to a previously identified program to be categorized as a member of the same "family" of malware.
Variants are generally created when a malware author takes the source code for a previously released malware, modifies it, then releases the new, slightly different version. The original program is often referred to as variant A, with subsequent versions referred to as B, C, D and so on, depending on when they were released.
Creating variants is relatively easy to do if the original author releases the source code for the malware to the public; alternatively, another virus writer can simply reverse engineer the malware to take the source code. Creators of variants are therefore not necessarily the creator of the original malicious program.
The differences between variants may be very minor, such as a change in a text message displayed; or they may be extensive, such as adding entirely new (and often more destructive) functionality.
Occasionally, a malware's source code has been modified so extensively that it may be classified as a separate family, for easier reference.
A virtual machine is an implementation of an operating system or environment that can be installed onto a host, or ‘real’, system. The virtual machine behaves as an isolated, independent environment, providing users with multiple operating environments on a single machine.
A network implementation that uses the physical infrastructure of a larger, insecure network (most commonly, the Internet) to connect disparate, remote computers or networks into a single, secure network.
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Godzilla is the accepted King of the Monsters, but he wasn’t the first on the scene. One of the great forefathers of all things Kaiju is King Kong, the misunderstood, lovestruck ape from Skull Island who w
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Godzilla is the accepted King of the Monsters, but he wasn’t the first on the scene. One of the great forefathers of all things Kaiju is King Kong, the misunderstood, lovestruck ape from Skull Island who wowed audiences in 1933 (meaning this year is his 80th anniversary!). Did King Kong make a visit to the Land of the Rising Sun long before Godzilla ever rose from the sea?
There are rumors of a film called King Kong Appears In Edo, which was released in Japan in 1938. Every print of the movie is today lost as a result of WWII bombings (not an unusual thing - most Japanese film from before WWII is considered lost), but researchers have found an ad for the film from a 1938 magazine called Kinema Junpo. T
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Cruiser is a type of motorcycle invented in the United States of America. Cruiser puts its emphasize on riding comfort rather than handling.
The riding position of cruisers are intended for a more relaxing ergonomics, resulting a better comfort for long
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Cruiser is a type of motorcycle invented in the United States of America. Cruiser puts its emphasize on riding comfort rather than handling.
The riding position of cruisers are intended for a more relaxing ergonomics, resulting a better comfort for long journey. Up-right handlebars, low seating position, and rider feets on the toward position are always been the trademark of cruiser bikes. This design sacrafices handling and performance.
Many "power cruisers" and Japanese cruisers of the 1980s have featured more neutral riding positions.Cruisers outfitted with luggage for touring are sometimes called baggers.
- Chopper -Choppers are either modified bikes or custom bikes made from scratch. One
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Parts Used & Where Grown
The common oat used in herbal supplements and foods is derived from cultivated sources. For some herbal supplements, the green or rapidly dried aerial parts of the plant are harvested just before reaching full flower. Many herbal texts refer
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Parts Used & Where Grown
The common oat used in herbal supplements and foods is derived from cultivated sources. For some herbal supplements, the green or rapidly dried aerial parts of the plant are harvested just before reaching full flower. Many herbal texts refer to using the fruits (seeds) or green tops. Although some herb texts discuss oat straw, there is little medicinal action in this part of the plant.
Our proprietary “Star-Rating” system was developed to help you easily understand the amount of scientific support behind each supplement in relation to a specific health condition. While there is no way to predict whether a vitamin, mineral, or herb will successfully treat or prevent associated health conditions, our unique ratings tell you how well these supplements are understood by the medical community, and whether studies have found them to be effective for other people.
For over a decade, our team has combed through thousands of research articles published in reputable journals. To help you make educated decisions, and to better understand controversial or confusing supplements, our medical experts have digested the science into these three easy-to-follow ratings. We hope this provides you with a helpful resource to make informed decisions towards your health and well-being.
3 Stars Reliable and relatively consistent scientific data showing a substantial health benefit.
2 Stars Contradictory, insufficient, or preliminary studies suggesting a health benefit or minimal health benefit.
1 Star For an herb, supported by traditional use but minimal or no scientific evidence. For a supplement, little scientific support.
This supplement has been used in connection with the following health conditions:
Refer to label instructions
Oats are part a group of “nerve tonic” (nervine) herbs used in traditional herbal medicine for people with anxiety, with few reports of toxicity.
Refer to label instructions
Wild oats have been used historically to treat people with eczema.
Traditional Use (May Not Be Supported by Scientific Studies)
In folk medicine, oats are used by herbalists to treat nervous exhaustion, insomnia, and “weakness of the nerves.” A tea made from oats was thought by herbalists to be useful in rheumatic conditions and to treat water retention. A tincture of the green tops of oats was also used to help with withdrawal from tobacco addiction.1 Oats were often used in baths to treat insomnia and anxiety as well as a variety of skin conditions, including burns and eczema.
How It Works
How It Works
The fruits (seeds) contain alkaloids, such as gramine and avenine, and saponins, such as avenacosides A and B.2 The seeds are also rich in iron, manganese, and zinc. The straw is high in silica. Oat alkaloids are believed to account for the relaxing action of oats, but it should be noted this continues to be debated in Europe. The German Commission E does not approve this herb as a sedative.3 However, an alcohol-based tincture of the fresh plant has reportedly shown some promise in countering nicotine withdrawal and helping with smoking cessation.4
How to Use It
A tea can be made from a heaping tablespoonful (approximately 15 grams) of oats brewed with 1 cup (250 ml) of boiling water. After cooling and straining, the tea can be taken several times a day and shortly before going to bed.5 As a tincture, oats are often taken at 1/2–1 teaspoon (3–5 ml) three times per day. Capsules or tablets, 1–4 grams per day, can be taken. A soothing bath to ease irritated skin can be made by running the bath water through a sock containing several tablespoons of oats, then bathing in the water for several minutes.
Interactions with Supplements, Foods, & Other Compounds
Interactions with Medicines
1. Weiss RF. Herbal Medicine. Gothenburg, Sweden: Ab Arcanum, 1988, 287–8.
2. Mills SY. Out of the Earth: The Essential Book of Herbal Medicine. Middlesex, UK: Viking Arcana, 1991, 510–2.
3. Wichtl M. Herbal Drugs and Phytopharmaceuticals. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1994, 96–8.
4. Anand CL. Effect of Avena sativa on cigarette smoking. Nature 1974;233:496.
5. Wichtl M. Herbal Drugs and Phytopharmaceuticals. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1994, 96–8.
Last Review: 11-07-2012
Copyright © 2012 Aisle7. All rights reserved. Aisle7.com
The information presented in Aisle7 is for informational purposes only. It is based on scientific studies (human, animal, or in vitro), clinical experience, or traditional usage as cited in each article. The results reported may not necessarily occur in all individuals. For many of the conditions discussed, treatment with prescription or over the counter medication is also available. Consult your doctor, practitioner, and/or pharmacist for any health problem and before using any supplements or before making any changes in prescribed medications. Information expires June 2013.
Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated.
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The terrain from Warsaw to Jedwabne is a flat, boring landscape, but the conversation in the car is lively. Tadeusz is talking about faith and free will, free choice and destiny, and how these seemingly contradictory notions mysteriously
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The terrain from Warsaw to Jedwabne is a flat, boring landscape, but the conversation in the car is lively. Tadeusz is talking about faith and free will, free choice and destiny, and how these seemingly contradictory notions mysteriously coexist in our lives. These are the themes that permeate the text of the play. In Our Class, Tadeusz touches on the biblical story of Isaac, Abraham, and Sarah, which he brings up as we are driving towards Jedwabne: “In the Jewish interpretation, the story gives a deeper meaning to suffering and suggests the absolute necessity for faith. The Polish Catholic Church sees in the lamb Jesus who was sent as the lamb to be sacrificed instead of Isaac, and thus Jesus resolves the conflict between free will and destiny. This is of course nonsense,” adds Tadeusz, who was brought up in a Catholic family but is now lapsed. Then he adds, “Some conservative Rabbis explain the whole Holocaust as the deeper meaning of fate, as God’s will.”
When the Russian army arrived in January, 1945, the survivors were finally able to leave their hiding places and all but Szmul left for Lomza. One night they heard that the Partisans were planning to come harm the Jews. The men in the house left and hid, leaving Ms. Antosa alone because they believed that these men would do nothing to a Christian woman. The men who arrived supposedly had taken part in the Jedwabne pogrom in 1941. When they couldn’t find any Jews, and she wouldn’t tell them anything, they beat up Ms. Antosa until she was black and blue all over. She was so terrified that she would get killed that she decided to leave for Austria with Szmul and some of the other Jewish survivors. They had to stay in a displaced people camp in Linz. Ms. Antosa got very homesick and wanted to return back to Poland. Szmul accompanied her back to make sure she was safe.
Ms. Antosa’s brother, who lived in Cuba, sent him money and Szmul helped the family buy a house in Bielsko, a village not too far from Jedwabne. Once, at the market, Ms. Antosa ran into the men who beat her up; she felt threatened, and the family moved again to a small town close to Warsaw.
In the nineties she was invited by her Jewish friends to the States. Szmul saw her again f
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The sun sets as smoke rises near the town of Seaton on January 19, 2013 in Australia. Bushfires in Victoria have claimed one life and destroyed several houses as record heat continues to create extreme fire conditions throughout Australia.
Smoke damaged
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The sun sets as smoke rises near the town of Seaton on January 19, 2013 in Australia. Bushfires in Victoria have claimed one life and destroyed several houses as record heat continues to create extreme fire conditions throughout Australia.
Smoke damaged some buildings housing telescopes at Australia's top astronomy research observatory, but fire-proofing work prevented "catastrophic" damage from a weekend inferno, officials said Tuesday.
The mountaintop Siding Spring Observatory, about 500 kilometers (330 miles) northwest of Sydney, was engulfed by flames during the firestorm on Sunday evening which razed 33 nearby homes and some of the facility's outer buildings.
Eighteen staff working at the Aus$100 million (US$105 million) observatory -- which houses 10 telescopes run by Australian, Polish, British, South Korean and US researchers -- were safely evacuated before the fire struck.
The Australian National University, which administers the observatory in the remote Warrumbungle Ranges, said it had confirmed Tuesday that three buildings -- two lodgings and a storage unit -- had been destroyed by the fire.
Another three buildings including the site's visitors' center had been badly damaged by the flames, but the universit
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By Mary Sharratt
The origins of Saint Valentine’s Day lie shrouded in obscurity. Saint Valentine himself, a third century Roman martyr, seems to have nothing to do with the romantic traditions that became associated with his feast.
Dr
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By Mary Sharratt
The origins of Saint Valentine’s Day lie shrouded in obscurity. Saint Valentine himself, a third century Roman martyr, seems to have nothing to do with the romantic traditions that became associated with his feast.
Dr. Douce, in his Illustrations of Shakespeare, cited in The Book of Days, writes:
It was the practice in ancient Rome, during a great part of the month of February, to celebrate the Lupercalia, which were feasts in honour of Pan and Juno. whence the latter deity was named Februata, Februalis, and Februlla. On this occasion, amidst a variety of ceremonies, the names of young women were put into a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed. The pastors of the early Christian church, who, by every possible means, endeavoured to eradicate the vestiges of pagan superstitions, and chiefly by some commutations of their forms, substituted, in the present instance, the names of particular saints instead of those of the women: and as the festival of the Lupercalia had commenced about the middle of February, they appear to have chosen St. Valentine’s Day for celebrating the new feast, because it occurred nearly at the same time.
The first mention of Valentine’s Day traditions in England originate from the 14th century writers Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower who both allude to the folk belief that birds choose their mates on the feast of Saint Valentine, their patron.
In Britain, the mating flights of crows, rooks, and ravens can generally be observed by February 14. Here in Lancashire, I notice more and more birdsong each day as February advances and the birds repair their nests, preparing for a new cycle of birth and life.
Around 1440, John Lydgate’s poem in honour of Queen Katherine, widow of Henry V, is the first to mention romantic traditions among humans associated with this date:
To look and search Cupid’s calendar,
And choose their choice, the great affection.
People of both sexes sent tokens of admiration. You could either send a token to the romantic interest of your choice, or draw lots as to who would receive your Valentine. In 1470s Norfolk, the Paston family seems to have preferred drawing lots rather than sending tokens to a chosen person.
Actual Valentines could be quite costly. In 1523, Sir Henry Willoughby, gentleman of Warwickshire, paid 2S, 3d for his. Unfortunately no description of this costly item remains for us today.
After the Reformation, the feast of Saint Valentine was abolished, and yet the amorous traditions flourished.
By 1641, the system of casting lots for Valentines was so well known in Edinburgh that a wag waggishly proposed their new Lord Chancellor be chosen by the same method.
A Dutch visitor to London in 1663 observed:
it is customary, alike for married and unmarried people, that the first person one meets in the morning, that is, if one if a man, the first woman or girl, becomes one’s Valentine. He asks her name which he takes down and carries on a long strip of paper in his hat band, and in the same way the woman or girl wears his name on her bodice; but it is the practice that they meet on the evening before and choose each other for their Valentine, and, come Easter, they send each other gloves, silk stockings, or sometimes a miniature portrait, which the ladies wear to foster the friendship.
In his diaries of the same decade, Samuel Pepys reveals how he would call by a colleague’s house early in the day in order to make the man’s daughter his Valentine. Pepys would also arrange for a young man to call to pay the same homage to Mrs. Pepys and bring her presents, which Pepys then paid for. One year when Pepys was short of cash, alas, no young man with presents appeared and Mrs. Pepys was quite irate. Eventually they settled on a yearly ritual, whereby Pepys’s cousin paid a visit to honour Mrs. Pepys and bring her presents which Pepys knew she desired.
The Book of Days
Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain
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CHAPTER 1 - SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
The 2006 CHINS collected information on the status of housing, infrastructure, education, health and other services available in discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities throughout Australia. The 2006 CH
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CHAPTER 1 - SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
The 2006 CHINS collected information on the status of housing, infrastructure, education, health and other services available in discrete Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities throughout Australia. The 2006 CHINS also collected selected information on Indigenous organisations that provide rental housing to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The information collected from these organisations, referred to as Indigenous Housing Organisations (IHOs), included details of the housing stock, dwelling management and selected income and expenditure arrangements.
Data in CHINS are presented using the Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) remoteness structure. The purpose of the remoteness structure is to classify Census Districts (CDs) which share common characteristics of remoteness into broad geographical regions called Remoteness Areas (RAs). There are six RAs in the structure, however only five RAs are presented in CHINS, with Migratory excluded as being not applicable to CHINS. The RAs in CHINS are:
For further details, refer to Statistical Geography Volume 1: Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC), 2006 (cat. no. 1216.0).
- Major cities of Australia
- Inner Regional Australia
- Outer Regional Australia
- Remote Australia
- Very remote Australia.
INDIGENOUS HOUSING ORGANISATIONS
The 2006 CHINS collected information from 496 IHOs which managed a total of 21,854 permanent dwellings. The total number of IHOs decreased by 120 from 616 IHOs in the 2001 survey. The decrease is largely attributed to changes to the management arrangements for IHOs in recent years. While the total number of IHOs declined between 2001 and 2006, the number of permanent dwellings managed by these organisations increased by 567 to 21,854 over that period. Of these, the majority 12,407 (57%) were in very remote areas, followed by 7,006 (32%) in non-remote areas and 2,441 (11%) in remote areas.
Selected findings in relation to IHOs and their housing stock were:
The following chart provides information about the number of IHOs and the dwellings they manage by remoteness area.
DISCRETE INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
For the purpose of CHINS, a discrete Indigenous community is defined as a geographic location, bounded by physical or cadastral boundaries, and inhabited predominantly by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. For more details, refer to Discrete Indigenous Community in the Glossary.
- Each IHO managed an average of 44 permanent dwellings in 2006, compared to an ave
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Scientists believed this rare kind of eruption was caused by a stellar wind blowing off the stars. Still, much remained uncertain, since a key detail about the Great Eruption was missing — its pattern of light. This spectrum would help yield details such as
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Scientists believed this rare kind of eruption was caused by a stellar wind blowing off the stars. Still, much remained uncertain, since a key detail about the Great Eruption was missing — its pattern of light. This spectrum would help yield details such as the temperature, composition and velocity of matter from the eruption. [Amazing Photos of Star Explosions]
For instance, "cool objects emit redder light than hot objects," Rest explained. "Look at an ember — if it is relatively cool, it is dark red, and the hotter it gets, the bluer, whiter it gets. So overall the color of the spectra gives you already a good idea how hot or cold the star is."
Now, using the Magellan and du Pont telescopes at Las Campanas Observatories in Chile, Rest and his colleagues have discovered spectra from the Great Eruption, by looking for light from the explosion that bounced or echoed off interstellar dust tens of light-years from the star.
"The missing piece, the big gap, has been that there were no spectra of the Great Eruption," Rest said. "Now we have it, and it gives us the chance to better understand how this eruption happened and what caused it."
Surprisingly, their observations suggest the Great Eruption is different from so-called "supernov
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“Emotional abuse is like brain washing in that it systematically wears away at the victim’s self-confidence, sense of self-worth, trust in their own perceptions, and self-concept. Whether it is done by constant berating and belitt
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“Emotional abuse is like brain washing in that it systematically wears away at the victim’s self-confidence, sense of self-worth, trust in their own perceptions, and self-concept. Whether it is done by constant berating and belittling, by intimidating, or under the guise of ‘guidance,’ ‘teaching,’ or ‘advice,’ the results are similar. Eventually, the recipient of the abuse loses all sense of self and remnants of personal value. Emotional abuse cuts to the very core of a person, creating scars that may be far deeper and more lasting than physical ones.” (University of Illinois, Counseling Center)
However, when people discuss child abuse, they often refer to the physical abuse and sexual abuse of children, both absolutely horrific types of abuse. But the one that underpins them all—the abuse that is invisible and the most damaging—often gets ignored. That type of abuse is emotional child abuse.
“Emotional abuse is at the core of all major forms of abuse and neglect, is more damaging in its impact than acts of physical and sexual abuse alone, and requires special attention to disentangle it from physical and sexual acts of maltreatment.” (The Emotionally Abused and Neglected Child: Identification, Assessment and Intervention: A Practice Handbook)
Whereas physically abused and sexually abused children have the physical proof as witnesses to their abuse, the emotionally abused child does not. The scars are inside.
“The bruises don’t show on the outside, so there are no statistics on how many children are victims… but anyone who works with children knows the problem is widespread.” (Dr. Elizabeth Watkins, chief of pediatric primary care at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital)
What Is Emotional Child Abuse?
“Emotional abuse is the systematic diminishment of another. It may be intentional or subconscious (or both), but it is always a course of conduct, not a single event. It is designed to reduce a child’s self-concept to where the victim considers himself unworthy—unworthy of respect, unworthy of friendship, unworthy of the natural birthright of children: love and protection.” (child advocate, lawyer, and author Andrew Vachss, You Carry the Cure in Your Own Heart essay)
Another definition by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is:
“Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional ill-treatment of a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. It may involve conveying to children that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person. It may feature age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children. It may involve causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children. Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of ill treatment of a child, though it may occur alone.” (Department of Health et al, 1999, p.5-6)
The words persistent and systematic are crucial to the definition of child abuse. Emotional child abuse isn’t a parent telling his child once, “Why did you spill the juice? Don’t do that again!”
Emotional abuse is systematic. It’s a consistent destructive force in a
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Tetanus, also known as lockjaw (which comes from the locking or tightening of the muscles around the jaw, which prevents a child from opening her mouth or swallowing), is a serious and potentially fatal infection caused by a poison (toxin
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Tetanus, also known as lockjaw (which comes from the locking or tightening of the muscles around the jaw, which prevents a child from opening her mouth or swallowing), is a serious and potentially fatal infection caused by a poison (toxin) made by the bacteria Clostridium tetani. This germ is present in soil and can contaminate a wound. In fact, any open wound or cut, no matter how small, is a possible site of a tetanus infection. However, an infection is more likely to occur in deep puncture wounds and those contaminated with dirt, feces, or soil. A child who is injured by a dirty garden tool or a rock thrown up by a lawn mower may develop tetanus if she has not been properly immunized. A newborn can get the infection if the umbilical cord gets contaminated.
Tetanus is not contagious and cannot be spread from person to person. Because of the common use of tetanus immunizations, tetanus is very rare in the United States. There are only a few dozen cases each year, usually in unimmunized people or people who have not kept up with the recommended booster every 10 years.
Signs and Symptoms
Symptoms usually develop gradually in the first 1 to 2 weeks after a wound has been contaminated with tetanus bacteria. The affected child experiences spasms of the jaw muscles, a headache, and irritability. Next, she experiences muscle tightening, pain, and spasms spread to other parts of the body including the neck, shoulders, and back with increasing intensity.
The disease is fatal in some cases.
What You Can Do
If your child has a wound that may have been contaminated with soil, contact your pediatrician as soon as possible, especially if you’re unsure of your youngster’s immunization status.
Successful treatment is possible if the disease is diagnosed and managed promptly. Your child will be hospitalized immediately and probably placed in an intensive care unit. Your doctor may prescribe an antibiotic medicine such as metronidazole or penicillin and an antitoxin drug.
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Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia can be very challenging for a CNA.
With this article we want to inform and prepare you for your work with Dementia or patients with Alzheimer’s Disease.
Brain with Alzheimer’s disease
More and more people
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Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia can be very challenging for a CNA.
With this article we want to inform and prepare you for your work with Dementia or patients with Alzheimer’s Disease.
Brain with Alzheimer’s disease
More and more people are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease since we are living longer and also as a result of the baby boomer years.
Alzheimer’s disease is regarded as the most frequent reason of dementia, affecting an estimated 5.3 million Americans. As a result the government is setting priority in the research of Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia in 2012 and 2013.
Alzheimer’s disease is really a accelerating, degenerative disease, attacking the brain and resulting in impaired memory, thinking and behavior.
Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease contain a gradual memory loss, decreased capability to do daily tasks, loss of time and space, change in personality, learn difficulties, and loss of language and communication skills.
The symptoms are different from person to person depending in what part of the brain the loss started and how progressed the disease is.
From the start of the symptoms, a patient with Alzheimer’s disease may live somehow between 3-20 years with this disease.
At current time, there are 4 drugs prescribed to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.
In some cases, the treatments are improving daily life though increasing memory and cognitive capabilities.
The following are tips how to deal with people having Alzheimer’s disease or Dementia.
Positive Approaches as a CNA with People who have Alzheimer’s Disease.
1. Set the Stage
- Environment: People with Alzheimer’s disease are very sensitive to noise, lightening, distractions and comfort level.
- YOURSELF: Before approaching a person with Alzheimer’s disease: take a deep breath to calm yourself down. Do not go to a person in a hurry and stay focused. Reach out to the person in a friendly way.
- Know the person: It is important to get a history from the family including health condition and restrictions, values, likes, dislikes, accomplishments, remaining strengths, motivations and triggers( very important to know), how does the person to be called, past activities and approaches that worked well…etc.
- Back-up plan: This might be just to back up from the situation and try it back later. Another option is to ask someone else to handle the situation.
- Be respectful – ALWAYS!
2. Physical Approach to a person with Alzheimer’s disease
- Approach in a friendly, relaxed manner from the front
- Introduce yourself – if appropriate
- Get the person’s attention by using the preferred name before you move into their personal space
- Go slow
- Offer your hand
- Move at least slightly to the person’s side to be less threatening
- Sit, squat, or kneel at person’s side, if seated, to seem less bossy and confrontational
- Use the hand-under-hand technique – if appropriate
- Wait for response before taking any action or moving the conversation forward
- Maintain eye-contact – if culturally appropriate
- Pay attention to your body language – look interested, non-threatening, non-provocative
- Pay attention to the person’s body language
- Use touch, but carefully to make sure the person seems to accept it!
- Friendly and respectful, not bossy or critical and avoid baby-talk
- Slow and easy Lower pitch is more readily and better understood
- Use words the person uses now Use simple, short phrases and sentences
- Be specific and avoid pronouns. “George, your water glass is on the table.” not, “It’s over there.”
- Stay po
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|People are willing to learn to use new technology, but this willingness tends to diminish over time if the technology is too complex and takes too much time to learn.|
1. Technological Complexity
Technological complexity is the degree to which a
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|People are willing to learn to use new technology, but this willingness tends to diminish over time if the technology is too complex and takes too much time to learn.|
1. Technological Complexity
Technological complexity is the degree to which a technology is perceived as (relatively) difficult to understand and use. If it is perceived as too complex, it is likely to get rejected by the user.
2. Technology Fatigue
- Feature fatigue: When technological products get loaded with too many features.
- Wait-and-watch tendency: When people are unable to determine supremacy among technological choices, they tend to wait for the emergence of a clear “standard” technology before investing.
- Unnecessary technology: People are given more technology than they need, and as a result, they may withdraw toward minimalism of technology.
- Excessive choice effect: When people have excessive choices among similar products, then they need to understand all the options to evaluate them and make the right choices.
3. Level of Flexibility
Technologies that are not flexible at the fundamental level of operation tend to get rejected.
4. Altering User-Base
A reconfiguration of the technology user-base may result in technology rejection because it may confuse the user to a degree where s/he cannot master the device anymore.
5. Switching Cost and Loss Aversion
People evaluate a new product in relation to existing products. If there is a perceived loss of an already proven benefit, they may reject the piece of technology. People not only compare a new technology against what they already use and know of, but also against market-dominant standards.
Image credit: Toban B.
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The first Environmental Performance Review of Turkmenistan covers 13 issues of importance to Turkmenistan related to policymaking, planning and implementation, the financing of environmental policies and projects and the integration of environmental concerns into economic sectors, in particular the sustainable
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The first Environmental Performance Review of Turkmenistan covers 13 issues of importance to Turkmenistan related to policymaking, planning and implementation, the financing of environmental policies and projects and the integration of environmental concerns into economic sectors, in particular the sustainable management and protection of water resources, waste management, air pollution, forestry, biodiversity and protected areas, energy and climate change.
The Environmental Performance Review Programme is considered an important instrument for countries within the UNECE Region. The second round, while taking stock of the progress made since the first cycle of reviews, puts particular emphasis on implementation, integration, financing and the socio-economic interface with the envi
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While most of Dubrovnik was heavily damaged in the disastrous earthquake of 1667, the city walls that were built around the 15th century survived. They are up to 25 meters high, 1 to 6 meters thick and
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While most of Dubrovnik was heavily damaged in the disastrous earthquake of 1667, the city walls that were built around the 15th century survived. They are up to 25 meters high, 1 to 6 meters thick and include towers, corner fortifications, bastions and one large fortress.
Over time the walls were reinforced. The massive walls of Dubrovnik in the past were partly responsible for Dubrovnik's relative autonomy, and today remain an impressive show of strength.
A little bit of...
A little bit of history...:
The Croatian name of the town is derived from the word dubrava, while the Latin name Ragusa - Rausa originated from the name of the island where the first settlement was established (Lave, Lausa). Dubrovnik was probably founded in the first half of the 7th century, upon the fall of the nearby Epidaurum (today's Cavtat) during the Avaro-Slavic invasion on Dalmatia. Opposite of that location, at the foot of Srdj Mount, developed a Croatian settlement under the name of Dubrovnik, after which, in the course of time, the entire town was named. The spatial separation was created by leveling and filling up of the present Placa, where the core of an integrated town developed. From its establishment the town was under the protection of the Byzantine Empire (for a certain period, the Byzantine strategist also resided here); during the Crusades it came under the sovereignty of Venice (1205-1358), and by the Peace Treaty of Zadar in 1358 it became part of the Hungarian-Croatian Kingdom. Having been granted the entire self-government (bound to pay only a tribute to the king and providing assistance with its fleet), from that mome
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This map is so beautiful it nearly brings tears to my eyes. I discovered it in Richard Dawkins’ book, “The Greatest Show On Earth” (page 330).
We’re cousins of chimpanzees. We’re also related to dolphins
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This map is so beautiful it nearly brings tears to my eyes. I discovered it in Richard Dawkins’ book, “The Greatest Show On Earth” (page 330).
We’re cousins of chimpanzees. We’re also related to dolphins, kangaroos, slugs and pond scum. So what?
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is brilliant beyond words. What’s truly amazing is that the concept took so long for us to figure out.
Excerpt from the book:
Detailed DNA comparisons will fill in all the gaps in our knowledge about the actual evolutionary relatedness of every epecies to every other: we shall know, with complete certainty, the entire family tree of all living creatures. Goodness knows how we’ll plot it; it won’t fit on any practical-sized sheet of paper. The largest-scale attempt in that direction so far has been made by a group associated with David Hillis, brother of Danny Hillis who pioneered one of the first supercomputers. The Hillis plot makes the tree diagram more compact by wrapping it around in a circle. You can’t see the gap, where the two ends almost meet, but it lies between the ‘bacteria’ and the ‘archaea’. … The Hillis circular plot is the same, except that it has three thousand species. Their names appear around the outside edge of the circle above, far too small to read — though Homo sapiens is helpfully marked ‘You are here’. You can get an idea of how sparse a sampling of the tree even this huge plot is when I tell you that the closest relatives of humans that it can fit in the circle are rats and mice. The mammals had to be stripped down drastically, in order to fit in all the other branches of the tree to the same depth. Just imagine trying to plot a similar tree with ten million species in stead of the three thousand included here. And ten million is not the most extravagant estimate of the number of surviving species.
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Kirrkirr is a research project exploring the use of computer software for automatic transformation of lexical databases ("dictionaries"), aiming at providing innovative information visualization, particularly targeted at indigenous languages. As a first example, it can generate networks of words,
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Kirrkirr is a research project exploring the use of computer software for automatic transformation of lexical databases ("dictionaries"), aiming at providing innovative information visualization, particularly targeted at indigenous languages. As a first example, it can generate networks of words, such as in the little picture above, automatically from dictionary data. Kirrkirr aims at a perceived gap in work being done elsewhere: while there is a lot of work on designing dictionary databases, and providing software for building and maintaining these databases, there is a dearth of work that exploits these databases to provide useful and fun tools for nontechnical end users.
Some more specific subgoals have been:
The central idea motivating our research is that given any sort of well-structured lexical database, software should be able to automatically provide all sorts of value-added functiona
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Dangerous Food Safety Mistakes
Sometimes a simple mistake can have grave consequences. What may seem like a small food safety mistake can cause serious illness with long-term consequences.
When it comes to some germs, such as Salmonella, all it
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Dangerous Food Safety Mistakes
Sometimes a simple mistake can have grave consequences. What may seem like a small food safety mistake can cause serious illness with long-term consequences.
When it comes to some germs, such as Salmonella, all it takes is 15 to 20 cells in undercooked food to cause food poisoning. And just a tiny taste of food with botulism toxin can cause paralysis and even death.
Here are some common food safety mistakes that have been proven to cause serious illness.
Mistake #1: Tasting food to see if it’s still good
Why: You can’t taste (or smell or see) the bacteria that cause food poisoning. Tasting only a tiny amount can cause serious illness.
Solution: Throw food out before harmful bacteria grows. Check the Safe Storage Times chart to be sure.
Mistake #2: Putting cooked meat back on a plate that held raw meat
Why: Germs from the raw meat can spread to the cooked meat.
Solution: Always use separate plates for raw meat and cooked meat. The same rule applies to poultry and seafood.
Mistake #3: Thawing food on the counter
Why: Harmful germs can multiply extremely rapidly at room temperature.
Solution: Thaw food safely:
- In the refrigerator
- In cold water
- In the microwave
Mistake #4: Washing meat or poultry
Why: Washing raw meat or poultry can spread bacteria to your sink, countertops, and other surfaces in your kitchen.
Solution: Don’t wash meat, poultry, or eggs.
Mistake #5: Letting food cool before putting it in the fridge
Why: Illness-causing bacteria can grow in perishable foods within two hours unless you refrigerate them
Solution: Refrigerate perishable foods within 2 hours (or within 1 hour if the temperature is over 90˚F.
Mistake #6: Eating raw cookie dough (or other foods with uncooked eg
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History of Medicine
Promise and Peril
The University of California, San Diego, teaches anatomy to medical students in part through the Anatomic VisulizeR©, a computer program that lets students 'dissect' virtual anatomical models of
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History of Medicine
Promise and Peril
The University of California, San Diego, teaches anatomy to medical students in part through the Anatomic VisulizeR©, a computer program that lets students 'dissect' virtual anatomical models of various organs. The models are derived from the National Library of Medicine's Visible Human Male. Courtesy of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
They may come up with a disease that can't be cured, even a monster. Is this the answer to Dr. Frankenstein's dream?
The time was the early 1970s. The speaker was the mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts, warning against a proposed DNA laboratory at Harvard University. Today, we almost expect to hear references to "Frankenstein" — whether monster, scientist, novel, film, image, or myth is often unclear — whenever some powerful new technology poses risk to humankind or challenges our ideas of what it means to be human. The atomic bomb, interspecies organ transplants, genetic engineering, and cloning, among many others, have each prompted such warnings; Mary Shelley's hideous brainchild continues to embody and express our fears.
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Saviour of Forde Abbey
In the century following the dissolution of the monasteries Forde Abbey was the property of distant owners. For decades the building was neglected and allowed to deteriorate; the Abbey Church was lost and four centuries of
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Saviour of Forde Abbey
In the century following the dissolution of the monasteries Forde Abbey was the property of distant owners. For decades the building was neglected and allowed to deteriorate; the Abbey Church was lost and four centuries of improvements by the monks disappeared along with much of the stone and fabric, which was looted.
In 1649 Sir Henry Rosewell sold the Abbey and estate to Edmund Prideaux, Member of Parliament for Lyme Regis, a seat he held until his death. Prideaux took his degree as Master of Arts at Cambridge University. His chief field of study was the law, something he was later to become very eminent in. He was a member of the Long Parliament and was Solicitor-General in 1648. A member of the prevailing party of the day, he did not join his colleagues in attacking the life of the Sovereign and he avoided taking any part in the King’s trial.
In 1649 he was appointed Attorney-General to the Lord Protector and remained in that office until his death. He was a commissioner of the Great Seal and practised within the Bar as King’s Counsel. Prideaux was a very wealthy individual, as besides his lucrative legal practice from 1644 to 1653 he gained great profit from his involvement with the postal service. Oliver Cromwell made Prideaux a Baronet on the 13th of August 1658; the Lord Protector died three weeks later, on the 3rd of September 1658.
Perhaps because it was the property of Mr Attorney-General Prideaux, Forde Abbey was saved from the vandalism suffered by many country mansions during the Civil Wars. Having bought Forde Abbey he spent enormous sums of money improving it. He employed the services of Inigo Jones, who was at that time attempting to introduce the Grecian style of architecture into this country. He did not live to see his designs for Forde Abbey completed, for he died in 1654, whilst work on the house was not finished until 1658.
Edmund Prideaux was born in September 1601 at Netherton, Devon. He was the second surviving son of Sir Edmund Prideaux (1555-1629), being descended from an old family originally from Prideaux Castle in Cornwall. Edmund Prideaux’s first wife was Jane Collins and shortly after her death in 1629 he married Margaret Ivery of Cothay in Somerset. He died on the 8th of August 1659 and was succeeded by his only son, also Edmund, who had married Amy Fraunceis of Combe Florey in Somerset in 1655 (Cromwell’s titles were not accepted after the restoration.)
The Price of a Life: Innocent or Guilty
Edmund Prideaux was a well-educated man; for some time his teacher was Bishop Tillotson, later Archbishop of Canterbury. Edmund’s contemporaries referred to him as “the walking encyclopaedia.”
In view of the high profile his father had during Cromwell’s rule, we should not be surprised there was no place for him in government after the restoration. He appears to have lived quietly at Ford Abbey.
Towards the end of 1680 the Duke of Monmouth visited Forde Abbey during a tour of the West Country, where he was treated by Edmund Prideaux to a very splendid supper and given a bed for the night. This hospitality was to return to haunt Edmund, cost him great expense and nearly his life.
In 1681 Edmund Prideaux was elected one of the Members of Parliament for Taunton. We learn from a note in his own handwriting that on the 16th of July 1683 his home was searched for arms. Two muskets, one brass blunderbuss and four cases of pistols were removed.
The year of 1685 was memorable, particularly in the West Country after Monmouth landed at Lyme Regis. Edmund Prideaux, it is said, remained at Forde Abbey. News reached London that during this time Prideaux received a visit at night from a group of eight men led by Thomas Dare of Taunton; they were given horses and arms. Furthermore it was reported that one of the party, Malachi Mallock, drank the health of Monmouth.
Mallock was later arrested and appeared before Judge Jeffreys at Dorchester on September 10th and was condemned to death and should have been hanged at Bridport on September 12th. Mallock bargained for his life by offering to give evidence that w
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And Horsea15 finds the underlined word of the day!!!
Posted Nov 28, 2001 5:17 PM
And German is a nice language. Since you know Latin, you
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And Horsea15 finds the underlined word of the day!!!
Posted Nov 28, 2001 5:17 PM
And German is a nice language. Since you know Latin, you'll see how Latin and old German got together to form English. English is quite similar to German in many ways.
And since you spoke about Latin references in Literature, did you see the ones in Harry Potter? Especially in the names and in the charms.
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Who Wrote the Holy Quran?
Quran, in Arabic, could only have been written by ONE of 3possible sources:
1. the Arabs
2. Mohammad (peace be upon him)
3. God (Allah)
(NOTE
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Who Wrote the Holy Quran?
Quran, in Arabic, could only have been written by ONE of 3possible sources:
1. the Arabs
2. Mohammad (peace be upon him)
3. God (Allah)
(NOTE: The first part is not meant to be a rigorous proof.It is something to ponder upon. However, the second part,about Mohammad [pbuh] wrote it' contains more extensiveproof.)
Besides the above mentioned sources, Quran couldn'tpossibly have been written by ANYONE else.
No other source is possible, because Quran is written inpure, rich, and poetic Arabic, which was not known toanyone other than the above mentioned sources, at thattime. The Arabic language was at its peak in expression,richness, vocabulary, artistic, and poetic value during thetime the Quran was being revealed. Anyone speaking theclassical Arabic ( the Arabic of Quran at the time it wasrevealed) would argue that a non-Arab entity couldn'tpossibly have written such an extensive and brilliant pieceof literature in the Arabic language. Quran could only havebeen written by an Arabic speaking entity. An entity,who's knowledge, style, vocabulary, grammar, and way of expression was so powerful that it impacted the entireArabian peninsula, the east, the west, and continues toimpact people all over the globe today!
At no other time, in the history of Arabic language, had itever achieved its peak in expression, literature, anddevelopment, than the time of Arabia during the 6thCentury, the time when Quran was being revealed. At noother time in the history of Arabic language had thelanguage ever achieved its highest potential than the timeof Arabia during the 6th Century, the time when Quranwas being revealed. The language reached its peak inrichness, artistic value, and poetry, during that time.
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Kids get more sex education from TV, music videos, and the Internet—let's make that Jersey Shore, 50 Cent, and XXX-rated websites—than they do from their parents and teachers, and that's not a good thing, according
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Kids get more sex education from TV, music videos, and the Internet—let's make that Jersey Shore, 50 Cent, and XXX-rated websites—than they do from their parents and teachers, and that's not a good thing, according to the nation's pediatricians. They're calling on parents to step up and help children learn how to become responsible sexual human beings.
Clearly we parents aren't doing a very good job of that now. The United States boasts the highest rate of teen pregnancies in the developed world, and 25 percent of American teenagers have a sexually transmitted disease (STD). But we parents could really use some help. Many moms and dads shy away from talking about sex with their children. So instead, teenagers learn about sex from TV, where 70 percent of teen shows contain sexual content, and less than 10 percent of those shows give examples of responsible sexual behavior, such as delaying sexual activity or reducing the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, according to a new report on teens, sex, and the media from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The AAP is encouraging pediatricians to ask two questions at every well-child visit in order to judge how a child's media use may be affecting his or her health: whether a child has a TV or computer in the bedroom and the amount of screen time a child takes in daily.
Although those questions may help identify when a child has a problem with media use, dealing with it will be up to the parents. Parents have the most control over their child's media use, and the biggest potential for positive impact. Here are three recommendations for parents on how to handle sex and the media from Victor Strasburger, lead author of the new report and chief of adolescent medicine at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine:
Limit all screen media time to a maximum of two hours a day. This not only reduces the dose of sexually inappropriate content a child gets daily, but leaves time for other things, like homework, sports, friends, and family.
Get the TV and computer out of children's bedrooms. Parents can't know what media children are consuming if their kids are holed up in their rooms. Having a TV in the bedroom is linked to lower grades and higher rates of obesity, too.
Use sex in the media to do on-the-spot sexual education on a regular basis, rather than having one big talk. A parent can watch TV with a teenager and note that sexual relationships don't work that way in real life, or that the reason the girl with the tight T-shirt is in the commercial is to sell more beer.
That last point may sound terrifying, but Diane Levin, coauthor of the book So Sexy So Soon, says that asking teenagers why they like certain shows or songs can provide a great opportunity to talk about sexual issues in a way that's fairly comfortable. Parents can watch with a child and point out specific images or acts, and explain why they find those sexual or violent images disturbing or inappropriate. As a result, teenagers gain a better understanding of sex in the real world, as well as of their parent's ethical and moral standards.
The pediatricians also put in a plea for less sexual imagery on TV, and a ban on ads for erectile dysfunction drugs until after 10 p.m. Good luck on that one, doctors. But it would be nice to not have to try and explain to children why the gray-haired people get all cuddly after popping blue pills.
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Become a MRI Assistant: Requirements and Qualifications
Two types of medical support personnel help radiologists (radiation-specializing doctors) with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Radiologist assistants aid radiologists in conducting imaging, caring for patients and performing examinations
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Become a MRI Assistant: Requirements and Qualifications
Two types of medical support personnel help radiologists (radiation-specializing doctors) with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Radiologist assistants aid radiologists in conducting imaging, caring for patients and performing examinations. MRI assistants aid in patient care and clerical duties for MRI clinics and hospital departments, except the actual operation of the MRI machine.
MRI Assistant: Choosing a Career Level
The term 'MRI assistant' can refer to different careers. Some clinics use the job title 'MRI assistant' for a combined clerical and patient care position that is similar to a medical assistant job. MRI assistants at this level may maintain patient records, schedule appointments or prepare patients for the MRI procedure. A registered radiologist assistant can actually perform some MRI procedures with a physician's supervision. This career requires a bachelor's degree and certification through the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT).
Becoming an MRI Assistant
Step 1: Graduate from High School
Aspiring MRI assistants must hold a high school diploma or equivalent. Preparatory classes in biology, mathematics, chemistry, anatomy and physiology, English and computer science will support later education.
Step 2: Complete Some Secondary Training
Beyond high school, education qualifications for MRI assistants are flexible. Experience in the medical field or an Associate of Applied Science degree in radiological science or MRI technology can be helpful. Some clinics prefer completion of a nursing assistant or medical assistant training program. Some additional possible requirements include good customer service skills and Basic Life Support (BLS) certification.
Step 3: Find an MRI Assistant Position
Many health care settings need MRI assistants. These include hospitals, cancer and imaging centers, clinics and emergency care facilities. These establishments may have human resources departments that advertise any MRI assistant job openings. Newspapers, Internet listings and employment offices are also good resources.
Step 4: Continue Education in the Radiology Field
MRI assistants need to be aware of developments and new technology in radiology, especially in magnetic resonance imaging. Continuing education creates opportunities for more responsibility and higher pay while keeping assistants' jobs secure. MRI assistants could move on to earn bachelor's degrees in radiation technology, perhaps becoming certified radiographers or radiologist assistants.
Becoming a Radiologist Assistant
Step 1: Become a Radiographer
Before enrolling in a radiologist assistant program, an individual must be primary-pathway certified as a radiographer (X-ray technologist) by the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists. Associate's degrees for aspiring radiographers are available at many community colleges. Radiography program graduates must meet ethics standards and pass a certification exam. Work experience as a radiographer may be required for applicants to radiologist assistant degree programs.
Step 2: Complete a Radiologist Assistant Bachelor's or Master's Degree
Radiologist assistants must hold at least a bachelor's degree from an ARRT-accredited program. These programs include coursework in radiologic procedures, pharmacology, pathophysiology, patient assessment, radiation safety, radiobiology and health physics. Clinical experience is required for becoming a certified RA. Some approved programs for radiologist assistants award master's degrees.
Step 3: Pass the RA Certification Examination
The ARRT offers the Registered Radiologist Assistant Examination. This test includes material about patient assessment, drugs, legal and ethical standards, anatomy, and radiation safety. Featuring both multiple-choice questions and case study essay questions, it lasts about seven hours.
Step 4: Become Licensed
RAs must be licensed by the state where they practice. Information on state licensure regulations can be found at the ARRT website (www.arrt.org).
Step 5: Continue Education as Required by the ARRT
Annual registration requirements ensure that certified RAs maintain current radiology knowledge. A registered radiologist assistant must pay an annual fee and agree to comply with ARRT rules and ethical standards.
ARRT-registered RAs must complete 50 continuing education (CE) credits every two years. These include both RA-specific and general requirements as identified by the ARRT. The ARRT website gives details about required CE credits.
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Water Bottle Holder Craft
How do you get your child to put down the sugar-filled soda and juice and pick up a tall glass of water instead? Inspire her to design her very own water bottle cozy! Not only does it make a cool
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Water Bottle Holder Craft
How do you get your child to put down the sugar-filled soda and juice and pick up a tall glass of water instead? Inspire her to design her very own water bottle cozy! Not only does it make a cool reusable carrying case for a water bottle, but it also helps her think about healthy changes she could make in her life.
What You Need:
- Plastic water bottle
- Scratch paper and pencil
- Measuring tape
- Foam sheets in various colors
- Hole punch
- Rubber band
- Plastic craft lace
What You Do:
- Start by having your child measure the height and circumference of the water bottle and write the measurements down on paper.
- Have her draw a rectangle on one of the foam sheets. Make the length of the rectangle one inch longer than the circumference of the water bottle, and make the width of the rectangle one half the height of the bottle. For example, it your bottle is 8 inches tall and 5 inches around, your rectangle should be 4 inches wide and 6 inches long.
- Cut out the rectangle.
- Now it’s time to get creative! Invite her to cut out shapes from the other foam sheets that she can use to decorate her cozy. Encourage her to create objects that represent healthy eating and healthy habits, such as water drops, an apple, a carrot, or a leaf.
- Help her glue the shapes to the foam rectangle and let dry.
- Wrap the foam rectangle around the water bottle to create the base of the cozy. Use a rubber band to hold it in place for the time being.
- Help your child punch three holes along both ends of the cozy where the edges meet. Make sure the holes on both ends line up.
- Cut three 5" lengths of plastic craft lace. Use the laces to tie the cozy together. String the first lace through the top hole on each end of the rectangle and tie a knot. Repeat with the other two laces.
- Once your cozy is laced, remove the rubber bands and trim the ends of the plastic laces.
You’re finished! Slip your cozy onto your water bottle and use it as a healthy reminder to drink more water throughout the day.
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To Your Health
April, 2013 (Vol. 07, Issue 04)
Diet as Good as Drugs for Reducing Blood Pressure
By Editorial Staff
High blood pressure or hypertension is known as a "silent killer" because
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To Your Health
April, 2013 (Vol. 07, Issue 04)
Diet as Good as Drugs for Reducing Blood Pressure
By Editorial Staff
High blood pressure or hypertension is known as a "silent killer" because typically, it has no symptoms until it causes a catastrophic health event, such as a heart attack or stroke. It's estimated that more than 75 million Americans currently suffer from high blood pressure, which makes effective treatment options of paramount importance. You can take medication, which may be effective, but comes with a lengthy list of potential side effects; or you can try a simple nondrug solution – changing your diet. Research suggests that a healthy diet
– specifically the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, which emphasizes high intake of fruits and vegetables, moderate intake of fat (less than 27 percent of calories), whole grains over processed grains / foods, and limited intake of red meat – can reduce blood pressure as much as blood pressure medication.
The keys to the DASH diet from a blood pressure-lowering perspective are that it encourages low / moderate intake of sodium, excess consumption of which has been linked to high blood pressure; and high intake of nutrients including potassium, which helps regulate BP. Lowering sodium intake can be as easy as not eating out so much, as sodium (salt) is commonly added to foods to make them taste better; and substituting salt for spices on some of your favorite home-made meals.
For more information about the DASH diet and tips to avoid high blood pressure and its health consequences, visit the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute online.
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The equipment includes two cameras installed on a pole. It has been reading tags for the last year.
HCSO has estimated that the tag reader collects data on 1.3 million tags over a three month period. Once the tags are read
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The equipment includes two cameras installed on a pole. It has been reading tags for the last year.
HCSO has estimated that the tag reader collects data on 1.3 million tags over a three month period. Once the tags are read, the data is send through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and Florida Crime Information Center (FCIC) databases.
If the tag belongs to a person with an outstanding warrant, for instance, law enforcement officers might be able to use that data to track down the owner of the vehicle. Other purposes for collecting the data might include finding stolen plates or vehicle, finding vehicles used in the commission of a crime or finding wanted persons.
Law enforcement officers are testing out the equipment in a pilot program. If law enforcement likes this new high tech tool, the cameras might pop up at more intersections near you.
If you thought it was a waste of taxpayer money to pay $25,000 to install a tag reader, then don't worry. The money came from a $1.3 million federal grant. The rest of the money was used to install additional "Eye on Crime" surveillance systems in the neighborhoods around the University of South Florida campus.
The tag readers could be used to set up permanent records to track the movement of citizens going about their daily activities. In the wrong hands, the data could be prone for abuse. The ACLU has gathered some startling data on how often these types of camera are being used throughout the country.
Automatic license plate readers have the potential to create permanent records of virtually everywhere any of us has driven, radically transforming the consequences of leaving home to pursue private life, and opening up many opportunities for abuse. The tracking of people’s location constitutes a significant invasion of privacy, which can reveal many things about their lives, such as what friends, doctors, protests, political events, or churches a person may visit.
In our society, it is a core principle that the government does not invade people’s privacy and collect information about citizens’ innocent activities just in case they do something wrong. Clear regulations must be put in place to keep the government from tracking our movements on a massive scale.Read more about the dangers of automatic license plate readers.
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When America was still a burgeoning enterprise, the government was practically giving land away. While only a modicum of cash was required to secure the rights to relatively large swaths of United States soil, there was a price to be paid. Prospective
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When America was still a burgeoning enterprise, the government was practically giving land away. While only a modicum of cash was required to secure the rights to relatively large swaths of United States soil, there was a price to be paid. Prospective land owners had to earn the land by bartering with good old-fashioned sweat equity.
The process was called homesteading and stems from the Homestead Act of 1862. President Abraham Lincoln signed the proclamation providing any U.S. citizen, or potential citizen, who was either over 21 years of age or the head of a household, be it man, woman, immigrant, or freed slave, the ability to claim up to 160 acres of undeveloped and unclaimed land from the public domain.
Strings were attached, the first being that the land had to have been surveyed by government agents. As long as that was the case, to get the homesteading ball rolling, the claimant went to the nearest Land Office and filed a claim of intent. The agent then checked the records for any prior claims to ownership and providing none existed, a $10 filing fee was paid to secure the rights to the land. The land agent, too, was paid a $2 commission.
It was the homesteaders job to then clear land for farming, produce crops, and build a 12 X 14 dwelling. After successfully completing those three tasks, all that stood between the homesteader and his clear title to the land was proof that he had spent five years living on the land in question. Proof came in the form of an affidavit.
The document was standardized, fill-in-the-blank, and read in part: That the said __ entered upon and made settlement on said land on the __ day of __, 18__ and has built a house thereon __ and has lived in the said house and made it his exclusive home from the __ day of __, 18__ to the present time, and that he has since said settlement ploughed, fenced, and cultivated about __ acres of said land, and has made the following improvements thereon to wit.
The affidavit had to be signed by two neighbors or friends willing to vouch that the homesteader had fulfilled his obligations. Once both witnesses had signed and dated the document, there was still one last piece of business and it came in the form of a final $6 payment to the land agent. For those homesteaders with more money than time, the process could be expedited for a $1.25 per-acre-fee. In that case, clear title could be procured when only six months of residency could be attested to by two neighbors on the affidavit. In either case, for the homesteaders effort, he received a clear deed, or land patent, to his land signed by the President of the United States.
The accompanying image has been annotated by Jerry Wilkinson with the approximate locales of some of the first families to settle on south Key Largo. Some of the names are familiar, still. Considering the isolation of early life in the Keys, it took hardy stock to settle these islands. Mosquitoes swarmed in great clouds while hurricanes came with little to no warning. Even Juan Ponce de Leon, who only really sailed past in 1513 while searching for his Fountain of Youth, called them Las Martyrs. Reportedly, the way the gnarled roots of the red mangroves seemed to grapple with the fossilized coral bedrock gave the island chain a tortured appearance.
In any case, some of the first families to arrive on south Key Largo were the Samuel Johnson family and brothers William and Robert Albury. Though it is hard to picture it now, once upon a time, farms, especially pineapple farms, stretched along the Atlantic shore between Old Settlers Park and Harry Harris Park. Captain Ben Baker, too, was farming pineapples a few miles north. Farming, however, was about more than pineapples. The Pinder family, for instance, was farming bananas on Indian Key in 1870.
It was 1872 that Key Largo was surveyed and the islands land officially went up for grabs. Amos and Ada Lowe were the first recorded family to record a land patent, to successfully homestead their Key Largo property. It was 1880.
The Key West column of the December 27, 1884 Fort Myers Press stated, Many of the leading merchants own tracts of land on the Keys which are entirely devoted to the culture of pineapples, tomatoes, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbage, cassava, tapias, beets, carrots, turnips, and various tropical fruits which flourish in abundance. The average shipments of pineapples alone will reach more than $200,000 per annum.
On June 20, 1885 it again stated that, The best melons for this season come from Key Largo.
Brad Bertelli is a published author of four books on Florida and Florida Keys history. His column will appear bi-weekly in The Reporter. Reach Brad with comments and questions at [email protected].
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Here's a scary statistic to chew on: Children in the United States, on average, get about half their daily calories from fat. That's much more than the federal recommendation for fat intake in most diets. Even that 30 percent guideline is
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Here's a scary statistic to chew on: Children in the United States, on average, get about half their daily calories from fat. That's much more than the federal recommendation for fat intake in most diets. Even that 30 percent guideline is considered too generous by some nutrition experts.
The Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a non-profit organization serving as a watchdog of the food industry, has published a new report contending that American kids are in flabby shape because their diets contain too many fatty meats and snacks, sugar-laden breakfast cereals and other processed foods. The CSPI report also cited brand names of more healthful processed items but stopped short of recommending any product in the categories of cookies, frozen dinners, granola bars, hot dogs, luncheon meats and fast-food meals -- items that pop up quite often in kids' diets.
What worries the CSPI is that children develop bad dietary habits by eating foods high in fat and sugar, which can cause tooth decay, obesity, stroke, heart disease and cancer. What angers the organization is that children are sold on these foods by TV ads whose persuasive powers could be the envy of political candidates across the nation.
Changes in the American family might also account for the poor eating habits. More and more households are headed by single parents or two working parents. With both Mom and Dad dragging home after a tough day on the job, neither parent is likely to have the time or the energy to prepare a full, balanced meal. The solution? Plug in the microwave and break out frozen dinners for everybody.
As its critics point out, the CSPI report goes overboard in some of its recommendations, such as pizzas made only with soybean- and rice-based crusts. Then again, statements from food manufacturers praising the frankfurter should be taken -- pardon the unhealthy suggestion -- with a grain of salt.
For both children and adults, diet experts routinely advise moderate eating habits that touch all the nutritional bases and still leave room for a few guilty pleasures. The CSPI is right in
urging kids to cut down on processed "junk" and instead eat more fresh fruits, vegetables and unprocessed foods. But if a child wants a hot dog or a chocolate chip cookie now and then? Not even the CSPI ought to object.
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Why is there such a big gap between what’s important to indigenous people and how mining companies are addressing their priorities?
As a follow-up to the piece I wrote last week (see: Why the Future of Mining Depends on Social Change) I felt
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Why is there such a big gap between what’s important to indigenous people and how mining companies are addressing their priorities?
As a follow-up to the piece I wrote last week (see: Why the Future of Mining Depends on Social Change) I felt it was important to explore this question and to provide some direction for what should mining companies could do differently to improve their relationships with indigenous people.
I got perspective on this issue from Joseph K. Ingram, President and CEO of The North South Institute, Kelly J. Lendsay, President and CEO, of the Aboriginal Human Reource Council, and Leonardo A. Crippa, Senior Attorney for the Indian Law Resource Center.
The context is complex. On the one hand, positive change has been made at a global level. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights was introduced in 2011, the International Finance Corporation’s Guide to Human Rights Impact Assessment and Management (HRIAM) was developed in 2010, and there is a growing recognition within the mining sector that implementing the right to free, prior and informed consent is key to improving relationships with indigenous people.
At a local level, however, the situation remains bleak. Many countries have no legislation that protects the rights of indigenous people. Many developing countries have inconsistent policies that fail to balance human rights with mining rights. In order to secure financing and a license to operate, corporations need to conduct social and environmental assessments, but these assessments often exclude the human rights principles developed by the United Nations.
According to The North South Institute, “the root of the conflict is the enormous power imbalance between communities on one hand, and companies and governments on the other”.
There’s no simple solution to this conflict. Based on input from The North South Institute, the Aboriginal Human Resource Council and the Indian Law Resource Center, I’ve developed a list of ten ideas to help corporations have better, more inclusive relationships with indigenous people and communities.
It’s important to view inclusion as a shared value opportunity. “By building partnerships of respect,investing in ways that help Indigenous communities and people build supply channels and skilled workers, and learning best practices to recruit, retain and advance the indigenous workforce, corporations can create new business opportunities and increase their bottom line,” says Kelly Lendsay from the Aboriginal Human Resource Council.
The world’s largest annual gathering of the mineral exploration industry kicks off this Sunday in Toronto at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s Annual International Convention, Trade Show and Investors Exchange. This will be a great opportunity for the industry to consider the input that I got this week and to think about new ways of improving relationships with indigenous people and communities.
Follow me on Twitter at paulatimpakt.
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About John Plimpton
John Plympton was born in 1620 in Cambridge, England. He died on 19 May 1677 in Canada. He married Jane Dammin on 13 Mar 1642/1643 in
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About John Plimpton
John Plympton was born in 1620 in Cambridge, England. He died on 19 May 1677 in Canada. He married Jane Dammin on 13 Mar 1642/1643 in Dedham, MA.
THE FIRST GENERATION IN AMERICA BEARING THE NAME OF PLIMPTON, PLYMPTON,OR PLUMPTON.
1. John (5); b. about 1620. His birth-place has not been found. A few facts having a bearing, appear to indicate that he originated withinthe limits of a section of England, of which the county of Cambridge and of Lincoln is central. He received a good education, and early in life accepted the religious views of the Puritans, and thereby rendered himself exceedingly oboxious to his family who were zealously Catholic.The treatment which he received from his aristocratic and bigoted relatives, led to self-expatriation; and secretly, without registration, he left the cherished sho
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The Constellation Scorpius, the Scorpion
Click on image for full size
Some constellations do not really look like their names. It takes a
lot of imagination to picture the stars of Pegasus
as a winged
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The Constellation Scorpius, the Scorpion
Click on image for full size
Some constellations do not really look like their names. It takes a
lot of imagination to picture the stars of Pegasus
as a winged horse,
for example. But Scorpius really looks like a scorpion! It has a
long, curving tail, and snapping claws, just like the real arachnid.
The bright star Antares
marks the heart of the scorpion.
Did you know that stars are not all the same color? Some are blue,
some are yellow, and some are red. Antares is a star that is so
red, even your eye can see the difference. Antares is very bright
because it is a very big star (300 times as big as our Sun).
It was the scorpion's sting that killed the great hunter, Orion. So
these two enemies are placed far apart in the sky, to keep them out of
trouble. Orion is a bright constellation of winter, while Scorpius
crawls through the night sky in summer.
Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!
The Summer 2010 issue of The Earth Scientist
, available in our online store
, includes articles on rivers and snow, classroom planetariums, satellites and oceanography, hands-on astronomy, and global warming.
You might also be interested in:
How did life evolve on Earth? The answer to this question can help us understand our past and prepare for our future. Although evolution provides credible and reliable answers, polls show that many people turn away from science, seeking other explanations with which they are more comfortable....more
The constellation, Pegasus, is a winged horse. Only the front half of the horse is in the sky. Can you see a horse in the picture? Imagine it upside-down! Then you will see a body with a neck and two legs....more
What's in a Name: Greek for "Rival of Mars" (Ares is Greek for Mars). Sometimes Antares is mistaken for Mars when they are close together because both are red. Claim to Fame: Brightest star in the constellation...more
The constellation Orion is a hunter. He is really easy to find in the sky! Look for the three bright stars that make up his belt. From there, you can find one of his legs, which is the star Rigel. One...more
The constellation Ophiuchus is known as the Serpent Bearer. In Greek myth, he was the god of medicine. One day he killed a snake, but another serpent appeared and healed his friend with plants. Ophiuchus...more
Sagittarius is a make-believe creature with the chest and head of a man and the body and legs of a horse. He is shooting his bow at the Scorpion, just next door. Sagittarius is big, but his stars are not...more
Aquila, the Eagle, is one of many beautiful birds in the night sky. (Can you name all the others? There are 6 more "real" birds and one mythical bird!) A straight line of three stars is part of the wings...more
Cygnus, the Swan, looks like a big cross. The tail of the swan is marked by the bright star Deneb. The head of the swan is a star called Albireo, a star with a surprise! Three fainter stars cross the line...more
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Parting of the Ways
The split between Judaism and Christianity did not come about simply or quickly. It was a complex process which took some one hundred years, starting from the crucifixion, and which had different causes and effects depending on whether
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Parting of the Ways
The split between Judaism and Christianity did not come about simply or quickly. It was a complex process which took some one hundred years, starting from the crucifixion, and which had different causes and effects depending on whether it is looked at from the point of view of Judaism or Christianity. Further, the question of legal status as seen through Roman eyes also had some relationship to the issue.
From the standpoint of Christianity, the schism is not difficult to trace. In the earliest Gospel texts, which picture Jesus as debating issues of Jewish law with the Pharisees, no hostility is observed. The crucifixion is said to have been carried out by the Romans with the support of some (apparently Hellenized) priests. As we trace the history of the New Testament traditions, they move from disputes with Pharisees, scribes, and chief priests to polemics against the Jews and Judaism, from the notion of some Jews as enemies of Jesus to the demonization of the Jewish people as a whole. By sometime in the first century the New Testament redactors had clearly decided that they were no longer part of the Jewish people. Therefore, they described Jesus as disputing with all the Jews, not just some, as would be appropriate to an internal Jewish dispute. Once Christians saw Jews as the “other,” it was but a short step to the notion that all Jews were responsible for the rejection of Jesus and, hence, for the failure of his messianic mission to be fulfilled.
From the Jewish point of view, the matter is more complex. By this time, tannaitic Judaism was already the dominant form of Judaism, for the Pharisees had emerged from the revolt against Rome as the main influence within the Jewish community. After the destruction, the tannaim immediately recognized the need to standardize and unify Judaism. One of their first steps was to standardize the Eighteen Benedictions, which, along with the Shema, constituted the core of the daily prayers. At the same time, they expanded an old prayer to include an imprecation against the minim, Jews with incorrect beliefs. In this period, this could only have meant the early Jewish Christians, who observed the laws of Judaism but accepted the messiahship of Jesus. Although the rabbis continued to regard the early Christians as Jews, they reformulated this prayer in order to expel them from the synagogue, as testified to by the Gospel of John and the church fathers. In addition, the tannaim enacted laws designed to further separate the Jewish Christians from the community by prohibiting commerce and certain other interrelationships with them.
Hereafter, it is possible to trace the process of separation from the end of the first century C.E. until the period of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–135 C.E.), when the tannaim outlawed the writings of the early Christians, declaring that Torah scrolls or texts with divine names copied by Christians had no sanctity. This was clearly a polemic against the Gospels, which must have been circulating in some form by now.
In the time of Paul, about 60 C.E., the decision to open Christianity to gentiles had taken place, and the tannaim gradually found themselves facing a church whose members were not Jews from the point of view of halakhah. To the rabbis, they were not Jews with incorrect views about the messiah but gentiles who claimed to be the true Israel. For this reason, the tannaim began to see the Christians as the other, not as Jews who had gone astray. This process was complete by the Bar Kokhba period. Jewish Christianity had been submerged, while Gentile Christianity had gained the ascendancy. Since it was now virtually the only form of Christianity the rabbis encountered, they termed the Christians noserim (“Nazarenes”), regarding them as a completely separate and alien religious group.
The third point of view, that of the Romans, can be traced as well. The Romans at first regarded the Christians as part of the Jewish people. When Christianity spread and took on a clearly different identity, as acknowledged by both Jews and Christians, the Roman government modified its view. The emperor Nerva (96–98 C.E.) freed the Christians (probably including the Jewish Christians) from paying the fiscus judaicus, the Jewish capitation tax decreed as a punishment in the aftermath of the revolt of 66–73 C.E. Clearly, the Romans now regarded the Christians as a separate group. The way was paved for the legitimization of Christianity as a licit religion. The decline of the old pagan cults, coupled with the tremendous success of Christianity, would eventually lead to the acceptance of the new faith as the official religion of the Roman Empire in 324 C.E.
Lawrence H. Schiffman, From Text to Tradition, Ktav Publishing House, Hoboken, NJ, 1991.
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XMM-Newton and Integral find clues on magnetic powerhouses
This is the first time the orbiters tested the physical processes of magnetars.
Provided by ESA, Noordwijk, Netherlands
November 14, 2008
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XMM-Newton and Integral find clues on magnetic powerhouses
This is the first time the orbiters tested the physical processes of magnetars.
Provided by ESA, Noordwijk, Netherlands
November 14, 2008
X-ray and gamma-ray data from the European Space Agency's (ESA) XMM-Newton and Integral orbiting observatories tested, for the first time, the physical processes that make magnetars, an atypical class of neutron stars, shine in X rays.
Magnetars are different from ordinary neutron stars because their internal magnetic field is thought to be strong enough to twist the stellar crust. Like in a circuit fed by a gigantic battery, this twist produces currents in the form of electron clouds that flow around the star. These currents interact with the radiation coming from the stellar surface, producing X rays.
Until now, scientists could not test their predictions because it is not possible to produce such ultra-strong magnetic fields in laboratories on Earth.
To understand this phenomenon, a team led by Nanda Rea from the University of Amsterdam used XMM-Newton and Integral data to search for these dense electron clouds around all known magnetars, for the first time.
Rea's team found evidence that large electron currents exist, and it measured the electron density that is a thousand times stronger than in a normal pulsar. The team also measured the typical velocity at which the electron currents flow. With it, scientists have now established a link between an observed phenomenon and an actual physical process, an important clue in understanding these celestial objects.
The team is now working to develop and test more detailed models on the same line to fully understand the behavior of matter under the influence of such strong magnetic fields.
Neutron stars are remnants of massive stars that have collapsed under their own weight on to themselves. Massive stars are 10-50 times as massive as our Sun. Made almost entirely of neutrons (subatomic particles with no electric charge), these stellar corpses concentrate more than the mass of our Sun within a sphere about 12 miles (20 kilometers) in diameter.
They are so compact, a teaspoon of a neutron star would weigh about one hundred million tons. Neutron stars have a strong magnetic field and rotate rapidly.
With magnetic fields a thousand times stronger than that of ordinary neutron stars, magnetars are the strongest known magnets in the cosmos.
In comparison, one would need 10 million-million commonly-used hand magnets to generate a comparable magnetic field. Most media used for data storage, for example, would be erased instantly if exposed to a magnetic field a mere million-million times weaker.
So far, about 15 magnetars have been found. Five of them are known as soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) because they sporadically release large, short bursts lasting about 0.1 second of low-energy gamma rays and hard X rays. The other magnetars are associated with anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs). Although SGRs and AXPs were first thought to be different objects, we now know that they share many properties and that their activity is sustained by their strong magnetic fields.
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Previous generations used to whisper the word “cancer.” Today, we speak about it openly as we walk for a cure. Previous generations used to hide the developmentally disabled. Today, we celebrate them in the Special Olympics. In an era when
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Previous generations used to whisper the word “cancer.” Today, we speak about it openly as we walk for a cure. Previous generations used to hide the developmentally disabled. Today, we celebrate them in the Special Olympics. In an era when medical conditions from AIDS to Alzheimer’s have found widespread acceptance in mainstream society, one glaring social stigma remains: serious mental illness. Although it is estimated that a quarter of all Americans suffer from a diagnosable mental illness at some time in their lives, few acknowledge their struggle publicly due to shame and fear. For millions of Americans who must take medication daily for their brains to function normally, the stigma takes an even greater toll, making it more difficult to muster the treatment, research efforts, and empathy that this population desperately needs.
In a recent opinion piece about “Silver Linings Playbook,” a movie about a man with bipolar disorder, former Rhode Island Representative Patrick Kennedy wrote that more people with serious mental illnesses should talk publicly about their disease. “We need more discussion in the real world, and less shame,” he wrote in the piece, posted on The Daily Beast, which referred to the enduring taboo of mental illness as “one of the great civil-rights challenges of our time.” Kennedy’s call is all the more powerful since he is one of the few public figures to speak frankly about his own battle with bipolar disorder. After crashing his car into a barrier on Capitol Hill in 2006 — and telling police that he was heading to a House vote in the middle of the night — Kennedy held an unusually candid press conference in which he gave a glimpse of h
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By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Electronics Newsweekly -- New research on Hydrogen is the subject of a report. According to news originating from Dalian, People's Republic of China, by VerticalNews correspondents, research stated, "
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By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Electronics Newsweekly -- New research on Hydrogen is the subject of a report. According to news originating from Dalian, People's Republic of China, by VerticalNews correspondents, research stated, "A photocatalyst is defined as a functional composite material with three components: photo-harvester (e.g. semiconductor), reduction cocatalyst (e.g. for hydrogen evolution) and oxidation cocatalyst (e.g. for oxidation evolution from water). Loading cocatalysts on semiconductors is proved to be an effective approach to promote the charge separation and transfer, suppress the charge recombination and enhance the photocatalytic activity."
Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, "Furthermore, the photocatalytic performance can be significantly improved by loading dual cocatalysts for reduction and oxidation, which could lower the activation energy barriers, respectively, for the two half reactions. A quantum efficiency (QE) as high as 93 per cent at 420 nm for H? production has been achieved for Pt-PdS/CdS, where Pt and PdS, respectively, act as reduction and oxidation cocatalysts and CdS as a photo-harvester. The dual cocatalysts work synergistically and enhance the photocatalytic reaction rate, which is determined by the slower one (either reduction or oxidation)."
According to the news editors, the research concluded: "This work demonstrates that the cocatalysts, especially the dual cocatalysts for reduction and oxidation, are crucial and even absolutely necessary for achieving high QEs in photocatalytic hydrogen production, as well as in photocatalytic water splitting."
For more information on this research see: Roles of cocatalysts in semiconductor-based photocatalytic hydrogen production. Philosophical Transactions, 2013;371(1996):20110430.
The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from J. Yang, State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, 457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116023, People's Taiwan. Additional authors for this research include H. Yan, X. Zong, F. Wen, M. Liu and C. Li.
Keywords for this news article include: Asia, Gases, Dalian, Elements, Hydrogen, Electronics, Photocatalyst, Semiconductor, Nanotechnology, Photocatalytic, Inorganic Chemicals, Emerging Technologies, Peop
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Imagine if all your drinking water came from just one single place. Imagine how valuable that source of water would be to you. Imagine if the air you breathed caused you to cough, you might ask...
"What has been done to protect these resources?"
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Imagine if all your drinking water came from just one single place. Imagine how valuable that source of water would be to you. Imagine if the air you breathed caused you to cough, you might ask...
"What has been done to protect these resources?"
MVRPC's Environmental Planning Division works with local communities to ensure our air and waters are protected for future generations.
The Miami Valley region is required by the federal Clean Air Act to have a plan to keep the air clean. MVRPC incorporates air quality issues into planning through several programs and initiatives.
In accordance with the Clean Water Act, MVRPC's Water Quality Managment program serves as the Designated Water Quality Planning Agency for the Miami Valley Region. MVRPC has adopted a watershed focus to deal with water resource issues, and groundwater protection continues to be another major focus of the Agency.
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Acute stress disorder is a new psychiatric diagnosis in DSM-IV that includes a set of symptoms experienced by some individuals shortly after a traumatic event. To be diagnosed as suffering from acute stress disorder the individual must exhibit at least three dissociative symptoms along
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Acute stress disorder is a new psychiatric diagnosis in DSM-IV that includes a set of symptoms experienced by some individuals shortly after a traumatic event. To be diagnosed as suffering from acute stress disorder the individual must exhibit at least three dissociative symptoms along with at least one intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal symptom. In addition, the symptoms must cause clinically significant difficulties in functioning and persist 2–28 days. Also, the reaction must not be due to the ingestion of substances or to a general medical condition or be attributable to a brief psychotic disorder or a preexisting axis I or axis II disorder.
This diagnosis is based on a large body of research dating back to Lindemann's classic paper (1) in which he described survivors' immediate reactions to the Coconut Grove fire. Since Lindemann's observations there have been numerous studies that have reports of dissociative, avoidance, and hyperarousal symptoms shortly after traumatic experiences (2–10). The specific diagnostic criteria for acute stress disorder were based on empirical evidence from studies that systematically documented acute stress reactions in response to traumatic events (2–4, 7).
The scientific basis for the diagnostic category of acute stress disorder was also justified by research showing that dissociative reactions immediately after a traumatic experience predicted later posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (2–4, 7, 11–14). These studies were conducted before the final definition of acute stress disorder and its inclusion in DSM-IV and, therefore, did not include a systematic assessment of all acute stress disorder symptoms and their relationship with later PTSD symptoms. To our knowledge, no published research has systematically examined the relationship between acute stress disorder and PTSD symptoms, despite the assumption stated in DSM-IV that acute stress disorder can lead to PTSD. Therefore, we conducted a study to examine the relationship between acute stress disorder symptoms and PTSD symptoms.
Along with documenting the relationship between acute stress disorder symptoms and PTSD symptoms, in the present study we examined this relationship within the context of two other factors, gender and degree of exposure to the traumatic event. Gender has been shown to be associated with acute stress reactions (15) and PTSD symptoms (16–19), with women reporting the most symptoms. Degree of exposure to the traumatic event has been found to be associated with the level of symptoms following a traumatic event (7, 8, 14, 19–26), although in one anecdotal study no such relationship was found (27).
The hypotheses in this study were as follows: 1) meeting all of the symptom criteria for acute stress disorder would predict subsequent PTSD symptoms, 2) women would be more likely than men to exhibit PTSD symptoms, and 3) degree of exposure to the threat would be positively associated with PTSD symptoms. Along with gender, other demographic variables (education and marital status) were included in the analyses in order to control for their contribution to the development of PTSD symptoms.
The traumatic incident examined was the shooting of persons by a gunman in an office building where the respondents in this study worked. Unfortunately, such events are not rare. In 1993, a thousand employees in the United States were murdered at their places of work (28). Research suggests that persons who are bystanders, such as other employees, are deeply affected by these events. Several studies have examined stress reactions to being a bystander to shootings (24, 29–31). These studies indicated that acute stress reactions to such an event are normal. Nevertheless, some individuals may exhibit more extreme reactions to the event, warranting a diagnosis of acute stress disorder in the immediate aftermath, and may later experience posttraumatic stress symptoms.
We conducted a study of employees working in an office building where a shooting spree occurred during the workday. We examined their acute stress reactions in the immediate aftermath of this event. Their posttraumatic stress symptoms were assessed 7 to 10 months later.
On the afternoon of Thursday, July 1, 1993, 14 persons were shot on two floors and
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InfuseLearning.com is a free online assessment tool that is designed to let educators make fast and easy formative or summative assessments of their students. It is a relatively new service, but one that is gathering support quickly due to its versatility and
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InfuseLearning.com is a free online assessment tool that is designed to let educators make fast and easy formative or summative assessments of their students. It is a relatively new service, but one that is gathering support quickly due to its versatility and ease of use.
InfuseLearning is like a unique, virtual classroom that you and your students log in to. It lets you quiz your class on topics of your choice, and it records the students responses so that you can use the results to inform your teaching. Quizzes can be given in one of two ways. There are the quick fire questions that teachers can use for immediate feedback. (True/False, Multiple Choice, Sort and Order, Open Ended Text, Numeric or Likert Scale are all possible choices for this). The teacher would ask the question orally, or have it displayed at the front of the class, and students can respond on an internet enabled device. Responses are displayed in real-time on the teacher device.
The second option for teachers is to create a quiz ahead of time. Students can then complete it at their own pace, and all the questions and possible answers will be online and displayed on the device that the student is using to take the test. An added feature here, is the ability for the students to have the questions read aloud, or even translated into another language and then read aloud. This is a great feature for ELL students, but teachers can choose whether to enable or disable these features on a student by student basis when they create their own class. In this way, it can also be a very useful tool for MFL teachers.
However, my favorite feature of this free online assessment tool is the fact that it is a cross-platform site. This means that it is not device specific. It can be used on Macs, PCs, iPads, Andriod tablets, Chromebooks, or just about anything else with a modern web browser. So, InfuseLearning can be used in the classroom whether you are 1:1, BYOD, in a computer lab, or a classroom with a variety of devices, and that versatility is something that should not be dismissed quickly, particularly when you consider that this tool is free to anyone who wants to use.
Check out the video below for an overview of how InfuseLearning works in practice, and leave a comment below if you have successfully used InfuseLearning in your classroom.
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Earlier this week I was presented with the idea of safety culture and asked to reflect on the concept.
Personally, I think that safety culture should be looked at in a systemic way. That is to say; one needs to look at the bigger picture
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Earlier this week I was presented with the idea of safety culture and asked to reflect on the concept.
Personally, I think that safety culture should be looked at in a systemic way. That is to say; one needs to look at the bigger picture and understand the multitude of interdependent parts that are evident in the systems of an effective safety culture. Approaching safety culture in this way allows for consideration of the different causes for an incident while at the same time enabling an intensive diagnostic evaluation of process variables. A systemic approach allows us to understand the relationship between the three main injury causing domains: person, behaviour and environment (Geller, 2000, p. 26).
A good example of systemic thinking is looking at the way vehicles and bicycles interact on the road. When considering the road users, it becomes apparent that they are a part of the road system. Furthermore, they can be broken down into many parts as can the original road system. The result as a whole is a system composed of many different dynamically interrelated or interdependent parts. Road users interactions are governed by an underlying law that is designed to protect road users while still maintaining an efficient transportation system (for the purposes of this example it is the safety culture of road users, that is, a shared perception of safety). We then look at the three domains of most incidents: person, behaviour and environment (Geller, 2000, p. 26). Taking these factors into consideration and looking at the interactions between road users, we can diagnose and evaluate potential incidents. With this in mind, consider the action of passing a bicycle user in a vehicle. This action is a result of the environment, bicycle user and vehicle user. The bicycle user presents a disturbance because he is travelling slower than the car while also taking up a portion of the road (environment). The vehicle user sees the bicycle as a disturbance, and the result is a change in driving behaviour to accommodate the bicycle on the road (often swerving out and accelerating to pass). It is not hard to see how this action can affect other road users, as well as other systems. It is a simple example of a reciprocal relationship in a system. Fortunately in this case the safety culture (law, road rules etc.) mostly protects the road system from these types of disturbances and as a result, we do not see too many incidents – just for reference I have nothing against our two-wheeled friends – save the planet.
Systemic thinking of safety culture pertains to the systems involved. In 1981 Russel Ackoff wrote that a system is a set of two or more elements that satisfy the three conditions: the behaviour of each element has an effect on the behaviour of the whole; the behaviour of the elements and their effects on the whole are independent; and all sub-groups of elements have an effect on the behaviour of the whole, but none has an independent effect (Skyttner, 2005, p. 69). Linking this with Geller’s concept of dynamic interaction of environment, behaviour and person factors (Geller, 2000), we can postulate that an effective safety culture should be designed with the system-element interdependencies in mind. Through the evaluation of systems like the one above it becomes apparent that individual elements can affect a system as a whole. In conclusion; by understanding the reciprocal relationship between the parts of a safety system we can go about designing a safety culture that effectively instils a general perception of safety.
What are your thoughts on safety culture?
Geller, E. S. (2000). The Psychology of Safety Handbook. Florida: CRC Press.
Skyttner, L. (2005).
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Today's competitive industrial environments demand high throughput rates.
Since robots are fast by design and range in size, they can assist industry
and handle applications ranging from small to large payloads,
and can perform a variety of tasks with ease in order to increase
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Today's competitive industrial environments demand high throughput rates.
Since robots are fast by design and range in size, they can assist industry
and handle applications ranging from small to large payloads,
and can perform a variety of tasks with ease in order to increase productivity.
Many mid-size robots specialize in fast,
flexible movements. For example, the FANUC
Robotics R -2000iB robot, used
in applications for Automotive Spot Welding and General Assembly, possesses
high-performance motion which yields fast cycle times and high throughput
by design. The FANUC
Robotics R-1000iA/100F robot, a
compact and highly efficient robot, reaches the fastest speeds in its class.
It is used in several applications such as High Density Spot Welding, Machine
Load/Unload, Material Handling, Packing and Palletizing, Dispensing, Material
Removal, and other General Industry applications. However, even with today’s
industrial robots that are very fast and efficient, what would happen if robots
could learn in such a way that they could move faster and produce even more
product in the same amount of time?
A higher playback speed provides great benefit to manufacturers in terms
of throughput and cycle time. Traditionally, due to a high payload, complex
path, or other process parameters, a robot’s speed might be limited
for a particular application. FANUC
Robotics' Learning Vibration Control (LVC), developed by FANUC Corporation,
allows FANUC robots to learn and streamline their motion to achieve higher
Robots with the LVC function are called “Gakushu” (or Learning) Robots. The LVC function is used on a
robot after its path has been taught for the application. An accelerometer
is added to the end of arm tooling and the taught path is run several times
so LVC can learn important information about the robot’s motion. After
the learning process is complete, a Gakushu Robot stores the learned data
after which the sensor can be removed. As the Gakushu robot performs its
production operation from that point forward, the learned data is applied
and faster motion is achieved while vibrations are kept to a minimum. With
the LVC function, cycle time for a Gakushu Robot can be improved up to 10–15%
to allow for higher throughput rates in many applications.
In addition, unusually large end-of-arm tooling can sometimes
shake due to a long distance from the robot faceplate to the tool center point.
The Gakushu Robot improves process quality in applications with large end-of-arm
tools by reducing or eliminating these vibrations.
Learning Vibration Control Video Example
Let us send you more information. Click here to
be contacted by a FANUC America representative.
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By Dr. Russ
Wednesday is “Just One Thing Day.” On Wednesday, I try to respond to the oft heard request: “Please, please Dr. Russ tell me “Just One Thing” to get another moment of optimism in my week
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By Dr. Russ
Wednesday is “Just One Thing Day.” On Wednesday, I try to respond to the oft heard request: “Please, please Dr. Russ tell me “Just One Thing” to get another moment of optimism in my week.” The “Just One Thing” request has inspired the “Optimism Tip of the Week.” This week’s tip comes from our featured book of the month: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch in the form of a metaphor for optimistic living known as, “The First Penguin.”
Randy Pausch was a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University. When teaching a “Building Virtual Worlds” course, he encouraged students to attempt hard things and not to worry about failure. Desiring to reward that kind of thinking, he started presenting a stuffed animal, a penguin, as a prize called “The First Penguin Award,” to the team that failed to achieve their stated goals but took the biggest risks in trying new ideas or new technology. He states: “... it was an award for glorious failure, and it celebrated out-of-the-box thinking and using imagination in a daring way (p.149).”
What is the “first penguin?” According to Pausch, "when penguins are about to jump into water t hat might contain predators, well, somebody's got to be the first penguin (p.149)." At first he called it, “Best Failure Award,” but that didn’t go over well with the students. They didn’t like the word “failure.”
Why are we so afraid of failure? Why is it so hard to strongly endorse the following statement: “I look forward to, embrace and enjoy failure as an opportunity to learn.”
There are many reasons, not the least of which is that failure is often associated with ridicule and stupidity. Most of us spent 12 to 16 years in classrooms that had grading systems based on how well we did compared to other students, and not according to how much improvement we made. We were graded on how we performed relative to others. An academic caste system was quickly created and those at the top were thought of as “smart,” and those below “less smart.” Psychologist, Martin Covington, author of numerous articles and books on “self-worth,” has shown us that student motivation is undermined because the way to look “really-really-smart” is to get an A without having studied, and the way to not look “really-really-dumb” is to avoid studying so when you get a D or F you can say, “I didn’t try.” Students learn to manage their self-worth, smart vs. not smart, not by trying harder, but by trying to “appear smart” and avoiding the “appearance of not being smart.” In this competitive, performance oriented culture self worth and optimism are undermined for both high and low achieving students. Similarly, employee motivation and optimism are undermined in businesses and organizations that create such competitive, performance oriented cultures. Failure is an embarrassment, just not tolerated!
A Dr. Russ Metaphor – How to view failure as a joy and a blessing - Take a play from Paducah, Kentucky to Broadway.
Plays that make it to Broadway go through a lot of testing grounds in small and then gradually larger and larger cities before being put on Broadway. A new play might start in some small or medium sized town, then
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Transportation management is always a debatable topic among the city planners across the globe. Today we are living in an era where we are facing with traffic problem each and every day. It’s caused by numerous vehicles on the narrow roads which were caused
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Transportation management is always a debatable topic among the city planners across the globe. Today we are living in an era where we are facing with traffic problem each and every day. It’s caused by numerous vehicles on the narrow roads which were caused by improper planning.
Also as today we are no longer able to grow our city scapes horizontally, city planners, designers, and architects are looking for vertical growth. So today it is a biggest challenge in front of the engineers to design a mode of transportation which is safe, reliable, and very fast so that common man can spend more time with their family and work and less worried about the pollution and transportation. To overcome this mind-boggling problem engineers have designed Maglev trains for mass transition which uses the property of magnetic levitation and can attain a speed of over 600 km/h. Maglev mode of transportation means a flying train which is guided by a magnetic track and with the application of magnets the entire train will run through the route few inches above the track. As these trains don’t have any wheels or axle, they are easier to maintain and they will not face friction from the tracks as well so commuters can expect a smooth and quite ride throughout their journey.
Need for change
Maglev technology was invented almost a century back in 1907 when F.S. Smith proposed a plan for electromagnetic transportation system. Then in 1959 G.R. Greenfly described the Maglev train in his article Magnetic System of Transportation. But earlier it was a dream and difficult to built as necessary technology was not there. In 1984 the first commercial Maglev system was introduced in a low speed shuttle that ran from Birmingham International Airport, UK to Birmingham International Railway
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The Outbreak of World War II and Anti-Jewish Policy
North Africa and the Middle East
The occupation of France and the establishment of the antisemitic Vichy regime brought 415,000 North African Jews – most of the Jews
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The Outbreak of World War II and Anti-Jewish Policy
North Africa and the Middle East
The occupation of France and the establishment of the antisemitic Vichy regime brought 415,000 North African Jews – most of the Jews on the subcontinent – into the orbit of persecution. Marshall Petain’s Nazi regime worsened the status of the Jews of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, after Vichy-style antisemitic legislation was imposed in those countries.
In Morocco, where Jews had civil rights, anti-Jewish laws were not formally enacted, but the French bureaucracy introduced a set of anti-Jewish regulations.
The Jews of Algeria, who held French citizenship, were stripped of their rights, required to wear an identifying mark, and subjected to admission quotas, even in primary schools.
In Libya, where the Italians had been applying racial laws since 1938, the bureaucracy stepped up its depredations, marking Jews’ passports, restricting their cultural activities, and banishing thousands to concentration camps – foremost Giado – where hundreds died of starvation and disease. Hundreds of Jews with foreign citizenship were sent to concentration camps in Europe.
In November 1942, after the Allies invaded North Africa, the German army entered Tunisia, along with a SS unit tasked with applying the anti-Jewish policy. After a brief pause to consolidate their affairs, the Germans began to expropriate the Jews’ belongings and mobilized many Jews for the construction of fortifications. German decrees primarily affected the Jews of the capital, Tunis, but in other communities, such as Djerba, they were also mistreated and sent for forced labor. The Jews of the capital were forced to establish a local Judenrat, which was ordered to select 5,000 to 6,000 Jews, some of whom were sent to labor camps. In early May 1943, military developments forced the Germans to retreat.
From November 1942 the Allies began to liberate North Africa. Thus, the Jews of North Africa were spared from the fate of their brethren in Europe.
The Jews of Iraq
In 1934, under the influence of the German ambassador, the Iraqi nationalist government enacted anti-Jewish laws and, in 1936, pogroms took place. In April 1941 a pro-German government was appointed, which did not prevent attacks against Jews. When British forces occupied Baghdad in May 1941, riots broke out in which 179 Jews were killed and hundreds injured. Although the new government restored order, relations between Muslims and Jews remained tense. Many Iraqi Jews chose to immigrate to China, settling in Shanghai.
The Nazi Threat to the Middle East
Hajj Amin Al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, expressed support for the Nazi regime as early as 1933. In October 1939, he fled to Iraq, where he was central in organizing the pro-Nazi insurrection in April 1941. After the insurrection was quashed, he exiled himself to Germany and served the Axis countries (Nazi Germany and her allies) in their war against the Allies. Husseini disseminated venomous anti-Jewish propaganda and tried to persuade the Axis powers to extend their extermination plans to the Middle East and North Africa. In spring 1943 he mobilized and organized Bosnian Muslim units in Croatia that fought under SS auspices.
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2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: General history
The Chola Dynasty (Tamil: சோழர் குலம், IPA: ['ʧoː�
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2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: General history
The Chola Dynasty (Tamil: சோழர் குலம், IPA: ['ʧoː��ə]) was a Tamil dynasty that ruled primarily in southern India until the 13th century. The dynasty originated in the fertile valley of the Kaveri River. Karikala Chola was the most famous among the early Chola kings, while Rajaraja Chola, Rajendra Chola I and Kulothunga Chola I were notable emperors of the medieval Cholas.
The Cholas were at the height of their power continuously from the later half of the 9th century till the beginning of the 13th centuries. Under Rajaraja Chola I and his son Rajendra Chola I, the dynasty became a military, economic and cultural power in Asia. During the period 1010–1200 CE, the Chola territories stretched from the islands of the Maldives in the South to as far North as the banks of the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh. Rajaraja Chola conquered peninsular South India, annexed parts of Sri Lanka and occupied the islands of the Maldives. Rajendra Chola sent a victorious expedition to North India that touched the river Ganga and defeated the Pala ruler of Pataliputra, Mahipala. He also successfully raided kingdoms of the Malay Archipelago.
The power of the Cholas declined around the 12th century with the rise of the Pandyas and the Hoysala, eventually coming to an end towards the end of the 13th century.
The Cholas left a lasting legacy. Their patronage of Tamil literature and their zeal in building temples have resulted in some great works of Tamil literature and architecture. The Chola kings were avid builders and envisioned the temples in their kingdoms not only as places of worship but also as centres of economic activity. They pioneered a centralised form of government and established a disciplined bureaucracy.
There is very little information available regarding the origin of the Chola Dynasty. The antiquity of this dynasty is evident from the mentions in ancient Tamil literature and in inscriptions. Later medieval Cholas also claimed a long and ancient lineage to their dynasty.
Mentions in the early Sangam literature (c. 150 CE) indicate that the earliest kings of the dynasty antedated 100 CE. Parimelalagar, the annotator of the Tamil classic Tirukkural, mentions that this could be the name of an ancient clan. The most commonly held view is that this is, like Cheras and Pandyas, the name of the ruling family or clan of immemorial antiquity.
On the history of the early Cholas there is very little authentic written evidence available. Historians during the past 150 years have gleaned a lot of knowledge on the subject from a variety of sources such as ancient Tamil Sangam literature, oral traditions, religious texts, temple and copperplate inscriptions. The main source for the available information of the early Cholas is the early Tamil literature of the Sangam Period. There are also brief notices on the Chola country and its towns, ports and commerce furnished by the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (Periplus Maris Erythraei). Periplus is a work by an anonymous Alexandrian merchant, written in the time of Domitian (81–96) and contains very little information of the Chola country. Writing half a century later, the geographer Ptolemy gives more detail about the Chola country, its port and its inland cities. Mahavamsa, a Buddhist text, recounts a number of conflicts between the inhabitants of Ceylon and the Tamil immigrants. Cholas are mentioned in the Pillars of Ashoka (inscribed 273 BCE–232 BCE) inscriptions, where they are mentioned among the kingdoms which, though not subject to Ashoka, were on friendly terms with him.
Etymology of Chola
The word Chola is derived from the Tamil word Sora or Chora. Numerous inscriptions confirm that the name of the Dynasty was Chora or Sora but pronounced as Chola. The shift from 'r' to 'l' has also been validated and Sora or Chora in Tamil becomes Chola in Sanskrit and Chola or Choda in Telugu.
The history of the Cholas falls into four periods: the early Cholas of the Sangam literature, the interregnum between the fall of the Sangam Cholas and the rise of the medieval Cholas under Vijayalaya (c. 848), the dynasty of Vijayalaya, and finally the Chalukya Chola dynasty of Kulothunga Chola I from the third quarter of the eleventh century.
The earliest Chola kings for whom there is tangible evidence are mentioned in the Sangam literature. Scholars generally agree that this literature belongs to the first few centuries of the common era. The internal chronology of this literature is s
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Teachers Lesson Plans
Social realism: Grade 7-8
After showing students the works in the Canadian Painting in the Thirties lesson plan, especially the work Petroushka by Paraskeva Clark and Millar Brittain?s,
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Teachers Lesson Plans
Social realism: Grade 7-8
After showing students the works in the Canadian Painting in the Thirties lesson plan, especially the work Petroushka by Paraskeva Clark and Millar Brittain?s, Longshoremen, ask them to find a contemporary image of social strife and to bring it to class. Students will use the image to look at how the principles and elements of design can be altered to enhance the message.
Students will define the principles and elements of design.
Students will organize the artwork to create emphasis and asymmetry.
Students will use grade appropriate vocabulary and art terminology.
Cross Curriculum Links:
This lesson plan also explores the subject areas of Language Arts and History.
2 45-minute periods
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Ethnic Differences Influencing the Impact of Childhood Type I Diabetes Mellitus in Low Income Families
Over the past decade, great strides have been made in the treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus. Although these advances have increased the proportion of young
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Ethnic Differences Influencing the Impact of Childhood Type I Diabetes Mellitus in Low Income Families
Over the past decade, great strides have been made in the treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus. Although these advances have increased the proportion of young patients who are able to achieve strict metabolic control, there continues to be a disparity in the HbA1c levels of the African American and Hispanic American youth relative to Caucasian American youth, and in children of lower socioeconomic status (SES) relative to children of higher SES. Few studies have explored the underlying factors associated with this disparity and even fewer have analyzed how people of different ethnic backgrounds within lower socioeconomic groups deal with the diagnosis and its demands differently, particularly in the post-DCCT era of intensive diabetes management.
To enhance understanding of these factors, a qualitative study was carried out to describe factors which influence the impact of type 1 diabetes mellitus in people of different ethnic backgrounds within lower income socioeconomic groups. Seven patients of African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian heritage respectively who are treated by the diabetes treatment team at the Yale Pediatric Diabetes Program were recruited to participate in the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore each familys perception of challenges in caring for their child and maintaining control of their childs diabetes, parent-child relationships around management of diabetes, and responsibilities of parents with children who have been diagnosed with diabetes. We also explored family support systems identified as being of assistance and aiding in minimizing the challenges in attaining successful diabetes treatment.
After thorough analysis of the data, there were multiple identifiable differences in how people of different ethnic groups manage and cope with diabetes. Most notable themes included a disparity in the emotional response of different ethnicities after diagnosis, differences in treatment modalities and reasons for their use across ethnicities, support systems identified, and clinician-patient relationships. Although these differences are likely multifactorial, with components of socioeconomic status, family structure, and family experiences involved, it is evident that ethnicity itself is an important factor. Therefore it is important for health care providers to consider the various issues which can affect the familys ability to manage and cope with diabetes, however it is also important for them to refrain from using race or ethnicity in a stereotypical way which might negatively affect their decision making and relationship with the patient.
Advisor:William V
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Saturday, April 07, 2007
Why is 'Good' Friday called 'Good'?
In an Australian newspaper a few young people were asked, 'What do you think of at Easter?' The answer from all of them was '
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Saturday, April 07, 2007
Why is 'Good' Friday called 'Good'?
In an Australian newspaper a few young people were asked, 'What do you think of at Easter?' The answer from all of them was 'Chocolate and Easter eggs!' I think if the question was asked in Fiji, the answer would be less flippant. The Good Friday and Easter weekend is taken seriously by many, many people in Fiji.
But why is Good Friday called 'good'? This is a question I have often heard. At first it certainly seems like an error, but some people, who are wiser than I, have decided that it is the right term. I looked up Google and found this article informative. I have cut out sections though as it is very long.
From Christianity TodayThe Goodness of Good Friday
An unhappy celebration—isn't that an oxymoron?
by Chris Armstrong | posted 04/18/2003
What a supreme paradox. We now call the day Jesus was crucified, Good. Many believe this name simply evolved—as language does. They point to the earlier designation, "God's Friday," as its root. (This seems a reasonable conjecture, given that "goodbye" evolved from "God be with you.")
Whatever its origin, the current name of this holy day offers a fitting lesson to those of us who assume (as is easy to do) that "good" must mean "happy." We find it hard to imagine a day marked by sadness as a good day.
Of course, the church has always understood that the day commemorated on Good Friday was anything but happy. Sadness, mourning, fasting, and prayer have been its focus since the early centuries of the church…
…I like to think the linguistic accident that made "God's Friday" into "Good Friday" was no accident at all. It was God's own doing—a sharp, prophetic jab at a time and a culture obsessed by happiness. In the midst of consumerism's Western playground, Good Friday calls to a jarring halt the sacred "pursuit of happiness." The cross reveals this pursuit for what it is: a secondary thing…
Today, Christian liturgies reflect the gravity of Christ's act. Services linger on the details of Christ's death and the extent of His sacrifice. Often the Stabat Mater is performed—a thirteenth-century devotional poem remembering Mary's vigil by the cross. The poem begins "Stabat Mater Dolorosa"—that is, "a grief-stricken mother was standing."…
…Good Friday has always challenged merely human goodness. Its sad commemoration reminds us that in the face of sin, our goodness avails nothing. Only One is good enough to save us. That He did so is cause indeed for celebration.
Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today.
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The digestive system essentially converts the foods that we eat into the energy needed to support processes critical to the body. The anatomy of our digestive system involves a complex series of organs and glands that work in concert to break down consumed foods into smaller molecules so
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The digestive system essentially converts the foods that we eat into the energy needed to support processes critical to the body. The anatomy of our digestive system involves a complex series of organs and glands that work in concert to break down consumed foods into smaller molecules so that they can be utilized by the body.
Where Digestion Begins
Digestion begins in the mouth where food is partially broken down by the process of chewing and by the enzymatic action of the carbohydrate-digesting amylase enzymes present in the saliva. Food is then swallowed and propelled down the esophagus to the stomach.
In the stomach, food is mixed, ground and digested by gastric acid and a protease enzyme called pepsin. Gastric acid consists mainly of hydrochloric acid (HCl), and it efficiently breaks down food material, particularly protein. If production of gastric acid decreases, as is often the case with advancing age, digestion is less efficient. Researchers have found that over 30 percent of men and women past the age of 60 suffer from atrophic gastritis, a condition marked by little or no gastric acid.
Fortunately, natural approaches and nutritional supplements help support optimal digestion in the stomach.
The partially digested food leaves the stomach and enters the small intestine, a tubular structure composed of the duodenum, jejunum and ileum. The duodenum continues the process of breaking down
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Who Was Jeremy Bentham?
The philosopher and jurist Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was born in Spitalfields,
London, on 15 February 1748. He proved to be something of a child prodigy:
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Who Was Jeremy Bentham?
The philosopher and jurist Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was born in Spitalfields,
London, on 15 February 1748. He proved to be something of a child prodigy: while
still a toddler he was discovered sitting at his father's desk reading a multi-volume
history of England, and he began to study Latin at the age of three. At twelve,
he was sent to Queen's College Oxford, his father, a prosperous attorney, having
decided that Jeremy would follow him into the law, and feeling quite sure that
his brilliant son would one day be Lord Chancellor of England.
Bentham, however, soon became disillusioned with the law, especially
after hearing the lectures of the leading authority of the day, Sir
William Blackstone (1723-80). Instead of practising the law, he decided
to write about it, and he spent his life criticising the existing law
and suggesting ways for its improvement. His father's death in 1792
left him financially independent, and for nearly forty years he lived
quietly in Westminster, producing between ten and twenty sheets of
manuscript a day, even when he was in his eighties.
Above left: Bentham in about 1790, aged about forty, and (right) in 1827, aged seventy nine.
Even for those who have never read a line of Bentham, he will always be associated with the doctrine of Utilitarianism and the principle of `the greatest happiness of the greatest number'. This, however, was only his starting point for a radical critique of society, which aimed to test the usefulness of existing institutions, practices and beliefs against an objective evaluative standard. He was an outspoken advocate of law reform, a pugnacious critic of established political doctrines like natural law and contractarianism, and the first to produce a utilitarian justification for democracy. He also had much to say of note on subjects as diverse as prison reform, religion, poor relief, international law, and animal welfare. A visionary far ahead of his time, he advocated universal suffrage and the decriminalisation of homosexuality.
By the 1820s Bentham had become a widely respected figure, both in Britain and in other parts of the world. His ideas were greatly to influence the reforms of public administration made during the nineteenth century, and his writings are still at the centre of academic debate, especially as regards social policy, legal positivism, and welfare economics. Research into his work continues at UCL in the Bentham Project, set up in the early 1960s with the aim of producing the first scholarly edition of his works and correspondence, a projected total of some seventy volumes!
J.R. Dinwiddy, Bentham (Oxford University Press, 1989) - in the 'Past
Masters' series. A new edition was published in hardcover in October 2003 as J.R.
Selected Writings of John Dinwiddy (Jurists: Profiles in Legal Theory
W. Twining (Editor),
Stanford University Press.
C.F.A. Marmoy, 'The "Auto-Icon" of Jeremy Bentham at University College London', Medical History, 2 (1958), 77-86.
R. Richardson, 'Bentham and Bodies for Dissection', The Bentham Newsletter, x (1986), 22-33.
R. Richardson and B. Hurwitz, 'Jeremy Bentham's self-image: an exemplary bequest for dissection', British Medical Journal, 295 (July-Dec. 1987).
Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, ed. J.H. Burns and H.L.A. Hart, (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1996). A new paperback edition with an introduction by F. Rosen, and an interpretive essay by H.L.A. Hart. Rosen's introduction outlines recent trends in Bentham scholarship, and contains an extensive bibliography.
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Pension as a third retirement benefit in addition to the contributory Provident Fund and Gratuity was a long standing demand of the Industrial workers. The Government introduced a scheme by name Employees Pension Scheme (EPS 1995) w.e.f.
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Pension as a third retirement benefit in addition to the contributory Provident Fund and Gratuity was a long standing demand of the Industrial workers. The Government introduced a scheme by name Employees Pension Scheme (EPS 1995) w.e.f. 15th November 1995 replacing the existing Family Pension Scheme 1971 for the industrial workers through diverting a portion of the employer’s contribution to the Provident Fund thereby reducing the PF benefit of the employee to make provision for an insignificant amount towards retirement pension. There exist two types of Provident Fund and Pension schemes now in the country amongst whom there cannot be any comparison.
1) General Provident Fund for Central & State Government employees – Here the Government is not required to deposit any amount in the PF account. In exchange, the Government employees are in receipt of superannuation pension which is equivalent to 50% of the last drawn basic wage plus DA at the prevalent rate as applicable to the serving employees. There is provision of pension to the nominee in case of premature death of the employee or the pension holder. Off late the Government has brought about quite a number of changes in the scheme for the new entrants which the trade union movement is opposing tooth and nail.
2) Contributory Provident Fund governed by the PF Act 1952 for Industrial workers both in the Public and Private Sector – As per this Act deduction @ 12% (w.e.f. 22/07/1997, earlier it was 8.33%) of the total wage of an employee is compulsorily made and an equivalent amount is required to be deposited by the employer in the Fund managed by Employees’ Provident Fund Organization. Though there was a provision as per para 6(a) of the Act to formulate a pension scheme in due course, an optional Family Pension Scheme (FPS 1971) was only started during 1971 to arrange payment of some amount of pension to the nominee wife/husband of any employee dying in harness. Here an amount equivalent to 1.67 % of wages of an employee and a matching grant out of the Provident Fund contributions got diverted to the Pension Fund with a Government contribution of 1.16 % of the wage. There was provision of some withdrawal benefit after superannuation too. This scheme was withdrawn w.e.f. 15.11.1995 with the introduction of Employees Pension Scheme 1995 (EPS 1995) which was made compulsory for the FPS 1971 members. In the new scheme,
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Western division of the Goths. Separated from the Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths) in the 4th century AD, the Visigoths were driven from Dacia by the Huns (376) and crossed the Danube
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Western division of the Goths. Separated from the Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths) in the 4th century AD, the Visigoths were driven from Dacia by the Huns (376) and crossed the Danube into the Roman empire. Oppressed by Roman taxation, they revolted and plundered the Balkan provinces, defeating Valens and his army at the Battle of Adrianople (378). Theodosius I settled them in Moesia (382) to defend the frontier. Converted to Arian Christianity, they left Moesia in 395 under Alaric and invaded Greece and Italy, sacking Rome (410) and settling in southern Gaul and Spain (415). Recalled from Spain by Constantius III, they lost their first king, Theodoric I, in a battle against Attila (451). They were federates of Rome until King Euric declared independence (475). He extended their kingdom from the Loire to the Pyrenees and the lower Rhône, including most of Spain. In 507 they were defeated by the Franks under Clovis; retaining only Septimania (a strip from the Pyrenees to the Rhône), they held it and
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Archaeologists in China are working hard to reveal more life-size terracotta soldiers near the western city of Xi'an. The site is one of the most popular tourist attractions in China.
More than 1,000 of the soldiers are already
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Archaeologists in China are working hard to reveal more life-size terracotta soldiers near the western city of Xi'an. The site is one of the most popular tourist attractions in China.
More than 1,000 of the soldiers are already on show, and hundreds of thousands of people travel to see them every year.
It's thought they were created for China's first Emperor Qin Shihuang. He believed in life after death and decided that he needed an army buried with him for protection.
The site contains a series of chambers, and there may be as many as 8,000 different statues there. They each weigh around 180kg and are very, very detailed.
The first ones were only found in 1974. This is the third separate dig to be started since the tomb was discovered.
Surprisingly Emperor Qin Shihuang's tomb has yet to be excavated. It's right at the middle of the site. He died in the year 210 BC, aged 50.
Every figure in the tomb is different, and experts think they were modelled on a real army. The director of the tomb says getting the statues out is easy - looking after them is difficult.
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Group 5 Spitz and primitive type|
Section 5 Asian Spitz and related breeds
Without working trial
The Thai Bangkaew Dog is an old breed that
originated from the Bangkaew village, Thanang-ngam area
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Group 5 Spitz and primitive type|
Section 5 Asian Spitz and related breeds
Without working trial
The Thai Bangkaew Dog is an old breed that
originated from the Bangkaew village, Thanang-ngam area, Bang-rakam
district, and Phitsanulok province in Thailand. The breed traces its
ancestry back to a cross between a Buddhist abbot’s local black &
white female dog and a now-extinct wild dog producing today’s Bangkaew
breed. In 1957, selective breeding from single litters had produced
their generations to these days. The Thai Bangkaew Dogs are regarded
as a precious heritage of Phitsanulok province. The dogs are fed
widely in the province and has become so famous nationwide that they
are fed to every part of Thailand.
||The Thai Bangkaew dog is a square built,
well proportion dog with wide and deep chest. He is a double-coated
dog. The coat should form a ruff around the neck and shoulders and a
||Length of body : Height at the withers = 1
Depth of chest : Height at the withers = 1 : 2
Male larger boned than their female counterparts.
||Alert, intelligent, loyal, watchful and
obedient. He has an inherent desire to protect home and family and
easy to train.|
|The skull is wedge-shaped and should be
massive, broad and in proportion to the body.|
|Clearly defined, but moderate.|
||Black and in proportion to muzzle.|
||Straight and long.|
||Of medium length, broad at base and
tapering toward tip.|
||Tight with good pigmentation. |
||White marking around muzzle is preferable.|
||Upper and lower jaws are strong.|
||Small, sharp, strong and in full
dentition. The incisors of the lower jaw touch very lightly with the
inner surface of the upper incisors (scissors bite). A level bite is
||Small, almond shaped. Color of eyes is
black or dark brown.|
||Small, triangular, in proportion to head,
stand erect and point forward.|
||Strong, muscular, in proportion to head,
blending smoothly into shoulders, proudly carried with head erect.|
||Viewed from profile is straight and level.|
||Strong and broad.|
||Wide, deep, well let down between forelegs
and extending to the elbows, ribs well sprung but never rounded like
||The belly is not tucked up.|
||Moderately long, well feathered, thick
towards the base, well set on and carried with moderate upward curve
||Moderately laid back and well muscled.|
||Straight and strong, parallel when viewed
||Short and slope very slightly.|
||Rounded and catlike.|
||Strongly muscled with angulation in
balance with that of forequarters.|
||Well angulated at the stifle and well let
||Viewed from behind, they should be
perpendicular to the ground.|
||Round,arched and tight.|
||Flexible and powerful movement with good
reach and drive, level topline, good carriage of head and tail. Front
legs should not paddle, nor should there be a straddling appearance.
Hind legs should not paddle nor weave.|
||Double and medium in length. The undercoat
is soft and dense. The outer coat is coarse and straight. Guard coat
is long and forming a ruff around the neck and shoulders. Back of
forelegs are covered with feathers diminishing to the pasterns. Hind
legs are covered with long hair to the hocks.|
||Parti-color or white with patches of red,
tan, gray or black. Shape placement of patches of color are without
||Ideal height at the withers : |
Dogs 19-21 inches (48-53 cm)
Bitches 17-19 inches (43-48 cm)
There is tolerance of plus or minus one inch
||- Light eyes or nose.|
- Tail carried close to the back or fall to either side.
- Lack of ruff.
- Lack of feathers on back of forelegs.
- Large ears.
- Muzzle is too wide.
- Large round eye.
- Roach back.
- Oversize, undersize.
||- Short or smooth coat.|
- Drop ears.
- Overshot or undershot.
- Missing more than 3 teeth.
- Curled tail or kink tail.
- Lack of tail plume.
||Male animals should have two apparently
normal testicles fully descended into the scrotum.|
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The Economy And Culture Of Ghana
The country of Ghana is located in West Africa and has an area of 248,540 square kilometers; this is approximately the size of Britain or Illinois and Indiana combined. The capital of is the city of Acc
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The Economy And Culture Of Ghana
The country of Ghana is located in West Africa and has an area of 248,540 square kilometers; this is approximately the size of Britain or Illinois and Indiana combined. The capital of is the city of Accra and the current president since 2008 is John Atta Mills. Ghana is bordered by the African countries of Cote d’Ivoire to the west, Togo to the east, and Burkina Faso to the north. In 1957 Ghana was the first Sub-Saharan African nation to establish its independence from colonial rule shortly after its creation through the merger of the Gold Coast and Tagoland (9). Ghana is regionally regarded as a model for neighboring African nations.
Archaeological history traces humans in Ghana back to approximately 1,500 b.c. Prior to being colonized by the British in 1847 Ghana was inhabited by multiple African kingdoms including the Akan, Ashanti and Fante. Prior to the 15th century when Ghana began trading with Portugal not too much is known about its history other than the fact that it’s current ethnic groups; the Akan, Ga and Ewe probably arrived in the 13th century. Early trade with Portugal focused on the abundance of gold that Ghana had been gifted with. In 1481 as trade began Portugal established their first castle in the coastal town of Elmina. Approximately six decades later the Dutch arrived as traders and began to build forts around areas of heavy trade throughout the country. They were subsequently followed by English, Swedish and Danish traders that also built forts and outposts throughout the natural resource rich country. Throughout this period of time many traders suffered and died due to malaria (3).
In 1957 Ghana gained its independence from colonial rule and formed a parliamentary democracy. Over the next two decades multiple military and civilian regimes would control government. Throughout this time there were many coups and the country was considered unstable and somewhat ungovernable. In 1981, Lt. Jerry Rawlings, a native of Ghana, took power and suspended the Ghanaian constitution and banned political parties. The next few years were marked by economic stagnation and a severe contraction in the countries standard of living as well as overall development. Shortly, thereafter Rawlings negotiated a structured plan with the International Monetary Fund t(IMF) to subscribe to stated economic policies and the country regained its economic footing. In 1992 a new constitution was drafted and Jerry Rawlings was officially elected president of Ghana. The establishment of a new constitution and ensuing election of Jerry Rawlings as president began what is known as “The Fourth Republic,” and modern age of Ghana. Governmental powers were separated by President, Parliament, Cabinet, and Council of State. In addition, Ghana established an independent judiciary and a parliamentary democracy in which the president is elected by the people (3).
The Ghanaian economy is largely driven by exports as well as its large agricultural complex. In 2008 (the most recent release) Ghana had a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $16.7 USD and a population of 23.4 million of which about 11.5 million are active participants in the labor market – this translates to GDP per capita of about $713 or Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of about $630 (10). As far as size the Ghanaian economy is the 99th largest economy in the world, just behind North Korea and just larger than Turkmenistan (1). For better perspective their economy is roughly 1/30th the size of Wal-Mart, 1/10th the size of General Electric, ½ the size of Coca-Cola and about the size of Xerox (12). Ghana is considered one of the more developed countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and currently approximately 23.5% of the population lives at or below the poverty line (10). Their form of currency is the Ghana Cedi which currently trades about $1.4GH/$1USD.
Ghana is for the most part a free-market economy but still retains significant government ownership of certain State Owned Entities (SOE’s). Over the past two decades Ghana has worked to privatize a majority of the government’s SOE’s but still retains ownership of various companies in various industries including but not limited to retail, energy and telecom sectors (4). Based on the World Bank’s “Doing Business” report, Ghana ranks in at ‘92’ in the world index. The report is based on multiple items including ease of doing business, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes and enforcing contracts. Ghana ranks noticeably well as far as protecting investors at ‘41’ in the world index and lags behind in items such as starting a business ‘135,’ dealing with construction permits ‘153,’ and employing workers ‘133.’ Overall their ranking of ‘92’ does place them towards the top for countries located within the African continent and partially because of this Ghana is seen as the economic model for many African states.
If broken down into its three largest components Ghana’s GDP would be comprised of approximately 36% agriculture, 39% services, and 25% industry (2). Like many countries within Africa agriculture along with exports (discussed later), are two of the largest drivers of Ghana’s economy. If broken down differently Ghana’s GDP is composed of approximately 78% private consumption, 18% Government consumption, 32% gross fixed investment, 40% exports and 67% imports (2). Ghana’s was fortunately endowed with a large amount of natural resources which serves to
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|William (Billy) Mitchell|
December 29, 1879|
|Died||February 19, 1936
New York City, New York
|Buried at||Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin|
|Service
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|William (Billy) Mitchell|
December 29, 1879|
|Died||February 19, 1936
New York City, New York
|Buried at||Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin|
|Service/branch||United States Army|
|Years of service||1898–1926|
|Rank||Major General (posthumous)|
|Commands held||Air Service, Third Army – AEF|
|Awards||Distinguished Service Cross
Distingu
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Chemical Warfare Dangers
The horrors of World War I poison gas attacks were still in the minds of those preparing civilian defense during the early phases of World War II. Although New Jersey would never be attacked, local authorities took the threats of a
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Chemical Warfare Dangers
The horrors of World War I poison gas attacks were still in the minds of those preparing civilian defense during the early phases of World War II. Although New Jersey would never be attacked, local authorities took the threats of a desperate enemy seriously.
Questions to consider:
- Should we have used chemical weapons during WWII?
- Are chemical weapons appropriatye todasy in warfare? Which ones do you think could be used?
Here is a list of the known chemical warfare agents:
Critical Thinking questions:
- After viewing the list of chemical agents, what are the reasonable precautions that the average citizen can take if an air raid siren goes off?
- Describe the tactical advantages and disadvantages of using chemical warfare agents.
- Role play scenario: You are commanding an attack using chemical warfare agents. What are the targets most likely to provide you with the best military results?
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An Inconvenient Truth for Kids
Best-seller now available in kid-friendly version
Scholastic Kid Reporter Aaron Broder poses with Vice President Al Gore, author of An Inconvenient Truth. (Photo: Courtesy Aaron Broder)
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An Inconvenient Truth for Kids
Best-seller now available in kid-friendly version
Scholastic Kid Reporter Aaron Broder poses with Vice President Al Gore, author of An Inconvenient Truth. (Photo: Courtesy Aaron Broder)
The ice caps at the North and South poles are melting, causing a gradual increase in the sea level. Last summer was one of the hottest on record. The number of hurricanes and tornadoes has been gradually increasing. What is the cause of all this unusual global activity? Two words: global warming.
Global warming is the subject of a new book for kids based on a best-seller for adults. An Inconvenient Truth has been adapted for kids ages 8–12 (Viking Children’s, April 10, 2007, 92 pages).
Author Al Gore recently won an Oscar for the documentary version of An Inconvenient Truth. The former Vice President began spreading his message about global warming with a slide show that he presented to audiences around the world.
Last summer, a movie version was released in theaters worldwide. It received rave reviews and several prestigious awards.
Published alongside the movie was a companion book of the same name. This newest version has been “adapted for a new generation,” says the publisher.
Though it may not read like Harry Potter, An Inconvenient Truth has an important message relevant to today’s society. With more than a hundred pictures, the book not only explains what global warming is doing to the world, it also shows readers the effects.
|(Photo: Courtesy Penguin Young Readers Group)|
Scientists have proven that global warming is a problem that must be dealt before it gets even worse. For those unclear of the concept and its effects, An Inconvenient Truth is a great book. It explains in simple terms exactly what global warming is, what will happen if it gets out of hand, and what we can do to stop it.
Though it may seem uninteresting at times, this is a subject we must all learn about. The children’s version of An Inconvenient Truth is an entertaining and informative way to bring any reader up to speed on global warming.
Kid Reporter Aaron Broder talks to Lawrence Bender, producer of the documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
Celebrate Earth Day with Scholastic News Online! Learn more about how you can help take care of our planet.
Do you need help picking out what book to read next? Let Scholastic News Online be your guide! Find out what Kid Reporters are saying about all the latest books by reading their book reviews in this special report.
Are you interested in how environmental changes affect the world? Let Scholastic News Online be your guide! Learn about what Kid Reporters are saying about the changing climate by reading their articles in this special report.
Aaron Broder is a member of the Scholastic Kids Press Corps.
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October 12, 2010 | 9
Renewable energy made big national headlines October 12 as a group of investors, including search engine giant Google, announced plans to build a 560-kilometer offshore wind power transmission "
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October 12, 2010 | 9
Renewable energy made big national headlines October 12 as a group of investors, including search engine giant Google, announced plans to build a 560-kilometer offshore wind power transmission "backbone" off the U.S. eastern seaboard. The developers of the plan say it will make wind power more economical and enhance the reliability of the existing grid.
The proposed high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable, dubbed the Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC), would run from southern Virginia to northern New Jersey, occupying shallow trenches on the seabed of federal waters some 15-20 miles off the shore. The line would connect with the mainland at four points—southern Virginia, Delaware, and southern and northern New Jersey. And if all goes according to plan, it would have a whopping 6,000-megawatt (MW) capacity—roughly equal to that of five large nuclear reactors and capable of powering some 1.9 million homes.
Trans-Elect, the Maryland-based transmission line company heading up the plan, expects the project to cost $5 billion in total, not including financing and permit fees. It hopes to begin construction in 2013, and estimates the first phase—a $1.8 billion, 240-kilometer stretch—could be completed by 2016. The entire project will not be complete until 2021 at the earliest. Google’s initial stake is 37.5 percent of the equity portion of the project.
Certain details of the plan were at least in part inspired by research led by Willett Kempton, a professor of marine science policy at the University of Delaware. In a paper published April 5 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Kempton’s group described offshore wind data collected over a five-year period along a 2,500-kilometer stretch of the U.S. eastern seaboard. The researchers used a mathematical model to show that, thanks to ocean wind patterns, a system of turbines placed strategically and wired together could be counted on to produce a steady supply of power—unlike land-based systems which can be hindered by intermittent winds. In an email, Kempton told Scientific American that the AWC developers contacted him several times for information related to the PNAS paper, and also asked him to speak with investors as they analyzed the plan.
Several undersea HVDC cables already exist off the Atlantic Coast for long-distance transport of electricity generated on land. But these lines simply carry electrons from one point to another, with no power-generating inputs in between. In the case of the AWC, generating stations along the line would add electricity to the system, a process that will require newer, more cutting-edge technology, says Kempton.
Practically, the biggest obstacles to the plan’s implementation are more administrative than technological, several experts, including Kempton, told The New York Times. For one thing, it will face a complicated permitting process—the same one that took almost a decade for a proposed wind farm in near-shore waters off Cape Cod, Mass, which was finally approved by the Department of Interior in April.
Symbolically, though, the AWC plan is a big step. "This shows that there is confidence that the offshore wind industry is going to take off in the U.S. as it is already in Northern Europe," Kempton says.
See also the links at series "Beyond Fossil Fuels," part of a survey conducted by Scientific American of executives at companies engaged in developing and implementing non–fossil fuel energy technologies.
Image credit: Flickr/ PEBondestad
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The Captives of the Amistad
|The Captives of the Amistad
Amistad slave-ship incident of 1839, and the subsequent events and court trials resulting from the incident.
The Captives of the Am
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The Captives of the Amistad
|The Captives of the Amistad
Amistad slave-ship incident of 1839, and the subsequent events and court trials resulting from the incident.
The Captives of the Amistad is subtitled A Paper read before the New Haven Colony Historical Society. It was read before the Society May 17, 1886. This paper details the events surrounding the famous |
This document has been divided into several sections for purposes of presentation in this medium. As originally published, this document had no sections or chapters.
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such as "Introduction", "Conclusion"..etc
Detailed in the December edition of the peer-reviewed American Journal of Psychiatry, the study examined the impact of the catastrophic 1988 Spitak earthquake in Armenia on adolescents near the temblor's epic
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such as "Introduction", "Conclusion"..etc
Detailed in the December edition of the peer-reviewed American Journal of Psychiatry, the study examined the impact of the catastrophic 1988 Spitak earthquake in Armenia on adolescents near the temblor's epicenter. Researchers found untreated adolescents had significantly higher levels of PTSD and depressive symptoms than peers who received treatment.
"Chronic PTSD and depression can impair the psychosocial development and behavior of children and adolescents, which in turn can have a detrimental effect on their families and communities," said lead author Dr. Armen K. Goenjian, a researcher and psychiatrist at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress.
"The findings unequivocally show the sustained benefits of specific types of therapy, even when provided 1.5 years after the earthquake" according to Goenjian, who is also the director of the Armenian Relief Society's Mental Health Clinics in Gumri and Spitak.
Signs of the psychological effects of trauma in children include fear of abandonment and recurrence of the horrors of the trauma, anger, withdrawal, trouble with concentration, recurrent fearful memories of the trauma, and nightmares. Children feel vulnerable, view the world as unsafe and adults unable to protect them. These signs are not always apparent to caregivers and teachers.
Over time, the condition can lead to depression, substance abuse, promiscuity, reckless and aggressive behavior, academic impairment, and future marital and employment difficulties.
The study examined the impact of the Spitak earthquake that struck northern Armenia on Dec. 7, 1988, killing more than 25,000 people and causing massive destruction in four cities and numerous villages. In Spitak and Gumri, two of the hardest hit cities, nearly everyone experienced direct threats to their lives and witnessed mutilating injuries and grotesque deaths. Five years later, just 15 percent of the cities had been rebuilt and piles of debris and destroyed buildings served as constant reminders, making psychological recovery even harder.
By comparison, the recent Indian Ocean tsunami killed more than 170,000 people and left more than 1 million homeless. The earthquake in Kashmir killed an estimated 87,000 people and left hundreds of thousands without shelter as winter begins in this mountainous region of Kashmir. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita killed more than 1,000 people along the Gulf Coast of the United States and left well over half a million people homeless.
The research team evaluated the natural course of post-traumatic stress and depressive symptoms among untreated adolescents from Spitak and Gumri. In addition the research team examined the effectiveness of brief trauma and grief-focused psychotherapy among adolescents from Gumri.
A total of 125 adolescents were assessed using separate PTSD and depression self-rating scales at 1.5 years and five years after the earthquake. At 1.5 years a group of students in Gumri underwent six weeks of group and individual psychotherapy.
PTSD scores among untreated adolescents from Gumri and Spitak subsided significantly but mildly at five-year follow-up. The average scores at Spitak, the city at the epicenter, remained above the cutoff for a diagnosis of PTSD. Depression scores increased mildly in both cities.
Among adolescents in Gumri, those who received treatment saw three times the improvement in PTSD scores compared to the adolescents who went untreated. In addition, depression scores of treated adolescents impr
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instruction scheduling definition
phase that orders instructions on a pipelined
, or VLIW
architecture so as to maximise the number of function units operating in parallel and to minimise the time they spend waiting for each other.
Examples are filling
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instruction scheduling definition
phase that orders instructions on a pipelined
, or VLIW
architecture so as to maximise the number of function units operating in parallel and to minimise the time they spend waiting for each other.
Examples are filling a delay slot
; interspersing floating-point
instructions with integer instructions to keep both units operating; making adjacent instructions independent, e.g. one which writes a register and another which reads from it; separating memory writes to avoid filling the write buffer
Norman P. Jouppi and David W. Wall, "Available Instruction-Level Parallelism for Superscalar and Superpipelined Processors" (ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/archive/pub/DEC/WRL/research-reports/WRL-TR-89.7.ps.Z), Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems, pp. 272--282, 1989.
[The SPARC Architecture Manual, v8, ISBN 0-13-825001-4]
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In bookbinding, section (sometimes gathering) refers to a group of bifolios, or sheets of paper, stacked together and folded in half. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with signature, though the latter technically refers only to the signature
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In bookbinding, section (sometimes gathering) refers to a group of bifolios, or sheets of paper, stacked together and folded in half. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with signature, though the latter technically refers only to the signature mark at the bottom of the first page of a printed section.
The section is the basic building block of codex bindings. In Western bookbinding, sections are sewn through their folds, with the sewing thread linking each section to its neighboring sections.
|This article about making art out of books, the arts related to bookbinding, or the design of mass-produced books is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.|
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The population of computers is growing at a high rate. In fact, these days, most of us have more than one computing device, or interact with more than one device every day. The relation between humans and computers has also changed over the years
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The population of computers is growing at a high rate. In fact, these days, most of us have more than one computing device, or interact with more than one device every day. The relation between humans and computers has also changed over the years. If we want to present it as a diagram, we will have the following:
|Figure 1. The humans-computers relation over the past 50 years. (Vertegaal, 2003)
As you can see, we have had dramatic changes in the number of computers and human-computer relation over the past 50 years. Nowadays, when we go to an ATM to withdraw some money, use our corporate computer to perform our everyday’s tasks, or use ISU computers around the campus for educational purposes, we are utilizing computers other than our own. It would be extremely difficult and time-consuming if we try to sit and figure out how we interact with different computing devices around us every day. On the other hand, many of these computers are not ours and we have limited access to them, so we cannot modify them as we want them to be. Which poses a perplexing dilemma: “Should we act the way computers want us to or should computers act the way we want them to?” in reference to a famous William Shakespeare quote, “To be or not to be. That is the question”.
The way computers have been developed over the past 20 years, is similar to the concept of isolation. Isolation has no meaning now because we use many shared computers beside our own computers. Computers are like babies and they need a lot of attention all the time. They make hundreds of funny alerts, messages, and confirmations etc continuously. And they need our attention before they continue their tasks. Researchers realized that our attention is a limited resource. The more something grabs our attention, the less our productivity will be. Attentive User Interface (AUI) has designed to manage this limited resource (our attention). AUI-based designs negotiate materials with users rather than forcing users to attend to something. (Vertegaal, 2003)
Some examples of AUI
Microsoft Office 2007
When a user opens any of Microsoft Office 2007 products for the first time, the Office logo on top-right of the screen starts to blink asking for user attention. This is an example of AUI which signals user for his/her attention. Opening the application for the first time is the trigger for this notification.
|Figure 2. Microsoft Office 2007 products’ blinking logos try to capture user attention.
Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger can be another good example for using AUI. There are two different types of signals which Live Messenger uses to negotiate with its users.
- Notification Area: there are several types of popup which jump out from Windows notification area like new email or when a friend just logged in/out. All of these notifications are customizable and the user can change them according to his/her needs. User can also set a sound alert for each type of notification.
- If something happens in the program’s main page or any of its open chat session windows, the application will not move itself to the foreground, but, will start to blink in Windows taskbar asking for its user attention. Again, users can modify all notifications and assign sound alerts for each.
|Figure 3. A. Popup windows in Windows Live Messenger.
||Figure 3. B. Blinking taskbar button asking for user attention.
What we cannot do
The goal of AUI is for computers to interact with live users like humans and not dummy machines. The first think which will come to the mind is Artificial Intelligence (AI). AUI designs need to use AI to be able to act as they think and they know what to do. Let’s dig deeper into this. What is the chance if someone knows everything? What is the chance if you meet someone who knows everything and s/he knows you? How do you know if someone knows everything? Is it humanly possible for someone to know everything? Is it possible
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If your child is anything like mine, numbers can be tricky to teach. Most number flashcards and counting books have so much going on that it's hard for kids to focus on the actual numbers! So instead of one teddy bear, two
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If your child is anything like mine, numbers can be tricky to teach. Most number flashcards and counting books have so much going on that it's hard for kids to focus on the actual numbers! So instead of one teddy bear, two butterflies, three airplanes, etc., these flashcards feature a clean, simple, classic design that lets your kiddo focus on the task at hand.
WHY IS THIS SET ESPECIALLY GREAT?
-It includes the numbers 0-20 (many sets only go up to 10 and/or don't include 0)
-This set includes both a LARGE and MINI set of each of the numbers and math symbols
-The dots below each number help the child conceptualize the idea that numbers hold value
-The dots below each number are also great for helping kids learn to count
-Math symbol cards make this set easily transition from memorization of numbers and counting to working guides in learning simple math equations. Line up sequences like "4+1=" and let your child count the dots below each number and then add "5" as the answer!
-Because you can print as many copies of this file as you like, you can have as many numbers and symbols on hand as you need.
THE PDF INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING:
-Instructions for how to print and cut flashcards
-Ideas for how to use the flashcards
-Set of 26 LARGE flashcards
-Set of 26 MINI flashcards
Both sets include one card per number (0-20) with the corresponding amount of colored dots below each number.
Each set also includes one each of the following math
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While the digital divide is very real and affects low income and folks of color in negative ways, that doesn’t mean these groups aren’t engaging with emerging social media platforms like Twitter.
In a presentation earlier this week at SXSW, Baratunde
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While the digital divide is very real and affects low income and folks of color in negative ways, that doesn’t mean these groups aren’t engaging with emerging social media platforms like Twitter.
In a presentation earlier this week at SXSW, Baratunde Thurston, the Web & Politics editor at The Onion and co-founder of Jack & Jill Politics, pointed out that if you consider mobile use by “Black folk,” the impact of the digital divide on Blacks and Latinos in the U.S. actually dissipates.Thurston cited research from the Pew Internet and Life Project that studied wireless internet use by African Americans and Latinos.
When tethered and wireless access are considered together, the gaps in online engagement between whites and blacks largely dissipates. Nearly as many African Americans have cell phone or online access as whites, with a gap of only 4 percentage points.
We’ve seen successful peer-to-peer mobile campaigns that included the participation of Blacks and Latinos like the text based Haiti fundraising efforts and 2006’s immigration marches that were largely organized through radio and text messages.
What does this mean? Until everyone has equal access to broadband, if you want to run any kind of campaign that includes Blacks and Latinos you have to include a mobile strategy.
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Have you ever wondered how DNA evidence is used to solve crimes? What is the National DNA Database? And why should it matter to us anyway?
Explore these questions and more in our new show ‘The Great DNA Debate’, all about genetic information,
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Have you ever wondered how DNA evidence is used to solve crimes? What is the National DNA Database? And why should it matter to us anyway?
Explore these questions and more in our new show ‘The Great DNA Debate’, all about genetic information, how it can be used, and who should have access to it.
This interactive show is designed to support your teaching of KS3 and KS4 Biology and How Science Works, including applications and implications of science. Your students are also encouraged to participate in the discussion and have their say, so it’s a great PTLS activity too (check out the video here for a taste of the show!)
Planning to take your students to the Who am I? exhibition to explore genetics, brain sci
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Key: "S:" = Show Synset (semantic) relations, "W:" = Show Word (lexical) relations
Display options for sense: (gloss) "an example sentence"
- S: (n) quoin, co
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Key: "S:" = Show Synset (semantic) relations, "W:" = Show Word (lexical) relations
Display options for sense: (gloss) "an example sentence"
- S: (n) quoin, coign, coigne (expandable metal or wooden wedge used by printers to lock up a form within a chase)
- S: (n) quoin, coign, coigne (the keystone of an arch)
- S: (n) corner, quoin ((architecture) solid exterior angle of a building; especially one formed by a cornerstone)
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In an era of supercomputers and multiple screens that seem to cater to our every information whim, there’s a certain satisfaction to be found in a musty mystery captivating Britain.
It seems that today’s top code and intelligence officials, with all
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In an era of supercomputers and multiple screens that seem to cater to our every information whim, there’s a certain satisfaction to be found in a musty mystery captivating Britain.
It seems that today’s top code and intelligence officials, with all their electronic tools, are stumped at figuring out the meaning of a 68-year-old coded message left behind by a D-Day carrier pigeon.
The message was first recovered 30 years ago, inside a small red capsule attached to the skeletal leg bone of the bird. The pigeon, one of 250,000 trained by the British during World War II, apparently fell into the chimney during a return trip from France – perhaps overcome by fumes as it took a rest. It was found during a 1982 mansion renovation. The Allies relied on the birds to send messages back to headquarters in the first days of the invasion of Normandy so German forces could not intercept radio signals from the front.
The tiny script, containing blocks of letters and a few numbers, eventually landed at Government Communications Headquarters, a British intelligence agency, where experts admit they can’t crack the cipher. Most likely, the report was encrypted using a special one-day-only code keypad, held only by sender and receiver and long lost since the invasion.
Now experts say the best chance of cracking the code may lie in the memories of veterans who worked at Bletchley Park, a wartime intelligence station where mathematicians, linguists and others toiled around the clock to break the Nazi’s Enigma code and other secrets, or from those who worked with military signals during the war.
Scientists at Bletchley Park developed some of the world’s first computers to aid in the complex statistical analysis needed to break later German codes. One, called the Colossus, used 1,500 vacuum tubes and was able to read 5,000 characters per second from a paper tape.
The code-breaking machines are long gone, but a few nonagenarian minds may yet be able to help unlock one more secret.
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Skip to comments.This Week’s Penumbral Lunar Eclipse and the Astronomy of Columbus
Posted on 10/14/2013 2:33:26 PM PDT by BenLurkin
In Columbuss day, the Moon was
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Skip to comments.This Week’s Penumbral Lunar Eclipse and the Astronomy of Columbus
Posted on 10/14/2013 2:33:26 PM PDT by BenLurkin
In Columbuss day, the Moon was often used to get a rough fix of a ships longitude at sea. Columbus was especially intrigued with the idea of using lunar eclipses to determine longitude. If you can note the position of the Moon in the sky from one location versus a known longitude during an event such as first contact of the Moon with the Earths umbra during an eclipse you can gauge your relative longitude east or west of the point. The sky moves 15 degrees, or one hour of right ascension overhead as we rotate under it. One of the earliest records of this method comes to us from Ptolemy, who deduced Alexander the Greats position 30 degrees (2 hours) east of Carthage during the lunar eclipse of September 20th, 331 B.C. Alexander noted that the eclipse began two hours after sunset from his locale, while in Carthage it was recorded that the eclipse began at sunset.
Columbus was a student of Ptolemy, and used this method during voyages to and from the New World during the lunar eclipses of September 14th, 1494 and February 29, 1504. Of course, such a method is only approximate. The umbra of the Earth often appears ragged and indistinct on the edge of the lunar disk at the start of an eclipse, making it tough to judge the actual beginning of an eclipse by more than ten of minutes or so. And remember, youre often watching from the pitching deck of a ship to boot!
Another problem also plagued Columbuss navigation efforts: he favored a smaller Earth than we now know is reality. Had he listened to another Greek astronomer by the name of Eratosthenes, he wouldve gotten his measurements pretty darned close.
Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/105436/this-weeks-penumbral-lunar-eclipse-and-the-astronomy-of-columbus/#ixzz2hjbIvrwa
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com...
“Another problem also plagued Columbuss navigation efforts: he favored a smaller Earth than we now know is reality.”
True, but if he hadn’t believe this erroneous idea, he probably wouldn’t have attempted his voyage, because he would have known it would take 3 times longer to reach the Indies.
Before 1492, 1490`s? An unsubstantiated story existed that Pinzon, Columbus` financier and captain of the Pinta, supposedly found information in Vatican archives about
lands to the west. Dor-Ner p. 73
1490`s? Columbus had set his goal to sail exactly 2,400 miles west from Palos, Spain, which is where the
Bahamas are. How did Columbus know that? P116
1492 Juan de La Cosa is the owner of the Gallega, renamed by Columbus as the Santa Maria; de La Cosa was Columbus` pilot on the Santa Maria P126
1492 Columbus knew the westward trade winds from the Canary Islands- P108
1492 August 3 Columbus sails from Palos, Spain in his 3 ships P128
1490`s Christopher Columbus` original Atlantic logbook, “Diario de a bordo”, and subsequent copies thereof, are lost; parts are in Bartolome` de Las Casas` “History of the Indies”.P122
Dor-Ner, Zvi, “Columbus and the Age of Discovery”, NY : William Morrow & Co. 199167=73
Thanks BenLurkin, extra to APoD.
Cool. We’ll be on the boat that night. Hope to get a good look.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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In May 1943, GC Madoc published “An Introduction to Malayan Birds.” He wrote his manuscript in Singapore’s Changi Prison where he was interned when the country fell into the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army. Only a single
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In May 1943, GC Madoc published “An Introduction to Malayan Birds.” He wrote his manuscript in Singapore’s Changi Prison where he was interned when the country fell into the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army. Only a single copy was produced, typed on paper stolen from the Japanese commandant’s office.
In the preface to the third edition of the book, Madoc wrote: “I hope that some day it will be superseded by a Nature Society publication in which the pooled knowledge of all Malaya’s ornithologists will be presented comprehensively with numerous coloured illustrations.”
With today‘s launching of the The Birds of Singapore website, Madoc’s dream is jus
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Radiation levels could rise dramatically at the Savannah River Site if the federal weapons complex becomes a disposal ground for the nations high-level nuclear waste, a new report says.
The study, written by a former senior adviser at the U.S. Department of
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Radiation levels could rise dramatically at the Savannah River Site if the federal weapons complex becomes a disposal ground for the nations high-level nuclear waste, a new report says.
The study, written by a former senior adviser at the U.S. Department of Energy, outlines the potential hazards of making SRS an interim storage site for nuclear waste generated at the countrys commercial atomic power plants. The material once was destined for burial inside a Nevada mountain, but that site has been abandoned.
Report author Bob Alvarez said radiation in waste that could come to SRS would dwarf the amount of radiation now contained in the sites top environmental hazard: more than 40 aging tanks of deadly high-level waste created during Cold War weapons production.
The SRS tanks have about 280 million curies of radioactivity, the largest concentration at the 310-square-mile federal site, DOE spokesman Bill Taylor said.
Waste that could go to SRS would contain more than 1 billion curies, according to the report, which used calculations of government and nuclear industry data. But thats waste from only 17 closed reactors the government says are most in need of a storage site. The U.S. has 104 reactors that continue to produce high-level atomic waste.
This would be one of the largest concentrations of radioactivity in the United States in one place if SRS received waste from the 17 closed sites, Alvarez said Wednesday.
The report also said some 2,500 shipments of high-level waste initially could travel across the nations highways for storage at SRS if sent by truck. If sent by rail car, 280 to 500 shipments would be bound for SRS, the study said. Waste would come from nuclear sites as far away as Oregon, Alvarez said.
Located near Aiken, the Savannah River Site is a federal nuclear weapons complex that produced material for atomic bombs during the Cold War. The sites supporters today are seeking new missions that create jobs, including storing atomic waste at the complex and then possibly recycling the material.
SRS booster Clint Wolfe, who heads Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness, said the Alvarez report should be taken with a grain of salt because the former DOE official has a history of opposing nuclear projects. He said SRS is perfectly suited as a nuclear storage site and he downplayed concerns about transporting the material.
This is kind of an attempt to get an emotional response from the public about all this bad stuff, Wolfe said. SRS has a great track record of dealing with this material.
Alvarez was brought to South Carolina this week by the Sierra Club and Dont Waste Aiken, a green group concerned about storing commercial power plant refuse at SRS. Alvarez, who served at the DOE under President Clinton, works for the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C.
Alvarez report will be officially released in Aiken County today as discussion intensifies over
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Mongolia Gold Rush Destroying Rivers, Nomadic Lives
Stefan Lovgren, along the Onggi River, Mongolia
for National Geographic News
|October 17, 2008|
A mining boom in Mongolia is threatening
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Mongolia Gold Rush Destroying Rivers, Nomadic Lives
Stefan Lovgren, along the Onggi River, Mongolia
for National Geographic News
|October 17, 2008|
A mining boom in Mongolia is threatening to devastate the country's rivers and is forcing nomadic herders to abandon their land and traditional way of life, local activists warn.
As mining companies scramble to extract Mongolia's vast deposits of gold and other minerals, government regulations—including laws stipulating that mining not be done next to rivers—are being violated or even ignored, environmentalists claim.
(See more photos.)
Extraction methods, such as dredging, river diversion, and the use of high-pressure water cannons to dismantle hillsides, have damaged rural landscapes along rivers such as the Onggi, which supports 60,000 nomadic herders and one million head of livestock.
Rivers now run dry in some areas, making it more difficult to find water for thirsty animals, according to nomadic herders. They say using the alternative water source—groundwater potentially contaminated by mercury and other mining pollution—is alarming as well.
"Our way of life is threatened," said Tsetsegee Munkhbayar, a Mongolian nomadic herder and National Geographic Emerging Explorer.
From Herding to Fighting
In Munkhbayar, herders have one of their own to lead the way in the fight for clean, accessible water.
As a young nomad Munkhbayar used to herd yaks along the banks of the fertile Onggi River. During the harsh winters he skated down its frozen waters, often chewing pieces of aaruul (curdled sheep's milk).
In an effort to save his livelihood and heritage, Munkhbayar started the Onggi River Movement, which now has 1,600 members. The group spearheaded a large grassroots movement that includes several river-based organizations.
Together they have protested at mining sites and lobbied government officials to push for stronger enforcement of mining laws. Their efforts have yielded successes, according to Munkhbayar. A few years ago, pressure from his group led to the temporary shut down of many offending mining companies operating along the Onggi River, he said.
The Onggi River Movement has also pushed for mining companies to conduct environmental conservation work, including restoring soils and vegetation to sites that they have mined.
Future Mining Boom
But now the battle could intensify as a new pro-mining government settles in after a June 2008 parliamentary election.
More than twice the size of Texas, Mongolia is the world's least densely populated country, with less than 3 million people. But it has some of the Earth's largest untapped gold, copper, and uranium reserves.
Worth an estimated U.S. $660 million per year, the mining industry makes up two-thirds of Mongolia's export revenues, with most of the gold going to neighboring China, according to Mongolian government officials.
Mining industry experts say the mineral extraction business in Mongolia is at a nascent stage.
"Mining to date has been relatively small-scale," said Layton Croft, an executive with Ivanhoe Mines, a Canadian company with a massive copper and gold mine development project in southern Mongolia.
"The boom really hasn't yet started," Croft said. "The prospect of mining is what's on everyone's mind."
Mining rights took center stage during the election, as politicians from both leading parties supported amending laws to encourage more mineral extraction and therefore more national income.
The country is still recovering from the loss of Soviet support, which disappeared in the early 1990s after the collapse of the former Soviet Union.
D. Zorigt, Mongolia's new Minister of Minerals and Energy—a position created by the new government—told the press last month that one of his first tasks would be asking parliament to amend the minerals law and establish a legal framework to approve major mining deals.
According to local media, Mongolia's federal government is now busy drafting revised mining laws that will compensate Mongolians and assist displaced locals. Little has been said about the environment. The draft law is expected in mid-November.
While environmentalists welcome new laws, it is enforcement that is the issue, they say.
"The biggest problem is that the mining companies largely disregard the mining laws that exist," Munkhbayar said. According to existing Mongolian law, mining operations cannot take place within 656 feet (200 meters) of a riv
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Human noses aren’t built to take in much from that pungent world. When we’re trying our damnedest to smell something, we inhale deeply. But as soon as we exhale, we lose the scent. The airflow patterns of
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Human noses aren’t built to take in much from that pungent world. When we’re trying our damnedest to smell something, we inhale deeply. But as soon as we exhale, we lose the scent. The airflow patterns of the dog nose are strikingly different: They have one air passage for breathing and another for smelling. …
The dog’s nostrils are in gray on the left; the rest shows the inside of the nose. The brownish area on the right is where all of the smelling, or olfaction, happens — all those receptors sensing different types of odor molecules. The red lines represent the airflow paths when the dog is smelling, whereas the blue lines show the paths during breathing.
You can see that because of the nose anatomy, a dog can quickly move odor molecules to the back, letting them linger atop olfactory receptors. The front area, meanwhile, stays clear for continued breathing. Our olfactory receptors, in contrast, sit at the top of our nasal cavity, easily perturbed as we breathe out.
The biology explains all the dog snorting too, which " helps capture new scents below it and pushes them backwards into the nostril."
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Rare books feature blood-curdling medical descriptions
Battlefield surgery has come a long way since the 16th Century when soldiers had boiling oil poured on to gunshot wounds.
This barbaric but common treatment was believed to drive out the poisons
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Rare books feature blood-curdling medical descriptions
Battlefield surgery has come a long way since the 16th Century when soldiers had boiling oil poured on to gunshot wounds.
This barbaric but common treatment was believed to drive out the poisons thought to be associated with such wounds.
The Birmingham Medical Institute's library containing blood-curdling descriptions of this and other medical procedures is due to go under the hammer later this month in South Cerney, Gloucestershire.
The auction includes illustrated texts by three medical pioneers of the Renaissance - the Flemish-born anatomist Andreas Vesalius, the English physician William Harvey and the French surgeon Ambroise Pare.Red-hot irons
Pare placed great emphasis on the surgeon's duty to reduce or avoid a patient's suffering.
During one occasion at the Siege of Turin in 1537 when he had run out of oil he treated a number of wounded soldiers with a mixture of egg yolk, oil of roses and turpentine.
"I could not sleep all that night for I was troubled in mind. I feared the next day I would find them dead," he wrote.
"Beyond expectation I found [them] free from vehement pain, to have had good rest and that their wounds were not inflamed.
"On the contrary, the others that were burnt with scalding oil were feverish and tormented with much pain and their wounds were swollen.
"When I had tried this many times in others I thought neither I nor any other ever should cauterize anyone wounded with gunshot."
A second excruciatingly painful practice Pare addressed was the cauterization of limbs with red-hot irons to stem the bleeding after amputations.'Father of surgery'
"Pare introduced the ligature, tying off the blood vessels with catgut," said medical books specialist Chris Albury.
"He is widely considered to be the father of surgery and modern forensic pathology."
Away from warfare Pare advocated the method of turning the child in the mother's womb before delivery in certain cases, and he created numerous ingenious artificial limbs and surgical and dental instruments.
Not knowing Latin, he wrote many of his works in his native French. This meant it took a long time for his ideas to spread across Europe.
The sale on 18 April includes the French edition of his work from 1585 with nearly 400 woodcuts, and a partial autobiography relating to his journeys with armies into various countries.
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