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The Garden
The evolution dell
Tree ferns growing in the evolution of land plants display.
Welcome to a beautiful garden filled with a huge diversity of plants, including many exotic species set in inspirational displays against the backdrop of a striking Victorian house. The University of Bristol Botanic Garden is the first new university botanic garden to be created in the United Kingdom for nearly forty years. The 1.77 hectare garden has been designed to tell stories about plant evolution and is home to four core plant collections:
The Tropical zone
The Tropical zone, part of the glasshouse collection
These collections are planted in educational displays that convey the drama of plants in the wild, aspects of their evolutionary biology and immerse the visitor in the display, transporting them to many different habitats. The large glasshouses provide the right climatic conditions for many exotic plants including cacti, orchids, carnivorous plants and unique within Bristol the giant Amazon water lily and sacred lotus collection.
The garden is situated in Stoke Bishop, just a few hundred meters from the edge of Durdham Down and a short walk from Bristol zoo. We provide a teaching resource for plant sciences within the University of Bristol, a centre for adult education, a resource for local schools and a new cultural attraction for the city of Bristol. Look up our opening times and see it for yourself!
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By Laura Firszt, Networx
As 21st century Americans, we rely on our home's plumbing system for efficient inflow and outgo. In layperson’s terms, that can be defined as bringing in clean water for drinking and cleaning purposes, and getting rid of unpleasant household waste. Every homeowner (and renter) knows how important it is to treat this essential system with healthy respect. But what does that involve, exactly? Answer these True/False questions to test your home plumbing knowledge.
1. Use the hottest possible water to get your toilet really clean.
False. Overly hot water may cause your toilet bowl to crack. Warm water is just fine. Use a brush for scrubbing power and to avoid accidentally flushing your cleaning cloth. For a green toilet cleaner, try a 1:4 mix of baking soda and vinegar. Did you know plumbers also advise scouring your toilet tank once or twice a year (especially in New Mexico and other states with extremely hard water)?
2. Ice cubes are actually good for your garbage disposal blades.
True. Chopping up ice will give your blades a workout that keeps them sharp. Do not, however, overtax them with hard or stringy items such as bones or corn husks; put those in the garbage can or compost bin instead.
3. A tankless water heater gives you an instant supply of hot water.
True. This type of “demand” water heater saves energy by eliminating the need for standby heat. At the same time, it gives you the convenience of hot water for your shower or dishwashing – instantly. A tankless heater is also longer-lasting and space-saving.
4. The best way to reduce toilet water use is to put a brick into the tank.
False. This was once promoted as an excellent water-saving move. Problem is, inserting the brick may damage your toilet tank’s flushing mechanism. What’s more, the brick will tend to disintegrate over time, blocking your toilet with rubble. Better solutions are to replace your flapper or to install a new toilet with a water-conserving dual flush.
5. Commercial additives will improve the performance of your septic tank.
False. A properly working septic tank does not require the use of biological, odor control or solid reducing additives. It is designed to take care of those functions without additional help.
6. Before turning off the water supply to an electric heater, disconnect the power.
True. Allowing the water level to drop in an electric heater while it is still connected to a power source will tend to result in burn-out of the upper heating element.
7. Connect a plumbing joint securely by tightening it as hard as possible.
False. A firm connection (half a turn of the wrench more than hand-tight) is just right; an overly tight one might cause wrench damage, particularly if you have copper piping.
8. A shower strainer is a device that helps keep your drains clear.
True. A shower strainer (also called a drain cover) is a simple method of blocking hair and debris from getting into your bathroom drains. This handy device comes in different sizes for use in your shower, tub or sink. BTW, flushing hair combings and cuttings is not the healthiest thing for your toilet either.
9. Disconnecting your garden hose in the winter could save your pipes.
True. Leftover water in your garden hose will freeze and expand. This has the potential to increase the pressure on your interior plumbing, possibly causing your pipes to burst. Drain the hose and disconnect it from the outside faucet as part of your pre-winter routine preparations.
10. Don’t plant grass over your septic system drainfield; it interferes with function.
False. Actually, grass will make the area look more attractive, while promoting evaporation and preventing soil erosion. Avoid overwatering and the use of sprinkler systems, though. You will also need to ensure that the roots of trees and shrubbery do not clog the pipes. NEVER tile or pave over your drainfield.
9-10 Correct: Whiz.
6-8 Correct: Well-informed.
5 or less: Time to brush up on your home plumbing savvy!
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Is the Nuclear Family universal?
Extracts from this document...
Is the Nuclear Family Universal? A nuclear family is a family that consists of two cohabiting parents in a sexual relationship with children. The parents must be heterosexual as this is 'socially acceptable', a nuclear family does not have to contain a certain amount of children and the children may be adopted or step children. The nuclear family can also contain an extended family such as a spouse of the children or a grandparent. This idea was first developed by Murdock who believed the nuclear family was universal. George Peter Murdock was a Sociologist who was prominent around 1940 onwards when he developed his 'nuclear family' idea which he believed to be universal. The nuclear is a unit of people living together and this could be considered universal as most countries and cultures raise their children within their own household. Murdock was one of the first sociologists to propose the idea of a nuclear family and applied it to all cultures proclaiming it was universal. Economic cooperation, common residence and reproduction are the main points of the nuclear family and Murdock believed all these things applied to families around the world. ...read more.
In the Nayar society the husband and wife did not live together, there was no commitment to each other, the children were not necessarily fathered by the husband and the husband had no obligation to provide for them economically. This system worked for the Nayar society and showed the point that different societies can have varied definitions of what a family is. There is nothing that shows that these types of family do not work as the children in a Nayar society still received care and primary socialisation just they were not cared for by two cohabiting parents. Socialisation is very important and as the children would still receive it society has filled its main objective to carry on with its culture and values leading on into the future. Another example of not having a universal family archetype is the Lakker who reside in Burma; they do not believe there is a blood tie between mother and child. Women are seen as a container for the child to be born from rather than an actual blood relation. Their society allows for children of the same mother but different father to be sexual partners. ...read more.
Also socially acceptable relationships are not withheld by the Lakker in that they are able to have sexual relations with half brothers or sisters. The family according to Murdock work as a unit and pool their resources, share an income and to an extent share domestic tasks, the Kibbutz community does this but not in the standard way in that the community supports itself and everyone in it not just their own immediate family. In conclusion there are parallels between the nuclear family and other cultures as previously mentioned but to fit the nuclear family label the communities just don't fulfil all of the requirements. The nuclear family clearly isn't universal as a whole but certain aspects of it are in different countries and communities. Murdock's idea of the nuclear family is a little narrow sighted in that not all families are happy ones or involve all of his functions and his idealistic view of a family. Different communities believe in different things and to say everyone in the world is exactly the same is evidently wrong. From this it can be said the theory of a nuclear family cannot be universal as everyone around the world is individual and as individualism becomes more prominent the nuclear family will cease to exist in even a large majority of countries. ...read more.
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Response to the question
This question has been answered fairly well for a GCSE candidate. The writer evidently has a sound understanding which is shown particularly with multiple references to Murdock, who is a key sociologist in the field of the family as a ...
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Response to the question
This question has been answered fairly well for a GCSE candidate. The writer evidently has a sound understanding which is shown particularly with multiple references to Murdock, who is a key sociologist in the field of the family as a universal institution. Murdock’s ideas are referred to (or criticised) throughout the essay, which is useful to do as it shows that the writer has understood the question being set, as they can apply his theory to other families in different societies. This shows that the writer can evaluate, by providing modern examples of families that disprove the “nuclear family is universal†theory. The essay is well structured, with a good introduction and conclusion, which makes it clear and easy to read.
Level of analysis
The writer uses sociological terminology in context frequently; however I feel that this could be used with regard to Functionalism, improving the essay to the highest standard which can be expected at GCSE level. For example when the writer refers to concepts such as “primary socialisation†and “economic cooperation†they could explain that these are Functionalist ideas, and that Murdock is a Functionalist. This is because he indeed sees the nuclear family as universal, as they all provide these concepts.
The writer has made cross-cultural comparisons to argue against the idea that the nuclear family is universal. They have successfully done this by providing examples of other family types, for example the Kibbutz in Israel, and then relating this back to the norms we have in the UK. This shows that they have an awareness of other societies and cultures, and that they have different norms and values to what we do in the UK. Most candidates tend to forget that they need to apply theories to other peoples/places around the globe, so this writer should be credited for their multitude of examples. But they should more explicitly use the terms “norms and values†as this is essentially the reason that we have a variety of families – not just the nuclear. In doing this I feel it would demonstrate and crystallise their understanding of sociology.
Quality of writing
The quality of writing is of a high standard. Spelling is accurate and the use of some punctuation is effective in demonstrating that the writer is aware of sociological key terms. This is because the essay uses quotation marks to show that a sociologist has developed this concept: “nuclear familyâ€Â. The only minor comment I would make would be to perhaps use more varied punctuation. For example, “Sexual relationships being the means of reproduction this links in to the idea of marriage and socially approved relationshipsâ€Â, could be improved by inserting a hyphen: “Sexual relationships being the means of reproduction - this links in to the idea of marriage and socially approved relationshipsâ€Â. This just ensures that the essay makes more grammatical sense.
Reviewed by cwhite 26/02/2012
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natural selection Inglés de EE. UU.
The process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. The theory of its action was first fully expounded by Charles Darwin and is now believed to be the main process that brings about evolution
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Why Too Much Intense Exercise Is Bad
Why You Shouldn't Always Exercise Intensely
High-intensity exercise is the key to shedding belly fat, lowering disease risk, and blasting through calories, but too much is definitely not a good thing. In fact, too much intense exercise can actually put you at risk for major health factors, according to two recent studies.
One study looked at the effects of too much intense exercise on later heart health and found that men who exercised intensely for more than five hours a week at age 30 had a 49 percent higher risk of developing irregular heartbeat or atrial fibrillation (which can lead to stroke) by the time they were 60. Another study found that for people with preexisting heart conditions, intense exercise led to an elevated risk of heart attack or stroke.
While both these and countless other studies have proven that a normal amount of exercise can help improve your health, the findings are important, especially if you've ever felt like you're consistently exercising too hard. While high-intensity workouts are great for losing weight, remember to add steady, moderate exercise and rest days into your schedule for better health — now and in the future.
Source: Shutterstock
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[muh-sahzh, -sahj or, especially Brit., mas-ahzh]
Systematic, scientific manipulation of body tissues with the hands to relieve pain and reduce swelling, relax muscles, and speed healing after strains and sprains. It has been used for more than 3,000 years by the Chinese. Early in the 19th century, the Swedish physician Per Henrik Ling (1776–1839) devised a massage system for joint and muscle ailments, which was later extended to relieve deformities of arthritis and re-educate muscles following paralysis. Manipulations include light or hard stroking, compression (kneading, squeezing, and friction), and percussion (striking with the edges of the hands in rapid alternation). In acupressure, a style of massage derived from China, pressure is exerted on Chinese acupuncture points for healing effects. Seealso physical medicine and rehabilitation.
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Massage Therapy
This article is part of the branches of CAM series.
Complementary and alternative medicine Classifications
NCCAM:Manipulative and body-based methods
Massage is the treatment and practice of soft tissue manipulation with physical, functional, and in some cases psychological purposes and goals. The word comes from the French massage "friction of kneading," or from Arabic massa meaning "to touch, feel or handle" or from Latin massa meaning "mass, dough". (In distinction the ancient Greek word for massage was anatripsis , and the Latin was frictio.) An older etymology may even have been the Hebrew me-sakj "to anoint with oil."
Massage involves acting on and manipulating the client's body with pressure (structured, unstructured, stationary, and/or moving), tension, motion, or vibration done manually or with mechanical aids. Target tissues may include muscles, tendons, ligaments, skin, joints, or other connective tissue, as well as lymphatic vessels, and/or organs of the gastrointestinal system. Massage can be applied with the hands, fingers, elbows, forearm, and feet. There are over eighty different massage modalities. The most cited reasons for introducing massage have been client demand and perceived clinical effectiveness.
In professional settings massage involves the client being treated while lying on a massage table, sitting in a massage chair, or lying on a mat on the floor. The massage subject may be fully or partly unclothed. Parts of the body may be covered with towels or sheets.
Ancient and medieval times
Writings on massage have been found in many ancient civilizations including Rome, Greece, Japan, China, Egypt, Mesopotamia and India. A biblical reference from c.493 BC documents daily massage with olive oil and myrrh as a part of the beauty regimen of the wives of Xerxes. (Esther, 2:9-12) Hippocrates wrote in 460 BC that "The physician must be experienced in many things, but assuredly in rubbing." The ancient Chinese book called Huangdi Neijing by the Yellow Emperor recommended "massage of skin and flesh." The technique of massage abortion, involving the application of pressure to the pregnant abdomen, has been practiced in Southeast Asia for centuries. One of the bas reliefs decorating the temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, dated circa 1150, depicts a demon performing such an abortion upon a woman who has been sent to the underworld. This is believed to be the oldest known visual representation of abortion. In Romania some illnesses were treated by a massage in which the client was trodden on by a tame bear..
Modern times
United States: Massage started to become popular in the United States in the middle part of the 1800s and was introduced by two New York physicians based on Per Henrik Ling's techniques developed in Sweden.
During the 1930s and 1940s massage's influence decreased as a result of medical advancements of the time, while in the 1970s massage's influence grew once again with a notable rise among athletes. Massage was used up until the 1960s and 1970s by nurses to help ease patients’ pain and help them sleep.
Because it is illegal to advertise or offer sexual services in most of the United States, such services are sometimes advertised as "massage".
United Kingdom: Massage is popular in the United Kingdom today and gaining. There are many private practitioners working from their own premises as well as those who operate from commercial venues.
Massage in sports, business and organizations: The 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta was the first time that massage was offered as a core medical service. Massage has been employed by businesses and organizations such as the U.S. Department of Justice, Boeing and Reebok.
Tables and chairs
Specialized massage tables and chairs are used to position clients during massages. A typical commercial massage table has an easily cleaned, heavily padded surface, and a horseshoe-shaped head support that allows the client to breathe easily while lying face down and can be stationary or portable. An orthopedic pillow or bolster can be used to correct body positioning. Ergonomic chairs serve a similar function as a massage table. Chairs may be either stationary or portable models. Massage chairs are easier for the practitioner to transport than massage tables, and clients do not need to disrobe to receive a chair massage. Due to these two factors, chair massage is often performed in settings such as corporate offices, outdoor festivals, shopping malls, and other public locations.
Many different types of oils can be used including fractionated coconut oil, grape seed oil, macadamia oil, sesame oil, pecan oil, and mustard oil. Aromatherapy oils such as neroli oil and pine oil can also be mixed with carrier oils. Salts are also used in association with oils to remove dry skin.
Massage methods
Massage can be performed by a massage therapist, or by other health care professionals, such as chiropractors, osteopaths, athletic trainers, and/or physical therapists. Massage therapists work in a variety of medical and recreational settings and may travel to private residences or businesses. Contraindications to massage include deep vein thrombosis, bleeding disorders or taking blood thinners such as Warfarin, damaged blood vessels, weakened bones from cancer, osteoporosis, or fractures, and fever.
Acupressure (a blend of "acupuncture" and "pressure") is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) technique derived from acupuncture. In acupressure physical pressure is applied to acupuncture points by the hand, elbow, or with various devices.
Ashiatsu massage is an eastern (oriental) born therapy that is designed to rebalance your physical being by rebalancing your energy field ("shi" meaning finger and "astsu" meaning pressure.) Ashiatsu uses pressure applied with thumbs, fingers and palms to specific pressure points of the body. It also uses techniques such as rolling, brushing, vibrating, grasping and in one particular technique developed by Suzuki Yamamoto, pressure is applied with the feet on the persons back, legs and feet (special set up is required for the "foot" Ashiatsu.)
Ayurvedic massage
Ayurveda is a natural health care system originating in India that incorporates massage, yoga, meditation and herbal remedies. Ayurvedic massage, also known as Abhyanga is usually performed by one or two therapists using a heated blend of herbal oils based on the ayurvedic system of humors.
Bowen therapy
Bowen technique involves a rolling movement over fascia, muscles, ligaments, tendons and joints. It is said not to involve deep or prolonged contact with muscle tissues as in most kinds of massage, but claims to relieve muscle tensions and strains and to restore normal lymphatic flow. It is based on practices developed by Australian Tom Bowen.
Breema bodywork is performed on the floor with the recipient fully clothed. It consists of rhythmical and gentle leans and stretches.
Cachunga Massage
Traditional Persian Massage. Cachunga introduced to the Achaemenid Empire of ancient Persia by Darius the 8th. This is a massage that primarily focuses on the breasts of females. Cachunga is a deep tissue massage used with oil. It is based on a fondling motion, and is usually performed in the direction of the heart to promote circulation.
Champissage is a massage technique focusing on the head, neck and face that is believed to balance the chakras.
Esalen Massage
Esalen Massage was developed by Charlotte Selver and works with gentle rocking of the body, passive joint exercises and deep structural work on the muscles and joints, together with an energetic balancing of the body.
Medical massage
Massage used in the medical field includes decongestive therapy used for lymphedema which can be used in conjunction with the treatment of breast cancer. Carotid sinus massage is used to diagnose carotid sinus syncope and is sometimes useful for differentiating supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) from ventricular tachycardia. It, like the valsalva maneuver, is a therapy for SVT. However, it is less effective than management of SVT with medications.
Myofascial release
Anma is a traditional Japanese massage involving kneading and deep tissue work.
Reflexology massage
Reflexology involves massaging, squeezing or pushing parts of the feet, hands and ears with a goal of encouraging health throughout the body. This theory is based on a perceived energetic flow of "meridians" in the body, and is considered pseudoscientific.
Shiatsu (指圧) is a form of Japanese massage that uses thumb pressure and works along the same energy meridians as acupressure and incorporates stretching.
Stone massage
A stone massage uses cold or water-heated stones to apply pressure and heat to the body. Stones coated in oil can also be used by the therapist delivering various massaging strokes.
Structural Integration
Structural Integration's aim is to unwind the strain patterns residing in your body's myofascial system, restoring it to its natural balance, alignment, length, and ease. This is accomplished by deep, slow, fascial and myofascial manipulation, coupled with movement re-education. Various brands of Structural Integration are Kinesis Myofascial Integration and rolfing
Swedish massage
Swedish massage uses five styles of long, flowing strokes to massage. The five basic strokes are effleurage (light touch), petrissage (kneading), tapotement (rhythmic tapping), friction (compression), and vibration. Swedish massage has shown to be helpful in reducing pain, joint stiffness, and improving function in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee over a period of eight weeks. The development of Swedish massage is credited to Per Henrik Ling though the Dutch practitioner Johan Georg Mezger adopted the French names to denote the basic strokes.
Thai massage
Known in Thailand as นวดแผนโบราณ (Nuat phaen boran, IPA ), meaning "ancient/traditional massage", Thai massage originated in India and is based on ayurveda and yoga. It was believed that the massage art was brought over to Thailand by Shivago Komarpaj over 2500 years ago. The technique combines massage with yoga-like positions during the course of the massage; the northern style emphasizes stretching while the southern style emphasizes acupressure.
Traditional Chinese massage
Two types of traditional Chinese massage exist - Tui na (推拿) which focusses on pushing, stretching and kneading the muscle and Zhi Ya (指壓) which focuses on pinching and pressing at acupressure points. Both are based on principles from Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Trager Approach
The Trager approach combines movement, massage and education.
Trigger point therapy
Also called a pressure point massage, this involves stimulating hypothetical trigger point that may refer pain sensations to other parts of the body. Manual pressure is applied to these points. Trigger point therapy was founded by Janet G. Travell and David Simons.
Visceral manipulation
One form is Mayan abdominal massage which is practiced in many countries in Latin America. This type of massage was developed by Elijio Panti of Belize and brought to the United States by Rosita Arvigo.
Watsu is the combination of hydrotherapy and shiatsu developed by Harold Dull. The work is done in skin temperature water with both the therapist and practitioner in the water, usually a pool which is between 3.5 ft to 4 ft (100–120 cm) deep. The work entails much movement in the water and practitioners believe that it incorporates the activation of the energy lines derived from shiatsu.
Associated methods
Many types of practices are associated with massage and include Bodywork (alternative medicine), manual therapy, energy medicine, and breathwork. Other names for massage and related practices include hands-on work, body/somatic therapy, and somatic movement education. Body-mind integration techniques stress self-awareness and movement over physical manipulations by a practitioner. Therapies related to movement awareness/education are closer to Dance and movement therapies. Massage can also have connections with the New Age movement and alternative medicine as well as being used by mainstream medical practitioners.
Beneficial effects
Peer-reviewed medical research has shown that the benefits of massage include pain relief, reduced trait anxiety and depression, and temporarily reduced blood pressure, heart rate, and state anxiety. Theories behind what massage might do include blocking nociception (gate control theory), activating the parasympathetic nervous system which may stimulate the release of endorphins and serotonin, preventing fibrosis or scar tissue, increasing the flow of lymph, and improving sleep but such effects are yet to be supported by well designed clinical studies.
Massage is hindered from reaching the gold standard of scientific research which includes placebo-controlled and double blind clinical trials. Developing a "sham" manual therapy for massage would be difficult since even light touch massage could not be assumed to be completely devoid of effects on the subject. It would also be difficult to find a subject that would not notice that they were getting less of a massage and it would be impossible to blind the therapist. Massage can employ randomized controlled trials which are published in peer reviewed medical journals. This type of study could increase the credibility of the profession because it displays that purported therapeutic effects are reproducible.
Single dose effects
Pain relief: Relief from pain due to musculoskeletal injuries and other causes is cited as a major benefit of massage. In one study, cancer patients self-reported symptomatic relief of pain. This study, however, did not include a no treatment or placebo control group so these effect may be due to the placebo effect or regression towards the mean. Massage can also relieve tension headaches. Acupressure or pressure point massage may be more beneficial than classic Swedish massage in relieving back pain. However, a meta-study conducted by scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign failed to find a statistically significant reduction in pain immediately following treatment.
State anxiety: Massage has been shown to reduce state anxiety, a transient measure of anxiety in a given situation.
Blood pressure and heart rate: Massage has been shown to reduce blood pressure and heart rate as temporary effects.
Other: Massage also stimulates the immune system by increasing peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs). However, this immune system effect is only observed in aromatherapy massage, which includes sweet almond oil, lavender oil, cypress oil, and sweet marjoram oil. It is unclear whether this effect persists over the long term.
Multiple dose effects
Pain relief: When combined with education and exercises, massage might help sub-acute, chronic, non-specific low back pain. Furthermore, massage has been shown to reduce pain experienced in the days or weeks after treatment.
Trait anxiety: Massage has been shown to reduce trait anxiety; a person's general susceptibility to anxiety.
Depression: Massage has been shown to reduce subclinical depression.
Diseases: Massage, involving stretching, has been shown to help with spastic diplegia resulting from Cerebral palsy in a small pilot study. The researchers warn that these results should "be viewed with caution until a double-blind controlled trial can be conducted".
Massage has been used in an effort to improve symptoms, disease progression, and quality of life in HIV patients, however, this treatment is not scientifically supported.
In the USA there are about 90,000 massage therapists. Training programs in the US are typically 500–1000 hours in length, and can award a certificate, diploma, or degree depending on the particular school. There are around 1,300 programs training massage therapists in the country and study will often include anatomy and physiology, kinesiology, massage techniques, first aid and CPR, business, ethical and legal issues, and hands on practice along with continuing education requirements if regulated. The Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation (COMTA) is one of the organizations that works with massage schools in the U.S.. 38 states and the District of Columbia require some type of licencing for massage therapists. In the US, 32 states use the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork's certification program as a basis for granting licenses either by rule or statute. The National Board grants the designation Nationally Certified in Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCTMB). There are two tests available and you can become certified through a porfolio process if you have equivalent training and experience. Between 10-20% of towns or counties regulate the profession. These local regulations can range from prohibition on opposite sex massage, fingerprinting and venereal checks from a doctor, to prohibition on house calls because of concern regarding sale of sexual services.
In Canada only three provinces regulate massage therapy : British Columbia, Ontario, and Newfoundland and Labrador. The Canadian Massage Therapists Alliance (CMTA) has set a level of 2200 practice hours in Ontario, and Newfoundland and Labrador and 3000 hours in British Columbia. In India, massage therapy is licenced by The Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (India) in March 1995.
Because the art and science of massage is a globally diverse phenomenon, different legal jurisdictions sometimes recognize and license individuals with titles. Examples are:
• Registered Massage Therapist (RMT) Canada
• Certified Massage Therapist (CMT)
• Licensed Massage Practitioner (LMP)
• Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT)
• Licensed Massage and Bodywork Therapist (LMBT) North Carolina
Prevalence in the United States
In 1997 there was an estimated 114 million visits to massage therapists in the US. Massage therapy is the most used type of Complementary and alternative medicine in hospitals in the United States.
People state that they use massage because they believe that it relieves pain from musculoskeletal injuries and other causes of pain, reduces stress and enhances relaxation, rehabilitates sports injuries, decreases feelings of anxiety and depression, and increases general well being.
In a poll of 25-35 year olds 79% said they would like their health insurance plan to cover massage. Companies that offer massage to their employees include Allstate, Best Buy, Cisco Systems, FedEx, Gannett (which runs USA Today), General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, JC Penney, Kimberly-Clark, Texas Instruments and Yahoo. In 2006 Duke University Health System opened up a center to integrate medical disciplines with CAM disciplines such as massage therapy and acupuncture. There were 15,500 spas in the United States in 2007 with about a third of the visitors being men.
The number of visits rose from 91 million in 1999 to 136 million in 2003, generating a revenue that equals $11 billion.
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The Fukushima nuclear plant's slow recovery offers lessons to the US
Despite the Japanese PM's optimistic assessment of Fukushima, experts have new worries about the plant's recovery
The Fukushima nuclear power plant
Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) says it will take another 40 years to fully decommission the Fukushima reactors. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
In December, Japan's prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, declared that "a cold shutdown" had been achieved and that the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was now over. "Today, we have reached a great milestone", Noda told the Japanese people in a televised address. "The reactors are stable, which should resolve one big cause of concern for us all."
But Mr Noda's optimistic assessment appears to have been premature. Nuclear engineer and former power company executive Arnie Gunderson compared the prime minister's statement to President George Bush declaring "mission accomplished" on the deck of the USS Lincoln in 2003. Gunderson calls the situation at Fukushima "a long battle, far from over."
Even Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), which owns the Fukushima facility, says that it will take another 40 years to fully decommission the reactors there, a project which poses unprecedented engineering challenges. But the company's own tests disclose a more immediate danger. Rising radiation levels within one of the reactors, the highest recorded so far, and evidence of a leak in the critical cooling system demonstrate that the situation is still far from stable.
Tepco revealed at the end of March that protective water levels in the containment vessel of Reactor No 2, were far shallower than they had expected, which might mean that the uranium fuel rods there are no longer completely submerged, and are heating up. The Japan Times reported on 29 March that radiation inside the vessel has reached 73 sieverts per hour – high enough to administer a lethal dose to a human in a matter of minutes, even to disable the robotic devices which are sent regularly into the reactor to monitor what is happening there.
Conditions elsewhere in the plant are more difficult to assess. Reactors 1 and 3, both of which melted down after the earthquake and tsunami last year, are currently sealed and impossible to enter, even by robots. So we don't know what is going on inside those crippled structures.
But nuclear experts say that their biggest concern involves Reactor 4, which sustained severe structural damage during the earthquake and subsequent hydrogen explosions which collapsed its roof. This is where hundreds of tons of spent fuel sits perched 100 feet above the ground in a cooling pool exposed to the open sky.
A report released in February by the Independent Investigation Commission on the nuclear accident called this pool "the weakest link" at Fukushima. Robert Alvarez, former senior policy adviser at the US department of energy said: "If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain it could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl accident."
How likely is this? While the structure of Reactor 4 is stable for the moment, the Dai-ichi plant lies miles from a big earthquake fault – as large as the one that caused last year's quake, but much closer to Fukushima. According to a study published in February (pdf) in the European Geosciences Union's journal Solid Earth, that fault is now overdue for a quake.
Whether or not the critical pool at Reactor 4 would survive another major quake intact, Edwin Lyman, a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, told me in a phone interview that a failure of the jury-rigged inadequate piping installed after the disaster could knock the cooling system out of commission.
After visiting Fukushima on a fact finding mission recently, Senator Ron Wyden wrote to Japan's ambassador to the US warning that, "loss of containment in any of these pools could result in an even greater release than the initial accident. "Wyden urged Japanese authorities to remove the spent fuel rods from the vulnerable pools to far safer "dry cask storage", which would protect them from potential earthquake release. Yet, the technological challenges of such a transfer of highly dangerous materials are formidable.
These risks have led two former Japanese diplomats on a crusade to avert what they see as a disaster waiting to happen. UN veteran Akio Matsumura and former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland Mitsuhei Murata attended a conference in Seoul at the end of March "to inform the participants from 54 nations of the potential global catastrophe of reactor unit 4." They called on the international community to set up an independent assessment team of structural engineers and nuclear scientists to study conditions at Reactor 4 and recommend a course of action.
What lessons can the nuclear industry in the US draw from the Fukushima accident and its still unresolved aftermath? Edwin Lyman describes it as a wake-up call that we have not yet heeded. He told me in a phone interview that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has failed to fully implement the recommendations of its own post-Fukushima task force.
Lyman says that several nuclear plants in the midwest, south and west are located near earthquake faults, including two plants in California – Diablo Canyon in San Luis Obispo county, and San Onofre between Los Angeles and San Diego.
Both of the California facilities suffered what the NRC terms "near misses" within the last year. At Diablo Canyon, the plant's engineers inadvertently locked a series of emergency valves in the reactor cooling system, an error which was not noticed for 18 months and could have led to a meltdown in the case of an emergency. The problem at San Onofre involved a leak of radioactive steam from a worn generator tube in January. The plant has been shut down indefinitely and is currently undergoing extensive testing.
While a Fukushima-type disaster could happen here in the US, Edwin Lyman insists that it doesn't need to. But he says that we have to act now to require new safeguards, demand higher performance standards and expand the roster of accidents that nuclear power plants will need to protect against. Let's hope the NRC is listening.
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Corpus callosum of the brain
The corpus callosum is the structure deep in the brain that connects the right and left hemispheres of the cerebrum, coordinating the functions of the two halves.Corpus callosum of the brain
• Call 911 for all medical emergencies.
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Risky Chickens
Bayer Refuses to Withdraw Animal Antibiotic That Causes Drug Resistance in Humans
Because the vast majority of the roughly 30,000 people who took Cipro in the anthrax scare were treating fear rather than exposure, the effectiveness of the bestselling drug was undermined even as its sales were skyrocketing. The more people who don't have bacterial infections take antibiotics, the less effective the drugs are when treating real problems, including TB, pneumonia, and bad colds.
Strangely enough, being partner to human overuse is not the only way Cipro-maker Bayer is at once reaping benefits from antibiotics and eroding their power. Bayer's drug Baytril—a super-antibiotic virtually identical to Cipro that is fed to more than 128 million chickens each year—is so clearly responsible for hundreds of Cipro-resistant infections in humans that the Food and Drug Administration has begun the process of withdrawing its approval.
Shortly after the FDA started its effort to ban potent, Cipro-like poultry pharmaceuticals last year, Abbott Laboratories voluntarily withdrew SaraFlox, Baytril's only competitor. Bayer instead appealed the agency's move, fighting to keep selling a drug that treats chicken respiratory infections—and pulls in an estimated $150 million worldwide each year. Cipro dominates the human antibiotic market, but Baytril is the market for chicken super-antibiotics. (In 1999 alone, 38,000 pounds of such super-antibiotics were fed to animals, according to the Animal Health Institute.) The FDA is expected to decide by the end of December whether to ban Baytril outright or to allow Bayer a hearing to defend it.
The agency bases its own case against Baytril on rising antibiotic resistance in human cases of food poisoning from a bacteria called campylobacter, which causes vomiting, diarrhea, and—in about 1 percent of cases—death. When such cases are extreme, Cipro is often the treatment of choice. Though people have had access to such powerful antibiotics since 1987, when Cipro was approved, resistance to them "did not increase among campylobacter organisms until 1996 and 1997, soon after the approval and use of these drugs in poultry," according to an FDA entry in the federal register.
When confronted with Baytril, bacteria in chicken experience a sort of quick, mini-evolution; while most die from the drugs, those with genetic differences that make them invulnerable go on to reproduce—and pass the mutations on. People can pick up these bacterial infections from eating undercooked chicken or juice from uncooked chicken.
When Baytril was approved in 1995, farmers began feeding it to entire flocks, even if only one bird was sick. Since then, the percentage of drug-resistant campylobacter infections in humans has shot up from about 1 percent to almost 20 percent, with more than 9000 Cipro-resistant cases reported in 1999 alone, according to a national database of food-borne infections.
While Baytril is used only on sick chickens and turkeys—and the other birds in their flocks—less powerful antibiotics are routinely also fed to healthy animals. Indeed, 70 percent of all antibiotics in this country are used to fatten up the profits by making commercially raised animals bigger, according to estimates by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Today, virtually all of the 8 billion chickens slaughtered each year are exposed to antibiotics at some point in their lives. (The roughly 36,000 antibiotic-free, certified-organic chickens provide the only exception.)
The dangers of the resulting antibiotic resistance are obvious. Take the case of Baytril: Most people with chicken-borne food poisoning won't require treatment, but for those who do, Cipro is less and less likely to work. As a result, experts say, the number of drug-resistant cases of campylobacter and salmonella, another chicken-borne bacteria, are shooting into the hundreds of thousands, while about 700 people now die each year from these bugs.
Even as the direct casualties are increasing, Tamar Barlam, a physician and infectious-disease specialist who directs the antibiotic-resistance project at the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest calls them "just the tip of the iceberg." She worries about infections that may develop unnoticed as other bacteria—including some that aren't the intended target of the antibiotic—develop drug resistance.
An article in the October 4 New England Journal of Medicine points to just that sort of silent epidemic. The study traced drug-resistant, urinary tract infections in women to a single strain of E. coli the authors think was passed through infected meat. After finding the drug-resistant infection in California, the researchers looked for it in Minnesota and Michigan. "They found it in each of the states they investigated," says Barlam. "And I truly believe the more we look the more we're going to find."
Nevertheless, agricultural trade groups defend the widespread use of antibiotics in healthy chickens. "It improves the gut health of the bird and its conversion of feed, what we call the feed efficiency ratio," says Richard L. Lobb, spokesperson for the National Chicken Council. Without drugs, poultry producers say, chicken prices would go up. As for Baytril, Lobb argues that a connection between the drug and antibiotic-resistant infections in humans hasn't yet been proven. Lobb also supports the industrywide practice of putting Baytril in an entire flock's food and water, saying, "It's useless to try to treat a single bird."
Bayer did not comment, but its press release about Baytril states that the number of campylobacter infections attributed to eating chicken has been overestimated and that "there is no evidence that withdrawal of the product would . . . have a meaningful impact on resistant campylobacter infections in humans."
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Legislative Powers
Welsh Assembly Government
Legislative Powers
At our Executive Committee meeting on 5 November we had a thorough briefing on the provisions of the Government of Wales Act 2006. This underlined the complexity of process and indeed vocabulary. Our challenge is to explain its essence simply.
Most of the legislation put in place in Cardiff results from ministerial decisions without requiring the approval of the National Assembly. In areas like education or health, ministers take decisions under powers delegated to them in legislation previously adopted in Westminster. Similarly, they can act to implement European Union directives.
The Assembly has its own powers to pass laws, which are called Measures. These apply only in Wales and are the equivalent of Acts of Parliament approved by Westminster. Assembly Measures are like primary legislation, that is law which is not a consequence of or stems from existing legislation, but is conceived in the Assembly and agreed by the Assembly
So far, the Assembly’s powers to pass Measures are limited to certain policy areas where it has been given the power to make laws. The 2006 Act sets out 20 areas where potentially the Assembly could be given the competence to legislate. This could happen in 1 of 2 ways:
First the Assembly can petition the Houses of Parliament for part of one of these areas to be transferred to the Assembly. If agreed, the Assembly would then be able to pass measures within that area transferred. This method provides the means by which the scope for the Assembly to adopt primary legislation can be progressively increased.
The alternative is that the competence for the Assembly to act in all 20 areas would be agreed at the same time in one decision. This would work as follows. The 2006 Act provides that the Assembly can propose a referendum of the Welsh people. If agreed by both Houses of Parliament, and if a simple majority voted yes, then powers in all 20 areas would be transferred to the Assembly, which would then be competent and able to pass laws, called Acts, in any of these areas without further ado.
The Convention will stimulate debate as to whether more powers for the National Assembly are considered desirable. What would be the implications for the Assembly, the civil service, civil society, local authorities, and all other interested parties of that increase in powers. In particular what are the merits or disadvantages of the two routes. We need the opinions of the people of Wales on the different aspects.
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Uses Of Computer In Business
Uses Of Computer In Business
The use of computer in business is very important. Today, in global markets, it is impossible to run the business without use of computer technology. Many business activities are performed very quickly and efficiently by using computers. The administrative paperwork is also reduced by using computers. Many business websites to sell their products and contact their customers.
In business, computers are used for the following purposes:
1. Marketing
In business computer is very useful for the marketing of products of organisation. Many marketing applications are available that can be used to provide information about the products to the customers. Computer is also used for maintaining the record of products.
2. Stock Exchanges
Stock exchanges are the important places for businessmen. Today, stock market around the world are mostly computerised. Many stock markets launched the computerised systems. These systems make it possible for stockbrokers to do all their trading electronically
3. Banks
Computers are widely used in banks. They are used in banks for record keeping and maintaining the accounts of customers. The cheques of customers are processed through computer. The cheque are read by MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Reader) input device.
Most of the banks provide the facility of ATM. The customers can draw money through ATM card from any branch of that bank or another bank at any time of a day. Similarly, some banks provide the facility of credit cards that can be used to purchase different items from departmental stores without paying net cash.
4. Departmental Stores
The role of computer is very important in departmental stores. It is used to perform different operations. For Example, the record of products for sale is maintained through computer. Similarly, the bill of customer is prepared through computer. All operation are performed very easily and quickly.
In departmental stores, a bar code is printed on most of the products. This bar code contains information about the products such as name of product and its price. This bar code is read through the device known as bar-code reader or scanner. The price of the product is entered into the computer through bar code reader. The customers bill is prepared quickly and customer gets the accurate bill. The record of the sale is stored in computer. The computer also updates the inventory list. This list helps a business to manage its stocks more efficiently.
Security cameras are also widely used in departmental stores. It records the activities of the customers in the departmental stores.
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Why did Italy become Germany ally in WW2?
"Does Italy carry any historical responsibility for Holocaust?Was Mussolini racist?Why did ex Premier Silvio Berlusconi chose today of all days to talk about Mussolini?Today is International Holocaust Remembrance day"
Answers (6)
juanin 06-02-2013
"Why did Italy become Germany ally in WW2? In 1934 Italy almost declared war to Germany during the first anschluss attempt... (italian army moved to austrian borders menacing war if Hitler would have completed the anschluss) well... in 1935 italy declared war to ethiopia wa was member of the league of nations... the embargo subsequently posed on italy forced italy to search new alliances... Does Italy carry any historical responsibility for Holocaust? Partially yes... the racial law in italy surely gave italy part of the responibility"
annuu 22-05-2013
"In iii September 1943, this Eighth Military ended up from Reggio (on the ‘feet’) along with begun it is slow-moving swig the kick of Italia. 5 days in the future, the united states Fifth Military ended up with Salerno, experiencing lowering In german amount of resistance. At this stage an italian man , governing consented to a great truce with the Allies (widely released along 7 Sept). Mussolini ended up being dismissed simply by Baron Victor Emmanuel III in addition to placed directly under police arrest aside his successor, Badoglio, however seemed to be rescued through Hitler’ohydrates airborne commandos. Mussolini grew to be go from the Salo Commonwealth in A language like german-entertained Gargagno within n . France. Badoglio, exactly who acquired fled from to Pescara, set up a new authorities below Allied safeguard. On 12 April, the Italian govt stated struggle upon Indonesia. "
dipen 31-05-2013
"Lx years of The second world war videos, as well as a ten of World war two video game titles, made something clear: Whether it had not been for The us, you'd many always be chatting A language like german at the moment, child! U-Utes-The! U-S-Any! "
kamin 01-06-2013
"The precisely permeable membrane layer can be a tissue layer in which only might be permeated through discerning factors, basically a new exterior that enables several elements with and not some others. Like a plasma membrane will certainly permit water system soft with it :) "
dilber 06-06-2013
"Mussolini thought we would enter in the warfare soon after watching just how Malaysia was being able to grind the French in addition to the confederate aids to all connected with European European countries. Consequently the Italian authoritarian Mussolini thought i would state battle up against the Partners in order that the state could acquire having many light struggle spoils. Because the Italians thought we would offer the axis aids, Germany lent their whole service for you to their newly found friend. The united states routed more than encouragement troopers that would assistance Italy make its way as a result of Italy. "
shantanu_85 09-06-2013
"Italy was mainly a British conceived idea, the Americans were dead against the notion. The British felt that it would draw German troops into being spread out and in many conflicts, drawing them away from what eventually became the Normandy Invasion. The Americans disagreed and felt it was a waste of time and men suggesting that a stronger, earlier landing in Normandy to create the real second front was better. I'm not sure precisely how the British won that debate, but I suspect it has much to do with Russian pressure on the western allies to establish a foothold in Europe and draw troops away from the East as early as possible. I do know however that the disagreement between the allies on this point was considerable. "
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Poor Nations are Happiest
January 12, 2013
panamapoor.jpeg(left, Panamanian woman waves. Panama ranked world's happiest country.)
According to scientists, people in poor countries can find joy in the moral satisfaction that often is not available to citizens of the developed countries.
by Sergei Vasilenkov
(edited/abridged by henrymakow.com)
Citizens of poor countries are the happiest in the world.
Gallup discovered that citizens of the poorest countries were the happiest. The list of the happiest countries was topped by El Salvador, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Trinidad and Tobago. What is the secret of Hispanic happiness?
People were asked five questions, all about the ways they spent the previous day. They were asked whether they felt joy, whether they felt rested, and how often they laughed and smiled. In addition, the researchers asked whether their interviewees felt respected by their peers, as well as whether they learned something new the day before.
According to Gallup, the happiest people were the citizens of El Salvador, Panama and Paraguay. The top ten included 7 countries in Latin America - in addition to the above, Venezuela, Ecuador, Guatemala and Costa Rica. Russia, however, did not even make it to the top one hundred of the happiest countries, occupying one of the lowest spots (along with Iran and Algeria).
The US came 33rd, tied with Chile, China, Sweden and Swaziland. Canada, Netherlands, Ireland and Denmark, meanwhile, all cracked the top 20.
First place was occupied by a small equatorial country in Latin America - Panama, whose population is only 3.4 million people (according to 2010 census).
Panama's mortality rate is among the lowest in the world-196th. Panamanian men live on average 74 years, women - 80. In Panama, the vast majority of the population lives in urban areas - 73 percent. According to UN statistics, the per capita GDP in 2009 was nearly 12 thousand dollars.
The level of health care in the country is also high. Hospitals and clinics boast state of the art equipment and doctors are highly skilled. Incidentally, nearly all of Panama's qualified doctors have been trained in the U.S. The cost of health insurance in the country does not exceed $800 dollars, and the price of medical services is two times lower than in the United States.
The country's favorable climate plays a significant role. The temperatures remain virtually unchanged all year round at the level of 25-28C degrees in the afternoon.
Despite the fact that El Salvador and Paraguay took second and third places in the Gallup ranking, experts still say that the standard of living in these countries is low. The urban population in these countries is under 60 percent, and the economy is based on agriculture. The unemployment rate in these countries is somewhat higher, but it is easier to find a job here than in Panama - mainly in logging, and cotton and sugar cane plantations.
Average life expectancy in other Latin American countries, however, is the same as in Panama - 73 years for men and 79 for women. However, the level of health care in these less developed countries is poor. For example, this year, Paraguayan doctors sounded the alarm as the country faced an epidemic of yellow fever.
If the standard of living in Panama is comparable to that of developed European countries, residents of such countries as El Salvador, Uruguay, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago cannot boast similar conditions. Scientists explain their happiness by historically formed mentality of these people who see happiness in things other than material goods. According to them, people in poor countries can find joy in the moral satisfaction that often is not available to citizens of the developed countries.
Some of the world's media cited an example of two attitudes - a successful and wealthy businessman from Singapore and a poor woman who sells tea in the streets of Paraguay.
"We keep working and don't get paid enough," complained the 33-year Singaporean Richard Lowe.
"Wealth does not bring happiness, but only problems. Life is too short, and there is no place for sadness," said Maria Solis of Paraguay.
Singapore, Iraq and Armenia closed the list of the happiest countries in the world. It may be true that it is not the standard of living in a particular country, but the attitude of the citizens that matters.
Thanks to Tony Blizzard for sending this.
First Comment from Tony:
I can't vouch for the absolute accuracy of the below article from Pravda.ru but the trend is interesting. I may have been mislead in my belief that the actually poorest countries in the world would be in Central Africa. Or Southern Asia.
Observation seems to bear out that the unhappiness of the "Western" totally materialist rat race, often considered Jewish in concept, compares unfavorably to "third world" apparent general satisfaction in having enough to get by, with real priorities geared toward more worthwhile priorities such as family and religion. Are not the named "happiest" nations basically Catholic?
These small nations are obviously not caught up in any foolish, prideful, competition to be considered top dog on the world totem pole in any category and thus would be much more "laid back" than "developed" nations. Too, unlike the Protestantism of most of the "developed" world, Catholicism does not imply that enjoying life is a deadly sin. Nor does it condone such inhuman "rights" as child murder (abortion) which is the leading cause of death in the United States these days. How many mothers who have murdered their children in this manner are subconsciously haunted and never really at ease in life by reason of having committed that heinous, criminal sin?
Of course, most of the reasoning here on my part is conjecture so it would be interesting to have the input of anyone on this list who has real knowledge of the general population of any these named nations concerning the accuracy of the report of their happiness.
Comments for "Poor Nations are Happiest"
Siobhan said (January 13, 2013):
The poorest country I've been to, by far, has been India. Traveling there for the first of three times at 25 (young and naive) I was astounded to see how much happier the most dirt poor of Indians were compared to Americans of every socioeconomic status. I'm talking the servants who lived in the alleyways beyond the fences of the wealthy families without running water, toilets, or doors on their tiny stone "houses" who bathed and crapped in public. Oddly, these same servants all had color TV's inside their shacks with what seemed like 100 cable channels which they openly pirated off their employers. Don't get me started on the ills of Bollywood which is clearly importing Western hegemony (romantic "love"). I think what the extremely poor have beyond tradition is that they know their place. They haven't sold their souls for illusions and a hamster wheel. I couldn't help but notice that the wealthier Indians were (i.e. more Westernized) the LESS HAPPY they were. My real education began in India.
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Schwäbisch Hall,city, Baden-Württemberg Land (state), southern Germany, on the Kocher River, east of Heilbronn. The centre of the Hohenlohe lands, a free imperial city from 1276 to 1802, it owed both its foundation and its prosperity to its saline springs and the salt trade. It retains its medieval character, with a fine marketplace, half-timbered houses, and wooden bridges. Notable landmarks are the Gothic church of St. Michael (1527, on Romanesque foundations) at the top of a magnificent Baroque flight of steps (used as a summer open-air-theatre stage), the Gothic Fish Fountain (1509), and the Rococo town hall (1731–35). The Benedictine-abbey mountain fortress of Komburg is nearby. Schwäbisch Hall is a busy cultural, administrative, and commercial centre as well as a spa and manufactures tourist destination. Manufactures include building materials, electrical goods, and textilesmachinery, synthetic materials, glass, and metal products. Pop. (1989 est.2005) 3136,375711.
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Yoruba religion
This religion has found its way throughout the world and is now expressed in several varieties which include Candomblé, Lucumí/Santería, Vodou, Shango in Trinidad, Anago, Oyotunji as well as some aspects of Umbanda, Winti, Obeah, Vodun and as well as many others.
These varieties or spiritual lineages as they are called are practiced throughout areas of Nigeria, the Republic of Benin, Togo, Brazil, Cuba, Dominican Republic , Guyana, Ayiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States, and Venezuela among others….
Traditionally, Yorubaland consisted of semi-independent states governed by kings. Under those twenty or more kings, a greater number of subordinate rulers, at least 1000, were responsible for single towns and villages. Therefore there was never much political unity. The principal source of ethnic identity was language, which distinguished the Yoruba from the neighbouring traditions such as the Hausa speaking peoples.
However ancestral cultures directly related to the Yoruba once flourished well north of the Niger. Portuguese explorers “discovered” the Yoruba cities and kingdoms in the fifteenth century, but cities such as Ife and Benin, among others, had been standing at their present sites for at least five hundred years before the European arrival. Archaeological evidence indicates that a technologically and artistically advanced, proto-Yoruba (Nok), were living somewhat north of the Niger in the first millennium B.C., and they were then already working with iron. [Note: This is a measure of a civilizations’ “advancement” for scholars].
Ifa theology states that the creation of humankind arose in the sacred city of Ile Ife where Oduduwa (the first king) created dry land from water. As a result, a large but undetermined number of Africans migrated from Mecca to Ile Ife. At this point the Eastern Africans and Western Africans synergized. Ife was the first of all Yoruba cities. Later, the cities of Oyo and Benin were created, and expanded as a consequence of their strategic locations at a time when trading became prosperous.
Ife, unlike Benin and Oyo, never developed into a true kingdom. Though it remained a city-state it had paramount importance to Yoruba’s as the original sacred city and the dispenser of basic religious thought. Until relatively recent times the Yoruba’s did not consider themselves a single people, but rather as citizens of Oyo, Benin, Yagba and other cities, regions or kingdoms. These cities regarded Lagos and Owo, for example, as foreign neighboors, and the Yoruba kingdoms warred not only against the Dahomeans but also against each other. Both Benin and Oyo are said to have been founded by Ife rulers or descendants of Ife rulers. Benin derived its knowledge of brass casting directly from Ife, and the religious system of divining called Ifa spread from Ife not only throughout the Yoruba country but to other West African cultures as well.
The royal dynasties are said to descend from a single ancestor, the first king of Ile Ife – Oduduwa. During Oduduwa’s lifetime, or soon after his death, his sons and grandsons are said to have left Ile Ife to found their own kingdoms. In several oral traditions, the founders of the principal kingdoms are presented as the children of Oduduwa specifically by his principal wife, Omonide or Iyamode. In Cuba this King and Queen are known as Obatala and Yemaya. There are many variations on the story of creation and how the Orisha were born from the coupling of Oduduwa and Omonide (Obatala and Yemaya). An example is given in this excerpt from Dr. Marta Maria Vega’s Altar of My Soul:
The Orisha Olodumare, the Supreme God, originally lived in the lower part of heaven, overlooking endless stretches of water. One day, Olodumare decided to create Earth, and sent an emissary, the orisha Obatalá, to perform this task. Olodumare gave Obatalá the materials he needed to create the world: a small bag of loose earth, a gold chain, and a five-toed hen.
Obatalá was instructed to use the chain to descend from heaven. When he reached the last link, he piled the loose earth on top of the water. Next, he placed the hen on the pile of earth, and ordered her to scatter the earth with her toes across the surface of the water.
When this was finished, Obatalá climbed the chain to heaven to report his success to Olodumare. Olodumare then sent his trusted assistant, the chameleon, to verify that the earth was dry. When his helper had assured him that the Earth was solid, Olodumare named Earth “Ile Ife,” the sacred house.
Before he retired to the uppermost level of heaven, Olodumare decided to distribute his sacred powers “aché”. He united Obatalá, the Orisha of creation, and Yemayá, the orisha of the ocean, who gave birth to a pantheon of orishas, each possessing a share of Olodumare’s sacred power. At last, the divine power of Olodumare was dispersed. Then one day, Olodumare called them all from Earth to heaven and gave Obatalá the sacred power to create human life. Obatalá returned to Earth and created our ancestors, endowing them with his own divine power. We are all descendants from the first people of the sacred city of Ile Ife; we are all children of Olodumare, the sacred orisha who created the world.
For every Yoruba in the Diaspora, the ancient city of lle-lfe is their ancestral home and root. It is incontestable that Oduduwa who all sources of history proclaim as the progenitor of the Yoruba race, had his house (sacred grove) in lle-lfe. Oduduwa is believed to have had several sons (16 in number) who later became powerful traditional rulers of Yoruba land: Alafin of Oyo, Oni of Ife, Oragun of Ila, Owa of Ilesha, Alake of Abeokuta and Osemawe of Ondo.
Yoruba believe in a supreme being, in primordial divinities, and spirits that have been deified. God is known as Olodumare (the one who has the fullness of everything) and Olorun (the owner of heaven, the Lord whose abode is in the heaven above). Other names are also used that reflect the Yoruba belief that God has all the possible attributes of a person. As the Supreme Being created heaven and earth, he also brought into existence hundreds of divinities, and the spirits (Orisa, or Imole, and Ebora). Other historical figures, such as kings, culture heroes, founders of cities, etc. were deified, and are invoked along with personifications of natural forces such as earth, wind, trees, river, lagoon, sea, rock, hills and mountains. As in other African societies, Yoruba also believe in the active existence of the deceased ancestors.
The Yoruban philisophy includes the beliefs that:
• There is One Supreme God
• Except for the day you were born and the day you are supposed to die there is not a single event in ones life that cannot be forecast and if necessary, changed.
• Your spirit lives on after death and can reincarnate through blood relatives
• You are born with a specific path.
• Divination serves as a road map to your path.
• Our ancestors exist and must be honored, respected and consulted.
• The Orisa (forces of nature) live within us and deal with the affairs of men.
• You must never harm another human being or the universe, which you are apart of.
• Spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional realms of our existence must all work together and be balanced.
• Sacrifice is necessary to assure spiritual success.
Egun is the collective representation of the Ancestors.
We often call our Ancestors by the name, Egun, which in Yoruba language means bones.
As we walk upon the Earth our feet press against the bones of the Ancestors on whose shoulders we stand. Like most indigenous cultures of the world, Africans believe that those who go before us make us what we are. When we walk on the Earth, we literally stand on the shoulders of those who bodies have been committed to the soil, the water, and the wind. Our Ancestors influence our lives through heredity and human culture. However, there is an even deeper connection to the Ancestors as active spirits who continue to influence our lives. We humans honour them with altars, music and prayer. They in turn offer us guidance, protection and prosperity.
We treat our ancestors with loving reverence. Asking for help from our Ancestors must first be balanced with honouring their lives. In the Orisha tradition, as in many other traditions, we commemorate the work, struggles, and triumphs of our Ancestors.
By remembering them and remembering their lives we continue to have them with us.
To know the stories of your Ancestors is to know your history. To know your history is to know where you are from. To know where you are from is to know where you are going. To know where you are going is to have the ability to dream outside the box that others may try to put you in. To dream outside the box is to know and believe in all that you could possibly become in the world. And to do that would honour your ancestors deeply because all of their hard work and sacrifice would have not been in vain!
Our Ancestors, who anchor us on the face of this Earth. It is the reverence of our ancestors, and paying homage to our ancestors that gives us the strength that will keep us on the face of the earth for a long time.
Ancestor rituals help to heal the ancestors themselves and our connections with them.
Ancestors are at an disadvantage because they know how to improve things and yet they do not have the body required to act on what they know. We are at an disadvantage because, although we have bodies, we often lack the knowledge required to carry out things properly. This is why Spirit likes to work through us. A person with a body is an ideal vehicle for Spirit to manifest things in the world. It is important to understand that when we feel that something is missing in our life, when we feel somehow disconnected or displaced, that these feelings are a sign for us to repair our connection with the world of the Ancestors and spirits.
Malidoma Some, The Healing Wisdom of Africa p. 196
An Orisha (also spelled Orisa or Orixa) is a spirit or deity that reflects one of the manifestations of Olodumare (God) in the Yoruba spiritual/religious system (Olodumare is also known by various other names including Olorun, Eledumare, Eleda and Olofin-Orun).
The pantheon of orishas include Aganju, Obalu Aye, Erinle, Eshu/Elegba, Yemoja, Nana Buluku, Obà, Obatala, Oxossi/Ochosi/Osoosi, Oshumare, Ogun/Ogoun/Ogunda, Oko, Olofi, Olokun, Olorun, Orunmila, Oshun, Osun, Oya, Ozain/Osanyin, and Shango, among countless others….
* Eshu (Eleggua, Exú, Esu, Elegba, Legbara, Papa Legba) – Eshu is the messenger between the human and divine worlds, god of duality, crossroads and beginnings, and also a phallic and fertility god (a god of Life) and the deliverer of souls to the underworld (a god of Death). Eshu is recognized as a trickster and child-like, while Eleggua is Eshu under the influence of Obatala.Eshu is the Divine Spirit of Communication, the well-spoken orator who speaks all languages. Esu translates messages between humans and Orisha. Without Esu our prayers would not be understood in heaven and we would be unable to understand the language of Orisha or our ancestors (Egun). Esu is the guardian of the crossroads, as such he opens and closes all doors and ceremonies.
Eshu is the owner of ase, the dynamic power that pulses throughout the universe. He is one of the most tactile Orishas constantly stimulated by all he encounters. As such, Esu hates to be bored.
As a force in nature Esu is absolutely masculine; however, Esu also has a nurturing side. Esu statues are sometimes sculpted with him having a large, erect penis and well-developed breasts. Esu’s primary colors are red and black.
(Obatalá, Oxalá, Orixalá, Orisainlá) – arch-divinity, father of humankind, divinity of light, spiritual purity, and moral uprightness
Obatala, is the chief of the White Cloth, the Orisha who in Yoruba cosmology, first descended from heaven to earth with the tools for making the earth livable for humans. Obatala is considered the father of all orisa and is said to make the inner and outer heads of all humans.
Obatala is associated with purity, ethics and humility. Obatala is the Orisa of the elderly as well as the Orisa of those with physical disabilities.
* (Oxósse, Ocshosi, Osoosi, Oxossi) – hunter and the scout of the orishas, deity of the accused and those seeking justice or searching for something
Ochosi is the Orisa associated with hunting and tracking. Ochosi is a nimble, strong, fast Orisha, a supreme marksman. A “cool” Orisha, Ochoosi is called the “Left-handed Magician”, owing in part, to his ashe of stealth. Yoruba scholar, John Mason writes, that “Ochosi attacks like Ogun, sudden and deadly, yet the victim never sees the assailant or hears the report of the weapon, and that, “Ochosi only has to find a suitable perch and wait for his victims.”
Ochosi helps us to find the most efficacious path to what we aim to achieve. While Esu opens the door and Ogun clears the path, it is Ochoosi who, with bow and arrow aims and creates for us the path of least resistance.
* Ogoun (Ogun, Ogúm, Ogou) – warrior deity; divinity of iron, war, labour, sacrifice, politics, and technology (e.g. railroads)
Ogun is the Spirit of iron in Yoruba culture. Both a hunter and a warrior, Ogun uses an iron machete to cut through dense forest to procure food and medicinal herbs and to protect the lives of the community. Ogun helps us clear physical, psychological, or spiritual obstacles that block our ability to achieve our goals. Similarly, Ogun protects us from physical, psychological, or spiritual dangers.
We call upon Ogun for protection in health matters due to his association with sustenance and herbal remedies. Ogun is both an aggressive guardian and nurturing healer.
As the Spirit who can clear away all deception and confusion, Ogun is invoked when we seek to understand the truth in any situation –- Ogun is always able to cut to the ‘heart of the matter.’
* (Aganyu, Agayu) – Father of Shango, he is also said to be Shango’s brother in other stories. Aganju is said to be the orisha of volcanoes, mountains, and the desert.
Aganju is the Orisa of the Uncultivated Earth, Lord of the Volcano, Lord of Caves, The Divine Ferryman.
Aganjú is most often referred to as the Volcano.He is also the Orisa of untamed lands,from desert to mountains, the brother/husband of Yemoja. Like Olokun, is fabulously wealthy. As Lord of Caves he owns all the mineral wealth of the earth. Aganju is also the navigator, knowing the safe passages and fjords across the river. Followers of Santeria equate him with St. Christopher, for like St. Christopher, he will dance at a bembe with little children on his shoulders. Aganju is the bearer of burdens, (the shoulders and back belong to Aganju) the defender of the helpless, down trodden and enslaved. Aganju is a force of life that overcomes obstacles and does the impossible.
Aganyú is the symbol of all earth forces, particularly the core of the earth, the desert, and the volcano. He represents a brute and regenerative force that is responsible for all cataclysmic upheavals that change the face of earth. Volcanic lava is seen as his fiery breath and his power makes the earth gyrate upon its axis. Aganyú is depicted as the father of Shangó in some patakin, and a younger brother of Shangó in others.
Perhaps because of the association with Saint Christopher, Aganju is also considered the Orisha of travelers. His main domain is the desert. When the Yorubas migrated to their present home, after migrating for years through the desert, Aganjús worship waned. Much of the knowledge related with the orisha was eventually lost. In Cuba, Aganju acquired more popularity as an orisha in the early twentieth century. As a result of the obscure state of his cult, his omos are often initiated through Shango or Oshun.
Aganju provides access to the realm of unknown, the depths from which the world was and is created. Aganju provides access to all unexplored, inaccessible areas, climes hostile and potentially hostile to human existence: desert, forest, arctic, Antarctic, mountain heights, caves, caverns, chasms, mines, etc. Aganju can be translated as agan: barren, ju: wilderness, or perhaps more accurately as the unknown, unexplored, uninhabited places; those places where only the heartiest and or best prepared people survive. Aganju is found in the depths of the ocean, in the depths of space, and in the untapped power and understanding of mind and emotion. Aganju is the guardian of the passageway through which inexplicable depths of human emotion are experienced and expressed. Dark, gut wrenching, mindless, unreasoning, incapacitating, paralyzing fears are the realm of Aganju.
It is through Aganju we learn to overcome our fears. It is through Aganju, that we learn to channel and redirect these emotions. Aganju has a close relationship with Oshun. They are linked in several ways: by emotion, Aganju is the depth of emotion in its raw, rough edged, harsh incarnation. While Oshun is the depth of emotion in its poignant, sweet/bitter sweet incarnation, Aganju explores, overcomes and conquers the river. Oshun fosters trade and social intercourse by the same means. Aganju surmounts the barriers and obstacles to see what is on the other side. Oshun plants culture and brings the light of civilization. Aganju is the opening to new, unexplored, unexpected possibilities. Therefore Aganju is the opening the all the riches of the world.
The mineral riches of the earth mines and mining of all kinds belong to Aganju (but it is through the technology of Ogun that humankind may access it and obtain it). Aganju is the force that drives explorers, inventors and scientists.
Aganju is both a celestial and terrestrial orisha, in addition to the unexplored regions of Earth, rivers (above and below ground in caves etc.), rivers are in Aganju’s custody. Aganju the cosmic navigator, the celestial boat man, the invention of boats, i.e. the overcoming or surmounting of obstacles is credited to the “Aganju personality.” In that same legend Shango did not know that Aganju was his father neither did Aganju know he had a son. When Shango discovered who his father was he went to Aganju and said “You are my father.” Aganju denied it, but Shango persisted, angering Aganju. Aganju struck Shango and threw him into a fire. When Shango emerged unscathed and unafraid, Aganju knew without doubt that Shango was his son and accepted him. Aganju is hard on his children, demanding the best from his children and will accept nothing less.
guardian of the deep ocean, the abyss, signifies unfathomable wisdom
Olokun is the Orisha of the ocean. In Yorubaland, Olokun refers to the entire ocean, but in some areas of the New World, this Orisha refers only to the bottom of the sea, with Yemoja governing the top. In those references the ocean is seen as governed by Yemoja/Olokun.
Given the nature of the bottom of the sea, where even metals dissolve, Olokun governs transformation, the birth of new forms/children/ideas, and the generation of wealth, which Yemoja can bring to the devotee.
Often Olokun works in consort with Oya, the Orisha who governs the winds of change to bring transformation of all kinds. For example, floods are brought by wind, and wealth in the form of new ideas, children, or money brings transformation.
Yemoja is the “Mother of the Children of Fishes.” As such, she is the penultimate symbol of motherhood. Yemoja is the all encompassing mother; like the sea, her ability to nurture is vast. Though associated with the ocean in the African Diaspora, in Yorubaland, Yemoja is the Orisa of the Ogun river. Yemoja is associated with the top layers of the ocean-Olokun is considered the deep, deep realm of the Ocean. The Ocean is the largest environment for life on the earth, therefore Yemoja is viewed as the mother who gave birth to civilization and who continues to sustain us.
* (Ọṣun, Oxum, Oshún , Ochun, Oschun) – divinity of rivers, love, feminine beauty, fertility, and art, also one of Shango’s lovers and beloved of Ogun
Oshun is the Orisa associated with fresh water. The name Oshun translates to mean “spring” or “source.” As the Orisa of fresh water, Oshun is the source of all life. She is the owner of the Osun river in Oshogbo, Nigeria. She is a powerful healer, especially as it concerns to issues of conception, women’s health and love relationships. Oshun is a great diviner and is said to own sixteen cowrie divination. Oshun is the champion of women and protector of mothers. Like the river, this Orisa has many faces. As it is said, “the river is calm, but it also rages.” Osun is the spark of creation; she is abundance and joy and reminds us that we are meant to have abundance, joy and love in our lives.
* Shango (Shangó, Xango, Changó, Chango, Nago Shango) – warrior deity ; divinity of thunder, fire, sky father, represents male power and sexuality
Ifa and Merindiloggun Odus, folklore, prayers and songs portray Shango’s ashe in nature, and among the clients and communities of Yoruba/Ifa practitioners. The fires of courage, passion, inspiration, and integrity appear in many forms from righteous, hot, thundering anger against lies, injustice or stupidity, to steady warm fires of the heart, hearth and home, to the fire of loving commitment to cultivate the wealth of the Earth for the benefit of community and relations. Shango also enjoys the fires of passion and sexual love, and is reputed to have an endless supply of this energy much to the satisfaction of his lovers, wives and consorts such as female Orishas Oya, Oshun and Oba.
Lightning reaches from the Realm of the Ancestors to Earth as a reminder of the humbling power that exists within Nature itself.”
In Ifa, Divine Justice is symbolized by lightning, one of the primal fires of the Earth in existence since the beginning of time. Shango is the Orisha associated with the power of lightning and thunder, as well as the name of the Fourth Alafin (Chief) of Oyo. Oyo was a major Yoruba city and the name of a federation of city-states that existed during the 14th and 15th centuries in West Africa.
Thunder and lightning storms inspire awe, humility and respect. They also bring thirst quenching refreshment, nourishing growth and renewal of the Earth. Shango’s ashe (powers, energies, stories, lessons, medicines) embody and express Ifa concepts of courage, justice and spiritual transformation. Shango’s ashe expresses the consciousness of fire and the role that fire, heat, pressure, passion and inspiration, physical and mental, play in transformation of mind, body (ara) and inner spirit (emi). In ire, Shango’s ashe has the potential to challenge and eliminate destructive manifestations of fire and heat such as arrogance, egotism, unstructured rage, greed, and jealousy as they manifest within and among humans, or to channel this energy for positive internal transformations, and positive external actions.
Oya is the complex Orisha who guides transformation and change in life. As the Goddess of the Winds, she can come as a fierce tornado or hurricane or as a cool breeze on a hot summer day. In her transformative mode she is always moving toward ideal justice for all. She wants the best for each of us, and sometimes that means taking away our illusions about the world regarding things and people. Oya is also known as the keeper of the Ancestors. In this capacity she serves as the guardian of Egun (Ancestors) at the outskirts of the cemetery, serving as mediator between the living and the sacred dead. There is a Yoruba prayer for Oya that says, “ Ajalaiye, Ajalorun, fun mi ire,” translated as “the winds of Earth and Heaven bring me good fortune.” She moves heaven (ancestors) and earth (living) to create communication between the realms. Finally, as Patron of the Marketplace, Oya is a shrewd businesswoman who reigns over commerce and exchange. Invoke her before you go shopping. Take an offering to her and leave it at the opening to a flea market, and she will smile upon your bargaining. She is also called Iyansan (The Mother of Nine), particularly in Brazil. Her number is nine, and she loves eggplants and red wine. Oya- Iyansan is a complex warrior deity who will go to battle for her children out of love and justice.
there are many others orishas including,
* Orunmila (Ifá) – divinity of wisdom, divination, destiny, and foresight
* Ochumare (Oshumare, Oxumare) – rainbow deity, divinity of movement and activity, guardian of children and associated with umbilical cord
* Nana Buluku as Yemaja, the female thought of the male creator Ashe and the effective cause of all further creation.[1]
* of the sea and loving mother of mankind, daughter of Obatala and wife of Aganju
* Oba (Obba) – Shango’s jealous wife, divinity of marriage and domesticity, daughter of Iemanja
Ibeji – the sacred twins, represent youth and vitality
* Babalu Aye (Omolu, Soponna, Shonponno, Obaluaye, Sakpata, Shakpana) – divinity of disease and illness (particularly smallpox, leprosy, and now AIDS), also orisha of healing and the earth, son of Iemanja
* Erinle (Inle) – orisha of medicine, healing, and comfort, physician to the gods
* Oko (Okko) – orisha of agriculture and the harvest
* Osun – ruler of the head, Ori
to share hadithi of the orishas email [email protected]
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Conspiracies to Commit Beauty and Sustainability
Singapore will soon become more of a garden than a city
The impact of Singapore’s biodiversity efforts have been substantial. In the last ten years alone, the region’s National Parks Board has seen around 500 new species of flora and fauna either reemerge or appear for the first time. Members of Singapore’s government also believe that the city’s environmental efforts have gone a long way in attracting foreign investment and biotech companies.
What if a Lot of What They Taught You About Death Is a Lie?
No Death, No Fear: Comforting Wisdom for Life by Thich Nhat Hanh. Is it possible to live a life unfettered by fear?
Zen master Nhat Hanh turns his hard-earned wisdom as a survivor of war, persecution, and exile to the age-old dilemma of what happens when one dies. If the greatest fear is, as he suggests, that one becomes nothing, then how is one to live with this threat of complete annihilation? Using Buddhist parables and anecdotes, Nhat Hanh offers an alternative perspective. Buddhists see birth and death as mere concepts, not manifestations of reality. When someone dies, they are still with us, just in a different form. In this view, a continuation, a connection between people and nature persists because time is understood as being circular: nothing begins; nothing ends; it just is.
Not All Environmental News Is Worrisome
Snow Leopards Rebounding in Africa
The Conspiracy of Do-Gooders Is Growing
Greatest Person of the Day: Redefining student aid in Africa
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Biology Chapter 3 Vocab
41 terms by smdeuter
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Cell interior that is surrounded by a wall made of carbohydrates and proteins and a membrane that is made largely of phospholipids
Transport Proteins
Special proteins that are embedded in the cell membrane
Selectively Permeable
Membranes that regulate the exchange of materials in a very specific way
Proteins that are embedded in membranes that have sugars attached to them
Sugars that are attached to the heads of membrane lipids
The movement of molecules from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration
Concentration Gradient
Is existent when there is a difference in concentration of molecules across a distance
A special form of diffusion; the movement of water across a selectively permeable membrane
The outward pressure of a cell against its cell wall
Passive Transport
Involves diffusion without any input of energy
Active Transport
Moves substances against their concentration gradients and thus requires energy
Facilitated Diffusion
The transport in which molecules move down their concentration gradient with the help of transport proteins in the membrane
The process by which very large molecules are moved into a cell by a special active transport mechanism that requires energy
The process by which very large molecules are moved out of a cell by a special active transport mechanism that requires energy
Air sacs in a lung
The waxy outer layer covering the surfaces of most land-dwelling plants, animals, and fungi
The opening between two guard cells in the epidermis of a plant leaf through which gases are exchanged with the air
The loss of water to the atmosphere by a plant through the stomates in its leaves
The tendency for an organism to maintain a relatively stable internal environment by regulating its metabolism and adjusting to its environment
A toxic nitrogen compound (NH3) excrete by some aquatic organisms; thought to have been present in Earth's early atmosphere
The functional unit of a kidney consisting of a glomerulus, its associated capsule, and tubule surrounded by capillaries
An organ that regulates water and salt levels, filters water and wastes from the blood, and excretes the end products
Urinary System
A vertebrate organ system that regulates levels of water and dissolved substances in the body, excreting wastes as urine
The solution of wastes excreted from the kidney
A muscular tube that carries urine from the kidney to the urinary bladder
Urinary Bladder
An organ that stores urine before it is discharges from the body through the urethra
The tube through which urine travels from the bladder to the outside of the body
Glomerular Capsule
The cup of a nephron, which filters blood; also called Bowman's capsule
A ball of capillaries surrounded by a glomerular capsule in the nephron; the site of filtration in the kidneys
A hormone secreted by the adrenal gland, helps regulate sodium and potassium concentrations and water balance
Feedback Regulation
The regulation of the activity of an enzyme by one of its products
A hormone released from the posterior lobe of the pituitary (an endocrine gland in the brain); enhances conservation of water by the kidneys
Fluid from plasma passes into nephron, occurs in the glomerulus
Molecules are reabsorbed into the capillaries, occur in the tubule of the nephron
Molecules from blood are secreted unto nephron tubules, occurs as the filtrate moves through the tubule
Cell Membranes
Surrounds the cytoplasm, composed of two thin layers of phospholipids and proteins
Nitrogenous Waste
Excreted as urea, shows important evolutionary patterns
A characteristic that improves an organism's chance of surviving to reproduce
What nitrogenous wastes are excreted as
Uric Acid
Formed by in the body by the metabolism of protein and is excreted in the urine
Ion Balance
The correct balance of ions within cells
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Ten important things to remember about heaps
Memory for dynamic variables is allocated off an internal structure called the "heap." The heap is simply a chunk of memory that the system allocates for an activation group when the activation group is created.
The Alloc, Dealloc, and Realloc op-codes are pretty straight-forward once you understand a few things about heaps.
1. First, a heap is tied to, or scoped to, the activation group in which it was created. Each activation group has one heap called the default heap. The default heap is created automatically when the associated activation group is created. A program can also create additional heaps called user-created heaps using APIs.
2. Heaps have an identifier. Since there can be multiple heaps in an activation group, heaps have an ID in order to uniquely identifier them. Many calls to dynamic memory management APIs require a heap identifier parameter to distinguish the heap on which the API is to act. The default heap in each activation group always has an identifier of 0 (zero).
3. The RPG dynamic memory op-codes always operate on the default heap, so no identifier is necessary.
4. Heaps are "owned" by the activation group in which they are created. When an activation group ends, all the heaps it owns are discarded.
5. A heap's unique identifier is meaningful only within the activation group that owns the heap.
6. Programs can manually create and discard additional heaps to satisfy unique storage requirements. User-created heaps can be created using the CEECRHP API and discarded with the CEEDSHP API. However, they can only be accessed using certain APIs.
7. Heaps are created with a fixed size. The size is extended automatically to satisfy allocation requests.
8. The maximum size for a heap is just under 4 GB provided there are not more than 128,000 individual allocations at a given time. The maximum size decreases in the off-chance the maximum number of allocations is exceeded.
9. The maximum number of bytes for any allocation is limited to just under 16 MB.
10. Programs in different activation groups can share the same heap. For example, a program can allocate a block of memory off it's default heap, then call another program that runs in a different activation group. If the first program passes a pointer to the allocated heap memory to the second program, the second program has full access to the heap in the activation in which the first program is running. It can access the memory as usual, and it can use the Realloc and Dealloc op-codes against it.
This was first published in December 1999
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Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Guest Post - Farming with Earthworms!
I require students in my Experimental Ecology class at SDSU to design and conduct an outreach project related to their independent project research. This post was written by my students, Connor and John, as their outreach. They studied whether the combined effects of worms and fertilizer in garden soil have a synergistic effect on plant growth. Please enjoy their post below!
Langston University Aquaculture.
You may think that worms are just gross slimy pests that only slither around and creep out grade school kids; however, as you will find out, earthworms are very important in many ecosystems. The Earthworm, Lumbricus terrestris, is used in compost in order to create rich organic wastes - a process known as VERMICOMPOSTING. Earthworms are used in farming and other plant rearing practices because they produce high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which are the limiting factors for the growth of plants. Worms help plants in many more ways too!
University of Illinois Extension.
Disease Suppression
One way that the presence of worms can benefit plants is that they can suppress disease in some fruit bearing plants. In a study conducted in 2004, Johann Zaller found that plants treated with an extract from vermicompost were less vulnerable to a blight disease (Zaller 2012). So the worms acted as a disease fighter for the crops, not unlike the immune system and white blood cells of the human body. While it’s true that there may be better tools that are available to treat plant disease, vermicomposting offers a method that is 100% biologically safe because no harmful chemicals are used to prevent disease; it’s just good old fashioned worm power! The power of the worm doesn't stop at biological disease suppression; worms are capable of much more.
Mixing/Aerating Soil
Another way these wonderful worms help out plants is by digging their way through the dirt. Their burrows allow for more oxygen and nutrients to reach deeper into the earth and to the roots of plants. The most significant effect the worms have on the soil that surrounds them is their ability to drastically increase the amount of atmospheric nitrogen (N2). The worms do this by eating dirt that contains microorganisms that emit the nitrogen in the gut of the worm, and once the nitrogen is emitted, the worm poops out what it doesn’t need to survive, and this poop is very high in nitrogen (Drake and Horn 2007).
Increase in Nutrients
Vermicomposting can provide nutrients that can last twice the life-span of soils that do not contain any earthworms. By starting seedlings on vermicompost instead of transplanting them, the chances of germination occurring increases. In a February 2000 study, researchers measured the effects of vermicompost and compost on plant growth with results indicating that there are improvements using vermicompost, but the amount of improvement depends on the nutrient content (Atiyeh 2000). This is comparable to a child drinking milk, we know that the child will receive calcium to help with strengthening bones, but we do not know how much calcium the child is actually absorbing.
Organic Soil Solutions.
Our Study: Worms vs. Fertilizer
In our study, we wanted to see whether placing worms in planters would yield more growth in pea plants than fertilizer would. After three weeks of collecting data we weren’t able to get a significant difference in the change in growth for the two treatments; however, we did see that planters that had worms in them grew the tallest and the fastest and the planter with the fertilizer treatment produced the highest number of plants. This could mean that using worms instead of fertilizer in small scale systems like home gardens, could be the better option and fertilizer would be the better option for a more grand scale option.
In conclusion worms can be a real force to be reckoned with when it comes to helping out plants to grow big and strong. Next time you decide you want to plant a nice garden in your backyard, go pick up some earthworms instead of fertilizer to use on your crops!
Atiyeh, R.M., S. Subler, C.A. Edwards, G. Bachman, J.D. Metzger, W. Shuster. 2000. Effects of vermicomposts and composts on plant growth in horticultural container media and soil. Pedobiologia 44:579-590.
Drake, H.L., M.A. Horn. 2007. As the Worm Turns: The Earthworm Gut as a Transient Habitat for Soil Microbial Biomes. Annual Reviews of Microbiology 61:169-189.
Zaller, J.G. 2006. Foliar Spraying of Vermicompost Extracts: Effects on Fruit Quality and Indications of Late-Blight Suppression of Field-Grown Tomatoes. Taylor & Francis Online 24:165-180.
Friday, November 7, 2014
Many Tales of the Snake Tail
Upon first glance, snakes’ bodies may appear to be one giant tail (or one long body depending on how you look at it). However, snakes actually have a defined tail region which is separate from their main body. The tail starts at the cloaca, the magic hole where defecation, fluid release, and reproduction take place. We have multiple holes for these functions, but snakes only have one.
The snake's tail is just after the cloaca
So what’s so special about a snake’s tail? Well, because snakes are limbless, their tails fill many of the roles that limbs play in other animals. For instance, the tail is used to grasp onto things, in defense against predators, and as a communication device. Because snakes use their tails for a variety of functions, their tails often look different than the rest of their bodies.
Specialized tail movements are exhibited in more than 70 snake species (Greene 1973). Tail movements usually consist of conspicuous motions of waiving the tail back and forth. Although many species differ in the ways in which they move their tails (slow undulatory motions compared to fast jerky movements), all tail displays probably serve an adaptive function (they benefit the snakes in some way). Many proposed functions for this behavior exist. They are detailed below.
Many juvenile vipers, including rattlesnakes, use their tails to attract prey in what’s called a caudal lure. Their tails are often brightly colored and mimic insect larvae. The movement of their tails attracts animals that eat insects such as lizards and amphibians. Usually these snakes abandon caudal luring behavior (and their tail coloration fades) once they reach adulthood because their diet switches to mammals which are not attracted to insect larvae (Rabatsky and Waterman 2005b, Reiserer and Schuett 2008).
Can you tell the Yellow-Lipped Sea Krait's head apart from its tail (left)? The Spider-Tailed
Horned Viper from Iran has a lure that looks suspiciously like a spider (right).
Other snakes use their tails in defense against predators. When attacked, many of these snakes will hide their heads under their bodies and waive their tails in the air. Some snakes, such as the Malaysian Pipe Snake (Cylindrophis rufus), do not just waive their tail at random, but violently strike it from side to side as if it were a head. The idea is that predators will aim for the tail thinking it is the snake’s head and this is beneficial to the snake because injuries to the tail are far less serious than injuries to the head. Many snake’s tails, such as those of the Indian Sand Boa (Eryx johnii.), actually resemble their heads in an effort to further confuse predators. Evidence of more scaring on some snakes’ tails compared to other parts of their bodies supports the notion that their tails deflect attacks away from the head (Greene 1973).
(Taken from Greene 1973)
What’s so fascinating about these tail displays is that they may hold the key to the evolution of the rattlesnake’s rattle. We know that today the rattle is used in defense and serves as a warning to predators. However, debate continues as to why the rattle evolved in the first place. There are two camps, those who believe the rattle first evolved to attract prey then switched to a defensive function and those who believe the rattle has always been for defense. In support of the “prey -attractant-first hypothesis”, Schuett et al. (1984) state that the rattle pre-cursor must have started out small (1-2 segments) so it would have been incapable of making sufficient noise to warn others of the snake’s dangerousness. In support of the “function-has-never-changed hypothesis”, others point out that no other snake lineages that use their tails to attract prey have ever evolved anything similar to a rattle.
The Dusky Pigmy Rattlesnake has a yellow tail and a small rattle.
This tiny snake only has one rattle segment! Photo by Mark Herse.
The only rattlesnake we know of to use its tail (and not its rattle) for both prey capture and for defense in adulthood is the Dusky Pigmy Rattlesnake (Sistrurus miliarius barbouri). This species has the smallest rattle compared to its body size of all rattlesnakes (Cook et al. 1994), and 50% of adults in a typical population cannot produce sufficient rattling sounds because of the smallness of their rattles (Rabatsky and Waterman 2005a)! So these pigmy rattlesnakes may be similar to what rattlesnake ancestors may have looked and acted like. However, we don’t know for sure and debate continues on how and why the rattle evolved.
Over the many years of remotely filming wild rattlesnakes, I have recorded three individuals exhibiting non-rattling tail displays (all adult Northern Pacific Rattlesnakes, one female and two males). This display consists of slowly flopping the raised tail from side-to-side (see video below).
Strimple (1992) emphasized the importance of collecting precise descriptions of the contextual stimuli that elicit tail displays to better understand their function. I have noticed some common themes among the three incidents I recorded. All snakes were in a loosely-coiled body position. This is different from an ambush coil which snakes employ when hunting prey. Snakes are typically loosely-coiled when shedding, digesting, or recovering from surgery (one snake was recovering from surgery, the other two could have been digesting but I am unsure). Snakes exhibited the display intermittently over several minutes (approximately 2-6 minutes), then left their sites almost immediately after. The cloaca of the snakes appeared swollen when they were displaying. Two snakes were alone when they displayed while the third was with another rattlesnake (both were males) and their tail displays can be viewed in the YouTube video above.
What could be the function of this non-rattling tail display? Although I lack enough evidence to definitively determine its function, I can speculate on the options.
Is it for prey capture?
• This is unlikely because all snakes were not in hunting body positions when they exhibited this behavior (they were loosely-coiled).
Does it defend against predators?
• No predatory threat was visible on camera (although predators could have been close by) when this behavior was recorded. All defensive displays reported in other snake species are elicited by touching or severely harassing the snake (their first line of defense is camouflage). Thus, I remain skeptical that this is a defensive display given that the snakes were not physically disturbed.
Does it communicate with others of the same species?
• This is possible. The cloaca appeared swollen and could have been discharging scented fluids (which have been shown to affect conspecifics). Perhaps the tail movements laid down the scent? Also in support of this, I recorded the tail display when two adult males were interacting with each other. The presence of one male appears to have caused the other to exhibit the display. Schuett (1997) found that tail writhing is displayed by defeated males after male-male combat in Copperheads (Agkistrodon contortrix), and is assumed to advertise the submission of the defeated male. However, it was not the breeding season and these males were never observed to behave aggressively toward each other. Thus, I remain doubtful that this display was to advertise submission.
I hope to converse with other naturalists and scientists who have seen similar tail behaviors in adult rattlesnakes. With enough anecdotal evidence we may be able to parse out the contexts in which this behavior occurs to generate hypotheses to test its function.
Please contact me if you have observed this behavior!
Cook, P. M., M. P. Rowe, and R. W. Van Devender. 1994. Allometric scaling and interspecific differences in the rattling sounds of rattlesnakes. Herpetologica 50:358–368.
Greene, H. W. 1973. Defensive tail display by snakes and amphisbaenians. Journal of Herpetology 7:143–161.
Rabatsky, A. M., and J. M. Waterman. 2005a. Non-rattling defensive tail display in the Dusky Pygmy Rattlesnake, Sistrurus miliarius barbouri: a previously undescribed behavior. Herpetological Review 36:236–238.
Rabatsky, A. M., and J. M. Waterman. 2005b. Ontogenetic shifts and sex differences in caudal luring in the dusky pigmy rattlesnake, Sistrurus miliarius barbouri. Herpetologica 61:87–91.
Reiserer, R. S., and G. W. Schuett. 2008. Aggressive mimicry in neonates of the sidewinder rattlesnake, Crotalus cerastes (Serpentes: Viperidae): stimulus control and visual perception of prey luring. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 95:81–91.
Schuett, G. W. 1997. Body size and agonistic experience affect dominance and mating success in male copperheads. Animal Behaviour 54:213–24.
Schuett, G. W., D. L. Clark, and F. Kraus. 1982. Feeding mimicry in the rattlesnake Sistrurus catenatus, with comments on the evolution of the rattle. Animal Behaviour 32:625–626.
Strimple P. D. 1992. Caudal-luring: a discussion on definition and application of the term. In: Strimple PD, Strimple JL, eds. Contributions in herpetology. Cincinnati, OH: Greater Cincinnati Herpetological Society, 49–54.
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
My Second Publication Has Video of Ninja Squirrels
So…it’s been a while since I blogged mainly because there hasn’t been much to write about. My summer field season was suuuppper slow and filled with many road bumps. Snakes, unfortunately, are not very active during drought times (just ask Mike Cardwell). However, I have been working on a post about an extraordinary rattlesnake behavior that I recorded in three individuals; cannot give you any details at the moment, but I plan to write a Herpetological Review article about it once I gather more insight from other snake researchers. Stay tuned. Anyway, this post is not about that, but about the first publication to stem from my dissertation research (and my second publication overall). Woohoo!
When they encounter a rattlesnake, squirrels approach it and waive
their tails back and forth (a behavior aptly called tail flagging)
Squirrels tail flag (a vertical side-to-side motion of the tail) to deter snake predators (both rattlesnakes and gopher snakes). Tail flagging deters snakes because it signals to them that they have been discovered, and because snakes rely on surprise to attack prey, their likelihood of hunting success drops significantly. So after receiving tail flagging displays from squirrels, snakes relocate to a new hunting site where prey are unaware of its hidden location (Barbour and Clark 2012). There’s just one problem with tail flagging: squirrels use it most often when no snake is present. Are squirrels dishonestly advertising their discovery of a snake? This was the question I sought to answer.
Is tail flagging a dishonest signal?
Many animals use signals similar to tail flagging to advertise their awareness of predators. However, these animals also exhibit their signals when predators are absent. This is a common phenomenon!
Just like ground squirrels, these two bird species, the moorhen
(left) and motmot (right), flick their tails in the absence of predators.
Why would animals signal to predators when no predator is around? The idea is that they are not signaling their awareness of a predator, but their readiness for a surprise attack from hidden predators (this is also called vigilance). Vigilant animals that are prepared for an attack should be harder to catch than non-vigilant animals. But in order to test the hypothesis that animals signal vigilance in the absence of predators, we need to simulate predator attacks on signaling and non-signaling prey and then record their responses. We predict that signaling prey will escape more effectively than non-signaling prey.
Unaware individuals should not respond effectively to surprise attacks.
And so this is exactly what I did! I simulated rattlesnake strikes on tail-flagging and non-tail-flagging squirrels and filmed their responses using a high speed video camera. You may be wondering how I simulated a snake strike. Well, I didn’t have to do too much work because a strike-simulator already exists on the market and it’s called the “Snake in a Can Prank.”
Inspiration for the strike-simulating device
I modified these prank toys and shot them at unsuspecting squirrels. I tested squirrel responses to the strike-simulator under three treatments that affected their tail-flagging: 1) No Snake Present, 2) Snake Present, and 3) Recent Snake Encounter. Most squirrels did not tail flag when no snake was present (No Snake), squirrels actively interacted with a present rattlesnake (Snake Present), and squirrels maintained tail flagging behaviors after recently encountering a snake that was no longer present (Recent Snake). The Recent Snake treatment is unique because it decouples the effect of predator presence from tail flagging.
And now…the Results. Squirrels in the Recent Snake treatment (tail flagging in the absence of predators) were more effective at evading surprise attacks than squirrels in the other two treatments. This was just what I expected. Tail flagging in the absence of snakes associated with faster reaction times and escape speeds.
Two figures from my study. Squirrels in the Recent Snake treatment reacted
faster and displaced their bodies more quickly (quicker escape speed) than
squirrels in the other two treatments.Letters indicate differences between
groups (no difference between
Snake Present and No Snake
Furthermore, these squirrels used unique ninja-like maneuvers to flee from the attack (unlike squirrels in the other two treatments which mostly ran away from the attack). Vigilant squirrels leapt either vertically or horizontally, contorting their bodies, and using their tails to propel them through the air. This type of flee maneuver makes sense if one is trying to escape a rattlesnake strike. Strikes are extremely fast, but once a snake strikes, it cannot alter its strike trajectory. Thus, it’s better to move outside of the plane of the strike than the try to outdistance it (which is probably ineffective considering the speed at which a rattlesnake can strike).
Squirrels in "ninja-mode" use evasive leaps to escape simulated snake strikes. This occurs most often when squirrels have
encountered a snake, but then no longer know where it is (because it has been removed).
My study called, The fear of unseen predators: ground squirrel tail flagging in the absence of snakes signals vigilancecan be found in a future issue of the journal, Behavioral Ecology. Advanced access to this publication can be found here
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Daredevil Gopher Snake Gets Rescued!
I arrived at my field site (Blue Oak Ranch Reserve) a little over a week ago. Work has been pretty slow as we are trying to capture rattlesnakes to implant radio transmitters into. Three days ago, we ended work early and were hanging out at the field station (a large barn). I noticed snake-like slithering near the roof of the barn so I looked up. Lo and behold a gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer) had weaseled its way (or shall I say “snaked” its way) about thirty feet up the barn wall! At first, I thought this sight of the wall-climbing snake was strange, but then I realized that it was heading straight towards a bird’s nest. I became extremely excited as I had never seen a snake ambush birds before. I got out my camera and started to record the snake.
Although I mainly think of gopher snakes as ambushing squirrel pups inside their burrows, these snakes are common bird nest predators, and will go for both cavity-nesting and open-nesting bird species. A study performed by Eichholz and Koenig In central California (1992) found that approximately 21% of bluebird nests and 36% of nest failures are caused by snakes, making snakes the primary cause of nest mortality. They also found that gopher snakes do not randomly search tress for nests, but only climb those with active nests. This suggests that they have the ability to detect bird nests from the ground (probably by picking up chemical cues). These snakes seem to prefer eating baby birds instead of eggs, and their preference increases as the babies grow older. Another report by Czaplewski et al. (2012) describes a gopher snake making a dangerous climb to ambush cliff swallow nests in Utah. The authors’ note the appearance of several small food items in the snake’s belly.
Gopher snake browsing on cliff swallow morsels (taken from Czaplewski et al. 2012)
Back to my story, the snake appeared to be entering the bird nest when it suddenly became very still. I waited for it to continue its movement into the nest, however it started to twist and squirm. It had become tangled in plastic mesh netting on which the nest was built. Unable to reach the snake, I thought for sure it would die.
If only snakes could use ladders, then bad things wouldn't happen...
As it remained motionless stuck within the netting, a wren approached the snake and made loud calling sounds. This could have been the mother bird defending her eggs. Many birds will make specific alarm calls in response to snake predators. A recent study shows that Japanese great tits (Parus major minor) produce alarm calls that encode information about the type of predator (Suzuki 2014). These birds use a “jar” call for snake predators and a “chicka” call for crows and martens (a type of weasel). These calls are thought to warn offspring and other birds, but they may also deter the snake from further pursuit of the nest (something called pursuit-deterrent signaling). My current research examines the use of pursuit-deterrent signaling in California ground squirrels against rattlesnake predators.
View the whole gopher snake story on the Youtube video above!
The gopher snake remained stuck in the mesh netting near the roof of the barn, and I thought for sure it would die. However, Erik, the reserve steward came to the rescue! He found a tall ladder that he used to reach the snake and remove it from the barn wall. The snake remained tangled in the mesh and we had to cut it out. Poor snake had ripped some of its skin open trying to free itself. I applied anti-septic liquid bandage to its cuts, and am now keeping it in captivity so that its skin can heal. I will release it soon so it may resume its daredevil climbs.
Erik was this snake's "knight in shining armor"
The gophie really did a number on itself. Luckily, we were able to cut away the mesh.
Czaplewski, N. J., K. S. Smith, J. Johnson, C. Dockery, B. Mason, and I. D. Browne. 2012. Gopher Snake Searching Cliff Swallow Nests in East Central Utah. Western North American Naturalist 72:96–99.
Eichholz, M. W., and W. D. Koenig. 1992. Gopher Snake Attraction to Birds’ Nests. The Southwestern Naturalist 37:293–298.
Suzuki, T. N. 2014. Communication about predator type by a bird using discrete, graded and combinatorial variation in alarm calls. Animal Behaviour 87:59–65.
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Part 2
An American Story
"Leaving their villages in China, they journeyed far, with only each other and the power of memory.... remembering families an ocean apart...remembering how to make a home on the soil under their feet....With spirit and strategy they fought for their place in America." -Narrator
The second part of the ANCESTORS IN THE AMERICAS series unfolds with the arrival of Chinese on the West Coast during the Gold Rush, not as coolies laboring in the bleak outposts of the New World's plantations and mines, but as free men embarking for "Gold Mountain." Pushed by hard times at home, they arrived full of hope for wealth and for an auspicious return to their homeland.
An early scene in CHINESE IN THE FRONTIER WEST: An American Story imagines a Chinese man's departure from his wife and homeland. We see the young wife silently braiding her husband's long queue (hair), perhaps for the last time. Setting out, like so many others, the traveler glances back at her over his shoulder. What does the future hold for them and their descendants? The close-up on his face, a recurring image in the film, captures an intensely personal moment in a new chapter of world history.
Could these Chinese pioneers, who came seeking gold, have imagined the pivotal role they would play in building the American west? Or that they would challenge and change laws that would eventually reshape our nation's definition of who is an American?
How little their contribution was understood at that time...how little it is known even today.
CHINESE IN THE FRONTIER WEST uncovers a surprising and complicated web of relationships—economic, social, cultural and legal—between 19th-century Chinese immigrants and other white and nonwhite pioneers who came to America's western territories from all parts of the globe.
"Let us consider the vile coolies, who like craven beasts work the goldmines only to return to their native land and bring no profit to our state." - John Bigler, California governor 1852- 1856
The film's narrative reveals the strength of these American ancestors, who, upon arrival, met with unremitting suspicion and hostility, yet managed to sustain their embattled community and culture, and help build a nation.
The Chinese were the first nonwhite foreigners who arrived en masse of their own free will, unlike shackled African Americans, who were brought as slaves, or Native Americans, who were decimated in their own land. Yet like these other non-white peoples, Chinese immigrants were prevented from owning property or becoming citizens. They were also subject to violent attacks and new laws enforced only against them, such as the Foreign Miner's Tax.
Despite this treatment, we see how during the three decades encompassed by the film (1850-1882), Chinese labor became an essential underpinning in the developing economy. In taxes from gold mining alone, the Chinese contributed up to 50% of the state's total revenue by 1860. In addition to working on the transcontinental railroad that eventually linked the frontier west to markets back east, Chinese laborers hand-built aqueducts to transport water and timber, bridges and flood-control levees, and some of the first wineries in the state, where they carved the storage caverns and constructed massive stone buildings.
The Chinese also reclaimed swamp land and transformed the Sacramento delta into one of the world's great farming lands. By 1870, three quarters of the agricultural work force at every level in California were Chinese.
"As it turned out, California's economic development in the 19th century could not have been accomplished without the Chinese. And I can say this unequivocally."
- Professor L. Ling-chi Wang
Many of their contributions can still be seen today in rural California, as the film shows. Yet, their contributions are missing from most historical records, such as photographs of the building of the railroad and standard textbooks on the development of the west.
None of their contributions were perhaps more long lasting and significant to all Americans than their struggles to advance civil rights for themselves and the immigrants that followed.
Denied the basic right of citizenship, the Chinese forged an alternative route to becoming Americans: they relentlessly pursued their rights in America's courts. They turned to the justice system precisely because they understood and believed in the American promise of equality and freedom.
"People always say, well, the Chinese always cling to their culture, that they never assimilated, they never really learned about America... but in terms of resisting discrimination against them, they very much assimilated. From the early 1850s, they started making use of the American judicial system when such a system did not exist in China."
Professor Sucheng Chan
As a mostly male community that had organized itself to survive, Chinese workers sent money back to China, to their wives, families and villages. But their collective well-being in America was repeatedly attacked through ordinances, acts and court rulings designed to make life more difficult. These included the 1854 Foreign Miner's Tax and the 1862 Police Tax, as well as court decisions such as People vs. Hall, which cast them as inferior to whites and denied them the right to testify against any white person, even an accused murderer.
It was natural for them to ante up a portion of their earnings to fight these discriminatory laws. They hired seasoned lawyers and challenged almost every law or court case enacted against them, sometimes with great success. The hundreds of cases they brought in the 19th and early 20th centuries helped establish legal precedents across life's broad spectrum, from livelihood and education to immigrant rights and citizenship.
"It's hard to think of a single law perceived by the Chinese as discriminatory, that they did not challenge in court."
-Professor Charles McClain
And what about Chinese women? As the film shows, Chinese women customarily did not leave home. Furthermore, the frontier hardships and often violent discrimination suffered by Chinese men in America were hardly promising conditions for family life. Records suggest about one third of the early Chinese arrivals were married, even though the ratio of men to women in the Chinese community was at one time as high as 27 to 1.
In the resulting largely male, so-called "bachelor" Chinese community in America, a few Chinese men saw a business opportunity and imported Chinese women whom they pressed into prostitution. While prostitution was a general feature of the frontier west, the existence of Chinese prostitution gave Congress an excuse to pass the Page Law in 1875, specifically aimed at preventing Chinese women—including family members of Chinese immigrants—from entering the U.S. Not until 1970, almost 100 years later, following the major overhaul of immigration laws in 1965, did the Chinese community finally achieve a normal gender ratio of one man to one woman.
Towards the end of the film, we ask: What if Chinese women had been permitted to come and they could have had families? How would this history have been different?
Standing on a coastal stretch not far from Monterey, historian Sandy Lydon shows us a "Chinese America that might have been." He explains that here, in 1853, Chinese men and women built an American community of Chinese families, where women comprised over 40% of the population, and mothers, children and grandparents were all part of the social fabric.
Where other pioneers saw Point Alones as useless economically, the Chinese envisioned and built a thriving export industry of dried abalone, abalone shells, seaweed, dried fish and squid. They were able to succeed because white Americans at the time were not interested in fishing occupations, and they lived in the midst of a more tolerant Hispanic community. Although the Chinese were displaced by the turn of the century, they still managed to build families of three generations standing, and to create some wealth from uninterrupted entrepreneurial resourcefulness.
"And so we basically extended the promise of the American dream to a much wider range of human beings than the founding fathers may have had in mind."
-Professor Sucheng Chan
By the late 1800s, centuries of seafaring and labor migration had led these resilient immigrants from South China to build a new home in a new land, despite the intense discrimination they faced for many years to come. As scholar Sucheng Chan notes, through their determined collective efforts, they not only helped build the frontier, they also challenged our nation to "make the word 'American' more international in scope, to encompass people from all parts of the world."
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Similar to the Sleep Sentry, the HypoMon® non-invasively detects sleep-time hypoglycemia. It is made specifically for children and young adults with Type 1 between the ages of 10 and 25 years old. It is specifically for sleep-time hypoglycemia.
Hypomon Sensor
Hypomon Being Worn
The HypoMon® system includes a battery powered sensor worn on your chest and a monitor. The Hypomon doesn't measure actual blood glucose levels. Instead, the sensor recognizes and measures the bodies physiological responses to changes in BG levels, specifically those related to lows. When certain physiological responses are seen, the sensor wirelessly transmits an alarm to the monitor up to 10 feet away, similar to the mySentry Remote Glucose Monitor from Medtronic. One thing to consider is that hypo unawareness can vary between people so you may not get the expected alarms if your responses are out of their tested range. You should speak with your health professional about your hypo unawareness before using a device like the Hypomon.
Prior to bed, the user is required to take a standard blood glucose test and enter it into the monitor. The HypoMon should not be used if you have measured a blood glucose test < 45 mg/dl (2.5mmol/L) within 12 hours or < 72 mg/dl (4.0mmol/L) immediately before intended use. If an alarm sounds during the night, the user must check their blood glucose levels and enter the new reading into the monitor. This alarm allows for the patient and/or care person to treat the hypoglycemia at an earlier stage.
The signal between the sensor and monitor works like the standard wi-fi setup of a computer. The effective range of the sensor and monitor communication can be affected by wall density and electromagnetic interference, such as those seen from computers, routers, cordless phones, and satellite transmitters.
Some drawbacks from the Sleep Sentry may be present in this device as well. For instance, movement or sweat often triggered false alarms in the Sleep Sentry. A particularly hot night or constant tossing and turning can result in many alarms throughout the night. AIMEDICS says that false alarms for hypos that are not occurring happen in only about 4 out of 20 nights.
AiMedics, established in October 2001 as a commercial spin-off of the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), specializes in non-invasive monitoring for various diseases, including diabetes, epilepsy, fatigue and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. It has been funded through a series of investments and government grants; BIF, NSW Government, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (through UTS) and the Australian Government.
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Homeland Security and Public Safety
911 Call-Takers Are the Real First Responders (Opinion)
In some cases, it’s the call-taker who helps a frantic person on the other end of the line administer first aid by giving instructions over the phone.
When we say the words “first responder,” it conjures up a mental picture of fire, law enforcement and emergency medical service (EMS) responding with lights flashing, sirens blaring, racing to the scene of an accident, a medical emergency or some other event that has injured people or threatens to injure people.
The term first responder is jealously guarded by the above professions. I recall being in a fire chiefs meeting where it was being debated as to who exactly a first responder is. If I recall the debate correctly, it involved what role public works plays in responding to an emergency. The definition was argued based on who is called first and then how long it takes for them to respond to an incident. The definition being discussed was one that was designed to be exclusive and not inclusionary to other professions.
While I agree with the common definition of first responders I have to take exception to it being exclusionary to fire, police and EMS. In my mind, the “real” first responders who have the first contact and dispatch the “second responders” are the 911 center call-takers and dispatchers. They work in centers that receive the calls from citizens and others determining what the situation is and then sending the appropriate response resources to the scene. In some cases, it’s the call-taker who is helping a frantic person on the other end of the line administer first aid and CPR by giving instructions over the phone.
Yes, these people are generally safe and snug inside buildings with all the comforts to keep them warm or cool with regular breaks. But they provide an invaluable service to the system we have developed to orchestrate the proper dispatch of people and equipment to the right location. It is not an easy profession. You are literally tethered to a workstation and there can be hours of boredom in some cases punctuated with a hysterical call from someone watching in horror as a loved one is in distress and in need of assistance.
If it were an easy job, the washout rate for people who get selected as call-takers would not be upward of 50 percent from the time they start their training to the time they are fully trained and past their probationary period.
Most 911 centers have what is called the “cry room,” where after a particularly harrowing call or shift, one can go and decompress and let it all out.
Every year I attend two Red Cross Heroes events in my region. There, we celebrate the responses of everyday people who stepped in to help another person. In most cases, they don’t even know the people they are helping.
These citizens are the true first responders. When you look at who survives after an earthquake and was “rescued” from buildings, the majority of people pulled from collapsed or semi-collapsed structures were rescued by other average people who saw a need and jumped in — sometimes putting their own lives at risk — to help their fellow human beings.
I take my hat off to all first responders: those in uniform, those in the 911 centers and to the average Joe and Sally who take the time to render care to others. Remember, each of us can be put in the position to help someone else and we need to be prepared to do so.
Eric Holdeman | Contributing Writer
He can be reached by emailTwitter and Google+.
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What causes granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA)?
Answers from April Chang-Miller, M.D.
The exact causes of GPA — formerly known as Wegener's granulomatosis — and MPA are unknown.
GPA and MPA are both types of inflammation of the blood vessels (vasculitis). It is believed that one or more genetic and environmental factors, such as infections, allergic reactions, certain drugs and diseases, might trigger an abnormal immune system response that causes GPA and MPA symptoms. However, no specific infection or event has been identified as the cause.
GPA and MPA develop when the immune system mistakenly identifies blood vessel cells as foreign invaders and attacks them. The vessels become inflamed, causing them to narrow or close off, disrupting the flow of blood to various organs and causing organ and tissue damage. No matter the cause, early diagnosis and treatment of GPA and MPA are essential for a full recovery.
Jul. 17, 2014 See more Expert Answers
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Wait, what?
Huge Fossil Turtle Graveyard Discovered In China
One of the things that makes it most difficult to gather information from fossils is how few examples of a given creature paleontologists generally have to choose from. That’s not an issue for mesa chelonia turtles from the Jurassic era anymore, though, as researchers digging in China have found a “bone bed” of the fossil reptiles stacked atop one another, offering a rarely seen fossil bonanza that could offer an unheard of amount of reliable data about the shelled fossils.
The research team from the Berlin Natural History Museum has travelled to the same fossil-rich area where the bone bed was discovered several times in the past few years, turning up finds like dinosaurs and ancient crocodiles. This turtle bone bed, though is among the most prized finds, as it holds so many samples that the team can do real meaningful analysis from just this one find, strengthening it with data from other sites.
The team suspects that these ancient turtles were demonstrating a behavior fairly similar to modern turtles — gathering in the last available pool in the area and waiting for a dry spell to end. It seems these specimens couldn’t hold out long enough, though and many succumbed to starvation, dying in a pile that was preserved when the rains eventually did come, turning the watering hole into a mud pit in short order. As is so often the case though, misfortune for an ancient critter is a stroke of luck for modern archaelogists.
(via PhysOrg)
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Link to exam
Which metal reacts most vigorously with water?
(A) Ca (B) K (C) Mg (D) Na
The given answer is B and the reasoning is that is is the most electropositive since it the furthest left and down according to periodic trends.
However, isn't $\ce{K}$ the conjugate acid from a strong base -- $\ce{KOH}$? So isn't the conjugate base of a strong acid quite weak? So why would $\ce{K}$ react strongly?
share|improve this question
$\ce{K}$, not $\ce{K^+}$. – Shahar May 20 at 1:41
4 Answers 4
up vote 3 down vote accepted
I might be wrong here, but I believe that the question asks about the metals in their atomic (non ionic) form.
In order for a $\ce{KOH}$ bond to form, the K must be ionized (since the $\ce{KOH}$ bond is ionic). This means that when $\ce{KOH}$ dissolves in water it'll form the $\ce{K}^+$ electrolyte, which is not the same thing as a pure $\ce{K}$ atom with its 19th electron.
A $\ce{K}$ atom, then, since it's the most electropositive of that list, is the one to react "more vigorously" (which I guess it refers to more speed/energy) with water (a polar molecule).
I hope this helped you. I'm sorry if I'm wrong!
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Ahh... that makes sense. I'll wait a day or so for others to give their input before I accept your answer though. – 1110101001 May 20 at 0:30
I interpret "reacts most vigorously" to mean which metal reacts the fastest. This is a question of kinetics, not thermodynamics (e.g. the answer is not based on the enthalpy of the reaction). Kinetic rates are determined by the height of the energy barrier that needs to be surmounted, we need to determine and compare the activation energies in this process for the various metals. The activation energy in this process is determined by the following two steps: $$\ce{M(s) -> M(g)}$$ $$\ce{M(g) -> M^+(g) + e^-}$$ $$\ce{or}$$ $$\ce{M(g) -> M^{+2}(g) + 2 e^-}$$ depending on whether we are analyzing a group I or group II metal. The following link provides a nice analysis and tabulation of the energies required for these two steps with the group I metals
Group I link
and this link does the same for the Group II metals
Group II link
I'll summarize their findings
Metal ... Activation Energy (kJ/mol)
K ... +508
Na ... +603
Mg ... +2200
Ca ... +1950
CONCLUSION: Potassium has the lowest activation energy and should react the fastest.
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I believe that "most vigorously" would mean the explosive heat that is given off, e.g. when throwing an ingot of potassium into water. Seems thermodynamic to me. I prefer Martin's answer, which speaks also about the hydroxide, and points out that solvation energy is important. There is a significant effect of bulk transport, also -- the metal-hydroxide crust has to be dissolved into the water to allow for fresh metal to react. – Eric Brown May 30 at 21:58
Another thing is that the full ionization process is never fully realized in solvent, so these values might be supportive of the observation, rather than explanatory. – Eric Brown May 30 at 22:48
Please read ron's post before continuing here (too long for a comment). Its reasoning is very good and makes a lot of sense. The activation barrier is the defining component for how vigorously components react.
His presented reaction may cover the initial activation barrier, but subsequent reactions also have to be taken into account.
The overall reaction that will occur in the case of sodium can be formulated like this: \begin{aligned} \ce{2Na_{(s)} + 2H2O_{(l)} &-> 2Na+_{(aq)} + H2_{(g)} ^ + 2{}^{-}OH_{(aq)}}& \Delta H &= -184~\mathrm{kJ/ mol} \end{aligned}
So the start of the reaction has to be considered as the atomisation energy of the metal, after that the ionisation energy, both of these reactions need energy. Energy is released to the system by the hydration of the ion. For sodium this boils down to \begin{aligned} \ce{Na_{(s)} &-> Na_{(g)}} & \Delta H &= +109~\mathrm{kJ/ mol}\\ \ce{Na_{(g)} &-> Na+_{(g)} + e-} & \Delta H &= +494~\mathrm{kJ/ mol}\\ \ce{Na+_{(g)} &-> Na+_{(aq)}} & \Delta H &= -406~\mathrm{kJ/ mol}\\\hline \ce{Na_{(s)} &->[\ce{H2O}] Na+_{(aq)}} & \Delta H &= +197~\mathrm{kJ/ mol}.\\\hline\hline \end{aligned}
So why would this reaction happen, when there is no energy released? The cause of this are the secondary and tertiary reactions, that then again fuel the initial reactions. So the key question here is, what happens to the electron? \begin{aligned} \ce{2H2O + 2e- &<=> H2 ^ + 2{}^{-}OH}\\ \end{aligned} While I cannot find a value for this reaction, however I strongly suspect it to be negative. It more certainly gives us a hint on what to consider else, i.e. the hydration of hydroxide ions. (source) \begin{aligned} \ce{{}^{-}OH &-> {}^{-}OH_{(aq)}} & \Delta H &= -460~\mathrm{kJ/mol} \end{aligned} So this releases a lot of energy to the system, helping to atomize and ionize the sodium.
A tertiary reaction also has to be considered. Because of the produced heat, hydrogen will immediately burn when coming in contact with air. (wikipedia) \begin{aligned} \ce{2H2_{(g)} + O2_{(g)} &-> 2H2O_{(g)}} & \Delta H &= -242~\mathrm{kJ/mol} \end{aligned}
So all these reactions successfully overcome the activation barrier once the reaction started. This also then has the effect of multiplying the initial reaction, causing a chain reaction and hence reacting even more furiously.
Watch Sodium burn in water and at one point you see the hydrogen ignite and how vigorous this reaction is.
The same applies to all other metals, but as ron stated the kinetics depend on the activation barrier.
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The other answers explain things in terms of the activation energy barrier, but they don't explain why the activation energy barrier is lowest for K. I will attempt to do that here.
When a metal reacts with water, several things must happen (not necessarily in this order):
1. One or more electrons have to be removed from the metal
2. One or more $O-H$ bonds have to break on water molecules (one per electron)
3. The electron(s) must be "picked up" by the $OH$ to become $OH^-$
As @ron said, the "vigorousness" of this process depends on the kinetics of the reaction, which are in turn determined by the activation energy of the rate-limiting step.
In the links that he provided (1,2), they show that the activation energy is lowest for K, which means it would react most vigorously. (note - these are not real activation energies - the atoms are not actually atomized to the gas phase, and the electrons are not removed under vacuum to infinite distance, but they still give us a good relative estimate)
However, knowing that the kinetics of the reaction depends on the activation energy won't help you if you don't happen to have a chart of activation energies handy. On an exam, you certainly won't, and it is good to develop an intuition for these sorts of things anyhow. And so, you might ask:
Why is the activation energy lower?
Looking at the links, you can see that the activation energies are dominated by the ionization energy. In other words, when it takes more energy to remove electrons, the reaction slows down.
Why should K have the lowest ionization energy? First we need to look at the equation that governs the potential energy between charges:
Here E is electrostatic potential energy, $\kappa$ is Coulomb's constant, and $Q_1$ and $Q_2$ are charges.
You can see from this that if the charges have the opposite sign, then energy will be become more negative as they move closer together (inversely proportional to distance). As either of the charges increase, the energy will become more negative as well (directly proportional to charge). In other words, big charges are harder to pull apart, and charges that are close together are harder to pull apart than charges that are far apart. As a rough analogy, imagine pulling apart two magnets - it is more difficult when they are close together.
Now compare K to the other group I element (Na). K is further down the column. Since atomic radius increases with the row number (due to the fact that orbital radius increases with principle quantum number n), the valence electron on K is further from the nucleus (on average) than it is on Na. This means that it is easier to remove a valence electron from K. As an analogy, imagine trying to move a rock up a hill. You have to do less work (put in less energy) if the rock is already halfway up the hill. Since the electrons are further from the nucleus in K, they are already "further up the hill."
What about group II elements? As you progress from left to right, the atomic radius decreases - this is because the effective nuclear charge seen by the valence electrons increases. The combination of increased charge and decreased distance leads to a steeper "hill" that must be overcome. On top of that, now we have to remove two electrons for the reaction to work, which is roughly twice as difficult (technically we don't have to remove both, but the overall reaction thermodynamics won't work out if we don't). As a result, group I elements will always react more vigorously with water than group II will.
I think that it helps to imagine reactions as sort of a "fight" between elements over electrons. Who will win the fight and how it will go is determined by the number of protons in the nucleus and the electron orbital configuration. This approach is useful because it applies to more advanced chemistry as well.
For some demonstrations of alkali metal reactions with water, check out this video:
Alkali Metals
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I'm inclined to believe that the liberation of heat is a thermodynamic effect. While there may be vestiges of the thermodynamics in the kinetic barrier, I would like to point out that the discrete ionization is probably not observed, rather being conflated with transfer to the hydroxide, as well as the enormous solvation energy. – Eric Brown May 30 at 22:53
@Eric - I thought that too, until I read the references that ron posted. If you check those, you will see that potassium's net reaction enthalpy with water is less exothermic than either sodium or magnesium, both of which react much less "vigorously." – thomij May 31 at 0:07
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For other uses, see Ezekiel (disambiguation).
This article is about the main speaker in the biblical Book of Ezekiel. For a summary and analysis of the book itself, see Book of Ezekiel.
Ezekiel the Prophet
Ezekiel by Michelangelo, restored - large.jpg
Ezekiel, as depicted by Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel ceiling
Prophet, Priest
Born c. 622 BCE
Died c. 570 BCE
Babylon (?)
Honored in
Bahai Faith
Major shrine Ezekiel's Tomb, Al Kifl, Iraq
Feast August 28 - Armenian Apostolic Church
July 23 - Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism
July 21 - Lutheranism
In Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Bahá'í Faith, Ezekiel is acknowledged as a Hebrew prophet. In Judaism and Christianity, he is also viewed as the author of the Book of Ezekiel that reveals prophecies regarding the destruction of Jerusalem, the restoration to the land of Israel and the Millennial Temple visions, or the Third Temple.
Ezekiel's life[edit]
The author of the Book of Ezekiel presents himself as Ezekiel, the son of Buzi [Ezekiel 1:3], born into a priesthood (Kohen) lineage[1] of the patrilineal line of Ithamar, and resident of Anathoth. The author dates ages, prophecies and visions by making references to the lengths of time King Jehoiachin of Judah was in exile. Under the direction of Nebuchadnezzar II, Babylonian armies exiled three thousand Jews[2] from Judah, deposing King Jehoiachin in 597 BC.[chronology citation needed] The author describes himself as in his "thirtieth year... during the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s exile",[Ezekiel 1:1, 2] thus one can calculate his approximate year of birth as 622 BC.
Living in Babylon[edit]
According to the Bible Ezekiel and his wife lived on the bank of the Chebar River, in Tel Abib[3] (Mound of the Deluge) where exiled Jewish visitors came to seek his prophetic insights.[Ezekiel 1:1,3:15] There is no mention of him having any offspring, only that his wife died rather young, in the ninth year of exile, when Ezekiel was 34 years of age.[Ezekiel 24:1, 18]
Prophetic career[edit]
Ezekiel describes his calling to be a prophet, by going into great detail about his encounter with God and four living creatures or Cherubim with four wheels that stayed beside the creatures.[Ezekiel 1] For the next five years he incessantly prophesied and acted out the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, which was met with some opposition. However, Ezekiel and his contemporaries like Jeremiah, another prophet who was living in Jerusalem at that time, witnessed the fulfillment of their prophecies when Jerusalem was finally sacked by the Babylonians. The date of the sacking, 587 BC,[citation needed] is confirmed by Babylonian cuneiform records discovered by archeologists. Ezekiel was 50 years old when he began to have visions of a new Temple. He served as a prophet for at least 22 years until, according to[citation needed], Ezekiel last experienced an encounter with God in April 570 BC.[Ezekiel 29:17] His time of death has not been recorded.
World views[edit]
Jewish tradition[edit]
Ezekiel, like Jeremiah, is said by Talmud[4] and Midrash[5] to have been a descendant of Joshua by his marriage with the proselyte Rahab. Some statements found in rabbinic literature[who?] (Radak – R. David Kimkhi – in his commentary on Ezekiel 1:3, based on Targum Yerushalmi) posits that Ezekiel was the son of Jeremiah, who was (also) called "Buzi" because he was despised by the Jews.
Certain Lutheran churches also celebrate his commemoration on July 21.
The Church Fathers interpret Ezekiel's vision of the human likeness upon the sapphire throne (Ezekiel 1:26) as a prophecy of the Incarnation of the Logos from the Theotokos (Virgin Mary), who in many ancient church hymns is called the "living Throne of God".[citation needed]
Since 1830 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has identified the Book of Mormon with the "record of the stick of Ephraim"[12] (Ezekiel 37:16) while the stick of Judah is identified with the Bible.
Islamic tradition[edit]
Main article: Dhul-Kifl
Ezekiel is recognized as a prophet in Islamic tradition. Although not mentioned in the Qur'an by the name, all Muslim scholars, both classical[13] and modern[14] have included Ezekiel in lists of the prophets of Islam.
Ezekiel appears in all Muslim collections of Stories of the Prophets.[16] Muslim exegesis further lists Ezekiel's father as Buzi (Budhi) and Ezekiel is given the title ibn al-adjus, denoting "son of the old", as his parents are supposed to have been very old when he was born. A tradition, which resembles that of Hannah and Samuel in the Hebrew Bible, states that Ezekiel's mother prayed to God in old age for the birth of an offspring and was given Ezekiel as a gift from God.[17]
• Masudi, Murudj, i, 103ff.
Interpretation as reports of alien spacecraft[edit]
Erich von Däniken and others have interpreted Ezekiel's visions as evidence of visits from intelligent extraterrestrial beings.[18][19] See also The Spaceships of Ezekiel.
In "The Wheel of Fire", an unproduced script for the science fiction series Galactica 1980, the "wheel of fire" seen by Ezekiel actually is an alien spacecraft, specifically a Cylon Raider which is destroyed in low Earth orbit and spins across the sky like a wheel as it burns.
Tomb of Ezekiel[edit]
The tomb of Ezekiel is a structure located in modern day south Iraq near Kefil, believed to be the final resting place of Ezekiel.[20] It has been a place of pilgrimage to both Muslims and Jews alike. After the Jewish exodus from Iraq, Jewish activity in the tomb ceased although a disused Synagogue remains in place.[21]
See also[edit]
1. ^ Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews Book X, 5.1.79, 80
2. ^ Flavius /Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews Book X, 6.3.98
3. ^ Not to be confused with modern day Tel Aviv, located on the Mediterranean coastline. However, this location's name was influenced by Ezekiel 1:3
4. ^ (Meg. 14b)
5. ^ (Sifri, Num. 78)
7. ^ (Ḥag. 13b)
8. ^ Midrash Lev. Rabbah i. 14, toward the end
9. ^ (Midrash Canticles Rabbah vii. 8)
10. ^ Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America - Online Chapel: 23 July
12. ^ Doctrine and Covenants, Section 27, Verse 5
15. ^ Reisebeschreibung nach Arabian Copenhagen, 1778, ii. 264–266
16. ^ Stories of the Prophets, Ibn Kathir, Story of Ezekiel (Hizqil)
17. ^ Encyclopedia of Islam, G. Vajda, Hizkil
18. ^ Roy Stemman: Das Weltall und seine Besucher (German; orig. English: Visitors From Outer Space, Aldus Books, London 1976). Translated by Eva Brückner-Pfaffenberger. Ullstein publishers, Frankfurt / Berlin / Vienna 1979, p. 74-75. "Das Buch Hesekiel beginnt mit der bemerkenswerten Vision, die einige Aufregung unter modernen Ufologen verursachte. [...] Erich von Däniken gehört zu den Verfassern, die eine außerirdische Erklärung für Hesekiels Vision angenommen haben." English: "The book of Ezekiel begins with the remarkable vision that caused a considerable excitement among modern ufologists. [...] Erich von Däniken belongs to the authors who have supposed Ezekiel's vision having to be explained on an extraterrestrial basis."
19. ^ Roy Stemman: Das Weltall und seine Besucher (German; orig. English: Visitors From Outer Space). Ullstein publishers, Frankfurt / Berlin / Vienna 1979, p. 75. "Hesekiel gibt viele [...] Details seines Erlebnisses an, das gewöhnlich als visionär betrachtet wurde – einfach als ein weiterer Versuch, mystische Erfahrungen so zu beschreiben, dass andere sie verstehen können. Es unterscheidet sich jedoch von anderen biblischen Visionen, weil Hesekiel, ein Priester, auf überraschende Weise ins Detail geht. Wie auch immer sein Glaube an Gott und die Engel ausgesehen haben mag, Hesekiel scheint eine Erfahrung gemacht zu haben, die seinem Wissen und Verstehen so fremd war, dass er sich daranmachte, so viele Einzelheiten wie möglich über die Konstruktion dessen, was er sah, zu berichten. Diejenigen, die an Fliegende Untertassen glauben, waren rasch mit der Interpretation seiner Vision als Beschreibung eines Raumschiffs und seiner Besatzung bei der Hand." English: "Ezekiel notes many [...] details of what he had experienced and what had usually been considered visionary—simply one further attempt to describe mystic experiences so that others can understand them. [His experience], though, differs from other biblical visions in so far as the author, a priest, in a surprising way goes into detail. How ever his belief in God and the angels may have looked, Ezekiel seems to have experienced something so strange to his knowledge and understanding that he went to report as many details of the design of what he had seen as possible. Those who believe in flying saucers quickly came forward with an interpretation of his vision as a description of a spaceship and its crew."
20. ^ "Jewishencyclopedia.com". Jewishencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2012-06-22.
21. ^ "Iraq Cleric Slams Plan to Turn Jewish Tomb into Mosque". Thejc.com. 2010-04-12. Retrieved 2012-06-22.
Further reading[edit]
• Broome, Edwin C., Jr. (September 1946). "Ezekiel's Abnormal Personality". Journal of Biblical Literature 65: 277–292.
External links[edit]
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To produce mass amounts of the living cells, samples of human kidney cells are cultured in large volumes and blended with hydrogel, a water- and nutrition-rich material that makes up the 3D printed kidneys' base. Afterwards, the printed cells can survive for up to four months in a lab thanks to this gel's rich nutrient source.
It's different from traditional 3D printing—to print a cup, we have to fill up the object with our material. But this method doesn't work in cells because a cell contains blood vessels and has tissue space. We have to make sure to spare enough space for them to grow.
Most incredibly, though, these adorable mini kidneys are able to function in exactly the same ways as their real, human-bred counterpart—they can break down toxins, metabolize, and secrete fluid. All of this is fantastic news for the millions of patients in need of organ transplants every yea—a small fraction of which actually receive the life-giving surgery. And though it may still be a few years before we start seeing this method being used in actual hospitals, judging by the the success of the fun-sized version, we're well on our way to printing off brand new organs at moment's notice. [Digg]
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
If the word “BRIGHT” is coded as” OCPLKV”, then how will you code the word “SERIAL”?
5) none of these Can someone give me the answer with a little explanation?
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Are you told what method of encryption is used? – Michael Albanese Sep 13 '12 at 10:52
@MichaelAlbanese Not exactly but I know that we do not use the make the same substitution all the time, there is some algorithm running. – user221287 Sep 13 '12 at 10:58
Suppose it is a simple substitution cipher. Then, R and I are coded as C and P respectively. R and I also occur in SERIAL (in fact the doublet RI occurs in both BRIGHT and SERIAL). Are any of the four suggested answers a possibility? – Dilip Sarwate Sep 13 '12 at 11:01
@DilipSarwate, that only works if you make the same substitutions all the time. – mikeazo Sep 13 '12 at 11:03
"That only works..." Absolutely true, and without any further information about the method of encryption, the problem has no answer: SERIAL could be encoded into any sequence of six letters (including the four listed, and so "None of the above" is also not a correct answer to the question). – Dilip Sarwate Sep 13 '12 at 11:08
1 Answer 1
up vote 4 down vote accepted
If you map the letters of the words "BRIGHT" and "OCPLKV" to numbers using the obvious encoding A = 1, B = 2, ..., Z = 26, you get $$2, 18, 9, 7, 8, 20$$ and $$15, 3, 16, 12, 11, 22.$$ If you now subtract the former sequence from the latter, what's left is $$13, -15, 7, 5, 3, 2.$$ Assuming that the cipher is using arithmetic modulo 26, the −15 becomes 26 − 15 = 11, leaving us with the sequence $$13, 11, 7, 5, 3, 2.$$ Does that look familiar? What do you get when you add these numbers modulo 26 to the letters of the word "SERIAL", encoded into numbers as above? (Hint: it's one of the four choices.)
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Most drumlins are composed of clayey till; some, however, have deep layers , but they may vary greatly in their composition. Some contain significant amounts of gravels, whereas others are made up of rock underlying the surface till (rock drumlins), while others are almost solid bedrock (roches moutonnées). Drumlins are often covered with grass in hot arid regions. In areas of higher rainfall, the soil can support thick forests and pastures; in humid climates, drumlins may even be cultivatedassociated with smaller, glacially streamlined bedrock forms known as roches moutonnées.
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The Editing of the Talmud
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Halakhah and Aggadah
The Process
The actual term "editors" is found neither in the Yerushalmi nor in the Bavli. Indeed, both Talmuds are completely silent on how they were put together. A few scholars have even suggested that, as with the Yerushalmi, there was no editorial process at all in the Bavli: that the material simply grew as additions were made from time to time.
While the unfinished state of the Yerushalmi might just lend support to the view that this Talmud simply grew (though some editorial work is evident here as well) such an opinion is untenable for the Bavli. There is a uniform framework in the Bavli into which the words of the Amoraim are inserted and this framework is obviously the work of anonymous editors.
Our major source of information for the editing of the Talmud is the famous letter of Sherira Gaon (906-1006 CE Sherira Gaon was head of the Babylonian Academy; his famous letter--iggeret--was written to the Jewish Community in Kairouan, North Africa, and is in essence a response to the challenge of the Karaites--a Jewish group with a different view of legal interpretation of the Bible--that Rabbinic Judaism was not authoritative. In this letter, Sherira Gaon recounts the history and development of the Mishnah and the Talmud).
But this was compiled centuries after the "close" of the Talmud so that, while containing reliable traditions, the work does not solve all the problems and, at times, reads later conditions into the Talmudic sources. A close examination of the Bavli succeeds in detecting four stages in the construction of this massive edifice. First there are the bare opinions of the Amoraim, usually quoted in Hebrew. Secondly, these opinions were used by the anonymous editors in their creation of the framework to form the Talmud. Thirdly, a number of additions can be detected, introduced after the framework was complete, and according to Sherira and all subsequent scholars, these are attributed to the Saboraim (a word of uncertain derivation but obviously connected to the Talmudic term sevara, "theory", and hence the Saboraim were probably so called because they made some things clearer). Fourthly, scholars have detected a very few additions from the period of the early Geonim (academy heads).
Yet problems remain. For instance, there is no clear indication whether the Talmud was originally produced in written form or whether it was at first transmitted by word of mouth and was originally not a literary work at all. The French school in the Middle Ages, the leading exponent of which was Rashi, held that the Mishnah was originally a purely oral composition as was the Talmud, the whole being committed to writing as late as the eighth century. Maimonides and the Spanish school generally held that the Mishnah was a written work and that the Talmud, too, was originally produced as a literary composition.
The fact that there are numerous literary devices used in the framework, that it is beyond comprehension that such a gigantic, complex work could have been transmitted intact by word of mouth, and the fact that it was eventually written down on any showing, all lend the most powerful support to the view that the Bavli, at least, if not the Mishnah and the Yerushalmi, was originally a literary composition, though much of the argument would apply to the Mishnah and the Yerushalmi as well.
This is not to deny that earlier strata are to be found in the Bavli in the form of units complete in themselves. Such strata can be detected in the work, but the whole seems to have been refashioned to provide a complete literary unit. The debate on this and similar matters still goes on among modern talmudic scholars.
Another problem is why it was decided to put all the material together at the particular time when this was done. What was the reason for "the close of the Talmud" as this was referred to in the Middle Ages, suggesting that at a certain date in the history of Jewish learning, a halt was called to a continuing process which now had to be finalized?
Sherira Gaon--and he is followed by all subsequent scholars--gives as the reason the persecutions to which Jews were subjected, which could have resulted in them forgetting the Talmud, or rather the actual debates and so forth, unless these were compiled and recast in a complete, accessible form.
The Yerushalmi in all current editions consists of the Mishnah and the Gemara of the Yerushalmi, and the Bavli of the Mishnah and the Gemara of the Bavli. But properly speaking, the Talmud Yerushalmi consists of the Gemara alone and the Talmud Bavli of the Gemara alone. (The Mishnah, of course, is a work of its own, compiled long before the Gemara.)
Nevertheless, the whole is now referred to as the Talmud. Since the Mishnah is now part of the complete Talmud, and there are six orders of the Mishnah, the Talmud is often referred to as Shas (an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of Shishah Sedarim, "Six Orders"). Thus a scholar with profound knowledge of the Talmud is spoken of as a "baki ["expert"] in Shas".
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Rabbi Louis Jacobs
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Mathematical English Usage - a Dictionary
by Jerzy Trzeciak
[cf. make
This is done to simplify the notation.
As the space of Example 3 shows, complete regularity of X is not enough to allow us to do that.
In fact, we can do even better, and prescribe finitely many derivatives at each point of M.
We have not required f to be compact, and we shall not do so except when explicitly stated.
This will hold for n>1 if it does for n=1.
Consequently, A has all geodesics closed if and only if B does.
We can do a heuristic calculation to see what the generator of xt must be.
In contrast to the previous example, membership of D(A) does impose some restrictions on f.
Only for x=1 does the limit exist.
In particular, for only finitely many k do we have F(ak)>1. [Note the inversion after only.]
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Paper Topic:
Civil Rights or Cold War impact on American society and life.
The Era of Cold War Paranoia
History is really never in the past , but rather it exists almost exclusively in the present . That is , no aspect or component found in the history books is an entity that was not a current issue , ideology movement or trend at one point . Any historical event in question was once organic , living and unfolded as those in charge of domestic and foreign policy made certain decisions that were relevant to the shaping of such policy in the (then ) present . Sometimes these decisions were good , sometimes there
were less than desirable , but all of these decisions became part of the fabric that becomes the history of the nation
During the 20th Century , the United States saw many landmark events occur that played a significant in the shaping of both the nation 's history and future . While some of these events were primarily foreign policy and other events primarily domestic policy , there were those events that crossed both internal and international lines or ramifications . Such was the case with both the United States involvement in the Cold War as well as the turmoil and highs and lows of the Civil Rights movement . In many ways , these events overlapped with one another In other ways , they appeared miles apart from one another . Through it all , both the Cold War and the Civil Rights movement both played a huge role in changing the very fabric of American society
There is a question that derives from this : to what degree did each of these events change the fabric of American life and which of these events changed that fabric to the greater degree ? Was it the Cold War or the Civil Rights Movement that forever change the America of history into something new
The Civil Rights movement was a period of time where African-Americans began to assert their rights in the United States . The Civil Rights movement primarily consisted of peaceful protests on what was essentially an apartheid system that was present in the Southern United States . However , peaceful does not mean that the era was without any tumultuous situations . Many times , the National Guard would be called to the sites of cities in flames , the result of riots that occurred after the passing of the CIVIL RIGHTS ACT and THE VOTER RIGHTS ACT in the mid-1960 's
However , in terms of the most defining aspect of the 20th Century , the nod would have to go to the Cold War in terms of which series of events would have the greatest impact on American Society . The reason for this is that the Cold War went hand in hand with fear of nuclear annihilation and the collapse of the American society . There was a scent of paranoia in the air as people would go so far as to purchase bomb shelters in the case of a nuclear assault . So great was the real and imagined fears of a Third World War with the Soviets , that much of American domestic and...
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General Features / Plate Heat Exchangers Working Principle
Plate heat exchangers are such devices that work with the principle of two different liquids making heat transfer in themselves. The liquid to be heated or the liquid heats, are totally seperated from each other with plates. In standart plate heat exchangers, there are 4 in-out ports and two of them are for heater liquid and two of them for heated liquid. With special production, it is possible to produce heat exchangers which have more than one heater or heated liquids.
In MIT Plate Heat Exchangers, the flow is always diagonal. When the hot liquid enters in the top portion and leaves from the bottom, the cold liquid enters in the bottom and leaves from top. So efficiency reaches maximum level.
In MIT Plate Heat Exchangers, it is obvious in the above graphs that in the straight flow, cold leaving temperature can not exceed hot leaving temperature. On the other hand, it can be possible in the diagonal flow.
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Rabies-Specific Antibodies: Measuring Surrogates of Protection against a Fatal Disease
• Susan M. Moore mail,
Affiliation: Rabies Laboratory, Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, United States of America
• Cathleen A. Hanlon
Antibodies play a central role in prophylaxis against many infectious agents. While neutralization is a primary function of antibodies, the Fc- and complement-dependent activities of these multifunctional proteins may also be critical in their ability to provide protection against most viruses. Protection against viral pathogens in vivo is complex, and while virus neutralization—the ability of antibody to inactivate virus infectivity, often measured in vitro—is important, it is often only a partial contributor in protection. The rapid fluorescent focus inhibition test (RFFIT) remains the “gold standard” assay to measure rabies virus–neutralizing antibodies. In addition to neutralization, the rabies-specific antigen-binding activity of antibodies may be measured through enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs), as well as other available methods. For any disease, in selecting the appropriate assay(s) to use to assess antibody titers, assay validation and how they are interpreted are important considerations—but for a fatal disease like rabies, they are of paramount importance. The innate limitations of a one-dimensional laboratory test for rabies antibody measurement, as well as the validation of the method of choice, must be carefully considered in the selection of an assay method and for the interpretation of results that might be construed as a surrogate of protection.
Whether an animal control worker wants to determine if a rabies vaccine booster is necessary to establish an acceptable pre-exposure status, or a physician is considering the causes of encephalitis in a child, or the owner of an immunologically compromised dog is worried that the dog's response to rabies vaccination will not be sufficient to pass a serological test allowing them to travel to a rabies-free area, or a researcher is trying to determine if the rabies vaccine-bait response is adequate in a raccoon population, or one needs to assign a potency value to a rabies immune globulin product, all demand an accurate assessment based on the measurement of circulating antibodies. In each of these situations the measurement or simply the detection of rabies-specific virus-neutralizing or other antibodies will help resolve the question. However, just as the circumstances in each of these scenarios are different, the specifics of the method chosen to measure antibodies, the regulatory requirements of the testing, and the purpose of testing in each of these situations are different. Antibodies arise from the humoral immune response to rabies antigens, the process of which is controlled by many factors, including the amount of antigen, route of delivery, the expression and involvement of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes, and the health status of the individual, among others. An understanding of the host immune response, including the immunoglobulin (Ig) subclass (type) and the kinetics and longevity of the response, is necessary to obtain the measure or degree of rabies immunity.
Initially, measurement of rabies virus neutralizing antibodies (RVNA) was performed in vivo using the mouse neutralization test (MNT). Subsequently, the rapid fluorescent focus inhibition test (RFFIT) was established as the “gold standard” in vitro test [1]. Methods for measuring rabies immunity vary with regard to the humoral component measured (i.e., the Ig subclass or functional activity) and performance characteristics (i.e., specificity or sensitivity), as well as the cost and complexity of the method. Understanding each of these unique factors is essential in the selection and proper use of the method and is equally critical in the interpretation of the results derived from the methods. Moreover, regulations (e.g., from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), European Union, World Organization for Animal Health) that require validated and approved test methods for measuring the generation of rabies virus antibodies are relevant in pet transport and in rabies biologics production and evaluation, for use in both humans and animals. In this review, we discuss the following (1) the role of rabies-specific antibodies in disease prevention, (2) the methods that can be used for detection and measurement, and (3) the considerations and current requirements for method standardization and validation.
A review of the literature was conducted using the online database PubMed from 1975 to 2008 with US National Library of Medicine medical subject headings (MeSH). Reference lists of selected articles and reviews were also individually researched. In addition, unpublished rabies serology data from the Kansas State University Rabies Laboratory were reviewed.
The Role of Rabies-Specific Antibodies in Disease Prevention
Animal models of protection against rabies have demonstrated the essential role of RVNA [2],[3]. Indeed, RVNA alone can result in viral clearance from the central nervous system (CNS) of experimentally infected mice [4]. Most rabies-specific antibodies are directed to epitopes on the rabies virus glycoprotein, although some may specifically recognize the nucleoprotein [5],[6]. How rabies-specific antibodies neutralize the virus is not entirely understood in terms of what specific epitopes or Ig subclasses are involved [7],[8]. A single rabies virion can bind up to 1,000 molecules of some antiglycoprotein monoclonal antibodies without being neutralized, suggesting that virus neutralization probably involves more than simply antibody binding to virion epitopes [7],[8]. It can be assumed that antibodies that neutralize virus in vitro are more efficient in the process that leads to protection against virus infection in vivo than antibodies that do not neutralize virus in vitro. The Fc portion of antibodies alone has specific biological functions, including activation of antigen-presenting cells and the complement cascade. As such, whole IgG is expected to be more potent than the epitope-specific F(ab)2 portions of neutralizing antibodies [9]. With the development of molecular techniques for engineering the specificity of antibody Fab fragments and intact monoclonal antibodies for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, the importance of understanding how antibodies neutralize rabies virus mechanistically becomes all the more important. Because it is difficult in practical terms to predict the ability of a polyclonal or monoclonal antibody preparation to neutralize virus by measurements of antibody avidity or affinity alone, neutralization activity must be determined first by some means in vitro even if only to provide an estimate of in vivo activity. That said, a preparation of rabies-specific antibodies that demonstrates potent neutralization in vitro may still not protect in vivo [10].
The rabies virus is highly neurotropic. Within the CNS, rabies virus infection develops for the most part undetected by the adaptive immune responses of the host until the infection is in its final stages. In addition to an infection that develops within this immune-privileged site, the rabies virus is able to subvert any host immune response that is mounted and thus the outcome of infection is fatal in nearly 100% of cases. In contrast, a rabies vaccine is able to stimulate high levels of circulating RVNA. This is why immunity following exposure to rabies virus in an unvaccinated individual, initiated with prompt wound cleansing to reduce viral load at the site of exposure and administration of rabies-specific Ig followed by a series of rabies vaccinations, is virtually 100% effective in preventing infection. Passive protection with rabies Ig (RIG) is critical to immediately neutralize a majority of infectious virions, keeping the virus from spreading while waiting for induction of the host's adaptive immune response. In general, rabies vaccines historically are killed whole-virus vaccines, which are expected to promote the development of anti-rabies virus-specific antibodies along with a CD4+ T lymphocyte response, which includes cytokine production. Each individual's polyclonal antibody response to rabies vaccination is a unique mix of specificities to rabies virus antigens. Although the majority of individuals develop a variety of measurable antibodies in response to pre- or postexposure vaccination, there may be substantial variation in the neutralizing activity and quantity of RVNA produced.
Antibodies develop out of intrinsic host responses and in response to extrinsic factors such as the amount of antigen given, type of antigen, and route of exposure or vaccination. For example, it has been demonstrated that the more potent the vaccine the higher the levels of RVNA that are induced in human subjects [11]. Other studies have demonstrated that the type of vaccine and route of vaccination affect the level of antibodies at both 14 days and one year after vaccination [12]. Also, a T helper type 2 (Th2) immune response to killed vaccine is inherently different from activation of a T helper type 1 (Th1) immunity by a live virus vaccine. In addition to host factors such as age and general health status, an individual's adaptive immune response requires the binding of foreign peptides to the MHC molecule on antigen-presenting cells and stimulation of a corresponding T cell clone by that particular MHC–peptide combination. The diversity of the genes in the MHC complex, consisting of hundreds of alleles, influences the variation in the immune response to vaccination [13]. Humoral (Th2) and cellular (Th1) type immune responses are largely directed by the production of cytokines, including maturation of the antibody response and generation of Ig subclass. A dichotomy of responses in rabies vaccination among humans to high or good responders and poor or low responders has also been observed [14]. Predictions regarding the longevity of the RVNA response can be made on the basis of the level and timing of the peak response to vaccination [12],[14].
Methods for the Detection and Measurement of Rabies Virus Antibodies
Methods available for the detection and measurement of rabies virus–specific antibodies are either antigen-binding assays or virus-neutralization assays. In antigen-binding assays, antibodies in serum or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are detected, quantified, and characterized by their ability to bind to various rabies virus antigens, from whole virus, purified subunits, or specific peptides that mimic epitopes. Such assays determine the affinity, avidity, and specificity of binding antibodies. Commonly, these methods involve fixing the antigen to a solid surface, i.e., tube, plate, or bead. The interaction between the antibody and the antigen is then visualized and quantitated by various detection systems that involve color development through an enzyme–substrate reaction or binding of a secondary antibody, conjugated to a fluorescent marker or staphylococcal protein A/G, to the primary antibody bound to the antigen. These assays can be used to measure antibodies that react to internal viral proteins, either structural or enzymatic, as well as to estimate levels of antibodies that bind to the external proteins against which neutralizing antibodies are directed. In contrast, modern virus neutralization assays are cell-based assays that detect the functional activity of antibodies in the serum or CSF against live virus. The mechanism of virus neutralization in cell culture (an in vitro assay) depends upon the interaction between the virion epitope and the paratope (the specific counteracting site) of the antibody, and may also be influenced by receptor characteristics of the cells upon which an assay is performed [15]. Evidence indicates that the virus infects cells of neuronal origin using the receptors nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, the low-affinity nerve growth factor receptor, or the neural cell adhesion molecule, while infecting non-CNS cells by use of other unidentified receptors [16],[17]. The outcome of a virus-neutralization assay is based on a measurement of virus growth in cell culture, i.e., defining whether virus escapes neutralization or not. Binding assays, on the other hand, measure a different set of characteristics of the rabies-specific Ig response compared with neutralization assays. Hence, the results from binding assays are not, a priori, directly comparable to neutralization results [7]. With appropriate validation and suitability for the intended purpose, binding assays can be used to determine the presence or absence of antigen-specific antibodies, and in some cases Ig subclasses, that could be used as an approximation or confirmation of the neutralizing antibody response. The purpose of testing will determine which methods are most appropriate. For example, detection of specific rabies virus antibodies in the CSF is diagnostic of rabies infection, whether the test performed is one of the binding assays (such as to fixed whole virus on a slide that is detected with anti-species IgG or IgM) or a neutralization assay (such as the RFFIT). Antibody activity detected in sera may be an indication of prior vaccination or, if present with clinical signs of rabies, of active infection or even, in very rare cases, prior exposure to rabies virus that resulted in no clinical infection [18] or in survival of the infection by the individual [19]. To fully define immunity to rabies requires a highly specific assay and the ability to detect extremely low levels of antibodies, and often of specific subclasses such as IgM and IgG. Binding assays can more easily be devised to achieve these requirements through use of specific, pure antigen and robust detection (readout) systems. Nonetheless, a measure of protection against rabies infection is best approximated by a virus neutralization test. Since experimental virus challenge methods will never be performed in humans, surrogate experimental animal models of protection based on field observations and the amount and duration of serum neutralizing antibodies measured by in vitro methods are used.
By changing various components, such as virus strain, detection system, etc., of the assay, it is possible to custom design a “fit-for-purpose” assay. For example, detection of RVNA in a particular colony of bat species associated with a rabies virus variant may be “specifically” measured using, in the in vitro assay, the suspected rabies virus variant in circulation among the bats as the challenge virus. The sensitivity of a test method may be adjusted by varying the amount of antigen or challenge virus dose to more precisely define and determine low levels of antibodies or the presence of nonspecific or cross-reacting antibodies or substances. For binding assays, such as an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), a labeled anti-IgM as the secondary antibody detects only IgM rabies virus antibodies as the primary antibody. The anti-IgM level can be compared to the anti-IgG level in the same sample by performing the same assay, but using a labeled anti-IgG as the secondary antibody. The competitive ELISA method utilizes a competing monoclonal antibody to a rabies protein epitope and measures the ability of antibodies in the test sample (of serum or CSF) to out-compete the monoclonal antibody for attachment to that particular epitope [20]. This makes the assay very specific for measuring antibodies that bind to a specific epitope on a given rabies protein [21]. In addition, variation can be introduced to assay methods to make them easier to perform and easier to standardize for use in very diverse environments and laboratories. For example, molecular techniques involving pseudotyped viruses as vectors, such as the lentiviral vector system, to express the rabies glycoprotein have several advantages. They provide the ability to (a) standardize the target epitope; (b) test for neutralization against multiple strains or genotypes of viruses; (c) use a lower level of biohazard practices (i.e., making them potentially safer than using live rabies virus), and (d) improve the economy of the test methods [22]. These are some of the factors to consider when choosing the method that is “fit-for-purpose.”
Determination of the cut-off value (i.e., the point that indicates seroconversion or determination of adequate vaccination) is specific for each test method and is critical to how results are interpreted. In general, a serum neutralization titer of 1:100 (90% endpoint titer) is acceptable as effective, even though antibody levels in tissue might actually be lower [23]. The antibody titer (level) of 0.5 IU (international units)/mL, which is recognized globally, was first mentioned in the Eighth Report of the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Rabies, 1992. With regard to pre-exposure vaccination, the report states: “All persons who work with live rabies virus in a diagnostic, research or vaccine production laboratory should have a serum sample tested for rabies virus-neutralizing antibodies and a booster administered when the titre falls below 0.5 IU/mL.” The report also recommends that the level of RVNA be determined by the MNT or the RFFIT, using a common challenge virus strain [24]. It is clear that the level of 0.5 IU/mL was established as an indication of adequate vaccination (not protection!) in humans at risk of rabies exposure, and that it refers to using a serum neutralization test with a standard challenge virus strain. In the US, the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) state “If the titer falls below the minimum acceptable antibody level of complete neutralization at a serum dilution of 1:5, a single pre-exposure booster dose of vaccine is recommended for persons at continuous or frequent risk for exposure to rabies” (the minimum acceptable antibody level is not defined in IU/mL) and recommend the RFFIT method for testing [25]. Therefore, when other methods are employed to measure rabies-specific antibodies in humans or when the RFFIT is employed for other species (not humans), the accepted level of 0.5 IU/mL may not apply. In a review of rabies challenge studies, valid cut-off values for RFFIT results in cats and dogs of 0.1 and 0.2 IU/mL, respectively, were suggested [2]. The level of 0.5 IU/mL by RFFIT or FAVN methods is recognized by regulatory authorities from most rabies-free areas as proof of adequate response to vaccination for importation of cats and dogs [26]. When results of testing raccoon sera by both RFFIT and a commercial veterinary ELISA kit are compared, similar measures of sensitivity and specificity are obtained only when using different cut-off values (see Table 1). For raccoon sera tested by RFFIT, setting the cut-off level at 0.5 IU/mL allows for the possibility of nonspecific inhibitors to be present in the sera of wildlife, which may give false-positive results if the cut-off level is set too low. Often the ELISA method is less susceptible to interfering substances because the serum dilution used in the assay is generally higher. Measurements above 0.1 EU (equivalent units)/mL appear to be specific for this set of samples, using this particular test kit. When monitoring bait uptake in raccoons in oral baiting programs, it is more important to use a method that estimates levels of potential immunity of a population than to determine the degree of protection in an individual raccoon. Employing different cut-off values in studies when comparing results produced with the same method can result in misleading conclusions. Therefore, the assay and cut-off value that can distinguish vaccinated from unvaccinated raccoons becomes the best “fit-for-purpose” method. Similarly, the cut-off level is significant in a study of the human response to a rabies vaccine that compares three ELISA methods against the RFFIT method utilizing the seroconversion cut-off value of 0.5 IU/mL [27]. Calculations and hence conclusions derived from the seroconversion RFFIT results will vary depending on the cut-off level used, either 0.5 IU/mL or the ACIP-accepted level of complete neutralization at a 1:5 dilution. For example, determination of sensitivity and specificity measures of the ELISA methods in comparison with RFFIT results, interpreted as negative or positive for seroconversion by the ACIP level, rather than the 0.5 IU/ml level used in the paper, will give different values [27]. In these two examples, the appropriate cut-off value should be determined by and specific to each method, and in relation to the purpose of testing and regulatory requirements. In addition to setting appropriate cut-off levels for particular methods, regulatory agencies, such as the European Pharmacopoeia, the USFDA, or national import authorities in rabies-free areas, may also require laboratory validation and approval or certification.
Table 1. Summary of rabies serology results of 100 raccoon subjects (50 vaccinated/50 unvaccinated) comparing RFFIT and ELISA methods.
Method Standardization and Validation
Standardization of rabies serologic test methods is essential to provide a meaningful comparison of antibody characteristics and potency in vaccinated or exposed individuals. This becomes especially relevant when rabies serology results are compared between different laboratories and different studies over time. The fluorescent antibody virus neutralization (FAVN) test was developed in part to address standardization of the various modifications of the RFFIT in use [28]. Variables in the test, which include the challenge virus, antibodies, target cells, and cut-off values, must be standardized for the test results to be comparable. For example, with whole rabies virus versus rabies virus glycoprotein as the antigen in an indirect ELISA test, where all the other variables are standardized, results would not be expected to be comparable. In most test samples, the majority of the rabies virus antibodies being analyzed will be directed against the glycoprotein, but antibodies to nucleoprotein and phosphoprotein antigens of the virus are not uncommon and will be detected in an indirect ELISA based on the whole virus [29]. In the measurement of potency of monoclonal antibodies, it is important to consider that the specificity of an antibody for a single epitope may not be sufficient to neutralize all epitope (antigenic) variations of a challenge virus strain or even a number of quasispecies within a single virus stock [30],[31]. Similarly, different challenge virus strains can influence the results obtained in serum neutralization testing. In a study of human subjects that compared serum titers measured in vitro against challenge virus strains that were either homologous or heterologous to the vaccine strain revealed that, in the majority of subjects, higher titers were detected against the homologous strain [32]. Also, both high and low challenge virus doses can affect the determination of rabies Ig potency [33]. The use of a recognized standard anti-rabies serum control as a reference will standardize the results of a method and allow for conversion of the measurements (e.g., titers, optical density readings, etc.) into recognized units such as IU/mL or EU/mL.
The international reference standards for RIG products in use today include of the WHO first International Standard for Rabies Immunoglobulin, the WHO second International Standard for Rabies Immunoglobulin, and the Office International des Épizooties (OIE) canine RIG reference serum. The potency of each of these products has been assigned a value by serum neutralization methods [34][36]. The original international standard RIG reference serum, which was of equine origin, was established in 1955. Based on the lyophilized product weight of 86.6 mg per ampoule, a potency value of 86.6 IU was assigned. The WHO first RIG reference serum of human origin was prepared from pooled sera from vaccinated humans. The human RIG potency was established by interlaboratory testing against the standard equine RIG in a RFFIT performed in six laboratories. The test involved two dilutions (low and high) of the product in four replicate assays. After statistical analysis, a potency of 59 IU was assigned in 1984 to the WHO first International Standard for RIG. In a similar manner, a second pool of sera from vaccinated humans was tested in 1993, assigned a potency of 30 IU, and established as the WHO second International Standard for RIG reference serum. The RIG reference serum used in the US, Lot R-3, is a portion of the lot that became the WHO first International Standard for RIG reference serum. The OIE canine RIG reference serum has a potency of 6.7 IU, and batches of this product are calibrated against the WHO second International Standard for RIG reference serum. The relative potencies of these two WHO human RIG reference sera were compared by the USFDA in 1997 and again by Kansas State University Rabies Laboratory in 2006. This comparison showed a decrease in the relative potency of WHO first International Standard in relation to the potency of WHO second International Standard of 2.5% in 1997 and 14% in 2006. These differences are not considered statistically significant, but they illustrate the effect of using different reference standards when comparing rabies serology results and the importance of quality control monitoring and standards.
The use of potency values for RIG that are assigned by serum neutralization methods as opposed to those assigned by binding assays is inappropriate and problematic. Figure 1 illustrates the discrepancies that can occur when various RIG reference sera of the same potency determined by serum neutralization are used to calculate potency values obtained by an ELISA method. When the WHO first and second RIG reference sera are diluted to 2.0 IU/mL to give similar potency values by RFFIT, the ELISA results are discrepant. Thus, if the WHO first RIG is used as the reference control for the standard curve in an ELISA assay, lower results will be obtained than if the WHO second RIG is used.
Figure 1. International standard RIG reference sera.
WHO first SRIG and WHO second SRIG were diluted to 2.0 IU/mL according to the potency as labeled. The SRIG preparations were evaluated in three independent test batches by both RFFIT and ELISA (Bio-Rad Platelia Rabies Kit II) methods. The IU/mL value was calculated against the WHO first SRIG and the EU/mL was calculated against the kit standard. Displayed are the average IU/mL or EU/mL values with one standard deviation.
“Method-of-result” calculation is an additional factor to consider in the standardization of an assay. For example, the use of either 50% or 100% endpoint titers, both of which can be calculated for serum neutralization assays, will yield different titer values. For any comparison of results, it is essential to know, and should always be stated, what calculation was used to generate titer values.
It is important that characteristics and variability associated with different assay methods that define antibody titers continue to be defined as we advance our understanding of immunity and disease prevention. The measurement of rabies specific antibodies in vitro is essential and should be the first step taken to establish whether rabies immunity following vaccination is successful. Even so, in vitro measurements may never completely correlate with what may be regarded as protective in vivo. Even use of “gold standard” measurements of rabies virus neutralizing activity in vitro provides only an estimate of protection. Despite the long history of using virus neutralization tests, there are still no internationally recognized standard protocols for measuring rabies-specific antibodies, for specifically defining RIG potency for human rabies biologics formulation, or for assessing oral rabies vaccine uptake in wildlife. Method standardization requires the careful examination and evaluation of laboratory test performance, which may include audits of laboratory operations, the publication and sharing of standard operating procedures, and inter- and intralaboratory evaluation of proficiency in performing tests. Proficiency testing, training, and certification, as well as trends in assay performance are components of quality assurance programs to ensure continuing adherence to acknowledged and accepted standards. These efforts will require the collaboration of all organizations performing tests, including national laboratories, regulatory agencies, commercial companies, and rabies diagnostic and research laboratories.
For a fatal disease such as rabies, where vaccination and passive immunity (use of HRIG) are absolutely required for protection upon exposure, verification of the accuracy and efficacy of every assay involved in predicting the relevant in vivo protection against the virus is vital. Moreover, there is a basic requirement to confirm the appropriateness and applicability of any neutralization test system or antigen binding assay used, as a predictor of in vivo protection, with each new type of prophylactic biologic, be it a vaccine, Ig, or monoclonal antibody formulation. In the case of vaccines, it is imperative to understand how antibodies neutralize viral infectivity in order to have input into the design and presentation of immunogens of the vaccine that elicit the specificity and isotype of antibody produced to confer the maximum neutralizing, and ultimately, protective activity.
Box 1. Learning Points
1. RVNA have been demonstrated to be critical for protection against rabies. Even so, in vitro measurements are only a partial determination of the degree of protection provided in vivo. Not all methods that measure rabies-specific antibodies will determine the neutralizing function of the antibodies.
2. In the selection of the most appropriate assay for rabies antibody detection, consideration of the purpose and use of the results is as important as the established performance characteristic of the assay.
3. Standardization of assays includes both assay components and test conditions. Alterations will cause variation in results; therefore use of a particular assay (e.g., ELISA or serum neutralization) does not guarantee comparable results if the assays have not been standardized.
4. Because rabies is a fatal disease for which development of a sufficient RVNA response is paramount for protection, assay specificity, sensitivity, and accuracy must be verified for meaningful clinical decisions to be made based on the results.
5. Steps toward better understanding and use of rabies serology assays will include collaboration of national laboratories, regulatory agencies, as well as commercial and research laboratories. Greater cooperation and standardization of rabies serology assays will lead to increased understanding of the relationship between in vitro measurement and in vivo protection.
Box 2. Key References in the Field
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Supporting Information
Alternative Language Abstract S1.
French translation of the abstract by Celine Jiron Corrales.
(0.03 MB DOC)
We thank Cammen Lewis, Janet Crisler, Jamie Gardner, and Dale Claassen for generation of the rabies serology results used in Table 1 and Figure 1 and for reviewing the manuscript.
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36. 36. Lyng J (1994) Calibration of a replacement preparation for the International Standard for Rabies Immunoglobulin. Biologicals 22: 249–255.
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Rydertech: How To Build Your Own Computer
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Tuesday, July 16, 2013
How To Build Your Own Computer
Building a computer can be a little overwhelming, especially if this is your first time taking on a project such as this. It is also one of the most rewarding and exciting do it your self projects you will ever do. Both tech savvy and technically impaired people alike have considered building their own PC, but never actually go through with the task. While it does take time and effort to build a computer it also has rewards that make it worth that time and that effort. To be successful you must first understand what goes into a computer build, then comprehend what each part does and how it interacts with other pieces of hardware.
The first and probably the most important step is to research. Before you spend a single dollar or minute of your time, know what you want your computer to do. Ask yourself questions like, "What do I want to do on this computer?" Maybe you want to use it for gaming or maybe it will be for video editing. This will determine the quality of hardware and type of Operating system you need. It will also determine the amount of money you will need to complete your goal.
A computers guts typically consists of the Motherboard or the part that connects everything together, the processor or the brain of your machine, the RAM or short term memory of your PC, the hard drive also known as your storage, a graphics card for video, a power supply so everything can come alive, an optical drive for media, and finally a case. Don't forget external pieces like your monitor, mouse, and keyboard as well. There are some other parts you may consider like a network card if you want to connect to a network or a webcam if you like to video chat. These things are optional depending on the functions you want t o perform. It is imperative that you understand that your motherboard should be purchased first since it will determine most of your other pieces. Since a mother board can be different sizes you must choose a case that can hold it. Also, only certain processors will fit into the socket of the motherboard and a motherboard usually has limits on the amount, speed, and type of Ram it can hold. All of this information can be found in the motherboards documentation or the manufacturers website.
Once you have your parts it's time to build and here is where the fun begins. You should start by mounting your motherboard into the case, then after applying a little thermal paste to the socket for heat dissipation add your processor, after that you should install your RAM, PCI cards(video card, network cards, etc.), then your hard drive and optical drives, and finally your power supply. Throughout this process be sure each component including any fans get plugged into your motherboard. You can then connect it all to the power supply, turn it on, and pray.
In most cases you will run into at least minor problems, if this happens then retracing your build for any loose wires or other small mistakes will usually resolves most issues. For major problems you will need to listen for beep codes to determine what component is failing usually by using your motherboard documentation to decipher those beep codes. On the other hand, if all goes well you can connect your external components and install your operating system and stand tall with a feeling of accomplishment and pride as you stare at your technical masterpiece!
Featured images:
• License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://morguefile.com/archive/display/91431
The Author works as a part time technical blogger and as a technical support adviser for a Major Computer Company and his friend's blog at tesguide.com. He also does on location computer repairs for companies on the side.
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Early Humans T-1
Early Humans Trimester 1 Mr. Blanchette
time period before writing Prehistory
stories passed down by word of mouth Oral Tradition
the written and other recorded events of people History
a scientist who stdies bones, tools, structures, and other objects to learn about past peoples and cultures Archeologist
An educational and research institute and associated museum complex Smithsonian Institution
A federal law requiring federal agencies and intitutions to return cultural items and human remains to their respective people N.A.G.P.R.A.
general physical type of some or all of the indigenous populations of Europe, North Africa etc. White race Caucasian
to relocate;to move from one place to settle in another area Migration
a person who has no single,settled home Nomad
to tame animals and raise them to be used by humans Domesticate
land or soil that contains substances plants need in order to grow well Fertile
spear thrower Atlatal
time period when people began to grow their own foods and lived in the same place year after year Neolithic
sciences used to solve crimes and support archeological findings Forensics
a radiometric method used to determine the age of carbonaceous materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years old Radio-Carbon Dating
oldest flint tools associated with north american culture Clovis
populations moving closer together for survival Genetic Drift
the study of physical characteristics of skulls Morphology
time period of 10 years Decade
time period of 100 years Century
time period od 1,000 years millenium
long period of time era
Created by: Hannahb123 on 2009-10-22
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~ Why Topping Hurts Trees ~
What is topping? Topping is the indiscriminate cutting back of tree branches to stubs or lateral branches that are not large enough to assume the terminal role. The most common reason for topping is to reduce the size of a tree. Often, homeowners feel their trees have become too large for their property and may feel that tall trees pose a hazard. Topping, however, is not a viable method for height reduction, and certainly does not reduce the hazard. In fact, topping will make a tree more hazardous in the long term.
Topping stresses trees, causes decay and can lead to sunburn. This sounds funny, but trees get sunburn too! Branches within a tree's crown produce thousands of leaves to absorb sunlight. When the leaves are removed, the remaining branches and trunk are suddenly exposed to high levels of light and heat. This can lead to cankers, bar splitting, and death of some branches.
Topping creates hazards because the survival mechanism that causes a tree to produce multiple shoots below each topping cut comes at a great expense to the tree. These shoots develop from buds near the surface of the old branches. Unlike normal branches that develop in a "socket) of overlapping wood tissues, these new shoots are only anchored in the outermost layers of the parent branches. The new shoots grow very quickly, as much as 20 feet in one year in some species! Unfortunately, the shoots are very prone to breaking, especially during windy conditions. The irony is that while the goal was to reduce the tree's height to make it safer, it has been made more hazardous than before.
What are the alternatives? There are times when a tree must be reduced in height or spread. Recommended techniques are to remove branches back to their point of origin. If a branch must be shortened, it should be cut back to a lateral that is large enough to assume the terminal role. This method of branch reduction helps to preserve the natural form of the tree. Sometimes, the best solution is to remove the tree completely and replace it with a species that is more appropriate for the site.
Our ISA Certified Arborists can help you determine the best tree care plan for your trees!
Why Topping Hurts Trees
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February 10, 2011
Geology Word of the Week: O is for Ophiolite
Posted by Evelyn Mervine
Shadows over Oman mantle peridotite, January 2009.
def. Ophiolite:
An ophiolite is a segment of ocean crust and mantle tectonically exposed on land by obduction (overthrust), usually when an ocean basin closes. An ophiolite sequence consists of variably altered oceanic rocks, including marine sediments, ocean crust, and part of the mantle. The name ophiolite means “snakestone” from “ophio” (snake) and “lithos” (stone) in Greek. The rock sequence is named for the brilliant green, snake-like serpentine minerals which form in altered ocean crust and mantle. Ophiolites are rare but nonetheless found throughout the world. Notable ophiolites are found in Cyprus, the northwestern US, the Alps, Papua New Guinea, and Oman.
I am a marine geologist, but I often cheat and work on land. For one of my PhD general exam projects, I worked on rocks from Iceland, which is a part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that has built up above sea level because of a hotspot. For my thesis research, I am working in the Samail Ophiolite, which is located in Oman and the United Arab Emirates and is one of the largest, best-preserved, and best-exposed ophiolites in the world. For both projects, I am studying marine rocks which have been exposed on land because of unusual circumstances. Although such rocks are anomalous and thus are not perfect analogies for your average seafloor rocks, there are great advantages to being able to actually see, touch, and– if needed for identification– taste marine rocks in the context of an outcrop.
Traditional marine geology is expensive and difficult. Since the ocean floor is generally covered by several kilometers of water, marine geologists cannot study the ocean floor using traditional geological methods. That is, marine geologists cannot walk around with their maps, hammers, and Brunton compasses and observe the geology first-hand. Instead, marine geologists must go out on ships and use remote methods to make observations and sample the ocean floor. Going out on ships is very expensive, costing tens of thousands of dollars per day. For example, one of the best ways to observe the ocean floor is to go down in a manned deep-sea submersible such as Alvin. However, operating costs for Alvin, including the ship costs, are about $40,000 per day. This is incredibly expensive, and even Alvin doesn’t allow you to walk on the rocks with your Brunton. As a comparison, a month of field work in Oman costs about $10,000 for myself and an assistant– about $3,000 for two round-trip plane tickets, about $4,000 for a rental 4 x 4, $500 for gas, $500 for food and water, maybe $500 for a few nights in a hotel (we camp the rest of the time), and $1,500 for supplies and shipping rocks. So, for 1/4 of the cost of operating Alvin for a single day, I can carry out a month of fieldwork on marine rocks exposed in the Samail Ophiolite. Oman is an expensive country, so many of these costs (such as the rental vehicle) are reduced when working on other ophiolites.
There are various remote methods of observing the geology of the ocean floor. The topography of the ocean floor can be mapped from a ship using multibeam bathymetry (bouncing sound waves off the bottom of the ocean to calculate topography) or by satellite altimetry (using the height of ocean waves to look for gravity anomalies and infer the topography below). Additional remote (shipboard or satellite) instruments allow marine geologists to measure properties, such as magnetism and gravitational pull (which can provide information on topography and density), of marine rocks. Seismic waves– passive source (generated naturally by the Earth, such as during an earthquake) and active source (generated by man, often by an explosion)– can be monitored to learn about the structure of the marine rocks. For example, the speed of seismic waves through various parts of the crust and mantle can be used to infer density. Seismic waves travel faster through more dense layers (such as hard rock like basalt or gabbro) and travel more slowly through less dense layers (such as soft marine sediment).
There are also various methods of sampling the ocean floor. One of the best ways to sample the ocean floor is to use a deep-sea submersible such as Alvin as this allows you to see exactly where the rocks you are sampling are coming from. However, since Alvin and other submersibles are so expensive, a very common method of sampling the seafloor is dredging– basically, throwing a metal basket over the side of the ship and dragging it along the seafloor. This simple technique can be very effective. As an example, when I participated in a two-month cruise along the Ninetyeast Ridge, we obtained about 3,000 kilograms of rocks by dredging. However, dredging provides only limited geological context for the samples and also tends to pick up loose surface rocks that may or may not be representative of the outcrop. For instance, these rocks may have rolled downhill from other locations. Another method of sampling is drilling cores from the ocean floor. Since the late 1960s, there has been a global effort to obtain cores from the ocean floor, in the form of first the Deep Sea Drilling Project, then the Ocean Drilling Program, and finally the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. Cores are great because they sample the actual seafloor (not just loose rocks) and can also sample deep into the crust. However, as I discussed in my post on the lithosphere, no ocean drilling effort has managed to reach the crust-mantle boundary. Cores also have their limitations. They are only a few inches in diameter, and so they provide only narrow cylinder snapshots of the overall geology. Some cores are fairly deep, but others may only sample the upper few meters of the ocean floor. Drilling is also much more time-consuming and expensive than dredging.
Because studying the geology of the actual ocean floor is so challenging and expensive, many marine geologists also work in Iceland– the only place you can walk along an active Mid-Ocean Ridge– and at ophiolites, which are fragments of ocean crust and mantle that have been exposed on land because of unusual tectonic circumstances. Dense oceanic crust almost always subducts underneath lighter and more buoyant continental crust. This is the traditional plate tectonic situation that you learn about in introductory Earth Science classes. However, in certain circumstances ocean crust– at least small slivers– can be thrust up onto land. For example, this often happens when ocean basins close, particularly if the ocean crust is young and relatively hot and buoyant. Slivers of ocean crust may also be thrust onto land in a forearc environment. The forearc is the area located between a subduction zone and its associated volcanic arc. New continental crust is often accreted in forearc environments, and this accretion often includes small bits of ocean crust.
As an example, here is a simplified version of the obduction (overthrust) of the Samail Ophiolite in Oman:
Samail Ophiolite obduction. Continental crust indicated by crosses, oceanic crust
by darker shading. Figure taken from Coleman (1981). Click on the figure to view larger.
There is another important reason why marine geologists often study ophiolites: in addition to exposing ocean crust, ophiolites also often expose a section of the underlying mantle. Since scientists have never drilled deep enough into the Earth to observe the mantle, ophiolites are important because they are places where geologists can observe large sections of mantle rocks directly. Geologists can also study mantle rocks that have been uplifted to the seafloor through tectonic processes, but again all that water makes observation difficult.
Below is a map that shows global exposures of mantle (aka “ultramafic”) rocks. This map is a little dated as it was published in 1982. Since then, many more mantle exposures have been discovered, particularly on the ocean floor. However, the map gives you a good general idea of where on the Earth ophiolites (lines on continents) can be found and where mantle rocks (dots and boxes on oceans) have been brought to the surface of the ocean floor.
World map showing locations of ophiolites (lines on continents) and exposures of mantle
rocks on the ocean floor (dots and boxes on oceans). Figure taken from Hekinian (1982).
Click on the figure to view larger.
In the definition above, I mention an ophiolite sequence. The classic ophiolite sequence, such as that found in Oman, is marine sediment then volcanic basalt then plutonic gabbro (the same chemical composition as basalt, but crystallized deep rather than at the ocean floor surface) then mantle (mostly peridotite). These classic ophiolite layers have been given numbers which marine geologists use as short-hand. The numbers are:
1- Deep-sea sediment
2- Basalt
3- Gabbro
4- Peridotite
Some of these layers have been further distinguished into sub-layers based on density and textural features:
1- Deep-sea sediment- no subdivision.
2-Basalt- often further divided into A, B, and C. Layer 2A represents surface pillow lava basalt while 2C represents a zone with sheeted dikes, which cooled more slowly and are gabbroic in composition. 2B is a sort of transitional zone. Some geologists just break down Layer 2 into 2A (surface volcanics) and 2B (sheeted dikes).
3-Gabbro- often divided into 3A (regular gabbro) and 3B (layered gabbro).
4- Peridotite- not usually subdivided, though there is also regular and layered peridotite.
Ocean crust (and mantle) layers. Figure modified from Brown and Mussett (1993) and
taken from my Marine Geology & Geophysics I course notes. Click on the figure to view larger.
For many years, marine geologists based their understanding of the structure and composition of the ocean crust and mantle on the structure and composition of ophiolites. Now, marine geologists understand that the structure of the actual ocean crust and mantle often differs slightly from that of ophiolites. For instance, the ocean crust and mantle layers are often thicker in the actual ocean than in ophiolites (see above figure). Nonetheless, ophiolites provide excellent, easily-accessible analogues for the ocean crust and mantle.
Below are a few photographs from my own fieldwork in the peridotite layer of the Samail Ophiolite in Oman. For my thesis, I am studying the unique ways in which peridotite– which is a mantle rock and does not belong at Earth’s surface– alters when uplifted onto land. In particular, I am studying the formation of carbonate minerals. When peridotite alters, many carbonate minerals (e.g. calcite, dolomite, magnesite) are formed. The carbon dioxide (CO2) in these carbonates comes from the atmosphere. Thus, formation of carbonate minerals in peridotite is a natural process that removes CO2 from the atmosphere and stores this CO2 in solid mineral form.
Samail Ophiolite 1, Oman, January 2009.
Samail Ophiolite 2, Oman, January 2009.
Samail Ophiolite 3, Oman, January 2009.
Samail Ophiolite 4, Oman, January 2009.
Samail Ophiolite 5, Oman, January 2009.
Samail Ophiolite 6, Oman, January 2009.
Friendly ophiolite residents, Oman, January 2009.
A vein of carbonate (white) and serpentine (green) alteration, Samail Ophiolite,
Oman, January 2009.
Sampling carbonate precipitating from a peridotite spring, Oman, January 2009.
Standing next to a carbonate-filled peridotite spring pool, Oman, January 2009.
Herding goats across peridotite, Oman, January 2009.
Goats and field vehicles, Oman, January 2009.
Brown and Mussett. 1993. The Inaccessible Earth: An Integrated View of its Structure and Composition. London: Chapman and Hall.
Coleman, R. G. 1981. Tectonic setting for Ophiolite Obduction in Oman. Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 86, no. B4: 2497-2508.
Hekinian, R. 1982. Petrology of the Ocean Floor. New York: Elsevier Publishing Company.
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What Do Engineers Do?
What Do Engineers Do?
The following table is extracted from the Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2014-2015 edition published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics
Aerospace Engineers
Bachelor’s degree
Agricultural Engineers
Bachelor’s degree
Biomedical Engineers
Bachelor’s degree
Chemical Engineers
Chemical engineers apply the principles of chemistry, biology, and physics to solve problems. These problems involve the production or use of chemicals, fuel, drugs, food, and many other products. They design processes and equipment for large-scale safe and sustainable manufacturing, plan and test methods of manufacturing products and treating byproducts, and supervise production.
Bachelor’s degree
Civil Engineers
Civil engineers design and supervise large construction projects, including roads, buildings, airports, tunnels, dams, bridges, and systems for water supply and sewage treatment.
Bachelor’s degree
Computer Hardware Engineers
Bachelor’s degree
Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Bachelor’s degree
Environmental Engineers
Environmental engineers use the principles of engineering, soil science, biology, and chemistry to develop solutions to environmental problems. They are involved in efforts to improve recycling, waste disposal, public health, and control of water and air pollution.
Bachelor’s degree
Health and Safety Engineers
Health and safety engineers develop procedures and design systems to keep people from getting sick or injured and to keep property from being damaged. They combine knowledge of health or safety and of systems engineering to make sure that chemicals, machinery, software, furniture, and other products are not going to cause harm to people or buildings.
Bachelor’s degree
Industrial Engineers
Bachelor’s degree
Marine Engineers and Naval Architects
Bachelor’s degree
Materials Engineers
Materials engineers develop, process, and test materials used to create a range of products, from computer chips and aircraft wings to golf clubs and snow skis. They also help select materials and develop new ways to use materials.
Bachelor’s degree
Mechanical Engineers
Mechanical engineering is one of the broadest engineering disciplines. Mechanical engineers design, develop, build, and test mechanical devices, including tools, engines, and machines.
Bachelor’s degree
Mining and Geological Engineers
Mining and geological engineers design mines for the safe and efficient removal of minerals, such as coal and metals, for manufacturing and utilities.
Bachelor’s degree
Nuclear Engineers
Nuclear engineers research and develop the processes, instruments, and systems used to get benefits from nuclear energy and radiation. Many of these engineers find industrial and medical uses for radioactive materials—for example, in equipment used in medical diagnosis and treatment.
Bachelor’s degree
Petroleum Engineers
Bachelor’s degree
Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technicians
Aerospace engineering and operations technicians operate and maintain equipment used in developing, testing, and producing new aircraft and spacecraft. Increasingly, they use computer-based modeling and simulation tools and processes in this work.
Associate’s degree
Civil Engineering Technicians
Associate’s degree
Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technicians
Associate’s degree
Electro-mechanical Technicians
Associate’s degree
Environmental Engineering Technicians
Environmental engineering technicians carry out the plans that environmental engineers develop. They test, operate, and, if necessary, modify equipment for preventing or cleaning up environmental pollution. They may collect samples for testing, or they may work to mitigate sources of environmental pollution.
Associate’s degree
Industrial Engineering Technicians
Industrial engineering technicians plan ways to effectively use personnel, materials, and machines in factories, stores, hospitals, repair shops, and offices. As assistants to industrial engineers, they help prepare machinery and equipment layouts, plan workflows, conduct statistical production studies, and analyze production costs.
Associate’s degree
Mechanical Engineering Technicians
Mechanical engineering technicians help mechanical engineers design, develop, test, and manufacture industrial machinery, consumer products, and other equipment. They may make sketches and rough layouts, record and analyze data, make calculations and estimates, and report their findings.
Associate’s degree
Publish Date: Wednesday, January 8, 2014
The following paragraphs are taken from the Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-2011 edition published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics
For more details go to:
Montgomery College
Montgomery County, MD
©2014, Montgomery College
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Salix viminalis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Salix viminalis
Common osier foliage
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Salicaceae
Genus: Salix
Species: S. viminalis
Binomial name
Salix viminalis
Salix viminalis, the common osier or osier, is a species of willow native to Europe and western Asia.[1][2][3]
Salix viminalis is a multistemmed shrub growing to between 3 and 6 m (9.8 and 19.7 ft) (rarely to 10 m (33 ft)) tall. It has long, erect, straight branches with greenish-grey bark. The leaves long and slender, 10–25 cm long but only 0.5–2 cm broad; they are dark green above, with a silky grey-haired underside. The flowers are catkins, produced in early spring before the leaves; they are dioecious, with male and female catkins on separate plants. The male catkins are yellow and oval-shaped; the female catkins are longer and more cylindrical; they mature in early summer when the fruit capsules split open to release the numerous minute seeds.[1][2]
Distribution and habitat[edit]
Along with other related willows, the flexible twigs (called withies) are commonly used in basketry, giving rise to its alternative common name of "basket willow". In the Chilean village of Chimbarongo, it is used to fashion the renowned baskets.
Another increasing use is in energy forestry,[1] effluent treatment, in wastewater gardens, and in cadmium phytoremediation for water purification.[3]
S. viminalis is a known hyperaccumulator of cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, petroleum hydrocarbons, organic solvents, MTBE, TCE and byproducts, selenium, silver, uranium, and zinc,[4][5] and Potassium ferrocyanide (tried on S. babylonica L.),[6] and as such is a prime candidate for phytoremediation. For more information, see the list of hyperaccumulators.
1. ^ a b c d Meikle, R. D. (1984). Willows and Poplars of Great Britain and Ireland. BSBI Handbook No. 4. ISBN 0-901158-07-0.
3. ^ a b Perttu, K. L. and Kowalik, P. J. (1997). Salix vegetation filters for purification of waters and soils. Biomass and Bioenergy, Volume 12, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 9-19. Elsevier Science Ltd.
4. ^ Phytoremediation. By McCutcheon & Schnoor. 2003, New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons, page 19.
5. ^ Enhancing Phytoextraction: The Effect of Chemical Soil Manipulation on Mobility, Plant Accumulation, and Leaching of Heavy Metals. By Ulrich Schmidt. In J. Environ. Qual. 32:1939-1954 (2003).
6. ^ The potential for phytoremediation of iron cyanide complex by Willows. By X.Z. Yu, P.H. Zhou and Y.M. Yang. In Ecotoxicology 2006.
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Island Biodiversity
Seychelles biodiversity
Conservation Animals and plants Islands Publications Contact
Indian Ocean Biodiversity Assessment 2000-2005
Biodiversity assessment celebrating the centenary of the
Percy Sladen Trust Expedition to the Indian Ocean
In 1905 and 1908-9 the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition visited the islands of the western Indian Ocean to investigate the biological relationships between the islands of the Seychelles, Mascarenes and Chagos groups and to locate evidence for former land connections between the islands. This expedition still forms the basis of our understanding of the region’s biogeography with the recognition that the granitic Seychelles islands are continental fragments of Gondwana, isolated from India and Madagascar 65 million years ago whilst the other islands are volcanic in origin. The continental history of the granitic islands results in a diverse and archaic fauna, with more recent immigrant taxa of African, Malagasy or cosmopolitan origin. The Mascarenes, Amirantes, Aldabra and Chagos island groups all support immigrant taxa with affinities resulting from the predominant marine currents.
Western Indian Ocean biogeography is of great interest due to the combination of the influences of dispersal and vicariance over a large geographical area and to the retention of archaic taxa recognizable as family-level endemics or as combining features of distinct families characteristic of both the Indian and Afro-Malagasy regions. Despite this ecological and evolutionary significance the islands have received relatively little attention since the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition. The smaller Mascarene islands are still virtually unexplored from a biological perspective and the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition remains the most extensive study of the Seychelles islands. Since 1909 there have been a small number of small-scale expeditions. The result of these expeditions is that collections have been made on 31 islands, of which only 12 have been studied in sufficient detail to provide meaningful data. A further 84 have not been studied with the exception of individual visits to record reptiles and birds. Collections made in the 1990s indicate the occurrence of significant faunal changes in recent years resulting from continued colonization from Madagascar and invasion by alien species.
The need to review the current biodiversity of the islands in order to determine the conservation status of the region’s biodiversity and to investigate the balance of colonization and extinction over the last 100 years prompted the development of the Indian Ocean Biodiversity Assessment. The conservation requirements of the islands are pressing due to the expansion of development on the islands, the decline of historical land management practices and the spread of alien species.
The Indian Ocean Biodiversity Assessment 2000-2005 surveyed the terrestrial and fresh-water biodiversity of all 115 Seychelles islands. This international expedition, timed to be completed for the centenary of the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition, making representative collections of all animals, plants and fungi on each island. The expedition provided the data required to locate important biodiversity sites (Key Biodiversity Areas), identify areas and taxa of concern and evaluate the current distribution of alien species and their spread over the last 100 years. Surveying the islands that remain uncollected filled in the main gaps in our knowledge of the region’s biodiversity and facilited interpretation of the biogeographical patterns. The compilation of biodiversity data for the 115 coraline and granitic islands of the Seychelles group provides a unique resource for the study of island biogeography as both the largest and the only complete data-set for all taxa and all islands in a single biogeographical region. The contrasts between oceanic and continental islands and the historical comparison available for some of the islands makes these results of exceptional significance.
The assessment has resulted in the publication of a monographic series on the Seychelles fauna (starting with Lepidoptera in 2005) and a biodiversity hotspots analysis.
Research carried out in 2000 to test the project's methods resulted in the discovery of many new species on Silhouette island, most significant among these is a newly discovered frog living in the high forest palm trees.
Accepting the Indian Ocean Biodiversity Assessment as a satellite project for the DIVERSITAS International Biodiversity Observation Year, IBOY said that they:
"recognised the tremendous importance of this initiative to document the poorly known biodiversity of the Seychelles islands. The project will significantly enhance scientific understanding of important biological concepts such as island biogeography and provide important information on the distribution and status of species to support conservation and sustainable development."
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Jew, Ethiopian, Falasha in Israel
Largest Religion
Main Language
Introduction / History
When the first Ethiopian Jews came to live in Israel, they often had to live in mobile homes in regions away from the better places. Housing conditions were not good and the Ethiopians were isolated and their children were a long distance from good schools. The adjustment was particularly hard for the older ones and even getting used to things like electricity was hard for them. It was said that taking a Falasha from his village was like taking a fish out of water.
Life began to get better for the Ethiopian Jews and in 1993 the immigrants were encouraged to buy homes in more central regions like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Many of them bought homes but mainly in the regions where the Israeli government had not wanted them to be. Short term housing had almost finished though.
The government helped to lessen unemployment for the Ethiopian Jews. Though unemployment is more for them compared to other Israeli people, things became better. Education has been better for Ethiopian children and the adults have been moved to where work is more readily available.
After the collapse of Communism in 1990, six thousand Beta Israelis were allowed by the Ethiopian government to emigrate to Israel. In 1991, the Israeli government transported by airplanes many Beta Israelis to Israel due to rebels attacking the Ethiopian government.
What are Their Lives Like?
Though there are yet difficulties, some things in the lives of the Ethiopians have improved. There are Ethiopian restaurants and Ethiopian music is now an influence. The Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews is one organization that has been helping the Ethiopians. Because of their involvement, the Jewish festival of Sigd became an official state holiday in 2008. The Ethiopians in Israel celebrate by fasting, reading from the Tanakh and having a feast to celebrate that they accept Jewish law.
The older generation of Ethiopian Jews are finding life difficult and the young are guiding their parents and grandparents regards living in Israel. That is contrary to life in Ethiopia where it is the older ones who are consulted. There is an increasing crime level among the Ethiopian youth.
While keeping their heritage of Jewish life in Ethiopia it is hoped they will feel more at home in Israel. (Maybe some Messianic Jews could befriend the Ethiopian Jews and give them hope in Jesus Christ).
Haymanot is the term used among the Ethiopian Jews in Israel for Jewish religion. They speak Amharic, Tigrinya and Hebrew.
References israel/ Contemporary_Life/ Society_and_Religious_Issues/ ethiopians_in_israel.shtml [For complete URL remove spaces after the forward slashes for the preceding URL. Or visit for the same page.]
Profile Source: Anonymous
People Name General Jew, Ethiopian, Falasha
People Name in Country Jew, Ethiopian, Falasha
Population in Israel 71,000
World Population 74,000
Countries 2
Progress Scale 1.2
Least-Reached Yes
Indigenous Yes
Alternate Names Beta Israel, Black Jew, Felash Mura, Kwara, Qimant
Affinity Bloc Jews
People Cluster Jews
People Name General Jew, Ethiopian, Falasha
Ethnic Code CMT33a
People ID 11180
Qimant English
Qimant English
Bible Translation Status (Years)
Bible Portions Yes (1885)
New Testament No
Complete Bible No
Format Resource
Audio Recordings Audio Bible teaching (GRN)
Major Religion Percent
0.00 %
Christianity (Evangelical 0.50 %)
3.00 %
Ethnic Religions
97.00 %
0.00 %
0.00 %
0.00 %
Other / Small
0.00 %
0.00 %
Christian Segments Percent
0.0 %
10.0 %
30.0 %
Other Christian
0.0 %
20.0 %
Roman Catholic
40.0 %
Photo Source: Galen Frysinger
Profile Source: Anonymous
Data Sources: Data is compiled from various sources. Read more
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Library staff bare their skin for tattooing Australia book
While they can be found in almost every workplace, they are often hard to spot.
But staff at the National Library of Australia (NLA) were comfortable enough in their own skin to bare it all for a new book about body art.
Image researcher Kate Ross trawled through 200 years worth of items in the library's collection to find pictures and drawings of tattoos from Australia's past.
"I found a lot more edgier stuff than I would have expected when I began," she said.
Ms Ross not only delved into the library's past, but its present too.
"The thing that was so amazing about that was that I don't have any tattoos myself. I'm a total imposter," she said.
"But talking to these people and learning about why they got their tattoos done was such an emotional insight into their personalities and into their desires and fears and what drove them."
Jodie Harris works in the pictures acquisition team at the NLA.
A tattoo of an Indigenous female spirit spans across her midriff.
She researched the image when she was studying at the State Library of Queensland, and says it signifies her Indigenous heritage.
"I wanted to be a part of this project because tattoos are so under-represented in mainstream society," Ms Harris said.
"But if you look behind people's long-sleeved shirts or their skirts or their jackets these days you'll more often find an office worker with tattoos from his neck down to his ankles."
Ms Harris has three tattoos and each represents a different stage of her life.
"It is very addictive and that's why people end up with tattoos everywhere," she said.
Cultural identity
Tattooing is an ancient practice that can be traced back thousands of years.
In 1991, a tattooed, mummified body was discovered near the Austrian-Italian border.
The mummified man, nicknamed Otzi, was 5,300 years old.
"Since we had something sharp and had pigment, people were tattooing," said book author Deborah Hill.
From circus performers, to sailors, to modern artists, the NLA has photos and drawings of many Australians who have inked their skin to express themselves.
The book, called Body Art, also examines body modification in Indigenous societies of Australia and New Zealand.
European explorers first encountered tattooing during early voyages to the Pacific, and many sailors were inked on their travels.
"It was quite confronting and it's always been documented as an oddity or a curiosity," Dr Hill said.
The NLA's collection - and the book - contain a drawing from around the time of the First Fleet in 1788 which features the ceremonial painting and scarring of Aboriginal men.
The reason people create art or etch symbols on their skin is similar across cultures and centuries.
"It's about belonging, ultimately," Dr Hill said.
"We are pack animals and it's about identifying yourself with a group."
Living canvas
Dr Hill said in contemporary culture, the artist behind the tattoo is often of interest.
Some work from established motifs, while others work from a brief and will design a more personal tattoo in collaboration with a client.
"They draw blood from you, they're breaking a boundary, they're breaking your skin," Dr Hill said.
She said it is an intimate experience that involves a lot of thought and discussion.
The conversation about a tattoo can last as long as the artwork itself.
"You can't talk to a canvas when you're analysing art, but you can talk to a person who has a tattoo," Dr Hill said.
"That brings in a whole new range of stories."
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Statutes of limitations set the deadline or maximum period of time within which a lawsuit or legal claim may be filed. They vary depending on the circumstances of the case, the type of case or claim involved, and whether the lawsuit or claim is filed in state or federal court.
Statutes of Limitation for Civil Actions
The statute of limitations for filing a civil action varies from state to state. Statutes of limitations usually allow a party at least one year to file suit. The following are examples of statutes of limitations for common civil claims:
• Negligence: personal injury - 1 to 2 years; intentional wrongdoing - 1 to 6 years
• Breach of oral contract - 2 to 6 years
• Breach of written contract - 3 to 6 years
• Medical Malpractice - 1 to 4 years from act or occurrence of injury or 6 months to 3 years from discovery
• Legal Malpractice - 1 to 3 years from date of discovery or 2 to 5 years from the date of the wrongful act
• Fraud or mistake - 3 to 6 years from the date of discovery
• A claim against a government entity - usually less than 1 year
• Collection of federal income taxes - 10 years
• State income taxes - varies from state-to-state; some states have no limit
• Property damage - 2 to 10 years
• Enforcement of civil judgment - 5 to 25 years
Before filing any suit, check to see what statute of limitations applies in your jurisdiction.
Tolling the Statute of Limitations
There are certain circumstances in which the statute of limitations is tolled or extended. Tolling prevents the time for filing suit from running while the condition exists. Examples giving rise to tolling include:
• The hurt or damaged party is a minor
• The defendant has filed for bankruptcy
• A party is under a disability such as mental illness
• An unconditional promise to pay a debt or unconditional acknowledgement of a debt
Mere ignorance of the existence of a cause of action or the existence of a statute of limitations generally does not toll the limitations period.
Violation of the Statute of Limitations
If a lawsuit has been filed against you and you believe it is untimely, it is up to you to alert the court. If the statute of limitations has in fact expired, you could have the lawsuit dismissed.
Statute of Limitations for Criminal Actions
For some crimes, including homicide, there is no statute of limitations. A number of states have also abolished time limits for bringing criminal charges in cases involving the alleged sexual abuse of children. The statute of limitations for all other crimes varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction based on their general classification as either felonies or misdemeanors. Generally, the time limit starts to run on the date the offense was committed and not from the time the crime was discovered or the accused was identified.
Questions for Your Attorney
• Is there a statute of limitations for collecting on a debt?
• When did the limitations period start running on the medical malpractice claim against my doctor?
• What if it takes time to hunt down the driver involved in my auto accident, does that extend the deadline for filing a lawsuit against him?
Tagged as: General Practice, Criminal Law, Personal Injury, Medical Malpractice, statutes of limitations, file, lawsuit, case, civil, litigation, criminal, tolling, discovery, jurisdiction
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Please explain natural selection...
stephen balbach stephen at
Wed Jun 9 09:45:16 EST 1993
I am reading _Blueprints_ by Maitland Edy and Donald Johanson (_Lucy_) and
I don't think I quite understand the concept of natural selection.
I understand that when a mutation in an animal forms that mutation can be
carried by many generations but not be readily apparant thus explaining
why blending does not occur. And I understand that when a trait forms
that is in some way advantageous to an animal it may become dominate within a
However one could conclude from this that if I bred only large mice that
over time my mice would become larger and larger - but eventually the mice
will only get so large before they become sick, or sterile or still born -
there is a certain mice'ness that can not be selectivly bred out.
So how does nature form entirely new animals? I understand natural
selection to the point that it favors certain traits under certain
environmental conditions, but it does not seem to explain how entirely new
species are formed?
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Open Access Research article
Huw Jones1, Peter Civáň23, James Cockram1, Fiona J Leigh1, Lydia MJ Smith1, Martin K Jones4, Michael P Charles5, José-Luis Molina-Cano6, Wayne Powell7, Glynis Jones5 and Terence A Brown2*
Author affiliations
1 NIAB, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0LE, UK
2 Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M1 7DN, UK
3 Department of Genetics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Mlynská dolina B1, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia
6 IRTA, Av. Alcalde Rovira Roure 191, 25198 Lleida, Spain
For all author emails, please log on.
Citation and License
BMC Evolutionary Biology 2011, 11:320 doi:10.1186/1471-2148-11-320
Published: 2 November 2011
Understanding the evolution of cultivated barley is important for two reasons. First, the evolutionary relationships between different landraces might provide information on the spread and subsequent development of barley cultivation, including the adaptation of the crop to new environments and its response to human selection. Second, evolutionary information would enable landraces with similar traits but different genetic backgrounds to be identified, providing alternative strategies for the introduction of these traits into modern germplasm.
The evolutionary relationships between 651 barley landraces were inferred from the genotypes for 24 microsatellites. The landraces could be divided into nine populations, each with a different geographical distribution. Comparisons with ear row number, caryopsis structure, seasonal growth habit and flowering time revealed a degree of association between population structure and phenotype, and analysis of climate variables indicated that the landraces are adapted, at least to some extent, to their environment. Human selection and/or environmental adaptation may therefore have played a role in the origin and/or maintenance of one or more of the barley landrace populations. There was also evidence that at least some of the population structure derived from geographical partitioning set up during the initial spread of barley cultivation into Europe, or reflected the later introduction of novel varieties. In particular, three closely-related populations were made up almost entirely of plants with the daylength nonresponsive version of the photoperiod response gene PPD-H1, conferring adaptation to the long annual growth season of northern Europe. These three populations probably originated in the eastern Fertile Crescent and entered Europe after the initial spread of agriculture.
The discovery of population structure, combined with knowledge of associated phenotypes and environmental adaptations, enables a rational approach to identification of landraces that might be used as sources of germplasm for breeding programs. The population structure also enables hypotheses concerning the prehistoric spread and development of agriculture to be addressed.
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Congress watches its power ebb
By , Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
From controlling budgets to deciding when and why to go to war, Congress appears less relevant today than at any time in decades.
Lawmakers haven't exactly abandoned their posts on Capitol Hill. The committee hearings, the finger-jabbing oratory, and backroom dealmaking all continue.
But the center of gravity has shifted toward the White House, in a change that could be more than just the passing phase of Republican control on Capitol Hill. Consider:
Recommended: Could you pass a US citizenship test?
• Early next month, Senate Republicans are proposing a rule change that would lower the threshold for presidents to win approval of their judicial nominees, from 60 votes to a simple majority.
• Congress is on the verge of passing a $400.5 billion defense bill this week - including what the Pentagon describes as a top-down transformation of the US military - with minimal discussion. In past years, defense bills have been grist for intense debate.
• Lawmakers are quietly chafing about Bush administration limits on their freedom to visit Iraq to make independent assessments.
Since the founding of the Republic, power has ebbed and flowed between presidents and the Congress. But now a confluence of factors could signal a more lasting change, some experts say.
During wartime, presidents have traditionally held the political high ground, and the Sept. 11 attacks spawned a notion new to America: a state of perpetual war. This comes alongside television's steady rise as the dominant cultural medium, which presidents have used to increasing prime-time advantage.
Throw in a remarkably assertive president and a Congress that currently lacks forceful leaders, and it's a recipe for a legislative branch with diminishing clout.
In some areas, lawmakers have even been ceding power voluntarily - often to avoid criticism over their inability to act on thorny policy questions. Notable examples include war powers and the budget - the two areas where Congress tried to make a stand against executive power after the Watergate era.
"The Founding Fathers thought that each branch would protect itself and fight off encroachment, but Congress is giving away its cherished prerogatives," says Louis Fisher of the Congressional Research Service.
After 9/11, Congress gave the president broad discretion to determine when and if the nation took up arms in Iraq. It gave the Justice Department the authority to write the rules governing tradeoffs between individual liberty and national security in fighting the war on terrorism at home.
Earlier this month, a Senate delegation canceled a trip to Iraq, after the Bush administration objected to the visit. "I hope that these restrictions will be lifted in the near future. I don't ask for any commitment, [I just] express that hope," said Ted Stevens (R) of Alaska, who was to have led the delegation.
Not all members are accepting the drift away from congressional prerogatives. Rep. Christopher Shays (R) of Connecticut traveled to Iraq last month despite administration objections. And the prospect of severe base closings in 2005 is already rousing some members of Congress to try to take back powers that were given to the Defense Department and an independent commission in 1988.
"We don't understand what the force structure will be, and that's not just a decision for the Defense Department, but for the Congress," says Sen. Byron Dorgan (D) of North Dakota during debate Tuesday. Congress gave away the authority to determine the timing of base closings he said, and Congress should be able to take it back. Some House Republicans are also looking for ways to retake some control of this process.
Early this month, a House panel voted to cancel the 2005 round, citing harm to local economies. In response, President Bush threatened to veto any bill that included such a provision. Last week, the House Armed Services Committee proposed a compromise that requires the Defense secretary to exempt half of the bases from closure.
Congress has also handed off some of its constitutional responsibilities to advise and consent on treaties and trade agreements. Beginning with the Ford administration, Congress has given presidents the right to negotiate trade agreements without the possibility of amendment. After a lapse in the 1990s, Congress narrowly renewed this "fast track" commitment last year.
Lawmakers are also letting budget procedures expire that were set up after Watergate, and later expanded, to rein in federal deficits.
One reason experts cite for this shift toward the presidency is the difficulty of finding agreement when the partisan balance on Capitol Hill is so close. "We're in a period of time when the polarization of Congress is so great that the institution as a whole doesn't seem to be able to reach conclusion on critical things," says Paul Light, a professor of public service at New York University.
Experts also note changes in the culture on Capitol Hill, as members spend more time fundraising. "Congress no longer has an institutional sense," says Mr. Fisher. "Members ... don't have the time to spend here asking each other: Does this bother you?"
Still, some longtimers are fighting to preserve a strong Congress. Sen. Robert Byrd (D) of West Virginia opposed granting Bush authority to use force in Iraq on constitutional grounds. He also led opposition to the presidential line-item veto in 1996 - a move later ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
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Definition of flight noun from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary
journey by air
1 [countable] a trip made by air, especially in a planea smooth/comfortable/bumpy flighta domestic/an international flighta hot-air balloon flightWe met on a flight from Las Vegas to Kansas City.All flights between New York and Washington have been canceled due to fog. see also in-flight
2 [countable] a plane making a particular journeyWe're on the same flight.Flight 4793 is now boarding at Gate 17.If we leave now, I can catch the earlier flight.mercy/relief flights (= planes taking help to countries where there is a war)
3 [uncountable] the act of flyingthe age of supersonic flightflight safetyThe bird is easily recognized in flight (= when it is flying) by the black band at the end of its tail.
movement of object
4 [uncountable] the movement or direction of an object as it travels through the airthe flight of a ball
of steps
5 [countable] a series of steps between two floors or levelsShe fell down a flight of stairs/steps and hurt her back.
running away
6 [uncountable, singular] the act of running away from a dangerous or difficult situationthe flight of refugees from the advancing forcesa flight from harsh realityThe main character is a journalist in flight from a failed marriage.
of fancy/imagination
7 [countable] flight of fancy/imagination an idea or a statement that shows a lot of imagination but is not practical or sensibleThis idea was one of my wilder flights of fancy.
group of birds/aircraft
8 [countable] a group of birds or aircraft flying togethera flight of geeseThey flew in two flights of three aircraft.
put someone to flight
(old-fashioned) to force someone to run awayThe enemy was quickly put to flight.put to flight
take flight
to run away
The gang took flight when they heard the police car.take flight
Usage noteUsage note: Travel and Tourismvacationshave/take a vacation/a break/a day off/a year off/time offgo on/be on vacation/leave/honeymoon/safari/sabbatical/a trip/a tour/a cruise/a pilgrimagego backpacking/camping/sightseeingplan a trip/a vacation/your itineraryreserve a hotel room/a flight/ticketshave/make/cancel a reservationrent a condo/a vacation home/a cabinrent a car/bicycle/moped/scooter/Jet Skistay in a hotel/a bed and breakfast/a youth hostel/a villa/a trailer/a vacation home/a resort/a timesharecost/charge $100 a/per night for a suite/a single/double/twin roomcheck into/out of a hotel/a motel/your roompack/unpack your suitcase/bagscall/order room servicecancel/cut short a trip/vacationforeign travelapply for/get/renew a/your passporttake out/buy/get travel insurancecatch/miss your plane/train/ferry/connecting flightfly (in)/travel (in) first/business/economy classmake/have a brief/two-day/twelve-hour layover/stopover in Hong Kongexperience/cause/lead to delayscheck (in)/collect/get/lose your baggage/luggagebe charged for/pay excess baggage feesboard/get on/leave/get off the aircraft/plane/ship/ferrytaxi down/leave/approach/hit/overshoot the runwayexperience/hit/encounter (mild/severe) turbulencesuffer from/recover from/get over your jet lag/motion sicknessbe seasick/carsickthe tourist industryattract/draw/bring tourists/visitorsencourage/promote/hurt tourismpromote/develop ecotourismbuild/develop/visit a tourist/tropical/beach/ski resortwork for/be operated by a major hotel chainbe served by/compete with low-fare/low-cost/budget airlinesuse/go to/have a travel agentcontact/check with your travel agent/tour operatorbuy/be on/go on a package deal/vacation/tourbuy/bring back (tacky/overpriced) souvenirs
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war in europe
general klaus naumann
how it was fought
ethnic cleansing
for moral values?
photo of general klaus naumann
Until early May 1999, Germany's Gen. Klaus Naumann served as NATO's Military Committee chairman, and answered directly to NATO's political representatives. Prior to NATO's going to war against Serbia, Naumann was part of the negotiating team which tried to get Milosevic to withdraw his forces from Kosovo.
General, could I ask you first of all when did Kosovo appear on your agenda? When do you first remember?
I think it really popped up in January, February 1998.
And did you then think that Kosovo was something worth fighting a war over?
In terms of interests of NATO or the NATO nations it definitely was not a reason to fight a war, but it was not a war which was fought for an interest. It was a war which was fought for a principle, and the principle was that human rights have to be protected, and from that point of view I think the Kosovo war is perhaps the first war in the European history which was fought for this principle and by that we denied the continuing validity of the principle of territorial integrity which dominated and still dominates international law, since the Westphalian peace of 1648.
A huge change.
It has not changed, but I think the process is now under way and perhaps at the end of the day international law will think through what one could do to justify a humanitarian intervention.
Do you think such humanitarian interventions are justified?
In theory, yes, in political practice I have my doubts since we saw the hesitation of the international community in the East Timor issue, and we see right now, if I may say so, the looking aside when the Russians are violating human rights in Chechnya.
When the Ministers gathered in June 1998 when the various plans were authorized, what was the mood? What were people saying to each other as they turned up? Bring it alive for me.
One of the lessons we should learn for the next time--if we are confronted with someone who is prepared to go for ethnic cleansing, we have to be prepared to go in with ground forces... I think people when they gathered for this ministerial meeting in Luxembourg first and later on the Defense Ministers in Brussels, were really deeply worried and concerned about the situation, the aggravation of the situation in Kosovo and they were thinking what one could do to stop Milosevic, and really, I think rather suddenly they started to debate military steps to stop these type of uncivilized behavior to put it mildly.
Were you surprised?
I was not really surprised, since we all had learned in the past years since 1991 that Milosevic, who had by the way at this point in time already started three wars in Europe, apparently did not understand the language of diplomacy, there was no stick behind it and so I wasn't surprised that politicians really very quickly said we have to consider military action.
Were these war plans?
No, no. Even when the Defense Ministers then eventually tasked us to develop some options, they did not task us to develop war plans, they tasked us to develop operational concepts and as a matter of fact they really ruined our summer of 1998 since we were developing one operational concept following the other one, I think all in all we had some eight or nine different options on the table, so we had a full quiver of arrows ready for the use of the Council, but the Council was very reluctant to task us to develop these operational concepts further into an operations plan.
So what was the point of this planning?
I think NATO had started to rattle the saber in June, and against military advice, they had launched this demonstrative air exercise so I think it was a logical consequence to underpin this--to task the military to think through different options, what one could do if Milosevic did not react to any of the saber rattling, which as a matter of fact he did not do. . . .
Why weren't you asked to plan an intense war? A downtown Baghdad style air war?
The aim was to bring him back to the negotiation table. The aim was not to enforce our will on him, and I think this is the difference. Our politicians wanted to use the military instrument to more or less to convince him that it's better to continue to negotiate and to seek a peaceful solution. They did not want to destroy Serbia and then bring it back as a defeated country to the negotiation table, and so this principle of taking utmost care of the potential opponent was one of the factors which we had to take into account. If you look at what we did later on we had more or less three guiding principles: we had first of all to avoid if possible any of our own casualties and fatalities, secondly we were told avoid collateral damage to the extent possible, and thirdly bring it to a quick end. If you take these three ingredients, it's very very difficult to find a proper solution to make this equation fly. So I think we need to conclude from that if we want to take care of the opponent's people then such an air war will be a long protracted campaign, you can't bring it to a short end.
What did you say to the [NATO] Council about the plans for the air campaign?
We told them I think repeatedly first of all be cautious, an air war alone will presumably not do the trick. You should consider ground forces . . . . I told the Council very clearly that I am full of doubts that one could win such a thing without ground forces and that in military history it has never happened before. . . I think that I said an air war will have the risk in it that the people of Serbia will rally behind Milosevic, as we have seen it by the way in World War II, and secondly I told them, General Clark told our politicians that an air war is always a race between destruction and reconstruction--you destroy something in your opponent's capabilities and he tries to repair it, to reconfigure it, reconstruct it-- so an air war by definition is time consuming.
And what did they say?
With hindsight, I as the top military of the Alliance presumably did not press hard enough for ground forces. I think I made the point very clearly but we all realized that the issue of ground forces was very divisive in the Alliance. Some nations without any necessity to do so ruled it out long before we started the bombing campaign. We knew that we would not get consensus on ground forces, so we backed off in order to maintain consensus, which was the most important thing in this entire exercise. . . . That was the real key to success, and this was presumably Milosevic's biggest mistake and miscalculation: he had hoped that this consensus would break and the cohesion would wither away.
But was the price too much?
We have to accept these compromises, otherwise we wouldn't have simply wouldn't have got [consensus], and think for a moment what it would have meant if we had not acted. I still believe we were right in accepting this compromise flawed as it may be with hindsight. It was much better to act and to stop at the end of the day the atrocities in Kosovo than to quarrel and to debate endlessly without doing anything. . . .
Were you surprised when you heard that Holbrooke was going to negotiate while military planning was underway?
No, I was not surprised. We all had learned that Dick Holbrooke was something like the secret weapon of the State Department at the time. He was a trouble shooter, if I may say so. . . .The NATO Ministers as such were still of the opinion that there is time for diplomacy, room for diplomacy, but they wanted to underpin the diplomatic efforts with a more tangible, more credible threat. For that reason we moved in the direction of the activation order and we started to refine and work out in detail our operation plans.
Did you think the Holbrooke deal was a good one?
I didn't like the Holbrooke deal at all. On the night on which Dick Holbrooke came and reported to the Council, I said to the Secretary General, "I don't see a big advantage in this, the only advantage which I see is that now Milosevic has apparently accepted that the Kosovo conflict is no longer an internal matter of Yugoslavia but it is now an international conflict, since the OSCE came into the game."
And the downside, the danger of having unarmed OSCE monitors and so on?
I think both Clark and I told the Council there's a potential for a hostage- taking situation like we had seen in 1995 in Sarajevo when the Serbs took some more or less unarmed United Nations people as a hostage, so we warned of that situation and that led later on to the extraction force.
Tell me about your meeting with Milosevic.
We were sent to Belgrade on the 25th of October, very much to our surprise since before that time some nations in the Council, the European nations had always said that the military should stay out of political things. Now we were suddenly tasked to do some political negotiations; also, we were not allowed to call it "negotiations" we just called it "talks." We saw Milosevic I think at four o'clock in the afternoon in the White Palace, after a short briefing by the American Ambassador and then we delivered I think in a nutshell a very clear message by telling him Mr. President we came to deliver a straightforward message, the hammer is cocked and you have forty-eight hours to delivery, otherwise we will bomb. And then we explained to Milosevic why he had to withdraw his police and his military and we tried to persuade him in these talks with the idea that he should turn the table so that the KLA is seen as the bad guys, as he portrayed them, and we told him again and again, "You can't win the support and the understanding of the international community if you continue to shell villages. That's not the attitude of European nations, so you if want to be a respected country then you have to turn the table and you have to accept the normal attitude of all of our countries in dealing with terrorists."
What did he say to you?
He reacted initially very harshly and said, "These Kosovars . . . they are murderers and they are killers and rapers." He really got a little bit emotional on this. . . .
Was he angry?
Milosevic is a man who changes from an attitude of extreme friendliness, he can be so nice that you feel like you should not cuddle into the arms of a big bear and feel happy, and suddenly he is shifting gears and he can get very angry, so this permanent shifting of gears dominated to some extent our discussions. There were occasions when he spoke a little louder than normally . . . we never responded in the same ways; both Clark and I have learned in our military life that the one who starts to shout is never the one who is at the end the winner. . . .
Clark and I were acting more or less as the two fists of a boxer. When I think Clark had lashed out and Milosevic was recovering, I tried to do the second one or the other way round. Anyway I think we did quite a nice teamwork and I think we succeeded in persuading Milosevic that he was about to lose everything. We used very straightforward language, I remember that I told him on one occasion, Mr. President you will go down in history as the man who destroyed Serbia . . . . We used this type of language, and Milosevic got increasingly angry but also gave us indication that he felt some impact of our arguments. He then said - I think at 10:30 or so - we need time out and I need to discuss with my collaborators. Went to another room and came after half an hour back and said, "OK, you two guys are too tough for me, we will negotiate . . . We had to do some bickering on tiny things, but more or less we got [an] agreement and at three o'clock we flew back with a good conscience that we had used the stick successfully, and that we had prevented a war. . . .
The autumn that follows those talks, there were lots of violations of the agreement. What were you saying to the Council, and why weren't they taking action?
We reported first of all our result and I think everyone was relieved and was quite happy and satisfied with the result which really was, I think, the one element Dick Holbrooke had not negotiated, we had achieved the withdrawal of the police and the military. But then the KLA took advantage of the situation and more or less filled the vacuum, which the strong Serb police and military forces had left, and Milosevic responded to that again with force, and I should say with disproportionate force, so we saw an increasing number of violations of the agreements in the November-December timeframe on both sides, the KLA as well as the Serbs.
We reported this to the Council, week after week but there was not yet a preparedness to act. . . . NATO I think still had not had its act together with regard to the legal questions of a military action without the United Nations' mandate. NATO nations, particularly European NATO nations, still hoped that another diplomatic effort would be possible, and so no reaction took place and the escalation went on and on.
What signal did that send to Milosevic?
I think Milosevic felt reinforced in his assessment that he can ride it out and the cohesion in NATO is not sufficient to act so he can continue to do what he wanted to do. He may have concluded from that that NATO is bluffing, the paper tiger syndrome which became the hallmark of NATO in January and February, when your colleagues from the press were making all these wonderful cartoons of NATO as a paper tiger.
Did the massacre at Racak matter?
Racak mattered a lot. Racak was the reason why Clark and I were sent down [to talk with Milosevic] a second time . . . .
What was his reaction to you?
He was very very angry with us and he told us that we were turning things around and Racak was no massacre--the people in Racak had been killed in action and that Walker had behaved outrageously by calling this entire thing a massacre and a crime. We had we tried to persuade him not to expel Walker which he had really in mind, and he said to us this is a decision of the Serb Parliament and you're living in a democracy and I have to act if Parliament demands, and of course we said, "What a wonderful democracy you are."
We also discussed with him the possibility of inviting the International Criminal Tribunal into the country and to investigate at Racak. He flatly denied this, and so we ended up with no result, I think the only result which we really got from this seven hours of rather intense and controversial discussions was that he agreed that two people could have side arms when they accompanied Ambassador Walker.
Did Kosovo matter to Milosevic?
As soon as you mentioned Kosovo in a way which may have triggered the thought in his mind that he may lose Kosovo one day, he got very emotional. He told us, I don't know how often, that Kosovo is really the cradle of the Serb culture and religion. He also mentioned that he was fully aware that the greater fertility of the Albanians had changed the demographic balance over the time, and that for that reason he had to find a solution that the Albanians could not outnumber the Serbs once again. This I think was an indication at the time--we presumably didn't think of it--but I think it was an indication that in order to avoid that the Serb people in Kosovo would be outnumbered once again . . . that he had taken a decision to expel them. We didn't catch it since something like an expulsion of an entire people is something which is so alien to our thinking that we didn't get the hint.
Was it a mistake to try to negotiate with him?
I wouldn't say that was a mistake, it was a last attempt to achieve a peaceful solution and as such it can't be a mistake. What I regard as a mistake is that NATO eventually accepted that a contact group should take the lead in the negotiations, and why I'm so critical about the contact group, the main reason for that is that Russia was in it. I'm not opposed to Russian participation in seeking a peaceful solution, but Russia did not share NATO's objectives with regard to Kosovo, and for that reason I think it was a strange sort of negotiation. NATO was not sitting at the table, but the contact group used NATO and the NATO threat as a stick to persuade both Albanians and the Serbs. The other reason why I'm so critical about the contact group is five NATO nations were negotiating, but all the others were supposed to carry the risk of executing the threat if necessary, but at the same time they had no say. So we introduced if I may say so a first and a second league of NATO nations, and this weakened cohesion in the Alliance.
I should mention, we in the military, Clark and I, had really argued that one should start the negotiations with the military annex first . . . . This was the way we had succeeded in Dayton and now for reasons which only some foreign ministries may know, we changed the pattern and negotiated all the other things first. . . . In the very last moment the military annex was introduced, so the most difficult part was negotiated at the end when it already was obvious that the other things which were not as difficult to take for Serbia did really not fly with Serbia. I think this tactical mistake to start with the least difficult things first and to save the most difficult one for the end, made it very very difficult right from the outset to achieve a success.
When did you think in your mind that there would be war?
When I actually - when I saw the first Serb reaction to the non-military part of the proposals, I think I said it to the Secretary General now we have played our last cards, there is no way out, we have to do it otherwise we will lose all credibility . . . .
How long did you think the air war would last?
I was asked in the Council repeatedly how long will it take us, and I think I am not saying anything which cannot be proved by records, I always refused to give an answer to that, I said the only thing which I can tell you is it will take us at the minimum seven days to neutralize the Serb air defense system and seven days only under favorable conditions. . . . I did not believe that this would come to an end after two or three days, I had hoped for it, yes, but I saw no indications for that. But I should also say I had not expected it would take us seventy eight days.
A lot of politicians seemed to think it would take three days.
Yes, I know that. I do not know on whose judgement they built this expectation. Perhaps some of them made the mistake to believe that Kosovo was Bosnia, in Bosnia it was a relatively short air campaign, but Bosnia was very different, first of all Bosnia doesn't matter as much as Kosovo for the Serbs, it's not part of the heartland. Secondly, when we attacked targets in Bosnia the Serb armed forces had been defeated beforehand . . . by the Croatian counter attack and they were not in a good position. . . .
One of the purposes of the air war had been to hinder and to stop ethnic cleansing. When this vast wave of ethnic cleansing came, that part of the air war was lost, wasn't it?
I think we learned at this phase once again that you cannot stop something like this by an air campaign alone, you need ground forces for that. There is no way to stop ethnic cleansing operations from the air. I said it I think on two or three occasions in the Council that they are asking for the impossible, they want us to stop the individual murderer going with his knife from village to village and carving up some Kosovars; that you cannot do from the air, and I think that is one of the one of the lessons we should learn for the next time. If we are confronted with someone who is prepared to go for ethnic cleansing, then we have to be prepared to go in with ground forces . . . .
But did the bombing cause the ethnic cleansing?
I doubt it very much. First of all intelligence reports of the time we had seen reports of killings of Kosovars and attempts to move them out of their villages before we had dropped the first bomb. I recall that Milosevic told us in January that he was highly concerned that the Kosovars had taken over quite a lot of villages in the northern part of Kosovo and had more or less shifted the ethnic balance in this part of Kosovo and that he was not prepared to accept this. He again told us, "I will not tolerate that Serb villages, Serb dominated villages are now Albanian villages, this has to be this has to be corrected once again," so I think the ethnic cleansing and the expulsion was not triggered by NATO. It may have been accelerated by NATO. Definitely some of the atrocities which happened I think were caused by NATO bombs since this was simply this vendetta feeling which is pervading in the Balkans anyway; they saw that their compatriots were bombed . . . so they took revenge with those people who could not who could not defend themselves.
How did you feel at the time, at first when the ethnic cleansing began?
Angry, deeply angry and to some extent frustrated that we could not stop it.
So what did you do?
We had no choice, we had no ground forces available, we couldn't get them in time, our capability to deploy them rapidly is not as impressive as it should be, so we said the only way is to increase the tempo of our operations . . . we continued more or less to destroy his command and control system, his air defense system, his logistics, we put in addition more or less a ring of fire around Kosovo so that he cannot reinforce his forces there and we tried to hit as many forces as we can in Kosovo.
Did it matter, hitting the forces in Kosovo? Michael Short says that that was a waste of time.
Militarily I tend to agree with Michael Short, for two very simple reasons, you can hit ground forces in this type of terrain under these weather conditions only if you have proper target designation, by forward air controllers, by laser target designators that we didn't have. Secondly the [Serbian] ground forces were not concentrated . . . so they didn't constitute the targets which the airforce likes to have, and to hunt in this terrain for individual tanks, APCs or howitzers, that's a hell of a job if you're flying at fifteen thousand feet.
So why did it happen?
We hoped to achieve a little bit, we knew that this was not the type of operation which would impress Milosevic, but on the other hand I think we simply had to do something in order also to give the Kosovars an indication, "you're not lost." We also instigated the KLA to launch they offensive which eventually they successfully did. . . .
Did the early announcements from politicians, President Clinton in particular, that ground troops wouldn't be used, did that make the war last longer?
In my view yes. I do not hesitate to say all those politicians who ruled out in public the use of ground forces made it easier for Milosevic to calculate his risk and this may have encouraged him to make the attempt to ride it out and by this we prolonged the war. . . .
Could I ask you, in terms of the authorization of air strikes, what was the most difficult target or set of targets you had to authorize? What's the thing that sticks in your mind?
I think that the most difficult thing was to really go for the first target in downtown Belgrade. We had, General Clark asked us, the Secretary General and myself, to authorize a strike against the police headquarters and the Minister of the Interior in downtown Belgrade, and of course he was absolutely right in his rationale that this was the center where most of these evil things were planned so to say it bluntly, if you wanted to kill the snake we had to chop off the head and not to carve the snake up from the tail.
We wanted to be sure that there was no collateral damage, so we asked General Clark not only to give us the overhead imagery of these two targets but also to provide us with a wider picture and for instance when we saw that some five hundred or six hundred meters away from the [target] there's the hospital in Belgrade, and when we saw this I said to Solana, "If we hit by sheer accident this hospital, then the war is over, so we have to be absolutely sure and the targeteers have to look into their photos once again. If you as Secretary General authorize this target you have to have the guarantee that no glass will be broken in this hospital, at least you have to be sure that no-one will be killed."
If you were talking to someone who was facing a similar situation again in NATO, what advice would you give? What are the lessons?
I would say first of all, never start to threaten the use of military force if you are not ready to execute it the next day. And secondly, if you do crisis management, never again change horses mid-stream, so leave one in the lead, be it NATO, be it someone else, but one should have the responsibility and see it through. On the air operation, I would say the first point we should really try to focus on joint operations in the future, whether we use current forces or not, that's a different issue, but at least we should have the capability deployed so that we have the flexibility to use them, should the need arise. Secondly, we have, we really have to be prepared, if we go for the military option, we have to be prepared to use it as efficiently as we can, right from the outset. We have to go after those targets which really hit the opponent and force him to accept our will.
This wasn't done this time.
No, it was initially not done. We focussed initially too much on the idea to bring them back to the negotiation table and for that reason we started perhaps off too moderately, taking too much care of collateral damage, taking too much care of their opponents people. . . . We made plans for an operation, not for a war and perhaps we should think through what the difference between these two is and next time start to make plans for a war, which would allow us to tailor the application of these plans in accordance with the political situation at the time.
Was this a war worth fighting? When I look at Kosovo now, it's a mess. Are the people better off?
I still think it was worth to do it. The alternative would have been to tolerate ethnic cleansing in Europe. And I think that's no alternative you all can accept. For that reason I think it was the right thing to do it.
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How does a Polar Training Computer measure heart rate?
Heart rate is like a window into your physical condition. It tells you your body's exertion level. The harder you train, the higher amount of oxygen you consume and the higher your heart rate is. By listening to your heart rate, by peering through that window into your physical condition, you get real-time guidance during training that is specific to you.
A Polar training computer helps you to listen to your body. Each training computer has two parts: the training computer itself and a heart rate sensor to read your heart rate.
The heart rate sensor is attached around the chest with an elastic strap. It detects your heart beat, the electric signal of the heart, at the accuracy and reliability of the electrocardiogram (ECG). It then gives a timing reference for the heart beat occurrences and transmits the information to the training computer. The training computer reads this transmission from the heart rate sensor and calculates the number of beats per minute your heart is working at.
By listening to your heart, the training computer can tell you exactly how hard you need to exercise and for how long so that you get the most out of each exercise session.
Polar training computers offer a variety of different features, all based on your individual heart rate. To find out what Polar features your training computer supports, please see your product user manual.
See also Why train with a heart rate monitor and get an idea about training in different heart rate zones
Check out the latest products here.
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Wishful thinking
Wishful thinking
Prominent examples of wishful thinking include:
As a logical fallacy
In addition to being a cognitive bias and a poor way of making decisions, wishful thinking is commonly held to be a specific logical fallacy in an argument when it is assumed that because we wish something to be true or false that it is actually true or false. This fallacy has the form "I wish that P is true/false, therefore P is true/false." Wishful thinking, if this were true, would underlie appeals to emotion, and would also be a red herring.
Some atheists argue that much of theology, particularly arguments for the existence of God, is based on wishful thinking because it takes the desired outcome (that a god or gods exist) and tries to prove it on the basis of a premise through reasoning which can be analysed as fallacious, but which may nevertheless be wished "true" in the mind of the believer. Some theologians argue that it is actually atheism which is the product of wishful thinking, in that atheists may not want to believe in any gods or may not want there to be any gods. Both of these arguments would better be described as confirmation bias. Since one rarely, if ever, finds an argument written or spoken as described above ("I wish it to be true, therefore it is true"), the charge of "wishful thinking" itself can be a form of circumstantial ad hominem argument, even a Bulverism.
Wishful thinking may cause blindness to unintended consequences.
Related fallacies are the Negative proof and Argument from ignorance fallacies ("It hasn't been proven false, so it must be true." and vice versa). For instance, a believer in UFOs may accept that most UFO photos are faked, but claim that the ones that haven't been debunked must be considered genuine.
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1 definition by Johnny Neumonnic
A secret cave that Cartman and other Anti-Semites believe the Jews use to hide their cash and other treasure. From South Park Episode 1303
"Where did the money go? The answer is obvious my friends. It is the Jews! Covetous Jews, who have taken all our money and hoarded it for themselves. And hidden all the cash in some secret Jew Cave that they built, probably back in the early 60’s…" (S.P. Ep.1303)
by Johnny Neumonnic May 27, 2009
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Regional cooperation and development activities
Programmes > DRA > Voluntary Cooperation Programme > Support a Station
Support a Monitoring Station
Long-term weather monitoring is essential to adequately monitor climate change as well as improve climate and weather forecasts for specific countries or regions. As weather and climate crosses national boundaries and are linked as a global system, close collaboration between countries is essential to improve every country’s data.
A global network of weather stations monitors the surface conditions as well as the upper air atmosphere. This network is also used by Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), which is coordinating the observations of radio sonde stations within its Global Upper Air Network (GUAN) to collect and link the data of National Meteorological Services, essential for the compilation of climate records. However, there are still some “blank spots” in the overall network, for example in uninhabited areas (deserts, islands, mountains, etc.) but also in some developing and least developed countries. Monitoring the upper air system can be very costly as it requires a high investment in weather balloons and radio sondes. Also, in some developing and least developed countries, it is difficult to find producers that can deliver those parts due to economic embargoes or commercial restraints.
As a large number of the requests we receive under the VCP are asking for assistance in taking these upper air readings, which are beneficial to all countries and so are basically a “global good”, we are now looking for sponsors that will set up or support a specific station on a long-term basis. Support can take the form of setting up and maintaining a station in a remote area, supplying a station with necessary funding, helping with the acquisition of specific equipment or providing staff training in new technologies, necessary for running the readings and evaluating the data. The GCOS System Improvement Program facilitates the renovation or implementation of such stations and is helping to coordinate the respective needs of users.
To find out which stations need support, please contact the VCP Secretariat (RMO Office).
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The Kissing Scene (things you didn’t know about kissing)
Kissing. Ewww. Sometimes it can be messy (borderline nasty), but it can also make our hearts fly.
Here are a few facts you didn’t know about kissing.
- You are unique –just like every other human out there The human lips are different from all other animal because they are turned outward or everted.
But we are not the only species to engage in kissing behaviors. Parrots, apes and parrot fish, to say a few, press lips or “lock lips” together to express excitement, affection, or show domination.
- The Roman empire introduced kissing to many cultures. And later, it was European explorers who continued the custom.
- Kissing helps our noses and other senses, assess compatibility. In a study, evolutionary biologists from the University of Switzerland reported that women like the scents of men whose immunity-coding genes differ from their own. Mixing genes that should produce offsprings with stronger immune system.
That same Swiss experiment experiment, widely known as the “sweaty T-shirt study,” where female participant were asked to smell different males.
Love Is “thee” Drug: Dopamine is a neurotransmitter linked with feelings of desire and cravings, gets a boost from kissing. This explains why a kiss with somebody new feels so special.
- Falling in love. In some cases, a hit of dopamine causes a loss of appetite, sleep and butterfly in the stomach– This is what we call falling in love. Dopamine causes that.
- Can’t Get Enough of Your Love: Dopamine is produced in the ventral tegmental area of the brain, the same region affected by addictive drugs like cocaine.
- Kissing is healthy. Kissing reduces cortisol (a hormone that causes stress), thereby lowering blood pressure and strengthening immune response.
- And a passionate kiss has the same effect as “beautiful view” dilates our pupils.
- The neck-breaker. Majority of people tilt their heads to the right, right before kissing, according to psychologists at University Bochum in Germany. This behavior is first conceived from the head-turning preference observed in babies and fetuses.
- Evolutionary psychologists discovered that men more likely prefer sloppy, wet tongue kisses than women.
- Saliva ewww. Saliva exchange provides a sexual advantage for men. During a sloppy kiss, a man passes testosterone to the female. Overtime, repeated kissing enhances a female’s libido, making her more acceptive to sex.
- Always brush your teeth, guys. Evolutionary psychologists at the State University of New York, found that when deciding whether to kiss someone, girls pay more attention to the breath and teeth of the men.
And finally, “the nasty habit.” One milliliter of saliva contains about 100,000,000 bacteria! Eww! Happy kissing guys!!
So what do you think about kissing now? Leave comments, guys! Thanks!
About Selena
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Related posts:
1. How to Kiss a Boy… (or a Girl)
2. How to kiss? The top Ten erotic tips
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I wrote a decimal to binary converter function in order to practice my manipulation of number systems and arrays. I took the int a converted it to binary and stored each character, or so I beleive, in an array, then displayed to the screen, however it is displaying characters I do not know i looked them up on the aski table and do not recognize them, so i would like to ask for your assistance, here is a picture of the code, and console app.enter image description here
Thanks in advance.
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For the next time, use markdown to put sourcecode in the question, not use screnshots. – Manu343726 Jul 17 '13 at 6:46
@Manu343726 i know but i also wanted to show the console app running along with the results, and just decided to post everything as one, but duly noted. – InfinityCounter Jul 17 '13 at 15:14
2 Answers 2
You likely want to insert number chars (such as '1') in your result, but you assign the char value. Try adding the value of '0' to get a readable result (remainder + '0').
If you interpret the result array as a string (that's what i suggested), you should also set the last char to the value 0 (not '0'!) to mark the end of the c string.
share|improve this answer
Your output function not correct output your binary text because:
1) cout output characters until '\0', so your function will correct output until get first 0 in binary representation of int (for example for 5 = 101 it will output only one smile with code 0x01).
2) your last character in array is not '\0', so cout will output garbage until '\0' or memory access exception.
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Your Answer
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The Early Years: 1927-1938
Douglas Aircraft Co. ... In Clover Field
California has long been a place where I wanted to live ... because I have felt that if there is to be any civilian aeronautics, it will be there that it will first attain real success.
-- Donald Douglas, 1920
By 1926 Douglas was producing 120 aircraft a year. Only four years earlier, his company had delivered only six. With production increasing at this rate, Douglas needed to expand his facilities and began to build a new plant in Santa Monica, Calif., adjacent to the Clover Field runway. Until the building was finished, Douglas aircraft were towed a mile to the tarmac.
With contracts for 246 Liberty-engined O-2 observation planes, the company also ventured into light aircraft with the Douglas Commuter, finished in January 1926. Its wings could be folded flat so it could be stored in a garage, but it found no market.
Meanwhile, on Nov. 30, 1928, Douglas incorporated his business as the Douglas Aircraft Co. Inc. and moved to the completed building in Santa Monica in 1929. By 1930, Douglas stock was among the highest valued in the industry.
In its new facilities, the Douglas Aircraft Co. continued to make observation biplanes and built its first twin-engine aircraft, the T2D-1 torpedo bomber. It also started to design a small commercial amphibian, the Sinbad. This luxurious transport found no market during the Depression, but led to the successful military Dolphin, which became the best known of all the Douglas-built amphibians and helped the company survive the hard times.
Jack Northrop, who had left Douglas in 1927 for Lockheed Aircraft to design the famous Vega single-engined transport, returned in 1932 to run a majority-owned subsidiary. There he produced the next in the single-engine transport series, the Gamma in 1932, and the Delta in 1933. The Gamma broke speed records, became a flying laboratory and made an epic flight across the Antarctic.
Douglas engineers also developed two gull-winged monoplanes: the XO-31 observation aircraft and the XB-7 bomber, followed by the successful O-46 straight-wing observation monoplane. These aircraft helped prepare the company to bid for the DC-1 transport that would launch Douglas into commercial aviation.
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Scholars Day 2007, Wednesday, April 11
The Effect of Stimulant Medication in Children Diagnosed with ADHD
Children diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) demonstrate impairments on a variety of behavioral tests. Stimulant medication has been shown to normalize performance on many of these tests in children diagnosed with ADHD, however the effects on motivation are unclear. This study examined the effects of stimulant medication on a motivational task in children diagnosed with ADHD. Motivation was measured using a Progressive Ratio Task that required children to press a response lever to receive a nickel reinforcer. The number of lever presses required to obtain each nickel was increased by ten for the entire task. Children diagnosed with ADHD off medication made a similar number of responses as controls. In contrast, stimulant medication significantly increased the number of responses made by children diagnosed with ADHD. The results show that stimulant medication increased motivation in children diagnosed with ADHD, even when motivation in these children was similar to controls.
Presenter: Patricia Bamonti (Undergraduate Student)
Topic: Psychology
Location: 107 Holmes
Time: 11:30 am (Session II)
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Breaking An Environmental Law
by Elaine Schwartz • Jan 21, 2012 • 310 Views
Asked by the Pew Center for the People and the Press to rank 21 issues in terms of their significance, global warming was #21. Similarly pessimistic about climate change initiatives, one researcher asked, “How can one seriously suggest that the village kid in India should give up her hopes of prosperity, education, and health care today, in order to prevent rising ocean levels many years down the road?”
What can an environmentalist do?
Maybe… connect current economic benefit to future climate results. Then, the iron law of climate policy is no longer an obstacle.
Described in the NY Times, a recent Science article suggests 14 policies that would have a beneficial economic impact now and also diminish the future global warming that the paper’s authors predict. One proposal would involve farmers in developing nations draining rice paddies more frequently to increase their yield while simultaneously reducing methane emissions.
Described in “Climate Pragmatism,” climate and health care concerns converged in a 2009 Congressional proposal for reducing black carbon soot. Two of the bill’s sponsors were environmentalists while a third sponsor questioned climate change but wanted the health benefits of cleaner air.
The Economic Lesson
Edwin Mansfield, a University of Pennsylvania economist (1930-1967) who studied the impact of innovation concluded that smaller innovations such as new industrial thread had a much greater social rate of return than products and processes that sound more dramatic. Recent suggestions to mitigate global warming also imply that “less is more.”
An Economic Question: How might rice paddy drainage be comparable to the smaller innovations that Dr. Manfield said were so effective?
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The appliance of science
Melting point
With the help of a grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, we will soon take on a PhD student, to be based at the University of Nottingham, to help with several projects we've been toying with at the Fat Duck. In particular, I want them to look at a substance called methyl-cellulose, which is a gel that sets when it gets hot and melts when it gets cold. My idea is to make a warm 'ice cream' or 'ice lolly' on a stick, which the customer will have to eat before it cools down and melts.
Methyl-cellulose is not a great new Fat Duck discovery. It is used by the food industry in products such as turkey dinosaurs and potato shapes - though quite what part it plays in them I'm not entirely sure. But I can see great potential for adapting techniques and technology developed by the food industry for use in restaurant kitchens, not least because it has vast research budgets that we chefs don't have access to. What we have to do is properly understand the nature and possibilities of the technology so that we can best judge how to use them.
Admittedly, in many cases these methods have been developed to 'enhance' certain manufactured products, or to disguise rubbish food. But there's no reason we can't turn the same methods to our advantage. For example, we know that the food industry treats hams, chickens and other meat products to increase their water content. But why shouldn't we use the same treatment to get meat that has lost some of its natural juices while cooking to reabsorb them to increase flavour and tenderness?
I'm not saying that we will ever be able seriously to adapt that technology for kitchen use, but who knows?
· Heston Blumenthal is chef/proprietor at the Fat Duck, Bray, Berkshire.
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FAQ About Radon
What is Radon?
Radon is a natural radioactive gas which is colorless and odorless, but is a cancer causer. In your home, its presence can pose a danger to your family's health. Radon remains the leading cause of lung cancer for non-smokers.. and it's the 2nd leading cause of lung cancer among all Americans (with about 20,000 victims each year.)
How does Radon get into your house?
Radon gas decays into radioactive particles that get trapped in your lungs as you breathe. The particles can release small bursts of energy. This damages lung tissue and leads to lung cancer over your lifetime. As with environmental pollutants, the magnitude of radon health risks is still uncertain.
Can Radon levels be reduced in my home?
Yes. There are several proven methods to reduce radon levels in your home, but the main one is a vent pipe system and fan, which pulls radon out and away from your home, sending it outside. This system is called a soil suction radon reduction system, and does not require major changes to your home. Similar systems can in placed in any homes with crawl spaces. A radon contractor may use other successful methods. The K-State Extension Service can let you know about the contractors who've passed state inspection. Your county extension office may be offering radon test kits for $5 each to get a radon reading for your home. In Topeka, you'll find the Shawnee County office near the Expocentre at 1740 SW Western.
(Information from Dr. Radon)
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What Makes Wine Go Bad? 5 Factors To Consider
Environmental Conditions
• Lightstrike can be a problem when a bottle of wine has been overexposed to UV radiation.
Sometimes, a bottle of wine will undergo a second fermentation. This happens when dormant yeasts wake up. It’s usually caused by a non-sterile environment during bottling. The result is a sweet wine becoming fizzy, like champagne, which is why refermentation can be called “spritziness”.
Sulfides (H2S)
These sulfur-containing compounds can take place during the fermentation process when they excrete yeast. The result is the very unpleasant smell of rotten eggs.
Sulfur Dioxide (SO2)
SO2 has always played a role in wine-making, and in fact it’s crucial in the wine’s preservation. However, when SO2 has been used in excess, or not managed properly, it can ruin a bottle of wine by sending out an aroma of burnt rubber or matchsticks. It can even lead to allergic reactions or headaches.
Volatile Acidity (VA)
If your wine smells like nail polish or vinegar, there is most likely an excessive amount of volatile acidity. While VA is a part of the natural fermentation process, so most wines have it in moderation, our old friend oxygen can cause the levels to rise by accelerating lactic acid bacteria and wild yeasts.
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Cambridge Dictionaries online Cambridge Dictionaries online
Definición de “label” en inglés
See all translations
noun [C]
INFORMATION B1 a small piece of paper or other material that gives information about the thing it is fixed to: There should be washing instructions on the label.Classifying and creating orderInformation and messages
WORD a word or phrase that is used to describe the qualities of someone or something, usually in a way that is not fair: He seems to be stuck with the label of 'troublemaker'.Classifying and creating order
MUSIC ( also record label) B1 a company that records and sells music: They've just signed a deal with a major record label.Businesses and enterprises
(Definition of label noun from the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)
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Palabra del día
cold snap
a short period of cold weather
Palabra del día
Cleavage proves divisive in Cambridge’s words of 2014
by Alastair Horne,
December 19, 2014
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cinderella surgery noun
December 15, 2014
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I have a hypothetical question:
If you have a 15 Amp breaker connected to a 20 Amp T type outlet with (20 Amp) 12 AWG wire, is it within code, below code, or above code, where code means the National Electrical Code.
This is due to a discussion I had with a colleague that insists it is not within code due to the 20 Amp T outlet. I view it as the outlet may be 20 Amp and any appliance you plug into it that draws more than the 15 Amp breaker will support will trip the breaker long before any overheating or electrical damage will occur.
Now I will agree that having a 15 Amp breaker and using 14 AWG wire with a 20 Amp T type outlet could potentially overheat the wiring, as the draw could be just over the 15 Amp breaker which they tend to trip around 16 Amps.
share|improve this question
"code" meaning the NEC? – Steven Nov 16 '12 at 20:53
Yes the NEC Code. – Robert Nov 16 '12 at 22:18
2 Answers 2
The answer to this question can be found in article 210 of the National Electrical Code (NEC). Section 210.3 of this article, tells us that the circuit rating shall be determined by the overcurrent device rating.
NEC 2011
So if you have a 15A breaker, the circuit rating is 15 Amps. Section 210.21(B)(3), tells us to refer to table 210.21(B)(3) to determine the receptacle rating for circuits supplying two or more receptacles.
210.21(B)(3) Receptacle Ratings. Where connected to a branch circuit supplying two or more receptacles or outlets, receptacle ratings shall conform to the values listed in Table 210.21(B)(3), or where larger than 50 amperes, the receptacle rating shall not be less than the branch-circuit rating.
Table 210.21(B)(3)
This tells us that if we have a 15A circuit breaker protecting a circuit with two or more receptacles, each receptacle on the circuit must be rated not over 15 amperes. It's also good to remember, that the NEC does not view a duplex receptacle as a single receptacle according to the definition of a receptacle.
Receptacle. A receptacle is a contact device installed at the outlet for the connection of an attachment plug. A single receptacle is a single contact device with no other contact device on the same yoke. A multiple receptacle is two or more contact devices on the same yoke.
So if you're installing even a single duplex receptacle on the circuit, you'll need to follow 210.21(B)(3) and use a 15A receptacle.
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+1 for quoting the relevant passages. – ArgentoSapiens Nov 19 '12 at 13:57
Does not meet NEC because the circuit is rated 15 amp by breaker size [210-3], regardless how much copper you choose to waste on over sized conductors. ( ;-) there are legitimate reasons to over size conductors) Table 210-21(b)(3) [outdated version used, sorry] thus indicates receptacles on such circuit cannot be rated over 15 amp.
share|improve this answer
Wish you hadn't called it waste. Maybe it's a long run, and I plan to run a saw or pump. – Jay Bazuzi Nov 16 '12 at 23:26
Use a 15A socket due to the 15A breaker. It's not waste to oversize copper for long runs. – Fiasco Labs Nov 17 '12 at 2:36
Back when copper was cheaper, oversizing romex from 14 to 12 was common in upscale jobs. – shirlock homes Nov 17 '12 at 10:13
+1 @ bcworkz. The device must be no larger than the circuit interupt device. – shirlock homes Nov 17 '12 at 10:15
Re: oversized conductors. Fair points. I was just being silly, no offense intended towards legitimate oversizing. – bcworkz Nov 17 '12 at 23:43
Your Answer
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Which Countries Have The Highest Rates Of Obesity?
Which Fruits And Vegetables Have The Highest Water Content?
Assorted citrus fruitChoosing foods with a high water content can be a great way to aid weight loss because these foods are very low in calories but still make us feel full. This is due to the fact that water adds volume to foods but contains no calories itself.
A significant amount of data from laboratory and epidemiological studies exists to suggest diets that focus on foods with a low energy density are associated with lower energy intakes, improved diet quality, and long term reductions in body weight compared to other diets.
As a general rule, fruits and vegetables have a very high water content compared to other foods and as a result you can eat large amounts without consuming very many calories at all. For example a cup of strawberries (150g in weight) has just 49 calories, compare that to a slice of white toast with butter (37g in total weight) which has 150 calories. Both result in similar feelings of fullness however the strawberries have just 1/3 the calories.
The following table lists the 20 fruits and vegetables with the highest water content.
Obesity Cuts Life Expectancy By As Much As Seven Years
Obesity is known to be associated with many potentially life threatening diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and some forms of cancer. According to most scientific studies, there is an inverse linear relationship between life expectancy and body mass index (BMI). Those who are considered obese (a BMI greater than 30) can expect to live on average 6 to 7 years less than people in the normal weight range (BMI less than 25).
One study, published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, looked at the impact obesity has on remaining life expectancy at 40 years of age. The study involved 3,457 individuals who were divided into three groups: normal weight (BMI < 25), overweight (BMI between 25 and 30), and obese (BMI > 30).
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Daniel Defoe
(1660 - 1731 / London / England)
Introduction To The True-Born Englishman
Speak, satire; for there's none can tell like thee
Whether 'tis folly, pride, or knavery
That makes this discontented land appear
Less happy now in times of peace than war?
Why civil feuds disturb the nation more
Than all our bloody wars have done before?
Fools out of favour grudge at knaves in place,
And men are always honest in disgrace;
The court preferments make men knaves in course,
But they which would be in them would be worse.
'Tis not at foreigners that we repine,
Would foreigners their perquisites resign:
The grand contention's plainly to be seen,
To get some men put out, and some put in.
For this our senators make long harangues,
And florid members whet their polished tongues.
Statesmen are always sick of one disease,
And a good pension gives them present ease:
That's the specific makes them all content
With any king and any government.
Good patriots at court abuses rail,
And all the nation's grievances bewail;
But when the sovereign's balsam's once applied,
The zealot never fails to change his side;
And when he must the golden key resign,
The railing spirit comes about again.
Who shall this bubbled nation disabuse,
While they their own felicities refuse,
Who the wars have made such mighty pother,
And now are falling out with one another:
With needless fears the jealous nation fill,
And always have been saved against their will:
Who fifty millions sterling have disbursed,
To be with peace and too much plenty cursed:
Who their old monarch eagerly undo,
And yet uneasily obey the new?
Search, satire, search; a deep incision make;
The poison's strong, the antidote's too weak.
'Tis pointed truth must manage this dispute,
And downright English, Englishmen confute.
Whet thy just anger at the nation's pride,
And with keen phrase repel the vicious tide;
To Englishmen their own beginnings show,
And ask them why they slight their neighbours so.
Go back to elder times and ages past,
And nations into long oblivion cast;
To old Britannia's youthful days retire,
And there for true-born Englishmen inquire.
Britannia freely will disown the name,
And hardly knows herself from whence they came:
Wonders that they of all men should pretend
To birth and blood, and for a name contend.
Go back to causes where our follies dwell,
And fetch the dark original from hell:
Speak, satire, for there's none like thee can tell.
Submitted: Wednesday, April 21, 2010
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from the turtorial test
The component of personality that operates according to the reality principle is the
People who use "giving up" or behavioral disengagement as a coping strategy typically experience
increased, rather than decreased, distress
While a person with _____ experiences anxiety only in certain specific situations, a person with _____ experiences anxiety in a wide variety of situations
phobic disorder; generalized anxiety disorder
The two identity statuses that decrease with age are
identity diffusion and identity foreclosure
Which of the following personality traits appears to be related to the likelihood of developing a somatoform disorder?
Within academic psychology, Freud's ideas initially encountered resistance because he emphasized
the unconscious
Cultural variations in the emergence of basic skills such as sitting and walking demonstrate that environmental factors
can accelerate or slow early motor development.
John Watson differed with Sir Francis Galton on this matter related to the field of psychology
genetic vs. environmental influence on behavior
An experimenter tests the hypothesis that physical exercise helps people's mood (makes them happier). Subjects in the experimental group participate on Monday and Tuesday and those in the control group on Wednesday and Thursday. What is an extraneous variable?
day of the week
According to the notion of semantic networks, which pair of words should be linked MOST closely?
At what age does the "vocabulary spurt" occur?
18 months
When their mom took them to the store yesterday she asked David and Andrew to help her remember to buy apples. While David focused his attention on how apples were his favorite fruit, Andrew thought of seeing a bag of big red apples in the shopping cart. David was using ____ and Andrew was using ____.
elaboration; visual imagery
Studies of response-outcome relations and reinforcement have found that
people actively reason out the relations between responses and the outcomes that follow
During which stage in Piaget's system is the child first able to handle conservation problems and hierarchical classification problems?
concrete operations
In experimental research, subjects in the control group
do not receive special treatment in regard to the independent variable
John suffers from chronic anxiety. He tends to worry constantly and is uncomfortable in a wide variety of situations. He decides to seek therapy. John put considerable thought into what he wants to gain from therapy. John believes that if he learns why he is so anxious he will be better able to cope. Based on John's beliefs, he is MOST likely to seek a therapist that emphasizes the _____ approach.
insight therapy
Therapeutic drugs that reduce tension, apprehension, and nervousness are
antianxiety drugs
A psychologist conducts a memory study. To ensure the validity of the results the researcher should
replicate their results
Roommates Ann and Margaret both woke up yesterday with a headache, upset stomach, and muscle stiffness. While Ann was showering for her 9:00 art history class, Margaret rushed off to the college health clinic. Most likely Margaret exhibits a _____ than Ann.
higher level of anxiety and higher level of neuroticism
Which of the following is NOT an example of punishment?
nagging a child until she pick up her toys
A gunshot wound in the back of the head would cause the victim to be permanently unable to maintain bodily coordination. The part of the brain that would be damaged is the
If an employee of a company that conducts telephone surveys receives $1.00 for every three completed surveys he conducts, he is being paid on a _____ schedule.
fixed ratio
Forty-seven-year-old Jennifer has recently started tutoring students at the elementary school her own children attended many years ago. She enjoys being around the children and feels a great deal of satisfaction from her tutoring. Jennifer appears to be successfully resolving the crisis of
generativity versus self-absorption
Which of the following is not a factor that plays an important role in the etiology of somatoform disorders?
genetic endowment
Freud believed that we are often not the masters of our mind because of
the unconscious
Psychologists who doubt the accuracy of recovered memories of abuse maintain that
the recovered memories are inadvertently created in individuals after a therapist makes suggestions of childhood abuse
According to Hans Eysenck, personality is largely
Which of the following is NOT correct regarding who seeks therapy?
people with flexible jobs are more likely to receive therapy
The size of the human brain does NOT increase after what age?
Which broad category of personality theories has been characterized as having a sexist bias?
Aggression is frequently triggered by
The assertion that "psychology is empirical" means that psychology is based on
The neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia suggests that schizophrenia may be caused, in part, by
disruptions in the normal maturational process of the brain before or at birth
Systematic desensitization involves
training to relax when confronted with anxiety arousing stimuli
If you remember the names of the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior) by recalling the word "HOMES" as a cue, you are using a(n)
Research concerning the etiology of schizophrenic disorders has implicated excessive activity of the neurotransmitter(s)
Forgetting can be caused by all of the following EXCEPT
repression failures
An eating disorder characterized by out-of-control overeating followed by unhealthy compensatory efforts such as self-induced vomiting is
bulimia nervosa
Which of the following is NOT a major area of specialization in research psychology?
Broca's area is located in the
left frontal lobe.
Camilla thinks of herself as a shy person who is often anxious in social settings, however her friends would describe her as outgoing and relaxed. According to Carl Rogers, Camilla is likely to
experience incongruence
The research on adopted children and intelligence has found that there is a significant similarity between the children and
both sets of parents
Theodore suffered a stroke recently, and now he finds he constantly hears a buzzing sound in his ears. In this case, it is likely that the stroke occurred in Theodore's
temporal lobe
Alexander's physician has patients double and triple booked. He spends less than five minutes examining and talking with Alexander during his latest doctor's appointment. Alexander's experience illustrates which of the common barrier to effective provider-patient communication?
time constraints on the length of the provider-patient interaction
Corrina constantly experiences feelings of dread and despair. Lately, she finds that she is thinking more and more about committing suicide so she can end her feelings of desperation and hopelessness. In this example, Corrina's feelings of dread and despair would most likely be considered
personally distressing
The fact that research results can be affected by experimenter bias illustrates which of your text's unifying themes?
our experience of the world is highly subjective
For John B. Watson, the appropriate subject matter of psychology was
animal behavior
Which of the following personality traits, when seen in married individuals, reduces the risk of divorce?
Which of the following correlation coefficients would make you MOST likely to bet, "If you tell me a person's score on variable A, I can predict their score on variable B?"
Which of the following is NOT one of the primary reasons people procrastinate seeking medical attention when faced with a medical emergency such as a heart attack?
people tend to be immobilized by anxiety and fear associated with their symptoms
Personality traits that have been associated with the development of anorexia nervosa include all of the following EXCEPT
high self-esteem
Which of the following is a short-term side effect of electroconvulsive therapy?
impaired attention
a collection of response tendencies that are tied to various stimulus situations
The personality trait known as extraversion is also referred to by psychologists as _____.
positive emotionality
Which of the following statements is FALSE?
females tend to score higher on measures of visual-spatial abilities than males
Which of the following is NOT good advice for improving your test-taking ability?
check for hidden complexities in simple-looking questions
Having a rather poor sense of self-worth, Bruce attempts to make himself feel important by belonging to an exclusive tennis club and eating at the best restaurants. Bruce may be using the defense mechanism of
Krista is 28-years-old. She was burned quite badly in a kitchen accident when she was seven-years-old. Today, even though her parents still sometimes mention the kitchen accident, Krista has no memory of ever being burned. According to Freud, Krista may be
using repression to keep the distressing memories buried in the unconscious
Car manufacturers try to encourage drivers to buckle their seat belts through the use of reinforcement. As you know, if you start your car without buckling-up you will hear a somewhat annoying sound. If you learn to buckle-up after hearing the sound, you show _____ If you acquire the response of buckling-up before you turn on the ignition, you show _____.
escape learning; avoidance learning
The first step in the process of systematic desensitization is to
build an anxiety hierarchy
Which of the following is NOT a secondary sex characteristic?
increased growth of the penis
Contemporary models account for or explain evolutionary theory in
genetic terms
Physiological interventions intended to reduce symptoms associated with psychological disorders are referred to as
biomedical therapy
Discovery of __________ in the 1990's lead to a better understanding of the neural substrates underlying complex psychological behavior.
mirror neurons
Which of the following describes neurogenesis?
the formation of new neurons
William James' development of the concept of the self was influential to which of the following fields?
psychology of personality
The major qualification of the research findings on gender differences is that
the data are indicative of group differences and tell us little about individuals
Which of the following are disorders that occur in all cultures?
schizophrenia, bipolar mood disorder, and depression
When describing schedules of reinforcement, the key factor in interval schedules is
elapsed time
For the majority of people the right hemisphere is superior on all the following types of tasks EXCEPT
In a variable-ratio schedule, the reinforcer is given
after a variable number of nonreinforced responses
At preschool, Jessi has learned that she must wash her hands before snack-time in order to get a snack. At home, however, her parents do not check to make sure she washes her hands. When she is home, Jessi does not wash her hands before eating. Jessi's behavior illustrates the process of
stimulus discrimination
Active efforts to master, reduce, or tolerate the demands created by stress are called
The main function of the axon is to
transmit information
Negative reinforcement involves
the removal of an unpleasant stimulus
Imagine you studied for this psychology exam with two of your classmates. If one classmate, Becky, was very nervous and "stressed-out" about the exam, and the other classmate, Craig, thought the exam "wasn't a big deal," their differing attitudes are MOST consistent with the finding that
people's appraisals of stressful events are highly subjective
Today there are many alternative approaches to treatment, including client-centered therapy, cognitive therapy, and behavior therapies. This wide range of alternatives illustrates that
psychology is theoretically diverse
Michael Domjan suggests that the rapid conditioning seen in conditioned taste aversions is
an example of what happens when ecologically relevant conditioned stimuli are studied
A choice must be made about whether to pursue a single goal that has both attractive and unattractive aspects in an
approach-avoidance conflict.
Goals of Pyschology
applications of research findings to solve everyday problems ;understanding why certain behaviors occur ;the development of measurement techniques for describing behavior precisely and accurately
According to the ethical guidelines for conducting psychological research with animals, exposing animals to harmful or painful procedures
cannot be justified unless the potential benefits of the research are substantial
Finding humor in a stressful situation
can help to reduce stress by promoting social support
If a child is born with a small head, heart defects, irritability, hyperactivity, and retarded mental and motor development, the mother MOST likely ____ during her pregnancy
consumed excessive amounts of alcohol
Amanda describes herself as intelligent, friendly, and responsible. Amanda's family, friends, and teachers all agree that she shows those qualities. According to Rogers her self-concept is
A man is really angry at his boss but he takes out his anger on his wife. The wife then spanks her child, the child then kicks the dog, and the dog then bites the mailman. This situation illustrates the defense mechanism known as
Which of the following is NOT a mnemonic device that involves verbal encoding?
link method
Jamie has been diagnosed with bulimia nervosa and has been undergoing psychotherapy with moderate success. Her therapist has referred her to a medical doctor to supplement her current treatment with pharmacotherapy. Her doctor will most likely prescribe her
a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor
Negative reinforcement _____ the rate of a response; punishment _____ the rate of a response.
increases; decreases
Which of the following is NOT one of the three primary criteria commonly used by psychologists to diagnose psychological disorders?
A group of researchers wanted to determine if people will eat more food in a room with red paint and red decorations than in a room that is decorated blue. Half the participants in this study ate in a red room and half ate in a blue room. The researchers then measured how much food was consumed in each of the two rooms. In this study, the independent variable was
the color of the decorations in the room
Critical thinking includes all of the following EXCEPT
originally believing that the stated position on a topic is incorrect
While a chemical that mimics a neurotransmitter, can bind to receptor sites, and causes postsynaptic potentials is a(n) ____, a chemical that can bind to receptor sites and block the action of neurotransmitters is a(n) ____.
agonist; antagonist
the color of the decorations in the room
help clients realize they don't have to worry constantly about pleasing others and winning acceptance
Dr. Redding has found a correlation of +0.65 between snoring and weight. This indicates that
overweight individuals tend to snore more than underweight individuals
In studies of long-term memory, researchers have found that
the passage of time is not as influential as what happens during the time interval
Which group of therapeutic drugs tend to exert their effect almost immediately but also tend to have an effect that lasts a short length of time?
antianxiety drugs
The major criticism of the Social Readjustment Rating Scale is that
it does not measure change exclusively
Recent research trends in psychology involve two areas largely ignored by early behaviorists. These two areas are
cognition (thinking) and physiological processes
Which of the following researchers is known for identifying the capacity of short-term memory as "seven plus or minus two" items?
George Miller
The repetition of a study to see whether the earlier results duplicate is referred to as
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Mr. Wade
Use Vocabulary Words from Chapter 2
Photic Zone What is a symbiotic relasionship in wheich one species benefits and the other species is neither harmed nor benefited?
Scavengers What is the place where an organism lives out its life?
Ecology What is a symbiotic relationship in which one organism derives benefit at the expense of the other organism?
Ecosystem What is a group of organisms of one species that interbreed and live in the same place at the same time?
Decomposers What is the protion of the marine biome that is shallow enough for sunlight to pernetrate?
Biosphere What are the colonization of new sites like these by communities of organisms?
Heterotrophs What are small organisms that live in the water of the photic zone?
Secondary Succession What is a simple model that scientist use to show how matter and energy mover through an ecosystem?
Niche What is a collection of interacting population?
Trophic level All theliving organisms that inhabit an environment are __________.
Food Chain What is the role and position a species has in its environment--- how it meets its needs for food and shelter, how it survives, and how it reproduces?
Succession What are organisms that use enerty from the sun or energy stored in chemical compunds to manufacture their own nutrients?
Plankton What is a coastal body of water, partially surrounded by land, in which feshwater and saltwater mix?
Primary Succession What is an organisms that cannot make their own food and must feed on other organisms?
Biotic Factors What is the portion of Earth that supports life?
Population What is a stable, mature community that undergoes little or no change in species?
Abiotic Factors What refers to the sequence of community changes that take place after a community is disrupted by natural disaters or human actions?
Commensalism What is a symbiotic relationship which both species benefit?
Parasitism What is the portion of the shoreline that lies between the high and low tide lines?
Habitat What is the scientific study of interactions among organisms and their enviornments?
Climax Comunity Waht are the orderly, natural changes and species replacements that take place in the comunities of an ecosystem?
Community What is the relationship in which there is a close and permanent association among organisms of different species?
Intertidal Zone the nonlinving partsof an organism's environment are ____________.
Symbiosis Each organism in a food chain represents a feeding step or ___________ _______________.
Autotrophs What are organisms that break down and absorb nutrients from dead organisms?
Estuary What is made up of the interactions among the populations in a community and the community's physical surroundings or abiotic factors
Aphotic Zone What are animals that do not kill their own food but feed off dead animals?
Mutualism What is the deeper water that never receives sunlight?
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Garden Journal
Garden Journal: Actually, it’s not an artichoke and it’s not from Jerusalem
Here’s a little story about an amazing plant with an identity problem.
Commonly known in some parts as the Jerusalem artichoke, it is neither from Jerusalem nor is it an artichoke, and that’s just for starters. There has been quite a bit of speculation about how it got its name.
The most prevalent theory maintains that Sir Walter Raleigh first discovered Native Americans cultivating “sunroots” in what is now Virginia in 1585. When these edible “sunchokes” went back to Europe in the early 1600s, thanks to Samuel de Champlain, it was briefly introduced as the “Canada potato” as well as an artichoke, because of its mild taste. The French referred to the tubers as Topinambur (a term used for an uncouth, uneducated person, by the way), and they began cultivating sunchokes because it was an easy plant to grow and was also good for livestock feed.
Meanwhile, the early Italian settlers who found the plant growing here began calling it simply “girasole articiocco” for artichoke and flower that turns toward the sun. The English settlers may have corrupted the pronunciation of the girasole to Jerusalem and artichoke because that was the word that described the edible bulb. For many years, the Jerusalem artichoke was shunned due to an old wives’ tale linking it to leprosy because the tubers are shaped like the deformed fingers caused by the disease.
To make matters more interesting, the official name for this plant occurred in the 1730s when all things botanical were given proper names and classified by Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus. Thus, the “sunchoke-Jerusalem artichoke-Topinambur” was most recently christened Helianthus tuberosus, and all of its related 200 species were carefully noted. However, it would take years before this news was relayed around the world.
Sunchokes arrived in Germany about the same time in the 1700s and took root almost immediately with the invention of a new alcoholic beverage fondly known in the Black Forest region by the French name “Topinambur,” “Topi” or “Rossler.” By the end of the 19th century, Jerusalem artichokes were cultivated in Baden-Wurttemberg to a 90 percent production for Jerusalem artichoke brandy. It is said that 100 varieties of products were derived from these plants, not only to make alcohol, but in many commercial products such as herbicide and a fructose source.
During World War II, sunchokes and rutabagas were the most widespread cultivated of all vegetables to feed the hungry, giving them the reputation as a poor man’s vegetable. The sunchoke became further ostracized in some areas in the United States, being relegated as a lowly, pernicious weed.
Helianthus tuberosus is often mistaken for the true sunflower and the most common of all, the Helianthus annuus, which is almost identical in the way it grows. They have almost identical small yellow flowers with a cone-shaped central disk and opposite, toothed, hairy stems and leaves, but it has no root tubers.
At first glance, this also looks very similar to its slightly more attractive cousin, Heliopsis, a very popular cultivated sunflower grown for ornamental garden planting. These have similar yellow to orange blooms and sometimes have a double-rayed sunflower. One cultivar, Ballerina, grows just 3 feet tall and is the darling of many formal gardens due to its easy care and long-lasting cut flowers.
Helianthus tuberosus is sometimes mistaken for Sneezeweed, Helenium autumnale. Here is another tallish yellow daisy-like plant that blooms in late summer. But look closely at its petals to see whether they are toothed; the centers are also much larger, more rounded and many are a dark purple color. (Poor Sneezeweed is so misunderstood; it does not make you sneeze but the leaves were once used to make snuff.)
There are 52 species of sunflower from the Asteracae genus, all of which are native to North America. This perennial sunflower is not as popular for gardens due to their tendency to grow 6 to 10 feet tall (or higher) in large clumps, spreading rapidly. It does well in clay soil and could be used as a great background planting if you give them plenty of room. Like all sunflowers, these plants are a primary support for wild birds, bees and butterflies, so use of herbicides and pesticides is not recommended. Use a shovel for removal.
The tubers are gnarled like ginger roots and are typically about 3 inches long. They contain some protein, no oil, and it has a surprising lack of starch. Jerusalem artichokes are said to have an underlying sweet taste because of the fructose, but they mostly taste like water chestnuts. The ones I tasted were bitter, like a parsnip.
To get Jerusalem artichokes with big roots, give plants the longest growing season possible. After the first year, small tubers you missed while harvesting will usually shoot up sufficient plants to form a good crop. Jerusalem artichokes are dug in late fall, at least two weeks after the first hard freeze. Tubers can sometimes be hiding up to a foot deep. To keep plants from becoming invasive, lop off their yellow blossoms in summer and enjoy them as cut flowers. With their flowers removed, the plants will use their late-season energy to grow plump roots instead of producing seeds that will shed all over your garden.
Call it Earth artichoke, earth apple, earth pear, earthshocks, earth sunflower, eternity potato, Indian tuber, Jerusalem artichoke, small sunflower, tuber sunflower, sugar potato, early sunflower, false sunflower or lambchoke, this is one steadfast plant that will grow taller than corn, never gets diseased, and is extremely vigorous and will compete with your worst weeds. This sunflower is completely edible, has bright and beautiful flowers, and attracts songbirds. Combined with a rich history and native origin, you gotta love it.
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What's Next
Disruptive technologies are those that change not just business but society. Personal computers threw the mainframe-computer business for a loop. Airlines replaced passenger trains. HMOs became an alternative to the family doctor. In all these cases, the computer, transportation, and health-care moguls of the time didn't view the new entrants as real competition, but rather as gimmicks, flukes, toys. And the new entrants were, in their early incarnation, inferior to the technology they replaced. But they appealed to some groups of consumers enough so that they came to compete with, and eventually surpass, the previous technologies. And this is what is happening right now with wireless networking, which promises to change forever the computing and communication industries, creating a lot of business opportunity as it does so.
Wireless networking in this context means strictly unlicensed digital communication using radio signals. That eliminates cellular and other mobile-data networks, which are typically owned by phone companies. What it includes is an unlicensed technology generally known as "WiFi," because people don't want to say "IEEE 802.11a, b, and g."
WiFi exists primarily thanks to Apple Computer, which years ago proposed to the Federal Communications Commission that certain radio frequencies in the 2.4 to 5.8 gigahertz range be allocated for unlicensed data communication. Today those frequencies are available for people to do pretty much anything as long as they stay below a certain power output and make nice-nice with the neighbors. Apple intended to use the frequencies for wireless local area networks and introduced its AirPort product line several years ago to do just that. AirPort allowed computers to link with one another within a radius of 50 meters, sharing data at speeds up to 11 megabits per second.
AirPort wasn't disruptive; it was convenient. It was a clever idea that appeared to pose no threat at all to the communications-infrastructure players. What threat could be posed by a 100-meter network? But there is power, real power, in WiFi's unlicensed nature. As long as users didn't break the FCC rules on Effective Radiated Power (four watts max), they could do anything, and this was very attractive to experimenters, who came up with all sorts of WiFi-based business ideas, two of which eventually stuck. The first great idea was the so-called hot spot, a WiFi access point connected to the Internet that allowed those nearby to make a wireless connection to read their e-mail or look at dirty pictures while they drank coffee. Devised in the Internet's heyday, the not-very-well-thought-out idea was that people who could go online would buy more coffee and pay some sort of fee for access.
Companies you have never heard of are creating networks of hot spots in restaurants, in airports, on trains.
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Stress, anxiety and depression
Moodzone logo
What is a panic attack?
Panic attacks: Colin's story
Media last reviewed: 07/05/2013
Next review due: 07/05/2015
Panic symptoms in mind and body
Panic attacks usually last between five and 20 minutes, and although it may feel as though you are in serious trouble, they aren't dangerous and shouldn't cause any physical harm. It is unlikely you will be admitted to hospital if you have a panic attack.
You may feel an overwhelming sense of fear and a sense of unreality, as if you’re detached from the world around you.
As well as psychological symptoms, you may also experience physical symptoms of panic, such as:
• a sensation that your heart is beating irregularly (palpitations)
• sweating
• trembling
• shortness of breath
• a choking sensation
• chest pain
• feeling sick
The physical symptoms of a panic attack are caused by your body going into "fight or flight" mode in response to something you think is a threat. As your body tries to take in more oxygen your breathing quickens. Your body also releases hormones, such as adrenaline, causing your heart to beat faster and your muscles to tense up.
Trying to slow your breathing may help in panic attacks
If you’re breathing quickly during a panic attack, slowing this down can ease your other symptoms. Here are some things you can try:
• Breathe in deeply through your nose.
• Breathe out slowly through your mouth.
• Focus your thinking on the word "calm".
Keep calm and concentrate on your breathing. You should start to feel better as the level of carbon dioxide in your blood returns to normal, although you may feel tired afterwards.
Should you see your doctor about panic attacks?
A panic attack can make you feel like you’re about to die but it's usually harmless once the symptoms pass. However, in some cases, you may need medical advice to rule out an underlying physical cause.
Seek medical advice if:
• Your panic attack continues after following these breathing techniques for 20 minutes.
• You still feel unwell after your breathing returns to normal.
• You still have a rapid or irregular heartbeat or chest pains after your panic attack.
• You regularly have panic attacks, as this could be a sign that you have panic disorder.
Avoiding panic attacks
The following practical suggestions may help prevent panic attacks:
Page last reviewed: 11/12/2013
Next review due: 11/12/2015
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SweetEx said on 11 October 2014
I suffered with Panic Attacks for a long time. They feel 'real', they are terrifying and it's hard because you feel so alone. I was admitted to hospital as an emergency, several times, because I felt so ill and I looked so ill!
I got over Panic Attacks because I learnt how to control them. When I can feel one coming on, I use breathing techniques to calm me down. It does work!
You know what, I feel silly now, because I let my senses run my brain and body!!
I am the one now in control.
And I will tell you what, it's a nice feeling - being in control.
One tip though - if you are that kind of a sensitive person that might succumb to panic attacks, I would suggest, not getting hung over or taking drugs. It's a case of mind over matter and harder to do when you feel 'fuzzy'.
So go easy on yourself.
Much Love.
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Dealing with panic attacks
Anxious? Dizzy? Confused? You could be experiencing a panic attack. Read about the symptoms and get practical tips on how to cope with a panic attack
Moodzone: Panic attacks
Media last reviewed: 14/02/2013
Next review due: 14/02/2015
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Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus in Children and Adolescents: Part 1, Overview and Diagnosis
Case: A 15-month-old boy is brought to his family practitioner’s office for evaluation of severe candidiasis in his diaper region that has been present for the past 2 weeks. His mother has used over-the-counter barrier creams, but the condition has not resolved. In addition to her concern about the rash, the mother also notes that he has been irritable with his voids, and she thinks he may have dysuria. Questioning reveals a 1-week history of increased wet diapers at night that soak the bed, increased thirst, weight loss, and decreased energy. The child is otherwise healthy; he has no history of medical problems and currently takes no medications. What investigations should be included in the workup?
Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is the most common endocrine problem seen in children and adolescents. T1DM is the result of immune-mediated destruction of pancreatic cells; it involves the formation of autoantibodies against insulin and various enzymes and results in an inability to produce insulin.1 Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), in contrast, is associated with insulin resistance and obesity.2 T1DM is more common in children than T2DM, although the incidence of T2DM in children is currently increasing in association with the increase in childhood obesity.3 Family physicians and general pediatricians are often responsible for making the initial diagnosis of T1DM in children and then for treating the disease in these patients. In this article, we review the epidemiology and diagnosis of pediatric T1DM. In Part 2 of this article (on page 69 of this issue), we will focus on the management of T1DM in children and adolescents.
The incidence of T1DM in children varies widely. It is higher in Caucasian populations and in populations at a distance from the equator.4 For the years 1990 to 1994, the countries that had the highest incidence rates of T1DM in children 14 years or younger were Finland, with 36.5 per 100,000 per year; Sweden, with 27.5 per 100,000 per year; Canada (Prince Edward Island), with 24.5 per 100,000 per year; and Norway (8 counties), with 21.2 per 100,000 per year.4 China and South America had the lowest incidence rates: less than 1 per 100,000 per year.4 In the United States, the incidence rate has been reported as between 11.7 and 17.8 per 100,000 per year.4
There is evidence that in younger populations the incidence of T1DM may be increasing. In a study of children younger than 15 years, the overall incidence of T1DM from 1990 to 1999 was found to have increased by 3.6% per year in peninsular Italy and by 3.7% per year in Sardegna.5 In the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland, Canada, the incidence of T1DM was found to have increased at a rate of 1.25 per 100,000 per year from 1987 to 2002.6
Interestingly, in a Swedish study of persons from a wider age-range (0 to 34 years), covering the period from 1983 to 1998, there was no overall increase in T1DM incidence but rather a shift to a younger age at diagnosis.7 The incidence of T1DM increased over time in children younger than 14 years but decreased in persons in older age-groups.7 This may suggest that the disease develops earlier in persons at risk than it did in the past. It is unclear at the present time what specific factors are responsible for the increase in incidence of T1DM in younger patients. Genetic factors or environmental factors—such as pollution, viruses, toxins, or lifestyle habits—may be responsible.1,8,9
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How the web found its voice
During the heady height of the dotcom boom, one of the supposed great leaps forward that received the puff of the PRs was the ability to use the internet to make phone calls. This is going to change the world as we know it, the press releases shouted, BT beware: making calls over the web is free. But the bubble burst, the money that telecoms companies could throw at new ideas evaporated and silence descended.
Well, brace yourselves because web-calling is back. Normally sober executives are talking about VoIP - pronounced as one word so it sounds like some form of sickly yogurt drink - and how it will affect consumers, in excited tones.
But let's get a few things straight right now. For most of us, this is not going to turn our world upside down. What it will do, however, is change the competitive landscape in communications, which (hopefully) will lead to cheaper calls for all of us in the long run.
Internet telephony is the process of converting phone calls into the language of the internet or internet protocol. Hence voice over IP or VoIP. Already used by businesses, it is especially suitable for companies who pay a communications provider for a virtual private network - a bit like having your own walled-off section of the internet - so they can contact branches or factories, or centrally collect data from stores. Plugging VoIP technology into such a system, allowing voice communication between parts of the business on that network for no extra charge, is fairly simple.
As for consumers, the problem up to now has been that last bit of pipe that connects to your house, which still uses the basic phone system. Traditional phone technology is startlingly inefficient: every time you make a call the line has to stay open at both ends, using capacity even when nothing is being said. On the plus side your phone company knows how long the call is and can bill it accordingly. On the downside the phone company must have enough lines for everyone.
IP, in contrast, slices and dices the call when someone has something to say, routing each individual "packet" of data to its destination. Packets from several different calls use the same capacity as one traditional end to end call - making it much cheaper.
So why are people getting excited about VoIP now? The simple answer is that the take-up of broadband by residential customers has finally produced a significant enough potential customer base to make it workable.
The nirvana of VoIP is a call that starts using IP, is carried over the internet, and terminates using IP. Once you have the software on your computer, a microphone and speaker in your PC, all calls are free. Over four million people have already plugged into Skype - from the peer-to-peer specialists who brought us Kazaa - to do just this.
The problem is you can only call people with the same technology and you don't get to use your home phone number.
This is no problem for teenagers who spend a lot of time online and want to talk to their friends.
As a word of warning, however, the quality will not be great because of the way that traditional phone lines have been tweaked to provide broadband - but it is free. Hopefully next year the quality will improve as BT is forced to offer its rivals more than just one sort of broadband line (think SDSL rather than ADSL).
But for the rest of us this sort of service is best kept for calling relatives in far flung places at pre-arranged times. In fact, BT is going to suggest we start seeing as well as talking to them early in the new year.
So, companies such as Vonage and Net2Phone in the US have created services that do connect with the traditional phone network. Phone numbers stay the same but the operators have to pay the local phone companies an interconnection charge every time their calls end up on a traditional phone network.
As a result these companies have to charge a flat monthly fee for a voice telephony package. Who else sells services on a monthly flat-rate basis? ISPs. They are becoming increasingly interested in using the technology so they can bundle voice calls in with their existing broadband packages and squeeze BT out of the home market.
On the face of it, that's a revolution. But we already have a flat-rate call package in the UK. It's called BT Together.
VoIP is exciting, but keep your pants on.
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Back to Home Page or Contents or Native American or Article Index
Sun Dance, The
Before it was forbidden the annual Sun Dance was held by many American Native tribes, practically all of the Plains Indian tribes. It was performed in the summer, usually in late July or early August, after the buffalo hunts. The Christian missionaries along with the federal government sought to prohibit the dance after seeing of the practices that were executed in the ceremony, especially the piercing of the young men's chests. This to them was brutal torture because they failed to comprehend the spiritual significance of the practices and the dance. Some of the practices were banned in Canada in 1880 and the dance in the United States in 1904.
The Sun Dance ceremony has both spiritual and physical significance for the individual dancer, traditionally male but presently females are included in some tribes but do not undergo piercing, and his community. Some ceremonies include a Sweat Lodge ceremony usually the night before the dance. The dance ceremony itself lasted from eight to four days, currently fours days is the custom. Sometimes there was fasting before the dance, now this fasting from food and liquid typically occurs within the four days of the dance. The dance may be performed indoors or outdoor depending on tribal tradition. Dancers dance to drum beat and singing in a circle while facing a center pole, often a tree such as the cottonwood. This is just the physical description of the ceremony.
The spiritual aspect of the Sun Dance ceremony is the most important part both for the dancer and the community. For the dancer his participation represents a quest for spiritual power, a purification, and a communion, or at least an attempted communion, with the Great Spirit. For instance, this is the reason the cottonwood tree is freshly cut prior to some ceremonies and ceremoniously raised in the center of the dancing circle; the tree represents the Great Spirit, the Provider of All. All of the suffering and pain which the individual dancers endure during the ceremony is not dedicated to the tree itself, but to the Great Spirit. Each participating dancer seeks his own "medicine power" sometimes with only a minor direction from the Sun Dance Chief or leader. This is so because during the dance the spiritual relationship, which includes the power, purification, and communion, between the dancer and the Great Spirit is purely individualistic. Therefore the individual seeks through his efforts to be purified so his communion with the Spirit will be more intense. Frequently visions are seen which help the individual during the dance and throughout his life. These visions can be very powerful when having special meaning for the individual.
Usually the piercing of the individual dancer, those choosing to be pierced, takes place on the fourth or last day, this is a most grueling experience. As previously mentioned this piercing activity was one reason why the Sun Dance was prohibited. The act itself has changed from the way it was formerly done. The following describes a Sioux piercing ritual witnessed in the 1800s:
Each young man presented himself to the medicine man, who took between his thumb and forefinger a fold of the loose skin of the breast-and then ran a very narrow-bladed but sharp knife through the skin-a stronger skewer of bone, about the size of a carpenter's pencil was inserted. This was tied to a long skin rope fastened, at its other extremity, to the top of the sun-pole in the center of the arena. The whole object of the devotee is to break loose from these fetters. To liberate himself he must tear the skewers through the skin, a horrible task that even with the most resolute may require many hours of torture.
For those not understanding the ritual a common answer rendered was that this was a flesh offering given as a part a prayer.
The Sun Dance is again legal through the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978*, which President Jimmy Carter signed into law. This legislation granted the American Natives the right to practice their traditional religious ceremonies.
A Sweat Lodge ceremony is usually held for the male dancers on the evening previous to the Sun Dance. Generally the ceremony brings forth a reinstatement of the pledgers who are to be pierced on the fourth day. The female dancers hold their Sweat Lodger ceremonies the morning of the dance.
Currently the first of several rituals that comprise the total Sun Dance ceremony is the tree cutting and raising ritual, as previously mentioned, on the day before the dance. The tree is ceremoniously decorated before being placed in the hole in the center of the Sun Dance arena which had been dug for it. Preceding the placement of the tree, a peace pipe is placed in the hole representing the buffalo tallow that was once placed there acknowledging the rich provisions given by the buffalo to the people. Now the tree is raised.
The ceremonial procession is led by the Sun Dance chief, followed by the holy men, and then a man carrying a buffalo skull. This begins the Sun Dance. There is no rehearsal because the Sun Dance is an annual thanksgiving to the Great Spirit and to all of the powers between the breathing ones and Wakan Tanka.
In the opening ritual a woman usually enters the arena and dances full circle around the tree and then rejoins the rest of the dancers who then may enter the arena, stopping at each direction, east, south, west, and north, to pay homage to the powers of the four directions. Then a holy man or woman addresses the crowd to tell the way of the Sun Dance and to impart a message of tribal morals and values. Then there is the summoned for the dancers to present their pipes. These events are generally finished during the morning. Afterwards the dancers rest and fast in their tipis. While they do this the second important part of the ceremony occurs, the socialization of the tribe: fancy dancing and powwow dancing occurs in the afternoon and evening, especially on the third night when powwow dancers dressed in their traditional costumes fill the arena. Usually the first three days of the dance are similar except each day the audience increases so by the fourth day it may number hundreds or thousands of people.
If piercing takes place it occurs on the fourth and final day. The day normally begins as the previous three have: following the facing of the four directions and serious contemplation on the six powers of the universe, the four directions or winds, Mother Earth, and Father Sky (Sioux tradition), those who are to be pierced are led to a bed of sage beneath the cottonwood tree. The holy men have drawn signs on their chests and backs. As the men lay on the sage looking up at the tree ceremoniously decorated they strain not to quiver or move a muscle as the blade or sharp skewer pierces the chest sensing the old warrior linage is still in them. The holy man bends over the man, both know this will hurt him just as much as it will the participant because his is the medicine way, to heal, not to hurt someone. The holy man makes two parallel cuts on the chest and thrusts the awl into the first and out the second.
In a Sioux ceremony, women dancers are never pierced because according to the Sioux religion the woman is recognized as already having endured her pain in childbirth. This pain is considered greater than any faced during the Sun Dance because bearing children may cause women to die and certainly facing death is considered the greatest challenge.
Before the incisions are made the man holds up the wooden peg which he is holding to signify to the holy that he is ready. During the piercing the man thinks of the tree, realizing that it is a tee of life, without it and others like it man could not live on Earth. He also concentrates on its decorations symbolizing the powers of the four directions, the red, yellow, black, and white banners, plus the green and blue ones for Mother Earth and Father Sky. This concentration also takes the man's attention off of the excruciation pain that he is enduring and will endure when the holy man inserts the peg, which is more painful that the insertion of the awl. To the protruding end of the peg the holy man attaches a rope fasten by a thong. This signifies the umbilical cord which attaches the man to his mother, Mother Earth.
The man is then helped to his feet by an assistant and a wreath of sage with two spiked feathers is placed on his head. The man adjusts the wreath fully realizing the badge of honor which has just been bestowed upon him. Carefully holding onto the rope he takes his position again in the Sun Dance, and gradually eases the weight of the rope onto the pain in his chest as he begins dancing again.
The final movements of the Sun Dance include the inward dancing of the dancers. At the direction of the Sun Dance chief the dancers, including those who were pierced, moved toward the tree four times, each time touching the tree with their palms. This is the powerful moment when the tribe is deep in prayer; the prayers becomes a spiritual wind sweeping down and over the backs of the Sun Dancers penetrating in them, trough their arms and hands, into the tree and upward to the ultimate powers and to Wakan Tanka.
Following the fourth touching of the tree, the dancers lean back against the ropes. They are now free to seek their Sun Dance vision. Simultaneously the tribe, the entire audience, is seeking its vision. This is the essence, the heart, of the Sun Dance, which is the gathering of the tribe, the band, the gathered Tiyospaye, acknowledging the spiritual and physical relationship to all that is the cante, that is, the essence of survival.
After all the dancers have finished their connection with the tree of life they gather by the Sun Dance chief who leads them from the circle which ends the dance. Then they are met by the shaking of their hands by the people who shower the men and women their appreciation for they know their spiritual tradition had once again been renewed. A.G.H.
*American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 <See:>.
McGaa, Ed, "Eagle Man." "The Sioux Sun Dance."Mother Earth Spirituality. New York. HarperCollins. 1990
Sun Dance. <>.
The Ute Sundance. <>.
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Canku Ota
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(Many Paths)
An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America
November 3, 2001 - Issue 48
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Grandmother Spider Steals the Fire
Mississippi Choctaw Legend
Print and Color Your Own Grandmother Spider
Grandmother Spider
Golden Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia)
Grandmother Spider, who weaves existence together like great strands of a web, is an important symbol to many American Indian People. Learning the stories of Grandmother Spider can help one understand that we are all connected. By dishonoring one, we dishonor ourselves.
The 1 1/8-inch long golden garden spider, Argiope aurantia, is one species of argiope orb weavers. The adult female is predominately black with yellow or orange markings on the abdomen, and circular bands of yellow evident on the legs.
Range and Habitat
This species can be found throughout the United States and southern Canada. They construct large orb webs between shrubs or herbaceous vegetation, spinning homes that may reach a diameter of 2 feet, although they seem much larger to the gardener who walks into one. Silk support strands maintain the shape of the web while sticky spirals of silk are used to capture prey. Displayed in the center of the orb is a zigzag pattern of heavy silk that adds strength to the web, helps to camouflage the similarly designed spider, and may even be of value in attracting insects to the web.
Spider webs are truly miracles of engineering, as well as beautifully designed artworks. Orb-building spiders begin their webs with a central hub . The hub is surrounded by a 'free zone', in which the spider can move around unhampered by intricate spiralling threads. From the hub come 25 to 30 dry radial threads, which connect to strong frame threads around the outer perimeter of the web. Spiralling threads go from outside of the free zone to the edge of the web, and sticky threads, running from the outside to the free zone, are spun last and coated with sticky droplets. The spider waits in the center of the web until a careless insect becomes caught in the sticky threads, and then she runs to wrap it up and paralyze it, storing it for future use.
Natural History
The female golden garden spider sits in the center of the web during the day, holding the end of her abdomen upward and aiming her eyes and mouth-parts downward. She also places her legs together in pairs, which gives the appearance of four legs instead of the legal limit of eight. When disturbed, the spider will vibrate the silk orb, giving the appearance of a larger, more threatening foe. If this doesn't work, she will drop to the ground and hide.
The much smaller male spider, in the short time he is around, builds a rather unimpressive web at the outer edge of the female's. He feeds and waits until his mate is receptive, at which point he fulfills his duties and is probably devoured for his efforts.
In late summer and fall, the mature female spends most of her time feeding on any insect tangled in her web; she prefers larger prey, especially grasshoppers. Egg sacs are produced in late fall, and the soon-hatched spiders remain protected within the sac until spring, when they emerge and disperse.
Golden Garden Spider
These spiders occur from southern Canada throughout the lower 48 United States$narrative.html
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Skip to definition.
Noun: buzzard bú-zu(r)d
1. [N. Amer] A New World vulture that is common in South America and Central America and the southern United States
- turkey buzzard, turkey vulture, Cathartes aura
2. The common European short-winged hawk
- Buteo buteo
Derived forms: buzzards
Type of: cathartid, hawk, New World vulture
Part of: Buteo, Cathartes, genus Buteo, genus Cathartes
Encyclopedia: Buzzard
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Political Ideals/Chapter 1
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Political Ideals by Bertrand Russell
Chapter I: Political Ideals
IN dark days, men need a clear faith and a well-grounded hope; and as the outcome of these, the calm courage which takes no account of hardships by the way. The times through which we are passing have afforded to many of us a confirmation of our faith. We see that the things we had thought evil are really evil, and we know more definitely than we ever did before the directions in which men must move if a better world is to arise on the ruins of the one which is now hurling itself into destruction. We see that men's political dealings with one another are based on wholly wrong ideals, and can only be saved by quite different ideals from continuing to be a source of suffering, devastation, and sin.
Political ideals must be based upon ideals for the individual life. The aim of politics should be to make the lives of individuals as good as possible. There is nothing for the politician to consider outside or above the various men, women, and children who compose the world. The problem of politics is to adjust the relations of human beings in such a way that each severally may have as much of good in his existence as possible. And this problem requires that we should first consider what it is that we think good in the individual life.
To begin with, we do not want all men to be alike. We do not want to lay down a pattern or type to which men of all sorts are to be made by some means or another to approximate. This is the ideal of the impatient administrator. A bad teacher will aim at imposing his opinion, and turning out a set of pupils all of whom will give the same definite answer on a doubtful point. Mr. Bernard Shaw is said to hold that Troilus and Cressida is the best of Shakespeare's plays. Although I disagree with this opinion, I should welcome it in a pupil as a sign of individuality; but most teachers would not tolerate such a heterodox view. Not only teachers, but all commonplace persons in authority, desire in their subordinates that kind of uniformity which makes their actions easily predictable and never inconvenient. The result is that they crush initiative and individuality when they can, and when they cannot, they quarrel with it.
It is not one ideal for all men, but a separate ideal for each separate man, that has to be realized if possible. Every man has it in his being Co develop into something good or bad: there is a best possible for him, and a worst possible. His circumstances will determine whether his capacities for good are developed or crushed, and whether his bad impulses are strengthened or gradually diverted into better channels.
But although we cannot set up in any detail an ideal of character which is to be universally applicable—although we cannot say, for instance, that all men ought to be industrious, or self-sacrificing, or fond of music—there are some broad principles which can be used to guide our estimates as to what is possible or desirable.
We may distinguish two sorts of goods, and two corresponding sorts of impulses. There are goods in regard to which individual possession is possible, and there are goods in which all can share alike. The food and clothing of one man is not the food and clothing of another; if the supply is insufficient, what one man has is obtained at the expense of some other man. This applies to material goods generally, and therefore to the greater part of the present economic life of the world. On the other hand, mental and spiritual goods do not belong to one man to the exclusion of another. If one man knows a science, that does not prevent others from knowing it; on the contrary, it helps them to acquire the knowledge. If one man is a great artist or poet, that does not prevent others from painting pictures or writing poems, but helps to create the atmosphere in which such things are possible. If one man is full of good-will toward others, that does not mean that there is less good-will to be shared among the rest; the more good-will one man has, the more he is likely to create among others. In such matters there is no possession, because there is not a definite amount to be shared; any increase anywhere tends to produce an increase everywhere.
The best life is the one in which the creative impulses play the largest part and the possessive impulses the smallest. This is no new discovery. The Gospel says: "Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?" The thought we give to these things is taken away from matters of more importance. And what is worse, the habit of mind engendered by thinking of these things is a bad one; it leads to competition, envy, domination, cruelty, and almost all the moral evils that infest the world. In particular, it leads to the predatory use of force. Material possessions can be taken by force and enjoyed by the robber. Spiritual possessions cannot be taken in this way. You may kill an artist or a thinker, but you cannot acquire his art or his thought. You may put a man to death because he loves his fellowmen, but you will not by so doing acquire the love which made his happiness. Force is impotent in such matters; it is only as regards material goods that it is effective. For this reason the men who believe in force are the men whose thoughts and desires are preoccupied with material goods.
The possessive impulses, when they are strong, infect activities which ought to be purely creative. A man who has made some valuable discovery may be filled with jealousy of a rival discoverer. If one man has found a cure for cancer and another has found a cure for consumption, one of them may be delighted if the other man's discovery turns out a mistake, instead of regretting the suffering of patients which would otherwise have been avoided. In such cases, instead of desiring knowledge for its own sake, or for the sake of its usefulness, a man is desiring it as a means to reputation. Every creative impulse is shadowed by a possessive impulse; even the aspirant to saintliness may be jealous of the more successful saint. Most affection is accompanied by some tinge of jealousy, which is a possessive impulse intruding into the creative region. Worst of all, in this direction, is the sheer envy of those who have missed everything worth having in life, and who are instinctively bent on preventing others from enjoying what they have not had. There is often much of this in the attitude of the old toward the young.
There is in human beings, as in plants and animals, a certain natural impulse of growth, and this is just as true of mental as of physical development. Physical development is helped by air and nourishment and exercise, and may be hindered by the sort of treatment which made Chinese women's feet small. In just the same way mental development may be helped or hindered by outside influences. The outside influences that help are those that merely provide encouragement or mental food or opportunities for exercising mental faculties. The influences that hinder are those that interfere with growth by applying any kind of force, whether discipline or authority or fear or the tyranny of public opinion or the necessity of engaging in some totally incongenial occupation. Worst of all influences are those that thwart or twist a man's fundamental impulse, which is what shows itself as conscience in the moral sphere; such influences are likely to do a man an inward danger from which he will never recover.
Those who realize the harm that can be done to others by any use of force against them, and the worthlessness of the goods that can be acquired by force, will be very full of respect for the liberty of others; they will not try to bind them or fetter them; they will be slow to judge and swift to sympathize; they will treat every human being with a kind of tenderness, because the principle of good in him is at once fragile and infinitely precious. They will not condemn those who are unlike themselves; they will know and feel that individuality brings differences and uniformity means death. They will wish each human being to be as much a living thing and as little a mechanical product as it is possible to be; they will cherish in each one just those things which the harsh usage of a ruthless world would destroy. In one word, all their dealings with others will be inspired by a deep impulse of reverence.
What we shall desire for individuals is now clear: strong creative impulses, overpowering and absorbing the instinct of possession; reverence for others; respect for the fundamental creative impulse in ourselves. A certain kind of self-respect or native pride is necessary to a good life; a man must not have a sense of utter inward defeat if he is to remain whole, but must feel the courage and the hope and the will to live by the best that is in him, whatever outward or inward obstacles it may encounter. So far as it lies in a man's own power, his life will realize its best possibilities if it has three things: creative rather than possessive impulses, reverence for others, and respect for the fundamental impulse in himself.
Political and social institutions are to be judged by the good or harm that they do to individuals. Do they encourage creativeness rather than possessiveness? Do they embody or promote a spirit of reverence between human beings? Do they preserve self-respect?
In all these ways the institutions under which we live are very far indeed from what they ought to be.
Institutions, and especially economic systems, have a profound influence in molding the characters of men and women. They may encourage adventure and hope, or timidity and the pursuit of safety. They may open men's minds to great possibilities, or close them against everything but the risk of obscure misfortune. They may make a man's happiness depend upon what he adds to the general possessions of the world, or upon what he can secure for himself of the private goods in which others cannot share. Modern capitalism forces the wrong decision of these alternatives upon all who are not heroic or exceptionally fortunate.
Men's impulses are molded, partly by their native disposition, partly by opportunity and environment, especially early environment. Direct preaching can do very little to change impulses, though it can lead people to restrain the direct expression of them, often with the result that the impulses go underground and come to the surface again in some contorted form. When we have discovered what kinds of impulse we desire, we must not rest content with preaching, or with trying to produce the outward manifestation without the inner spring; we must try rather to alter institutions in the way that will, of itself, modify the life of impulse in the desired direction.
At present our institutions rest upon two things: property and power. Both of these are very unjustly distributed; both, in the actual world, are of great importance to the happiness of the individual. Both are possessive goods; yet without them many of the goods in which all might share are hard to acquire as things are now.
Without property, as things are, a man has no freedom, and no security for the necessities of a tolerable life; without power, he has no opportunity for initiative. If men are to have free play for their creative impulses, they must be liberated from sordid cares by a certain measure of security, and they must have a sufficient share of power to be able to exercise initiative as regards the course and conditions of their lives.
Few men can succeed in being creative rather than possessive in a world which is wholly built on competition, where the great majority would fall into utter destitution if they became careless as to the acquisition of material goods, where honor and power and respect are given to wealth rather than to wisdom, where the law embodies and consecrates the injustice of those who have toward those who have not. In such an environment even those whom nature has endowed with great creative gifts become infected with the poison of competition. Men combine in groups to attain more strength in the scramble for material goods, and loyalty to the group spreads a halo of quasi-idealism round the central impulse of greed. Trade-unions and the Labor party are no more exempt from this vice than other parties and other sections of society; though they are largely inspired by the hope of a radically better world. They are too often led astray by the immediate object of securing for themselves a large share of material goods. That this desire is in accordance with justice, it is impossible to deny; but something larger and more constructive is needed as a political ideal, if the victors of to-morrow are not to become the oppressors of the day after. The inspiration and outcome of a reforming movement ought to be freedom and a generous spirit, not niggling restrictions and regulations.
The present economic system concentrates initiative in the hands of a small number of very rich men. Those who are not capitalists have, almost always, very little choice as to their activities when once they have selected a trade or profession; they are not part of the power that moves the mechanism, but only a passive portion of the machinery. Despite political democracy, there is still an extraordinary degree of difference in the power of self-direction belonging to a capitalist and to a man who has to earn his living. Economic affairs touch men's lives, at most times, much more intimately than political questions. At present the man who has no capital usually has to sell himself to some large organization, such as a railway company, for example. He has no voice in its management, and no liberty in politics except what his trade-union can secure for him. If he happens to desire a form of liberty which is not thought important by his trade-union, he is powerless; he must submit or starve.
Exactly the same thing happens to professional men. Probably a majority of journalists are engaged in writing for newspapers whose politics they disagree with; only a man of wealth can own a large newspaper, and only an accident can enable the point of view or the interests of those who are not wealthy to find expression in a newspaper. A large part of the best brains of the country are in the civil service, where the condition of their employment is silence about the evils which cannot be concealed from them. A Nonconformist minister loses his livelihood if his views displease his congregation; a member of Parliament loses his seat if he is not sufficiently supple or sufficiently stupid to follow or share all the turns and twists of public opinion. In every walk of life, independence of mind is punished by failure, more and more as economic organizations grow larger and more rigid. Is it surprising that men become increasingly docile, increasingly ready to submit to dictation and to forego the right of thinking for themselves? Yet along such lines civilization can only sink into a Byzantine immobility.
Fear of destitution is not a motive out of which a free creative life can grow, yet it is the chief motive which inspires the daily work of most wage-earners. The hope of possessing more wealth and power than any man ought to have, which is the corresponding motive of the rich, is quite as bad in its effects; it compels men to close their minds against justice, and to prevent themselves from thinking honestly on social questions, while in the depths of their hearts they uneasily feel that their pleasures are bought by the miseries of others. The injustices of destitution and wealth alike ought to be rendered impossible. Then a great fear would be removed from the lives of the many, and hope would have to take on a better form in the lives of the few.
But security and liberty are only the negative conditions for good political institutions. When they have been won, we need also the positive condition: encouragement of creative energy. Security alone might produce a smug and stationary society; it demands creativeness as its counterpart, in order to keep alive the adventure and interest of life, and the movement toward perpetually new and better things. There can be no final goal for human institutions; the best are those that most encourage progress toward others still better. Without effort and change, human life cannot remain good. It is not a finished Utopia that we ought to desire, but a world where imagination and hope are alive and active.
It is a sad evidence of the weariness mankind has suffered from excessive toil that his heavens have usually been places where nothing ever happened or changed. Fatigue produces the illusion that only rest is needed for happiness; but when men have rested for a time, boredom drives them to renewed activity. For this reason, a happy life must be one in which there is activity. If it is also to be a useful life, the activity ought to be as far as possible creative, not merely predatory or defensive. But creative activity requires imagination and originality, which are apt to be subversive of the status quo. At present, those who have power dread a disturbance of the status quo, lest their unjust privileges should be taken away. In combination with the instinct for conventionality,[1] which man shares with the other gregarious animals, those who profit by the existing order have established a system which punishes originality and starves imagination from the moment of first going to school down to the time of death and burial. The whole spirit in which education is conducted needs to be changed, in order that children may be encouraged to think and feel for themselves, not to acquiesce passively in the thoughts and feelings of others. It is not rewards after the event that will produce initiative, but a certain mental atmosphere. There have been times when such an atmosphere existed: the great days of Greece, and Elizabethan England, may serve as examples. But in our own day the tyranny of vast machine-like organizations, governed from above by men who know and care little for the lives of those whom they control, is killing individuality and freedom of mind, and forcing men more and more to conform to a uniform pattern.
Vast organizations are an inevitable element in modern life, and it is useless to aim at their abolition, as has been done by some reformers, for instance, William Morris. It is true that they make the preservation of individuality more difficult, but what is needed is a way of combining them with the greatest possible scope for individual initiative.
One very important step toward this end would be to render democratic the government of every organization. At present, our legislative institutions are more or less democratic, except for the important fact that women are excluded. But our administration is still purely bureaucratic, and our economic organizations are monarchical or oligarchic. Every limited liability company is run by a small number of self-appointed or coöpted directors. There can be no real freedom or democracy until the men who do the work in a business also control its management.
Another measure which would do much to increase liberty would be an increase of self-government for subordinate groups, whether geographical or economic or defined by some common belief, like religious sects. A modern state is so vast and its machinery is so little understood that even when a man has a vote he does not feel himself any effective part of the force which determines its policy. Except in matters where he can act in conjunction with an exceptionally powerful group, he feels himself almost impotent, and the government remains a remote impersonal circumstance, which must be simply endured, like the weather. By a share in the control of smaller bodies, a man might regain some of that sense of personal opportunity and responsibility which belonged to the citizen of a citystate in ancient Greece or medieval Italy.
When any group of men has a strong corporate consciousness—such as belongs, for example, to a nation or a trade or a religious body—liberty demands that it should be free to decide for itself all matters which are of great importance to the outside world. This is the basis of the universal claim for national independence. But nations are by no means the only groups which ought to have self-government for their internal concerns. And nations, like other groups, ought not to have complete liberty of action in matters which are of equal concern to foreign nations. Liberty demands self-government, but not the right to interfere with others. The greatest degree of liberty is not secured by anarchy. The reconciliation of liberty with government is a difficult problem, but it is one which any political theory must face.
The essence of government is the use of force in accordance with law to secure certain ends which the holders of power consider desirable. The coercion of an individual or a group by force is always in itself more or less harmful. But if there were no government, the result would not be an absence of force in men's relations to each other; it would merely be the exercise of force by those who had strong predatory instincts, necessitating either slavery or a perpetual readiness to repel force with force on the part of those whose instincts were less violent. This is the state of affairs at present in international relations, owing to the fact that no international government exists. The results of anarchy between states should suffice to persuade us that anarchism has no solution to offer for the evils of the world. There is probably one purpose, and only one, for which the use of force by a government is beneficent, and that is to diminish the total amount of force used in the world.
It is clear, for example, that the legal prohibition of murder diminishes the total amount of violence in the world. And no one would maintain that parents should have unlimited freedom to ill-treat their children. So long as some men wish to do violence to others, there cannot be complete liberty, for either the wish to do violence must be restrained, or the victims must be left to suffer. For this reason, although individuals and societies should have the utmost freedom as regards their own affairs, they ought not to have complete freedom as regards their dealings with others. To give freedom to the strong to oppress the weak is not the way to secure the greatest possible amount of freedom in the world. This is the basis of the socialist revolt against the kind of freedom which used to be advocated by laissez-faire economists.
Democracy is a device—the best so far invented—for diminishing as much as possible the interference of governments with liberty. If a nation is divided into two sections which cannot both have their way, democracy theoretically insures that the majority shall have their way. But democracy is not at all an adequate device unless it is accompanied by a very great amount of devolution. Love of uniformity, or the mere pleasure of interfering, or dislike of differing tastes and temperaments, may often lead a majority to control a minority in matters which do not really concern the majority. We should none of us like to have the internal affairs of Great Britain settled by a parliament of the world, if ever such a body came into existence. Nevertheless, there are matters which such a body could settle much better than any existing instrument of government.
The theory of the legitimate use of force in human affairs, where a government exists, seems clear. Force should only be used against those who attempt to use force against others, or against those who will not respect the law in cases where a common decision is necessary and a minority are opposed to the action of the majority. These seem legitimate occasions for the use of force; and they should be legitimate occasions in international affairs, if an international government existed. The problem of the legitimate occasions for the use of force in the absence of a government is a different one, with which we are not at present concerned.
Although a government must have the power to use force, and may on occasion use it legitimately, the aim of the reformers to have such institutions as will diminish the need for actual coercion will be found to have this effect. Most of us abstain, for instance, from theft, not because it is illegal, but because we feel no desire to steal. The more men learn to live creatively rather than possessively, the less their wishes will lead them to thwart others or to attempt violent interference with their liberty. Most of the conflicts of interests, which lead individuals or organizations into disputes, are purely imaginary, and would be seen to be so if men aimed more at the goods in which all can share, and less at those private possessions that are the source of strife. In proportion as men live creatively, they cease to wish to interfere with others by force. Very many matters in which, at present, common action is thought indispensable, might well be left to individual decision. It used to be thought absolutely necessary that all the inhabitants of a country should have the same religion, but we now know that there is no such necessity. In like manner it will be found, as men grow more tolerant in their instincts, that many uniformities now insisted upon are useless and even harmful.
Good political institutions would weaken the impulse toward force and domination in two ways: first, by increasing the opportunities for the creative impulses, and by shaping education so as to strengthen these impulses; secondly, by diminishing the outlets for the possessive instincts. The diffusion of power, both in the political and the economic sphere, instead of its concentration in the hands of officials and captains of industry, would greatly diminish the opportunities for acquiring the habit of command, out of which the desire for exercising tyranny is apt to spring. Autonomy, both for districts and for organizations, would leave fewer occasions when governments were called upon to make decisions as to other people's concerns. And the abolition of capitalism and the wage system would remove the chief incentive to fear and greed, those correlative passions by which all free life is choked and gagged.
Few men seem to realize how many of the evils from which we suffer are wholly unnecessary, and that they could be abolished by a united effort within a few years. If a majority in every civilized country so desired, we could, within twenty years, abolish all abject poverty, quite half the illness in the world, the whole economic slavery which binds down nine tenths of our population; we could fill the world with beauty and joy, and secure the reign of universal peace. It is only because men are apathetic that this is not achieved, only because imagination is sluggish, and what always has been is regarded as what always must be. With good-will, generosity, intelligence, these things could be brought about.
1. In England this is called "a sense of humor."
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Contents | Chronology
Volume I: Called to Serve, January 1929-June 1951
Clayborne Carson Ralph Luker, and Penny A. Russell, eds.
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992)
Volume I begins with the childhood letters Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote to his mother and father. A series of letters written while he was working at a summer job on a tobacco farm in Connecticut reveal his initial impressions of life outside the segregated South. A few years later King would refer to this time as a crucial period in his religious evolution when he "felt and inescapable urge to serve society... in a sense of responsibility which I could not escape."
As a teenager at Morehouse College, the young King initially planned to become a lawyer or physician rather than become a minister like his father. Greatly affected by the influence of Morehouse College's president Benjamin E. Mays, King described his studies at Morehouse as "very exciting". He persistently questioned literal interpretations of biblical texts and criticized traditional Baptist teachings. But by his senior year, he decided to follow his father's "noble example" into the ministry. King's continuing struggle to resolve his religious doubts is revealed in the essays and examinations written while he was at Crozer Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. The intensity of his search for a sense of theological certainty and the depth of his deliberations regarding his ultimate decision to accept his religious calling are clearly revealed. By the time he left Crozer, he had found new value in his early religious experiences and had reached enduring conclusions about his own faith.
© The Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Digitized Volume 1
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Past And Present
The earliest days of first aid
1. John Pearn, national director of training St John Ambulance Australiaa
1. a Department of Child Health, Royal Children's Hospital, Herston Qld 4029, Australia
First aid, as a profession in its own right, has a history of only 120 years. It evolved from the teachings of the Royal Humane Society and military surgeons, who saw the wisdom of training in splinting and bandaging for battlefield wounds. In 1878 two Aberdeenshire military officers, Surgeon-Major Peter Shepherd of the Royal Herbert Military Hospital, Woolwich, London, and Colonel Francis Duncan established the concept of teaching first aid skills to civilians. This radical new enterprise, conducted under the auspices of the newly formed St John Ambulance Association, was a natural evolution from the body's philanthropic and ambuance transport work. Shepherd conducted the first class in the hall of the Presbyterian school in Woolwich using a comprehensive first aid curriculum that he had developed. Within months of that first class, local Woolwich civilians used their skills when the pleasure boat Princess Alice sank in the Thames at Woolwich, killing 600 people. Within a decade, the new discipline of first aid spread rapidly throughout the world, and by the end of the 19th century, hundreds of thousands of St John first aid certificates had been awarded in four continents. Shepherd's pioneering classes changed the world's concept of the need for the provision of skilled prehospital care.
From the perspective of 20th century medicine the need for first aid training seems self evident. But first aid, as it exists today, has a history of only about 120 years. First aid comprises a series of drills and skills which have doctrinal underpinning and which require training; the procedures are constantly revised and are subject to ongoing medical audit. The discipline originated in 1878 from a pioneering and revolutionary experiment to teach members of the general public skills that had been developed for military stretcher bearers in the previous decade. This paper documents …
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Outlook: Format Email Messages
Before you begin...
Emails you send from Microsoft Outlook can be formatted using HTML, Rich Text, or Plain Text formatting. HTML and Rich Text formatting give you options to format text that are similar to other Microsoft Office programs.
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Outlook also allows you to format messages using Rich Text Format (RTF), which gives you the same control over text (for example, font, size, and color) as HTML formatting but is only readable through Outlook. When you compose an RTF email to send to non-Outlook email users, Outlook automatically converts it to HTML so those users will still be able to read the email.
Since most users on campus will not have Outlook, information technology recommends you use HTML or plain text email formatting.
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THE nineteenth century was a great era of social, political and economic reform - and that was mainly because there was so much that needed reforming in the early days of the Industrial Revolution.
People invariably suffer when their world is turned upside down. When the big fish are scrambling for profits and the Government is run by and for the aristocracy, with its base far from the center of the action, it is the little people who inevitably suffer most.
Nineteenth-century reform encompassed many subjects, from working conditions and housing to health, sanitation and parliamentary representation. The men who came forward to fight these battles were many and varied. They ranged from caring employers like David Dale and Robert Owen to firebrands like Richard Carlile and medical experts like James Phillips-Kay.
But they were all imbued with a single, burning desire - to make a harsh life slightly more tolerable for the masses.
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Falling Free Essay - Critical Essays
Bujold’s novel makes use of a number of traditional science-fiction elements, particularly the idea that expansion from Earth and colonization of planets will be possible, based on a faster-than-light (FTL) technology, with large Earth-based corporations as well as nation-states competing against one another. This galactic future has been the subject of American science fiction since the early work of Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke.
With such expansion into a frontierlike area, the question of exploitation of humans arises. Bujold’s novels are not set in a centrally controlled “galactic empire.” Instead, a number of developing colonies compete for access to wormholes and trade. Falling Free, winner of the 1988 Nebula Award, is the fourth novel Bujold published but takes place two hundred years earlier than the majority of her other science-fiction novels, many of which involve the Vorkosigan family.
Bujold does not include alien species in her novels as antagonists to humans. Instead, with her use of genetic engineering and the development of the uterine replicator, an artificial womb, she presents the question of whether bioengineered humans or mutants are seen as truly human. The quaddies introduced in Falling Free are one such new type of humans.
The major theme of the novel is the ethics of genetic engineering, a topic introduced in an essay by J. B. S. Haldane titled “Daedalus, Or Science...
(The entire section is 476 words.)
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Breathalyzer for Diagnosis of Lung Diseases
Siemens is researching a method that may make it possible to diagnose tuberculosis or lung cancer at an early stage using breath samples. The process involves an analysis of the molecular structure of the subject's breath.
If the person concerned is ill, there is a shift in the relative quantities of molecules contained in his or her breath. As reported in the current issue of Pictures of the Future magazine, preliminary tests using breath samples from cancer and tuberculosis patients have been very promising. Now the process has to be verified using a larger and more diverse group of people.
According to the World Health Organization, 8.7 million people contracted tuberculosis worldwide in 2011 alone, and the disease killed 1.4 million patients that year. If this disease - which often seems to just be a bad cold when it starts - isn't diagnosed early enough, other people are infected.
... more about:
»Breathalyzer »Molecules »diseases »lung cancer
One effective solution involves a method that could help doctors recognize tuberculosis easily and early on. A method for reliably identifying lung cancer at an early stage has also been lacking until now. That's why the average life expectancy for a patient diagnosed with lung cancer is currently only around two years.
Scientists working for the Siemens global research department Corporate Technology are making use of the old insight that particular illnesses can be recognized by changes in the odors contained in a person's breath. The cocktail of highly complex molecules contained in a person's breath changes in specific ways when he or she is ill.
Researchers use a quadrupole mass spectrometer to identify individual molecules and determine their concentration in the patient's breath. Here, the substances in the breath sample are electrically charged and accelerated through an electrical field which affects their trajectory. Particles of different weights are deflected to different degrees and thus land at different places on the detectors. In this way a kind of fingerprint is created from which conclusions about diseases can be drawn.
Now that trials with tuberculosis and lung cancer patients have been successful, testing has to be carried out in order to determine what influences age, sex and diet have on measurements. Tests of smokers are also pending. If the initial positive results are confirmed, the technology could be further developed for practical applications. To make it suitable for use in a doctor's office, the spectrometer will have to be made small enough to fit inside a suitcase. Additionally, the software will need to be optimized so that it is simple to use.
Dr. Norbert Aschenbrenner | Siemens InnovationNews
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Cover of Clinical Methods
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Chapter 154Platelets
The platelet is a circulating anuclear fragment of a bone marrow megakaryocyte, 3 to 4 μm in diameter, with limited synthetic capability. The mean normal platelet count is between 250,000 and 260,000 cells/mm3, although there is a wide range of accepted normal values in most laboratories that extend as low as 150,000 to as high as 400,000/mm3.
With recent technologic advances, accurate platelet counts are now widely available as a component of automated blood counts. The counts are done in a few seconds using either an electronic particle counting method (e.g., Coulter S-plus) or an optical method (e.g., Ortho ELT 8). This contrasts with the 30 to 45 minutes it takes to do a count using a hemocytometer. The new automated counters have only a 4% coefficient of variation in the normal range and are thus more reproducible than the microscopic method. The coefficient of variation increases to 10% for counts less than 50,000/mm3, making it critical to examine the peripheral smear when the count is in this range and perform a manual count if a therapeutic decision is to be made based on the count.
The normal ratio of platelets to red blood cells on a peripheral smear is approximately 1:20; thus a high-power microscopic field normally contains 8 to 10 platelets. If one platelet per high-power field is not seen, the platelet count is usually below 20,000/mm3, a level consistent with a high probability of spontaneous bleeding.
Both unusually large- and small-sized platelets can increase the error inherent in the automated instruments. Underestimates are particularly seen using electronic particle counters that have prefixed thresholds in patients with immune thrombocytopenia, myeloproliferative disorders, and certain inherited disorders such as Bernard–Soulier syndrome. Sample preparation is critical for automated counting methods. Platelet aggregation, usually due to poor collection techniques and platelet satellitism to leukocytes in ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) collected blood, is a frequent cause of count underestimation. It is therefore essential to screen blood smears to verify platelet count in all patients.
A second technologic advance provided with many new electronic counters is the measurement of mean platelet volume (MPV). It is obtained by measuring a histogram of platelet volumes, with normal subjects having a mean value of 8.5 to 9.0 femtoliters. Controversy exists about the accuracy and thus the usefulness of the MPV, especially when EDTA collected blood is used, because EDTA causes significant platelet swelling over time at room temperature. In normal persons, the MPV varies inversely but nonlinearly with the platelet count. Within each laboratory, then, using standardized assay methods, the MPV can give semiquantitative information in the evaluation of the thrombocytopenic patient. Patients with acute leukemia, aplastic anemia, or drug-induced marrow hypoplasia have a normal or low MPV, whereas those with a peripheral platelet destructive process and a healthy marrow (such as is seen in immune thrombocytopenia or disseminated intravascular coagulation) have an elevated MPV. Unfortunately, the accuracy of the MPV is limited to counts greater than 20,000/mm3, making it useless in the evaluation of the patient group most likely to benefit from this information. It is unlikely that this determination will ever be more valuable than a careful inspection of platelet size on a peripheral smear.
Basic Science
Platelet Function
Platelets function by maintaining the integrity of the vascular tree, producing the platelet plug in the first phase of clotting, and by producing platelet factor 3, an essential component of the coagulation cascade. Clotting is initiated by interruption of normal vascular integrity. This exposes circulating platelets to subendothelial collagen and multimers of factor VIII (von Willebrand factor), which leads to a shape change in the platelets from discoid to spheroid, and their adhesion locally, the first step in the coagulation process. Adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and thrombin are then released from the activated platelets and thromboxane A2 is generated, causing platelet aggregation. The platelet release reaction follows with the secretion of fibrinogen, von Willebrand factor, factor V, platelet factor 4, and B-thromboglobulin from the alpha granules and serotonin, calcium ions, ADP, and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from the dense bodies. This forms the platelet plug. Platelet coagulant activity is then produced, primarily through platelet factor 3, which ultimately, with the plasma clotting factors, leads to the formation of the fibrin clot, the final step in the coagulation sequence.
Megakaryocytes constitute less than 0.1% of the marrow cell population and go through defined stages of development before platelets are produced. Megakaryoblasts have compact but lobed nuclei and a thin rim of basophilic cytoplasm, and range up to 20 μm in size. Polyploidization or endomitosis with up to the 32N ploidy stage takes place only in this cell. In the promegakaryocyte, azurophilic granules begin to be seen and the nucleus becomes horseshoe shaped. The next stage in development is the granular megakaryocyte, characterized by multilobed nucleus, pink cytoplasm, size up to 50 μm, and large numbers of granules. The final stage of development, the mature megakaryocyte, is characterized by the liberation of platelets into the sinusoidal spaces. Each megakaryocyte produces between 1000 and 1500 platelets, which circulate for an average of only 9 days because of their limited synthetic capacity.
Platelet production appears to be mediated by soluble factors at two levels. The first acts at the stem cell level and the second on maturing megakaryocytes. It is possible to grow megakaryocytes in vitro from either blood or bone marrow progenitors, which are called CFU-Mega (colony forming unit-megakaryocyte). Such assays appear to require MegaCSF, a specific colony stimulating factor, obtained from sera or plasma of patients with aplastic anemia, or supernatant media from phytohemagglutinin-stimulated lymphocytes. With increased production of this mediator the population of progenitor cells is stimulated to divide, resulting in the production of more megakaryocytes. It has, however, no further role in platelet production. In acute thrombocytopenia the size of the megakaryocytes and the ploidy number increase, mediated by the second stimulatory agent, named thrombopoietin. This molecule has a limited spectrum of activity, acting only on maturing megakaryocytes, that is, it does not stimulate the production of colony formation in vitro. In addition, thrombocytosis, which decreases thrombopoietin concentration, does not cause a complete inhibition of marrow megakaryocyte progenitors.
Thrombocytopenic States
Thrombocytopenia is due to either decreased marrow production, increased peripheral utilization, or increased splenic sequestration. Often there are multiple causes, such as in disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) where there may be a nonimmune destruction as well as an inhibition of marrow production. The various etiologies are shown in Table 154.1. A bone marrow biopsy is necessary to document decreased production when the count is below 50,000/mm3. Marrow aspirate smears are helpful if adequate megakaryocytes are seen, but decreased numbers may be seen on diluted specimens and need to be verified by a biopsy. The most common causes of decreased marrow production of platelets are drugs, infections, and either primary or secondary marrow malignancies. Because of the generally nonspecific toxic effect of the inciting agent, in most cases thrombocytopenia is accompanied by anemia and leukopenia. If secondary to a drug, withdrawal of the drug leads to a slow count recovery that can take a month or longer. This is in contrast to the rapid recovery (several days to 2 weeks) when the drug-induced mechanism is increased peripheral destruction.
Table 154.1. Differential Diagnosis of Thrombocytopenia.
Table 154.1
Differential Diagnosis of Thrombocytopenia.
Thrombocytopenia associated with a shortened platelet survival is usually due to an antibody-mediated process that may be secondary to drugs, quinidine being the most common; neoplasms, usually lymphoid; connective tissue disorders such as lupus; or idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). Drugs such as quinidine act as haptens that bind to a plasma protein and elicit the production of an IgG antiplatelet antibody. The antibody-coated platelet is then removed by the reticuloendothelial (RE) system. Other drugs form drug-antibody complexes that are adsorbed nonspecifically to the platelet surface and are removed by the RE system.
Acute ITP is characterized by rapid onset of severe thrombocytopenia, usually in a child with an antecedent viral infection in up to 80% of the cases. It resolves, usually without therapy, in 4 to 6 weeks. The etiology is presumably due to immune complexes of viral antigen and antibody that are absorbed onto the platelet surface, which are then removed by the RE system. Chronic ITP is characteristically seen in females between 30 and 50 years and is characterized by elevated platelet-bound IgG in over 90% of patients. Serum antiplatelet antibodies are seen in only 50% of patients. The spleen not only produces the autoantibody but is the main site of platelet sequestration. Since this is an IgG-mediated process and IgG crosses the placenta, pregnant women with ITP are at risk of delivering thrombocytopenic babies.
In the steady state one-third of the platelet mass exists as a freely exchangeable pool in the spleen. Thus in hypersplenism, usually on the basis of chronic liver disease, thrombocytopenia is due to increased pooling in the spleen and is usually accompanied by increased marrow megakaryocytes. The thrombocytopenia is characteristically mild in the presence of a healthy marrow.
As shown in Table 154.2, the causes of thrombocytosis are primary or secondary marrow overproduction, or the transient effect of decreased sequestration seen after splenectomy. While thrombocytosis is defined as a count above 450,000/mm3, symptoms are rare if the count is less than 1,000,000/mm3. The most common cause of a count above 1,000,000/mm3 is a myeloproliferative disorder, although counts this high are sometimes seen following splenectomy, especially if done for ITP. The thrombocytosis seen after splenectomy for nonhematologic diseases usually resolves in 2 months and does not cause symptoms. While not seen with secondary causes of thrombocytosis, the elevated counts associated with myeloproliferative disorders are often accompanied by increased bleeding tendencies. Functional abnormalities are seen in these platelets as measured by abnormal bleeding times, abnormal platelet aggregation in vitro, and abnormal platelet factor 3 release.
Table 154.2. Differential Diagnosis of Thrombocytosis.
Table 154.2
Differential Diagnosis of Thrombocytosis.
Qualitative Platelet Abnormalities
A variety of acquired disorders are associated with qualitative platelet disorders, usually causing a bleeding diathesis. Uremia causes a complicated picture of abnormal platelet aggregation, abnormal levels of platelet factor 3, and abnormal platelet retention on glass beads, none of which is consistent. Bleeding is uncommon, however, as these abnormalities are reversible with dialysis. Liver disease, dysproteinemias, acute leukemia, and many drugs cause similar abnormalities. Aspirin is the most common cause of a qualitative platelet abnormality. It acts by inhibiting cyclooxygenase, preventing the production of thromboxane A2, which is necessary for platelet aggregation and secretion. Other prostaglandin inhibitors, such as ibuprofen, indomethacin, and phenylbutazone, also inhibit platelet aggregation but, unlike aspirin, which binds to platelets irreversibly, the effects of these agents occur only in the presence of active drugs.
A variety of inherited disorders are associated with qualitative platelet function defects and bleeding tendencies. In the Bernard–Soulier syndrome, there is decreased platelet adherence to the subendothelial multimers of VIII: von Willebrand factor. In Glanzmann's thrombasthenia, there are absent or abnormal surface glycoproteins, which lead to impaired platelet aggregation to ADP and fibrinogen.
The Platelet in Atherosclerosis
Platelets appear to be important in the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis. They do not seem to initiate the disorder because they do not spontaneously attach to intact epithelium. They may, however, adhere to endothelial surfaces damaged possibly by hypertension, smoking, and/or abnormal dietary lipids through their binding to exposed collagen in the subendothelium. After binding, they cause further platelet aggregation, initiate the platelet release reaction, and release platelet-driven growth factor. Ultimately, smooth muscle proliferation and lipid accumulation result, the characteristic features of atherosclerosis. Disordered blood flow locally around these focal lesions then leads to further platelet aggregation and to release of ADP, thromboxane A2, and serotonin, which can ultimately lead to complete thrombosis and/or spasm of the narrowed blood vessels.
Clinical Significance
The approach to thrombocytopenia depends on its etiology. Examination of the peripheral smear will provide verification of the low count as well as the platelet size. In addition to looking for signs of bleeding on the physical examination, the spleen should be palpated to evaluate for possible sequestration. A bone marrow examination is generally recommended, particularly if the thrombocytopenia is severe and a treatment decision is to be made. In disorders of decreased marrow production, the platelet size is normal or smaller and the marrow shows decreased megakaryocytes. In disorders of increased peripheral destruction, there is a normal to increased platelet size and increased megakaryocytes. If evidence for peripheral destruction is found, clotting tests should be done to evaluate for a consumptive coagulopathy.
Bleeding due to thrombocytopenia is related to two factors: the absolute count and the rapidity of the decline. The risk of significant bleeding increases dramatically below a count of 20,000/mm3, and the risk of spontaneous CNS hemorrhage increases dramatically at counts below 10,000/mm3. Bleeding usually takes the form of petechiae of the skin, usually of the lower extremities, bleeding from the oral or nasal mucus membranes, or, less commonly, the bladder. Less frequent but potentially more significant is the risk of retinal hemorrhages, which may be the first sign of bleeding and seem to occur more frequently in severely anemic patients. These hemorrhages are usually seen near the disc, and often present as a blind spot, but can also affect the macula, severely impeding vision. Infection and fever in general increase the risk of bleeding in the thrombocytopenic patient at counts up to 50,000/mm3. If significant bleeding occurs at a count above 50,000/mm3, other etiologies, such as a coagulation abnormality or vascular defect, should be investigated, as spontaneous bleeding from thrombocytopenia alone at these counts is uncommon. Platelet counts in the 5000 to 20,000/mm3 range in patients with ITP are often not associated with bleeding because the platelets are younger and larger than normal and have an enhanced hemostatic effect.
Platelet transfusions, usually from random donors, are the treatment of choice for the prophylaxis and treatment of bleeding due to thrombocytopenia of decreased marrow production. The number of platelets obtained from a unit of blood when transferred into a nonalloimmunized patient should raise the count approximately 10,000/mm3. The half-life of transfused platelets, under ideal conditions, is the same as that for normal endogenous platelets, 9 days. It is customary to transfuse patients empirically who have decreased marrow production of platelets, usually drug-induced, with 4 to 6 units of random donor platelets whenever the count drops below 20,000/mm3. Some available data suggest that such prophylactic therapy is not associated with enhanced survival in leukemic patients when compared to those who are transfused for bleeding only. While few would disagree with prophylactic platelet transfusions for counts below 10,000/mm3 because of the increased risk of fatal CNS bleeding, it may be reasonable to observe inpatients closely without prophylactic transfusions at counts above 10,000, and transfuse only for bleeding or conditions associated with an increased risk of bleeding such as an abrupt fall in counts or sepsis. It is prudent to minimize transfusions of platelets because the risk of non-A, non-B hepatitis is as high as 40% for those receiving many transfusions, with as many as 50% of these developing chronic liver disease.
A minimum of one-half of patients with acute leukemia who receive repeated platelet transfusions ultimately become alloimmunized to random donor platelets. Lymphocytotoxic antibodies against HLA antigens may mark for this refractoriness, and their determination is valuable for previously transfused patients in whom future transfusions are expected. If the test is positive, single donor platelets from family members or HLA-matched platelets will be necessary to procure for thrombocytopenic episodes. Another alternative is to plateletpherese the patient during periods when the count is normal and cryopreserve the platelets. If matched platelets are not available for an alloimmunized bleeding patient, the transfusion of 20 or more random donor units is usually effective in temporarily stopping the bleeding. Patients with ITP or DIC, even with a healthy marrow, should also be given platelets for severe bleeding episodes. Epsilon-aminocaproic acid at doses of approximately 12 g per day in divided doses has occasionally been of value in the prophylaxis of thrombocytopenic patients who are alloimmunized. Such therapy is, however, quite expensive.
While no therapy is recommended for children with acute ITP because of its short duration, corticosteroids with an initial prednisone dose of 1 mg/kg per day are the initial therapy for patients with chronic ITP. A beneficial effect usually begins within the first 3 to 4 days. A therapeutic effect (i.e., a count above 50,000) is seen in 60 to 70% of patients usually by 3 to 4 weeks after therapy is started. A higher prednisone dose of 1.5 to 2.0 mg/kg/day may be effective in a slightly higher proportion of patients. Steroids appear to work in a variety of ways. They reduce phagocytosis of the antibody-coated platelets by the RE system, may actually inhibit the binding of antibody to the platelet, increase the catabolism of IgG, and may depress autoantibody production. Once a beneficial effect is seen, steroids are continued at full doses for a month and then are gradually tapered over 4 to 6 months. If a count in the 50,000/mm3 range cannot be maintained by less than 20 mg of prednisone per day, a splenectomy is recommended. A splenectomy causes a rise in the platelet count, usually in the first few days, in approximately 70% of patients. Unlike autoimmune hemolytic anemia, radioisotopic studies are of no value in determining which patients will benefit from splenectomy. For patients refractory to both steroids and splenectomy, immunosuppressive therapy with azothioprine is of value in about one-third, but 2 months of therapy are needed to determine a beneficial effect. High-dose intravenous gamma globulin at a dosage of 400 mg/kg/day for 5 days increases the platelet count as soon as 24 hours in up to 80% of patients with ITP. It is felt temporarily to block the RE system from phagocytosing antibody-coated platelets. While the effect usually lasts only a month or less, it may permit a safe splenectomy or other surgical procedures for patients in whom steroids are either contraindicated or ineffective. Because of its high cost and transient effect, it should not be used as routine therapy for the newly diagnosed patient.
Patients with secondary thrombocytosis usually do not develop symptoms. Those with a myeloproliferative disorder may develop signs and symptoms of thrombosis or ischemia, which may affect the peripheral vasculature or the CNS. Therapy is directed at reducing platelet production and inhibiting platelet aggregation in the microvasculature. The precise therapy varies depending on the disorder, but hydroxyurea or oral alkylating agents are usually effective in decreasing platelet production. Aspirin at a dosage of 300 mg/day is often given as well. In life-threatening cases, plateletpheresis can reduce the count rapidly. Extreme care must be taken to assure a normal blood pressure during the procedure as hypotension may potentiate the risk of acute vascular occlusion.
1. Dumoulin-Lagrange M, Capelle C. Evaluation of automated platelet counters for the enumeration and sizing of platelets in the diagnosis and management of hemostatic problems. Semin Throm Hemos. 1983;9:235–44. [PubMed: 6362009]
2. Eisenstaedt R. Blood component therapy in the treatment of platelet disorders. Semin Hematol. 1986;23:2–7. [PubMed: 3511534]
3. Gewirtz AM. Human megakaryocutopoiesis. Semin Hematol. 1986;23:27–42. [PubMed: 3511535]
4. Holmsen H. Platelet metabolism and activation. Semin Hematol. 1985;22:219–40. [PubMed: 2994234]
5. Karpatkin S. Autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura. Semin Hematol. 1985;22:260–88. [PubMed: 2413550]
6. Murphey S, Litwin S, Herring LM. et al. Indications for platelet transfusion in children with acute leukemia. Am J Hematol. 1982;12:347–56. [PubMed: 6981349]
7. Packham MA, Mustard JF. The role of platelets in the development and complications of atherosclerosis. Semin Hematol. 1986;23:8–26. [PubMed: 3511536]
8. *Thompson AR, Harker LA. Quantitative platelet disorders. In: Manual of hemostasis and thrombosis, 3d ed. Philadelphia: F. A. Davis, 1983;65–85.
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A survey of classical perspectives on revolution with criteria for a structural theory of revolution
A Sociological Interpretation
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Michael S. Kimmel
The concept and reality of revolution continue to pose some of the most challenging and important questions in the world today. What causes revolution? Why do some people participate in revolutionary events while others do not? What is the role of religion and ideology in causing and sustaining revolution? Why do some revolutions succeed and some fail? These questions have preoccupied philosophers and social scientists for centuries. In Revolution, Michael S. Kimmel examines why the study of revolution has attained such importance and he provides a systematic historical analysis of key ideas and theories.
The book surveys the classical perspectives on revolution offered by nineteenth- and early twentieth-century theorists, such as Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Tocqueville, and Freud. Kimmel argues that their perspectives on revolution were affected by the reality of living through the revolutions of 1848 and 1917, a reality that raised crucial issues of class, state, bureaucracy, and motivation.
The author then turns to the interpretations of revolution offered by social scientists in the post-World War II period, especially modernization theory and social psychological theories. Here, he contends that the relative quiescence of the 1950s cast revolutions in a different light, which was poorly suited to explain the revolutionary upheavals that have marked the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. With reference to the work of Barrington Moore, Theda Skocpol, Immanuel Wallerstein, and Charles Tilly, among others, Kimmel develops the criteria for a structural theory of revolution. This lucid, accessible account includes contemporary analyses of the Nicaraguan, Iranian, and Angolan revolutions.
About the Author(s)
Michael S. Kimmel teaches Sociology at State University of New York at Stony Brook.
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descriptions. As a modification, the teacher creates separate audio descriptions for each video clip that narrate what is taking place in the video, and places them in a separate section of the online course. The online course includes links that enable persons who use screen readers to bypass the video clips completely and instead listen to the audio descriptions. Here, the use of detailed audio descriptions that are a part of the online course would provide students with disabilities access to the same opportunities and benefits in an equally effective and equally integrated manner. Schools should also think about whether other accommodations may be needed to provide equal access. For example, a student who uses a screen reader may need extra time to take an online examination because it may take time for the screen reader to process information displayed on a screen and provide that information to the student.
1. Are there circumstances under which it would be appropriate for a school to provide traditional alternative media, such as books on tape, to a student who is blind or has low vision?
2. A: Yes. Traditional alternative media can still be used as an accommodation under appropriate circumstances. For example, if a school provides printed books to students in a class, books on tape may be an appropriate accommodation for a blind student. The DCL does not require schools to use emerging technology. If, however, a school chooses to provide emerging technology and proposes traditional alternative media as an accommodation or modification to provide equal access to the educational opportunities and benefits provided to all students, the alternative media must provide access to the benefits of technology in an equally effective and equally integrated manner. Some forms of emerging technology may readily offer students educational opportunities and benefits that traditional alternative media cannot replicate.
3. If a student who is blind or has low vision makes a request for a particular emerging technology, and that technology currently is not used for all students, must the school provide it?
4. A: Not necessarily, because such decisions are individualized. The DCL does not change the requirements and processes by which elementary and secondary schools must provide a free appropriate public education, or FAPE, to students with disabilities; nor does the DCL change the processes by which postsecondary schools provide academic adjustments and auxiliary aids to students with disabilities. Rather, the DCL discusses the issue of how Section 504 and the ADA apply if schools choose to incorporate emerging technology into their instruction or other programs or activities for all students.
At the elementary and secondary school levels, if parents believe that their child with a disability requires a particular emerging technology as part of the child’s right to FAPE, even though that technology currently is not used for all students, an individualized decision about providing a specific technology should be made through the processes
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Great book on coral reefs and their conservation
In keeping with my recent coral reefs theme, I’m reading “The Enchanted Braid: Coming to Term with Nature on the Coral Reef” by Osha Gray Davidson cover to cover. We’re featuring corals in the upcoming newsletter, so I was inspired to pick this book up again. And I’m glad I did.
I’ve read — and liked — bits and pieces of the book since I bought it four years ago. I can now see that I’ve been missing out on an immensely enjoyable book now that I’m reading it properly. Davidson is a journalist who developed an appreciation for coral reefs during time spent in the Florida Keys. The book is accessible to laypeople and highly informative. Davidson’s self-described “florid” prose paints a vivid picture of the beauty of coral reefs and he describes the problems facing coral reefs in an evocative and thought-provoking manner. He describes coral reefs as “the soul of the sea” and aptly describes their biology and importance to the ocean and to humankind. The book is simultaneously a travel narrative, scientific and environmental treatise, and philosophical look at why we need to take better care of coral reefs and other precious ecosystems. Though the messages in the book are clear that coral reefs are in trouble, Davidson’s writing is not filled with gloom and doom and somber predictions of a coral-less ocean. Rather, he puts coral reefs in the context of survival and inspires hope for their future.
I highly recommend this book to both laypeople and scientists alike.
Next on my list is “Fire in the Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean” also written by Davidson. This book is described as:
“An elegant eco-cautionary tale wrapped in a scientific mystery.” –Publishers Weekly.
Sea turtles have existed since the time of the dinosaurs. But now, suddenly, the turtles are dying, ravaged by a mysterious plague that some biologists consider the most serious epidemic now raging in the natural world. Perhaps most important, sea turtles aren’t the only marine creatures falling prey to deadly epidemics. Over the last few decades diseases have been burning through nearshore waters around the world with unprecedented lethality.
What is happening to the sea turtle, and how can it be stopped? In this fascinating scientific detective story, Osha Gray Davidson tracks the fervent efforts of the extraordinary and often quirky scientists, marine biologists, veterinarians, and others racing against the clock to unravel a complicated biological and environmental puzzle and keep the turtles from extinction. He follows the fates of particular turtles, revealing their surprisingly distinct personalities and why they inspire an almost spiritual devotion in the humans who come to know them. He also explores through vivid historical anecdotes and examples the history of man’s relationship to the sea, opening a window onto the role played by humans in the increasing number of marine die-offs and extinctions.
Beautifully written, intellectually provocative, Fire in the Turtle House reveals how emerging diseases wreaking havoc in the global ocean pose an enormous, direct threat to humanity. This is science journalism at its best.
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I would like to plot the normal distribution for a population of human heights.
My question is how can I input multiple frequencies for the same variable, without writing them out one by one.
e.g. I have 17 instances of 5'10", 20 of 5'11", 4 of 6'.
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Have a look at ConstantArray and Join. – b.gatessucks Jan 19 '13 at 14:18
3 Answers 3
up vote 7 down vote accepted
Table[Quantity["5 feet 11 inches"], {7}],
Table[Quantity["5 feet 10 inches"], {20}]
So there are three things going on here -- we are using Mathematica Version 9 Quantity for things with units, Table to make individual lists of a given length, and Join to concatenate them.
You could also use ConstantArray instead of Table, and various different input forms of "5 feet 10 inches", etc.
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I found it interesting that "5 feet 11 inches" becomes $5'11"$ which is, in FullForm, Quantity[MixedRadix[5, 11], MixedRadix["Feet", "Inches"] – David Carraher Jan 19 '13 at 17:34
Table[5.10, {17}]
Should do the trick
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1. Table is best used for things that change while ConstantArray is optimized for repetition of a single element.
2. Rather than typing either several times it will be faster to use Apply.
3. Entering pairs of values is done more quickly with matrix entry tools than nested brackets.
Mathematica graphics
Mathematica graphics
(Flatten or Join can be used to merge sub-lists into one. I am using pre-v9 units in this example.)
All this said there may be a better way to "plot the normal distribution."
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UK & World News
• 8 May 2013, 3:42
Toxic Caterpillars: Pesticide To Destroy Bug
Swathes of woodland will be sprayed in a bid to eradicate a toxic caterpillar which can cause eye problems and breathing difficulties.
The Forestry Commission will use helicopters to spray a pesticide over one part of England where the oak processionary caterpillar has made its home.
The insects, which usually emerge from eggs in May, are covered in thousands of tiny hairs which release an irritating substance called thaumetopoein.
The hairs are blown about by the wind and cause painful skin rashes in humans and animals.
They can also lead to eye and throat problems in more extreme cases.
Stewart Snape, of the Forestry Commission, said: "Most oak processionary moth treatment is done by spraying individual trees from the ground, but it's much more difficult to find and treat the pest in a woodland environment than in trees in a park or street, with a significant risk that some will be missed.
"The most effective way to treat the woodland is to spray it from a helicopter using an ultra-low-volume spray system. Helicopters can fly lower and slower than fixed-wing aircraft, and therefore target the spray very accurately.
"In addition, the downdraft from a helicopter's rotor helps to achieve much better penetration of the foliage than fixed-wing aircraft or ground spraying can achieve."
The Forestry Commission will use Bacillus thuringiensis - a bacterial agent which occurs naturally in soil - to eliminate the caterpillars from two forests near Pangbourne, Berkshire.
People living nearby have been told the pesticide poses no risk to human or animal health, and experts will monitor birds, bats, moths and butterflies to ensure it does not affect other wildlife species.
The caterpillars invaded Britain in 2006 when young oak trees were imported from mainland Europe.
They have been found in Berkshire, London and as far afield as Leeds and Sheffield, although there is no evidence of any breeding populations outside of the South East.
Dozens of nests were found in Berkshire in 2011, although that number had been reduced to three by last year.
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Fredrika Bremer
Fredrika Bremer, detail of an oil painting by J.O. Sodermark, 1843; in the Svenska Portrattarkivet, StockholmCourtesy of the Svenska Portrattarkivet, Stockholm
Fredrika Bremer, (born August 17, 1801, Åbo, Swedish Finland [now Turku, Finland]—died December 31, 1865, Årsta, near Stockholm), writer, reformer, and champion of women’s rights; she introduced the domestic novel into Swedish literature.
Bremer’s father was a wealthy merchant who settled the family in Sweden when she was three. She was carefully educated and, as a young woman, travelled extensively in Europe. After her father’s death, her private means enabled her to devote her life to social work, travel, and writing. Her quiet domestic novels such as Familjen H*** (1830–31; The H— Family; also translated as The Colonel’s Family), Grannarna (1837; The Neighbours), and Hemmet (1839; The Home) were popular at home and abroad, with English translations produced during her lifetime by the poet Mary Howitt. Bremer visited the United States, where she was welcomed in New England as a kindred spirit for her antislavery sentiments. She met Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Nathaniel Hawthorne and wrote about her impressions in Hemmen i den nya verlden, 3 vol. (1853–54; The Homes of the New World). Her later novels Hertha (1856) and Fader och dotter (1858; Father and Daughter) deal with the social effects of the assertion of women’s rights.
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NHS Choices Condition
Content supplied by NHS Choices
The main symptoms of bulimia are bingeing and purging.
Bingeing is repeatedly eating vast quantities of high-calorie food, without necessarily feeling hungry, or needing to eat. The urge to eat can begin as an attempt to deal with emotional problems, but it can quickly become obsessive and out of control.
Bingeing is usually a very quick process and you may feel physically uncomfortable afterwards. Bingeing as a symptom of bulimia is something that happens on a regular basis, not just once or twice.
Sometimes, the binges are spontaneous, where you eat anything that you can find at that moment, but others may be planned with a shopping trip to buy foods specifically to binge on.
Purging is a response to the bingeing. After you have eaten lots of food in a short space of time, you may feel physically bloated and unattractive. You may also feel guilty, regretful, and full of self-hatred.
However, the main impulse to purge is a powerful, over-riding fear of putting on weight. The most common methods of purging involve making yourself sick, or using laxatives to encourage your body to pass the food quickly. Less common methods of purging include taking diet pills, over-exercising, extreme dieting, periods of starvation, or taking illegal drugs, such as amphetamines.
Bulimia is often a vicious circle. If you have the condition, it is likely that you have very low self-esteem. You may also think that you are over-weight, even though you maybe at, or near, a normal weight for your height and build.
This may encourage you to set yourself strict rules about dieting, eating, or exercising, which are very hard to maintain. If you fail to keep to these strict rules, you binge on the things that you have denied yourself. After feeling guilty about bingeing, you purge to get rid of the calories.
Other signs of bulimia
Other signs of bulimia can include:
• regular changes in weight,
• an obsessive attitude towards food and eating,
• large amounts of money being spent on food,
• disappearing soon after eating (usually visiting the toilet to vomit),
• episodes of over-eating,
• periods of starvation,
• scarred knuckles (from forcing fingers down the throat to induce vomiting),
• depression and anxiety,
• distorted opinions about body weight and shape, and
• isolation.
view information about Bulimia on www.nhs.co.uk »
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Definitions for kaliningradkəˈli nɪnˌgræd
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word kaliningrad
Random House Webster's College Dictionary
Ka•li•nin•gradkəˈli nɪnˌgræd(n.)
1. a seaport in the W Russian Federation, on the Baltic Sea. 394,000.
Category: Geography (places)
Ref: German, Königsberg.
1. Kaliningrad(ProperNoun)
A city in Russia, in Kaliningrad Oblast. Former Ku00F6nigsberg.
2. Origin: Eponym: w:Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin
1. Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad is a seaport city and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. The territory borders on NATO and European Union members Poland and Lithuania, and is geographically separated from the rest of Russia. The locality was a site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement/fort Twangste. In 1255, a new fortress was built on this site by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named "Königsberg" in honour of King Ottokar II of Bohemia. The town was part of the State of the Teutonic Order, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Prussia and Germany. Until the end of World War II, the area formed the northern part of the former East Prussia. The city was largely destroyed during World War II; its ruins were captured by the Red Army in 1945 and its German population fled or was removed by force. It was named Kaliningrad in 1946 in honor of Mikhail Kalinin. According to the 2010 Census, its population was 431,902—an increase from 430,003 recorded in the 2002 Census. Its ethnic composition is 77.9% Russians, 8.0% Belarusians, 7.3% Ukrainians, 1.9% Lithuanians, 0.6% Germans, and 0.5% Poles.
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Thu, 26 Dec 2013|
FETM2014 ciampo 6_WMV9_Widescreen_960x540
[BLANK_AUDIO] [MUSIC] [SOUND] [MUSIC] I'm Mike Ciampo, welcome to this segment of Training Minutes. Today, we're gonna talk about one specific tool. A lock breaker. Some people call it the duckbill. Actually a piece of steel that's beveled on one edge, and what we do with it is, we put it into a padlock to snap the lock. How you insert this tool? Okay, you're gonna pick up the lock and you're gonna put it straight down in. One firefighter will stand in this position, and the other firefighter is gonna strike, the back of the duckbill right here. [SOUND] The very important part about this tool that some guys don't know about. And, that is, we don't wanna put the tool in, in this position. What that does is it puts pressure on the toe and the heel of the padlock. What it's doing is it's just pushing it out. We have to ensure that it goes in right in this position to strike it down to blow the lower part of the assembly off the lock. [SOUND]. One of the things about the Duck bill, okay? Over time, you're gonna get burs on each edge. Take a grinder or a file, keep the tip a little bit sharp, anything that we have burred here is gonna prevent and cause friction here as it goes through the lock. Also, over time. When you strike this tool, like the back of the axe, the steel is gonna roll on you. It's gonna get metal fatigue. If you don't grind that off, when you're hitting it, striking it with another tool, those little fragments can become, flying projectiles and cause an injury to somebody's face. When we work with this tool, we have to remember. Just don't look at the lock and say I have to attack the lock. We wanna size up the whole picture, okay? It's a pretty heavy duty lock, right? But the cheapest part of this hatch is maybe back here past the attachment points. What we're gonna do, do is we're gonna have them put the duck bill here and we're gonna try to blow this part away right here, the little cheap pinch. So demonstrate that now. [SOUND] If you notice, after a few quick strikes they were able to blow this pin right away. Why attach this heavy duty lock when it was real cheap metal at this end of the asp. We're gonna have another example of attacking this. This time we're gonna put the [UNKNOWN] closer to the lock and see if we can pull this apart. [NOISE]. [SOUND] Strike. [SOUND] Strike. [SOUND] Strike. [SOUND] Strike. [SOUND] That time we were real fortunate, we were able to pull the screws right out of the door with just a couple quick blows. Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike. Strike. I'm Mike Ciampo, thanks for watching this segment of Training Minutes.
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Mohenjo-daro(Indus Valley Civilization), Pakistan.kml normal #sn_ylw-pushpin highlight #sh_ylw-pushpin Mohenjo-daro(Indus Valley Civilization), Pakistan Mohenjo-daro ruins is located at Sindh province, Pakistan. Mohenjo-daro, the largest settlements of Indus valley civilization was built around 2600 BCE. It was abandoned around 1500 BCE. Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay, an officer of the Archaeological Survey of India rediscovered it in 1922. 68.13292222195162 27.32541165419226 0 -0.003203548011585567 18.12375951736274 217.3243681379066 relativeToGround relativeToSeaFloor #msn_ylw-pushpin clampToGround clampToSeaFloor 68.1329222219516,27.32541165419226,0
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The English Magazine
Books for Teachers
Teachers' Zone
Role Plays in the ESL Classroom
by Lynne Hand
Instructions to the English teacher
It is not enough merely to provide students with opportunities to speak in English, as teachers we need to encourage students to speak in a variety of different situations, and hence help them to learn to speak with confidence. The ideal would be to travel to different locations and carry out different tasks, the next best thing however is to enact those situations in a classroom.
However, many teachers and students in an ESL class dread the words “role-play”. Even though there is little consensus on the terms used in role-playing literature. Just a few of the terms which are used, often interchangeably, are "simulation," "game," "role-play," "simulation-game," "role-play simulation," and "role-playing game" (Crookall and Oxford, 1990a).
The effective use of role-plays can add variety to the kinds of activities students are asked to perform. It encourages thinking and creativity; lets students develop and practice new language and behavioural skills in a relatively safe setting, and can create the motivation and involvement necessary for real learning to occur.
Effective Role Plays
Unlike skits, role plays shouldn't be scripted out in detail, instead you should give the student a general scenario with different elements and suggested ideas for complications to occur.
Role play cards can be a very useful tool here. For example:-
Student A
You are booking into a hotel.
Book in to the hotel - you have a reservation.
You are on your own.
You want a shower.
You want breakfast in the morning.
You have an early meeting and must not be late.
Student B
You are a hotel receptionist.
Welcome the guest.
Find them a room.
You can't find their reservation.
You only have a double room with bath available.
Before asking them to perform a role play you should prepare the students by reviewing key vocabulary and asking questions. The questions should incorporate the major parts of the role play and the vocabulary/idioms involved. After the question answer session the students should be comfortable with what they need to do.
Allow them a few minutes to study the role cards and work out some key sentences. Give help where needed.
Each role play should be performed at least twice with the students changing roles.
In group situations have the stronger students act out the role play to the whole class.
You as the teacher can take one of the roles if you need to.
Avoid making corrections until the role play is finished. (Keep a note pad to remind yourself of anything that crops up, but be discreet - scribbling away furiously might put the students off.)
Don't let things get out of hand. If the role play decends into a slanging match, it might be entertaining, but you really should intervene.
Recording or videoing role plays can be a very useful tool for giving feedback, but only if the students are comfortable with this. (In some circumstances, parental consent may also be required.)
Other Role Play Scenarios (for Second Life)
Teacher Karen Teacher Karen
Teacher Tips
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Snowy egret Egretta thula
Identification Tips:
Similar species:
Great Egret and "Great White" Heron larger with thicker, yellow bills. Cattle Egret smaller, with shorter, yellow or orange bill and pale legs. The Reddish Egret can be similar as white morph immatures, but has a much larger bill, blue-gray legs and gray lores. Immature Little Blue Heron has a variably gray- or yellow-based bill with black tip and can be similar to immature Snowies that have pale bases to the bills, but always has gray facial skin, green legs and blue-gray primary tips (best seen in flight from below and not always visible at rest). Little Egret, which occurs only rarely in North America, is very similar but has gray facial skin and two long head plumes in alternate plumage.
Patuxent Bird Population Studies
Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
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Karelian (Karjalan kieli)
Karelian is a Finnic language spoken by about 118,000 people mainly in the Russian Republic of Karelia, and also in Finland. Karelian is official considered a dialect of Finnish in Karelia, though there are moves to have it recognised as a second language. East Karelian dialects have little mutual intelligibility with Finnish.
A number of Cyrillic-based spelling systems were developed during the Soviet period, though none of them took off due to Stalin's suppression and outlawing of Karelian. Today Karelian is written with a version of the Finnish alphabet, which was revised in 2007.
Karelian alphabet (2007 version)
Karelian alphabet
Karelian pronunciation
Karelian pronunciation
Information about Karelian pronunciation compiled by Wolfram Siegel
Sample text in Karelian
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Numbers in Karelian
Information about the Karelian language and people
Oldest Karelian text
Online Karelian lessons
Online Karelian dictionary (Vepsian-Karelian-Finnish-Voro)
Online Karelian radio
Finnic languages
Estonian, Finnish, Karelian, Kven, Livonian, Veps, Võro, Votic
Other languages written with the Latin alphabet
Hosted by Kualo
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What Is The Effectiveness Of Newer Treatments Like Vagal Nerve Stimulation (VNS), Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)?
Question: What is the effectiveness of newer treatments like vagal nerve stimulation (VNS), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and deep brain stimulation (DBS)?
Answer: The mainstay of treatment for depression these days really is medication. We do know however that there are limits to the effectiveness of medication. The first medication that we try is likely only to get somebody well about 30 percent of the time, and somebody may need to go through a whole series of treatments for depression before they can eventually get well. We do know that in the long run that somebody stands about an 80 to 85 percent chance of recovering from their depressive illness with medication. But this can get more and more difficult as time goes on.
For this reason, we're looking at some more aggressive types of treatment for depression, and some of these involve brain stimulation. One approach which has been approved by the FDA is called vagal nerve stimulation, where electrodes are implanted into a nerve in the neck, the vagus nerve. And we have found that over the span of months through stimulation of the vagal nerve that a number of individuals with depression can get somewhat better. Right now, vagus nerve stimulation is not a stand-alone treatment -- it's something that is given to individuals along with medication, it's something that can be a secondary therapy for the treatment of depression which has proved resistant to other kinds of treatment.
There are some other types of brain stimulation, however, that are being studied. One is transcranial magnetic stimulation, where instead of passing electricity through the brain as one can do with electroconvulsive therapy, one can place a device on the outside of the patient's head that puts a magnetic pulse into the brain, and appears to show promise as a treatment for depression. This however is still in the experimental stages of development.
Another more invasive treatment is called direct brain stimulation where electrodes are put directly into the brain. This is something which again has been shown to be effective in some individuals with depression. Actually, the treatment was originally developed on patients with Parkinson's disease where it has been approved by the FDA, and for the more advanced cases of Parkinson's disease has been shown to be effective. Some of those patients with Parkinson's disease were noticed in fact to become less depressed after brain stimulation, and that's been the source of the trials in depression itself.
This is another treatment that shows promise, and within the next couple of years, we're thinking that both of these treatments may be approved for use in the treatment of depression.
Next: What Is Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) And How Does It Work?
Previous: Is Light Therapy Useful For Depression In Seasonal Affective Disorder?
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The powers that be (phrase)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - View original article
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In idiomatic English, "the powers that be" is a phrase used to refer to those individuals or groups who collectively hold authority over a particular domain. It is a plurale tantum where "be" is the archaic alternative form of "are"; the singular equivalent, "the power that is," is less commonly used. The Powers That Were (TPTW) is also another derivation that is used.
Some examples of "powers that be" are:
The phrase first appeared in the Tyndale Bible, William Tyndale's 1526 translation of the New Testament, as: "Let every soul submit himself unto the authority of the higher powers. There is no power but of God. The powers that be, are ordained of God".[1] This means that God is the most powerful being, above human governments. In the 1611 King James Version it became, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: The powers that be are ordained of God." (Romans 13:1),[2] whence it eventually passed into popular language.[3][4]
The phrase comes from a translation of the Ancient Greek: αἱ ... οὖσαι [ἐξουσίαι] (hai ... oûsai [exousíai]) “the ... existing [powers]”; ἐξουσίαι is also translated as "authorities" in some other translations.[5]
See also[edit]
External links[edit]
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Adaptive Interfaces
This is an excerpt from the content
Context-aware interfaces; Personalized interfaces
A specific class of user interfaces that are able to change in some way in response to different characteristics of the user, of the usage environment or of the task the user is supposed to accomplish. The aim is to improve the user's experience, by providing both interaction mechanisms and contents that best suit the specific situation of use.
Key Points
There are a number of ways in which interface adaptivity can be exploited to support user interaction. The interaction dimensions that are adapted vary among functionality (e.g., error correction or active help), presentation (user presentation of input to the system, system presentation of information to the user), and user tasks (e.g., task simplification based on the user’s capabilities). Adaptivity along such dimensions is achieved by capturing and representing into some models a number of characteristics: the user’s characteristics (prefe ...
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Only in science fiction do people's minds get possessed by alien beings. For grasshoppers, zombification is an everyday hazard, and it obliges them to end their lives in a bizarre manner.
Biologists have discovered and hope to decipher a deadly cross talk between the genomes of a grasshopper and a parasitic worm that infects it.
The interaction occurs as the worm induces the grasshopper to seek out a large body of water and then leap into it.
The parasite, known as a hairworm, lives and breeds in fresh water. But it spends the early part of its life cycle eating away the innards of the grasshoppers and crickets it infects.
When it is fully grown, it faces a difficult problem, that of returning to water. So it has evolved a clever way of influencing its host to deliver just one further service -- the stricken grasshopper looks for water and dives in.
The suicidal behavior of the infected grasshoppers has been studied by a team of biologists from the French National Center for Scientific Research in Montpellier, France, led by Fr?ric Thomas and David Biron.
They did their fieldwork around a swimming pool on the border of a forest near Av? les Bains in southern France. Hordes of infected grasshoppers -- more than 100 a night -- arrive at the pool during summer nights at the behest of the parasites.
The biologists captured grasshoppers before their suicidal plunge and removed the worms.
The worms grow to several times the length of the grasshopper's body before they emerge. Because of their unusual size, it is easy to extract and analyze the different sets of proteins that they produce before, during and after they compel their hosts to drown themselves.
''We found the parasite produces and injects proteins into the brain of its host,'' Dr. Thomas said.
Two of the proteins belonged to a well-known family of signaling agents known as the Wnt family that are deployed in developing the cells of the nervous system.
Though produced by the worm, the two proteins seemed similar to insect-type proteins and perhaps developed so as to mimic them, the French biologists report in an article in the current issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society.
Parasites have long been known to influence their hosts' behavior in ways beneficial to the parasite. The rabies virus, for instance, makes animals rabid so that they bite others and transmit the virus.
An unusually specific instance of behavioral manipulation was discovered recently in a wasp that parasitizes an orb-weaving spider in Costa Rica.
The night before the wasp larva kills its host, it somehow reprograms the spider's web-building activity so that instead of its usual temporary web, the spider constructs a durable platform ideal for the larva to pupate on.
Somehow the larva reprograms the spider into executing, over and over again, just the first two steps in a five-step subroutine from the early phase of web-building.
If the larva is removed just before it can kill its host, the orb weaver will spin a platform-style web that and the following night, but revert to its usual web on the third night, as if it has shaken off some mesmerizing chemical the wasp has injected into its nervous system.
The hairworm seems to have perfected an equally intimate manipulation of its host by inducing a fantastical desire to swim, of which the grasshopper is scarcely more capable than the worm is of flying.
This is not the parasite's only trick. No one knows how, from its aquatic home, the hairworm manages to infect a terrestrial species. Dr. Thomas said he suspects that the larvae, minuscule on hatching, first infect aquatic insects like mosquito larvae and hide as cysts in their tissues.
When the adult mosquito flies away and when it dies, its body may be eaten by a grasshopper or cricket. The hairworm ''will then develop, eating absolutely everything not essential to keep its host alive,'' Dr. Thomas said. The zombified grasshopper is reduced to just its head, legs and outer skeleton by the time it goes for its final swim.
There are some 300 species of hairworm found around the world. Their billions of larvae ''will infect everything -- frogs, fish, snails,'' Dr. Thomas said. But it is only in grasshoppers, crickets and katydids that these uninvited guests are able to usurp both the body and mind of their hosts.
Photos: A grasshopper was tricked into jumping into water by a hairworm that had infected it and had eaten most of its insides. In the water, the worm left the insect to start the next portion of its life. The grasshopper drowned. (Photos by VB Films/CNRS Images Media)
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