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Federal overtime laws are set out in the Fair Labor Standards Act, which also contains provisions for minimum wage standards, classifications for exempt and nonexempt workers and employers' record-keeping obligations. Under the act, employers must pay overtime at one and a half times the employee's regular hourly rate when the employee works more than 40 hours in a work week.
Hourly Nonexempt Workers
All hourly employees are nonexempt, meaning that their compensation is based strictly on hours worked and that they are nonexempt from the overtime provisions in the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Overtime pay is required only for hours worked above 40 in the work week, which excludes vacation time or other paid time off the employee may have received during the work week. For example, if an employee works eight hours a day on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, takes eight hours of vacation on Thursday and works 11 hours on Friday, he's not entitled to overtime because he worked 35, not 40 hours. He would receive straight-time pay for 43 hours, which represents the 35 hours he worked and the eight hours of vacation.
Movie Theater Workers
Several occupations are exempt from overtime provisions of the act. One such exemption is for employees who work in movie theaters. These workers aren't entitled to overtime pay, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, regardless of how many hours they put in each week. Although the federal law doesn't require that employers pay movie theater workers overtime, state laws may require it. When the federal law and the state law differ concerning minimum wage, exemptions or other categories of the act, employers must follow the law that favors the employee.
Stage Theater Workers
Theater workers, such as actors, composers and dancers, don't qualify for overtime pay based on the salaried exemption for creative professionals. Under the act, creative professionals who are paid a salary of at least $455 a week and whose job duties require what the labor department indicates as, "invention, imagination, originality or talent in a recognized field of artistic or creative endeavor," aren't entitled to overtime pay. However, the labor department reserves the right to determine the exemption on a case-by-case basis.
Movie theater workers and theater workers aren't entitled to overtime pay under the federal law, but many state laws don't follow the federal exemptions. For example, the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act exempts several creative and theatrical employees from both the minimum wage and overtime pay laws. Stage hands, actors, grips and other theatrical employees don't receive overtime pay. However, movie theater workers, such as ushers and ticket takers, aren't exempt from the provision and receive overtime for working more than 40 hours a week.
- U.S. Department of Labor: Wages
- U.S. Department of Labor: Wages and Hours Worked - Minimum Wage and Overtime Pay
- U.S. Department of Labor: Exemption for Professional Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
- State of North Carolina Department of Labor: Handy Reference Guide to the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act
- Comstock/Comstock/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:ef74b93c-1797-408b-9e11-8bb964c65f79> | CC-MAIN-2019-35 | https://smallbusiness.chron.com/theater-workers-exempt-federal-overtime-laws-59804.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-35/segments/1566027318243.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20190823083811-20190823105811-00340.warc.gz | en | 0.960194 | 635 | 2.828125 | 3 | 2.054637 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Finance & Business |
Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of fraud or third party interference.
Ethereum is a public blockchain-based platform that provides a decentralized Turing-complete virtual machine, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which can execute scripts using an international network of public nodes. Ethereum also provides a cryptocurrency token called “ether”, which can be transferred between accounts and used to compensate participant nodes for computations performed.
“Gas”, an internal transaction pricing mechanism, is used to mitigate spam and allocate resources on the network.
Ethereum was initially described in a white paper by Vitalik Buterin, a programmer involved with Bitcoin Magazine, in late 2013 with a goal of building decentralized applications. Buterin had argued that Bitcoin needed a scripting language for application development.
Failing to gain agreement, he proposed development of a new platform with a more general scripting language.
Ethereum was crowdfunded during 2014 by fans all around the world. It is developed by the Ethereum Foundation, a Swiss non-profit, with contributions from great minds across the globe.
NOTE: WARNING: Buying Ethereum on Binance US is a risky venture. It is important to exercise caution when investing in digital currencies, as the market can be highly volatile. Please do your own research before making an investment decision and understand the associated risks. Additionally, always keep your funds safe and secure by backing up your wallet and private keys regularly.
The core innovation behind Ethereum is the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). The EVM is a Turing complete software that runs on the Ethereum network.
It enables anyone to run any program, regardless of the programming language given enough time and memory. The EVM makes the creation of blockchain applications much easier and efficient than ever before.
As an open platform, Ethereum has attracted a range of developers from all over the world who are building new and innovative applications on top of it. This has led to the creation of hundreds of different tokens and assets that are all built on top of Ethereum’s blockchain.
These tokens and assets can be traded on cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance US.
Binance US is one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States. It offers trading in a wide range of digital assets including Ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies.
Binance US also offers its users some of the Lowest fees in the industry.
3 Related Question Answers Found
As the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Ethereum has attracted a lot of attention from investors and crypto enthusiasts over the past few years. And with good reason! Ethereum’s smart contract functionality allows for the creation of a wide range of decentralized applications (dApps) that have the potential to revolutionize many industries.
If you’re looking to invest in Ethereum, you may be wondering if you can do so through SoFi. Unfortunately, at this time, SoFi does not offer the ability to purchase Ethereum directly. However, there are still a few ways that you can indirectly invest in Ethereum through SoFi.
When it comes to selling Ethereum, there are a few different methods that can be used. The most popular method is through an exchange, where individuals can list their Ethereum for sale and set their own price. There are also a few different ways to sell Ethereum directly to another person, although this is not as common. | <urn:uuid:321d5b32-43c8-4aa5-962d-a4914551e53c> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://monerov.org/category/assets/ethereum/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296943484.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20230320144934-20230320174934-00532.warc.gz | en | 0.948652 | 692 | 2.765625 | 3 | 2.411301 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Finance & Business |
Types of Art
Several types of statues are carved to house the spirits of ancestors. Seated figures are usually used for divination and magic. Two main types of masks are used in initiation. Bull masks and shark or swordfish masks are very naturalistic.
Although not much is known about the origins of the Bidyogo, their language definitely connects them with the current occupants of the coastal mainland. It is known that at one time mainland peoples related to the Bidyogo extended far north along the coast into present day Mauritania and were gradually forced south as a result of southward Amazigh movement. The earliest written references to the Bissagos Islands and the people who live on them dates to 1456, when a Portuguese explorer (Alvise da Cadamosto) described them in his travels. Throughout the 17th century the islands were used as a port for ships intent on exporting slaves. In the late 19th century the archipelago was colonized as part part of Portuguese Guinea.
The lowland swampy ecology of the islands is particularly good for growing rice, making it the most important staple crop of the Bidyogo. Fishing in the surrounding Atlantic is nearly as important as farming. The Bidyogo are quite adept at handling long canoes that on occasion have also been used to war against people living on the coast. Pigs are the primary animal raised on the island. Although this practice may have been introduced by Portuguese sailors in the 15th century, it is also likely that pigs, which were once a very important part of North African economies, were brought to the islands by Bidyogo ancestors before the influence of Islam.
Political power is invested in leaders who derive their power through their relationship to the ancestors, which is traced through the matrilineal line. Having a direct connection to the ancestors buried in the land entitles the leader to control the distribution of that land. The leader of each community is attended to by a council of elders. Bidyogo homes are structured with connecting compounds, creating a strong sense of community, both physically and socially. Women are particularly important in Bidyogo political systems, for they may achieve the rank of chief.
It is believed that Nindo, the supreme god, created Obide, a man, and Okanto, the woman, who gave birth to two boys, who are remembered as the original four ancestors. Bidyogo oral history recounts a tale in which the people were told to carve a statue to honor the god that was to be present at religious ceremonies. They also believe that after dying, Orobo (the soul) can only find peace if a statue is carved in which it can rest. Although there have been some Islamic influences on the Bissagos Islands, most of these have been cultural and not specifically religious.
Facts about Bidyogo | <urn:uuid:cd342542-48c3-44d6-84c4-8503b88f40a0> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | https://africa.uima.uiowa.edu/peoples/show/Bidyogo | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917121893.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031201-00130-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979057 | 577 | 3.265625 | 3 | 2.782851 | 3 | Strong reasoning | History |
Diagnosis and treatment of dementia: 1. Risk assessment and primary prevention of Alzheimer disease.
In addition to nonmodifiable genetic risk factors, potentially modifiable factors such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia and environmental exposures have been identified as risk factors for Alzheimer disease. In this article, we provide physicians with practical guidance on risk assessment and primary prevention of Alzheimer disease based on recommendations from the Third Canadian Consensus Conference on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Dementia, held in March 2006.
We developed evidence-based guidelines using systematic literature searches, with specific criteria for study selection and quality assessment, and a clear and transparent decision-making process. We selected studies published from January 1996 to December 2005 that met the following criteria: dementia (all-cause, Alzheimer disease or vascular dementia) as the outcome; longitudinal cohort study; study population broadly reflective of Canadian demographics; and genetic risk factors and general risk factors (e.g., hypertension, education, occupation and chemical exposure) identified. We graded the strength of evidence using the criteria of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care.
Of 3424 articles on potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia, 1719 met our inclusion criteria; 60 were deemed to be of good or fair quality. Of 1721 articles on genetic risk factors, 62 that met our inclusion criteria were deemed to be of good or fair quality. On the basis of evidence from these articles, we made recommendations for the risk assessment and primary prevention of Alzheimer disease. For the primary prevention of Alzheimer's disease, there is good evidence for controlling vascular risk factors, especially hypertension (grade A), and weak or insufficient evidence for manipulation of lifestyle factors and prescribing of medications (grade C). There is good evidence to avoid estrogens and high-dose (> 400 IU/d) of vitamin E for this purpose (grade E). Genetic counselling and testing may be offered to at-risk individuals with an apparent autosomal dominant inheritance (grade B). Screening for the apolipoprotein E genotype in asymptomatic individuals in the general population is not recommended (grade E).
Despite the personal and societal burden of dementia, our understanding of genetic predisposition to dementias and the contribution of other risk factors remains limited. More importantly, there are few data to explain the overall risks and benefits of prevention strategies or their impact of risk modification.
SourceCMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne 178:5 2008 Feb 26 pg 548-56
Genetic Predisposition to Disease
Pub Type(s)Case Reports
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't | <urn:uuid:9fba7509-0471-466b-a8b7-73edad4ed4a7> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/18299540/full_citation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131299339.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172139-00278-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.87161 | 536 | 2.734375 | 3 | 2.978557 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Health |
Weather Support to the Warfighter
by Richard J. Szymber
Weather affects soldier performance, equipment capabilities, and
the ability of forces to maneuver on the ground and in the air.
Weather support is crucial to operational and tactical warfare and
will continue to be an important aspect of planning and execution
for Army commanders at all echelons. The basis for Army weather
support is requirements described as joint doctrine in the newly
revised FM 34-81/AFJPAM 15-127, Weather Support for Army
Operations. This article will address the Integrated Meteorological
System (IMETS) and the currently unfunded Automatic Meteorological
Sensor System (AMSS). Three sequential processes provide weather
support: collection of environmental observation data; automated
collation, processing, analysis, and application of data fields and
forecasts to predict effects; and dissemination of weather effects
products to the user. IMETS will accomplish these functions.
IMETS is a mobile, tactical, automated weather-data receiving,
processing and dissemination system designed to provide timely,
tailored, meteorological effects forecasts, observations, and
decision aids. They provide this information to multiple command
elements and their major subordinate commands at echelons at which
the Air Force weather teams directly support the Army. Their
customers include echelons above corps, corps, divisions, separate
brigades, armored cavalry regiments, and special operations forces
(SOF). It is an Army-furnished system comprising a standard shelter
and vehicle, Army Battle Command System communications systems, and
common hardware and software. Air Force Weather personnel operate
the IMETS, and Army personnel maintain it within the Army support
structure. Mounted on a heavy High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled
Vehicle, IMETS is deployable on C-130 or larger aircraft,
medium-lift helicopters, rail, or ships.
IMETS contains the computers and communications devices
Products will be in the form of weather messages and warnings,
preprocessed decision aids, tailored output fields for specific
decision aids and automated intelligence preparation of the
battlefield weather analysis, and also automated visualization of
weather situations and effects.
By understanding the effects of weather, seeing the
opportunities it offers, and anticipating when they will come into
play, the commander can set the terms for battle to maximize his
performance and take advantage of limits on enemy forces. IMETS
provides commanders and their planning staffs with known and
forecast conditions in the air and on the ground. This knowledge
enables them to incorporate forecast conditions into their planning
before a battle, helping the commander to choose the time, manner,
and place of engagement.
IMETS fielding began in 1995, with a total of 32 systems to be
fielded through 1997. Current users of IMETS are the Eighth U.S.
Army and 2d Infantry Division in Korea; XVIII Airborne Corps and
82d Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and III Corps,
4th Infantry Division (Mechanized), and 1st Cavalry Division at
Fort Hood, Texas. Future IMETS technology and capabilities tested
successfully in Exercise Atlantic Resolve '94 and currently support
operations in Bosnia. The future IMETS capabilities will undergo
further testing in the 1997 Brigade Task Force XXI experiment.
- Receive information from multiple sources (including
meteorological satellites, local and remote sensors (including the
AMSS), artillery meteorology systems, theater forecast units, and
the Air Force Global Weather Central).
- Run high-resolution weather prediction models and automated
weather effects decision aids.
- Process this information for tactically tailored products.
- Disseminate them across the battlespace.
The commander who can best measure and exploit weather
conditions has a decided advantage over his opponent. The AMSS is
the initial development model of an automated weather-sensing
system for tactical use. It will measure weather and environmental
elements, record them, provide local read-out, and transmit the
data to the nearest IMETS. Data measured will consist of
Brigade and battalion S2s will operate the AMSS. It will be
lightweight, man-portable, and either vehicle-mounted or
hand-emplaced at key terrain points. Automated measurements,
collected hourly or more frequently, will go to S2s for their use,
and simultaneously to IMETS for integration into the weather
database. AMSS will also send these tactical observations to
theater forecast centers to enhance long-range and general area
forecasts for the area of interest. Although the materiel
development document (the Operational Requirements Document) for
AMSS gained approval in 1993, the system is not currently funded.
- Wind speed and direction.
- Barometric pressure.
- Rainfall rate and amount.
- Soil temperature and moisture.
- Solar radiation.
- When feasible, cloud-base height and visibility.
Tomorrow's weather support will feature the latest technology
in small, powerful computers with advanced forecasting models,
decision aids tailored to the situation, and timely automated
outputs in the format most useful to the warfighter. The focus of
future Army weather support will be upon the production and
visualization of information and decision aids that allow the
assessment of environmental factors' impacts on tactical
operations. This will allow plans adjustment to minimize force
vulnerabilities, increase relative combat power, and exploit enemy
limitations caused by the weather. IMETS will allow commanders to
"own the weather" by enabling them to anticipate impending impacts
of weather on friendly and threat capabilities for exploiting
windows of opportunity created by the weather.
Mr. Richard J. Szymber is a meteorologist with the
Battlefield Environment Directorate of the US Army Research
Laboratory (ARL). He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Geography from
Arizona State University and a Master's Degree in Atmospheric
Sciences from the University of Arizona. He is involved in research
in satellite meteorology in addition to developing and promoting
"Owning the Weather" (OTW) concepts and programs. Mr. Szymber was
permanently assigned to Fort Huachuca in June, 1995, to serve as
ARL's OTW liaison to the Intelligence Center and help integrate OTW
into Army operations and programs. You can reach him at (520)
538-6493/72, DSN 879-6493/72, and via E-mail at [email protected] | <urn:uuid:bacba90c-3c59-41f9-b4b2-1f326a642d02> | CC-MAIN-2016-40 | http://fas.org/irp/agency/army/mipb/1996-3/szymber.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738662251.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173742-00126-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.895378 | 1,386 | 2.515625 | 3 | 2.668939 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
Thirdgeneration South Dakota cattle rancher Wade Weiszhaar wants to preserve his familys way of life, maintain his familys livelihood and conserve the prairie landscape his family cherishes.
That makes him an ideal participating landowner in the Dakota Grassland Conservation Area.
The conservation area identifies 1.7 million grassland acres and 240,000 wetland acres to be protected across the prairie of eastern South Dakota and North Dakota. Since its establishment as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System in September 2011, the conservation area has acquired 119,578 grassland and wetland acres, all via perpetual conservation easements.
Landowner interest is very high, says Harris Hoistad, a refuge manager within the Dakota Grassland Conservation Area. We have a list of people waiting for us to work on their easement offer, and the infusion of Migratory Bird Conservation Commission funds has helped to get us off to a great start. We have a long way to go to reach the goals of the project, but we are making progress.
Weiszhaar is one reason for the progress. More than half his land is in grassland/wetland conservation easements. The Weiszhaar Ranch in northcentral South Dakota covers about 13,700 acres. Of those, 2,600 acres are farmed for corn, alfalfa, wheat and soybeans, primarily to feed the ranchs 3,500 cattle. The remaining 11,100 acres are native prairie range7,000 of them in easements.
Corn at $7 and soybeans at $14 per bushel, Weiszhaar says, is a major economic incentive for fellow Dakotans to turn this land upside down and farm it. Theyre breaking it up at an alarming rate. Once native range is broken up, its not native range. We would love to see the land stay the way it was hundreds of years ago. We understand that we need farming in our country, too, but it seems like its going overboard.
The Dakota Grassland Conservation Area is designed to slow that rapid conversion of native prairie to agriculture. It augments the U.S. Fish and Services 55yearold Small Wetlands Acquisition Program to conserve habitat in the Prairie Pothole Region.
The regionnamed for its millions of small, waterfilled glacial depressions, or potholesis known as North Americas duck factory. Its grasslands and wetlands are vital to millions of migratory birds, grassland nesting prairie songbirds and waterfowl.
The conservation area is an overlay of nearly all wetland management districts in the Dakotas. Hoistad compares it to a refuge where the land is owned by another agency but the Service also has a property interest. Think Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge overlaying Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Except in this case, Hoistad says, our existing refuge land interests are being added to by the acquisitions of the conservation area project.
Last year, Service Director Dan Ashe redirected Migratory Bird Conservation Fund money toward the Prairie Pothole Region. The Dakota Grassland Conservation Area uses money from that fund, Ducks Unlimited, the North American Wetlands Conservation Act and the Land and Water Conservation Fund to acquire easements from landowners like Weiszhaar.
Why is slowing the conversion to agriculture and conserving prairie so important to him?
First, Weiszhaar says, the beef cattle operation is going to be a thing of the past if this keeps up … and we love raising beef for the American consumer.
Second, its about the vastness, the openness, the sea of grass that seems like it just goes on forever, he says. The rolling hills and the prairie potholes seem like they were just meant for this part of the country, and wed sure love to maintain that. If we take care of the land, the land takes care of us. | <urn:uuid:3d664c4d-3093-4262-beb6-bb05c7d7169c> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.fws.gov/refuges/refugeUpdate/SepOct_2013/prairie.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246655589.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045735-00039-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937741 | 801 | 2.84375 | 3 | 2.829978 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
Energy Management. What is it and why is it important?
Originally published 11/14/2014
Quite simply, “Energy Management is the process of monitoring, controlling and conserving energy in a building, organization or home.” The importance of energy savings stems from the global need to save energy. The global need affects energy prices, emissions targets, and legislation. Collectively if we reduce our energy use we reduce the damage to our planet and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. And, ultimately, the process of managing energy use results in managing and saving money – Saving Big Money. So, how do you get started?
- The first step is to gather information or collect data.
Your energy bill has quite a bit of information that is shared with you on a monthly basis. You can see how many kWh’s of energy your business or home uses every month. In addition, a phone call to your power company can enable you to ask for a report of your business’s 15 minute demand data and peak usage times. Reduction of peak energy can really make a difference on your company’s bottom line. Collect data with an interval metering system that automatically measures and records energy consumption. These systems measures how much energy you’re using at different times of the day, or on different days of the week. Seeing these patterns makes it much easier to find routine waste in your building and peak usage times.
- Use the collected data to find opportunities to save energy and estimate how much energy each opportunity can save.
There are opportunities for energy savings by replacing faulty equipment on HVAC systems, retrofitting to LED lighting or upgrading your building’s insulation. Additionally, there is the potential for huge energy savings if a plan for Demand Response (DR) is put in place. Deliberate load reductions during times of peak demand or high market prices can really impact a business bottom line. We can help determine if you are eligible for utility rebates/incentives through your utility company and handle the paper work. If you feel you could benefit from a Demand Response system please give us a call, we can help you identify your potential cost savings.
- Take action by tackling routine waste and/or upgrading inefficient equipment.
It’s important to raise energy awareness in the office setting and at home; Turn off lights, unplug appliances, upgrade to LEDs, use Energy Star appliances, install a DR system in your commercial building.
- Track your energy-saving progress by analyzing your meter data to see how well your efforts have worked.
Energy Management is an on-going process and data should be reviewed at least once a month.
When you manage your energy your home and company benefits by:
- Reducing Costs.
- Reducing Carbon Emissions. Reduction of a Carbon Footprint promotes a green company image and sustainability.
- Reduce Risk. The more energy you consume the more vulnerable you are to energy price increases and supply shortages that effect your bottom line.
Our staff of Engineers, NABCEP Certified PV Installers, Certified Electricians, and Contractors can help you determine the best way to manage your energy at your residence or commercial building. Let us help you manage your energy so you can better manage your money.
Our mission at Good Energy Solutions is to provide our customers with honest, real solutions to reduce their fossil fuel consumption and lower their long term energy costs. “Energy with Integrity” isn’t just a company slogan, it’s how we do business.
Founded in 2007 by Kevin and Shana Good, Good Energy Solutions has earned a reputation for our expert reliable service, long workmanship warranties, and quality commercial and residential solar installations.
If you would like to know more about solar power for your home or business, contact us here. | <urn:uuid:8a4c2a79-7e93-4884-8a77-5454f0cb8b8e> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://goodenergysolutions.com/manage-your-energy-manage-your-money/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780056752.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20210919065755-20210919095755-00029.warc.gz | en | 0.927079 | 782 | 2.828125 | 3 | 2.429788 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Science & Tech. |
|Traditional Field Crops (Peace Corps, 1981, 283 p.)|
|Pest and disease control|
Maize Fungal Diseases
Seed Rots and Seedling Blights
These are often referred to as pre-emergence and post-emergence "damping off" and are caused by soilor seed-borne fungi. Seeds may be killed before germination or seedlings may be destroyed before or after they emerge from the ground. Damping off is most prevalent in cold, poorly-drained soils and with damaged seed (cracked seedcoat, etc.). Problems are less likely where conditions favor rapid germination and emergence (i.e. warm weather, adequate soil moisture). Symptoms: Above-ground signs are yellowing, wilting, and death of the seedling leaves, but this can be confused easily with injury by wind, wind-blown sand, fertilizers, herbicides, and insects. Examine the below-ground portion of the plants and look for rotted seeds, soft rot of the stems near the soil surface, and rotted, discolored roots. Control: Use good quality seed, free of molds and damage, that has been treated with a fungicide like Captan or Arasan (thiram) for protection during germination. Seed treatment is mainly effective against seed rot.
Helminthosporium Leaf Blights
Several species of Helminthosporium fungi attack maize leaves, but the two most important are H. Maydis (Southern leaf blight) and H. turcicum (Northern leaf blight). Helminthosporium maydis is more prevalent in hot, humid areas, but both species can occur on the same plant. Symptoms of H. Maydis: There are two major races of H. maydis and they have different symptoms. Race "O" leaf spots are small and diamond~shaped when young and then elongate to about 2-3 cm and may grow together, killing large areas of leaf. Race "T" leaf spots are oval and larger than those of race "O" and attack the husks and leaf sheaths, unlike race "O". Maize hybrids utilizing "Texas" male sterile cytoplasm (genetic material) in their production are very susceptible to race "T". This became evident during the severe and unexpected outbreak of H. maydis race "T" in the U.S. Corn Belt in 1970. Most hybrids now utilize "N" male sterile cytoplasm in their production to overcome this problem. Symptoms of H. turcicum: Northern leaf blight prefers high humidity and low temperatures. Small, slightly oval, water-soaked spots first appear on the lower leaves and eventually become rectangular in shape and grow to a length of 2.5-15 cm. These lesions are grayish-green to tan and can cause severe defoliation. Control: Resistant varieties offer the best protection. Seed treatment with a fungicide is of no help. Foliar fungicides give fair to good control but are seldom economical since they must be applied every 7-10 days,
Three types of rust attack maize: common rust (Puccinia sorghi), Southern rust (Puccinia polysora), and tropical rust (Physopella zeae).
Common rust occurs more frequently in cool, moist weather and produces small, powdery, cinnamonbrown pustules on both surfaces of the leaves. Southern rust is more common in warm humid regions and produces smaller, lighter-colored pustules than common rust. Tropical rust is confined to the tropical regions of Latin America and the Caribbean. The pustules vary in shape from oval to round and occur beneath the leaf epidermis (outer layer). They are cream colored and very small and are sometimes surrounded by a black area. Control: Resistant varieties are the best protection. Fungicide sprays are seldom economical.
Maize Downy Mildews
At least nine species of Sclerospora (Sclerophthora) fungi attack maize. At present, they are mainly confined to parts of Asia and Africa, but also appear to be spreading throughout the Americas. Symptoms vary with the species, age of plants when infected, and the climate, but usually include chlorotic striping of the leaves and leaf sheaths, stunting, excessive tillering, and deformities of the ears and tassels. A downy growth (mildew) may occur on the undersides of the leaves in later stages. Some of these symptoms may be confused with viruses.
Some of the more common downy dildews are listed below with their control measures: Crazy Top (S. macrospora): Rare in the true tropics but of world-wide distribution in temperate and warm-temperate climates. Crazy top causes the tassel to mutate into a mass of leafy bunches and is provoked by one or more days of flooding before seedlings have reached the four to five leaf stage. Adequate soil drainage is the only control.
Sorghum Downy Mildew (S. Sorghi): Widespread. Controls: Using resistant varieties, removing and destroying infected plants, and avoiding maizesorghum rotations in infected fields. Green Ear Disease or Graminicola Downy Mildew (S. graminicola): Occurs on various grasses but is usually not important in maize. Sugarcane Downy Mildew (S. sacchari): Mainly confined to Asia and the South Pacific. Controls: Eliminating the disease by using healthy planting material, growing maize in areas free of the disease and where sugarcane is not grown extensively, removing and destroying infected plants, and using resistant varieties. Fungicide sprays are used in some areas. Philippine Downy Mildew (S. philippinensis): This is the most important maize disease in the Philippines and also occurs in Nepal, India, and Indonesia. Controls: Removing and destroying infected plants, using resistant varieties and fungicide sprays where economical.
Common Smut and Head Smut
Common smut (Ustilago maydis): A fungus that causes galls (swollen areas on plant tissue) 1520 cm in size which form on any above-ground part of the plant. When young, the galls are shiny and whitish with soft interiors, but later turn into a mass of black, powdery spores. Early infection can kill young plants, but common smut is seldom a serious problem. Controls: Using resistant varieties and avoiding mechanical injury to plants. Good soil fertility is helpful. Galls should be removed from plants and burned before they rupture.
Head smut (Sphacelotheca) reiliana): Can seriously affect yields in dry, hot regions. This is a systemic fungus that enters seedlings without showing symptoms until the tasseling stage. Tassels and ears become deformed and develop masses of black, powdery spores. Head smut is mainly a soil-borne disease. Controls: Most varieties are resistant. Crop rotation and general sanitation also provide some control. Soil applied fungicides in the seed row give fair to good control, but are usually not economical. Seed treatment with a fungicide is ineffective.
Fungal Stalk Rots
Five of the more common fungal stalk rots are discussed below. They attack plants between tasseling and maturity, although Pythium stalk rot may also infect younger plants. Diplodia stalk rot: Most likely to occur several weeks after pollination. The leaves suddenly wilt and die, turning a dull grayish-green, and the stalk dies 7-10 days later. Numerous small,raised,black dots can be seen on the lower internodes of the stalk. Infected portions break readily and can be easily crushed. Diplodia infected stalks usually break between the joints (nodes). Controls: Using resistant varieties, avoiding high rates of N fertilizer without adequate K, and lower plant populations. Gibberella stalk rot: Similar to Diplodia except that the stalks tend to break at the joints, and the inside of the stalk is pinkish-red. The small black dots found on the lower portion of the stalk can be scraped off with a fingernail, unlike those of Diplodia, Controls: See Diplodia, Fusarium stalk rot: Similar to Gibberella and difficult to distinguish from it. Controls: See Diplodia.
Pythium stalk rot: Most likely to occur during long periods of hot, humid weather. Usually attacks a single internode near the soil surface and causes a brown, soft, water-soaked rot that collapses the stem. Stems do not break off but fall over,and plants may remain green for several weeks afterwards. Pythium usually occurs around tasseling time but may also affect younger plants. It is easily confused with Erwinia bacterial stalk rot. Controls: Using resistant varieties.
Charcoal rot (Macrophomina phaseoli) Attacks maize, sorghum, soybeans, beans, cotton, and others, It is most prevalent under very hot, dry conditions and first attacks seedling roots where it produces brown, water-soaked lesions which eventually turn black. The fungus usually does not invade the stalk until well after pollination when it causes the lower internodes to ripen prematurely and shred, causing breakage at the base of the plant, The inner stalk has a charred appearance due to the presence of numerous black dots (sclerotia). Controls: Charcoal rot can be reduced in irrigated fields by maintaining a good soil moisture content during dry spells after tasseling; see also Diplodia.
Fungal Ear and Kernel Rots
Maize can be attacked by a number of ear and kernel rots, especially when very wet weather occurs from silking to harvest. Insect and bird damage of stalks and ears also increases susceptibility.
Diplodia ear rot: Causes early-infected ears to have bleached husks, while normal husks are still green. Ears are shrunken, and the husks seem to be glued together due to the fungus growing in-between. Ears infected later in the season seem normal from the outside but have a white mold that usually starts at the base of the kernels. In severe cases, black fruiting bodies can be seen on the husks and on the sides of the kernels.
Controls: Ears that mature with the tips pointed downward are less susceptible. Good husk covering is also helpful as is an early harvest and proper storage at a safe moisture content. Gibberella ear rot (G. zeae): More prevalent in cool, humid areas and causes a pink to bright red rot starting at the ear tips. G. fujikuroi is the most common ear rot worldwide and is similar in appearance. Both types also produce a cotton-like pink growth over the kernels, and infected grain is toxic to humans, pigs, and birds. Controls: See Diplodia. Fusarium ear rot: Favored by dry, warm weather end similar to Gibberella. Nigrospora ear rot: Causes the cob to be discolored and easily shredded. The interior is gray instead of white. Kernels are poorly filled and can be easily pushed into the partially rotted cob. Spore masses in the form of black spots are found at the base of the kernels. Controls: Balanced soil fertility; see Diplodia.
Maize Bacterial Diseases
Erwinia stalk rot: Causes symptoms similar to Pythium (see fungal stalk rots). Controls: Using resistant varieties and good drainage. Bacterial leaf blight (Stewart's wilt): Transmitted by certain types of maize beetles and by the seed. Sweet maize is more susceptible. Symptoms are pale green to yellow streaks on the leaves, usually appearing after tasseling. The streaks die and may kill the leaf. The stem may also become infected, leading to wilting of the plant. Controls: Using resistant varieties, early use of insecticides to control insect vectors.
Maize Viral Diseases
Maize is attacked by some 25 virus or virus-like diseases which are transmitted mainly by aphids and leafhoppers. Alternate host plants like Johnsongrass, sorghum, and sugarcane play an important role in the spread of most of them, Symptoms can be confusing and may often be caused by other problems such as nutrient deficiencies. Some of the more prevalent viruses are dealt with below:
Maize streak virus: A major problem in many areas of Africa and transmitted by several species of leafhopper (Cicadullina spp.). Early signs are tiny round scattered spots on the youngest leaves which enlarge parallel to the leaf veins. Broken yellow streaks later appear and run along the veins. Controls: Resistant varieties; leafhopper control. Maize dwarf mosaic: Spread by several types of aphids and a wide range of alternate hosts, including Johnson-grass (a sorghum relative) and sorghum. Leaves of infected plants develop a yellowgreen mosaic pattern, mainly on the bases of the younger leaves. Foliage becomes purple or purple-red as plants mature, severe stunting may occur, and few plants produce normal ears. Controls: Using resistant varieties. Destruction of alternate hosts and insect control. Maize stunt virus: Spread by several types of leafhopper (Dalbulus, Baldulus, Graminella) and known as "achaparramiento" in Latin America. Now thought to be a viruslike organism. The Mesa Central strain causes yellowing of the young leaves which later turn red. The Rio Grand e strain produces spots at the bases of young leaves, followed by a yellow striping. Controls: Resistant varieties; insect control. Sugarcane mosaic: Occurs where maize is grown next to sugarcane and causes yellow spots and streaks. Controls: Using resistant varieties of sugarcane.
Seed rots and seedling blights: See maize.
Downy mildews: Sorghum is attacked by three species of downy mildew (S. macrospora, S sorghi, S. graminicola). (Refer to maize for details). Controls: Using resistant varieties and rotation with broad-leaf crops. Many forage-type sorghums are very susceptible to sorghum downy mildew (S. sorghi) and should not be planted on ground where grain sorghum will be sown if the disease is present. Covered kernel smut (Sphacelotheca sorghi): Carried by the seed and penetrates the young seedlings. Plants appear normal until heading time when the kernels are replaced by light-gray or brown, cone-shaped smut galls full of black spores. Controls: Seed treatment with a fungicide is very effective since the spores are carried on the surface. Resistant varieties have been developed.
Loose kernel smut (S cruenta):
Very common in Asia and Africa. As with covered smut, the spores are carried on the planting seed and invade young seedlings. Long, pointed smut galls are formed on the grain heads, and infected plants may be stunted and show increased tillering Unlike covered smut, loose smut spores may cause infections of late emerging grain heads on otherwise healthy plants. Controls: Same as for covered smut. Head smut (S. reiliana): The most damaging of the smuts. Destroys the entire head and replaces it with a mass of dark brown, powdery spores A large gall covered with a whitish membrane bulges out of the boot at heading time. The gall ruptures and spores are scattered by wind and rain over the soil where they survive to infect the next crop. Controls: Seed treatment will prevent the spread from field to field, but will not stop infection from spores already in the field. Resistant varieties should be used and infected plants removed and burned.
Grain (Head) Molds
These are caused by several species of fungi that are most prevalent when sorghum matures during wet weather. Seed becomes heavily molded and will germinate poorly if planted. Controls: Photo-sensitive varieties escape head mold by maturing during drier weather. Other types can be sown to mature during drier weather. Open-headed varieties are somewhat less susceptible than those with compact heads. Work in India has shown that head molds can be reduced by spraying the heads with Captan or Benlate (benomyl) plus a sticker immediately after a heavy rain, but this may not be cost effective. Sorghum Rust
This is caused by the fungus Puccinia purpurea which produces raised brownish pustules on both sides of the leaves. This disease is most common under high humidity but is usually confined to the older, mature leaves. Controls: Using resistant varieties. Fungicides are not usually economical.
This disease is caused by the fungus Collectotrichum graminicola which attacks the leaves, producing tan to reddish lesions that are round to oval and have soft, sunken centers. It may also cause a stalk rot called red rot. Controls: Using resistant varieties. Other Fungal Leaf Spots
Sooty stripe (Ramulispora sorghi), zonate leaf spot (Gloesocercospora sorghi), and oval leaf spot (Ramulispora sorghicola) are the main fungal leaf spots in West Africa, along with anthracnose. Controls: Resistant varieties offer the best means of control. Removal of host plants like Guinea-grass, Bermudagrass, and Paragrass helps.
Fungal Stalk Rots
Charcoal rot (Macrophomina phaseoli see maize): A serious disease of dryland sorghum. Losses are increasing in India, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Upper Volta. It is the most serious sorghum disease in Nicaragua and also causes serious losses in Mexico and Colombia. Charcoal rot is especially severe when grain filling takes place during high soil temperatures and drought. Controls: See maize. Milo disease (Periconia circinata): Presently confined to the U.S. and attacks the roots as well as the stalks. Even young plants may be affected. The first symptoms are stunting and slight leaf rolling. The tips and margins of older leaves turn light yellow, and all the leaves eventually become affected. Splitting the base of the stalk lengthwise reveals a dark red discoloration in the center. Roots are also dark red. Controls: Resistant varieties. Red stalk rot (Collectotrichum graminicola): The stalk rot phase of anthracnose. The outside basal portion of the stalk becomes red or purple. If the stalk is split lengthwise, the inner pith shows a reddish discoloration which may be continuous or blotchy. The flower stem may be similarly affected. Controls: See anthracnose.
Several bacterial leaf diseases attack sorghum and are favored by warm, humid weather. Yield losses usually are not serious. Seed treatment with a fungicide, crop rotation, and resistant varieties are the best controls. Sorghum Viral Diseases Maize dwarf mosaic and sugarcane mosaic produce very similar symptoms on sorghum. The mottled light and dark green mosaic pattern is usually most prevalent on the upper two to three leaves and often includes longitudinal white or yellow streaks. Varieties with a red pigment may show a "red leaf" symptom consisting of red stripes with dead centers. Controls: see maize. Yellow sorghum stunt: A virus-like organism that is spread by leafhoppers. Plants become dwarfed with leaves bunched together at the top. Leaves develop a yellow cream color. Controls: Resistant varieties; insect control.
Downy mildew (Sclerospora graminicola): Can attack millet as early as the seedling stage. The systemic fungus causes the leaves to become yellowish and under wet conditions a downy white mildew may occur on the undersides of the leaves. Affected seedlings may die within a month without producing any tillers. The symptoms may first appear on the upper leaves of the main stem or on the tillers. The first leaf affected normally shows damage only on the lower portion, but subsequent leaves suffer increasing infection. Heads may be partially or totally deformed. Control: Many local varieties have good resistance. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) achieved excellent control of downy mildew by treating planting seed with a newly developed systemic fungicide from Ciba Geigy known as GCA 48/988.
Grain smut (Tolypossporium penicilliriae): Fungi infect the young millet florets on the seed head and replace them with plumb galls ful of black powdery spores. Controls: Use resistant varieties and general sanitation. Seed treatment with a fungicide is probably not very effective. Ergot (Claviceps fusiformis): Common,but generally not serious. The airborne fungal spores infect the young florets before grain development and produce a sweet sticky liquid called honeydew, which is pink or red. The grain head later takes on a bottle-brush appearance due to the formation of dark-colored hard structures called sclerotia Controls:
Burn infected heads. Rust (Puccinia penniseti): Sometimes serious on late millet but usually not with early millet. Leaf spots: Several fungal leaf spots attack millet but are usually not serious.
Foliar Fungal Diseases
Foliar fungal diseases can seriously reduce yields of both nuts and hay, and the decaying fallen leaves provide organic matter for incubating soil-borne diseases like Southern stem rot. Cercospora Leafspot: Attacks peanuts worldwide, but Virginia types (see Chapter 3) are somewhat less susceptible than the Spanish-Valencia types. It is encouraged by wet conditions. Symptoms: Two species of Cercospora fungi are involved. Early leafspot (C. arachidicola) is usually the first to appear and produces round, brownish-red spots surrounded by a yellow halo. Late leafspot (C. personata) occurs later in the season and produces darker spots that may or may not have halos. Both leafspots may also occur on the stems and leaf petioles (leaf stems) as the disease progresses. Severe defoliation can result, which affects yields as well as the performance of mechanical pullers, which require bulky bushes for satisfactory operation. Controls: Crop rotation helps reduce early infections. Even though Virginia types show some resistance, foliar fungicides are usually essential in most cases and are applied as preventatives. Peanuts are a relatively high value crop, which makes use of foliar fungicides very economical. Specific recommendations are given in the next unit. Peanut Rust (Puccinia arachis): This disease is presently confined to Latin America and the Caribbean. It causes small orange to brown raised pustules on the leaves, mainly on the undersides. It can spread rapidly under hot, humid conditions, and leaf drop can be severe. The stems, petioles and pegs can also be affected. Controls: As with leafspot, fungicide sprays or dusts are the only effective control.
Ground diseases caused by fungi are sometimes hard to detect and identify and can drastically reduce yields. Southern Stem Rot: Also known as Southern Blight, wilt and white mold, it is the most serious and widespread ground disease attacking peanuts and also affects beans, soybeans, other legumes, potatoes, tomatoes, and other crops. It is favored by warm, wet conditions. Symptoms: In the early stages, some of the leaves on a few branches usually turn yellowish. Under wet conditions, a white cotton-like mold occurs on the lower stem near the soil surface and on any decaying organic debris on the soil. Fungal bodies called sclerotia appear on the affected areas and are light brown to brownish red and about the size of mustard seeds. The leaves begin a gradual wilt, but at first seem to recover at night. Eventually, the entire plant can die. The pegs are destroyed, leaving many pods imbedded in the ground. The disease can also cause pod rot. Controls: There is no way to control this disease once plants are affected, but it can be effectively suppressed through a combination of chemical and cultural controls given below:
· Crop rotations with maize, sorghum, and other grass family plants.
· Deep burial of all crop residues using a moldboard plow. Coarse trash like maize and sorghum stalks need to be chopped up manually or with a disk harrow before plowing. Residues left on the surface serve as a breeding ground for the fungus.
· Planting peanuts on a flat field or on a ridge. Seed furrows should not have depressions which cause poor drainage.
· Avoiding cultivation which throws soil into the crop row, especially when plants are young. This can cause stem injury and burial of young plants, which greatly increases susceptibility to stem rot and crown rot.
· Control of Cercospora leafspot and other foliar diseases with fungicides to minimize defoliation, since fallen leaves also serve as breeding grounds for the fungus.
· Applications of soil fungicides like PCNB (Terrachlor) and Vitavax (Carboxin) in a band over the row at planting or at early pegging stage. These give fair to good protection where stem rot problems are serious. (See the next unit for specific recommendations.)
Seed Rot and Seedling Blight (Preand Post-Emergence "Damping Off")
Pre-emergence rot: It is not unusual to find germinating peanut seeds rotting in the ground. Affected seeds break down rapidly, but early examination will show them to be covered with a growth caused by various species of fungus. Seedling blight is often referred to as Aspergillus crown rot and is caused by Aspergillus niger, a black sooty fungus. True crown rot is more accurately used to describe the disease when it attacks older plants past the seedling stage. The stem tissue just below ground level is attacked on young seedlings shortly after they emerge, and the fungus quickly spreads up the stem, covering it with a mass of black spores. The stem will then suffer a total collapse. Contributing factors: Soils that have been continually cropped to peanuts for long periods have more problems with seed rots and seedling blights. Excessively deep planting weakens the stem and increases susceptibility. Seeds may also be damaged as they are being deshelled. Controls: Seed treatment with fungicides gives good control; usually a combination of two fungicides is needed to provide control of all species. Recommendations are given in the next unit. Attention should also be given to planting depth and crop rotation.
This is somewhat similar but less common. Affected plants have a white fungal growth attached to rotted areas of the stem which may extend from below the soil surface up into some or all of the individual runners. Infected stem tissue is very shredded and contains many black fungal bodies. Pegs and nuts are also attacked. Control is usually not needed,but a fungicide called Botran (dicloran) is sometimes applied as a spray in the U.S.
Peg and Pod Rots
Several types of fungi including Sclerotium and Sclerotinia attack the pegs and pods. Soil sterilants are sometimes applied before planting in the U.S., but this would seldom be economical or feasible for small farmers. Crop rotation is helpful. Aspergillus flavus is a fungal mold that attacks stored seed but is sometimes found in the field. Under certain conditions, some strains of A. flavus produce aflatoxin, a potent carcinogen (cancer-causing agent) and toxin that can affect birds, humans, and other mammals. Harvested pods are free of aflatoxin except where they have been broken or damaged by termites, hoeing, threshing or rough handling. The development of Aspergillus and other storage molds largely can be prevented by timely harvest, separation of damaged kernels, and rapid drying of moist pods. Viral Diseases Rosette virus: The most serious disease of peanuts in Africa, especially in the wetter areas. It is spread by one species of aphid (Aphis craccivora) and has several alternate host plants, including Euphorbia hirta, a weed. Plants become severely stunted, and the younger leaves turn yellow and mottled. Emerging leaves remain small and become curled and yellow. Early planting and close spacing appear to reduce the incidence of rosette virus. Affected plants should be removed and destroyed, and aphid control should be considered.
Destruction of alternate host plants is helpful. Resistant varieties have been developed in Senegal. Spotted wilt virus: Caused by tomato wilt virus and spread by several types of thrips. Affected plants have leaves with light green and yellow patterns, often in large patches or in the form of ring spots. Leaves are usually misshapen and puckered, and the plants take on a bunched appearance. Tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, peppers, ornamental plants, and several types of weed serve as alternate hosts. It is usually not serious.
Beans suffer heavy disease losses worldwide, and one of the major reasons is the high prevalence of seed-borne diseases. According to CIAT, more than half of the major bean diseases can be transmitted by the seed; these include anthracnose, damping off, root and stem rots, bacterial wilt, bacterial blight, and several viruses. Disease-free certified seed is very difficult to obtain in Latin America and presently makes up less than 3 percent of the bean seed planted there.
Control of seed-borne fungi: Many fungi are carried on or in the seed coat, and seed treatment with conventional fungicides like Arasan (thiram) and Captan (Orthocide) will control them. Others like anthracnose are carried deeper in the seed and are usually unaffected by seed treatment. Systemic fungicides like Benlate (benomyl) have shown some promise in these cases. Foliar applications of systemic fungicides during the latter half of the growing season have significantly reduced the incidence of seed-borne anthracnose in the harvested seed, but are expensive. Delayed harvesting and pod contact with the soil surface during growth can increase seed-borne disease problems.
Control of seed-borne bacteria: Seed treatments will not control internally-borne bacterial diseases on beans. Seed produced in drier areas using strict sanitary and cultural practices such as crop rotation and inspection is less likely to be contaminated.
Control of seed-borne viruses: Current seed treatments are ineffective against seed-borne viruses. Control involves the production of disease-free seed in areas where vectors and hosts can be controlled.
PreEmergence Rot: Seed treatment with fungicides is very effective. (See maize and peanuts.) Root Rots: Beans are very susceptible to root rots caused by Rhizoctonia, Fusarium, Sclerotium, and other fungi. Symptoms include reddish or brown lesions on the hypocotyls (belowground portion of the stem) and rotting of the lateral roots from one to several weeks after emergence. Wilting and leaf yellowing may or may not occur.
· In temperate areas, planting only after soils have warmed up
· Good drainage
· Crop rotation
· Avoiding contamination of virgin ground with unclean tools, animal or green manure containing bean residue or dirty irrigation water.
· Treating seed with Arasan (thiram), Zineb, Demosan, PCNB, Vitavax (carboxin) or Benlate at 1-3 active ingredient per kg to give partial control.
· Applying Benlate or PCNB over the seed furrow after planting to give good control.
Anthracnose (Colleotrichum lindemuthianum): Anthracnose is of worldwide importance in cool to moderate temperatures and wet conditions and is spread by seed, soil, crop debris, rain, and tools. It produces elongated reddish-brown to purple cankers on stems and leaf veins. Pods have sunken spots with pink centers and darker borders. Infected seeds mav be discolored and have dark brown to black cankers. Anthracnose is seldom a problem in hot, dry areas.
· Use disease-free seed.
· Do not grow beans more than once every two or three years on the same field (includes cowpeas, lima beans).
· Avoid working in fields when the plants are wet.
· Plow under bean residues.
Seed treatment with fungicides is only partially effective. Preventative applications of foliar fungicides have variable results. Rust (Uromyces phaseoli): Rust is of worldwide distribution and also attacks cowpeas and lima beans. Losses are heaviest when plants are infected at or before flowering. The disease is favored by damp weather and cool nights and can infect both the leaves and the pods. First symptoms usually appear on the lower leaf surface as whitish, slightly raised spots. The spots grow into reddish-brown pustules which may reach 1-2 mm in diameter within a week. The entire leaf begins to yellow, then turns brown and dies. Rust is not carried on the seed, but the spores persist in bean residues. There are many races of rust, and bean varieties vary in their resistance to them.
· Crop rotation.
· Sulfur dust or fungicide sprays (see next section).
Angular Leafspot (Isariopsis griseola): This disease causes gray or brown angular lesions on the leaves which eventually lead to premature defoliation. Pods may be affected with oval to round spots with reddish-brown centers and seeds may be shrivelled. The disease is carried by the seed, but contaminated plant debris is a much more common source of infection. Control: Using disease-free seed, crop rotation, and removing previously infected crop debris from the field before planting. Seed treatment with a fungicide (Benlate has given good results) and fungicide sprays may help. Sclerotinia Blight (white mold): Causes water-soaked lesions and a white mold on leaves and pods (see also peanuts). It can be controlled by crop rotation and foliar sprays of Benlate, Dichlone, Dicloran, PCNB or Thiabendazole around early to mid-bloom. Irrigation intensifies this disease.
Web Blight (Thanatephorus cucumeris) This disease can be a major limiting factor to bean production under high temperature and humidity. Many other crops are also affected. The fungus causes small round water-soaked spots on the leaves which are much lighter than the surrounding healthy tissue and look like they have been scalded. Young pods show light tan spots that are irregular in shape but become darker and sunken with age--they can be confused with anthracnose. The stems, pods and leaves become covered with a spider web-type growth that is imbedded with brown fungal bodies. Web blight can be carried by the seed but is more commonly transmitted by wind, rain, tools, and the movement of humans and draft animals through the field.
· Disease-free seed.
· Crop rotation with maize, grasses, tobacco, and other non-hosts.
· Planting beans in rows, not by broadcasting, to maximize air circulation.
· Fungicide sprays give fair to good control. Systemics like Benlate are recommended under high rainfall.
Common Blight (Xanthomonas phaseoli) and Fuscous Blight (Xanthomonas phaseoli var. fuscans): Both diseases produce the same symptoms on leaves, stems, pods and seeds. The first leaf symptoms are water-soaked spots on the undersides which grow irregularly and are surrounded by a narrow zone of lemon yellow tissue. These spots eventually become brown and dead. The stem may become girdled near the soil and break. Water-soaked spots form on the pods, gradually enlarge and become dark, red and somewhat sunken. Infected seed may rot and shrivel.
· Disease-free seed.
· Crop rotation and deep plowing.
· Copper-base fungicides have controlled leaf symptoms well, but have not given good yield increases. Antibiotics should not be used due to the danger of causing mutations.
· Seed treatment is not very effective.
· Some varietal resistance is available.
Halo Blight (Pseudomonas phaseoli-cola): This bacterial disease prefers cooler temperatures than common and fuscous blights. The initial symptoms are small,water-soaked spots on the undersides of the leaves, which eventually become infected with greasy spots if the attack is severe. Stem girdle or joint rot occurs at the nodes above the seed leaves when the disease results from contaminated seed. However, leaf yellowing and malformation may occur without many other external signs.
· Deep plowing and crop rotation
· Removing infected plant debris from the field
· Avoiding work in the fields when the foliage is wet
· Disease-free seed
· Varieties that have some resistance
· Seed treatment with Streptomycin (2.5 g active ingredient per kilogram of seed) or Kasugamycin (0.25 g active ingredient per kilogram), using the slurry (liquid) method.
· Copper-base fungicides applied to the leaves gives poor to fair control.
Beans are attacked by a number of viruses, many of which also attack cowpeas. Bean common mosaic, bean yellow mosaic and cucumber mosaic viruses are spread by aphids. Bean rugose mosaic and several others are spread by beetles. Bean golden mosaic and chlorotic mottle viruses are spread by white-flies, and curly top virus by the beet leafhopper. Symptoms include one or more of the following: green-yellow leaf mottling, leaf malformation, puckering, curling, plant stunting, and yellowing. Control consists largely of using resistant varieties and disease-free seed, and controlling insects.
Seed injury: Bean seed is very susceptible to seedcoat damage and internal injury by improper threshing and mechanical harvesting or by rough handling. Damage may be invisible or produce cracks in the seedcoat, both of which can cause the following seed abnormalities:
· Reduced germination and seedling vigor: This can also be caused by bacteria, fungi, insects, fertilizer burn, and herbicide injury.
· "Baldhead": The seedling lacks a growing point. There is only a bare stump above the cotyledons, so no further leaf growth can occur.
· Detached cotyledons: Young bean seedlings need at least one complete cotyledon or two broken ones with more than half attached to provide adequate nutrition for emergence and early growth.
Dry bean seed (14 percent moisture or below) is the most easily damaged. Bagged seed should not be dropped or thrown onto hard surfaces.
Sunscald: Intense sunlight, especially following cloudy and humid weather, can produce small water-soaked spots on the exposed sides of leaves, stems, branches and pods. These spots turn reddish or brown and may grow together into large necrotic lesions. Air pollutants and tropical spider mites can produce similar symptoms.
Heat Injury: High daytime temperatures may cause lesions that form a constriction around the stem at the soil line, especially on light-colored sandy soils. Temperatures above 35.5°C cause blossom drop if they occur during flowering. | <urn:uuid:fa4b0f13-6b50-4ed0-9f1b-de3b2d50de76> | CC-MAIN-2014-41 | http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=d-00000-00---off-0cdl--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-------0-1l--11-en-50---20-about---00-0-1-00-0--4----0-0-11-10-0utfZz-8-10&a=d&c=cdl&cl=CL2.20&d=HASH018cbff4ef68f7b33c89e20e.10.8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1412037663587.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20140930004103-00083-ip-10-234-18-248.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931881 | 8,305 | 3.390625 | 3 | 2.64208 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Industrial |
Sacred-Texts Native American Navajo
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This myth, IN THE BEGINNING, was recorded in February and March of 1950, near Tuba City, Arizona. The informant, Frank Goldtooth, was a man of from 50 to 60 years of age, who during his lifetime had been a silversmith, a farmer, a sheepman, a tribal councilman, a trader and a medicine man. When one chooses an informant, one must remember that there are three types of individuals who are willing to speak or act as informants. First is the “misfit.” He is an individual who is not accepted by his own people and frequently not by the stronger outgroup. This individual attempts to gain prestige with his own group by association with a member of the stronger outgroup. He actually straddles the fence for he neither is accepted by one group or the other. Usually this “misfit” knows little of his own people. The second type of individaul is willing to talk, but only for what he receives for doing it. Oft times he embellishes much of what he says for the effect and gain which results. The third type is the one who has much foresight and knowledge and recognizes the position his people occupy in the conflict of cultures. He realizes that the eventual outcome will be the suppression or elimination of his own people. He attempts to synthesize the good from the “foreign” culture which will benefit his own group, with those elements which can be retained in his own. He knows with certainty that the beliefs of his people will finally fade away. Frank Goldtooth is of the third type.
In order to gain information from the informants, I employed the “fading ancient lore” as the reason for my interest, as has been done by others. The attitude of the informant on this matter is interesting and important. The following is the actual translation by Teddy, Keith and Herbert Goldtooth of the introduction prepared by Frank Goldtooth for those Navahos who were to read or hear the story of Frank Goldtooth from records or parts of the recorded text.
“You are going to hear this story in future times. You will realize this, you people going to school when you hear it. All of you other people (the Navaho) are going to hear the story that I have been asked by this man (the author). The early Navaho medicine men never thought of giving up this information about these songs and stories. They never thought about putting them into a book. But I realize this and I do not want this story to fade. The early Navaho did not want to give true information to the white man. The Navaho laugh nowadays because they gave false information just to get rid of it. This is wrong and you should leave it alone. p. 2 That is how I think about it. That is the way I think about it and that is the way it is going to be. You that know the true story are going to know this and know this is a true story.
“We never teach our younger generation about these stories. I want you of the younger generation to learn these stories and realize what they are for and to have you put it in your heads and remember it. I want you to think from your brains, for the different tribes are going to hear this story and realize how Navahos used to be. That is the way they are going to think about it, for if it is not put in the record it will fade out. As this record passes along you will hear the stories and when it is published as a book the tribes may buy it if they want to. After one buys the book he will know the story, but he will never learn it. I want a cover on the book so that it will never wear out. I want my name in the book, too. When you (the author) go home and work on the book. I want you to always think of the headman (F. G.,) as your best friend. I know you inside and out and it is the person and how he acts, no matter what tribe he belongs to, that makes the difference. As time goes on this book will not be made fun of, for it is going to be a real book.
“The reason I have put songs on records is that you (the author) have given me a chance. I am not getting paid for these songs and stories, but I am giving my story so it will not fade. When you sing these songs in a ceremonial way it is different than it is on the record for I am leaving out some of the important parts. This is just to show how the songs go. Some of you medicine men have mixed up the Good Way Ceremonial with other songs. If any of you are doing the Good Way Ceremonial in the wrong way, they (the tribal council members or the tribe) will have to take it from you. We go by these songs; we live by these songs. I do not do the ceremonial songs in any old way. That is not the way I am putting it into the book. This book will go on from time to time and people will die of old age on this book. I want this story to be renewed so it will not fade. That is how it is going to be in the book and the same way with the songs. If you have learned the songs and how they go, you will understand. That is the way it is.”
The informant learned the ceremonials, songs and stories when a young man. His teachers told him of two ways of learning. Goldtooth stated these as:
“One was the Bego Way and the Begochiddy with Witchcraft. The other is the Good Way and the Good Way with Witchcraft. The Bego Way and Good Way are the same except that in the Bego Way, Bego does everything while in the Good way, White Bead Woman, First Man and Talking p. 3 God are the important gods. A man may learn the Bego Way or Good Way and tell the man, ‘I just want to learn the Good Way,’ or ‘I don’t want to learn the witchcraft part.’ In both the Bego and Good Way there is a branch of witchcraft, but you do not have to learn it. They both start at the same place and end at the same place. The Talking God mask is between both of them (i.e. they both make use of it). If a medicine man of either story does something wrong, either of the men can be cured by the mask of Talking God. There are two main stories with each having seven branches. Each seven branches has thirty-three stories branching off.”
The informant claims his story to be 600 years old. About this Goldtooth said:
“The first to learn this story knew the Good Way Story well. He was called yĭ́k’ăăch’ī (Shit-on-it) and his clan was khīyă`ā́ni (Where-Houses-Stand-Up). The next man who learned the story was called The Bird or chōstōdī a real brother of yĭ́k’ăăch’ī of the Clan Where-Houses-Stand-Up. Næłstŏ́i, The Smoker, of the Clan Bitter-Water or tqodich’ĭ́nĭ learned the story next. Black Mustace, son of The Smoker, of the Clan khīyă`ā́ni or Where-Houses-Stand-Up, followed. The next to learn the story was Many Beads, yōzhłoĭ, of the Many Goats or tl`ĭ́zi łắni. The last to learn the story was Frank Goldtooth of the Red Lefties Clan or tl’āsh chī́. This is how the story should be told.”
The story took approximately thirty days to record. It was interpreted by the informant’s four sons, Teddy, Keith, Emmerson and Herbert. At no time were there less than two of the sons present and on many occasions all four were there. Later the completed typed notes were read to the informant for corrections and elaboration.
Until recently much incomplete field work bas been done upon the “fastest growing Indian group in the United States”. (Note the 84 pages of bibliography of published and unpublished data on all phases of Navaho life, in Kluckhohn and Spencer, 1940). There have been numerous versions of the Navaho Origin or Creation Myth recorded and published dating back almost one hundred years (Broek, 1854). The completeness of details of the various works vary from author to author and, of course, depending upon the time they were recorded. In no version has there yet been combined all the important aspects and parts of the Navaho Myth. The religious beliefs of the Navaho are as numerous and as varied as there are medicine men. This is not to say, however, that the main theme or events in the myth are drastically different from medicine man to medicine man or from area to area. The same main theme occurs in p. 4 the different stories, but varies in detail depending upon the version. What is different in the myths are the innumerable approaches and sequence of events or emphases upon particular portions of the stories. These are the important parts in the analysis of the myths.
Many versions of the myth begin with the creation of the gods and the subsequent creation of an earth, plants, animals, a sun and a moon. Spencer (1947, p. 14) has made a chart of the events which seem to represent the majority of main themes or those incidents which reappear in the versions most often. The infidelity of the wife of a chief caused the separation of the sexes and the men took their goods and crossed a great river. Years passed and the women became hungry and lonely and wished for the men to return. A rejoining of the sexes took place with the repentance of the women. Coyote, in his wanderings, came upon one or two baby Water Animals lying on the water. The theft of the water babies by Coyote angered the parents who caused a flood to take place. All that had been created was gathered and the ascension of the cane took place. The last journey up the cane led the people to a world filled with water. Locusts met and vanquished the four water beings who controlled this world and the people emerged from the cane.
Coyote threw an object (hide scraper, rock, etc.) into the water near the place of emergence to divine the fate of the people. Had the object floated, there would have been no death, but it sank into the water. The things brought from below were again planted and other objects were created by the gods (house, pottery, etc.). Some of the women had been unfaithful and monsters were born from these unions. The Pueblo Gambler was a divine personage who was a gambling god. He was so lucky he soon had won all the wealth and almost all the men, women and children of the Pueblos. A Navaho, with the help of the gods, won everything back from the gambler. This gambler was shot up into the heavens to become the progenitor of the Europeans.
The population of the earth grew rapidly, but the monsters began to destroy all of mankind. White Bead Woman or Changing Woman was created by the gods as an instrument to destroy all the evil upon the earth. White Bead Woman or Changing Woman gave birth to twins (some informants say the two women are separate with each having a child, one from the Sun and the other having a child from the Water). These two boys set out to see their father, the Sun, in order to get the power to destroy the evil upon the earth.
After many adventures and dangers the Twins reached the Sun’s houses and here, too, were “tested” to see if they were truly whom they p. 5 claimed to be. The Sun, then satisfied, gave them protection and power, and they set out to destroy the monsters upon the earth. In succession were met the Giant, the Horned Monster, Roc (a gigantic bird who carries away human beings). Cliff Ogre, Gorgon (an evil being who kills people by its glance), the Antelope, the Rolling Rock, the Swallows, Old Age, Cold, Poverty, Hunger, the Bear Pursued, and other beings which were destroyed by the Twins. (The Roc, Cliff Ogre and Gorgon are patterned after Lowie, 1908, p. 26, 27. The others have not been systematized as these three.)
There was a battle at Blue House and the Twins destroyed the Cliff Dwellers. After this the Sun was very lonesome for his wife, White Bead Woman, and asked the Twins to persuade her to go to the west. After much persuasion, White Bead Woman left taking with her many of the plants and animals that were in the east. While on the journey twelve Navaho were created from the body of White Bead Woman. These she sent back to the east with canes and pets to protect them.
The clans originated as these Created Navaho came east, for they used their canes to find water. White Bead Woman and the gods went to their homes and were not to be seen again. Coyote, a witch, had great power given to him by the gods. He had a series of adventures such as the Eye Juggler, Animals and the Rock Slabs, Giant and Coyote, Coyote and the Betting Animals1, Coyote and Skunk or the Hoadwinked Dancers, (Eye Juggler, Animals and the Rock Slabs, and the Skunk and Coyote are patterned after Lowie. 1908. p. 26. 27), Changing Bear Maiden and so on, Coyote was finally killed by Spiders because he made fun of them. The last portion of the myth is the story about Self Teacher or Chap Man who was a very poor man because of his gambling. This man was chosen by the gods to go to the west and rescue all of the captured game animals. He had a perilous journey in a hollow log and finally met an old man and woman and their daughter.
The old man, Deer Raiser, attempted many times to kill Self Teacher or Chap Man, but he did not succeed. Chap Man won the love p. 6 of the old Man’s daughter and let all of the captured animals go to be used by the Earth People.
Of course, this résumé is not in chronological order of sequence, for all versions lack or have additional elements of the general story outlined above. For a detailed comparison of the various versions see Fishler (1951).
In many recorded versions the myth has few rationalizations or explanations of natural phenomena or happenings. This is not to say that some explanations are not present in some or many of the versions, yet it is a question of degree. Certainly the technique of recording the myths either augments or diminishes the knowledge gained from them. Ideally, the recorded texts in toto verbatim, are the most accurate and reliable, but this is not always possible. The degree of learning of any Navaho story depends upon the student. The medicine man is there to teach, providing he is properly paid, for as long as it takes to learn. In this connection see Kluckhohn (1939) where the actual descriptions and techniques of the learning of the ceremonials, songs and stories are given.
In the learning process certain customary explanations are made to the student. The number of these, of course, differ from medicine man to medicine man. Yet they are made by most all of these teacher-medicine men. The number of explanations voluntarily given, in turn, depends upon the training of the teacher. The student is given ample opportunity to ask any searching or revealing question on any subject with which they are concerned. Thus, the eagerness and alertness of the student determines whether he learns only that which is volunteered by the teacher or of the mysteries and theology of his religion. Knowledge means power to the Navaho. The knowledge of sacred names, songs and stories separates the chosen few from the mass of the population. This partially explains the reticence with which such information is given by medicine man and layman alike. Many years and much money and effort may ensue during the years in search of a sacred name or story.
The learning of the myth properly, then, combines the study of religion, genealogy, economics, animal husbandry, horticulture, meteorology; it is in fact a complete anthropological study of all aspects of a people’s culture. Explanation, and much of it, there must be to explain even a small portion of a culture so rich in oral tradition as the Navaho. The importance and presence of these explanations and rationalizations must not be overlooked in the analysis of the myth. This is one of the more important features in this particular version of the Navaho Creation Myth.
There are also certain elements of this myth which are not found in the majority of available published material. Why this should be true may be answered by one or a combination of three explanations: One, the material has not been given by previous informants. Two, the material is a fabrication upon the part of the informants. The Navaho enjoy putting something over on someone, white or otherwise, as has long been known. Once done, such a story will linger and bring chuckles for years. Typical of such a story was one given by E. S. of Tuba City, Arizona and S. S. of Coal Mine, Arizona.
“During the days of Fort Sumner, a Negro cook in the army attacked a young Navaho girl. The girl’s relatives found out about it and went to Fort Sumner. Two men killed the Negro and another soldier, and then escaped. The general of the army said he wanted all of the Navahos to gather at the Fort. It took a week and soon all the Navaho were at Fort Sumner numbering from seven to ten thousand people. The Navaho covered the canyon from rim to rim as the general told them he wanted the two men who had killed his soldiers. The Navahos agreed and finally located two slaves who were the right size and color. These slaves had their legs tied with ropes and were dragged to the general by horses. As they were dragged by the horses, they were so disfigured that no one could tell if they were the guilty ones or not. This was so the general and his soldiers thought they were the men who were guilty. The Navaho laugh now because this has happened many times.”
Third, the data may perhaps be newly acquired. That such a situation exists is acknowledged by the Navaho themselves. One informant, S. S. of Coal Mine, Arizona, stated, “In the years since the return from Fort Sumner the wrong things have been taught the people. The Navaho people themselves have taught these things. The religion of the Navaho has changed greatly.” Another informant, T. H. of Tuba City, Arizona, said, “Much of Navaho belief, custom and ritual came from White House and Mesa Verde in the early days. From these areas came much of false Navaho belief.”
Anthropologists have always recognized the great influence the Pueblos have had upon the semi-nomadic Navaho people. ln addition to these acquisitions from the sedentary Pueblo groups, are those which evolved from isolation. One must not forget that local variations in certain areas of the reservation have changed certain features of Navaho culture. There is also independent discovery or invention which changes or adds to theology. Certain rites have their origin in the dreams or visions of medicine men themselves (Haile, 1940, p. 359). Which of these three hold the answer we will not attempt to say. Some of these p. 8 rather esoteric elements in the present myth which have not appeared to my knowledge in published material are, for example, the actual creation of a Supreme God, and some of the songs which have not previously been published.
Others are the detailed accounting of the creation of the plants, creation of the jackasses, the questioning of the Twins while in the sky by their father, the Sun, the meeting of the Twins with Pinyon Jay, the Twin and the Swallow People, the second trip to the Sun for horses (not power), the meeting of the Twins and their half brother, Frog Man, the battle of the Twins in the exact way it happened at Blue House, White Bead Woman story about the changing birds, where the white man came from, the women from the Red House Clan, khĭn łichī́nĭ and the story of the Man-with-Four-Names in this particular way and others. These are the most obvious changes from the majority of versions. The reason for their later appearance may be that they are also classified as ceremonial stories by other medicine men. Of course, there are similarities in major parts of the story between this version and others, yet there are important and interesting differences.
1 It is difficult to separate the sacred from the profane Coyote. Each informant believes differently as to when Coyote first lost his godliness. These first four stories Frank Goldtooth believed to be after the god Coyote died and were thus animal or “fairy” tales. In Matthews (1897, pp. 90, 91, 92, 97, 98) these four are classified as sacred. From other informants have been collected some fourteen or fifteen coyote stories of the Germanic Till Eulenspiegel (Hauptmann, 1928) or Trickster type which have not yet been published. | <urn:uuid:923d37e1-7526-4343-99f0-4c690439ef8c> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/nav/itb/itb02.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422122123549.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124175523-00071-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976074 | 4,597 | 2.71875 | 3 | 2.968146 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Religion |
Just as we start enjoying more time outdoors, snakes are warming up and looking for food after their long, quiet winter. But spring also marks the beginning of snakebite season.
But this year the veterinarians preparing to deliver lifesaving care for dogs and cats bitten by snakes will have the added support of the SnakeMap Project.
The SnakeMap Project, the first of its kind in Australia, aims to better predict, prevent, diagnose and treat snakebites in pets.
Vets across Australia will feed information into the project, which records when and where pets are bitten, what the treatment was and how the animal recovered. It’s designed to help reduce the impact of dangerous snake encounters for pets – but in the future it could help also help treat people.
Critical care veterinarians Dr Manu Boller and Dr Kylie Kelers, from the University of Melbourne’s U-Vet Animal Hospital, developed and launched the idea.
The SnakeMap Project brings together emergency and critical care experts, including epidemiologists, human snakebite experts, representatives of the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists and, importantly, a large number of veterinary hospitals that contribute snakebite information.
Dr Boller says the large number of highly venomous snakes in Australia means treating a snakebite is uniquely significant, both in human and veterinary medicine.
“Because of their inquisitive nature, dogs and cats are at particular risk of being bitten, and will succumb to the rapidly acting potent snake venom if not treated promptly. Consequently, snakebite is a common emergency presentation of dogs and cats to veterinary clinics throughout Australia,” says Dr Boller.
At the core of the SnakeMap Project is a secure, electronic research database that was created to allow veterinary hospitals to enter their snakebite data. That information can then be used as a medical resource for vets and, in future, as a snakebite forecasting system for pet owners and the public.
The key data in the SnakeMap registry includes information on the bitten animal, the place and time of the snakebite – including exact coordinates where the bite happened, treatment provided, including antivenom administration and breathing support, and the outcome of the treatment.
“With SnakeMap, we will gain unprecedented insight into the epidemiological dynamics: where the canine and feline snake envenomation events rise in early spring, peak in the summer and recede in autumn, how this is associated with meteorological characteristics and landscape features,” says Dr Boller.
He says significant trends have already emerged from last year’s data, the first year the project was active.
“The current dataset indicates most reported snakebites in dogs (73 per cent) happened in pet owners’ backyards. We knew that dogs are occasionally bitten in their backyard, but did not expect the extent with which this is happening.
“For cats, geospatial data can often not be captured as they roam more and snakebites are therefore less commonly witnessed compared to dogs,” Dr Boller says.
Dr Kelers says the SnakeMap data shows which dog breeds are more commonly bitten – data from the first year shows one in every four dogs bitten by a snake was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and one in 10 a Jack Russell Terrier. Thirty eight other breeds and mixed breeds were also recorded.
“The SnakeMap may also highlight, in not previously seen detail, the relationship between the location of a snake bite occurrence and snake habitat, and, in the long term, how this relationship is influenced by human behaviour and settlement,’’ Dr Kelers says.
“In Melbourne, many pet snakebites happen along the urban fringe in new suburbs, and along waterways such as Skeleton creek in Werribee. In Perth however, it appears snakebites happen in a more scattered pattern across the suburbs.”
The collection of additional event, animal and outcome data for each reported case may provide further valuable insight on possible circadian (night/day cycle), seasonal or habitat-specific effects on snakebite severity.
During the inaugural 2016/2017 season, the SnakeMap Project received data from 14 veterinary hospitals in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales.
Contributing to a comprehensive map
Now the team wants more veterinary hospitals to join the project in order to create a more comprehensive map.
“The SnakeMap project is a not-for profit, volunteer-based initiative, and we would like to look at it as a initiative run by the veterinary community, where veterinary hospitals across the country, small and large, are joining to contribute to new knowledge about a condition that affects so many pets, pet owners and veterinary professionals,” Dr Kelers says.
At the moment, the data collected is available to SnakeMap Project vets and made available to the veterinary community through scientific publications. But the team have a bigger goal.
“Our ultimate aim is to make SnakeMap available to the public so they can have timely, accurate information about what snake species are active in their area, when and where.”
In the mean time, the advice to pet owners remains the same. “For the upcoming season we recommend pet owners remain aware of the risks and avoid walking dogs off-lead in long grass or bush, especially near waterways,’’ Dr Kelers says.
“If your pet is vomiting, has red coloured urine or weakness it may have been bitten by a snake whether you have seen a snake or not. Keep your pet as still as you can and take them straight to a vet. The sooner antivenom is given, the better the recovery.”
And Dr Boller also flags the importance of insurance. Pets aren’t covered by Medicare, and whilst most animals survive snakebite if treated appropriately, the treatment can be expensive.
“Living in Australia, pet owners do need to be prepared for snakebite as we will always share our environment with snakes.”
Banner image: Shutterstock | <urn:uuid:81fdde3a-25d3-4a21-b322-b941105b834c> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/mapping-australia-s-snakebites-for-pets | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627999948.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20190625213113-20190625235113-00321.warc.gz | en | 0.943309 | 1,241 | 2.984375 | 3 | 3.090652 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Health |
In this paragraph we would like to reflect how modern teachers evaluate the adequacy in using games when teaching English language
Famous British teacher and educator Andrew Wright in his books' Language learning is hard work ... Effort is required at every moment and must be maintained over a long period of time. Games help and encourage many learners to sustain their interest and work.'
Games also help the teacher to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful. The learners want to take part and in order to do so must understand what others are saying or have written, and they must speak or write in order to express their own point of view or give information.''
The need for meaningfulness in language learning has been accepted for some years. A useful interpretation of 'meaningfulness' is that the learners respond to the content in a definite way. If they are amused, angered, intrigued or surprised the content is clearly meaningful to them. Thus the meaning of the language they listen to, read, speak and write will be more vividly experienced and, therefore, better remembered.
If it is accepted that games can provide intense and meaningful practice of language, then they must be regarded as central to a teacher's repertoire. They are thus not for use solely on wet days and at the end of term!'
Another distinguished scholar, Aydan Ersoz, of USA noted them following:
Language learning is a hard task which can sometimes be frustrating. Constant effort is required to understand, produce and manipulate the target language. Well-chosen games are invaluable as they give students a break and at the same time allow students to practice language skills. Games are highly motivating since they are amusing and at the same time challenging. Furthermore, they employ meaningful and useful language in real contexts. They also encourage and increase cooperation.'
Games are highly motivating because they are amusing and interesting. They can be used to give practice in all language skills and be used to practice many types of communication.'
In Korea a noted teacher Lee Su Kim distinguished games as follows:
There is a common perception that all learning should be serious and solemn in nature, and that if one is having fun and there is hilarity and laughter, then it is not really learning. This is a misconception. It is possible to learn a language as well as enjoy oneself at the same time. One of the best ways of doing this is through games.'
There are many advantages of using games in the classroom:
1. Games are a welcome break from the usual routine of the language class.
2. They are motivating and challenging.
3. Learning a language requires a great deal of effort. Games help students to make and sustain the effort of learning.
4. Games provide language practice in the various skills- speaking, writing, listening and reading.
5. They encourage students to interact and communicate.
6. They create a meaningful context for language use.'
A great Polish educator the opinions of whom we mentioned within one of our chapters said,
Many experienced textbook and methodology manuals writers have argued that games are not just time-filling activities but have a great educational value. W. R. Lee holds that most language games make learners use the language instead of thinking about learning the correct forms (1979:2). He also says that games should be treated as central not peripheral to the foreign language teaching programme. A similar opinion is expressed by Richard-Amato, who believes games to be fun but warns against overlooking their pedagogical value, particularly in foreign language teaching. There are many advantages of using games. "Games can lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition of input more likely" (Richard-Amato 1988:147). They are highly motivating and entertaining, and they can give shy students more opportunity to express their opinions and feelings (Hansen 1994:118). They also enable learners to acquire new experiences within a foreign language which are not always possible during a typical lesson. Furthermore, to quote Richard-Amato, they, "add diversion to the regular classroom activities," break the ice, "[but also] they are used to introduce new ideas" (1988:147). In the easy, relaxed atmosphere which is created by using games, students remember things faster and better (Wierus and Wierus 1994:218). S. M. Silvers says many teachers are enthusiastic about using games as "a teaching device," yet they often perceive games as mere time-fillers, "a break from the monotony of drilling" or frivolous activities. He also claims that many teachers often overlook the fact that in a relaxed atmosphere, real learning takes place, and students use the language they have been exposed to and have practiced earlier (1982:29). Further support comes from Zdybiewska, who believes games to be a good way of practicing language, for they provide a model of what learners will use the language for in real life in the future (1994:6).'
Games encourage, entertain, teach, and promote fluency. If not for any of these reasons, they should be used just because they help students see beauty in a foreign language and not just problems that at times seem overwhelming.'
When to Use Games
Ms. Uberman noted that 'Games are often used as short warm-up activities or when there is some time left at the end of a lesson. Yet, as Lee observes, a game "should not be regarded as a marginal activity filling in odd moments when the teacher and class have nothing better to do" (1979:3). Games ought to be at the heart of teaching foreign languages. Rixon suggests that games be used at all stages of the lesson, provided that they are suitable and carefully chosen.'
'Games also lend themselves well to revision exercises helping learners recall material in a pleasant, entertaining way. All authors referred to in this article agree that even if games resulted only in noise and entertained students, they are still worth paying attention to and implementing in the classroom since they motivate learners, promote communicative competence, and generate fluency.'
Games have been shown to have advantages and effectiveness in learning vocabulary in various ways. First, games bring in relaxation and fun for students, thus help them learn and retain new words more easily. Second, games usually involve friendly competition and they keep learners interested. These create the motivation for learners of English to get involved and participate actively in the learning activities. Third, vocabulary games bring real world context into the classroom, and enhance students' use of English in a flexible, communicative way.'
'Therefore, the role of games in teaching and learning vocabulary cannot be denied. However, in order to achieve the most from vocabulary games, it is essential that suitable games are chosen. Whenever a game is to be conducted, the number of students, proficiency level, cultural context, timing, learning topic, and the classroom settings are factors that should be taken into account.'
'In conclusion, learning vocabulary through games is one effective and interesting way that can be applied in any classrooms. The results of this research suggest that games are used not only for mere fun, but more importantly, for the useful practice and review of language lessons, thus leading toward the goal of improving learners' communicative competence.'
Why Use Games in Class Time?
Ø Games are fun and children like to play them. Through games children experiment, discover, and interact with their environment. (Lewis, 1999)
Ø Games add variation to a lesson and increase motivation by providing a plausible incentive to use the target language. For many children between four and twelve years old, especially the youngest, language learning will not be the key motivational factor. Games can provide this stimulus. (Lewis, 1999)
The game context makes the foreign language immediately useful to the children. It brings the target language to life. (Lewis, 1999)
Ø The game makes the reasons for speaking plausible even to reluctant children. (Lewis, 1999)
Ø Through playing games, students can learn English the way children learn their mother tongue without being aware they are studying; thus without stress, they can learn a lot.
Ø Even shy students can participate positively.
Ø How to Choose Games (Tyson, 2000)
Ø A game must be more than just fun.
Ø A game should involve "friendly" competition.
Ø A game should keep all of the students involved and interested.
Ø A game should encourage students to focus on the use of language rather than on the language itself.
Ø A game should give students a chance to learn, practice, or review specific language material.
One more scholar, M. Martha Lengeling said the following:
'In an effort to supplement lesson plans in the ESL classroom, teachers often turn to games. The justification for using games in the classroom has been well demonstrated as benefiting students in a variety of ways. These benefits range from cognitive aspects of language learning to more co-operative group dynamics.'
General Benefits of Games
- lowers affective filter
- encourages creative and spontaneous use of language
- promotes communicative competence
- reviews and extends
- focuses on grammar communicatively
- student centered
- teacher acts only as facilitator
- builds class cohesion
- fosters whole class participation
- promotes healthy competition
- easily adjusted for age, level, and interests
- utilizes all four skills
- requires minimum preparation after development
So language learning is a hard task which can sometimes be frustrating. Constant effort is required to understand, produce and manipulate the target language. Well-chosen games are invaluable as they give students a break and at the same time allow students to practice language skills. Games are highly motivating since they are amusing and at the same time challenging. Furthermore, they employ meaningful and useful language in real contexts. They also encourage and increase cooperation.
Games are highly motivating because they are amusing and interesting. They can be used to give practice in all language skills and be used to practice many types of communication. | <urn:uuid:691d2979-b443-4eef-9bc7-27a63753ca8a> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | http://doclecture.net/1-55780.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257648431.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20180323180932-20180323200932-00527.warc.gz | en | 0.955202 | 2,035 | 3.90625 | 4 | 2.859551 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Education & Jobs |
No Aboriginal Disadvantage
My people are from northern New South Wales, and although I work in Sydney as the Sydney Opera House’s Head of Indigenous Programming, I am a non-traditional fly-in-fly-out worker. I am a Widjubal woman and I live most of my week on country with my roots firmly planted in the rich fertile soil and the sweet waters of the mountains-to-saltwater country of the Bundjalung east coast territories.
As I sat down to write this piece, what came to me first was something that my colleagues have said about Homeground, our annual celebration of First Nations history and culture at the Opera House. They said “let’s make sure we don’t show it as worthy, dark, gloomy or educative.” I said, well, that’s bloody easy to do – because black isn’t black.
A recent scientific study has provided DNA evidence that Indigenous Australian society is the most ancient civilisation on earth. This is backed up by the generally-held belief that Australia’s first people are the oldest living, adapting culture – we even survived an ice-age.
Some Australians might find this evidence unsettling, but like Larissa Behrendt, I say “I told you so”.
Larissa Behrendt, Indigenous advocate, film maker and writer
Indigenous Australians know we’re the oldest living culture — it’s in our Dreamtime.
We have over 700 languages and dialects and a rich history of oral storytelling – but what is important is the harmonious way in which we connect to country and our place in the cosmos. We are caretakers. We express this harmonious relationship and cultural awareness in science, story and song.
It’s there in the word “Eora”, which we associate with the nation group around Sydney and which means “here” in the local Dharug language. “I come from here” – no name, it was just their country, that’s how connected they were to it.
It’s easy to see nothing but negativity: colonisation, destruction of our land and intergenerational trauma after successive government interventions, not to mention the cruel old stereotypes that still pervade mainstream media. But I say there is no Aboriginal disadvantage – our culture is our advantage.
Actually, it’s an advantage that all Australians share and can become our shared strength.
But the progress feels too slow on the football field and in the classroom. Can sharing our culture – the giving and receiving of ancient dance and song – begin to heal the wounds inflicted over the last 230 years?
I believe the answer is yes. To share and celebrate First Nations culture together can be a path to a shared future and I’ve continued to turn that belief into action for many years. Homeground is but one manifestation.
Listening to a band, hearing about the cosmology or weaving with lomondra grass, we understand that the biodiversity, the science, the story and the song are all connected in a giant jigsaw and that without each of them nothing exists.
Today, we have less time to reexamine and reevaluate our place in the world – the big questions – the why. We are too busy on Twitter to listen to one another, country and the world around us.
As Australians, when we think deeply about our connection to the land, we can only be led by Australia’s first people. Spirituality is intrinsic in our songlines and in all the ways that these are expressed – yes in song, but also in dance and through visual arts.
My personal totem is the bimbul, the hoop pine. In Aboriginal culture you don’t just protect your totem, you become it. I have become strong, tall and unwavering in my commitment to sharing and promoting Indigenous culture as the pine continues strong and proud in my country.
A corroboree is a gathering – actually, the best corroborees are great big parties – with music, singing, authentic storytelling and dust clouds rising from thousands of feet stamping. In the old ways, our people would gather for tournaments, sporting events, festivals, marriages. We would travel to neighbouring clans for events, because the moiety stretches to the Sunshine Coast. We’d celebrate food sources like the bunya nut or down south it was the abundance of the bogong moth.
When I was 10, a big corroboree was held in Lismore. According to a Northern Star report at the time, some 10,000 people witnessed the continuance of the Widjabul song cycles led by my family. Witnessing a corroboree at a young age, knowing the chants and calls were thousands of years old, had a profound effect on me.
The best part about corroborees is the strength in numbers – the hearts, the souls and the minds brought together for one moment in time.
Our brains are wired to socialise and opportunities to connect with each other in shared celebratory experience are vital to harmonious living.
Perhaps this is why the corroboree has always been such a strong part of Indigenous Australian culture; as the oldest living culture on the planet we must’ve been doing something right?
In hindsight I marvel at the resilience of my family and their visionary approach to ensure our language, songs and stories were laid down in the archives so they would always be available for future generations.
At this year’s Homeground, I’ve invited First Nations artists from New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Canada to perform along with musicians, dancers, weavers and artists from Australia; it’s a global corroboree where, as sisters and brothers, we can forge a greater understanding across borders with the people that are original owners of lands around the world.
The world-wide dialogue of fear is rising, we need to push an alternate rhythm, movement and positive change – with grace and respect. We know it’s good for our brains and it invigorates Australian culture and promotes stronger connections to country.
Start to listen, and your body will catch the rhythm.
Article originally published in the The Guardian Australia on 7 Oct 2016. | <urn:uuid:2349f3d4-efdb-479c-941a-11693bfc8a04> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/first-nations/no-aboriginal-disadvantage | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100529.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20231204115419-20231204145419-00860.warc.gz | en | 0.950975 | 1,308 | 2.8125 | 3 | 2.864469 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Politics |
The History and Care of Calla Lilies Flowers for 2020
Zantedeschia also is known as Calla Lilies is one of the most beautiful flowers found in southern Africa and around the world. They are rhizome-rooted plants which come in a wide array of colors. This flower is popularly used for wedding bouquets and fresh flora arrangement.
About Calla Lilies
Calla lilies are gotten from a thick rhizome with long-petioled basal leaves. The flower grows in a cluster form on a leafless stalk which consists of a spadix and spathe.
When fully grown, Calla Lilies are about 1 to 3 feet high with a diameter of 1 to 1. Its leaves are about 11/2 long and are shaped like arrowheads with a sliver or white speckles.
Interesting Facts About Calla Lilies
Calla originates from a Greek term for “beautiful.”
There are grown from bulbous roots with finger-like growths known as tubers.
Calla Lilies blooms in the late spring.
Its roots are poisonous.
They grow mostly in Marshy areas except for White Calla Lilies.
Types of Calla Lillies
Calla lilies have different species; it has the annual varieties and perennial varieties. The yearly varieties always add lovely colors and structures to warm-season borders and summer containers. Annual types have flower colors ranging from orange, red, pink, yellow, and purple.
The perennial types always make the cottage or woodland look lovely, and they bloom throughout the spring season while the annual types bloom during summer. Perennial varieties usually come in dark purple, bright whites, and black color.
This variety of Calla Lilies produce large blooms that are bright yellow. It is commonly known as the sunniest yellow Calla Lily.
NightCap and Night Life:
The NightCap and Night Life varieties have a rich, deep shade of purple. The Night Life is a large flower which is darker and bluer in tone while the Nightcap is a smaller flower which has a redder shade of deep-purple.
California Ice Dancer:
This type of Calla Lily produces a large, pure creamy white flowers on stalks that grow about 0.5 meters (18 inches) tall. Its leaves are a darker shade of green than most varieties.
This variety has a beautiful shade of deep reddish-pink which is neither too dark or too bright.
This triple toned flower grows up to 0.6 meters tall. It has a green to white to pink color that extends from the base of the bloom.
This variety is similar to the Pink Melody. It is whiter than the Pink Melody with just blush or hint of pink on the edges of the petals.
This is one of the most spectacular varieties of Calla Lilies. It is large and has a deep gold edged in red.
Why we should Plant Calla Lilies
They Attract Pollinators
This colorful flower attracts all kinds of butterflies and hummingbirds who search for nectar. If you want a garden full of beautiful birds, you should grow the Calla Lilies.
They Repel Deer and Rabbits
This flower is the perfect choice for unfenced gardens because they repel deer and rabbits. You can fence your property by planting Calla
Lilies to repel these animals.
They Make the Garden Full During Summer
Calla Lilies flourish before other flowers during the early summer. If you want to fill up space in your garden, then just plant at least three rhizomes in the same hole between other plants.
To achieve a more beautiful garden, complement your Calla Lilies with dahlia, Hydrangeas, Astilbes, canna, New Guinea impatiens and Asparagus fern.
How to Grow Calla Lilies?
It’s a better practice to plant Calla Lilies in a sunny place with plenty of light. However, you need to protect them from the full sun during the day. Also, they don’t like to be directly under the rain, so you should find a suitable position where they can be exposed to the sun, and have shade in the afternoon.
Callas grow well on moist soil which is well-drained. If you have any pond, stream or any artificial wet soil in your garden, your Calla Lilies would flower well.
The perfect season to plant Calla Lilies is during the springtime (from March to May). Once the soil temperature is about 60 F, select a well-drained piece of land in your garden, dig the soil a little and add a thin layer of compost and a layer of sand.
Mix the soil, the compost, and sand together. Make a deep hole of about 2 to 4 inches and put three, five or seven bulbs in it. The bumpy side of the rhizome should be facing up while the smooth side should be facing down.
After planting the rhizome, add a thin layer of organic mulch on the top. That way loss of water and evaporation will be reduced. To avoid rot, don’t water the soil too much until the flower starts growing.
Keep at least 6 to twelve inches between each hole. Ensure that your soil stays moderately moist and expect your Callas to bloom in late summer.
How to Care of Calla Lilies
Calla Lilies require moist soil but do not water it too much. This flower is a swamp plant and it cannot tolerate an extended period of drought. Make sure to water your Calla when you spot that the soil is dry but do not overdo it. If you start noticing dark leaves on your flower, know that they are over-watered.
During autumn, keep your plant at 50 to 60 F temperature because they start to grow during this season. In their growth phase, calla Lilies flourish well in warmer locations.
Add liquid fertilizer regularly to the water and fertilize the main plant while it blossoms in the spring and summer.
Repeat this process once or twice a month until early autumn. Once your Callas blossoms, you can stop fertilizing. When the weather becomes cold during winter or fall, the flowers do not need any fertilizer.
Cut off yellow leaves and withered blossoms, you can put the blossoms in a vas if you want. Always trim your plants above the bulbs before its winter. | <urn:uuid:15feefe3-4b64-4aa6-84df-30988e93a53b> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://thegardenplant.com/the-history-and-care-of-cala-lillies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370506988.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20200402143006-20200402173006-00035.warc.gz | en | 0.921834 | 1,350 | 2.953125 | 3 | 0.757537 | 1 | Basic reasoning | Home & Hobbies |
The Radiologist Education is the beginning of a career that places prospective graduates on the frontline of the fight against disease and injuries. To be crystal clear Radiologists are MDs, Medical Doctors.
They are sometimes referred to as DOs, Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine. That stated, if you are not prepared to commit to the extensive learning curve, there are other less taxing careers.
To become a radiologist, takes time, determination, smarts and perseverance. These men and women are tasked with the responsibility of diagnosing and treating injuries and diseases.
Their education and training prepares them to use the latest medical imaging techniques and technology. Technology such as:
- CT Computed Tomography
- MRI Magnetic Resonance Imaging
- Nuclear Medicine
- PET Positron Emission Tomography
As you can ascertain, there is a high level of training and education required.
Suffice it to say, the Radiologist Education must be up to par. These physicians are responsible for examining patients – to determine the correct course of treatment. Hence, the educational path looks something like this:
- Graduate from an accredited medical school
- Pass a Licensing Examination
- Complete a Qualifying 4-Year Residency
- Become Board Certified
- Complete a Specialized Fellowship
Radiologists go through specified post medical school training that prepares them to understand, embrace and engage in radiation safety at all times.
It also educates them on how to interpret the medical images, they will be tasked with deciphering.
A bachelor’s degree initiates the educational process. The best option would be to enroll in a medical school that has the required pre-requisite courses. Your focus should be:
- College English
- General Biology
- General Physics
- Inorganic Chemistry
- Organic Chemistry
Since you will be seeking entry into a top tier medical school, it stands to reason that you would enroll the best college. Schooling can be extremely expensive, but it is definitely worth it.
After completing the education, training and licensing, you will end up with great career prospects, not to mention a high salary.
While in school, if you can volunteer at a local hospital or clinic, then do it! It will look great on your list of accomplishments, and also shows that you have real-world experience, not just knowledge from textbooks.
Even better, if you can shadow a Radiologist. Such an honor would provide you with a bird’s eye view into what the job role actually entails.
Once you complete your bachelor’s degree, you are now ready to apply for entry into medical school. This involves two years of classroom work, which will study the human anatomy, pathology, pharmacology, and biochemistry.
All of which is incredibly interesting, and will definitely set you on the right path to become a radiologist. Once the classroom experience is over, it’s time to take part in two years of clinical work, which will entail different areas of medicine – from psychiatry, to surgery and internal medicine.
This may seem unnecessary, but this is what you need to study to become a physician. It also allows you to start another career in the medical industry, if you ever decide that being a radiologist isn’t the right career for you.
Radiologist Education Training
After you’ve completed your four-year bachelor’s degree, and your four years in medical school, you are still not qualified to become a Radiologist. You will be required to undertake another four years of a radiology residency.
This is paid training, which is a relief. You will attend lectures, and shadow other radiologists, and even participate in treating some patients. It is similar to an apprenticeship, where you earn as you learn, while undertaking practical work.
It won’t quite be the full radiologist salary that you’ll be receiving, but it’s better than nothing; considering at this point, you won’t be a trained radiologist yet.
Once this is done, some people decide to undertake specialist training, such as Interventional radiology. This isn’t necessary, but if you want to specialize in your field, it is highly recommended.
Radiologist Education Licensing
To work as a radiologist, you need to be licensed. This would need to be renewed as well. You can earn your license in a number of ways, by completing the United States Medical Exam, or the COMLEX exam.
You will also need to meet any state requirements, as each state has different requirements to become licensed.
Radiologist Education And Finding a Job
Once you’ve completed all of the above, you can start job hunting! Luckily, even if you walk into an entry level role, your Radiology Career prospects will be so great, that your options will allow you to progress through the hierarchy rather quickly.
That means, promotions and pay increases, are all par for the course. It takes a long time, a lot of money and a lot of perseverance to meet the requirements for this career path, but it is definitely worth it.
As you have come to learn, the Radiologist Education is for those men and women who are serious about being the solution to our health issues. | <urn:uuid:32295e6f-5f30-47b6-a609-8d74093c867c> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://radiationtherapyschools.net/radiologist-education/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100508.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20231203125921-20231203155921-00452.warc.gz | en | 0.956906 | 1,093 | 3.171875 | 3 | 1.536198 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Education & Jobs |
Humans never runs out of desire to make appliances more efficient and more durable. For lighting for example, there several kinds of Advance Ballast used that are far better than its predecessors. Unlike traditional metal or magnetic ballasts, the Advance ones are equipped with electronic circuits that perform the voltage or electricity regulation. Hence, it is also known as Advance Electronic Ballast.
The Advance types of ballasts are the innovations of Advance Transformer Company. The company has been involved in the design and manufacture of several electronic products like transformers and ballasts since 1945. Today, Advance is now one of the many divisions of Phillips which has its primary focus on efficient and technologically advanced lighting electronics.
An advance ballast or transformer has a similar function to all other types or kinds of ballasts; that is to control or limit the amount of current that would flow to an electronic circuit or appliance. CFL bulbs or fluorescent tubes for example will explode or get busted if pure 110 or 220 volts is passed directly to the system. Hence, a balance is needed to limit it to the desired power rating. Additionally, ballasts protect the bulb or tube from the sudden power surges caused by the constant “on/off” switching of the light.
As mentioned above, the advance type of ballasts are made out mainly of electronic circuits instead of the conventional heavy metal ones. Because these circuits are lighter and smaller, the production of CFL or compact fluorescent light bulbs is now possible. Other benefits include the ability to regulate or minimize power consumption, improve or lengthen the bulb or tube lifespan, improve luminance or brightness, and so on.
Types of Advance Ballast
- Advance fluorescent ballast. Perhaps, the most popular kind of these advance types of ballasts are those used for ordinary lighting like the fluorescent tubes and CFL bulbs. For T5 fluorescent lights, the ballast is usually an elongated bar-like metal. For the CFLs, they are usually smaller circuits. With CFL bulbs, the ballasts are not usually replaceable because the circuit is integrated or intertwined with the bulb itself.
- Advance HID ballast. These ballasts are for use in all HID or high-intensity discharge lamps. For those who are not familiar with HID lamps, they are the heavy-duty or industrial lamps that are usually used in large or wider areas like gymnasiums, football stadiums, public areas, parks, etc. This advance ballast is not only used to regulate the amount or rate of electricity flowing into the lamp but they also aid in the HID lamps’ ability to provide maximum brightness or luminance even with minimal electricity consumption.
- Advance transformer ballast. The transformer ballast is a heavy-duty type of ballast intended for use in more complex lighting systems. Instead of using single ballast for every light, a network of park or street light for example can just use a single transformer ballast to regulate the supply of electricity in two or more lamps or bulbs.
- You could not just buy any ballast that you can spot. The choice will first be dependent on the type of lighting system you have installed. If you browse an advance ballast catalog, you can learn that T12 ballasts are for lamps or fluorescent tubes which have a diameter of 1.5 inches, while the T8 are for the thinner 1 inch.
- Check on the voltage. Another critical buying factor for advance ballast is the voltage or power rating. Although majority of the ballasts sold in a country are standardized according to standard home and office voltage, there are still variations ranging from the 110 to 277 volts.
- Check on the ballast factor. The final technical specification would be the ballast factor or the grade and efficiency of it. Choices are usually between .77, .88, .99, and 1.00. The lower the ballast factor, the less wattage the bulb will consume but it usually has a fallback on luminance.
How to Buy the Right Ballast
Invest on efficient lighting for your home or office. Ask the pros and see why these are one of the popular lighting option today.
Find and buy Advance Ballasts on our Amazon.com store or find older, out-of-stock Advance Ballasts on our eBay store.
Find the Best Electrician Tools from Trusted Reviews
Learn about the must-have election tools in our Best Electrician Tools and Accessories for 2021 article.
Best Insulated Screwdrivers
An important part of electrician safety is having the right tools. Insulated screwdrivers can protect you from live circuits and wires, preventing electrical shock! Learn about the best insulated screwdriver sets with out informative article. | <urn:uuid:dc9ac5fb-ad91-4bd1-a130-6b60cab5587c> | CC-MAIN-2021-31 | https://advanceballast.net/category/all-about-advance-ballast | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-31/segments/1627046154089.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20210731105716-20210731135716-00538.warc.gz | en | 0.923229 | 954 | 2.6875 | 3 | 1.726724 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Hardware |
In the spring of 2007, Simone Fontanelli, a world renowned composer and professor of new music at the University of Mozarteum in Salzberg, gave a series of seminars at the University of Georgia, Dancz Center for New Music. I asked maestro Fontanelli, “are there any composition exercises you would recommend to help beginning composers develop their own voice?” He suggested borrowing harmonic, melodic and/or rhythmic ideas from three great composers, then write a new piece which combines the best elements of all three. For example, combine Stravinsky’s Petrushka chord, Bartok’s rhythmic motives from String Quartet No. 4 and Schoenberg’s concept of developing variation into a single composition. This is challenging to say the least, and it stretches the abilities of most composers. In addition, this exercise gives beginning composers an opportunity “walk in the shoes” of the world’s greatest composers, thereby, discovering what makes them great. It also helps beginning composers get into the historical flow of what has gone before them.
This idea is not new. All great composers have written pieces “in the style of…” For example, Mozart was influenced by Bach, Haydn and many others. Schoenberg considered himself to be an extension of the German tradition and was influenced by Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.
While working on my DMA in music composition at UGA, I read a number of interviews with György Ligeti (1923-2006), one of the most influential composers of the 20th century, in which he discussed the influence of Bartók on his compositional style and technique. Ligeti used Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4 as a model when he wrote String Quartet No. 1: Metamorphosis Nocturnes (1954). In fact, in an interview with Friedemann Sallis, Ligeti stated he knew Bartók’s style so well that “he could have gone on to write the seventh, eighth or even twelfth Bartók quartet.”
I decided to analyze both quartets to determine if this statement is true and, if so, discover what elements of Bartók’s quartet and style are present in Metamorphosis Nocturnes. It appears that Ligeti borrowed a motive directly from Bartók’s quartet, see Example No. 1. This motive belongs to set class . Ligeti uses it in the beginning of Metamorphosis Nocturnes, and it becomes the primary harmonic structure throughout the entire quartet, see Example No. 2. It is interesting to note, after writing Metamorphosis Nocturnes, Ligeti continued to use set class throughout his career, but he added his own twist in the form of microtonality.
Example No. 1
There are a number of parallels between these two quartets, and Bartók’s influence is present throughout to the extent that Ligeti’s quartet sounds more like Bartók than Ligeti. With that being said, Metamorphosis Nocturnes is a model for all aspiring composers. Ligeti wrote his quartet in order to experiment with Bartók’s harmonic and melodic language. He ultimately kept what he liked most from Bartók’s style, eventually making it his own. In the process, he developed his own unique voice. March 20-23, I will present my research at the 2014 Society of Composers Inc. Nation Conference at Ball State University in Indiana.
I would recommend trying the same experiment with your own favorite composer or composers. Borrow a melody/harmony or two. Take it out for a test drive. If you like it, find a way to make it your own! | <urn:uuid:2b7b9f96-a3a2-401a-a853-95db2f344a3d> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://themusiccompositionblog.com/tag/bach/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296943589.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20230321002050-20230321032050-00002.warc.gz | en | 0.947212 | 831 | 2.546875 | 3 | 2.92658 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Art & Design |
Sekuru Kaguvi was also known as Gumboreshumba. In the local Shona language, the name means the claw/foot of a lion. He lived in the Chikwaka Mountains near Goromonzi in the heart of the Mashonaland province. He was married to Chief Mashonganyika's daughter whose kraal was some three miles to the south of the Goromonzi Hill and he also had wives from the kraal of headman Gondo which is also in the vicinity of Goromonzi Hill. He became known as a supplier of good luck in hunting and was able to speak to people “from the trees and the rocks”.
Religious and Political Influence
Kaguvi was believed to be the spirit husband of the other great Shona spirit, Nehanda. He was a powerful spirit medium, along with Mbuya Nehanda and Mkwati, he was instrumental in organizing the first nationwide resistance (known in Zimbabwe as the First Chimurenga), known to the then colonial rule as the Rebellion of 1896-7 in the then Rhodesia.
The Kaguvi Spirit
Contrary to popular belief, Kaguvi, just like Nehanda, was a spirit which was influential in the local politics dating back from the days of the Rozvi Empire. Kaguvi's spirit or his mudzimu (Shona name for ancestral spirit) lived on from that time occupying the human form of a spirit medium known in Shona as svikiro. Before the European occupation of present day Zimbabwe, Kaguvi's spirit medium was Kawodza who lived on the present day Kaguvi Hill on the southern bank of the Umfuli River approximately 13 miles west of Beatrice town.
Below this hill was a pool in the Umfuli River which had never been known to dry up and which according to Shona tradition used to give forth the noises of cattle, sheep, goats and cockerels. Kawodza himself was killed in a Matabele raid and the family of his son fled north, eventually settling in these hills. One of his sons was Gumboreshumba, presumably named after the founder of the Rozvi dynasty and prior to the European occupation in 1890, Gumboreshumba found himself possessed of the Kaguvi spirit previously held by his grandfather, Kawodza. As colonialism began to get its grip on the natives of Zimbabwe, there was military drive to get rid of the British settlers.
Influence During the First Chimurenga
Kaguvi effectively joined the colonial resistance in October 1896 with the influence of Mbuya Nehanda. This was after the initial resistance campaign by another religious leader Mukwati who commanded the Matabeleland shrine at Matopos. Kaguvi sent messengers to the spirit medium, Mukwati, who lived in a cave in the Matopos and who was the medium of the Supreme God, Mwari. These messengers were sent to obtain medicine to destroy locusts but they came back to Mashonaland with the news that Mukwati had revealed that the Shona people should rise up against the whites in the same way as the Ndebele were doing and that Kaguvi would have the same powers to kill the whites as Mukwati had.
The British South Africa Company had, by end of 1896, recognised the importance of the 'spirit mediums' to the rebel cause. Lord Earl Grey wrote to his wife, “Kaguvi is the witch-doctor who is preventing the Mashona from surrendering. Whilst a Native commissioner in the then Salisbury wrote, “If we capture Kaguvi the war is over”. From then on the military began to exert increasing pressure on the areas where Kaguvi and Mkwati had set up their headquarters, but both men escaped when, after three attempts, the stockaded kraal was stormed. They took refuge in the Mazowe valley with Nehanda.
Arrest and Conviction
The arrest and trial of Kaguvi together with Mbuya Nehanda took place between 1896 and 1897. The two were convicted in March 1898. They were subsequently hanged about seven weeks later. It is believed that Nehanda was hanged first and Kaguvi was given the opportunity to witness the hanging. Kaguvi, after initially refusing to convert to Christianity, subsequently agreed and was baptised after denouncing his African Traditional Religion belief.
Sekuru Kaguvi left behind a unique revolutionary legacy which has been admired by 20th Century Pan African nationalists in Rhodesia. Sekuru Kaguvi offered the ideological base which was used by the nationalist movements such as the Zimbabwe African National Union, Zimbabwe African People's Union, African National Congress and the National Democratic Party. Nationalist rhetoric has been awash with praises and admiration of Kaguvi's sacrifice as the prototype of patriotism. For this reason among others, Kaguvi was honoured in independent Zimbabwe and a street in the Central Business District of Harare was named after him.
Today's Top Pindula News2018-12-14T15:34:30Z
- B. Moyo, Sekuru Kaguvi, "Mutsiwemvura", retrieved:22 Aug 2014"
- , history of Sekuru Kagubi, a.k.a Gumboreshumba, "Bulawayo History", retrieved:22 Aug 2014"
- C. Zvayi, A century of resistance: From Nehanda to Mugabe, "Zimbabwe Image Blog", published:28 Aug 2008,retrieved:22 Aug 2014"
- , Nehanda hanging true account, "The Herald", published:5 May 2014,retrieved:22 Aug 2014"
- N. Nkiwane, Zimbabwe: Mbuya Nehanda, Sekuru Kaguvi At Hifa, "The Standard", published:13 Apr 2014,retrieved:22 Aug 2014"
- , The Second Matabele War, retrieved:22 Aug 2014" | <urn:uuid:f7a9dbe6-4c17-46cd-ab45-0f5f5bb835e7> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | https://pindula.co.zw/Sekuru_Kaguvi | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376826800.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20181215061532-20181215083532-00196.warc.gz | en | 0.975794 | 1,259 | 2.765625 | 3 | 2.930933 | 3 | Strong reasoning | History |
Why track water in emergencies?
Cylinders 5" in diameter and 17" tall float (motorized, with their major axis vertical) and communicate water quality information via cell phone and shortrange radio.
IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS such as a levee failure, flood, or contaminant spill, responders need information about the movement of water and pollutants in complex networks of channels like deltas or estuaries. Permanently placed sensors are insufficient; with a limited number of sensors on an extensive water or levee system, the odds are high that there will be no sensor in the exact location where the emergency happens to occur. Permanent sensors also can’t track where the water goes after it flows past the breach.
As part of the November 9, 2009 Rapid Repair of Levee Breaches Demonstration, the University of California, Berkeley’s Floating Sensor Network project will demonstrate an immediate-response force capable of being deployed on demand in case of a natural disaster such as a levee breach. The rapid deployment of such a fleet can lead to an immediate and more precise understanding of “where the water is going,” thus helping agencies to contain disasters more quickly and more efficiently.
In addition to tracking contaminants, the technology can be deployed in a levee system to search for signs of levee leaks (abnormal temperatures, abnormal salt concentration) and it can be deploy around levee breach to confirm a repair is functioning properly.
UC Berkeley Project Overview
The Lagrangian Sensor Systems Laboratory (LSSL) at UC Berkeley, jointly with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (LBNL) and the California Department of Water Resources, is developing a suite of hydrodynamic models that can track where particles go in water. The system relies mainly on one-dimensional and two-dimensional shallow-water models that map the evolution of the water.
These models can track individual contaminants in the water (for now limited to salt), to model the evolution of concentrations of various waterborne agents in the riverflow. Further, the computational codes the team developed can integrate streaming measurements in the models in real time. Theoperational goal is to provide real-time online (Web-based) estimates of the riverflow and propagation of the salt.
The whole system – drifters, communication to the system, computation in real time, and broadcast of the information back to the operators – is planned to be operational in 2010. Cylinders 5" in diameter and 17" tall float (motorized, with their major axis vertical) and communicate water quality information via cell phone and short-range radio. Team members from UC Berkeley’s Lagrangian Sensor Systems Laboratory test their system on the San Joaquin Delta in Northern California.
How does it work?
The assembly line for the first ten Drifters. August 2010
The batteries on board the drifters allow 24 hours of deployment before recharging.
MOBILE, PORTABLE, FLOATING SENSORS are placed into the flowing water where they are needed, and are carried by the water through the area of interest. The sensors send data construct maps of how the water is moving. The devices transmit information to the responders using the cellular phone network as well as short-range wireless radios. The devices can be retrieved once they leave the area of interest.
As the sensors are carried by the water, their GPS receivers keep track of their movement. This provides a snapshot of how fast the water is moving and where it's going. The “particle outcome” (where the sensor ends up) is especially valuable when responders are concerned about the movement of contaminants.
The real-time information from multiple sensors is combined to provide a “big picture” — a situation awareness map — of the entire system. Each drifter traces a different path; combining all these paths together is more informative than the individual parts. Imagine a “Google traffic map” for an entire delta, showing the speed of water, how deep the water is everywhere, and how contaminated the water is.
Building An Operational System
California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
FRESHWATER IN CALIFORNIA’S SACRAMENTO-SAN JOAQUIN DELTA must traverse a network of about 1000 kilometers of channels to make its way from the riverine source in the north to the pumping stations in the south. Tidal oscillations enhance the mixing of fresh water with polluted water from the San Joaquin River and with salt water from the ocean. The challenge of managing salinity in the Delta system lies in the complexity of its topology and hydrodynamics.
Major General Don. T. Riley of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with lead graduate student Andrew Tinka after a visit to the CITRIS Museum at UC Berkeley on Oct. 8, 2009.
In the face of this complexity, managers of the Delta are beginning to focus on the maintenance of a freshwater corridor that bisects the entire Delta – seen as crucial to the future of water management in California. Part of the emphasis of our joint work wit the Department of Water Resources and the LBNL is the design, deployment, and testing of the fleet, the building of an interface with existing USGS sensors already deployed in the Delta, and the integration of all data feeds into a single system.
THE LONG-TERM VISION of our project is to put California water “online,” that is, to create a streaming system that will enable water managers and scientists to visualize the evolution of California's water resources in real-time. | <urn:uuid:10ff0ce0-ed7b-495c-9442-5b263920ddfe> | CC-MAIN-2016-50 | http://float.berkeley.edu/project/overview | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698543614.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170903-00124-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914606 | 1,160 | 3.234375 | 3 | 2.884949 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
15 Nov Growing Interpersonal Interactions
The idea of sociable relationship suggests social associations, personal interactions, or relations among two or more people. It could also mean a specific relationship among individuals that is definitely characterized by a great emotional rapport and frequently involves conflicts of 1 kind or another. Interpersonal romances could be among friends, co-workers, neighbors, relatives or perhaps workmates. Yet , it could end up being a professional romance such as regarding a doctor with his patients or an engineer’s relations along with his workers.
The interpersonal marriage has many explanations and variations. It is however related to the idea of reciprocity. In this theory, one person helps some other because they may have something in keeping. A more stylish but still very important form of this kind of theory is definitely the reciprocity theory. In this theory, two a poor00 established dating services a fulfilling sociable relationship are viewed to be close friends, while an individual who has nothing in common with either of those is considered to be an enemy. Reciprocity theory hence enables us to decide the nature of friendship or charming relationships as well as the factors which will make them make it through or perish over time.
A friendly relationship is one of the most important human relationships; nevertheless , many people are however unfamiliar with that. Friendship is formed over time and often on an relaxed basis so that there are no totally obvious signs that the relationship is certainly ongoing or even existing. For instance, if two friends get together every weekend for a cup of joe, then they may be considered as good friends. On the other hand, there are times when these close friends establish a romance where the simply purpose because of their meeting is certainly intimacy. This type of a romantic relationship is harmful since it will not create virtually any emotional connections between the people and usually ends up with the separating of the partners. Such a romantic relationship could be a response to sexual intimidation or harassment.
On the other hand, periodically a romantic interlude is a normal outgrowth of friendship. During these moments, you can easily identify a common ground with respect to friendship as both parties usually look upon the other person as the most reliable person in the office. These kinds of a situation can be healthy as long as both parties admit the fact they’ve already come to discover each other about the same terms and don’t expect a lot from the marriage. Otherwise, this sort of a companionship can turn into a romantic an individual. Such a transformation could be brought about by a common workplace difficulty or maybe a common workplace experience.
In order for these kinds of a situation to occur, however , unique prerequisites that must be met. The first prerequisite is that there should be an awareness on the part of the functions they’ve come to be aware of each other by using a common workplace experience. While not such a realization, you will have a lack of turn to the part of both parties and this should hamper the procedure types of developing friendship or loving relationships. The other requirement that is certainly necessary to the task model of growing relationships certainly is the willingness of both parties to see the other when someone who is usually trustworthy. With out such a willingness, there will be little to no choice of developing a significant interpersonal relationship.
The interpersonal relationships theory can also provide the mandatory theoretical base on which managers and administrators can decide how best to control their teams. It can help managers understand what inspires their team members and how to greatest encourage great performance. Such understanding is important any time companies wish to ensure that staff members achieve top levels of output. The interpersonal interactions theory can assist managers achieve this by giving them a assumptive framework to work with. | <urn:uuid:a09c19ca-3bad-49d8-b796-80b4e47f0522> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://www.camerondarcy.com.au/2020/11/15/growing-interpersonal-interactions/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320305420.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20220128043801-20220128073801-00535.warc.gz | en | 0.967048 | 746 | 2.515625 | 3 | 2.637781 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Social Life |
Short answer how much air do you put in bicycle tires: The optimum tire pressure for a bike varies depending on the type of bike and rider weight. However, most road bikes require 80-130 psi while mountain bikes need 30-50 psi. Consult your manufacturer’s guidelines or use an online calculator to determine the correct level.
Step-by-Step Guide to Inflating Your Bike’s Tires: How Much Air to Add
If you own a bike, you know that keeping your tires inflated is an essential part of maintaining its performance and safety. Underinflated tires can make it harder to pedal, decrease handling capabilities, increase rolling resistance which means more energy being expended for the same speed as well as causing tire damage or even leading to accidents.
So how do you correctly inflate your bike’s tires? Here are some step-by-step instructions on how much air to add:
Step 1: Check Your Tire Pressure
Before inflating your bike’s wheels with fresh air – it is important first check their current pressure levels. This information should be printed on the sidewall of each tire in PSI (pounds per square inch). If not visible look at cycling websites/forums giving advice specific tyre pressures according weight , terrain /road conditions etc .
Step 2: Gauge Air Inlet And Attach The Pump
Next thing needed whenever preparing pump up bicycle tyres will probably be decide what sort valve head matches one’s tubes.Valves often fall into two categories : Presta valves aka skinny ones normally founds road bikes – Schrader( wider type) typically located upon mountainbikes . Generally pumps may accept only one kind so double-check before pumping starts!
Once this initial stage has been completed successfully,the correct fitting nozzle must now attached onto top end of pump levered-down toward wheel rim vicinity where inlet rests properly aligned threaded over stem.. Thereafter flip clamp closing off bottom tube below putted secure ready action shot!
And here comes another lifehack-the easiest way by far when increasing psi use hands holdover tip-stretching inner-outer direction allowing grip firm apparently restricting loss precious compressed gas between tubing-nozzle interface !
Step 3: Begin Adding Air Slowly
Now all set bring back u/inflation_tool close towards opened-air-in-out-slot using both hand-pump squeeze-leaver prepped motion flow-action packed.Perfect slow steady practice prevents blowouts leading to minor crashes or worse! NB if preparing using the hi-tech parlance approach deciding use tyre inflator-gauge combo obtain precise numerical balance-digital readout rapid succession step takes instantaneously.
Step 4: Refer To Your Tire Pressure
While your pumping pace becomes increasingly faster letting air fill up inside replacing lost volume now timeto insert thumb jiggle wheel observing levelwhether sits as per manufacturer’s optimum requirement . If not yet there close working slowly surely maintaining pressure levelfor each millimetre of growth until ultimately reach precisely right max-recommended psi-as suggested on sidewall fixed value guidelines where speed comfort both play critical role!
Step 5: Final Check and Adjustment
Check The Ball-Bar Tests-Outfitted Valve Protrusion.Clear excess linked release mechanisms secrured valve head added with assistance supplied usually extention nozzle-like object should subsequently re-produce conclusive auditory feedback confirming completion stage by brisk hiss-and-whirr Sound. Great Job done !! Ride safely 🚲💨
Frequently Asked Questions about Adding Air to Bicycle Tires
Adding air to bicycle tires seems like a basic task for most cyclists, but it’s not uncommon to have some questions or concerns about the process. In this blog post, we’ll explore frequently asked questions that riders may encounter on their quest for optimal tire pressure.
Q: What is the ideal amount of air to put in my bike tires?
A: The answer varies depending on your weight and riding style, as well as the type of terrain you’re navigating. Generally speaking, road bikes require higher psi (pounds per square inch) than mountain bikes because they are designed with narrow wheels built for speed over pavement rather than rugged trails – aim between 80-to-120psi if your tyres match these criteria. Check your tyre sidewall too! It will indicate how much PSI each should hold individually.
Q: How often do I need to add more air into my bike tires?
A: This depends mainly upon environmental factors such as temperature and humidity levels affecting outdoor storage locations slowing deflations from cold weather during winter hibernation; however don’t fret yet wondering all season long when would be best adding a bit every fortnight won’t hurt!
Q: Can I use any pump nozzle on my valve stem?
A: The quick response is NOPE! Pumps come with different types so make sure yours fits onto either Presta or Schrader valves which can vary both by brand/manufacturer – learn what kind stands out amongst competitors before buying equipment
*Tip while fitting ensure no visible leaks—twist counter-clockwise after tightening fully then listen intently;if anything sounds up simply adjust until proper seal has been verified
Q:Is there an easy way of telling why one wheel isn’t holding its’ inflation very well compared others nearby ?
A: Of course there’s an easiest method called submerging them under water where bubbles arises along rim whenever brittleness allows dissipation due growths generating small breakthrough faults mostly seen at seams, bead areas or valve cavities.
Q: Can I damage my tire by using a pump that’s too powerful? How far does the pumping piston need to be inserted onto hose?
While it’s not easy making any physical change in most inflated tyres utilizing regular use when pistons of pumps are fully inserting at their level before squeezing your legs you avoid wearing down these rubber components lowering maintenance costs accordingly.
In summary adding air into bicycle tires can easily get done while following above mentioned recommendations and ample practice makes perfect for sure!
Top 5 Need-to-Know Facts About Maintaining Optimal Tire Pressure for Biking
Tire pressure is one of the most important aspects to consider when it comes to maintaining your bike. It plays a crucial role in not just enhancing riding experience, but safety as well. But how do you ensure that your tires have optimal air pressure for biking? Here are 5 need-to-know facts about tire maintenance.
1. Optimal Tire Pressure Is Not Universal
It’s essential to know what type of bike you own and its specific tire dimensions before figuring out required PSI (pounds per square inch) necessary for inflation . Some bikes come with small or large wheels while others could have wider rims; thus PSI requirements would ultimately differ from make/model/type accordingly. Properly knowing which range works best will uphold smooth rides by improving traction without wearing down treads too quickly – keeping riders safer longer!
2.Consistent Checkups Save More Than Money Alone
Routine checks at least once every week can help determine whether added air needs pumping-in or removing-out immediately after variable weather conditions such as temperature swings effect overall performance compromising comfort & control taking dangerous falls into consideration otherwise ignored through neglectful personal care habits beyond ill-advised behavior risking harsh injury additionally bicyclists feel less fatigued they follow this practice consistently over time clearly recognizing intervals between inspections that provide opportunity preventing potential injuries via proactive steps augmented preparedness ahead unforeseeable incidents .
3.Under-Inflation Causes Uneven Wear And Reduced Grip
When a bicycle is underinflated , there tends towards greater contact surface area resulting physical forces take center stage eventually chewing away rubber reducing lifespan besides inflicting additional stress upon tired tendons altogether affecting grip severely manifesting poor outcome steering harder limited acceleration correspondingly leading fewer miles ridden per joint excursions creating detrimental consequences throughout despite seemingly insignificant oversight comparable brushing teeth ever day avoiding costly visits emergency rooms expensive dental procedures flowing systemically benefiting long-term outcomes both within/without body equally rewarding anyone willing put forth extra thoughtfulness targeted ease composure.
4.Over-Inflation Causes Unnecessary Wear And Tear
Conversely, having tires over inflated would lead to excessive ware and tear in addition undermining handling capacity while contributing towards increased vibrations during rides producing discomfort inducing an unnatural imbalance that adds physical fatigue stressing the body more than required . Consider reviewing manufacturer suggestions for PSI ratings before assuming higher pressures represent better performance; finding equilibrium firmly establishing sweet-spots leading seamless bike journeys depends on relatively simple steps preferably monitored periodically guaranteeing hydraulic objectives fulfilled with optimal results positively affecting pedal efficiency immediately & alike fetching robustness momentum reserves needed throughout duration tours journey become longer time elapses ensuring cycling success becomes second nature without regrettable delays frequently observed through haphazard carefree attitudes indeed their fallouts increasingly known same repeats itself ad nauseam whether expeditions appear short lived or repeated successes achieved .
5.Factors beyond Maintenance Reasonably Affect Tire Pressure
Tire pressure maintenance alone is not enough as harsh conditions could hinder ideal inflation levels by creating intensified compression ratio weather induced temperature swings causing certain variables within tire comps slightly impacted relative movement trajectory yet affording safe explor | <urn:uuid:058db403-0959-48d7-a493-1f3eccc36aef> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://quicksoul.co/the-ultimate-guide-to-inflating-your-bicycle-tires-how-much-air-is-just-right/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224644574.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20230529010218-20230529040218-00572.warc.gz | en | 0.903572 | 1,902 | 2.90625 | 3 | 2.380188 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Sports & Fitness |
Clients want to see results, and you want this, too. However, you’re with them a limited number of hours per week; you have little control over what they do when they’re not with you. What if you could provide additional tools that would help people reach their physical goals while also helping them make new neural connections?
Research suggests that prolonged sitting can be as bad for health as smoking (Owen, Bauman & Brown 2008; Owen et al. 2010). While consistent exercise and a healthy diet can help to counteract the effects of sitting too much, people still struggle to find a healthy center point. One avenue worth exploring is nonexercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) (Levine 2003).
Total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is the number of calories burned in a day, counting basal metabolic rate, the thermic effect of food, planned exercise and NEAT (Levine 2003). NEAT encompasses the calories burned while living life—walking to work, fidgeting, typing, chewing gum, folding clothes, washing dishes, running errands and so on; only sleeping, eating and sports are not included (Levine & Yeager 2009).
Increasing activity levels can be overwhelming for sedentary individuals, but fitness professionals can encourage clients to create mini habits, “little things” that act as stepping stones to an active lifestyle (Guise 2013). A study by McManus (2007) determined that burning approximately 150 calories a day with NEAT activities can prevent weight gain. This is a good starting point to increase movement, improve metabolism and enjoy better health.
Below are some NEAT brain boosters, simple activities clients can easily fit into their everyday lives to increase metabolism and improve brain health.
The Cognitive Key
The brain also benefits from movement. Simple activities can boost NEAT while building and strengthening the brain. Brain booster activities increase blood flow to the brain, feeding it with glucose and oxygen. When we move, our muscles produce proteins that travel through the bloodstream and into the brain to strengthen function (Ratey 2008).
Brain health is the result of a dynamic process in which a person engages in behaviors and environments that are beneficial to the brain. Brain health is also referred to as brain fitness, cognitive fitness and mental fitness (Nussbaum 2011). The brain’s neuroplasticity—its dynamic ability to constantly grow, change and reorganize throughout the lifespan—supports the need to stimulate the brain with healthy lifestyle choices.
The brain’s capacity for neurogenesis—generating new brain cells—provides an incentive to keep moving, learning, eating a healthy diet and connecting with others at all ages and stages of life.
NEAT Brain Boosters in Action
So what are NEAT brain booster activities? They are based on exercises that can
- strengthen the corpus callosum (band of neural fibers connecting the two hemispheres of the brain);
- boost levels of key neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine;
- increase levels of neurotrophic factors like brain-derived-neurotrophic factor (BDNF), vascular-endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and insulin-like growth factor (IGF);
- improve mood;
- decrease levels of cortisol;
- raise a person’s stress threshold;
- help in effectively managing stress; and
- increase self-confidence.
(Eckmann 2013; Ratey 2008; Jensen 2000)
These short, simple activities increase metabolism while enhancing brain health through physical movement, mental stimulation, stress management and socialization. Teach these tools to clients and class participants as ways to improve health and wellness outcomes.
Yoga Brain Boosters
The following breath work is ideal for re-energizing the brain and body.
- Develop a 6-second breath cycle to get 10 breaths per minute. Inhale for 2 seconds, hold for 1 second, exhale for 2 seconds, hold for 1 second. Repeat.
- Practice alternate-nostril breathing. Gently close the opposite nostril, alternating thumb and ring fingers. Inhale through the right nostril; exhale through the left; inhale L; exhale R.
- Practice double breathing. Sit upright, palms on thighs. Inhale twice through the nose while tightening the muscles. Exhale through the nose and then the mouth, relaxing the muscles. Repeat several times.
On-the-Spot Brain Boosters
Remind clients how much NEAT adds up, and encourage them to try the following moves while standing in line at the post office or waiting for a colleague or family member.
- Flex from side to side while standing, with arms overhead to increase range of motion.
- Stretch the chest by clasping the hands behind the back and looking up. Inhale while stretching, and exhale on the release. Repeat several times.
- Perform squats and lunges.
- March while standing, feet close to the ground or with high knees.
- March while seated.
- Stand on one leg, shoulders stacked over hips, core engaged, knee lifted.
Seated Brain Boosters
Teach clients to do the following NEAT moves while sitting; they increase blood flow to the brain and engage the muscles to burn a few extra calories.
- Wiggle or tap the toes and fingers while watching television or sitting at a desk.
- Stand up and sit down at least every 10–20 minutes (every 5–10 minutes if possible); this boosts metabolism and strengthen the glutes and quads.
- Stand up and roll the shoulders up and back, one at a time and together.
- After keyboarding for 5–10 minutes, stop and make circles with both wrists. Open and close the fingers, making a “starfish.” Repeat.
- If you’ve been sitting awhile and you’re feeling sleepy or your back is tight, stand up and reach your hands to the opposite elbows behind your back. Look right and left.
- While sitting in a meeting with your legs beneath your desk, subtly lift one leg at a time. Do this several times; then, as you lift, point your toes to the ground and, as you lower, point the toes up.
- Fidget! The thing that drove your teachers nuts is one of the things that started research on the benefits of NEAT.
For more research and other NEAT activities, please see “Teach Clients This Smart Way to Move” in the online IDEA Library or in the September 2017 print edition of IDEA Fitness Journal. If you cannot access the full article and would like to, please contact the IDEA Inspired Service Team at 800-999-4332, ext. 7.
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Stay up tp date with our latest news and products. | <urn:uuid:5f1dd7e3-b8a4-4f97-bf1c-35c504e1525b> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://www.ideafit.com/uncategorized/teach-clients-this-smart-way-to-move/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323583423.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20211016043926-20211016073926-00442.warc.gz | en | 0.910973 | 1,419 | 2.65625 | 3 | 2.099333 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Sports & Fitness |
4.0 Finishing Touches
4.1 Common Gateway Interface (CGI) Scripts
A Common Gateway Interface (CGI) script, stored on the server, allows the server to respond to input from the browser--thus allowing you to collect information from people browsing your site, or to produce customized documents based on your guests' needs, or on events like mouse movements or clicks. Forms, imagemaps, interactive animations, download links, and search functions all rely on these scripts.
Before you can employ a script in your document, you'll need to find out
- whether your server will support the scripts,
- if so, whether you'll have access to the cgi-bin, and
- which programming languages can operate on your server,
Depending on your platform and the configuration of your server, one of these resources might help you. NCSA provides some excellent documentation on using CGI scripts.
If you're not careful, unscrupulous people can worm their way into your server's files and create havoc, so familiarize yourself with some of the cracker moleholes and how to seal them. This Java applet security FAQ shows you how your browser responds to applets with attitude .
When you just want to use an image as a "button" for a hypertext link, you know what to do: just put the <img src="url"> tag <a href="path/file.name">here, inside the anchor, instead of text</a>.
But if you want to link different parts of an image to different documents, you'll need to do four things:
For more information, visit Imagemap Resources or NCSA's Imagemapping Tutorial.
- Select an image: The image you use as a map should have distinct sections; otherwise, people might not be able to tell where one link ends and another begins.
- Create an imagemap file:
- You'll need to decide which document each section of the map will conjure, and to measure the coordinates of those sections (using an image-editing program):
- For circles, record the radius (in pixels) and the coordinates of the center point.
- For rectangles, record the coordinates of the upper-left and lower-right corners.
- For other polygons, record the coordinates of each corner.
- For a single point, record the coordinates of that point.
- Once you've gathered this information, document it in a map file according to the conventions of your server. Some browsers now support client-side or internal imagemapping; that is, they allow you to include your map script in your main document. But since this isn't yet standard practice, your best bet is to back up your internal imagemaps with a script installed on your server. For more information, you can read about client-side imagemaps in HTML 3.0, or about server-side imagemapping with the NCSA and CERN servers.
- Link the inline image tag to the URL of the map file: place the <img> tag, with the ISMAP attribute (<img src="????.gif" ismap>) inside your anchor to the URL of your map file. The final result should look something like this:
<a href="../path/cgi-bin/directory (
imagemap, for NCSA; for CERN,
mapfile.name"> <img src="????.gif" ismap></a>.
- Provide the same links somewhere in your text, for the benefit of visitors using text-only browsers.
If you wanted to find out the names, ages, e-mail addresses, and three favorite flavors of visitors to your site, you'd need a form to collect and process all the different kinds of data.
Forms are bounded by the
<form method=POST action="URL of script">...</form> tags. The
method= attribute has a value of
post (preferred) or
get (the default), and the
action= attribute indicates the URL of the script that will process the form data. Within the form tags, you may include a range of
- Text input fields will accept a single line (or a selected number of characters) of text, and are displayed as a box (the length of which you can specify);
<input type="text" name="[your name for this data]
" size="[width of display, in characters]
" maxlength="[maximum number of characters accepted]
- Textarea fields accept multiple lines of text.
<textarea name="[name for data]
" rows="[number of rows]
" cols="[number of columns]
- Password fields mask the typed input with bullets or asterisks--but they are transmitted unmasked, so they offer only very limited security.
<input type="password" name="[your name for the data]
- Hidden fields do not appear in the browser, so you can use them to carry information from one form to another.
<input type="hidden" name="[your name for the data]
- Radio buttons require the visitor to choose only one of a number of options.
<input type="radio" name="[dataname1]
<input type="radio" name="[dataname1]
- Checkboxes provide the visitor with a number of options, any number of which may be selected.
<input type="checkbox" name="[dataname2]
<input type="checkbox" name="[dataname3]
- Selections offer the viewer a scrolling menu of options:
<option> [option label 2]
<option> [option label3]
multiple attribute (in the opening
<select> tag) makes it possible to choose than one option.
size="[#of options visible at once]
" urges the browser to display a certain number of options in a scrolling list.
- Submit button sends the data to your server
<input type="submit" value="[button label]
- a Reset button, surprisingly enough, returns the form to its original state.
<input type="reset" value="[button label]
You can also set defaults for text fields, with the
value= attribute; and automatically preselect checkboxes and radio buttons with the
checked attribute; or the first item in a selection menu with the
For more on how to integrate forms into your site, see the Case Western Reserve University Forms Page, The Web Developer's Virtual Library Forms Page, and the BigNoseBird.com Forms Tutorial.
4.1.3 Server-Side Includes
If you have access to your server, your documents can be automatically modified--to show, for example, the date the document was modified, the contents of a file with your address, or the size of the file--with a Server-Side Include (SSI). Rather than reproduce all the information you'll need to use any include on any server, I'll just refer you to the tutorials on SSIs for Server Administrators and SSIs for the Rest of Us Mortals.
Maybe you don't want to bother with scripts at all. You can still get feedback if your server supports the mailto URL--just by making an anchor using "mailto:[email protected]" as the URL of an anchor. For example, to allow your visitors to mail the President of the United States, you'd include this anchor:
<a href="mailto:[email protected]">Mail the President</a>
4.2 Keywords and Other Metacontent
<META> tag, you can alert search engines to some basic information about your document, like keywords, copyright, and a description of the content--or even another resource (a soundtrack, for example) to load automatically after a specified number of seconds.
CONTENT= attributes allow you to select different types of metainformation and then to assign a value to each type:
|<META NAME="copyright"||CONTENT="a few words detailing the copyright">|
|<META NAME="description"||CONTENT="a sentence or brief paragraph describing your presentation">|
|<META NAME="keywords"||CONTENT="categories in which one might logically expect to find your site ">|
|<META HTTP-EQUIV="Expires"||CONTENT="expiration date">|
|<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh"||CONTENT="#of seconds delay; |
URL=[URL of resource file]">
The HTML Survival Guide's Indexing Your Web Site page offers more detailed advice.
4.3 Copyright and Other Legal Issues
In this age of mechanical reproduction, it's easy to ignore other people's intellectual property rights, and to leave your own rights unprotected. Ten Big Myths About Copyright Explained, the U.S. Library of Congress Copyright Office page, the EFF Blue Ribbon site, and the San FranZiskGo! Freedom page will help keep you on the safe side of the law.
4.4 Putting Your Page Up
If you're not running your own server or receiving free access from work or school, you'll need to find a service provider. The following criteria might help you choose one:
- Cost: What are the monthly rates?
- How much disk space is included, and what surcharges apply for additional space?
- What bandwidth do they offer? Will you be able to choose your own domain name or will you be relegated to
- What kind of technical support is included? Are the folks there friendly and knowledgeable?
- Will you have direct or indirect access to the cgi-bin, so you can keep tabs on the volume of visitors and create forms or other interactive presentations?
If you are running your own server, the NCSA HTTPd Tutorial and the CERN (aka W3C) HTTPd Overview may help you with make some decisions about configuration and security.
Once you have access to a server, you'll need to check your HTML (with your editor or an automated validation service), arrange your documents into directories, and transfer them to the server via ftp. Then, before your elation wears off, check your links and graphics. Sometimes your beautiful GIFs will not load in the proper format; other times strange cyberbugs or a misplaced capital letter will stall your hypertext.
OK, it's on the server and everything works--now what? Well, you'll need to publicize it, or else it will just sit there, all coded up with noplace to go. Here's how:
- visit related sites--or sites you really like--and drop a note to the authors, perhaps asking if they'd like to trade links, or if they'd be willing to check out your pages and give you some feedback.
- some search engines offer a standard form you can fill out to add your site to their indices.
- organizations like Broadcaster and Submit It! will distribute (at no cost) a description of your site to a variety of search engines.
- Tell all your friends; put your URL in your signature file and on your business cards; and, most importantly, create and maintain an excellent site, so your URL makes it to your guests' bookmark lists. | <urn:uuid:81deb850-5886-4b79-afe6-1f99c0d4595a> | CC-MAIN-2019-13 | http://transaction.net/web/tutor/tutor4.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912202526.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20190321152638-20190321174638-00388.warc.gz | en | 0.827597 | 2,364 | 3.234375 | 3 | 2.071795 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Software Dev. |
With more than 180 COVID-19 vaccines currently in development1 — 53 of them undergoing clinical trials in humans2 — manufacturers are racing to be the first to reach the market. Pfizer, in a joint venture with Germany-based BioNTech, may have just taken the lead, with an announcement that their mRNA-based vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, was “more than 90% effective” in a Phase 3 trial.3
BNT162b2 was selected to move forward to a Phase 2/3 trial after an earlier version of the vaccine, BNT162b1— another mRNA-based vaccine candidate — resulted in considerable adverse events,4 including fever, which occurred in 50% of individuals who received the highest dose (100 micrograms), fatigue, headache and chills.
Side effects were even more common following the booster dose, after which more than 70% of participants experienced a fever at the mid-range (30 microgram) dose. In fact, those in the high-dose group didn’t even get the booster dose after the side effects were deemed to be potentially too severe.
While the vaccines are similar, with the BNT162b2 vaccine, mRNA encodes the full-length spike protein. A spike protein is a glycoprotein protruding from the envelope of a coronavirus that allows entry into the cell.5 In an earlier study, while BNT162b2 appeared to cause fewer side effects, antibody titers were lower in a group of older individuals, ranging in age from 65 to 95 years, than in younger individuals.6
Geometric mean titers (GMTs), which are used as a measure of immune response, were about 40% lower among older individuals given Pfizer’s BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine than they were in younger age groups, a concerning finding considering it’s the older individuals who are most at risk from severe COVID-19.
Is Pfizer’s COVID Vaccine Really 90% Effective?
In a Phase 3 efficacy trial, a vaccine is given to thousands of people, while researchers wait to see how many end up infected compared to those given a placebo.7 Pfizer’s Phase 3 clinical trial began July 27, 2020 and enrolled 43,538 participants8 to date ranging in age from 12 years to over 55, with a minimum of 40% of participants in the over 55 age range.9
Participants received either a two-dose series of BNT162b2, given at the 30-microgram dose 21 days apart, or a placebo. Initially an interim analysis was set to be conducted after 32 COVID-19 cases, but “after discussion with the FDA,” they increased it to after a minimum of 62 cases. According to Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer Chairman and CEO, in a press release:10
“Upon the conclusion of those discussions, the evaluable case count reached 94 and the DMC (Data Monitoring Committee) performed its first analysis on all cases.
The case split between vaccinated individuals and those who received the placebo indicates a vaccine efficacy rate above 90%, at 7 days after the second dose. This means that protection is achieved 28 days after the initiation of the vaccination, which consists of a 2-dose schedule.”
Bourla added the caveat, “As the study continues, the final vaccine efficacy percentage may vary.” In fact, there are many questions that remain unanswered regarding the reported 90% efficacy rate.
While Pfizer did release a clinical protocol of its trial,11 data for the interim analysis have not been released. “This is science by public pronouncement,” William Haseltine, an infectious disease expert and former Harvard medical professor, told Business Insider.12
COVID-19 Vaccine Trials ‘Designed to Succeed’
In September 2020, Haseltine criticized COVID-19 vaccine trials, including Pfizer’s, saying their protocols reveal that they’re “designed to prove their vaccines work, even if the measured effects are minimal.”13
He points out that prevention of infection is a critical endpoint in a normal vaccine trial, but prevention of infection is not a criterion for success for COVID-19 vaccines in development by Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson. According to Haseltine:14
“Any vaccine trial should include regular antigen testing every three days to test contagiousness to pick up early signs of infection and PCR testing once a week to confirm infection by SARS-CoV-2 test the ability of the vaccines to stave off infection. Prevention of infection is not a criterion for success for any of these vaccines.
In fact, their endpoints all require confirmed infections and all those they will include in the analysis for success, the only difference being the severity of symptoms between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. Measuring differences amongst only those infected by SARS-CoV-2 underscores the implicit conclusion that the vaccines are not expected to prevent infection, only modify symptoms of those infected.”
He also explains that while most people expect that a vaccine will prevent serious illness in the event they’re infected, “Three of the vaccine protocols — Moderna, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca — do not require that their vaccine prevent serious disease only that they prevent moderate symptoms which may be as mild as cough, or headache.”15
Pfizer Didn’t Release Key Vaccine Data
While Pfizer is touting its vaccine as more than 90% effective based on 94 cases in their trial, “There are many, many outstanding questions which are left unanswered,” Haseltine said.16
One of the main unanswered questions has to do with asymptomatic infections, which aren’t regularly being tested for in Pfizer’s trial. It’s possible, then, that those who have been vaccinated could still be asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19, spreading the disease to others.
“That’s a major point that I don’t think most people appreciate,” Haseltine told Business Insider. “It doesn’t mean an end to the epidemic.”17 It’s also unknown whether the vaccine reduced the number of cases of serious disease, hospitalizations and deaths, as no distinction was made between serious COVID-19 cases and those causing only minor symptoms.
Also missing from Pfizer’s press release is how the vaccine fared in different age groups, a key data point since older people are those most at risk of serious disease outcomes. It also remains to be seen how long any protection offered by a vaccine may last, as the study just began in July.
As for side effects, Pfizer’s Bourla said, “The DMC has not reported any serious safety concerns and recommends that the study continue to collect additional safety and efficacy data as planned.”18 Again, however, it’s far too soon to know whether the vaccine is safe. The timeline of the experimental COVID-19 vaccine is unprecedented as, on average, it can take 10 to 12 years for a vaccine to be developed and go through the normal licensing process.19
“We don’t know anything about groups they didn’t study, like children, pregnant women, highly immunocompromised people and the eldest of the elderly,” Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group in Rochester, Minnesota, told NBC News.20
As for potential adverse effects, in their clinical protocol Pfizer listed the following, noting that the first five participants in each group in phase 1 would be monitored for four hours after vaccination to assess adverse effects, while others would be observed for “at least 30 minutes.”21
Injection site redness, swelling and pain
Unknown adverse effects and laboratory abnormalities associated with a novel vaccine
Potential for increased exposure to SARS-CoV-2 because of the requirement to visit health care facilities during the trial
COVID-19 enhancement, stating, “Disease enhancement has been seen following vaccination with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), feline coronavirus, and Dengue virus vaccines.”
Coronavirus Vaccines May Enhance Disease
Even Pfizer acknowledged in their clinical protocol that COVID-19 disease enhancement is a real risk following certain vaccinations.22 In what’s known as antibody-dependent enhancement, or ADE, or sometimes called paradoxical immune enhancement (PIE). In these scenarios rather than enhance your immunity against the infection, the vaccine enhances the virus’ ability to enter and infect your cells, resulting in more severe disease than had you not been vaccinated.23
Th2 immunopathology, in which a vaccine induces a faulty T cell response, triggering allergic inflammation, poorly functional antibodies and airway damage, is another serious risk.
Both ADE and Th2 immunopathology occurred in the 1960s when a vaccination for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) was being developed, resulting in the death of two toddlers and serious illness in several other children who received the experimental vaccine.24
Similar concerns again surfaced in testing for a potential vaccine against another coronavirus, SARS, about 20 years ago. At the time, even long-time pro-vaccine advocate Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, was shaken. According to a feature published in PNAS:25
“When SARS, also a coronavirus, appeared in China and spread globally nearly two decades ago, Hotez was among researchers who began investigating a potential vaccine.
In early tests of his candidate, he witnessed how immune cells of vaccinated animals attacked lung tissue, in much the same way that the RSV vaccine had resulted in immune cells attacking kids’ lungs. ‘I thought, ‘Oh crap,’’ he recalls, noting his initial fear that a safe vaccine may again not be possible.”
Despite years of additional research and alternative development strategies, immune enhancement concerns remain, and, as explained by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in our 2020 interview, coronavirus vaccines remain notorious for creating paradoxical immune enhancement.
mRNA Is a Novel Vaccine Technology
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is relying on novel mRNA technology that has never previously been used in vaccines.26 It essentially instructs your cells to make the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which is what attaches to the ACE2 receptor of the cell. This is the first stage of the two-stage process viruses use to gain entry into cells.
The idea is that by creating the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, your immune system will be stimulated to produce antibodies, without making you sick in the process. However, another key question that needs to be answered is which of two types of antibodies are produced through this process.
Coronaviruses produce both neutralizing antibodies,27 also referred to as immoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies, that fight the infection, and binding antibodies28 (also known as nonneutralizing antibodies) that cannot prevent viral infection. Instead of preventing viral infection, binding antibodies can trigger an abnormal immune response like ADE or PIE.
In trials of Moderna’s experimental COVID mRNA vaccine, 25 participants who received two doses of its low or medium dose vaccine had levels of binding antibodies — the type that are used by the immune system to fight the virus but do not prevent viral infections — at levels approximating or exceeding those found in the blood of patients who recovered from COVID-19.29
Data for the more significant neutralizing antibodies, which stop viruses from entering cells, were reported for only eight people.
Pfizer Has $1.95 Billion Deal With US Government
While the results of Pfizer’s Phase 3 trial remain murky, as part of Operation Warp Speed the drug giant has already struck a $1.95 billion deal with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense to provide Americans with 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine after it is licensed — at no cost to recipients — with an option for 500 million additional doses.30 The agreement is part of Operation Warp Speed.
Pfizer and BioNTech also have a deal with the U.K. government for 30 million initial doses.31 The FDA’s guidance for a vaccine to receive Emergency Use Authorization requires only a median of two months of safety data following the second dose, which Pfizer expects to have by the third week of November.
At that point, they’re hoping to bring the experimental vaccine to market, with promises to produce up to 50 million vaccine doses in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses, globally, in 2021.32 Upon Pfizer’s announcement that their vaccine showed 90% effectiveness, shares rose 16%. The next day, CEO Bourla sold 62% of his stock, an amount worth about $5.6 million.33
Does the Pfizer CEO know something we don’t? If and when the vaccine does become available, be sure to carefully weigh the risks versus the benefits before making a choice of whether or not to receive it.
It may help in your decision to know that if you’re under the age of 40, your risk of dying from COVID-19 is just 0.01%, meaning you have a 99.99% chance of surviving the infection34 — and you could improve that to 99.999% if you’re metabolically flexible and vitamin D replete. | <urn:uuid:d82f6ccd-4b8b-45ef-b272-f0d365009b56> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://hiddenhandnews.com/first-covid-19-vaccine-90-effective/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703514046.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20210117235743-20210118025743-00070.warc.gz | en | 0.953461 | 2,871 | 2.9375 | 3 | 3.008759 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Health |
Though we may not have found intelligent life on Mars, NASA has just beamed up its own.
As announced at the end of March, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories has upgraded the Opportunity rover (already stationed on Mars) with artificial intelligence firmware, code-named AEGIS. Short for Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science, AEGIS allows the Opportunity to identify high-value photography targets — making its own decisions about which Martian rocks to photograph and send back to Earth. As the rover has limited downlink capacity, this is expected to greatly increase its productivity, allowing it to retrieve more data in fewer trips across Mars’ surface. AEGIS isn’t the first artificial intelligence application developed for space, or even at Jet Propulsion Labs — JPL has been in the game as far back as the Deep Space 1 craft in 1998.
I visited JPL on a recent rainy afternoon. Nestled in the mountains near Pasadena, California, the NASA campus dates to the 1940s, and was an early stalwart of the United States’ rocketry and space programs. Beyond security checkpoints, rows of polished, glass-and-steel buildings house the facility’s various projects — major foci at the moment are the Mars rovers and Reconnaissance orbiter, the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, and the Spitzer space telescope. Further up the hill is a simulated outdoor Martian landscape, with volcanic rocks resting in red sand. It’s an eerie thing to see through a gray LA fog.
Guy Webster, my contact in JPL’s press department, gave me a tour of the rover facilities, including labs with men in white lab coats and masks (sterilized in order to keep Earth bacteria from infecting Mars) working on rover construction — from the rovers themselves to the two-part, turtle shell-like casings they are deployed in; hard cover on top and heat shield on the bottom.
My ultimate destination was JPL’s Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning facilities. While small compared to the rest of the campus, the Machine Learning labs are playing an increasingly prominent role in space design. Composed primarily of younger people (the average age of scientists is early-to-mid 30s) the tightly knit staff of the Machine Learning department spends much of its day in close collaboration. The department has multiple open laboratories where testing is conducted on solving rover logistical problems using AI. In one area, a Martian sandpit has been constructed and a Spirit-model rover placed within, built to mirror a similar situation on Mars itself, where the actual Spirit rover has become stuck. The team has so far been unsuccessful at extricating the rover from the sandpit using software, though the learning process continues.
The AEGIS software was developed here and then sent to three satellite transmitter stations in three different spots on the globe (in the Mojave Desert, Canberra and Madrid), so that one is facing Mars at any given time. (Because of the large amount of data that needs to be transmitted to various spacecraft at any given moment, these stations are under constant scheduling crunches and subject to heavy negotiation for available time.) From there, the information was transmitted to the Odyssey orbiter in place around Mars, from which it was beamed down to the Opportunity rover’s flash memory.
Could such early space AI software applications be a precursor of an autonomous space age? Benjamin Bornstein of JPL’s Machine Learning team, who I spoke to at length as we watched the technicians operate on rovers, is optimistic. “We absolutely need people in the loop, but I do see a future where robotic explorers will coordinate and collaborate on science observations,” Bornstein predicts. “For example, the MER dust devil detector, a precursor to AEGIS, acquires a series of Navcam images over minutes or hours and downlinks to Earth only those images that contain dust devils. A future version of the dust devil detector might alert an orbiter to dust storms or other atmospheric events so that the orbiter can schedule additional science observations from above, time and resources permitting. Dust devils and rover-to-orbiter communication are only one example. A smart planetary seismic sensor might alert an orbiting SAR [synthetic aperture radar] instrument, or a novel thermal reading from orbit could be followed up by ground spectrometer readings… Also, for missions to the outer planets, with one-way light time delays, onboard autonomy offers the potential for far greater science return between communication opportunities.”
It’s easy to imagine a future in which automated devices do the work of scientifically analyzing and mining the resources of comets and planets.
Mr. Bornstein also revealed that JPL is developing artificial intelligence technologies for unmanned aerial and aquatic vehicles, and foresees a future in which AI is a regular fixture of the space program: “As the science and exploration goals of future space missions increase in capability and ambition, I believe AI will be one of several enabling technologies. Our approach is to survey current and future missions and ask ourselves what AI technologies dovetail nicely with their goals and requirements.”
Will the descendants of JPL’s Mars AEGIS-upgraded rover be able to reproduce themselves — in other words, will we see a singularity in space? Bornstein doesn’t think that scenario is likely, nor does he see the potential for a 100% autonomous space fleet. He has more concrete goals. Within ten years, he’d be happy just to see artificial intelligence become an accepted part of the space design process. (One exciting possibility he does mention is the potential for multiple spacecraft to collaborate and coordinate with each other, forming a network for team action.)
In the wake of Obama’s redirection of NASA’s moon budget, and in an era where private space companies like Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites are taking over the human element of space travel, it seems less likely that there will be a substantial government budget for sending human scientists into space, particularly for routine data gathering. Artificial intelligence seems particularly suited for NASA’s scientific recon missions. It’s easy to imagine a future in which automated devices do the work of scientifically analyzing and even mining the resources of near-earth objects, comets and planets. As the Obama administration shifts the space program into bold new directions and forms, it seems likely we will be seeing a lot more AI space technology. | <urn:uuid:80123aa4-c109-42dc-95b5-aa03d9f887a3> | CC-MAIN-2014-49 | http://hplusmagazine.com/2010/04/30/extraterrestrial-intelligence/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-49/segments/1416400380464.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20141119123300-00184-ip-10-235-23-156.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931824 | 1,330 | 3.09375 | 3 | 2.915466 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
There have been a number of major security breaches to service in the past few months. It seems like every week we are hearing about a new retailer that has been hacked potentially exposing users financial information. Then there was the iCloud hacks on celebrities and the release of potential DropBox logins through third party applications just the other day. Securing information is becoming a bigger challenge and many companies are starting to implement two factor authentication to accounts. But what exactly is two factor authentication and how does it impact users?
More Than Just a Password
The standard security that has been used for online accounts has been the simple password. Most often users will be required to submit a password generally at least six characters long that includes mixed case letters and a number or symbol. The problem is that as computers have gotten faster, the ability to crack even an encoded password is easier. In addition, social engineering by hackers can often allow them to try and circumvent the password and get a new one established so they can get access. With the increasing number of accounts and passwords that people have to use, we tend to use the same login and password information for all their accounts which means that being hacked at one can lead to be hacked at many different services.
Two factor authentication essentially adds a second level of protection on top of the password. It is also referred to as two-step verification and other names but in essence the idea is the same. When the user establishes the online account and a password, they setup a second level of protection that could be done through several different methods. Often it involves the generation of some form of token or code that is sent to a verified email address, through a text message to a mobile phone or generated through an application such as Google Authenticator. The process and method will vary depending upon the services you are using. Failure to provide the code will prevent access to the account or request.
How it Works
Most services require that you setup the two step process when you establish your account but some have implemented it on older accounts or as an option. For instance, when you setup an account, it may prompt you for a cell phone number or email address to send a notification to. In order for the account to be activated, the user must follow a link or enter a code from the generated message. This helps the service provider from being flooded with bogus accounts but also helps protect the users because this same method will be used often whenever a new device (computer, phone, tablet, etc) connects into the service or if the password or account information is changed.
Now this is the most basic of two factor authentication in use. It will certainly help prevent simple attacks on accounts and alert users to problems. For instance, if they get a message that the password is set to be change but they did not request it, someone is accessing their account. This alert and notification can prevent the account from being stolen and also allow the account holder to work with the provider to secure the account. For this method to work properly though, users must make sure that the email address or phone number used for the authentication is always up to date or they may get locked out of their own accounts when they try to do something legitimately but don’t have access to receive the token.
Even More Security
If you don’t mind the hassle, you can take two step verification either further such that it would be required for every login to a service. This is done by using a token generator for the service in question that is then applied at the time of login. The token would be generated through a hashing system such as the Google Authenticator mentioned above. The token is specific to that login and is only valid for a short while. Failure to supply the proper token through the required application prevents access just as if a password what incorrect.
So why is this more secure? Well, a password is typically static. This means that it can be intercepted or cracked through brute force. The token system is more secure because the information you use to login changes every time. This means that it is much less likely to be hacked. For instance, in the two step verification mentioned in the previous section, if someone gets your password, they still could potentially get access into the service because they have the correct password. In this system, they would not get access unless they had physical access to the token generation plus your other login information.
Why Some People Don’t Like It
Lets face it, the more levels of security that we are required to go through in order to access online accounts, the more inconvenient it is for users. Two factor authentication can be extremely annoying. There are a number of different things that can make it annoying to use. For instance, browser like FireFox and Chrome update frequently. When they do, often you must go through the two step process again as the new browser update is seen as a new device. Token generators can also have issues with fast timeouts such that by the time you get your token and then enter it in, it has already expired requiring you to generate another one.
Regardless of the inconvenience that the two factor system causes, it is going to become a requirement for many system. Any service that has sensitive information such as bank information that carries a high financial liability is going to require it eventually. This it to protect themselves but it is also in the interest of users to also apply it to protect their own assets and information as well. | <urn:uuid:dd366f0e-f519-44b9-86bd-ef367d315486> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.techforanyone.com/two-factor-authentication/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128321458.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20170627152510-20170627172510-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.956963 | 1,102 | 3.28125 | 3 | 2.679711 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Software |
HEALTH ALERT: Parents, be advised that if your baby has Down syndrome, they have a 10% (1 out of 10) chance of having Infantile Spasms (a form of baby epilepsy). This is an under reported disease in infants with DS.
It shows up around 3 to 12 months of age and presents as a strange “Salaam” motion –the hands come together at the chest area and arms are extremely rigid. The legs also contract and the knees come up. The baby usually cries out during an episode. We have summarized what you need to know in this entry so that you can become familiar with IS and how it is treated. It is critical that you bring your baby to the emergency room for immediate care. This must be treated or brain injury will result.
The information below has been created from our own personal experience and medical references primarily taken from www.Wikipedia.com and more information can be attained by visiting their website. Other online resources are: www.webMD.com and www.dsresearch.stanford.edu.
|Epilepsy in babies. The name “Infantile Spasms” (IS) is used to describe both the seizure type and the syndrome (West syndrome, a term more often used in Europe than the US).
IS is age-related, generally occurring between the third and the twelfth month, generally manifesting around the fifth month.
It is generally outgrown and rarely seen again beyond ages 24-36 months.
|Prevalence:||Occurs in 10 to 15 babies with Down syndrome out of 100. Boys are more likely than girls to get it in a ratio of 3:2.|
|The epileptic seizures which can be observed in infants with IS fall into three categories. Typically, the following triad of attack types appears; while the three types usually appear simultaneously, they also can occur independently of each other:
Loss of milestones. Infants may stop smiling, laughing, grasping objects, making eye-contact and more. Disinterested in playing, learning or interacting.
An infant may appear distressed, as in colic.
They may self-soothe endlessly.
|Diagnosis:||An Electroencephalography (EEG) will take a measurement of the electrical activity produced by the brain as recorded from electrodes placed on the scalp. Hypsarrhythmia confirms the diagnosis of IS. (Hypsarrhythmia is, in simple terms, a very chaotic and disorganized brain wave behavior with no recognizable pattern, where a normal EEG shows clear separation between each signals and visible pattern. Hypsarrhythmia rarely persists beyond the age of 24 months.)|
|The “Silver Lining”:||Whereas this form of epilepsy is relatively difficult to treat in children who do not have the chromosomal differences involved in Down’s syndrome, the syndrome often affects those who do far more mildly and they often react better to medication.
What is normally a serious form of epilepsy in such cases is often a relatively benign one in those who have a chromosomal difference.
Although not all children can become entirely free from attacks with medication, children with Down’s syndrome are less likely to go on to develop Lennox-Gastaut syndrome or other forms of epilepsy than those without additional hereditary material on the 21st chromosome.
|Causes:||It is still unknown which bio-chemical mechanisms lead to the occurrence of Infantile Spasms. It is conjectured that it is a malfunction of the neurotransmitter function, or more precisely, a malfunction in the regulation of the GABA transmission process.
Another possibility being researched is a hyper-production of the Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH). It is possible that more than one factor is involved. Both hypotheses are supported by the effect of certain medications used to treat it.
Have your baby checked for vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) deficiency. In some extremely rare cases of IS, it is found that the cause is a B6 deficiency.
|There are numerous medications used to treat IS. The most common initial treatment is steroids, such as Prednisone or ACTH. Anti-convulsants, such as Topomax, are used for a longer term -24 to 36 months of age since IS generally is not seen in young children beyond this age.
If seizures are difficult to control, children with Down’s Syndrome are at risk to develop an autistic spectrum disorder.
|Life with IS:||Once a baby gets medication to control the seizures, it takes an average of about one month for the infant’s body to resume normal activity. The lost milestone delays generally are regained over time, once the seizures are under control.
After the first 5-6 weeks of steroid type medication, a tapering period ensues while the adrenal glands restore themselves. This takes anywhere from 5-7 months.
A child will typically remain on the anti-convulsant until they are out of the danger zone for seizures (approx. 24-36 months of age).
While on steroid type drugs, an acid blocker (such as Zantac) will be prescribed to prevent damage to the stomach lining.
A ketogenic diet (high-fat, low-protein, low-carb) may be prescribed.
If you suspect your baby has IS take these steps: | <urn:uuid:3d97b735-7978-41d6-a9f3-013e3fa1abcd> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://tallforeheads.com/?p=460&cpage=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1413507444385.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20141017005724-00196-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934259 | 1,115 | 2.8125 | 3 | 2.451842 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Health |
Head And Neck Cancers
The term “Head and Neck cancer” encompasses a wide range of cancers that occur in several areas of the head and neck region, including the nasal passages, sinuses, mouth, throat, larynx, swallowing passages, salivary glands, and the thyroid gland. Skin cancers that develop on the scalp, face, or neck may also be considered Head and Neck cancers. Head and neck cancer can develop in anyone, but people who use tobacco in any form (including cigarettes, cigars, pipes, bidis, chewed as quid, with betel nut and smokeless tobacco) or drink alcohol excessively are much more likely than others to develop the disease. Most of these cancers are preventable with moderation in alcohol and by refraining from tobacco use.
Below are some of the symptoms and warning signs of head and neck cancer. Many of these symptoms can be caused by other, non-cancerous conditions as well. See your doctor if you notice any of these problems.
• A sore in the mouth that won’t heal (the most common symptom) or that bleeds easily
• A red or white patch in the mouth that doesn’t go away
• Frequent nosebleeds, ongoing nasal congestion, or chronic sinus infections that do not respond to treatment
• Persistent sore throat
• Persistent hoarseness or a change in the voice
• Pain in the neck, throat, or ears that won’t go away
• Blood in the sputum
• Difficulty chewing, swallowing, or moving jaws or tongue
• Numbness in the tongue or other areas
• Loosening of teeth
• Dentures that no longer fit
• A lump or swelling in the neck
• Changes in a mole or discoloration, or a sore on the skin that is crusting, ulcerated, or fails to heal (these are also signs of skin cancer)
TYPES OF CANCERS
There are many different types of head and neck cancer. Several of them are described below. Most head and neck cancers are squamous cell carcinomas, i.e cancers arising from the mucosal lining .
Oral cancer is cancer that arises in the mouth, or oral cavity. The oral cavity includes the lips, the gums and the area behind the wisdom teeth, the inside of the lips and cheeks, the floor and roof (hard palate) of the mouth, and the front two-thirds of the tongue.
Laryngeal (Voice Box) cancer begins in the larynx, an organ also known as the voice box. The larynx sits at the top of the trachea, the respiratory tube that leads to the lungs. Air passes through the larynx on the way to the lungs. The vocal cords, two bands of muscle, are found within the larynx and are used for speech. The larynx also prevents food from entering the lungs.
Nasal cavity and paranasal sinus cancers are found in the tissues that line these hollow structures. The paranasal sinuses are hollow areas in the bones of the face near the nose that produce mucus. The nasal cavity is found just behind the nose and is used to condition the inhaled air before passing it throat.
Nasopharyngeal cancer is found in the nasopharynx, the uppermost portion of the throat (pharynx). It begins just behind the nose and extends to the oropharynx, the portion of the throat found just behind the mouth. It also includes two openings that lead to the ears. (The entire throat is called the pharynx, and is made up of the nasopharynx, the oropharynx just below that, and the hypopharynx, the lower region that meets the esophagus.)
Oropharyngeal cancer is found in the section of the throat (oropharynx) located just beyond the mouth. The region also includes the base of the tongue, the soft palate (the soft area just beyond the roof of the mouth), and the area around the tonsils.
Hypopharyngeal cancer is found in the hypopharynx, the uppermost portion of the esophagus (the tube through which food travels to the stomach). The hypopharynx surrounds the larynx.
Salivary gland cancer – It is found in the salivary glands, the structures that produce saliva to keep the mouth from drying out and aid in the digestion of food. Salivary glands may be found in front of the ears (parotid), under the jaw (submandibular), underneath the tongue (sublingual), and in other areas of the upper aerodigestive passages including the nose, sinus, mouth, and throat.
Thyroid cancer – It develops in the thyroid gland, a small H-shaped structure that wraps around the front of windpipe in the lower part of the neck. The thyroid gland is the source of important hormones that help regulate metabolism, blood pressure, heart rate, temperature and other functions. Thyroid gland cancers are hereditary, or related to a lot of dietery and environmental factore like Iodine deficiency and radiation exposure. It also is more common in females.
Because most head and neck cancers arise after prolonged exposures to known risk factors, these cancers are often considered preventable. Risk factors for head and neck cancers include tobacco and alcohol use, a history of pre-cancerous lesions, and exposure to cancer-causing agents in the environment. People who use tobacco in any form or drink alcohol excessively are at much greater risk for the disease. For example, smoking raises the risk of cancer of the larynx (voice box) or hypopharynx to 5 to 35 times the risk of nonsmokers. Heavy use of alcohol raises the risk of those cancers 2 to 5 times. Those who smoke and also drink heavily might be raising their risk to 100 times that of non-users.
INVESTIGATIONS AND DIAGNOSIS
Doctors perform any of several types of tests that can help to make a definitive diagnosis of a head and neck cancer and to determine the stage of the cancer, or how far it has progressed. Treatment is decided depending on the stage of the cancer at diagnosis.
Physical Examination & History
First, the doctor takes a complete medical history, noting all symptoms and risk factors. Then comes a thorough examination of the head and neck area, during which the doctor will feel for abnormalities and looking at the inside of your mouth and throat, and on the neck for lumps.
The doctor may use mirrors and lights to examine hard-to-see areas and may also use a flexible, lighted tube (fibre optic or a Hopkins’scope) to examine areas that are less accessible. The tube may be inserted through the nose or mouth; an anesthetic spray may be used to make the examination more comfortable. This examination is called a nasopharyngoscopy, pharyngoscopy, or laryngoscopy, depending on which area is examined. Occasionally, this type of examination will be done while the patient is under general anesthesia so a very thorough inspection can be done; this is called a panendoscopy.
The doctor may also suggest several other tests, including imaging procedures such as a CT or computed tomographic scan (a special type of x-ray), an MRI or magnetic resonance image scan (which uses magnetic waves to produce pictures), or an ultrasound exam (which uses sounds waves to produce images). Doctors also now use PET (positron emission tomography) scans to help diagnose head and neck cancers, but this is not yet a routine practice. Currently, research is investigating whether PET scans will improve the ability to detect the spread of cancer to lymph nodes in the neck and other areas of the body.
Other possible tests include an orthopentogram (a special x-ray of the jaws), a barium swallow, dental x-rays, chest x-rays, and a radionuclide throid scan in case of thyroid cancers.
If a suspicious area is noted, the doctor may do a biopsy: he or she will remove a small piece of tissue with either a scalpel or a needle, and send it to a laboratory for examination under a microscope. Biopsies are often done when the patient is under general anesthesia. Biopsies of easily accessible areas are done under local anesthesia. Before starting any form of treatment, a biopsy is mandatory to prove the diagnosis.
Many cancers of the head and neck can be cured, especially if they are found early. Treatment varies according to the type, severity, and location of the disease. It may include surgery (the primary treatment method), radiation therapy, or chemotherapy. Increasingly, oncologists are combining treatment modalities to maximize chances of curing the cancer.
Although cure of the cancer is the primary goal in treatment, preserving a patient’s appearance and ability to function, and thus the quality of life, also are very important goals and are considered an integral part of treatment. Today, advances in surgical techniques, reconstruction, and non surgical treatment methods combined with a comprehensive team approach, which brings the expertise of numerous specialists to each patient’s care have made it possible to attain those quality of life goals in nearly every patient receiving treatment.
Surgery is the mainstay of treatment for most cancers of the head and neck. Loss of speech was once common after head and neck surgery, because of damage to the larynx (voice box). Continual advances in surgical techniques, however, allow more patients to preserve normal functioning. Surgeons have perfected techniques, for example, that remove only part of the larynx instead of the entire organ. Indeed, larynx-preserving surgery is possible in more than half of the cases that once would have required that organ to be completely removed. Also, now we have gadgets which can be inserted into the throat which will help patient to speak even after his larynx has been removed completely. Other advances now allow doctors to spare the jaw or replace it with some other bone from the patient’s body to maintain a normal face. Also the eye can be spared when a tumor is crowding that area.
When surgery is extensive, immediate reconstruction of the area is often possible. For example, in cases where the jaw bone must be removed, a surgeon can fashion a new jaw using bone from the patient’s own leg. Blood vessels are moved along with the leg bone and are attached to blood vessels in the neck, creating a blood supply for the new jaw. Similarly, skin and muscle from a patient’s back or abdomen can now be used to replace part of the scalp. Dental implants can be used to replace teeth.
Radiation therapy may involve external beam treatment or brachytherapy, a technique in which tiny radioactive seeds are implanted directly in a tumor. In some cases, both approaches are used. Radiation therapy is often given in conjunction with surgical treatment, but studies are showing that in some cases, radiation therapy sometimes combined with chemotherapy is just as effective as surgery. These new approaches can often preserve the ability to speak and swallow normally, even in patients with advanced disease.
The use of chemotherapy in head and neck cancer is also expanding, especially in cases that previously would have been considered untreatable. Chemotherapy is often used to enhance the response of cancer cells to radiation therapy, and often makes it possible to preserve organs, such as the larynx, that once would have been removed. For patients with advanced disease, too, chemotherapy is helping to increase longevity; this is especially true in patients who have cancer of the nasopharynx or other areas that are not easily treated surgically.
APPROACH TO HEAD AND NECK CANCER
Early stage disease
- Surgery alone is often the standard of care for early stage disease.
- Radiation therapy alone is also acceptable for stage I and II malignancies, although squamous cells are only moderately radiosensitive.
Late stage disease
- Surgery is part of a combination approach, either before or after other modalities.
- Radical or modified neck dissection if there is cervical lymph node spread.
- Reconstructive procedures are very important adjunct to tumor resection.
- Radiation therapy plays role in large, unresectable tumors for palliation and preservation of speech and swallowing functions.
- Chemotherapy combination regimens have not yet demonstrated better tumor control or survival when used alone. However, many late stage disease patients are at risk of occult metastases and/or recurrence, thus chemotherapy plays a role.
Focus on Quality of Life
When planning a course of treatment for a patient, doctors place great emphasis on quality-of-life issues, such as the ability to speak or swallow. Surgery is the primary form of treatment for head and neck cancers, and today such surgery is often much less disfiguring than patients may fear. Numerous surgical procedures have been developed that permit removal of tumors from complex areas, such as the base of the skull, that were not possible in the past and, at the other end of the spectrum, preserve organ function and facial appearance to a far greater degree than was possible in the past, while keeping cure of the cancer as the main goal.
Indeed, the standards of care for head and neck surgery have changed substantially in recent decades. Reconstructive surgery has improved dramatically, expanding the range of tumors that can now be removed surgically and yielding previously unattainable cosmetic and functional outcomes. Research data indicates that the results of complicated surgical procedures like these are best when the procedures are done by specialists who perform them on a regular basis. | <urn:uuid:728fdfa2-6b01-4032-a9af-2e2a5b252713> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | https://vovindia.org/head-and-neck-cancers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549429485.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20170727202516-20170727222516-00518.warc.gz | en | 0.946087 | 2,828 | 3.203125 | 3 | 2.070957 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Health |
How did China Become the World’s Second Economic Power?
China has become the world’s second economic power in four decades, to the astonishment of many observers and thanks mainly to four factors. The first is Deng Xiaoping’s opening-up-to-the-world policies and the 1979 Equity Joint Venture Law. Together they have allowed (among other things) foreign capital and Western companies to enter China, transforming the domestic economic landscape entirely from one that is traditional and obsolete to one that is dynamic and modern. The second factor is the State Strategy outlined in the various Five-Year Plans (FYP). This strategy has led to the gradual flourishing of the Chinese economy and that of some industries targeted by the State in the FYP. The third factor is China’s most precious treasure, namely its labor force, whether the cheapest or the most educated. Estimated at over 786 million in 2017, this labor force has allowed China to become the world’s factory in only three decades. And finally, the fourth factor is China’s diaspora or overseas Chinese (Huáqiáo who are Chinese citizens residing abroad and Huáyì who are of Chinese descent living abroad, regardless of their citizenship). On the one hand, the Chinese diaspora has sent remittances estimated at $64 billion in 2017, as reported by the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief. On the other hand, some of these overseas Chinese came back home to benefit from China’s booming economy and offer their expertise gained abroad, mostly in Western countries such as the U.S.
That said and in addition to these factors considered as catalysts to China’s booming economy, China used several internationalization strategies to shake its economy from the impoverished state left by Mao Zedong. What are these strategies? What is China’s and its instruments’ (namely its companies’) modus operandi? How did China become the second economic power in the world?
The answers to these questions can be summarized in several factors. Let’s start with the first one.
Trade: The yin of China’s internationalization strategies
The most striking facet of China’s internationalization strategies is without doubt trade. The number of China’s largest companies in the world has been growing steadily since 2000, prompting Fortune 500 to talk about the “Chinese Factor” in 2006 (China was then the only country that was able to bring in four new companies into the ranking that year). The number of dragons continues to grow. From 2000 to 2018, their number has been multiplied by ten (going from a mere 12 to 120). Meanwhile, the first of the ranking, the U.S., continues to lose places by more than a third (going from 197 to 126 – – only six companies more than China, predicting that the Middle Kingdom will dominate the ranking in 2019), while the second of the ranking, Japan does the same by losing half of the places (going from 103 to 52).
China has also started in an insidious Sun-Tzu style to conquer the world using its little dragons that have invaded mature markets, beginning with thousands of small Chinese businesses in Africa and South America that pave the way to the biggest ones, encouraged by the Go Out Policy launched in 1999.
But first, the West entered China’s market. Indeed, Western companies (regardless of their size) transferred their production in China to enjoy economies of scale and to secure shares of the vast domestic market as well as to export their products to the rest of the world. Chinese companies’ sensu lato then took control of the much more lucrative local market and have started invading the global market. Undeniably, Chinese companies invade their domestic market from the outset with economies of scale, since the Chinese market itself is gigantic, something that a Western company cannot afford to do at home from the beginning. A Chinese company that is emerging nationally is already a strong company having won a victory over its competitors. It has a strong basis from the start in a highly fragmented transitional market with provincial protectionism that makes competition between Chinese companies harder and which pushes them to maintain and cultivate privileged relations with the authorities (Guanxi’s importance here is vital).
A Chinese company’s presence in the local market disturbs international competition and attracts Western companies that propose commercial agreements. Given the massive size of the untapped Chinese market, these companies compete easily (to a certain extent) in the global market and disrupt the established order, as is the case with Haier and Huawei that started sweeping Africa, Asia and that has penetrated Eastern Europe. To do so, they have the help of state logistics, financial aid and tax exemptions, an assistance that is decried as unfair by Western countries and that must be stopped, as stated by the U.S.
That said, the Achilles’ heel of Chinese companies’ candidates to internationalization is and remains branding, something that is still not yet massively developed because of China’s goods reputation of bad/low quality. At the same time, despite the current trade war, China is robust enough to tackle what the U.S. is trying to do with its tariffs since it has developed its New Silk Road (the Belt and Road Initiative) weaving its web by land and sea on three continents, but what helped China’s trade reach these heights?
Joint-Ventures: The growth engine of the Chinese economy locally and abroad
The growth engine of the Chinese economy (especially at the domestic level) is undeniably joint-ventures (JVs). They are the best way for foreign enterprises to do business guaranteed by the Chinese state. With nearly 20,000 foreign companies settling in China yearly since 1978, the total investment volume is now over 100 billion, making China the world’s factory, producing in large quantities at low cost to the point of becoming the center of the planet’s endemic growth.
To maintain their position in the Chinese domestic market or to expand it, JVs are forced to re-invest. The bigger the investments and the foreign company, the more important the Chinese counterpart should be. Nevertheless, larger Chinese companies may, in their thirst to attract foreign capital, accommodate smaller foreign firms as well and this is where lishu becomes a key factor.
Lishu represents the links between state hierarchy and enterprises controlled by central government, provinces, cities and prefectures, rural and urban communities. JVs develop relationship networks to minimize their costs and maximize profits by seeking strategic alliances. What muddies the waters is the rampant corruption that plagues all levels of Chinese society, including the highest. Indeed, the perception index of corruption in China has worsened; China’s rank went from 40 in 1990 to 79 in 2016 according to Transparency International, despite Xi Jinping efforts to eradicate it. It is a plague that will not disappear anytime soon, one that puts sand in JVs’ gears on top of the fact that JVs are becoming more and more criticized by foreign companies since the famous cases of Danone Wahaha and Heartland Spindle that turned sour to the advantage of their Chinese counterparts who enjoy the support of the whole state apparatus.
Actually, Chinese companies continuously evaluate the costs and benefits of their relationship with foreigners. As soon as they find a better partner, they get rid of the current one and go for the new one. Fortunately, China allowed other forms to bud under its ‘paternalist’ control, such as the share-risk partnership and even the private sector at the domestic level, while it allowed new ways to do business at the international level. What are they?
Mergers and Acquisitions: The gate to the global market
The purchase of foreign companies around the world has accelerated in recent years (e.g., China Mobile’s acquisition of Paktel in the telecom sector or Sinopec buying shares in Repsol Brasil for $7.1billion). The most striking examples are the purchase of badly bankrupt or failing businesses in the U.S., such as what happened in the Rust Belt where Chinese interests bought many about-to-close companies, and all machinery and documentation were sent to China.
A new trend that has been observed for some time in commodities is that Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are acquiring large companies operating in the mining and energy sectors. However, they are encountering more and more resistance from Western states, as was/is the case in Australia where several purchase attempts failed (e.g., UNOCAL stopped from being purchased by CNOOC). Some countries realized too late what was happening and are trying to react to stop China’s insidious invasion, especially now that the race for commodities is starting to get tougher with India and Brazil’s rise, who also want their share of the market to fuel their growth.
China has also created stock exchanges in which both Chinese and foreign companies are listed. Chinese companies operating on their stock market have access to investments abroad as well as through mergers and acquisitions. And with China being the world’s first forex reserve ($3.2 trillion in reserves held in Q1 2018 according to the IMF), China’s state has had a firm stronghold on capital controls and on the oversight of overseas investments since late 2015. This policy was initiated to maintain financial stability and to more efficiently control the exchange rate after the 2015-2016 yuan devaluation, but what fuels China’s economy?
Local and Foreign Supply Chains Logistics: The fuel of the Chinese economy
Despite China being officially the world’s first buyer of raw material, Chinese state companies divert a large volume of raw materials from official networks, mainly from Africa. Their modus operandi is well known. They settle in developing countries by buying or renting land, extract what they can or grow what they want and then send it directly to China without using the official channels. No need for markets and no paying in foreign currencies. In this, China still takes advantage of its title of leader of the Third World inherited from Mao’s era when barter between countries was encouraged.
The modus operandi of Chinese enterprises in the official channels varies. On the one hand, big Chinese companies settle in developing countries, get contracts to build infrastructure and/or modernize them; moving their whole of labor force from China. They barely interact with local people (instead creating Chinese ghettos) and do not interfere in the political affairs of the country in which they live, as is the case in Angola (e.g.). On the other hand, Chinese small businesses observe the local market, import goods almost identical to those that sell well on the spot and break prices, leaving the local industry to struggle for its survival. This is how the chicken industry in Zambia and the bikini industry in Brazil were severely hit.
In general, China imports wood from Brazil; agricultural products from Argentina, East Asia, and South Asia; Venezuela’s minerals and hydrocarbons; and hydrocarbons and raw materials from Central Asia and Africa. It exports agricultural products to Africa and Asia. Recently, China began building assembly plants in Africa (Algeria and Senegal) and Asia. And with the establishment of the Belt and Road Initiative, roads and maritime routes will be dedicated to filling China’s needs regarding raw materials and energy, and it will be a more direct way for China to export its goods. But then again and despite all of this, how China’s economy will maintain its growth and its leading position as the second world economic power aspiring to dethrone the first one that is the U.S.?
Technology, R&D, and Innovation: The keys to global domination
Chinese companies’ innovation at home consists mainly of buying back companies or creating JVs to take advantage of the ability to innovate from abroad. Foreign firms invest in R&D in China because of the abundant, educated and inexpensive workforce. A culture of innovation, R&D, and technology is increasingly taking hold in China following government guidelines, as Wan Gang (Minister of Science and Technology) told the media: “China needs to enter the ranks of innovative countries and become a big technological innovation power by 2050.”
The R&D expenditure of the 100 largest dragons was $ 33.76 billion in 2008, spending more than twice as much (2.3 times) as South Korea, while in 2017, it is estimated to have spent $279 billion in R&D (more than 8 times in 8 years!). Leading other countries by its gross research and development (R&D) expenditure worldwide in 2018 (in billion U.S. dollars) shows that China is nearing the U.S. at a quicker pace.
There is still much to be done for China to overcome the image of a hacker, imitator and thief of Western intellectual property without worrying about patents and licenses to sell them in the Southeast Asian and African markets. To work on this image change, more and more tripartite alliances (government-university-industry) are being established to accelerate the pace.
While the opportunities and challenges that await the Chinese regarding the internationalization of their R&D are still little known, there are opportunities for the emergence of Chinese R&D through the return of Chinese expatriates and of Chinese students sent around the world. Moreover, China’s companies can call upon the 47 million Chinese people of the diaspora. This unique situation has allowed China to be among the world’s top 20 most innovative economies in 2018, while the U.S. has dropped out of the top 5 as highlighted in the 2018 Global Innovation Index report.
The new modern Chinese diaspora is considered to be wealthy and highly educated, unlike the first poor one, the coolies who were cheap labor for many host countries like the U.S. and Canada. The Chinese diaspora continues to weave its web all over the world (thus serving the CCP’s political interests), even in parts of the world that did not interest it in the past, as is the case for Morocco today.
Delegations explicitly sent to receive advanced academic training in technology and international business administration are becoming the norm. In 2003, 20,000 highly skilled personnel trained in technology and business administration returned to China to work. In 2017, Chinese students abroad totaled 608,400 according to the Ministry of Education of the PRC. This figure indicates a multiplication of over 15.6 times in eighteen years (38,989 students in 2000), while in 1978, there were only 860 Chinese students abroad!
These students focus on the following areas: economics, finance, international trade, business administration, telecommunications and high technology. The case of Lattice Power, created in 2006, and crowned by MIT Technology Review in 2011 as one of the 50 most innovative companies, is convincing with its workforce composed of graduates from around the world.
That said, the Chinese went from the duplication phase (blind imitation) to the creative duplication phase (copying with minor changes) by developing their standards, thus preparing for the local innovation phase. These phases are found in all sectors activity targeted by government guidelines. Furthermore, in China’s twelfth FYP (2011-2015), it is specified that China must develop the seven emerging industries, namely biotechnology, new energies, the manufacture of high-end equipment, energy savings and environmental protection, alternative fuel cars, new materials and next-generation information technology. And Chinese companies answered the CCP’s call massively.
Talking about innovation and R&D brings up the subject of intellectual property rights. Historically, intellectual property rights have never been codified. Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism do not recognize the notion of copyright that the Confucian State must uphold. The same goes for contracts between individuals or between companies. The state does not intervene in case of conflict. The neo-Confucian milieu does not favor denunciation within the company, considered to be treason, and so piracy becomes a regular activity in a society where it has never been considered a crime.
What is interesting is that Chinese brands have not yet massively penetrated the Western market and have therefore not been confronted with the practices of imitation and piracy. This subject is still little known and less documented. However, many Chinese companies started filing patents in China and internationally (e.g., Lattice Power has filed more than 150 patents). Even more telling, the Chinese government is ready to enact legislation protecting intellectual property rights to encourage R&D in China. China, cornered by innovation’s norms, has conceded to protect the intellectual property right it has never recognized, but still, to date no concrete action has really been taken by the government.
The Chinese state: The holder of the keys to success
In conclusion, the spearhead of the Chinese economy lies, in fact, in its companies (small and large) that are instruments of another company, namely the Chinese state, as it is the state that holds the resources and their allocation through its FYPs. It is the state that regulates the Justice sector and interprets it for its companies. Judge and party, the PRC distorts the economic game since his hand is visible both inside the country and abroad.
China’s instruments to ensure global domination are in two categories. The first one is JVs that are formed on the same model and follow the same internationalization strategy. When the strategic objectives differ from those set by the PRC, the latter triggers a process of questioning. The second one is SOEs whose strategy is set by the PRC. They do not care about resources, expenses or profitability as they operate in a logic that is far from capitalism.
These Chinese companies have become insidious war organizations, just like the silent force of water undermining the foundations of a structure. These organizations do not take prisoners, but they create armies of unemployed people in the rest of the world, which leads us to raise several questions: Is the rise of protectionism everywhere a reaction to China’s rise or no? Is the current trade war carried out mainly by the U.S. (beyond the way it is being done) have a reason to take place or no? Will China overcome successfully all the hurdles on its path to global domination?
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Do you need help troubleshooting your vivarium? This page outlines the basics of preventing and solving common issues. Learn how to diagnose problems, identify the type of vivarium, find solutions for common issues, clean and maintain your vivarium, and detect and fix problems. Read through our FAQ section to find answers to your most pressing questions. With this guide, you can easily find solutions to keep your vivarium in optimal condition.
This section on common problems offers an extensive look at topics, ranging from aquariums to terrariums. We give you professional advice on diagnosing, fixing, and maintaining your vivarium to get it back in perfect shape. Find out more about troubleshooting common vivarium problems here.
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Yes, fish can drown. Fish breathe oxygen from the water around them and need to be in an environment that is adequately oxygenated. If the oxygen levels become too low, fish suffer from a lack of oxygen, which can result in drowning.
The short answer is that a fish cannot survive more than a few minutes out of water. The exact amount of time a fish can live outside of water depends on the species, the temperature of the air, and the humidity. Some fish such as eels are able to survive up to an hour in some cases.
The best type of water for fish tanks is dechlorinated tap water. It's important to use a water conditioner to remove chlorine, chloramine, and heavy metals, as these can be harmful or fatal to your fish. Also, use a water testing kit to ensure the right pH and other levels are optimal for your fish.
There are several steps you can take to keep your fish tank clean without changing the water. Start by cleaning the sides and decorations of the tank with an algae scraper or sponge. If your tank contains plants, you'll want to check them regularly for algae and remove any buildup.
You should then perform a partial water change (10-25% of the water) every two weeks to remove any debris or buildup in the gravel. Additionally, vacuum the gravel each time you do a water change to remove any debris or waste. Finally, make sure to check the water parameters to maintain an optimum balance and keep your fish healthy.
To make your fish tank water crystal clear, start with a thorough cleaning of the tank. Empty and rinse the tank, decorations, and filter, and change out at least 25-50% of the water. Make sure to also clean and/or replace the filter media and gravel as needed. Then, use a water conditioner when replacing the water to help reduce chlorine and other toxins. Also, feed your fish only what they can consume in 2-3 minutes to prevent excess food from decaying and clouding the water. Finally, use a clarifier product to help bring out the clarity of the water.
To change the water in your fish tank, first remove 10-25% of the water and any debris. Then, top off the tank with fresh, dechlorinated water. Make sure the temperature of the new water is close to the old water, as fish can experience shock from temperature changes. When you finish refilling the tank, add an aquarium conditioner like Prime to be sure your fish do not suffer any negative effects from the water change.
- Turn off the heater and filter and unplug the electrical cords.
- Use a gravel vacuum to remove the old gravel and gunk from the bottom of the tank.
- Clean the gravel, decorations, and tank walls with a sponge.
- Remove 25-50% of the water from the tank and replace it with fresh water, being sure to match the temperature of the new water to that of the tank.
- Refill the filter with new media or clean it with a filter-cleaning solution.
- Replace ornaments, plants, and other decorations.
- Replace the fish with the displaced tank water.
- Turn the heater and filter back on and plug them back in.
Yes, you should take your fish out when cleaning the tank. This will keep the fish from being exposed to any chemicals in the cleaning products and ensure that the water stays clean for the fish to live in.
Yes, you can add tap water to your fish tank, but you should first treat it with a water conditioner to remove chlorine and other chemicals that can harm your fish. Water conditioners can be found at most pet supply stores and online.
It's best to wait 2-4 weeks before adding fish to a new tank. This is to ensure that the water chemistry is properly balanced for the fish's health. Additionally, adding fish too soon can introduce pollutants into the tank, which can overwhelm the tank and damage the fish's health.
If you own a fish tank, it is important to clean it on a regular basis to ensure the health of your fish. As a general rule, you should clean your fish tank at least once every two weeks to remove any debris, uneaten food, or waste that might be left in the tank.
Yes, it is possible to leave your fish tank for 3 weeks. However, it is important to properly prepare the tank for this extended period of inactivity. You should reduce the amount of food you provide to your fish and do a large water change (at least 25%) prior to leaving. Additionally, it is recommended to add a water conditioner to keep the levels and conditions of the tank consistent while you're away.
Fish generally prefer wide, long tanks rather than high, tall tanks as they provide more space for swimming and are often more aesthetically pleasing. Additionally, higher gal tanks tend to experience more turbulence and require additional filtration to keep the water safe for fish.
The cost of a fish tank depends on its size, type, material, and other features. A basic 10-gallon tank typically costs around $30–$50, while a large-themed tank can range from $100 to several thousand dollars.
The best-size fish tank for beginners is a 10-gallon aquarium. This size is great for those just starting out, as it's not too small, and not too large. It's the perfect size to easily monitor water parameters and master the necessary fish-keeping skills. Plus, you can keep a variety of fish and species in a 10-gallon aquarium.
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Updates on new content sent straight to your inbox! | <urn:uuid:4ddfe70e-3db7-4958-acd4-910d21c9e5a2> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://bantam.earth/vivarium-troubleshooting/?term_id=170 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224650409.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20230604225057-20230605015057-00095.warc.gz | en | 0.927567 | 1,500 | 2.609375 | 3 | 1.517717 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Home & Hobbies |
Tip of the Week: C4 Framework and Free Stuff
After years of sitting on the margins of instructional practice, social studies is getting a makeover. The Common Core is calling for the teaching of literacy through the integration of fiction and non-fiction into our instruction. In August 2013, the National Council for the Social Studies published the complementary College, Career, and Civic Life Framework for Social Studies State Standards.
Both the Common Core and College, Career, and Civic Life standards support a different approach to teaching and learning social studies than what we saw as part of No Child Left Behind. Instead of focusing on memorizing specific content measured by multiple choice tests, students are now being asked to do social studies – to think historically, to solve problems, to read, write, and communicate. As teachers, we are being asked to find a balance between foundational knowledge and the authentic use of that knowledge.
But it can be difficult. What does that balance look like in actual practice?
To help you, we came up with something that we’re calling
the C4 Framework.
The C4 Framework is designed around four elements – Collect, Collaborate, Create, and Communicate. Together the four elements give you a structure for planning and implementing a cohesive instructional arc that helps kids go beyond simply memorizing social studies content and supports the ability to solve problems and to think historically. You can learn more about each of the four elements by heading over to the C4 website.
But we want to go beyond theory. We want to provide specific teaching and learning strategies and tools that you can immediately put into practice. To do this, we’ve created multiple cards for each element in the Framework. Each 8.5 x 11 card has one specific strategy or resource aligned to both the Common Core Literacy standards and the College, Career, and Civic Life standards – perfect for classroom use.
But the cards are still in the Beta stage. And we’d love your help to ensure that the cards are truly useful for classroom teachers. Interested?
Download a sample Collect card, provide some feedback, and we’ll throw your name in the hat for a chance to win a set of 16 different cards. It couldn’t be easier!
Thanks for help! (And I hope you are the one who wins!)
And keep a lookout in the next few weeks. We’ll be rolling out the C4 cards nationally before the end of the year. Curious what the first 16 topics are gonna be? | <urn:uuid:46e94c3f-9a47-46e2-bc58-27348794aec1> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://historytech.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/tip-of-the-week-c4-framework-and-free-stuff/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414119646425.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20141024030046-00054-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937923 | 515 | 3.546875 | 4 | 2.487084 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Education & Jobs |
Last month, in honor of mathematician and puzzly spirit John Horton Conway, we shared two of his favorite brain teasers and challenged our fellow PuzzleNationers to crack them.
Two weeks ago, we shared the solution to puzzle #1, The Miracle Builders, and offered a few hints for puzzle #2, The Ten Divisibilities.
Now that we’ve heard from a few solvers who either conquered or got very close to conquering the second puzzle, we happily share both the solution and how we got there.
The Ten Divisibilities
I have a ten digit number, abcdefghij. Each of the digits is different, and:
- a is divisible by 1
- ab is divisible by 2
- abc is divisible by 3
- abcd is divisible by 4
- abcde is divisible by 5
- abcdef is divisible by 6
- abcdefg is divisible by 7
- abcdefgh is divisible by 8
- abcdefghi is divisible by 9
- abcdefghij is divisible by 10
What’s my number?
[To clarify: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, and j are all single digits. Each digit from 0 to 9 is represented by exactly one letter. The number abcdefghij is a ten-digit number whose first digit is a, second digit is b, and so on. It does not mean that you multiply a x b x c x…]
And here are the hints we offered to help:
-If you add all the digits in a number, and the total is divisible by 3, then that number is also divisible by 3.
-If the last two digits of a number are divisible by 4, then that number is divisible by 4.
-If the last three digits of a number are divisible by 8, then that number is divisible by 8.
The solution is 3816547290.
So, how do we get there?
First, we use process of elimination.
Any number divisible by 10 must end in a zero, so j = 0.
Any number divisible by 5 must end in a zero or a five, so e = 5 (because each digit only appears once).
That gives us abcd5fghi0.
But that’s not all we know.
If a number is divisible by an even number, that number must itself be even. So that means b, d, f, and h must all be even numbers (i.e. some combination of 2, 4, 6, and 8). That also means that a, c, g, and i must all be some combination of the remaining odd numbers (1, 3, 7, and 9).
That’s a lot of information that will come in handy as we solve.
So, where to next? Let’s look at one of those even-numbered spots.
We’ve been told that abcd is divisible by 4. But any number is divisible by 4 if the last two digits are divisible by 4. So that means cd is divisible by 4.
So, if c is odd, d is even, and cd is divisible by 4, that limits the possibilities somewhat. cd must be 12, 16, 32, 36, 72, 76, 92, or 96.
So d is either 2 or 6.
That will be helpful in figuring out def. And knowing def is the key to this entire puzzle.
One of the clues we offered in our last post was that if the sum of a number’s digits is divisible by 3, then that number is also divisible by three. We know abc is divisible by 3, so that means a + b + c is also divisible by 3.
And if something is divisible by 6, then it’s also divisible by 3, so a + b + c + d + e + f is divisible by 3.
Here’s where things get a little tricky. Since a + b + c + d + e + f is divisible by 3, and a + b + c is divisible by 3, then when you subtract a + b + c from a + b + c + d + e + f, the result, d + e + f would also be divisible by 3.
Why is that helpful? Because it means we can look at def instead of abcdef, and we know a lot about def right now.
d is either 2 or 6. e is 5. f is either 2, 4, 6, or 8. And the sum of d + e + f is divisible by 3.
So that gives us two possibilities to deal with, either 2 + 5 + f, where the sum is divisible by 3, or 6 + 5 + f, where the sum is divisible by 3.
Since each number is only used once, that’s six possible equations:
- 2 + 5 + 4 = 11
- 2 + 5 + 6 = 13
- 2 + 5 + 8 = 15
- 6 + 5 + 2 = 13
- 6 + 5 + 4 = 15
- 6 + 5 + 8 = 19
Only 258 and 654 have sums divisible by 3, so they’re our two possibilities for def.
We’ll have to try both of them to see which is the correct choice. How do we do that?
Let’s start with the assumption that def is 258.
That would mean our answer is abc258ghi0. We know b and h have to be even numbers, and only 4 and 6 are left as options. Since fewer numbers are divisible by 8 than by 2, let’s look at abc258gh.
One of the other hints we offered was that if the last three digits of a number are divisible by 8, then the whole number is divisible by 8.
So that means if abc258gh is divisible by 8, then 8gh is divisible by 8. That’s much more manageable.
So, f is 8, h is 4 or 6, and g is either 1, 3, 7, or 9. That gives us eight possibilities for 8gh: 814, 834, 874, 894, 816, 836, 876, and 896.
Dividing each of these by 8 reveals only two possible choices: 816 and 896. That means, in this scenario, h is 6, b is 4, and our number is a4c258g6i0.
What’s next? Well, remember that trick we did with abcdef before? We’re going to do it again with abcdefghi.
Any number divisible by 9 is divisible by 3. Our rule of sums tells us that a + b + c + d + e + f + g + h + i is also divisible by 3. And since a + b + c + d + e + f is divisible by 3, subtracting it means that g + h + i is also divisible by 3.
With 816 and 896 as our possibilities for fgh, that means our possibilities for ghi are 16i and 96i. That gives us the following possibilities: 163, 167, 169, 961, 963, 967, where the sum of our answer must be divisible by 3.
- 1 + 6 + 3 = 10
- 1 + 6 + 7 = 14
- 1 + 6 + 9 = 16
- 9 + 6 + 1 = 16
- 9 + 6 + 3 = 18
- 9 + 6 + 7 = 22
963 is the only one that works, which gives us a4c2589630. With only 1 and 7 remaining as options, our possible solution is either 1472589630 or 7412589630.
But, if you divide either 1472589 or 7412589 by 7 — which is faster than running every one of the 10 conditions through a calculator — neither divides cleanly. That means 258 is incorrect.
I know that was a lot of work just to eliminate one possibility, but it was worth it. It means 654 is correct, so our solution so far reads abc654ghi0.
And we can use the same techniques we just employed with 258 to find the actual answer.
We know b and h have to be even numbers, and only 2 and 8 are left as options. Again, since fewer numbers are divisible by 8 than by 2, let’s look at abc654gh.
4gh is divisible is 8. So, f is 4, h is 2 or 8, and g is either 1, 3, 7, or 9. That gives us eight possibilities for 4gh: 412, 432, 472, 492, 418, 438, 478, and 498.
Dividing each of these by 8 reveals only two possible choices: 432 and 472. That means b is 8, and our number is a8c654g2i0.
Now, let’s look at ghi.
With 432 and 472 as our possibilities for fgh, that means our possibilities for ghi are 32i and 72i. That gives us the following possibilities: 321, 327, 329, 721, 723, 729, where the sum of our answer must be divisible by 3.
- 3 + 2 + 1 = 6
- 3 + 2 + 7 = 12
- 3 + 2 + 9 = 14
- 7 + 2 + 1 = 10
- 7 + 2 + 3 = 12
- 7 + 2 + 9 = 18
Okay, that leaves us four possibilities for ghi: 321, 327, 723, and 729.
Stay with me, folks, we’re so close to the end!
Let’s look at our four possibilities:
- a8c6543210 (79)
- a8c6543270 (19)
- a8c6547230 (19)
- a8c6547290 (13)
Next to each number, I’ve placed the only digits missing in each scenario, two for each.
That means there are only 8 possible ways to arrange the remaining numbers:
So let’s do what we did last time, and divide each chain at the seventh number by 7.
- 7896543 / 7
- 9876543 / 7
- 1896543 / 7
- 9816543 / 7
- 1896547 / 7
- 9816547 / 7
- 1836547 / 7
- 3816547 / 7
Only one of the chains can be cleanly divided by 7, and it’s 3816547.
Which means the solution for abcdefghij is 3816547290.
I know this was a monster of a solve — it rivals our Brooklyn Nine-Nine seesaw puzzle solution in complexity — but it’s one that every one of our fellow PuzzleNationers are capable of puzzling out.
How did you do on this diabolical brain teaser, folks? Let us know in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you!
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You can also share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and explore the always-expanding library of PuzzleNation apps and games on our website! | <urn:uuid:ff0cb413-2de5-4f13-9d11-dc7ba48d6284> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://blog.puzzlenation.com/2020/06/04/answer-to-the-fiendish-second-conway-puzzle-the-ten-divisibilities/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710900.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20221202082526-20221202112526-00244.warc.gz | en | 0.934401 | 2,544 | 2.75 | 3 | 2.218028 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Science & Tech. |
This Spanish and Italian surname of GRANADO was of two-fold origin. It was an occupational name for a grower and seller of pomegranates, or a locational name for one who came from GRANADA (the place where pomegranates grew) in Spain. Many of the modern family names throughout Europe reflect the profession or occupation of their forbears in the Middle Ages and derive from the position held by their ancestors in the village, noble household or religious community in which they lived and worked. The addition of their profession to their birth name made it easier to identify individual tradesmen and craftsmen. As generations passed and families moved around, so the original identifying names developed into the corrupted but simpler versions that we recognise today. The name is also spelt GRANATA, GRANATELLI, GRANADOS, GRANADO and GRANADA. In the 8th century, Spain fell under the control of the Moors, and this influence, which lasted into the 12th century, has also left its mark on Hispanic surnames. A few names are based directly on Arabic personal names. The majority of Spanish occupational and nickname surnames, however, are based on ordinary Spanish derivatives. The origins of Italian surnames are not clear, and much work remains to be done on medieval Italian records. It seems that fixed bynames, in some cases hereditary, were in use in the Venetian Republic by the end of the 10th century. The typical Italian surname endings are 'i' and 'o', the former being characteristic of northern Italy. The singular form 'o' is more typical of southern Italy. A notable member of the name was Enrique GRANADOS Y CAMPINA (1868-1916) the Spanish composer and pianist, born in Lerida. He studied at Barcelona and at Paris. A composer of Spanish dances, his 'Goyescas' for piano are his most accomplished works. He was drowned when the 'Sussex' was torpedoed by the Germans in the English Channel. Over the centuries, most people in Europe have accepted their surname as a fact of life, as irrevocable as an act of God. However much the individual may have liked or disliked the surname, they were stuck with it, and people rarely changed them by personal choice. A more common form of variation was in fact involuntary, when an official change was made, in other words, a clerical error.
Orders over $90 qualify for Free Shipping within the U.S. (Use coupon code: FREESHIP). | <urn:uuid:15373cdd-d704-4e88-ba00-908c0793b440> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.4crests.com/granado-coat-of-arms.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296950528.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20230402105054-20230402135054-00110.warc.gz | en | 0.985741 | 527 | 2.8125 | 3 | 2.613281 | 3 | Strong reasoning | History |
A new study by climate scientists, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, has advanced the understanding of the potential for wind power to provide energy during the coldest spells of winter weather.
The team, which involved scientists from the Met Office Hadley Centre, Imperial College London and the University of Reading, compared wind-power availability with electricity demand in winter and they found an interesting result.
Hazel Thornton, of the Met Office Hadley Centre, is one of the paper’s authors. She said: “During winter in the UK, warmer periods are often windier, while colder periods are more calm, due to the prevailing weather patterns. Consequently we find that in winter as temperatures fall, and electricity demand increases, average wind energy supply reduces.
However, contrary to what is often believed, when it comes to the very coldest days, with highest electricity demand, wind energy supply starts to recover. The team found that during the highest 5% of energy demand days, one third produce more wind power than the winter average.
“The very coldest days are associated with a mix of different weather patterns, some of which produce high winds in parts of the UK,” added Thornton. “For example, very high pressure over Scandinavia and lower pressure over Southern Europe, blows cold continental air from the east over the UK, giving high demand, but also high wind power. In contrast, winds blowing from the north, such as happened during December 2010, typically give very high demand but lower wind power supply.”
The research suggests that a spread of turbines across Great Britain would make the most of the varied wind patterns associated with the coldest days – maximizing power supply during high demand conditions. Results also suggest that during high demand periods offshore wind power provides a more secure supply compared to onshore, as offshore wind is sustained at higher levels.
Professor Sir Brian Hoskins, of the University of Reading and Chair of Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment, is one of the paper’s other authors.
“A wind-power system distributed around the UK is not as sensitive to still cold winter days as often imagined,” said Hoskins. “The average drop in generation is only a third and it even picks up for the days with the very highest electricity demand.”
Finally the study highlights the risk of concurrent wide-scale high electricity demand and low wind power supply over many parts of Europe. Neighbouring countries may therefore struggle to provide additional capacity to the UK, when the UK’s own demand is high and wind-power low.
Filed Under: News | <urn:uuid:6604d425-3d48-4f93-be27-a41184abb27a> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.windpowerengineering.com/cold-spell-no-problem-wind-turbines-says-new-study/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506632.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20230924091344-20230924121344-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.954217 | 545 | 3.6875 | 4 | 3.014673 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
With the proliferation of information technology devices also comes a massive increase in the number of information systems that are developed to meet the demands of users. By default, designers and developers of information systems tend to design for users without disabilities. The consequences for people with disabilities are enormous. This chapter aims to propose a disability-aware approach to information systems design that advocates that stakeholders consider the needs of people with disabilities throughout development. This aim is achieved by reviewing some of the difficulties encountered by people with disabilities when interacting with information systems, proposing a disability-aware approach and examining how this could be practically implemented through e-learning design. The recommendations from 48 students with disabilities from two universities in the United Kingdom and Canada are presented. The chapter also looks at possible future research for those interested in pursuing such approach.
Blended learning could be seen as the solution to learning resources accessibility especially when the indicators of measure are limited to distance and time. Distance and time could be said to be the generic indicators for the measure of blended learning, however, these do not solve the problem for everyone in the society. For Inclusive Blended Learning (IBL), different types of users in society should be considered in its design. This is exactly what has provoked the focus of this chapter, to investigate the position of blended learning with respect to people with disability. The chapter's investigation is centered on selected secondary schools in Cameroon and Nigeria.
Nganji, J.T. and Nggada, S. H. (2014). Adoption of Blended Learning Technologies in Selected Secondary Schools in Cameroon and Nigeria: Challenges in Disability Inclusion. In N. Ololube (Ed.), Advancing Technology and Educational Development through Blended Learning in Emerging Economies (pp. 159-173). Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-4574-5.ch009. [Link to Book Chapter]
Two hundred portable document format (PDF) articles from four Web of Science‐indexed disability‐related journals were analysed to assess their accessibility. Fifty articles from each journal published between 2014 and 2018 were examined using expert manual inspection, Adobe Acrobat Pro XI, PDF Accessibility Checker 3 and NVDA screen reader. Results show that only 15.5% of the documents were tagged, only 10.5% had alternative text for images, 74.5% had bookmarks to facilitate navigation, and 87% had meaningful titles in their title fields. However, image alternative texts were meaningless, and title fields were not displayed when the document was open. However, all the documents had accessibility permissions enabled; hence, they could be read with Adobe Acrobat Pro XI Read Out Loud feature and NVDA screen reader. All the articles had an alternative HTML version of their full text in the same location on their website as the PDF versions. The inconsistency with which each PDF was produced suggests the need for an improvement in the workflow process to improve accessibility.
Nganji, J.T. (2018). An assessment of the accessibility of PDF versions of selected journal articles published in a WCAG 2.0 era (2014–2018). Learned Publishing 31 (4), 391-401 https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1197
People with visual impairments, particularly blind people face a lot of difficulties browsing the web with assistive technologies such as screen readers, when websites do not conform to accessibility standards and are thus inaccessible. HTML is the basic language for website design but its ALT attribute on the IMG element does not adequately capture comprehensive image semantics and description in a way that can be accurately interpreted by screen readers, hence blind people do not usually get the complete description of the image. Most of the problems however arise from web designers and developers not including a description of an image or not comprehensively describing these images to people with visual impairments. In this paper, we propose the use of the Image Description Assessment Tool (IDAT), a Java-based tool containing some proposed heuristics for assessing how well an image description matches the real content of the image on the web. The tool also contains a speech interface which can enable a visually impaired individual to listen to the description of an image that has been uploaded unto the system.
Nganji, J.T., Brayshaw, M., and Tompsett, B. (2013). Describing and Assessing Image Descriptions for Visually Impaired Web Users with IDAT, In 3rd International Conference on Intelligent Human Computer Interaction, Springer-Verlag, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, August 2011, reprinted in Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, Volume 179, Springer Verlag, 2013, pp 27-37, ISSN: 2194-5357 (Print) 2194-5365 (Online). [Link to article] [Link to PDF]
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address how virtual learning environments (VLEs) can be designed to include the needs of learners with multiple disabilities. Specifically, it employs AI to show how specific learning materials from a huge repository of learning materials can be recommended to learners with various disabilities. This is made possible through employing semantic web technology to model the learner and their needs.
Design/methodology/approach: The paper reviews personalised learning for students with disabilities, revealing the shortcomings of existing e-learning environments with respect to students with multiple disabilities. It then proceeds to show how the needs of a student with multiple disabilities can be analysed and then simple logical operators and knowledge-based rules used to personalise learning materials in order to meet the needs of such students.
Findings: It has been acknowledged in literature that designing for cases of multiple disabilities is difficult. This paper shows that existing learning environments do not consider the needs of students with multiple disabilities. As they are not flexibly designed and hence not adaptable, they cannot meet the needs of such students. Nevertheless, it is possible to anticipate that students with multiple disabilities would use learning environments, and then design learning environments to meet their needs.
Practical implications: This paper, by presenting various combination rules to present specific learning materials to students with multiple disabilities, lays the foundation for the design and development of learning environments that are inclusive of all learners, regardless of their abilities or disabilities. This could potentially stimulate designers of such systems to produce such inclusive environments. Hopefully, future learning environments will be adaptive enough to meet the needs of learners with multiple disabilities.
Social implications: This paper, by proposing a solution towards developing inclusive learning environments, is a step towards inclusion of students with multiple disabilities in VLEs. When these students are able to access these environments with little or no barrier, they will be included in the learning community and also make valuable contributions.
Originality/value: So far, no study has proposed a solution to the difficulties faced by students with multiple disabilities in existing learning environments. This study is the first to raise this issue and propose a solution to designing for multiple disabilities. This will hopefully encourage other researchers to delve into researching the educational needs of students with multiple disabilities.
Julius T. Nganji, Mike Brayshaw, (2017) "Disability-aware adaptive and personalised learning for students with multiple disabilities", The International Journal of Information and Learning Technology, Vol. 34 Issue: 4, pp.307-321, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJILT-08-2016-0027
In developing software systems, software engineers use software development life cycles such as the waterfall, prototyping or spiral model. Whilst these life cycles ensure that the system meets the needs of people without disabilities, the needs of people with disabilities are often overlooked thus resulting in systems that are inaccessible and unusable to them. In this paper, we propose a disability-aware software engineering process model which considers the needs of people with disabilities, hence improving accessibility and usability of the designed system. These needs are captured through the accessibility, usability and functional requirements of the system in the requirements analysis phase of the life cycle model.
Nganji, J.T., and Nggada, S.H. (2011). Disability-Aware Software Engineering for Improved System Accessibility and Usability. International Journal of Software Engineering and Its Applications (IJSEIA). Vol. 5, No.3, pp.47-62. [ Link to article ]
This paper looks specifically at how to develop light weight methods of evaluating pedagogically motivated software. Whilst we value traditional usability testing methods this paper will look at how Heuristic Evaluation can be used as both a driving force of Software Engineering Iterative Refinement and end of project Evaluation. We present three case studies in the area of Pedagogical Software and show how we have used this technique in a variety of ways. The paper presents results and reflections on what we have learned. We conclude with a discussion on how this technique might inform on the latest developments on delivery of distance learning.
Brayshaw, M., Gordon, N., Nganji, J., Wen, L., and Butterfield, A. (2014). Investigating Heuristic Evaluation as a Methodology for Evaluating Pedagogical Software: an Analysis Employing Three Case Studies. 16th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction-HCII2014 , 17-22 June, Crete, Greece, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 8523, pp.25-35.[Link to article]
The number of students with disabilities in UK higher education institutions increases every year. Delivering education online is becoming increasingly challenging as institutions encounter some disabilities requiring adjustments of learning environments. The law requires that people with disabilities be given equivalent learning experiences to their non-disabled peers through “reasonable adjustments”. Educational institutions have thus utilised assistive technologies to assist disabled students in their learning, but some of these technologies are incompatible with some learning environments, hence excluding some disabled students and resulting in a disability divide. To solve this problem, amongst other solutions, e-learning personalisation has been used and more recently, this is also achieved using Semantic Web technologies such as ontologies. Nevertheless, as ontologies are incorporated into learning environments little seems to be done to personalise learning for some disabled students. This study, in order to bridge the gap, proposes a personalisation approach based on a disability ontology containing information on various disabilities encountered in higher education, which can be used to present disabled students with learning resources relevant and suitable for their specific needs.
Nganji, J.T., Brayshaw, M. and Tompsett, B. (2011). Ontology-Based E-Learning Personalisation for Disabled Students in Higher Education. Innovation in Teaching and Learning in Information and Computer Sciences, Volume 10, Issue 1, pp. 1-11. [Link to article]
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to show how personalisation of learning resources and services can be achieved for students with and without disabilities, particularly responding to the needs of those with multiple disabilities in e-learning systems. The paper aims to introduce the ONTODAPS e-learning system which has the mechanism for such personalisation.Design/methodology/approach - This paper reviews current e-learning systems that provide personalisation for students, including their strengths and weaknesses. The paper presents personalisation and its techniques and then presents ONTODAPS which is an ontology-driven and disability-aware e-learning system which personalises learning resources and services to students. Three case studies are considered to show how personalisation is achieved using ONTODAPS.Findings - This paper shows that it is possible to use automated ontology-based agents intercommunicating to provide an effective personalisation for disabled students. The results reveal that ONTODAPS is flexible enough to provide enough control and freedom to drive their learning. The results also suggest that ONTODAPS has the ability to provide appropriate levels of learner control by allowing them to self-direct learning through personalising learning resources and then allowing them to choose which resources they wish to access. This thus gives them a sense of ownership and control.Research limitations/implications - This research reveals that it is possible for e-learning systems to personalise learning for users with multiple disabilities. Thus, by considering the needs of such users and consulting them in the design and development process, developers of e-learning systems can produce systems that are both accessible and usable to students with disabilities.
Nganji, J.T., Brayshaw, M. and Tompsett, B. (2013). Ontology-Driven Disability-Aware E-Learning Personalisation with ONTODAPS. Campus Wide Information Systems, Volume 30, Issue 1, pp. 17-34. [Link to article] [Link to PDF]
Purpose: This paper aims to suggest how the information journey of students with disabilities could be facilitated, by first revealing the existence of inaccessible formats such as Portable Document Format (PDF) and then suggesting the inclusion of alternative formats of accessible learning materials, thus improving retrieval.
Research limitations/implications: The results of the study might not be very representative of all the articles in the journals given the small sample size. Additionally, the criteria used in the study do not consider all existing disabilities. Thus, although the PDFs may be inaccessible for some people with disabilities, they may be accessible to others.
Practical implications: Given that PDFs seem to be the preferred format of journal articles online, there is potential for a difficult information journey for some students due to the limitations posed by inaccessibility of the PDFs. Thus, it is recommended to include alternative formats which could be more accessible, giving the student the choice of accessing the learning materials in their preferred format.
Social implications: If students are unable to access the learning materials that are required for their course, this could lead to poor grade, which might negatively affect the students’ morale. In some cases, some students might drop out.
Originality/value: This study analyses the accessibility of learning materials provided by a third party (journal publishers) and how they affect the student, something that is not usually given much importance when research in accessibility is carried out.
Julius T. Nganji, (2018) "Supporting the information journey of students with disabilities through accessible learning materials", Information and Learning Science, Vol. 119 Issue: 12, pp.721-732, https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-07-2018-0062
People with disabilities, especially those who are blind, rely on assistive technologies to read information on the web. When this information does not conform to accessibility standards, assistive technologies experience significant difficulties trying to interpret it. Journal publishers prefer to publish articles online in the portable document format (PDF), which may pose accessibility challenges when guidelines such as WCAG 2.0 are not adhered to. So far, no studies have been carried out to evaluate the accessibility of published versions of journal articles in PDF format. A total of 200 articles, 50 articles each from Taylor & Francis' Disability & Society, Springer's Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, Hammill Institute on Disabilities/SAGE's Journal of Learning Disabilities and Elsevier's Research in Developmental Disabilities, which are all ISI Web of Science indexed journals published from 2009 to 2013, were analyzed manually, automatically, and with screen readers for accessibility. The results reveal that 97% did not provide an alternative text for images; 95.5% were not tagged; only 13.5% had meaningful titles which were not displayed when the document was opened; 67% did not have a defined document language; 50% bookmarks, which help in navigation; all had accessibility permissions, enabling assistive technologies to interact with them; 99.5% did not have a logical reading order; none had a consistent heading structure; and all, including untagged documents which were not image-only PDFs documents could be read with screen readers such as NVDA if the correct accessibility settings in Adobe Acrobat XI Pro were chosen. Research in Developmental Disabilities documents were generally more accessible.
Nganji, J.T. (2015). The Portable Document Format (PDF) Accessibility Practice of Four Journal Publishers. Library and Information Science Research, Volume 35, Issue 3, pp. 254-262. [Link to article]. | <urn:uuid:b25d2c16-a924-4164-b49a-458347125897> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | https://julius.nganji.com/component/tags/tag/disabilities.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232256426.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20190521142548-20190521164548-00261.warc.gz | en | 0.93226 | 3,352 | 3.203125 | 3 | 3.068089 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Education & Jobs |
A biliopancreatic diversion changes the normal process of digestion by making the stomach smaller. It allows food to bypass part of the small intestine so that you absorb fewer calories. Because of the risks, this surgery is for people who are more than severely obese and who haven't been able to lose weight any other way. Super obesity means that you have a BMI (body mass index) of 50 or higher.
After surgery, you will feel full more quickly than when your stomach was its original size. This reduces the amount of food you will want to eat. Bypassing part of the intestine also means that you will absorb fewer calories. This leads to weight loss. But your best chance of keeping weight off after surgery is by adopting healthy habits, such as healthy eating and regular physical activity.
This type of surgery is not available in all provinces. Talk with your doctor about whether this treatment is appropriate and available for you.
There are two biliopancreatic diversion surgeries: a biliopancreatic diversion and a biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch. Most surgeons will not perform duodenal switch surgery unless you are super obese (BMI of 50 or higher) and your weight is causing serious health problems.
- In a biliopancreatic diversion, part of the stomach is removed. The remaining part of the stomach is connected to the lower portion of the small intestine. This is a high-risk surgery that can cause long-term health problems, because your body has a harder time absorbing food and nutrients. People who have this surgery must take vitamin and mineral supplements for the rest of their lives, which can be expensive.
- In a biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch, a different part of the stomach is removed and the surgeon leaves the pylorus intact. The pylorus is the valve that controls food drainage from the stomach. This surgery is high-risk and can cause long-term health problems, because your body has a harder time absorbing food and nutrients. People who have this surgery must take vitamin and mineral supplements for the rest of their lives, which can be expensive. Another name for this surgery is duodenal switch.
These procedures can be done by making a large cut in the belly (an open procedure) or by making a small cut and using small tools and a camera to guide the surgery (laparoscopy).
What To Expect After Surgery
You will have some belly pain and may need pain medicine for the first week or so after surgery. The cut that the doctor makes (incision) may be tender and sore. Because the surgery makes your stomach smaller, you will get full more quickly when you eat. Food also may empty into the small intestine too quickly. This is called dumping syndrome. It can cause diarrhea and make you feel faint, shaky, and nauseated. It also can make it hard for your body to get enough nutrition. Having a duodenal switch reduces the risk of dumping syndrome.
Depending on how the surgery was done (open or laparoscopic), you'll have to watch your activity during recovery. If you had open surgery, avoid heavy lifting or strenuous exercise while you are recovering so that your belly can heal. In this case, you will probably be able to return to work or your normal routine in 4 to 6 weeks.
Eating after surgery
Your doctor will give you specific instructions about what to eat after the surgery. For about the first month after surgery, your stomach can only handle small amounts of soft foods and liquids while you are healing. It is important to try to sip water throughout the day to avoid becoming dehydrated. You may notice that your bowel movements are not regular right after your surgery. This is common. Try to avoid constipation and straining with bowel movements.
Bit by bit, you will be able to add solid foods back into your diet. You must be careful to chew food well and to stop eating when you feel full. This can take some getting used to, because you will feel full after eating much less food than you are used to eating. If you do not chew your food well or do not stop eating soon enough, you may feel discomfort or nausea and may sometimes vomit. If you drink a lot of high calorie liquid such as soda or fruit juice, you may not lose weight. If you continually overeat, your stomach may stretch. If your stomach stretches, you will not benefit from your surgery.
This surgery removes the part of the intestine where many minerals and vitamins are most easily absorbed. Because of this, you may have a deficiency in iron, calcium, magnesium, or vitamins. It's important to make sure you get enough nutrients in your daily meals to prevent vitamin and mineral deficiencies. You may need to work with a dietitian to plan meals. And you may need to take extra vitamin B12.
Why It Is Done
Weight loss surgery is suitable for people who are severely overweight and who have not been able to lose weight with diet, exercise, or medicine.
Most surgeons will not perform duodenal switch surgery unless you are super obese (body mass index (BMI) of 50 or higher) and your weight is causing serious health problems.
It is important to think of this surgery as a tool to help you lose weight. It is not an instant fix. You will still need to eat a healthy diet and get regular exercise. This will help you reach your weight goal and avoid regaining the weight you lose.
How Well It Works
Biliopancreatic diversion surgeries are effective. Most people lose 75% to 80% of their excess weight (the weight above what is considered healthy) and stay at their new weight.footnote 1 Ten years after weight loss surgery, many people have gained back 20% to 25% of the weight they lost. The long-term success is highest in people who are realistic about how much weight will be lost, keep appointments with the medical team, follow the recommended eating plan, and are physically active.footnote 2
Risks common to all surgeries for weight loss include an infection in the incision, a leak from the stomach into the abdominal cavity or where the intestine is connected (resulting in an infection called peritonitis), and a blood clot in the legs (deep vein thrombosis, or DVT) or lung (pulmonary embolism). Some people develop gallstones or a nutritional deficiency condition such as anemia or osteoporosis.
Biliopancreatic diversion surgery has short-term and long-term risks, including:
- Dumping syndrome. This causes nausea, weakness, sweating, faintness, and possibly diarrhea soon after eating. These symptoms get worse if you eat highly refined, high-calorie foods (like sweets). Sometimes you may become so weak that you have to lie down until the symptoms pass.
- A higher risk of osteoporosis. This happens because your body can't absorb nutrients as well as it used to.
- Bad smelling stools and diarrhea. This can occur because of poor absorption of protein, fat, calcium, iron, and vitamins B12, A, D, E, and K.
- Poor nutrition. Eating less and less absorption may mean that you are not getting enough nutrients, which can cause health problems. You will have to take vitamin supplements for the rest of your life.
What To Think About
Weight loss surgery does not remove fatty tissue. It is not cosmetic surgery.
Some studies show that people who have weight-loss surgery are less likely to die from heart problems, diabetes, or cancer compared to obese people who did not have the surgery.footnote 3
- Colquitt JL, et al. (2009) Surgery for Obesity. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2).
- Heber D, et al. (2010). Endocrine and nutritional management of the post-bariatric surgery patient: An Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 95(11): 4823–4843. Available online: http://www.endo-society.org/guidelines/final/upload/FINAL-Standalone-Post-Bariatric-Surgery-Guideline-Color.pdf.
- Adams TD, et al. (2007). Long-term mortality after gastric bypass surgery. New England Journal of Medicine, 357(8): 753–761.
Current as of: December 11, 2019
Author: Healthwise Staff
E. Gregory Thompson MD - Internal Medicine
Brian D. O'Brien MD - Internal Medicine
Kathleen Romito MD - Family Medicine
Adam Husney MD - Family Medicine
Martin J. Gabica MD - Family Medicine
Ali Tavakkoli FACS, FRCS, MD - General Surgery, Bariatric Surgery
Current as of: December 11, 2019
Author: Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:E. Gregory Thompson MD - Internal Medicine & Brian D. O'Brien MD - Internal Medicine & Kathleen Romito MD - Family Medicine & Adam Husney MD - Family Medicine & Martin J. Gabica MD - Family Medicine & Ali Tavakkoli FACS, FRCS, MD - General Surgery, Bariatric Surgery | <urn:uuid:5cea40d9-cdb7-4390-8ea1-ec9a9244ace3> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/health-topics/ug2347 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780057417.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20210923074537-20210923104537-00337.warc.gz | en | 0.93654 | 1,922 | 2.6875 | 3 | 2.112053 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Health |
Normally, after running a five-year experiment, scientists might pat each other on the back in earnest recognition of having finally made it to the end of an epic, demanding research effort.
But if, after five long years, you're still less than 1 percent of the way through your actual experiment, the back-patting and champagne will have to wait. For another 495 years, in fact.
Amazingly enough, that's basically where we're at with a history-making microbiology experiment in Scotland. Having set out on a 500-year-long project that was started in 2014 (and set to finish in the year 2514), a team recently published the first results, based on data from the first two years of the research.
Why, you ask? At its heart, this bizarrely prolonged scientific endeavour has a uniquely simple premise: finding out how long microbes last in isolation.
"What exactly is the rate of loss of viability of microbes when they are dormant?" the researchers – based variously across Germany, Scotland, and the US – wondered, back when they first proposed the idea in 2014.
"What mathematical function describes their rate of death over long periods? Do some die quickly, leaving a core resistant population able to survive much longer periods?"
To answer these kinds of questions, the team sealed Bacillus subtilis spores, known for their ability to tolerate environmental extremes by maintaining a dormant state, in hundreds of glass vials.
Next, they began to play the waiting game – and then some – given the spores' heroic longevity "potentially far exceeds the human lifespan".
In addition to supplying the bacteria and the vials, you wouldn't want to be short on patience in the lab.
"It will be the longest planned scientific experiment yet created," the team proclaimed in 2014.
"Designed to investigate the survival of microbes and biomolecules over century time scales, it will go far beyond our existing incomplete knowledge."
In the experiment, every two years (for the first 24 years), a set of vials will be broken open to see how the spores are faring. Once the first 24 years are up, these periodic check-ins will slow down, occurring only once every 25 years, all the way until 2514.
Then we'll see who's bluffing whom – provided the world lasts that long, of course.
So far, based on the first reported results, the bacteria look like they're perfectly happy to wait this one out.
"Following two years of storage in the conditions for the 500-year experiment, there was no significant loss in spore viability," the authors explain, while pointing out it's far too early to know the long-term trajectory in these feats of endurance.
"While there are no significant differences in survivability, minor differences may lead to big differences as the 500-year storage study progresses… as storage time increases, spore resistance to these conditions may be dramatically affected."
The bacteria aren't the only ones under the microscope.
Given the insane duration of the experiment, the researchers who will carry the torch in future years will be expected to comply with rigorous methods –especially with the challenge of ensuring the experiment itself survives (not just the spores).
"At each 25-year time point, the researchers must copy the instructions to ensure longevity and keep instructions updated with regard to technological and linguistic development," the researchers explain.
"Because preservation is of the utmost importance, paper and ink of archival quality must be utilised."
The findings are reported in PLOS ONE. | <urn:uuid:8a7a77cd-a356-4e4d-b469-1f7e2a6e30b6> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.sciencealert.com/the-first-results-are-in-from-a-500-year-long-experiment-set-to-end-in-the-year-2514?fbclid=IwAR2ZXHmK9v-zs_ImYtWy6CUULhHivZ5-Wy6PSn0prBykcOotN7qMUKFBr9U | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335469.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930113830-20220930143830-00284.warc.gz | en | 0.937101 | 734 | 3.515625 | 4 | 2.922109 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
St Thomas More (1477 - 1535) rose from a modest background to become one of the most significant figures in Tudor England. As Speaker of the House of Commons, Privy Counsellor, Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice, Thomas More was second only to King Henry VIII in the realm.
He was a man of genuine and deep piety who seriously considered becoming a Carthusian, but chose the vocation of marriage and public office instead. He had a strong sense of what was best in Catholicism, and left us an insight into his prayer life through his many prayers and devotional writings.
Thomas More was devoted to learning. As England's most eminent humanist, he was enthusiastic about the new learning of the Renaissance, and introduced it into England. Thomas had a speculative, wide-ranging, incisive and questioning mind. Perhaps he stands unique as an author who coined the word "utopia" (from his book with the same title, about the perfect society). This word is now in common use in all languages. He also took the then revolutionary steps of teaching his daughters the new learning; they were fluent in both the Latin and Greek languages.
Friendship was a central element in Thomas More's life, and he cultivated a wide and varied circle of friends. He had the capacity for deep, sincere, open, supportive and loyal friendships. The leading lights of Europe were his friends: these included Erasmus (Netherlands), Juan Luis Vives (Spain), and Antonio Bonvisi (Florence). Yet ordinary people never felt slighted in their associations with him.
Thomas More's difficulties began when his powerful friend, King Henry VIII, demanded his support for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Soon, this issue was intertwined with Henry's claim to be the supreme head of the Church in England. Thomas sat with these issues for eight years. He kept his counsel, and only stated his mind after he had been found guilty of High Treason. Thomas then stated that he could see no reason why Henry's marriage should be annulled, and he refused to countenance Henry's claims to Church supremacy. Henry's respect and friendship for Thomas More turned to disappointment, frustration, dislike, and finally revenge. He tried to bully Thomas into submission. In response, Thomas voluntarily withdrew from public life.
In 1534 More was committed to the Tower of London. After refusing to take Henry VIII's Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted on 1st July 1535 - on perjured evidence - of High Treason, and beheaded five days later.
Thomas More is admired because he was committed to what he considered right and good, and because he was willing to pay the consequences for this stance. He endured his misfortunes with patience and good grace. As he told his many friends who urged him to change his position: Your conscience must save you, and mine must save me. He was a man of immense personal probity and integrity.
Thomas More is respected beyond the bounds of the Catholic Church. He is remembered as an eminent jurist, and a great and fair lawyer: before the law he was no respecter of persons. In an age of opportunistic politicians, Thomas More stood out as a statesman with principles.
Exactly 400 years after his death, in 1935, Thomas More was canonised by Pope Pius XI, and his feast day is on 22 June. He is the patron saint of Catholic lawyers, university students and politicians. He is commemorated by the Anglican Church on 6th July. | <urn:uuid:44dc433d-a1e2-477b-afcd-38b4fb3c28d8> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://stmc.uwa.edu.au/more-about-more/thomas-more-the-man | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948579567.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20171215211734-20171215233734-00767.warc.gz | en | 0.987174 | 731 | 3.765625 | 4 | 2.757452 | 3 | Strong reasoning | History |
Throughout the centuries many women have found themselves in leadership positions while they were trying to remain faithful to God’s calling. These women were in circumstances where they could not remain silent about the injustices in the world around them. They spoke out because they were honoring God by working to care for the poor and suffering. They tried to alleviate suffering because they loved the Lord Jesus and wanted salvation and healing for others. They were not seeking leadership positions. Through their faithfulness, God thrust them into positions where they could lead others.
The four women in these reviews lived during a span three centuries: Margaret Fell Fox (seventeenth century), Sarah Osborn (eighteenth century), and the Grimke sisters (nineteenth century). During these centuries women were not supposed to be speaking in front of groups containing men. Yet, these women boldly led Bible studies or held meetings to share God’s love and truth because they were called of God to do so. The stories of their lives are an inspiration to women today who seek to serve God with their individual callings.
Margaret Askew Fell Fox (1614-1702) was a woman of undaunted courage. She lived through one of the most tumultuous times in English history. This is the same time period in which John Bunyan and many other non-conformist Christians were imprisoned for their faith. Through all of the upheavals in government and religious policies Margaret kept a steady faith in God and His Word. She always put God first even if it meant going to prison. She strived for liberty of conscience.
Margaret wrote many letters while in prison under her own name – Margaret Fell. (She did not marry George Fox until 1669, one year after she got out of prison.) In this book, Elsa F. Glines publishes 164 letters of Margaret Fell. The book is divided into three parts for three periods of Margaret’s life. Each section begins with a short biography of that period of Margaret’s life. The introductions to the letters contain a wealth of historical background that is interesting to history students.
Whether you are interested in the history of the Friends, or Quakers, or just in the topic of religious freedom, you will enjoy this book.
While most people have heard of Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and Gilbert Tennent, few know who Sarah Haggar Wheaten Osborn was. Yet during this time of the Great Awakening a religious revival occurred at Sarah Osborn’s house. Decades before Americans were taking abolition seriously, Sarah brought both free and enslaved black men and women into her home and taught them the Bible. Sarah’s life made a difference to thousands.
Through all of the many afflictions in her life, Sarah Osborn (1714-1796) maintained her faith in God. She struggled through wars, poor health, the deaths of loved ones, and conflicts at her church. Today she has been all but forgotten, but Sarah Osborn deserves to be remembered for the part she played in the many lives of others in the eighteenth century. Hundreds of less fortunate people praised Sarah for her faith, courage, and humble service. Sarah believed that God used her suffering to draw her closer to Him and to be an example to others.
In this book, Catherine Brekus relates Sarah’s life through the backdrop of eighteenth century religion. She gives a good history of the rise of evangelicalism that will be interesting to those who love biography, history, and theology. Sarah’s life is still an encouragement to believers today.
The Grimke sisters, Angeline and Sarah, have been pretty much forgotten in our day but in the nineteenth century they were well known in abolitionist circles. They made history in speeches against slavery as well as in publishing tracts calling for an end to that evil institution. They recognized that slavery and discrimination, though connected, were two separate issues and fought against both. In 1838 Angelina made history as the first woman to speak before a legislative body in the United States.
In this book, Gerda Lerner tells the amazing story of these two southern born women who became famous for their fight for equality for blacks and for women. The book reads like a novel and is hard to put down. Gerda Lerner also includes some of the famous speeches of Angelina (the better speaker of the sisters) and excerpts from the writings of Sarah Grimke. (See below.)
Many women today can thank Angelina and Sarah for their courage in pioneering justice and equal rights for both blacks and women.
Even as a young girl Angelina Grimke had deep faith in God. Angelina’s prayer was:
O that I might live religion – how striking the exhortation of the Apostle – present your bodies a living sacrifice, Lord enable me so to live that every day I may sacrifice my own will to thine. (From her diary, December 25, 1828)
Angelina Grimke Weld was born in 1805 in South Carolina. She was the youngest of fourteen children born to slaveholders John Grimke and Mary Smith Grimke. Her older sister Sarah was thirteen when Angelina was born. Sarah doted on her baby sister Angelina and the two remained close until the end of their lives.
In this book, Charles Wilbanks intersperses biographical sketches of Angelina’s life with the diary excerpts over a period of about 8 years. It is a fascinating story of how one woman went from a slaveholding family to being a leader in the abolitionist movement. The reader witnesses Angelina’s spiritual growth and social maturity from her earliest recorded thoughts (age 22) to the writing of a letter to the editor for William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper (age 30). This letter to the editor propelled her into the public eye as a leader in the fight for abolition. Her diary ends when her public career begins. At this point, I suggest you read Gerda Lerner’s book if you already haven’t done so!
Though of the two Grimke sisters, Angelina was the principle speaker, Sarah was just as passionate about justice for the downtrodden. She left writings that have come to the attention of historians today because Sarah was so far ahead of her time in her thought. Here is an excerpt from Letter #1:
“On the Original Equality of Women”
“Had Adam tenderly reproved his wife, and endeavored to lead her to repentance instead of sharing in her guilt, I should be much more ready to accord to man that superiority which he claims; but as the facts stand disclosed by the sacred historian, it appears to me that to say the least, there was as much weakness exhibited by Adam as by Eve. They both fell from innocence, and consequently from happiness, but not from equality…. The consequence of the fall was an immediate struggle for dominion, and Jehovah foretold which would gain the ascendancy; but as he created them in his image, as that image manifestly was not lost by the fall, because it is urged in Genesis 9:6, as an argument why the life of man should not be taken by his fellow man, there is no reason to suppose that sin produced any distinction between them as moral, intellectual and responsible beings.”
The entire book is especially fascinating when you remember is was written in the 1830’s, well before the women’s suffrage movement. Today woman have freedoms that we take for granted – education, jobs, the vote, and a public voice. Sarah could only dream about and write about those things. She was very courageous to speak out for the truth in 1838. We can be very thankful for women like Sarah Grimke who were pioneers in the suffrage movement. | <urn:uuid:df2c2fa8-827e-4437-89a7-e69331819988> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | https://mylordkatie.wordpress.com/2016/06/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917120101.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031200-00623-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977268 | 1,592 | 3.046875 | 3 | 2.885011 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Religion |
A team of scientists from MIT and Brookhaven National Laboratory have found a new method to study fluctuating charge-density waves in a superconducting material, possibly leading to a better understanding of high-temperature superconductivity and new discoveries.
While the phenomenon of superconductivity — in which some materials lose all resistance to electric currents at extremely low temperatures — has been known for more than a century, the temperature at which it occurs has remained too low for any practical applications. The discovery of “high-temperature” superconductors in the 1980s — materials that could lose resistance at temperatures of up to negative 140 degrees Celsius — led to speculation that a surge of new discoveries might quickly lead to room-temperature superconductors. Despite intense research, these materials have remained poorly understood.
There is still no agreement on a single theory to account for high-temperature superconductivity. Recently, however, researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found a new way to study fluctuating charge-density waves, which are the basis for one of the leading theories. The researchers say this could open the door to a better understanding of high-temperature superconductivity, and perhaps prompt new discoveries of higher-temperature superconductors.
The findings were published this week in the journal Nature Materials by assistant professor of physics Nuh Gedik; graduate student Fahad Mahmood; Darius Torchinsky, a former MIT postdoc who is now at the California Institute of Technology; and two researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Explaining the basis for high-temperature superconductivity remains “the hardest problem in condensed-matter physics,” Gedik says. But one way of getting a handle on this exotic state of matter is to study what happens to these materials near their “transition temperature,” the point below which they become superconductors.
Previous experiments have shown that above the transition temperature, there is a peculiar state where, Gedik says, “the material starts to behave very weirdly”: Its electrons act in unusual ways, which some physicists believe is caused by a phenomenon called charge-density waves. While the electron density in most conductors is uniform, Gedik explains, in materials with charge-density waves the density is distributed in a sinusoidal pattern, somewhat like ripples on a pond. But so far, such charge-density waves have only been detected in high-temperature superconductors under special circumstances, such as a particular level of doping (the introduction of atoms of another element onto its surface).
Some researchers have proposed that these waves are elusive in high-temperature superconductors because they fluctuate very rapidly, at speeds measured in picoseconds (trillionths of a second). “You can’t see it with conventional techniques,” Gedik says.
That’s where Gedik’s new approach comes in: His team has spent years perfecting methods for studying the movement of electrons by zapping them with laser pulses lasting just a few femtoseconds (or quadrillionths of a second), and then detecting the results with a separate laser beam.
Using that method, the researchers have now detected these fluctuating waves. To do this, they have selectively generated and observed two different collective motions of electrons in these waves: variation in amplitude (the magnitude of modulation of the waves) and in phase (the position of the troughs and peaks of the waves). These measurements show that charge density waves are fluctuating at an interval of only about 2 picoseconds.
“It’s not surprising that static techniques didn’t see them,” Gedik says, but “this settles the question: The fluctuating charge-density waves do exist” — at least in one of the cuprate compounds, the first high-temperature superconducting materials discovered in the 1980s.
Another question: What role, if any, do these charge-density waves play in superconductivity? “Are they helping, or are they interfering?” Gedik asks. To answer this question, the researchers studied the same material, with optimal doping, in which the superconducting transition temperature is maximized. “We see no evidence of charge-density waves in this sample,” Gedik says. This suggests that charge-density waves are probably competing with superconductivity.
In addition, it remains to be seen whether the same phenomenon will be observed in other high-temperature superconducting materials. The new technique should make it possible to find out.
In any case, detecting these fluctuations could help in understanding high-temperature superconductors, Gedik says — which, in turn, could “help in finding other [superconducting materials] that actually work at room temperature.” That elusive goal could enable significant new applications, such as electric transmission lines that eliminate the losses that now waste as much as 30 percent of all electricity produced.
David Hsieh, an assistant professor of physics at Caltech, says the phenomena detected by this research “are known to be very difficult to detect,” so this work “is a great technical achievement and a high-quality piece of research.” By showing for the first time that the fluctuating charge-density waves seem to compete with superconductivity, he says, “It provides the insight that finding a way to suppress this fluctuating charge-density wave order may simultaneously increase” the temperature limits of superconductivity.
The work, which also included researchers Anthony Bollinger and Ivan Bozovic of Brookhaven National Laboratory, was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Publication: Darius H. Torchinsky, et al., “Fluctuating charge-density waves in a cuprate superconductor,” Nature Materials (2013); doi:10.1038/nmat3571
Image: Courtesy of the researchers
Reprinted with permission of MIT News | <urn:uuid:960ae724-4ad9-4706-831d-f0bbd6341b29> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://scitechdaily.com/a-new-method-for-observing-high-temperature-superconductors/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875141806.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20200217085334-20200217115334-00035.warc.gz | en | 0.94063 | 1,260 | 3.8125 | 4 | 3.013303 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
First ever family tree for all living birds reveals evolution and diversification
The world’s first family tree linking all living birds and revealing when and where they evolved and diversified since dinosaurs walked the earth has been created by scientists from the University of Sheffield.
Experts used the family tree to map out where the almost 10,000 species of birds live to show where the most diversification has taken place in the world.
Researchers, from the University of Sheffield, Yale University, University of Tasmania and Simon Fraser University, say the creation of new species has speeded-up over the last 50 million years. Surprisingly, species formation is not faster in the species rich tropics, but was found to be faster in the Western Hemisphere compared to the Eastern Hemisphere as well as on islands.
As well as being the first time scientists have created a family tree for birds, it is hoped the research could help prioritise conservation efforts in a bid to save the most diverse species from extinction.
Dr Gavin Thomas, of the University of Sheffield’s Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, said: "We have built the first ever family tree showing the evolutionary relationship among the species of birds. We used fossils and genetic data to estimate the ages of all the different branches of the bird tree so that we could assess how diversity has accumulated through time. Our work is indebted to researchers from museums and universities who have collected astounding amounts of genetic data from birds around the world."
Despite major steps forward in modern super computers it has still taken the researchers almost five years to analyse the millions of year’s worth of fossil data, DNA, maths and maps, to create this never-before-snapshot of how the thousands of birds alive made it to where they are today.
To even enable the scientists to calculate which species were more or less diverse they had to create a new 'species rate' measure.
Dr Thomas added: "Diversification is the net outcome of new species arising, called speciation, and existing species going extinct. We combined this data with existing data on the geographic ranges of all living bird species so that we could map diversification across the world.
"This 'phylogeny' is important because it is the first that includes all living birds. It means we can ask questions about biodiversity and evolution on a global scale and gain new insight into how diversity has changed over millions of years as well as understand those changes. More widely, one way in which the phylogeny can be used, and which may not be obvious, is in helping to prioritise conservation efforts.
"We can identify where species at greatest risk of extinction are on the tree and ask how much distinct evolutionary history they represent. Some species have many close relatives and represent a small amount of distinct evolutionary history whereas others have few close relatives and their loss would represent the disappearance of vast amounts of evolutionary history that could never be recovered. Environmental change has very likely affected diversification over time. Climate change could be a part of that through its effects on the extent of different types of habitat."
The paper - titled 'The global diversity of birds in space and time' - is published in the journal Nature.
The University of Sheffield
With nearly 25,000 students from 125 countries, the University of Sheffield is one of the UK’s leading and largest universities. A member of the Russell Group, it has a reputation for world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines. The University of Sheffield has been named University of the Year in the Times Higher Education Awards for its exceptional performance in research, teaching, access and business performance. In addition, the University has won four Queen’s Anniversary Prizes (1998, 2000, 2002, and 2007).
These prestigious awards recognise outstanding contributions by universities and colleges to the United Kingdom’s intellectual, economic, cultural and social life. Sheffield also boasts five Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and many of its alumni have gone on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence around the world. The University’s research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Unilever, Boots, AstraZeneca, GSK, ICI, Slazenger, and many more household names, as well as UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations.
The University has well-established partnerships with a number of universities and major corporations, both in the UK and abroad. Its partnership with Leeds and York Universities in the White Rose Consortium has a combined research power greater than that of either Oxford or Cambridge.
A major focus of Science research in Sheffield is on meeting the increasing food and energy needs of the world’s population in the context of an uncertain climate and global environment change. This challenge is being met through Project Sunshine, which unites scientists across the traditional boundaries in both the pure and applied sciences.
For further information please contact:
Media Relations Officer
The University of Sheffield
0114 222 9851 | <urn:uuid:4fe47a8b-922d-478b-91d4-20c62cccef09> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/news/nr/family-tree-birds-evolution-sheffield-university-1.220940 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549426693.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20170727002123-20170727022123-00448.warc.gz | en | 0.947167 | 1,009 | 3.46875 | 3 | 2.915655 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
Description: This proposal is designed around the theme of school through the use of the poem First Day at School by Roger McGough, one of Britain’s best loved poets, and a relevant animated short video. Students practise reading, hypotheses making and reflect on their first day at school. The thinking routine used is Explanation Game.
Level: Intermediate Learners: All ages Theme: School Language: School and feelings toward school related vocabulary, responding to wh- questions Skills: Parts of the speech identification, reading a poem, speaking, writing, development of causal explanation and hypotheses making, watching a short videoMaterials: Tagxedo slide or hand-out, poem hand-out, a short video
Show your students the tagxedo of the poem and ask them to guess what the poem is about from the words they can see in the tagxedo.
Pair your students and ask them to look at the tagxedo again and organize as many words as they can in categories: nouns, verb forms (gerunds, participles), adjectives. Allow 10 minutes and get feedback. Alternatively, you can hand out the black and white version of the tagxedo.
Organize your students in 3 groups, one for each stanza of the poem. Precut and jumble the lines of each stanza. Distribute the jumbled lines of the stanzas to each group. Ask them to order them in the correct sequence. Facilitate students by providing the first line of each stanza. Allow 15 minutes and get feedback.
Give your students the poem to read. Ask groups: a) Do you have any different thoughts now about what the poem is about? b) Can you give a title? Keep a visible record of students’ differentiated thoughts and titles.
Say: I notice millionbillionwillion miles (wordplay to show extreme distance from) in the first stanza, lessins (lessons) and glassrooms (classrooms) in the second, yellowellies (wellington boots) in the third. That’s interesting. What do you think they mean? Who is the speaker? (A young child who has just been dropped off by his mother in the playground of a school on his very first day). Then, go on with: I notice railings in the second stanza, wolves and monsters. That’s strange. Where do you think the speaker is? How does he feel? (Confused, alone, slightly scared). Finally, return to lessins and glassrooms and ask your students. Why do you think the poet uses these words? (to show the child’s confusion or misinterpretations of what he has been told about school).
1. The railings that surround the playground are first seen by the child as a protection from outside threats (wolves and monsters) then as prison bars designed to prevent his escape from other monsters (lessins kept in glassrooms).
2. His wellington boots (yellowwellies), his name (I wish I could remember my name), his mother (I wish she was here) reflect his life certainties and the desire for the comfort of his mother’s presence.
Ask your students: Do you have any other questions about the poem? A visible record of students’ explanations and questions from steps 3, 4 and 5 is kept visible to the class as they are shared.
Ask your students: How would you read this poem? In a comic/funny/sad/serious way? Let groups decide and read the poem in their chosen way.
Note: the tone of the poem is actually a comic one with the intention of empathizing with the child’s insecurity and confusion.
Reveal the title of the poem and the name of the poet. Then, ask them to respond in writing to the following prompts: a) three things they like about the poem b) three things they don’t like or don’t fully understand c) three questions they would ask if the poet were here.
Tell your students: You are video producers and your job is to present this poem. What images would you use to accompany it? Allow 10 minutes for the groups to write down their ideas. Then, tell them that they’re going to watch a video animation of the poem. Show the video.
Ask them if they liked the video and draw comparisons with their ideas.
Ask students to write a text reflecting on their first day at school.
I hope you find this proposal worth experimenting with. | <urn:uuid:d1838e07-fbde-4cc7-872a-2296800b0051> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | https://chrysapapalazarou.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/first-day-at-school/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376825363.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20181214044833-20181214070333-00571.warc.gz | en | 0.948591 | 935 | 3.53125 | 4 | 2.314453 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Education & Jobs |
According to Norse folklore, wargs are the mythological wolves Fenrir, Sköll and Hati.
In the Hervarar saga, King Heidrek is asked by Gestumblindi (Odin),
What is that lamp
which lights up men,
but flame engulfs it,
and wargs grasp after it always?
Heidrek perceives the answer is the Sun, explaining,
She lights up every land and shines over all men, and Skoll and Hatti are called wargs. Those are wolves, one going before the sun, the other after the moon.
Wargs are large, dangerous wolves.
Wolves in folklore also served as a symbol for menacing anthropoid beasts. For example, Gunnr’s horse was a kenning for “wolf” on the Rök Runestone, in the Lay of Hyndla, the völva (witch) Hyndla rides a wolf and to Baldur’s funeral, the giantess Hyrrokkin arrived on a wolf.
Once the wolves gobble up the Sun and moon the end of the world will begin with the eclipse to launch the apocalyptic event, Ragnarök.
Picture of the wolves Sköll meaning (revenge) and Hati meaning (hate) chasing Sunna (sun goddess) and Máni (moon god) public domain.
The Ancient Egyptians worshipped dragons and crocodiles. They created a Dragon magick that had rituals and a dragon language.
According to the authors of ‘The Book of English Magic,’ over time, dragon magick spread to Hungary then to England and across the globe.
England has its’ own dragonlore such as St. George and the dragon and the mythical, King Arthur who sports the sir name Pendragon.
Dragonlore is popular throughout Asia and dragon celebrations like the Chinese New Year. During the Chinese New Year one will see the streets lined with large colorful, dragons and fireworks.
The authors also mention that dragon magick language contains 108 runic sigils that are constant around the earth.
It is passed down verbally to kin and there are presently, no books on it.
The Book of English Magic by Philip Carr-Gomm & Richard Heygate
Samhain and Halloween are only a couple months away, yet sometimes it still feels like these magical days when one spots a spooky house such as the Spadena house which is termed a “storybook house” that definitely has a witchy design to it.
The house is located in Beverly Hills, California. Located on the corner of Walden Drive and Carmelita Avenue originally built in 1921 for dressing rooms and offices for Irvin Willat’s film studio in Culver city, it was relocated to its present location in 1934.
The converted private home, with its pointy, askew roof, Lilliputian windows and stucco siding with a vexed paint job was surrounded at the time by a lush English garden and a moat.
Spadena house was neglected for awhile and was run down a bit. Thanks to a realtor named, Michael Libow who purchased it in 1997 and renovated it over time back to its’ refreshed storybook design.
Spadena house still generates interest that attracts curious onlookers, to view the property via bus tours to snap photos of this wonderful witchy house.
The Huldufólk of Iceland are small elf like creatures that hide under hill, rocks and trees.
They are known to cause chaos when their natural environment is threatened by today’s technology. ie. People using graters to flatten their hills. Icelandic folk have created small houses built into rocks and hills for them.
The folklore behind them has been Christianized. The tale cites the Huldufólk are the unwashed children of Adam and Eve. They were bathing their children when the Abrahamic god showed up uninvited.
Adam and Eve, quickly hid the gritty children behind rocks and trees and eventually forgot about them altogether, leaving them to fend for themselves. They had fibbed to their Biblical god when he asked about all their children. So the Biblical god cursed their unwashed children leaving them to stay hidden forever. The Huldufólk blended with the land and never really aged due to their small size and the curse laid upon them by a tyrannical god.
An old Hungarian folktale claims, that water lillies originated from a fairy queen named llona who transforms a wee fairy named Róza into a water lilly to observe the world of humans even after the fae no longer exist.
~ by Nifty Buckles
Berserkers: Norse champions that fought with a trance induced fury. Legend dictates, they could shapeshift into wolves and bears.
In the UK the werewolf legend may have originated from the Vikings like the Berserkers who wore wolf skins and were called the “Úlfhéðnar.”
Úlfhéðnar are cited in the Völsunga saga and the Vatnsdœla saga, Haraldskvæði.
Today is #InternationalTigerDay
In India the Hindu warrior goddess Durga rides a huge tiger and battles demons.
Durga has ten arms which makes her an excellent warrior and piggybacks her tigress apellated, Damon.
Durga is an honorable warrior goddess and is the central deity in Shaktism a tradition of Hinduism, here she balances Brahman, the concept of preeminent reality.
Picture below: Durga Mahishasura-mardini, the slayer of the buffalo demon | <urn:uuid:52a910a3-1865-4dcb-82ae-9fbd2762a67b> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | https://folklorefun.wordpress.com/author/lastblast5/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886123312.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20170823171414-20170823191414-00600.warc.gz | en | 0.947127 | 1,190 | 2.75 | 3 | 2.790028 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Religion |
Underfloor heating is an innovative and efficient method of heating that provides warmth from beneath the floor surface. It offers a comfortable and even heat distribution throughout a space, making it a popular choice for residential and commercial buildings. In this article, we will explore how does underfloor heating work, its different types, installation process, benefits, considerations, maintenance tips, and more.
Introduction to Underfloor Heating
Underfloor heating, or radiant floor heating, involves installing a heating system beneath the floor surface. Instead of relying on traditional radiators or forced-air heating, underfloor heating utilizes either electric heating elements or water-filled pipes to generate warmth. This method eliminates the need for bulky radiators or ductwork, providing a more aesthetically pleasing and space-efficient heating solution.
Types of Underfloor Heating Systems
Two main underfloor heating systems are electric underfloor heating and hydronic underfloor heating.
Electric Underfloor Heating
Electric underfloor heating systems consist of heating cables or mats installed directly beneath the floor surface. These cables or mats are connected to a thermostat, which allows the user to control the temperature settings. When the system is turned on, the electric heating element generates heat, radiating upwards, warming the floor and the surrounding space.
Hydronic Underfloor Heating
Hydronic underfloor heating systems use a network of pipes installed beneath the floor surface. These pipes are connected to a boiler or heat pump, which circulates hot water. The hot water transfers its heat to the floor, providing radiant warmth. A thermostat controls the temperature of the water, allowing the user to adjust the heating settings as desired.
Components of Underfloor Heating Systems
Both electric and hydronic underfloor heating systems have several key components that work together to provide efficient and controlled heating.
Heating Elements or Pipes
In electric underfloor heating, the heating element can be in the form of cables or mats made of electrically conductive materials. These elements are evenly distributed beneath the floor to ensure consistent heat output.
In hydronic underfloor heating, pipes made of durable materials such as cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) are installed in a serpentine pattern. These pipes carry hot water and are embedded in the floor or placed within a concrete screed.
A thermostat is an essential component of underfloor heating systems. It allows users to set and regulate the desired temperature within a room or specific heating zone. Modern thermostats offer advanced features like programmable schedules and smart home integration, providing greater control and energy efficiency.
Insulation is crucial for underfloor heating systems as it helps to minimize heat loss and maximize energy efficiency. Proper insulation prevents heat from being absorbed by the subfloor or escaping downwards, ensuring that the heat is directed toward the room.
Control systems provide the ability to manage multiple heating zones within a building. They allow for independent temperature control in different areas, optimizing comfort and energy usage. Control systems can be wired or wireless depending on the specific installation requirements.
Installation Process of Underfloor Heating
The installation process of underfloor heating systems can vary depending on the type of system and the building’s construction. Here is a general overview of the installation steps:
Before installing underfloor heating, it is important to consider factors such as the type of flooring, subfloor condition, and insulation requirements. The existing flooring may need to be removed, and the subfloor should be properly prepared to ensure a smooth installation.
Electric Underfloor Heating Installation
The heating cables or mats are installed evenly across the subfloor for electric underfloor heating. They are then connected to the thermostat and power supply. Insulation is laid over the heating element to direct the heat upward, and the final flooring is installed on top.
Hydronic Underfloor Heating Installation
Hydronic underfloor heating installation involves laying out the network of pipes in the desired pattern on the subfloor. The pipes are connected to the boiler or heat pump, and insulation is placed on top. A screed layer or a thin layer of self-leveling compound is applied to encase the pipes, providing stability and even heat distribution. Finally, the chosen flooring material is installed.
How Underfloor Heating Works
The operation of underfloor heating systems differs between electric and hydronic systems.
Electric Underfloor Heating Operation
When the electric underfloor heating system is turned on, the electric heating element heats up, radiating warmth to the floor surface. The heat spreads evenly across the room, creating a comfortable and cozy environment. The thermostat allows users to control the temperature and set different heating schedules according to their preferences.
Hydronic Underfloor Heating Operation
In a hydronic underfloor heating system, hot water from the boiler or heat pump is circulated through the pipes installed beneath the floor. As the hot water flows through the pipes, it transfers its heat to the floor, radiating warmth throughout the space. The thermostat controls the temperature of the water, ensuring optimal comfort and energy efficiency.
Benefits of Underfloor Heating
Underfloor heating offers several advantages compared to traditional heating systems:
Underfloor heating provides energy-efficient heating due to its radiant nature. It distributes heat evenly across the floor surface, lowering demand for higher temperatures. This efficiency can lead to reduced energy consumption and lower heating costs.
Comfort and Even Heat Distribution
Underfloor heating makes the entire floor a radiant heat source, eliminating cold spots and drafts. The heat is evenly distributed throughout the room, providing a comfortable environment and reducing temperature variations.
Underfloor heating eliminates the need for radiators or vents, freeing up wall space and offering greater design flexibility. It allows for more creative interior designs and furniture placement without any restrictions posed by traditional heating systems.
Reduced Allergens and Improved Air Quality
Underfloor heating does not distribute allergens or dust particles, unlike forced-air heating systems that circulate air. This can be particularly beneficial for individuals with allergies or respiratory sensitivities, as it helps maintain cleaner and healthier air quality.
Considerations for Underfloor Heating Installation
Before installing underfloor heating, certain factors should be considered:
Flooring Types Suitable for Underfloor Heating
Underfloor heating can be installed under various flooring materials, including tile, laminate, engineered wood, and certain types of carpet. However, it is essential to check the manufacturer’s guidelines to ensure compatibility and prevent any potential damage to the flooring.
Proper insulation is crucial for underfloor heating systems as it helps to minimize heat loss. Adequate insulation prevents heat from being absorbed by the subfloor and directs it upward, maximizing energy efficiency and reducing running costs.
Control and Zoning Options
Consider the control options and zoning capabilities when installing underfloor heating. Zoning allows different areas or rooms to be heated independently, providing personalized comfort and energy savings. It is especially beneficial for larger spaces or areas with varying heating requirements.
Maintenance and Troubleshooting Tips for Underfloor Heating Systems
To keep your underfloor heating system running efficiently, regular maintenance and troubleshooting are essential:
Regular Maintenance Practices
Regularly inspect the system for any visible damage or leaks. Clean the floor surface as recommended by the flooring manufacturer. Keep the heating system clear of any obstructions or debris affecting heat distribution.
Troubleshooting Common Issues
If you experience any issues with your underfloor heating system, such as uneven heat distribution or a malfunctioning thermostat, first check the power supply and thermostat settings. Inspect the system for leaks or damage, and consult a professional.
Comparison with Traditional Heating Systems
Underfloor heating offers several advantages over traditional heating systems:
Efficiency: Underfloor heating provides radiant heat directly from the floor, resulting in more efficient heating than forced-air systems.
Comfort: The even heat distribution and absence of drafts or hot spots make underfloor heating more comfortable and pleasant.
Space-saving: Underfloor heating eliminates the need for radiators, allowing for more room layout and design flexibility.
Underfloor heating is a modern and efficient way to heat spaces, providing comfort, energy efficiency, and design flexibility. Whether you choose electric or hydronic underfloor heating, the system radiates heat beneath the floor, ensuring even distribution and a cozy atmosphere. Underfloor heating can be a valuable addition to any building with proper installation, maintenance, and consideration of key factors. | <urn:uuid:15656161-fa7d-43ee-b102-9d24284cc140> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://hdecorideas.com/underfloor-heating-work/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224648322.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20230602040003-20230602070003-00087.warc.gz | en | 0.887957 | 1,760 | 3.03125 | 3 | 2.047283 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Home & Hobbies |
Statistics Definitions > Continuity Correction Factor
What is the Continuity Correction Factor?
A continuity correction factor is used when you use a continuous probability distribution to approximate a discrete probability distribution. For example, when you want to use the normal to approximate a binomial.
Watch the video for an example:
Can’t see the video? Click here.
According to the Central Limit Theorem, the sample mean of a distribution becomes approximately normal if the sample size is “large enough.” for example, the binomial distribution can be approximated with a normal distribution as long as n*p and n*q are both at least 5. Here,
- n = how many items are in your sample,
- p = probability of an event (e.g. 60%),
- q = probability the event doesn’t happen (100% – p).
The continuity correction factor accounts for the fact that a normal distribution is continuous, and a binomial is not. When you use a normal distribution to approximate a binomial distribution, you’re going to have to use a continuity correction factor. It’s as simple as adding or subtracting .5 to the discrete x-value: use the following table to decide whether to add or subtract.
Continuity Correction Factor Table
Need help with the table? Check out our tutoring page!
- If P(X=n) use P(n – 0.5 < X < n + 0.5)
- If P(X > n) use P(X > n + 0.5)
- If P(X ≤ n) use P(X < n + 0.5)
- If P (X < n) use P(X < n – 0.5)
- If P(X ≥ n) use P(X > n – 0.5)
Let’s make the table a bit more concrete by using x = 6 as an example. The column on the left shows what you’re looking for (e.g. the probability that x = 6), while the right-hand column shows what happens to 6 after the continuity correction factor has been applied.
Continuity Correction Factor Example
The following example shows a worked problem where you’ll actually use the continuity correction factor to solve a probability problem using the z-table.
Example problem: If n = 20 and p = .25, what is the probability that X ≥ 8?
Step 1: Figure out if your sample size is “large enough”. Start by working out n*p and n*q:
np = 20 * .25 = 5 (note: this is also the mean x̄)
nq = 20 * .75 = 15
These are both over 5, so we can use the continuity correction factor.
Step 2: Find the variance of the binomial distribution:
n*p*q = 20 * .25 * .75 = 3.75
Set this number aside for a moment. You’ll use this value in Step 4 to find a z-score.
Step 3: Use the continuity correction factor on the X value. For this example, we have a greater than or equals sign (≥), so the table tells us:
P(X ≥ n) use P(X > n – 0.5)
X ≥ 8 becomes X ≥ 7.5.
Step 4: Find the z-score. You’ll need all three values from above:
- The mean (x̄) from Step 1,
- The variance (s) from Step 2,
- The Xi value from Step 3.
Step 5: Look up Step 4 in the z-table.
1.29 = .4015.
Why is the continuity correction factor used?
While the normal distribution is continuous (it includes all real numbers), the binomial distribution can only take integers. The small correction is an allowance for the fact that you’re using a continuous distribution.
Check out our Youtube channel, where you’ll find tons of videos to help with stats.
Gonick, L. (1993). The Cartoon Guide to Statistics. HarperPerennial.
Kotz, S.; et al., eds. (2006), Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences, Wiley.
Vogt, W.P. (2005). Dictionary of Statistics & Methodology: A Nontechnical Guide for the Social Sciences. SAGE.
Stephanie Glen. "Continuity Correction Factor: What is it?" From StatisticsHowTo.com: Elementary Statistics for the rest of us! https://www.statisticshowto.com/what-is-the-continuity-correction-factor/
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Comments? Need to post a correction? Please post a comment on our Facebook page. | <urn:uuid:043a67e6-7180-4441-a06f-6a58441064ed> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://www.statisticshowto.com/what-is-the-continuity-correction-factor/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656104675818.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20220706151618-20220706181618-00733.warc.gz | en | 0.829385 | 1,059 | 4.40625 | 4 | 1.773904 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Science & Tech. |
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) was established as a requirement of the Nuclear Waste Fuel Act to develop a long-term management strategy for used nuclear fuel in Canada. In current practice, once nuclear fuel products are removed from reactors, they are safely stored at licensed facilities located where fuel is produced. However, long-term planning requires the development of a safe and secure storage and transportation system for these products.
After the NWMO conducted a three-year collaborative study with over 1000 citizens, Adaptive Phase Management (APM) was identified as a suitable management framework, as it incorporated a high level of flexibility and adaptability into the decision-making process. In 2007, the federal government approved the APM approach and gave the NWMO the mandate to implement it. The NWMO’s next task was to engage citizens in designing a site selection process for “an informed and willing community” to host the management facilities in a deep geological repository. The goal was to ensure that the implementation of the APM accurately reflected their values, concerns and expectations at every step of the way.
To continue and strengthen its dialogue with Canadians, Ascentum collaborated with NWMO to design, implement and report on two daylong dialogues with members of its Citizens’ Panels (recruited from community-engaged opinion leaders). Ascentum also collaborated on the design of five Public Discussion Groups to engage a broader cross-section of citizens on this issue.
The two Citizens’ Panel Dialogues engaged over 60 participants, with representation from each of the four provinces involved in Canada’s nuclear fuel cycle. Additionally, each of the five Public Discussion Groups brought together 14 to 18 randomly recruited citizens from different cities across Canada.
The engagement process revealed a number of shared values and expectations between the Citizens’ Panel and Public Discussion Groups, even though their experience and degree of familiarity with the issue varied. Both groups generally agreed that the proposed guiding principles and the site selection process were fair and appropriate. Importantly, participants provided the NWMO with many valuable ideas for refining and strengthening these processes, and clarifying the reference documents.
Additionally, participants felt very positively about their dialogue experience. Feedback through written evaluations revealed that all participants either agreed or strongly agreed that they enjoyed participating in the meeting; and that the facilitators were effective in promoting reflection and constructive, respectful dialogue. The dialogues contributed to the final site selection process for the identification of a willing and informed host community. The dialogue reports can be found on the NWMO website http://www.nwmo.ca/ | <urn:uuid:5245f49c-2441-44dc-acf0-4ce93b327711> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | http://ascentum.com/2011/09/18/moving-forward-together-process-for-selecting-a-site-for-canadas-deep-geological-repository-for-used-nuclear-fuel-nuclear-waste-management-organization-nwmo/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464051054181.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524005054-00187-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953427 | 525 | 2.578125 | 3 | 3.046836 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
The global food system is a marvel of human achievement. It feeds 7.9 billion people, employs 40% of the world’s population, and generates a third of global GDP. But at the same time, agriculture places a hefty burden on the environment, creating more than a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions and acting as the biggest contributor to tropical deforestation and the pending extinction of 1 million species.
Social issues are also in focus. We suffer epidemics of both hunger and obesity. More than 800 million people go to bed hungry each night while over 1 billion are considered obese. And although the overall economic contribution of the food and agriculture sector is huge, its benefits are uneven: 65% of working adults who live in poverty make their living through agriculture.
These sustainability issues must be addressed, and quickly. We have fewer than nine annual planting cycles to build a sustainable, inclusive, and healthy food system in time to meet key milestones of the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. And we face this challenge against the backdrop of a volatile world. Today, Russia’s war in Ukraine has set off a humanitarian tragedy and possible global food crisis, natural disasters are becoming more frequent and increasingly severe, and the pain of the Covid-19 pandemic continues.
It’s urgent that we create a more resilient food system. To have a chance at doing so, we must first understand why, despite significant effort by corporations, governments, and NGOs, we haven’t made more progress so far. The answer lies in three paradoxes (see Figure 1).
Fixing our food system depends on solving three paradoxes
1. Consumers say they want to buy, but often don’t
Consumers around the world say they value sustainable food offerings. In a recent Bain & Company survey, 87% of European consumers say they are willing to pay more for products made in an environmentally and socially responsible way. The figures are similar in Asia and the US.
Unfortunately, shoppers’ high level of interest is not consistently reflected in what lands in their carts.
It’s possible to pinpoint several reasons for this. First, while sustainability is important, it’s just one of several factors that strongly influence purchase decisions. Taste is critical, and in surveys about what sways purchases, quality, healthiness, and price often outrank sustainability.
Pricing is a particularly critical issue. Global food prices are climbing due to a number of inflationary factors, but the long-term trend in the developed world has been one of abundant food choice at historically low prices. US consumers spend approximately 9% of their discretionary income on food, down from 17% 60 years ago. Those prices omit hidden costs like food waste, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. Bain research shows that while customers are willing to pay some premium for healthier and sustainable options, there is a limit on how much more they’ll spend. Many sustainable alternatives seem to be priced well above that limit, making it no surprise they aren’t selected at scale.
Consumers also find it challenging to get the information and guidance they need to evaluate a product’s sustainability. They are looking to brands to provide clear, simple information, something snack company Kind has tapped into with the slogan “Ingredients you can see and pronounce.” Successful insurgent brands, while pursuing sustainability on many fronts, often reduce complexity for consumers by focusing their communications on one critical issue. For example, Beyond Meat, maker of protein alternatives, highlights its lower environmental impact, particularly greenhouse gas emissions.
Consumer product companies often complain that there’s no clear consumer call for sustainable products, but there is an opportunity for brands to communicate the benefits, provide the transparency, and fine-tune the pricing that will stoke demand.
2. Farmers would change, but often can’t
Individual farmers are critical to creating a more sustainable food system. They make the decisions that can lead to more—or less—sustainable outcomes. As stewards of the land, often over multiple generations, farmers want to see it thrive. But farming is also their livelihood, and profit margins are thin. For them, the risk of a bad year is very high.
Shifting to regenerative farming and grazing practices helps fight climate change by rebuilding soil’s organic matter, pulling carbon from the atmosphere and sequestering it in the ground. But adopting these practices costs money and involves significant change, and farmers need some guarantee that it’s worth the effort. Early studies of the economics of regenerative agriculture show that farmers using these techniques can increase their profit margins by the fifth or sixth season, but they may first go through a period of higher expenses and lower yields. Changing behavior is always hard, and since farming is local, any farmer will want to test new techniques on their own land over at least one full growing season. Given the education and financing required and the risks new practices introduce, scaling regenerative experimentation can be daunting.
Stronger farmer-focused ecosystems are beginning to develop to help build the economic and environmental case for regenerative agriculture, but so far they have struggled to reach the scale needed fast enough.
3. The market should support, but often doesn’t
Our current food system is optimized for scale and efficiency. At its center are commodities that meet common standards. Farmers work to produce those commodities, and food companies rely on them to create consistent products.
Consider US No. 2 yellow corn. Corn of this grade must meet certain specifications: yellow kerneled with not more than 5% in other colors, of a minimum weight and a maximum percentage of damaged kernels and foreign material per bushel. Buyers, knowing exactly what they are getting, standardize their own production to cheaply turn large quantities of these uniform inputs into processed commodities like cornmeal and corn syrup, which food companies then purchase.
It’s incredibly efficient, but not very sustainable. Sustainability and health criteria are rarely part of the definition of a commodity like No. 2 yellow corn. It doesn’t matter where the corn was grown or how, the amount of water and fertilizer used, or how much carbon was emitted.
Even when we begin to implement systems that start to address where and how corn was grown, supply chain dynamics make it impossible or prohibitively expensive to bring more sustainable corn to market in a way that’s sufficiently appreciated by commodity buyers or procurement teams working to meet tough cost targets. Three challenges make it particularly difficult. The first is the fact that there are often six to eight (and sometimes more) steps in the value chain between growing and consuming food.
The second challenge is that many of these steps have production systems that operate best (that is, most cost effectively) at very high volumes, so experimentation can be expensive. Finally, many agricultural products are “disassembly” businesses, meaning they break up raw material into multiple components that each have different uses. Finding a good use for sustainable soy oil is only part of the battle, because a soybean also comes with soy meal.
Rebuilding these fragmented food value chains in a way that rewards not only efficiency but also how food is grown will require fresh thinking, collaboration, and coordination among key market participants.
Five actions to address these paradoxes
This is where things stand today, but we don’t have to accept our lack of progress. We can speed this transition by tackling the consumer, farmer, and market paradoxes with five actions.
Shifting consumption. Some companies successfully help consumers switch to healthier and more sustainable options that they either acquire, develop, or reformulate. Unilever’s Knorr-brand Plizza, for example, features plant-based, nutrient-rich ingredients: a whole-grain spelt flour crust; a sauce made from sustainably sourced ingredients including flaxseed oil and soil-enriching, high-fiber beans; and vegetable toppings like fast-growing spinach, shiitake mushrooms, and self-sowing watercress.
Companies like Upfield, a maker of plant-based spreads, butter, creams, and cheese, are optimizing their entire product portfolios to reduce the use of plastics, emission of carbon, and generation of waste. Scale insurgents such as Beyond Meat are looking to disrupt whole categories and shift consumers to tasty yet sustainable offerings.
At the same time, retailers like Sainsbury’s and Walmart are actively sourcing significantly more sustainable options to stock their shelves.
There are attractive rewards for any brand that figures out how to break the paradox and help consumers shift their behavior. Brands that are seen as sustainable grow two times faster than rivals, and sustainability-driven insurgents grow up to five times faster. The 10% of brands for which sustainability is a core element of value grow fastest of all, according to Bain research.
Embracing regenerative agriculture. Food and beverage companies are supporting the shift to regenerative agriculture by, among other things, hardwiring sustainability into procurement practices, guaranteeing purchase contracts, and providing financing and training. General Mills is one of a number of large companies that have committed to supporting farmers’ transitions. Through training and technical assistance for farmers, the company is on track to help transform 1 million acres of farmland by the end of the decade.
Farmers can also tap into carbon credit systems that provide revenue for practices that sequester carbon—compensation for the cost farmers bear while adopting regenerative agriculture. Yara’s Agoro Carbon Alliance works with farmers to implement practices and processes that ensure they can earn high-quality carbon credits in demand from businesses working to meet their own carbon emission goals.
Meanwhile, governments around the world have a huge opportunity to redirect some of the more than $500 billion in subsidies spent on agriculture each year. The US Department of Agriculture recently announced a $1 billion investment in the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, for pilot projects that create market opportunities for commodities produced using climate-friendly practices. Similarly, the European Union is updating its common agricultural policy and funding to strengthen sustainability considerations.
Reinventing the value chain. For some commodities, the existing value chain carries such high environmental costs, inequity, and labor abuses that the only way to transform the system is to reinvent it. This often means creating value chains that are shorter, more transparent, and capable of capturing more of the product’s economic value where it is grown. These new chains depend on key market participants—from corporate buyers to governments and NGOs—working together in innovative ways.
Reimagining a better future requires being open to new ways of working. Canned tuna is a product that traditionally has been rife with sustainability issues. Among them: illegal and overfishing, bycatch of marine life, bad working conditions on vessels, and an economic structure in which only a very small portion of profits goes to the developing countries that legally control the fisheries.
Tuna also happens to be one of the cheapest sources of protein widely available. Seeing an opportunity to effect important change, The Nature Conservancy and the Republic of the Marshall Islands cofounded Pacific Island Tuna (PIT) to build a fairer system and produce a sustainable can of tuna, fairly caught and processed, with full transparency.
In every way, PIT upended tradition. The company doesn’t negotiate for tuna after it has been caught on a transloading vessel out at sea, as is the norm. Instead, before the fishing vessel even goes out, PIT makes clear what price it will pay for sustainably caught tuna. Fishers who want that premium price must keep their electronic video monitoring on at all times, ensuring they follow humane work rules and do not fish in restricted waters. Once the fish is caught, the vessel must come back to dock in Majuro. This gives workers a regular opportunity to leave the vessel if needed.
As a co-owner of the joint venture, and through its initial processing facilities at the dock, the Marshall Islands enjoys a much greater portion of profits. And a partnership with Walmart, which is buying PIT’s tuna for sale in its stores, provides a reliable source of demand, making possible ongoing investment that helps PIT scale much more efficiently.
Building resilient local food systems in developing markets. In many developing markets where food systems are nascent yet hold significant potential, the urgency for transformation has never been greater.
Africa is a case in point. Malnutrition and food insecurity were already a major issue before Covid-19 pushed 130 million additional people into hunger. Those numbers are expected to increase as the war in Ukraine causes shortages and drives up prices of crops, including wheat, corn, and sunflower oil, as well as fertilizers. Net food imports have risen 400% since the early 2000s and are expected to increase further. At the same time, many of Africa’s smallholder farmers live on less than $5.50 a day, and the higher temperatures, longer dry seasons, and unpredictable rainfalls brought about by climate change are predicted to reduce already low yields by another 10% by 2050.
The urgent need to tackle these interrelated issues is now well recognized. The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit highlighted the challenges of feeding a growing African population amid calls for greater sustainability, climate resilience, inclusivity, and nutrition. By the summit’s conclusion, 25 African countries had presented national strategies for transforming their food systems.
A critical group in these efforts are the farmer-allied intermediaries (FAIs)—aggregators, processors, and vertically integrated brands—that anchor Africa’s local food systems. These enterprises play a linchpin role, ensuring that commercially oriented smallholder farmers can access markets and are paid fair prices for what they produce, providing critical inputs such as seeds and fertilizer on credit, and training farmers to adopt tools and practices that increase production in a sustainable way. As they grow their businesses, FAIs help to capture more of the economic value created beyond the farm gate. In the process, they create jobs and help consumers gain access to more safe, nutritious, and affordable food. This intentional, farmer-allied sourcing approach does carry additional costs, however, which can make it hard for these enterprises to scale, particularly in already challenging operating environments.
Recently, a number of initiatives focused on FAIs have begun to see good results. One example is Dairy Nourishes Africa (DNA), a 15- to 20-year public-private partnership that aims to accelerate the transformation of African dairy industries, optimizing outcomes from farms to consumers and across the operating environment, with farmer-allied dairy processors at the center. For the processors working with DNA in Tanzania during the first year of the pilot, cow’s milk production rose more than 50%, as did farmer incomes, and on-farm greenhouse gas emissions dropped 33%.
For food and beverage companies seeking to grow their businesses in developing markets and localize their supply sources, there is a huge opportunity to play a catalytic role in supporting the growth of these critical enterprises by pursuing similar partnerships and providing a large, predictable demand for sustainably produced foods.
Accelerating innovation. A transition from a food system built on standardized commodities with a goal of maximizing yield and efficiency to one in which sustainability considerations are embedded and valued has important implications for every participant. Many companies will have to reconsider what their consumers need from them. Business boundaries will shift, and the basis of competition will change.
A growing tidal wave of food and agriculture-focused technologies will enable and accelerate that transition. In developed markets, entirely new forms of technology-enabled agriculture are taking root, from controlled environment agriculture to advanced aquaculture, self-driving tractors, and widespread seed gene editing using advanced technologies like CRISPR. Other technologies like precision fermentation and cell-based meat production are creating healthier versions of existing foods and, in some cases, entirely new foods. Satellite imagery and new data platforms track the food supply chain and make it transparent and traceable, pulling into one place the wealth of information available.
Much of this innovation comes from start-ups. Large food companies spend just 1.4% of revenue on R&D, on average, and much of that goes toward incremental improvements, not new breakthroughs.
But large food companies must consider what these developments mean for their innovation and technology strategy: what partnerships they might need to launch with innovative start-ups or other technology leaders, the areas in which they should acquire or invest in their own technology, and the proper level of R&D spending. Critical questions include how they see technology helping them evolve into their new future and how high the risk is that tech-centric innovators could outcompete them and eat into their business.
What the future could be
Our goal must be to build a healthy, resilient food system. What will that future look like?
- It will be more diverse. Today, just 12 species of plants provide three-quarters of the world’s crops. More diversity means fewer countries will be dependent on a limited number of suppliers, lower chances of a devastating crop wipeout, and more nutritious diets.
- We will treat natural resources—soils, trees, mangroves, peatlands, and the biological ecosystems these support—as allies to help protect us against the worst consequences of weather and climate shocks.
- The people and communities who grow our food will capture a greater share of its value, and they will be able to use that profit to adopt new practices and technologies to better withstand climate and economic shocks.
- Supply chains that are more transparent, traceable, and, when possible, shorter, will decrease exposure to weather events, reduce energy-intensive shipping, and strengthen parts of the world like Africa that spend tens of billions of dollars importing much of their food.
- Consumers, armed with the information they need, will have—and choose—ample sustainable and healthier options at reasonable prices.
- Financial incentives and capital will flow toward innovators committed to new approaches to growing and consuming food that improve nutrition, inclusivity, and sustainability.
This kind of food system—one strong enough to withstand cycles of global turbulence, that gives us a real shot at mitigating carbon emissions and supporting a thriving planet, healthy populations, and a prosperous society—is within reach. Acting quickly to overcome the paradoxes of consumers, farmers, and the market is the right place to start. | <urn:uuid:f95f7af4-84f4-4bb9-9bc1-15efe58a51fd> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.bain.com/pt-br/insights/food-system-transformation-the-time-is-now/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510284.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20230927071345-20230927101345-00432.warc.gz | en | 0.94514 | 3,770 | 3.0625 | 3 | 2.975127 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Food & Dining |
|dc.description.abstract||Mathematical models which describe the greenhouse environment, and the
growth of a crop of cucumbers, in that environment, have be en developed and
tested. The models have been used to predict: the response of the
greenhouse to varying weather conditions, the growth of the crop leaf
canopy, and the weight and number of fruit harvested
The greenhouse environment has been modelled using a system of non-linear
differential equations, derived from a consideration of the energy and mass
balances of the glazing, internal structure, crop canopy, root media,
fl oor, deep soil layers, and the greenhouse air space. The equations have
been solved for five minute time steps, using measured values of outside
weather conditions and control inputs as boundary values.
Entry of solar radiation into the greenhouse, and absorption by various
surfaces, has been determined using transmission tables generated using a
"ray-tracing" light transmission model. The light transmission model has
been calibrated in a separate experiment. The incoming solar radiation has
been partitioned between diffuse, direct, photosynthetically active and
near infra-red radiation, for use in the crop model.
Validation experiments have been performed to test the greenhouse
environment simulation model. The results of the validation exercise showed
that the model was capable of predicting the temperatures in the
greenhouse, within a few degrees. The mean errors were smaller for the crop
canopy, root medium, and floor, than for the glazing or air temperature.
Prediction errors for relative humidity and carbon dioxide concentration
were more variable.
An existing model of cucumber development rate, and leaf expansion, has
been modified and validated. This gave good results when adequate account
was taken of leaf senescense, and initiation of lateral growths.
Sub-models for photosynthesis, respiration, and assimilate partitioning
have been develope d , and c ombined with the greenhouse environment and leaf
expansion models. The combined model has been used to predict the course of
growth of a cucumber crop over one growing season, and the number and
weight of fruit harvested. The predictions have been compared to results
from a test crop. This revealed that while the total number of fruit
harvested was accurately predicted, the total weight of harvested fruit was
The models are intended to be used in the s tudy of optimal control of the | <urn:uuid:2e1f1ec9-95f9-4d9b-8984-039708c8175c> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/4232?show=full | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656103661137.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20220630031950-20220630061950-00710.warc.gz | en | 0.916368 | 522 | 3.25 | 3 | 2.912229 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
It has been a busy few weeks in the education world in Scotland, with what has felt like hunners of literacy reports and results being published. Having read them all, I am disappointed to find a lack of specific advice as to what schools could actually do right now, to address the attainment gap problem we spend so much time talking about.In an ideal world, the optimum conditions for the learning and teaching of reading have been developed and nurtured from birth – or even before it – talking to, reading to and playing music for your bump are recommended in my book! Those precious pre-school years should be filled with buckets of love, fun, sand, talk, mud and worms, books, cuddles, bedtime stories – and all the other things that contribute not only to a happy and healthy childhood, but to a natural curiosity about the world. Make no mistake; I believe that the crucial work we are undertaking to ensure that Scotland is the #bestplacetogrowup, such as Bookbug, Play Talk Read, and the Early Years Collaborative etc. is essential and should continue to make progress, and make a difference for families and children.
However, as a teacher, I also believe that it is our duty to ensure that – regardless of circumstances, deprivation or difficulty – that every child in our school is taught how to read. I truly believe that, through using the most effective methods and skilled teaching and learning, that teachers can level the playing field and provide the transformation that our children from deprived backgrounds so desperately need. In short, I am certain that teaching holds the key to closing the attainment gap and locking the door behind it.
Here then, are my suggestions as to what practical steps schools can take to get rid of the gap for good. We need to:
· Admit we have a problem. No matter how hard we’ve worked, no matter how difficult it is to acknowledge – we need to recognise and accept that what we are currently doing is not working.
· See the SSLN (Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy) results as an urgent wakeup call and take action now.
· Review, with an honest and critical eye, all aspects of our teaching and provision for literacy at all stages. This may mean admitting that we don’t currently know all the answers.
· Understand that reading is comprised of two distinct elements: decoding (phonics) and comprehension and we must ensure that both aspects of reading are adequately addressed in our policies and programmes. (See the Simple View of Reading, below)
· Adopt a recognised synthetic phonics programme* throughout the school and ensure that it is implemented properly. Or, as a minimum, reflect honestly on your current phonics provision to see if it meets the criteria that research-informed programmes are based on. (In brief: no sight words, no letter naming, no guessing or multi-cueing strategies – but one clear strategy of using phonics all-the-way-through-the-word for reading and for spelling.) Please note, this need not be an expensive undertaking – programmes, such as Phonics International, provide everything required in an online database that you print yourself. A whole school site licence starts at £99 for a year.
· If you are struggling with the previous point, then you need training to update you on why the above is the best approach and how it is supported by current international research and leading-edge classroom practice.
· Train our teachers, all of them, to ensure that regardless of age and stage, that every teacher knows how to teach or support a child that may be struggling with reading, writing and spelling.
· Teach knowledge of the Alphabetic Code – that is the sounds / phonemes in our language and their corresponding letter / letters (spelling alternatives).
· Teach the skills of reading, writing, spelling and handwriting (Teach reading, writing and spelling together – especially in the earliest stages) whilst ensuring our practice is fit for purpose. Do not lose the learning in the quest for engagement or active learning. Learning to read is a very real, exciting and fulfilling journey all by itself.
· Provide extra ‘little and often’ practice for the slower to learn children. It’s not that they can’t do it – it’s just that they need a little more time, patience and practice to help embed crucial learning.
· Teach parents about the school’s approach to teaching the mechanics of reading – and give clear and explicit advice about how they can best support their child, including an emphasis on reading to and talking with their children.
· Ensure that children are given sufficient practice in blending for reading and segmenting for spelling. Often the only practice we give our children is through their reading book – this is not sufficient. A good synthetic phonics programme will provide word, sentence and text level material for practice, as well as offering opportunities for vocabulary enrichment, comprehension and grammar. It should also be able to be used as spelling programme throughout the school and as an intervention for any struggling readers.
· As soon as possible, replace old reading scheme books with reading books that are cumulatively decodable. Old schemes are based on ‘look and say’ and sight words – they will undermine any phonics teaching that is taking place and encourage children to guess at unknown words. Guessing is never an appropriate strategy.
· Assess where you are now using tools that are fit for purpose. (With a focus on sight words, letter naming and multi-cueing strategies, I do not consider POLAAR to be fit for purpose. In addition the ‘Phonemic Blending Test’ uses only real CVC words which are insufficient – also there is no way of knowing if a child has learned these words by sight. Most tests that are designed to assess blending ability use a combination of unknown longer words and nonsense words.) Good formative assessment should mean that teachers are aware of how much of the Alphabetic Code has been taught and is becoming embedded, as well as how well the skills of reading (blending), spelling (segmenting) and handwriting are developing for each child. A link is provided to some useful assessments** below.
· Introduce the Phonics Screening Check*** from England. It is free, readily available, easy to administer and will give you robust data and a crucial benchmark for comparison. It will identify which children need more help and it will highlight if teaching in your school, with your preferred methods, is doing what needs to be done to set children off on the path to being independent, free and fearless readers.
· From next session do your utmost to address the points above and from the very beginning of P1 be clear that this is the year that things will be different. Do not be tempted to group children by ability at this earliest of stages – a focus on teaching, learning, practice, consolidation and revision – and a mantra of ‘keeping up’ rather than ‘catching up’ will serve all children well.
· Ensure that all of the above takes place within a rich literacy environment that instils a love of texts and reading in all its forms – whether for pleasure, leisure or learning.
· Do not attempt to tick every box in the race to ‘do it all’. Give yourselves the professional time, space and permission to focus on the priorities at hand.
· Believe that every child in your school will become a reader, aim for 100% – and expect to get very close.
*Synthetic Phonics Programmes that are research-informed (this list provides suggestions and is not exhaustive): Floppy’s Phonics Sounds and Letters, Jolly Phonics, Phonics International, Read Write Inc., Sound Discovery and Sounds Write
Like a copy of this information on one handy document? Here you go: | <urn:uuid:c649fb68-cd71-4bea-bfbd-eed278c485ee> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://www.thelearningzoo.co.uk/education/closing-the-gap-get-a-new-plan-stan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178374686.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20210306100836-20210306130836-00370.warc.gz | en | 0.954763 | 1,617 | 2.71875 | 3 | 2.882049 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Education & Jobs |
Use Hyperbole (Blow Your Words Out of Proportion)
You’ve reached Lesson 6 (Woohoo!) So far, you’ve found your funny bone, started a humor journal, used super-specific words to paint a funnier picture, applied the joke structure, and now recognize this list of learned items doesn’t follow the rule of three.
Today’s lesson covers the art of using hyperbole, or how to “blow your words out of proportion”, in other words… exaggerate.
Caricature artists exaggerate physical appearance to highlight a person’s unique features. Comedians exaggerate speech and body language mannerisms to joke about human experiences. And writers exaggerate words to stretch the truth.
But to be funny, the exaggeration needs to be extreme. You need to create a mismatch between reality and the exaggerated image your words create. Stretch the truth to absurdity.
Dilbert cartoonist and humorous writer Scott Adam shares this advice on his blog about using exaggeration:
“Figure out what’s the worst that could happen with your topic, then multiply it by ten or more. Don’t say a mole is as big as a grapefruit. Say that mole is opening its own Starbucks… The bigger the exaggeration, the funnier it is.”
So to exaggerate, go BIG… or go teeny.
Let’s look at a few simple examples.
Note from these examples, the exaggeration comes from making a comparison or creating an absurd description. As you learned in Lesson 3, choosing super-specific words, such as Fido, kibble, Zelda, and Justin Bieber, also creates a funnier picture.
By itself, exaggeration doesn’t create humor. To get a laugh (a guffaw, a smirk, or eye roll), you need to create an absurd image for your audience. The humor comes from extreme comparison. You also want to make sure you add the punch to the end.
Now let’s look at how you can turn a small sample of writing into a funnier, exaggerated version.
How to Create an Exaggeration
Step 1. Look through your writing to find ideas you can emphasize with hyperbole. Do you mention objects, emotions, actions you can exaggerate?
Step 2. Choose one of your ideas to exaggerate.
Step 3. Come up with a list of rewrites.
Step 4. Choose the rewrite you like best. Tweak your words to get the right level of exaggeration.
Here’s an example of applying the steps to a bit based on my old car.
1. I drove a 2006 SUV (for 13 years) that racked up over 250,000 kilometers, so I was often at my garage for repairs.
2. In my sentence, I can exaggerate the age and mileage of my car as well as the frequency I go to my garage.
3. Here are some rewrites:
I drive an SUV that has so many kilometers…
• My garage is on speed dial.
• I see my mechanic more often than my family.
• My car’s maintenance history has its own database.
4. I chose the last rewrite and tweaked it:
My SUV has so many kilometers, its maintenance history shuts down the Internet.
When you use exaggeration, stretch it as far as it can go to make it absurd. If you succeed, your readers will enjoy the humor.
Practice. Practice. Practice. The more you exaggerate, the easier it gets.
1. Refer to the examples in the table above, and try giving these sentences a humor boost using exaggeration:
• The meal was bad.
• His (or her) hair is messy.
• The dog was happy.
• The road was slippery.
• I was late.
2. Go back to your writing sample you created for Lesson 2 (What? You didn’t complete the exercise in that lesson. Okay, now’s your chance to go back and do it.) Find a sentence or idea you can exaggerate and follow the steps in this lesson to create several rewrites. Choose the rewrite you like best.
Next lesson you’ll learn to twist a device poets often use (no rhymes are required).
Share with friends | <urn:uuid:de59cb09-18a9-4e02-a268-43a6c06e00a1> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://gohighbrow.com/use-hyperbole-blow-your-words-out-of-proportion/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585302.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20211020024111-20211020054111-00700.warc.gz | en | 0.917791 | 910 | 3.453125 | 3 | 1.753354 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Literature |
Do Fixed Dogs Live Longer?by Lisa McQuerrey
Altered dogs typically live longer lives.
Dogs that are spayed or neutered enjoy a number of health benefits that generally extend their lives. “Fixing” a dog involves surgically altering its reproductive capabilities, ideally just before it reaches sexual maturity. For a male dog, this involves surgical castration, and for a female dog, this entails removing internal reproductive organs. A vet performs the surgery on an outpatient basis under general anesthesia; recovery time is general just a few days.
Reduction in Disease
Fixed dogs are often at lower risk for diseases related to reproductive functions. Neutered male dogs have a significantly lower risk of prostatic disease and hernias, and have no chance of testicular cancer. Spayed female dogs have significantly reduced risk of breast cancer and of pyometra, a serious uterine disease. Fixed females have zero chance of medical problems from pregnancy, since pregnancy becomes impossible after spaying.
Reduction in Accidents
Unaltered dogs, particularly males, are prone to roam when they reach sexual maturity, leading them away from the safety of the home and increasing the odds they will be injured by a human, a vehicle, wild animals or other dogs, not to mention increasing the chance of picking up a communicable disease or ingesting something toxic. In reducing the sex drive, neutering a male dog can help prolong his life simply by keeping him at home and out of harm’s way.
Reduction in Fights
Both male and female dogs can be injured during unsupervised mating, particularly if several male dogs are vying for one unaltered female in heat. Dogs can suffer injuries in fights, or develop infections from them, that have the potential to shorten their life. Additionally, dogs who are not fixed are more prone to behavioral and training problems, some severe enough that pet owners turn them over to shelters -- which can also impact a dog’s length and quality of life.
In addition to health benefits, a host of reasons exist to spay or neuter your dog. Fixed animals are less likely to mark their territories, are less aggressive and are easier to train. Spaying and neutering reduces the population of unwanted animals, many of which are euthanized when permanent homes for them cannot be found.
Video of the Day
- Ablestock.com/AbleStock.com/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:5bea0032-5529-4212-b53b-3d4d109e146c> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://dogcare.dailypuppy.com/fixed-dogs-live-longer-2651.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370510287.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20200403030659-20200403060659-00233.warc.gz | en | 0.962079 | 500 | 2.796875 | 3 | 2.351722 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Health |
This article appears in the 2007 edition of The Sun’s annual Student Guide.
When Ezra Cornell founded his University, he made a bold statement about education — the importance of combining the theoretical and the practical, the work of the mind and the work of the body.
But he could in no way have imagined the furor over the appropriate combination of academics and athletics that would ebb and flow far above Cayuga’s waters.
The argument began with the first pitch in the primitive baseball games that were played in the Cornell family cow pasture. Organized sports detracted from a serious education, some people maintained, while the opposite camp held that a strong mind could only exist within a strong body.
As college athletics flourished nationwide in the early 20th century, and the connection between teams’ performances and alumni contributions was cemented, real debate over the future of college athletics began.
The term Ivy League first appeared in 1937, as a New York Herald Tribune sportswriter’s designation for a group of eastern schools that traditionally met in football competitions each year.
The schools were also held in high academic regard — at least in part because they were among the oldest universities in the nation.
But the term Ivy League remained only a convenience, although some said it foreshadowed a real athletic alliance.
It was not a new idea to the athletic administrators at the Ivy schools, but it was an idea whose time had not yet come. The Ivy League survived as an occasional topic of conversation and as a de facto arrangement at the schools themselves.
The league did not become formal until November 1954, when the presidents of Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton and Yale affixed their signatures to the “Common Statement of Ivy Group Institutions.”
What had been an Ivy League for years now had an official seal.
The Ivy League distinguished itself from other schools with a few basic rules: no postseason competition, and no financial aid to players except for legitimate academic or need-based scholarships.
Academic authorities had control of sports programs, and players and coaches were to participate on a recreational level, not as professional performers. “Snap” courses were forbidden, as players were required to work toward genuine academic degrees.
There were, of course, arguments against each of these provisions. Outstanding players were denied recognition without postseason play, some said.
The 1955-56 school year saw the first formal Ivy League games in soccer, fencing, lacrosse, wrestling, squash and golf. Competition in football began the next year.
As Yale athletic director Delaney Kiputh explained to Newsweek, “We have organized because we’re tired of meeting unfair competition. We want to compete with schools with similar standards.”
Dr. Grayson Kirk, president of Columbia, agreed in an interview with U.S. News & World Report. “[We] do not have an athletic program merely for the purpose of providing weekend amusement enterprises at the expense of scholastic standards.”
The big switch to expressly favoring scholarship and amateurism over athletics and professionalism passed almost unnoticed on campus. The Sun had been calling competitions with traditional rivals Ivy League games for years, and the University always had rules governing recruiting and conduct resembling that set forth for the Ivy Group.
But it was big news to other media. Articles in various national publications worried about whether the new rules might lower the quality and appeal of games, thereby causing the league to collapse.
U.S. News & World Report assured the public that despite the new “purity” rules, gate receipts showed no signs of dropping and crowds were as large as ever.
The Ivy League shrine to scholarship and amateurism finally resolved a long and lingering debate over the place of athletics within academics, a debate which continues to rage on in other conferences throughout the country. | <urn:uuid:17ca3b68-9892-4adb-b515-3986d6754153> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://cornellsun.com/2007/07/16/the-beginning-of-the-ancient-eight/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949355.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20230330163823-20230330193823-00428.warc.gz | en | 0.976114 | 793 | 2.671875 | 3 | 3.029837 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Sports & Fitness |
If you’re in an environment of disrespect, it can make it really hard for you to function. This is really stressful. There are some thing you can do to make it easier. Here are some tips for handling invalidating comments.
Give responses that:
- reflect YOUR thoughts, feeling, and needs
- show respect – both self-respect and respect for all other parties
- acknowledge the feelings of others.
These things will help to keep the situation from escalating. They also model effective communication skills. It could be that the person that you are speaking to comes from an invalidating environment and hasn’t learned how to speak in other ways. Your example will give them other choices.
- ask for clarification if anything has the potential of being unclear
- if you jump to conclusions, err on the side of a positive assumption
- stay away from passive aggressive responses
- stay mindful
- lower your voice
- use “I” statements. This way you’re owning your thoughts.
- ask for what you want
- practice. Everything is easier with practice.
Here are some examples
Invalidating Event: A friend responds to your sadness by saying, “It’s been two months. You need to get over it.”
Ineffective Response: “Aw, you’re right. I know I should, but I just can’t stop thinking about it.”
Effective Response: “I realize it’s hard for you to see me like this. I need to grieve in my own way.”
Invalidating Event: A family member says, “There you go being crazy again.”
Ineffective Response: “You need to shut up. You’re always judging me. You are not the expert on me!”
Effective Response: “I am not sure what you meant by that, but I have a right to my thoughts and feelings.”
Invalidating Event: Mother says, “Should you really be eating that?”
Ineffective Response: You say nothing. You don’t eat it right then, but you eat that and more behind her back.
Effective Response: “I appreciate your concern. I can handle this.”
Invalidating Event: Co-worker says that you don’t have a chance of getting the supervisor position.
Ineffective Response: “You’re just a jealous bitch who has always hated me!”
Effective Response: “I have as good a chance as anyone else and can certainly apply if I want to.”
The first example is effective because you stand in your power and allow yourself to feel your feelings. Number two is effective because it doesn’t respond to the name calling. It doesn’t go on the attack. It gives the speaker a graceful out, yet allows you to be authentic. The third example is effective because it let’s your mom know that you’re in control and you’re not going to let her tell you what to do – especially not in that way. Finally, the last example is effective because the speaker seems intent on hurting you. This response lets her know that she didn’t. It’s no fun taunting someone who doesn’t react so this type of response will generally result in fewer nasty remarks over time.
If you don’t know what to say, but feel you have to say something, say thank you. This says, “I acknowledge you” and tends to shut down the conversation. We don’t usually snipe at people who are thanking us.
Invalidating comments are not just what is said. It’s also about how what is said is interpreted. If you stay nonjudgmental, the words can just be perceived as information. Information is neutral so you don’t have to respond to it, and have less chance of responding in ways that result in conflict. | <urn:uuid:92d3e0f1-0373-4026-a9fb-c479fd577a16> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | https://lauragiles.net/tips-handling-invalidating-environment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376823445.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20181210212544-20181210234044-00055.warc.gz | en | 0.960926 | 848 | 2.71875 | 3 | 2.24019 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Social Life |
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What is the main function of Regulatory T cells? INNATE IMMUNITY includes what?
- Physical Barriers
- Cellular Barriers
- Chemical Barriers
What are the Features of Innate Immunity?
- First Line of Defense
- Present on Birth
- Resistance not improved by repeated infections
- Physiological Barriers
- Phagocytosis, Inflammation, Fever
What are the characteristics of the Adaptive/Acquired Immunity?
- Resistance improves after repeated infections
- Cells involved include B lymphocytes, T lymphocytes and Macrophages
- Primary and secondary lymphoid organs are involved in the process
What is an IMMUNOGEN?
Any agent inducing an immune response
What are the characteristics of an immunogen?
- High Molecular Weight
- Chemical Complexity
What is an Antigen?
Any agent capable of binding specifically to components of immune response
What are the antigens composed of?
- Nucleic Acids
What are Antibodies?
Soluble globulin proteins
What are the characteristics of antibodies?
- Distinct biological activity
- Four chain structure: two identical light and two identical heavy chains
- Three fragments of equal sizes
- Fab fragment
- Fc fragment
What are the Functions of IgG?
- Agglutination , precipitation and opsonisation
- Conferral of immunity to fetus
- Activation of complement
- Neutralization of toxins and viruses
- Immobilization of bacteria
What are the Properties of IgM?
- Pentamer molecule
- Synthesized after immunization
- Elevated levels levels indicate recent infection
- Synthesized by placenta and elevated levels in fetus indicative of congenital infection
- Best agglutinating and complement-activating antibody
What are the properties/functions of IgA?
- Major immunoglobulin in secretions
- Monomeric as well as Diameric
- Role in Mucosal infections
- Bactericidal Activity
- Antiviral Activity
What are the properties/functions of IgD?
- Causes the differentiation of B cells to a more mature form
- Present on the surface of B lymphocytes
- Present in monomeric form
What are the properties/functions of IgE?
- Reaginic antibody
- Protects against parasites
- Important role in hypersensitivity
How do Primary and Secondary Antibody Responses differ?
- Time course; secondary response has a shorter lag phase and an extended plateau and decline
- Antibody titer: greater in secondary response
What are the LYMPHOID CELLS?
- T cells: develop in the thymus
- B cells: differentiate in fetal liver and adult bone marrow
- NK cells: does not possess T cell or B cell receptors
What are the characteristics of T Cells?
- The definitive T cell marker is the cell antigen receptor (TCR)
- TCR-1 (Composed of ϒ and Ϭ chains, 5%)
- TCR-2 (Composed of α and β chains, 95%)
- Both receptors are associated with a complex of polypeptides making up the CD3 complex.
The TCR-2 cells are divided into two major subsets, what are they?
- CD4+ (Helper T cells)
- CD8+ (Cytotoxic T cells)
CD4+ (Helper T cells) TCR-2 cells are divided into what subgroups?
- CDw29+ (positively influence the immune response of T cells and B cells-the helper function)
- CD45R+ (Induce cytotoxic function in CD8+ cells)
Their principal functions include a negative feedback after the generation of an immune response and to protect from autoimmunity.
CD4+ T cells mediate ________________independent of CD8+ T cells.
____________ maintain self tolerance and suppress responses to foreign antigens.
______________T cells are mature T cells with a distinct regulatory function.
What are the main Regulatory T cells?
- CD4+ CD25+ T cells,
- peripheral Treg cells,
- IL-10 secreting Tr1 cells
- TGFβ secreting TH3 cells,
- CD8+CD28- T cells, CD8+CD122+ T cells, Qa-1-restricted CD8+ T cells,
- γ/δ T cells
What are the features of Memory T cells?
- Memory T cells persist even after the invading pathogen has been eliminated.
- There are two types of memory T cells, central memory T cells and effector memory T cells.
- They are either CD4+ or CD8+ and respond quickly after they see the antigen at a second time.
What are the features of NKT cells?
- They perform cytotoxicity and mostly are not MHC-restricted.
- They recognize antigens which are glycolipids and require CD1d.
- They release cytokines including IL-4, IFN-γ, GM-CSF. and others.
What are the features of NKT cells?
- NKT cells bridge innate and acquired immune responses.
- Abnormal NKT cell function may be associated with cancer and autoimmune disease.
What are the features of B lymphocytes?
- These lymphocytes are unique due to their ability to secrete immunoglobulins (Defined by the presence of immunoglobulins)
- B cells are produced in the bone marrow.
- The development of B cells occur at various stages
- Express both IgM and IgD molecules
- Expression of IgG, IgA and IgE on the cell surface is not common in circulation
- Majority of B cells carry MHC class II antigens
What are the features of Natural Killer cells?
- NK cells are the third largest class of lymphocytes.
- They develop in bone marrow from common lymphoid progenitor.
- NK cells share effector function and the ability to produce cytokines with T cells. They do not express either T cell or B cell receptors.
- Large granular lymphocytes.
- NK cells participate in innate immunity and are the first responders against infection and possibly tumors.
- They carry CD56 antigen
- The killing ability of NK cells is associated with the expression of MHC Class I molecules.
What are the Antigen Presenting cells?
- B cells
- Dendritic cells
- Langerhan cells
- Interdigitating cells
What are the features of Macrophages?
- Macrophages participate in innate as well as acquired immune response.
- They are phagocytes which continuously remove self proteins which are degraded and presented to T cells
- The most important role of macrophages is antigen presentation.
- They also play a role in inflammatory responses, anti-tumor activity, microbicidal activity, lymphocyte activation and tissue reorganization.
- Most of their effects are mediated via cytokines.
- They release oxygen dependent free radicals, collagenases, and angiogenesis factors.
What are the features of Dendritic Cells?
- Dendritic cells are antigen presenting cells.
- They are distributed in small quantities in various tissues including skins, inner lining of the nose, lungs, stomach and intestine.
- The blood contains immature dendritic cells.
- After activation, dendritic cells migrate to the lymphoid tissue to initiate an acquired response after interacting with B and T cells.
- There are two most common types of dendritic cells, myeloid dendritic cells and lymphoid dendritic cells.
What are the features of Myeloid dendritic cells?
- Secrete IL-12 and are very similar to monocytes
- mDC can be divided into at least two subsets, mDC1 and mDC2.
- mDC1 stimulates T cells, whereas mDC2 may have a role in fighting wound infection.
What are the features of Lymphoid dendritic cells?
- Similar to plasma cells and produce high levels of interferon-ϒ.
- The dendritic cells are of hematopoietic origin.
- The myeloid dendritic cells are of myeloid origin and lymphoid dendritic cells are of lymphoid origin.
What are the features of Neutrophils/Polymorphonuclear leukocytes?
- They are produced in the bone marrow.
- Neutrophils are phagocytes.
- They utilize a number of bactericidal substances, lytic enzymes, and both oxygen-dependent and oxygen-independent pathways to kill microbes.
What are the features of Eosinophils/Polymorphonuclear leukocytes?
- Eosinophils develop in bone marrow, where they also mature.
- Eosinophils are also capable of phagocytosis.
- They are involved in combating parasitic infection and play a role in allergic disease.
What are the features of Basophils and Mast cells?
- Basophils are of bone marrow origin.
- They secrete a number of mediators including histamine, leukotrienes, and several cytokines.
- Mast cells are similar to basophils, but they have different precursor cells in the bone marrow. The precursor cells for both basophils and mast cells express CD34. | <urn:uuid:18d17b01-19c7-4c44-a1c4-1864e0c72e4c> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | https://www.freezingblue.com/flashcards/print_preview.cgi?cardsetID=284920 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501171775.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104611-00024-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905277 | 2,039 | 3.171875 | 3 | 1.757447 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Health |
Have you ever wondered how we arrived at our current dairy regulations? Well here’s part of the story. From Deborah Blum and Undark.org, here’s how an obscure Indiana public health official pioneered a campaign against tainted dairy products at the turn of the 20th century.
At the turn of the 20th century, Indiana was widely hailed as a national leader in public health issues. This was almost entirely due to the work of two unusually outspoken scientists.
One was Harvey Washington Wiley, a one-time chemistry professor at Purdue University who had become chief chemist at the federal Department of Agriculture and the country’s leading crusader for food safety. The other was John Newell Hurty, Indiana’s chief public health officer, a sharp-tongued, hygiene-focused — cleanliness “is godliness” — official who was relentlessly determined to reduce disease rates in his home state.
Hurty began his career as a pharmacist, and was hired in 1873 by Col. Eli Lilly as chief chemist for a new drug manufacturing company the colonel was establishing in Indianapolis. In 1884, he became a professor of pharmacy at Purdue, where he developed an interest in public health that led him, in 1896, to become Indiana’s chief health officer. He recognized that many of the plagues of the time — from typhoid to dysentery — were spread by lack of sanitation, and he made it a point to rail against “flies, filth, and dirty fingers.”
By the end of the 19th century, that trio of risks had led Hurty to make the household staple of milk one of his top targets. The notoriously careless habits of the American dairy industry had come to infuriate him, so much so that he’d taken to printing up posters for statewide distribution that featured the tombstones of children killed by “dirty milk.”
But although Hurty’s advocacy persuaded Indiana to pass a food safety law in 1899, years before the federal government took action, he and many of his colleagues found that milk — messily adulterated, either teeming with bacteria or preserved with toxic compounds — posed a particularly daunting challenge.
Hurty was far from the first to rant about the sorry quality of milk. In the 1850s, milk sold in New York City was so poor, and the contents of bottles so risky, that one local journalist demanded to know why the police weren’t called on dairymen. In the 1880s, an analysis of milk in New Jersey found the “liquifying colonies [of bacteria]” to be so numerous that the researchers simply abandoned the count.
But there were other factors besides risky strains of bacteria that made 19th century milk untrustworthy. The worst of these were the many tricks that dairymen used to increase their profits. Far too often, not only in Indiana but nationwide, dairy producers thinned milk with water (sometimes containing a little gelatin), and recolored the resulting bluish-gray liquid with dyes, chalk, or plaster dust.
They also faked the look of rich cream by using a yellowish layer of pureed calf brains. As a historian of the Indiana health department wrote: “People could not be induced to eat brain sandwiches in [a] sufficient amount to use all the brains, and so a new market was devised.
“Surprisingly enough,” he added, “it really did look like cream but it coagulated when poured into hot coffee.”
Finally, if the milk was threatening to sour, dairymen added formaldehyde, an embalming compound long used by funeral parlors, to stop the decomposition, also relying on its slightly sweet taste to improve the flavor. In the late 1890s, formaldehyde was so widely used by the dairy and meat-packing industries that outbreaks of illnesses related to the preservative were routinely described by newspapers as “embalmed meat” or “embalmed milk” scandals.
Indianapolis at the time offered a near-perfect case study in all the dangers of milk in America, one that was unfortunately linked to hundreds of deaths and highlighted not only Hurty’s point about sanitation but the often lethal risks of food and drink before federal safety regulations came into place in 1906.
In late 1900, Hurty’s health department published such a blistering analysis of locally produced milk that The Indianapolis News titled its resulting article “Worms and Moss in Milk.” The finding came from an analysis of a pint bottle handed over by a family alarmed by signs that their milk was “wriggling.” It turned out to be worms, which investigators found had been introduced when a local dairyman thinned the milk with ‘‘stagnant water.”
The health department’s official bulletin, published that same summer, also noted the discovery of sticks, hairs, insects, blood, and pus in milk; in addition, the department tracked such a steady diet of manure in dairy products that it estimated that the citizens of Indianapolis consumed more than 2,000 pounds of manure in a given year.
Hurty, who set the sharply pointed tone for his department’s publications, added that “many [child] deaths and sickness” of the time involving severe nausea and diarrhea — a condition sometimes known as “summer complaint” — might instead be traced to a steady supply of filthy milk. “People do not appreciate the danger lurking in milk that isn’t pure,” he wrote after one particularly severe spate of deaths.
The use of formaldehyde was the dairy industry’s solution to official concerns about pathogenic microorganisms in milk. In Hurty’s time, the most dangerous included those carrying bovine tuberculosis, undulant fever, scarlet fever, typhoid, and diphtheria. (Today, public health scientists worry more about pathogens such as E. coli, salmonella, and listeria in untreated or raw milk.)
The heating of a liquid to 120 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes to kill pathogenic bacteria was first reported by the French microbiologist Louis Pasteur in the 1850s. But although the process would later be named pasteurization in his honor, Pasteur’s focus was actually on wine. It was more than 20 years later that the German chemist Franz von Soxhlet would propose the same treatment for milk. In 1899, the Harvard microbiologist Theobald Smith — known for his discovery of Salmonella — also argued for this, after showing that pasteurization could kill some of the most stubborn pathogens in milk, such as the bovine tubercle bacillus.
But pasteurization would not become standard procedure in the United States until the 1930s, and even American doctors resisted the idea. The year before Smith announced his discovery, the American Pediatric Society erroneously warned that feeding babies heated milk could lead them to develop scurvy.
Such attitudes encouraged the dairy industry to deal with milk’s bacterial problems simply by dumping formaldehyde into the mix. And although Hurty would later become a passionate advocate of pasteurization, at first he endorsed the idea of chemical preservatives.
In 1896, desperately concerned about diseases linked to pathogens in milk, he even endorsed formaldehyde as a good preservative. The recommended dose of two drops of formalin (a mix of 40 percent formaldehyde and 60 percent water) could preserve a pint of milk for several days. It was a tiny amount, Hurty said, and he thought it might make the product safer.
But the amounts were often far from tiny. Thanks to Hurty, Indiana passed the Pure Food Law in 1899 but the state provided no money for enforcement or testing. So dairymen began increasing the dose of formaldehyde, seeking to keep their product “fresh” for as long as possible. Chemical companies came up with new formaldehyde mixtures with innocuous names such as Iceline or Preservaline. (The latter was said to keep a pint of milk fresh for up to 10 days.) And as the dairy industry increased the amount of preservatives, the milk became more and more toxic.
Hurty was alarmed enough that by 1899, he was urging that formaldehyde use be stopped, citing “increasing knowledge” that the compound could be dangerous even in small doses, especially to children. But the industry did not heed the warning.
In the summer of 1900, The Indianapolis News reported on the deaths of three infants in the city’s orphanage due to formaldehyde poisoning. A further investigation indicated that at least 30 children had died two years prior due to use of the preservative, and in 1901, Hurty himself referenced the deaths of more than 400 children due to a combination of formaldehyde, dirt, and bacteria in milk.
Following that outbreak, the state began prosecuting dairymen for using formaldehyde and, at least briefly, reduced the practice. But it wasn’t until Harvey Wiley and his allies helped secure the federal Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906 that the compound was at last banned from the food supply.
In the meantime, Hurty had become an enthusiastic supporter of pasteurization, which he recognized as both safer and cleaner. When a reporter asked him if he really thought formaldehyde had been all that bad for infants, he replied with his usual directness: “Well, it’s embalming fluid that you are adding to milk. I guess it’s all right if you want to embalm the baby.” | <urn:uuid:be868fe6-5994-4176-a477-78ad8ac0db26> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://onpasture.com/2018/11/12/battling-the-scourge-of-embalmed-milk-a-story-from-our-past/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662533972.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20220520160139-20220520190139-00300.warc.gz | en | 0.977393 | 1,991 | 3.140625 | 3 | 3.029461 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Health |
In raising children, The Flash coloring pages play an essential role in the development of children. These beautiful pictures are very popular with boys, helping them unleash their creativity and play freely. It’s not boring, but it also achieves high results in painting ability, color discrimination, and intellectual enhancement.
Printable Flash coloring sheets
The Flash coloring pages: It is the superhero in each of us
Flash is a fictional superhero from DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, Flash began appearing in flash Comics.
Nicknamed Scarlet Speedster and “Crimson Comet,” all Flash incarnations possess “super-speed,” which includes running and moving very quickly, using superhuman reflexes, and seemingly violating a certain rule number of laws of physics. Thus far, there have been four different versions – each of whom has somehow gained the power of “super-speed” – Currently assumed identities of Flash include: Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West, and Bart Allen.
The Flash is a forensic cop Barry Allen; he happens to have super speed after being hit by lightning once. And from there, he used his power to defeat bad guys who also had super powers like him, rescuing people in distress. He is lucky to have that power.
The Flash can only be Barry Allen, who always wants and is ready to help people. Even when he is sad and loses his strength, he is still unafraid, not hiding, firmly facing the bad guys, by all means, even sacrificing his own life, not letting the people he loves who hurt suffer.
See more: Superhero drawing
The Flash is the fastest man on the planet
DC’s two fastest superheroes, The Flash and Superman, have raced against each other many times in comic book history, and Flash has never had to admit defeat. Both Barry Allen and Wally West have won against the Man of Steel. There doesn’t seem to be a compelling answer to who is the fastest. Fans often compare Barry and Wally, but there’s never been an actual race between the two.
The speed of The Flash is unlimited. The Flash is famous as a superhero who always breaks barriers limiting himself. Since he was born, all the laws of physics and the human body’s limitations have become null and void.
Recent descriptions show that The Flash can exceed the speed of light. However, he rarely runs faster than 3000m/s because of the damage it will do to the surroundings.
The Flash can control the density and structure of molecules in the body, thereby passing through objects. In addition to his physical strength and resilience, he also has an impressive brain. The Flash once told Superman that he “can think at the speed of light” and “see actions that last less than an attosecond.”
In addition to the role of Flash, Barry Allen is also an excellent chemist and a brilliant investigator. Wally West is no less competitive when he is also considered a genius science prodigy.
There are valuable lessons from The Flash
The most memorable thing that viewers learn from Flash is that the value of a superhero lies in who they are, not their strength. Even without power, Flash has always been a superhero because his kind heart can touch so many people.
Caitlin or Cisco do not need force to defeat countless enemies because they never give up until they find a solution.
Harrison Wells once considered intelligence the only strength he had without knowing that he could also profoundly understand and empathize with people.
Joe or Iris is probably the bravest colleague and friend that the Flash team is lucky to have, always inspiring the whole team.
And Ralph, the guy who likes to play tricks, has the greatest strength not in elasticity but in the ability to deal with situations unexpectedly that makes the opponent unpredictable.
The power to perfect themselves enables them to do extraordinary things. But they will never become so remarkable if they do not know how to develop their inherent strengths and overcome the limitations that ordinary people still have.
It’s very emotional that, in the end, the bad guys were unable to escape from Flash’s hands because the team had the help of all the people in the city. Since the Flash team gives them hope and faith, they want to play a part. They also want to defeat the bad guys; they also want to protect the people they love, like every member of Team Flash.
We all have kindness, but we sometimes lose it for many reasons. Each of us has our own “powers”; it’s just that sometimes we don’t know how to use them. Never lose faith in yourself and hope in life, so that means you’ve lost your ability to be the superhero of your life.
There is no need to have any extraordinary skills, each of us is a superhero if we know how to spread our kindness and “strength” to everyone around us.
The Flash coloring pages are a special gift for boys
The Flash coloring pages are usually for active boys. Any boy would love to see superheroes and even meet these superheroes in his dreams. Coloring is a subject that every child will love, especially when they can color the superheroes they like. Therefore, we have brought parents The Flash coloring pages, including superheroes, for parents to refer to and download for their children to practice coloring!
Any boy has always been passionate about the superhero model, except for killing evil and protecting people such as Spider-Man, Pirate Superman, and Lightning. With superhero coloring pages, these beneficial Flash coloring pages will help children unleash their creativity, have fun without being boring, and get high results in terms of painting ability, how to distinguish colors, and improve intelligence.
Coloring pages Flash is something that every child loves, especially the little ones who are even happier when coloring those superheroes by themselves. The Flashcolor pages practice children’s meticulousness, perseverance, ingenuity, and creativity with colors.
They always want to color the superheroes they like. Children must have imagined that children are superheroes and maybe a superhero in their dreams. Exposing your children to pictures and colors will make learning easier.
The Flash color pages are probably the most valuable and meaningful gift for boys. Letting children practice coloring pictures is a fun activity to help children learn and be creative. Especially boys often have strong and dynamic personalities, so this is the best choice.
Coloring can be considered a simple and effective subject that benefits preschoolers. It helps children get used to recognizing colors when coloring and helps them practice patience, making their minds more flexible and creative.
Besides, coloring also allows children to be stronger and more skillful in using their hands. The Flash coloring pages are beautifully designed and redrawn for boys who love these characters. In this article, Parents can choose and print out suitable coloring pictures for their children.
For preschoolers, coloring can be considered one of the simple subjects in terms of aesthetics; coloring pictures bring many benefits to preschoolers with their abilities and thinking. Coloring promotes children’s creativity.
With the Flash coloring pages as the topic most interested to boys, these characters are the children’s favorite images in children’s programs. Parents can choose from many different coloring sheets suitable for children’s abilities and ages. We hope that coloring pages are always children’s favorite educational products. | <urn:uuid:0bce33cc-32f7-475b-88e8-cf8ba1081c8d> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://4howtodo.com/the-best-flash-coloring-pages-for-kids/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233506339.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20230922070214-20230922100214-00327.warc.gz | en | 0.963832 | 1,528 | 2.859375 | 3 | 2.361028 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Education & Jobs |
Seabirds are enticed into eating plastic debris because it smells like their food, according to scientists.
The study found that drifting plastic waste accumulates algae and gives off a smell very similar to the krill that many marine birds feed on. The findings could explain why certain birds - including albatrosses and shearwaters - which rely on their sense of smell for hunting, are particularly vulnerable to swallowing plastic.
Matthew Savoca, the study’s lead author at the University of California Davis, said: “Animals usually have a reason for the decisions they make. If we want to truly understand why animals are eating plastic in the ocean, we have to think about how animals find food.”
The rate of plastic pollution is steadily increasing worldwide, with one study last year estimating that about eight million metric tons of plastic - enough to cover every foot of coastline in the world - is enters the oceans annually.
It is known that birds and other marine creatures, including turtles and fish, ingest plastic. This can lead to damage to internal organs, gut blockages or build-ups of chemicals from the plastics in the animals’ tissues. Previous studies have shown that some birds feed their young bits of waste - presumably mistaking it for food.
To investigate what attracts birds to debris, the scientists put beads made from the three most common types of plastic - high-density polyethylene, low-density polyethylene, and polypropylene - into the ocean at Monterey Bay and Bodega Bay, off the California coast.
The beads were sewn into mesh bags and tied to buoys to avoid any of them being eaten by wildlife.
Three weeks later, the beads were collected and the smell they gave off was analysed at the UC Davis Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, where scientists normal focus on the chemistry behind the flavour and fragrance of wines.
The plastic was found to give off a sulfur compound, dimethyl sulfide (DMS), linked to the algae which coated the floating plastic. The same team had previously shown that DMS is the chemical cue that triggers certain seabirds to forage for krill - or as the scientists put it “the birds’ version of a dinner bell”. It is this cue that is being hijacked by the plastics.
In a second piece of analysis, using data from 55 studies and 13,315 birds, the scientists showed that seabirds that track the scent of DMS to find prey - a group known as tube-nosed seabirds and which includes albatrosses, petrels, and shearwaters - are nearly six times more likely to eat plastic than other birds.
Birds could be better protected in future, the scientists argue, by creating plastics that do not accumulate algae as readily in the sea.
Berry Mulligan, international marine programme officer at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: “While research such as this is raising the alarm about plastics in our oceans, it is hard to realistically estimate the magnitude of the problem for seabirds at a global level. Seabirds are one of most threatened groups of birds in the world, but untangling the effects of multiple threats to seabirds is a challenge, one which underlines the importance of ongoing research such as this which helps determine vulnerability of different species.”
The findings are published in the journal Science Advances. | <urn:uuid:73111472-b17c-440f-96e6-b59078efeab7> | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/09/seabirds-eat-floating-plastic-debris-because-it-smells-like-food-study-finds-algae-sulfur | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267161098.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20180925044032-20180925064432-00216.warc.gz | en | 0.961854 | 705 | 3.203125 | 3 | 3.062832 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
The Mint of Japan has unveiled the next-to-last issue in its successful series of silver and color “Prefecture” Proof coins, which plans to honor all 47 administrative districts in Japan by the time the final piece is issued later this year. The designs of these crown-sized coins highlight the landmarks, cultural objects, and natural beauty of each area, along with the personalities that have had a connection with the prefecture.
The 46th coin unveiled pays homage to the prefecture of Fukushima, which has been in the news internationally since March of 2011 after a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit the region. Featured on the coin is prominent Fukushima bacteriologist Hideyo Noguchi (1876 – 1928), who was engaged in bacteriological study at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research and is well-known for his work on yellow fever, syphilis, and other diseases. During his research on yellow fever in Accra, Ghana, he himself contracted the disease and died there at the age of 51.
The coin’s obverse includes a portrait of Noguchi positioned to the right half of the coin. Mt. Bandai, or Bandaisan, located in Inawashiro Town, is depicted in the background toward the left side, along with Lake Inawashiro, or Inawashiroko. Mt. Bandai has been named one of the hundred most-famous mountains in Japan. Often referred to as Aizu Fuji or Aizu Bandaisan, the mountain is a landmark of Fukushima.
Lake Inawashiro is the fourth largest lake in Japan. Lying nearly in the center of the prefecture, it is one of Fukushima’s most famous landmarks. It was recognized as the lake with the best quality of water in Japan from 2002 to 2005.
All 46 coins coins in the prefecture series share a common reverse that includes depictions of snow crystals, a moon, and cherry blossoms. Latent image technology is applied to the center of the largest snow crystal to show the numerals “47,” representing the number of prefectures in Japan, and “60,” which represents the 60th anniversary of enforcement of the Local Autonomy Law; the numerals appear alternately when viewed from different angles.
|1000 Yen||.999 silver||31.1 Grams||40 mm.||Proof & colour||10,000 pieces|
Dr. Noguchi’s portrait has also appeared on Japan’s 1000-yen banknote since 2004. The coin dedicated to Fukushima will be available in August; after that, the last coin in the series, featuring the prefecture of Tokyo, will be unveiled. The silver Proof coin is packaged in a CD-style case with a colorful outer sleeve and will be issued at the same time as a 500-yen bi-metallic circulation coin with the same design but no added color. For more information on this and other coins available from the Mint of Japan, please visit their Web site. | <urn:uuid:d72bef7d-99e4-4aa6-8204-f05cfdc06d10> | CC-MAIN-2019-30 | http://news.coinupdate.com/next-to-last-silver-coin-issued-in-japans-prefectures-series/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-30/segments/1563195526517.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20190720132039-20190720154039-00402.warc.gz | en | 0.95082 | 618 | 2.609375 | 3 | 1.962559 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Home & Hobbies |
Did you know that Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) can give you serious symptoms like blood in your urine and experiencing excruciating pain in your lower abdomen and around your pelvic area? These symptoms can leave you uncomfortable, and the only way out is to find a solution to free yourself from the infection. Most of these urinary tract infections occur in women, though it affects men as well. You will feel like you want to visit your doctor every millisecond until you heal completely because of the discomfort that comes with UTI. There are different ways to prevent and eliminate these infections. Although medication can help, it is prudent if you indulge in other home remedies to heal or prevent contracting these infections. While antibiotics are the most advanced method of treating UTIs, you can eliminate or prevent them in many other ways mentioned below.
What is UTI?
Urinary tract infection is infection of any part of urinary system which includes kidneys, bladder, ureters and urethra. It can be lower or upper urinary tract infection. Lower urinary tract infection is infection of urethra to bladder and causes symptoms like burning or painful micturition, blood in urine, urgency to urinate and foul smelling urine. Upper tract infection is infection of kidneys and renal pelvis and can be more severe with high fever, back pain and need urgent medical treatment.
Prevention and alleviation of UTI
Make it a habit of drinking plenty of water to enhance healthy living. While urination can be painful when you have a urinary tract infection, taking as many fluids as possible is good. Because when you drink more, you will urinate more and flush all the harmful bacteria around your urinary tract. Cranberry juice is thought to prevent recurrent UTI, but evidence is not strong enough yet.
Don’t hold on to urine.
You should pee from time to time and anytime you feel the urge. Holding urine in bladder causes stasis of urine and provides a nidus for infective organisms to grow. Passing urine helps to flush bacteria.
You should wipe yourself properly to avoid the multiplication of the infection to enhance good health. Wiping should be away from urinary tract, ie front to back. It is shown to reduce the urinary tract infection.
Taking probiotics will help enhance healthy digestion and immunity. Besides, they are effective when it comes to UTI prevention and treatment, especially whenever they are used together with antibiotic therapies. That way, you can be sure that you will build good bacteria around your urogenital system, reducing your reoccurring UTI.
Increase your vitamin C intake
Make sure to take vitamin C supplements or fruits rich in them. Increasing your vitamin C intake may help boost your immune system. This will help treat UTIs, as denoted by some researchers conducted on the same.
Voiding Urine after sex:
Voiding urine after sex can be very helpful prevention method for women with recurrent urinary tract infections. If you have problem with recurring UTI, this practice can be helpful in preventing it.
Switch birth control methods
Sometimes the contraceptives you take can lead to UTI problems for some ladies. Always talk with your doctor and get proper advice on the best method, depending on how your body responds to different methods. Spermicide and diaphragm can increase the risk of UTI.
Use a heating pad
Applying a heating pad around your lower abdomen is important as it helps relieve some discomfort brought forth by UTI. This will lower your frequency in the bathroom as it can lead to painful burns.
Avoid tight clothes
Wearing a cotton line yet losing clothes will save you because it lowers symptoms of existing UTI problems. This is unlike tight clothing from other fabrics that traps warmth and moisture, enabling bacteria to grow around your private parts. This will worsen the infection problem.
Although medication can help you sort out your urinary tract infection problems, focusing on the above practices will save you from the infection issues you are suffering from. If these home methods are not of help, then it is important to seek medical attention from your doctor. | <urn:uuid:3130836f-ef59-46af-827c-86f906fb9db5> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://medchrome.com/patient/ways-of-treating-urinary-tract-infections/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679516047.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20231211174901-20231211204901-00787.warc.gz | en | 0.933487 | 834 | 3.0625 | 3 | 1.566162 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Health |
Poetry Connects With Your Voice Because It Connects Your Head to Your Heart. This Is Key to Connecting With Your Audience
Poetry is a unique and dynamic way of getting back to the vocal pathway of instinctive expression through simple, practical actions that can empower you with the ability to communicate in a way that connects with your audience. Great communicators have always known the elemental role of communicating is connecting with their audience.
But are great communicators born with those inherent skills, or is it necessary to practice and develop techniques? The age-old nature versus nurture argument around trusting nature and acting by instinct as opposed to precision techniques and clear understanding to liberate hidden possibilities to learn the hard task of being true to the instinct of the moment.
The late Cicely Berry (renowned for her work as voice coach and director of the RSC) based her work on the conviction that while all is present in nature, our natural instincts have been crippled from birth by many external influences and society at large. She said: “That while there is no one right way to speak, there are a million wrong ways that constipate feeling, constrict activity, blunt expression, level out idiosyncrasy, generalise experience, and coarsen intimacy.”
So the work is about setting the voice free because life in the voice springs from emotion, and speaking is part of a whole: an expression of inner life and awakening deep experiences which are seldom evoked in everyday speech.
The voice is the means by which, in everyday life, you communicate, and through, of course, how you present yourself — while your posture, movement, dress and involuntary gesture — gives an impression of your personality, it is your voice, and the words you use that convey your precise thoughts and feelings.
Poetry in voice is an exciting way to explore moods in tone and voice to tell an emotional story and build confidence to speak in a way that connects more deeply with your audience. Poetry presents a wide range of learning opportunities to include:
Offering examples of mastery of language and stocking the mind with images and ideas expressed in unforgettable words and phrases;
Training and developing emotional intelligence;
Reminding us that language is holistic and that how something is said is part of what is being said: the literal meaning of words is only part of their whole meaning, which is also expressed through tone of voice, inflection, rhythm.
An Assignment To Help You Understand Poetry and the Poet:
1. Find passages in poems that you find striking or memorable;
2. Research when the poet wrote the poem and under what circumstances;
3. Read the poem over and over; this will help you to see more in the poem than you did at first reading;
4. Try to feel the emotions behind the poem: sad, happy, exciting, anxious etc. let it sink in your mind and your heart;
5. Try reading the poem from the poet’s eye and try to pick out key lines that express the poet’s message that they’re trying to get across and put yourself in their shoes.
A wonderful example is this short excerpt from The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde in which he poignantly contrasts the beauty and appreciation of everyday life and activities in the face of looming death:
“I never saw sad men who looked
With such a wistful eye
Upon that little tent of blue
We prisoners called the sky,
And at every careless cloud that passed
In happy freedom by.” The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde.
An Assignment To Help You Understand How You Can Use The Principles of Poetry in your Communication To Connect With Your Audience
1. Consider what mood is evoked in the poem that you find striking or memorable;
2. Consider how this is accomplished;
3. Consider the ways in which not only the meaning of words but also their sound and the poem’s rhythms help to create its mood:
4. Imagine situations in which those passages might be put to use, whether to console, encourage, taunt, flatter, or otherwise make an impact on the listener;
5. Write a short story, letter, or talk in which at least three passages can be quoted effectively to move another character or the listener/recipient;
6. Speak the words aloud, listen to the sound, like music, feel the rhythm and flow.
Remember, poetry is meant to talk about heart and feeling and uses language in an unusual way and may use unusual words. Savour this.
Poetry goes further than connecting with your voice because it connects your head to your heart. It’s a unique and dynamic way of getting back to the vocal pathway of instinctive expression through simple, practical actions that can empower you with the ability to communicate in a way that resonates with your audience.
Thoughts and lessons in this story have been adapted from and inspired by the work of Cecily Berry and Living Poetry /Poetry in Voice. | <urn:uuid:86010fd2-79ba-4038-9701-b84001f596f7> | CC-MAIN-2021-43 | https://schoolofworklife.com/2021/04/17/how-to-use-poetry-to-communicate-in-a-way-that-connects-with-your-audience/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585305.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20211020090145-20211020120145-00411.warc.gz | en | 0.95029 | 1,038 | 2.640625 | 3 | 2.690511 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Literature |
Are bad guys becoming extinct?
Are villains on the endangered species list?
Have writers forgotten the meaning of “antagonist?”
Why is it so difficult for neophyte writers these days to invent and design a story antagonist? If the hero is the driving force of the story, then the villain will make all the difference in whether the story is compelling or simply meh.
An antagonist is an opponent. A person or entity standing in determined opposition to whatever the protagonist is trying to accomplish.
It’s. That. Simple.
If a writer, on the other hand, doesn’t know what her protagonist wants, then she won’t get far.
Let’s consider a zombie premise:
Harriet Heroine discovers that her roommate Zoe has been infected and is now a zombie trying to eat her. The apartment–formerly a haven–is now a trap. Harriet has to get out of there–to save herself. Zoe wants to keep her there and eat her.
Two goals in direct opposition. The story will be focused, clear, and easy to follow.
Compare it with this version:
Harriet Heroine is afraid of the recent zombie outbreak near her apartment building. She barricades herself inside her home and stocks up on Twinkies, pretzels, and bottled water.
See the difference? Both versions have similar premises, but one is just a situation. The other has the foundation for a plot and can at least be a viable short story.
Here’s a fantasy premise:
Harvey Hero has inherited an old pendant made of Sacred Stone, the last piece of Sacred Stone known to exist in mortal hands. When his dying grandfather gave the pendant to Harvey, he whispered that Harvey must take the pendant back to the Island of Weir, where their family came from, and claim the treasure hidden there. Viktor Villain–aware that the pendant has the magical power to unlock the treasure chamber–pursues Harvey, intending to capture him, steal the pendant, and reach the treasure first.
But compare it with this:
Harvey Hero has inherited an old pendant made of Sacred Stone, the last piece known to exist in mortal hands. Ever since he started wearing the item, he’s been troubled by strange dreams and feels compelled to journey to the Island of Weir. Viktor Villain has taken possession of the island and has enslaved its inhabitants.
Which version has story potential? In the first version, two characters are vying for a fabulous hoard of treasure. In the second version, the protagonist is moving around without any clear purpose and the antagonist is not in direct opposition.
Another problem that often comes with the nebulous villain is when the antagonist isn’t in the same proximity as the protagonist. How can they be in conflict if they’re on opposite sides of the world?
They must intersect, frequently. They must oppose each other, directly. They must be in conflict, all the time.
Now, perhaps you’re thinking of the Harry Potter series, where Voldemort stays hidden for much of the time. Is Harry in conflict with him? Through Voldemort’s representative, yes.
Hidden villains send minions to do their dirty work of opposing the protagonist. That’s fine. It’s exciting, suspenseful, dangerous, and readable.
The problem falls when no rep shows up. Without conflict, the plot sags, stalls, and crumbles. | <urn:uuid:e4216091-54a0-414b-b7ab-88acf477060d> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | https://debchester.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/in-search-of-the-elusive-antagonist/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886104704.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20170818160227-20170818180227-00444.warc.gz | en | 0.945392 | 721 | 2.71875 | 3 | 2.833409 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Literature |
That is the 9th\10th post in my challenge for 30 days of blogging and this post have been delayed because i was insisting on writing it in Arabic and its a technical post trying to document a technical solution for Ajax requests that take long time, That problem when i started on the blog post in Arabic i found difficulty in describing it and the solution with the right words so here it is in English.
The article require understanding of PHP Sessions and Ajax i will incloud definitions of them to make it easy for the ones who starting in PHP.
What is PHP session ?
You get the point now Session is a way of storing users info and can recall it from any page, unlike Cookies Session stored on the server so user have no way of editing it.
By default session variables last until the user closes the browser or stay inactive for sometime defined in the server configurations, Whenever you want to recall or store user data in PHP page you must start the page with calling session_start() function so you know will have access on $_SESSION variable.
What is AJAX?
We use that method to send data and retrieve info from the server in faster way as we don’t want to receive the full page and render it in the browser as it will be much slower.
As result we can update part from the web page user on like what users see when they scroll down in facebook time line page as new content get added without refreshing the page.
We now -and it is not a new thing- develop applications depend on Ajax up to %100 But when a web page sends two or more Ajax requests you find them take mush time and maybe finish almost in the same time.
When you send an Ajax request to a server and your PHP script starts with
then that call and lock the PHP session file on the server and as you know PHP store sessions in files on server, so the same script can not edit the same session file on the server, and that is a classic lock file condition, so any other request will call PHP file that call session_start() will wait till the first request finish to start first in first out and now most if not all PHP frameworks use session_start() as first thing in the main file.
Using session_write_close() function to write and close the session file on the server will release the session file so another request can use it and this script will continue working normally but you should know that you are not allow to store any thing in the session after using session_write_close(); in the same script but from the other request it will be ok.
I have created a test code to see the problem ad uploaded it on GitHub you can find it here ” PHP session locking problem with Ajax” you will need to add it under your local host and open the console to see the requests and responses time.
As we see in the code in that file, for example if we made more than request the a page have that code
Each request will wait the previous one to finish which will take 5 sec, because the session file have not be released yet so the new connected will be blocked on the first like session_start() that will kill the idea if asynchronous requests (more than one request can be send and executed in the same time).
If we changed the code to be like in that file
session_start(); session_write_close(); sleep(5);
the second line in that code release the session file so the other requests now can start executing as they can call session_start() without any problems. | <urn:uuid:75634352-209d-4bbc-9c69-6dd23fbb9688> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | http://eslam.me/blog/tag/php/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250605075.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20200121192553-20200121221553-00087.warc.gz | en | 0.905277 | 732 | 2.53125 | 3 | 2.285186 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Software Dev. |
The Winter Hill trespass was organised when landowner Colonel Ainsworth of Smithills HallSmithills Hall in Bolton, Greater Manchester, is one of the oldest manor houses in the northwest of England, dating in parts from the 15th century. decided to close a track leading to Winter Hill in 1896. He was denying the right of access to the local population who had used the path for generations to walk in the fresh air and enjoy the countryside. Ainsworth was prepared to use force to keep walkers off his property. He built a gate to block the road and erected signs warning that he would prosecute trespassers. Two protests were organised and on the second, ten thousand people joined a procession to march over the track. The protests were in vain and access was denied in the courts.
When the small coal pits on Winter HillThe high point of Rivington Moor in the West Pennine Moors is 1,496 feet high and has been the site of mining, a mass trespass, aeroplane disasters and murder. became exhausted the moors took on a new role. Owners of extensive moorland estates saw potential for grouse shooting. The Ainsworths, who had bought Smithills Hall and its extensive landholding in the early 19th century, had exploited the coal, stone and water that was necessary for their bleachworks. Towards the end of the century the Ainsworths decided to close Smithills Moor to the public and turn it into a private grouse shoot.
Until then, Smithills Moor and Winter Hill had been informally accessed by workmen and locals who had used informal routes across the moor for generations. Coalpit Road was used by colliers who worked in the coal pits at the top of the moor but in 1896 Colonel Richard Ainsworth decided to block the road with a locked gate. He erected signs warning that trespassers would be prosecuted and hired men to forcibly keep walkers off his property.
Opposition was instant and the Bolton Branch of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) proposed a march to the moors to test the right of way on Sunday 6 September 1896. A large group assembled and the police were present in force. An inspector was struck, a sergeant struck by stone, the land agent’s son was kicked. Stiles were broken down by a small group of protestors.
The following Sunday an even larger protest took place in heavy rain. At least ten thousand people assembled on Halliwell Road to march over Coalpit Road in a procession that stretched for about two miles (3 km). It was led by members of the SDF, who had called for peace and order. About sixty police were in attendance but no violence was used and the demonstration continued up the road onto the moor. The leaders’ names were taken and Ainsworth announced he would fight the trespass in the High Court and the protesters started a defence fund.
Will yo’ come o’ Sunday morning for a walk o’er Winter Hill.
Ten thousand went last Sunday but there’s room for thousands still!
O the moors are rare and bonny and the heather’s sweet and fine,
And the road across this hill top is the public’s – Yours and mine!
— Allen Clarke
In the courts, the rights of ordinary people were set against the landowner. The protest’s leaders were defended by Richard Pankhurst, but Ainsworth prevailed and was awarded £600 in costs.
Another act of trespass for the freedom to roam the hills and moors took place on Kinder Scout in the Peak District of Derbyshire in April 1932. The Winter Hill trespass was mentioned in a parliamentary debate regarding “Right to Roam” legislation in 1999. The “Right to Roam” was enacted in 2000 in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, more than 100 years after the mass trespass.
About a thousand walkers recreated the march from Halliwell to Winter Hill to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the trespass on Sunday 5 September 2021. | <urn:uuid:d76d5126-f7db-4db8-bac1-902ba956a1ae> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://engole.info/winter-hill-trespass/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573029.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817153027-20220817183027-00577.warc.gz | en | 0.977724 | 865 | 3.4375 | 3 | 2.928356 | 3 | Strong reasoning | History |
Basal cell cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. Most skin cancers are basal cell cancer.
Other common types of skin cancer are:
Basal cell carcinoma; Rodent ulcer; Skin cancer - basal cell; Cancer - skin - basal cell; Nonmelanoma skin cancer; Basal cell NMSC; Basal cell epithelioma
The top layer of the skin is called the epidermis. The bottom layer of the epidermis is the basal cell layer. With basal cancer, cells in this layer are the ones that become cancerous. Most basal cell cancers occur on skin that is regularly exposed to sunlight or other ultraviolet radiation.
This type of skin cancer is most common in people over age 50. But it can also occur in younger people who have had extensive sun exposure. Basal cell cancer is almost always slow-growing. It rarely spreads to other parts of the body.
You are more likely to develop basal cell cancer if you have:
Other risk factors include:
Basal cell cancer usually grows slowly and is often painless. It may not look that different from your normal skin. You may have a skin bump or growth that is:
In some cases, the skin is just slightly raised, or even flat.
You may have:
Treatment depends on the size, depth, and location of the skin cancer and your overall health. Each treatment has its risks and benefits. You and your doctor can discuss the treatment that's right for you.
Treatment may involve any of the following:
Anne Chang is a Dermatologist in Palo Alto, California. Dr. Chang has been practicing medicine for over 23 years and is rated as an Elite doctor by MediFind in the treatment of Basal Cell Skin Cancer. She is also highly rated in 17 other conditions, according to our data. Her top areas of expertise are Basal Cell Skin Cancer, Muir-Torre Syndrome, Squamous Cell Skin Carcinoma, and Rhinophyma. She is licensed to treat patients in California. Dr. Chang is currently accepting new patients.
Karl Lewis is an Oncologist in Aurora, Colorado. Dr. Lewis has been practicing medicine for over 23 years and is rated as an Elite doctor by MediFind in the treatment of Basal Cell Skin Cancer. He is also highly rated in 9 other conditions, according to our data. His top areas of expertise are Melanoma, Basal Cell Skin Cancer, Merkel Cell Carcinoma, and Neuroendocrine Tumor. He is licensed to treat patients in Colorado. Dr. Lewis is currently accepting new patients.
Ketty Peris is in Rome, Italy. Peris is rated as an Elite expert by MediFind in the treatment of Basal Cell Skin Cancer. She is also highly rated in 23 other conditions, according to our data. Her top areas of expertise are Basal Cell Skin Cancer, Actinic Keratosis, Melanoma, and Psoriasis.
You can ease the stress of illness by joining a cancer support group. Sharing with others who have common experiences and problems can help you not feel alone.
Most of these cancers are cured when treated early. Some basal cell cancers return in the same location. Smaller ones are less likely to come back.
Basal cell skin cancer almost never spreads beyond the original location. Left untreated, however, it may spread into surrounding areas and nearby tissues and bone.
Call for an appointment with your health care provider if you have a sore or spot on your skin that changes in:
Also call your provider if a spot becomes painful or swollen, or if it starts to bleed or itch.
The American Cancer Society recommends that a provider examine your skin every year if you are older than 40 and every 3 years if you are 20 to 40 years old. You should also examine your own skin once a month. Use a hand mirror for hard-to-see places. Call your doctor if you notice anything unusual.
The best way to prevent skin cancer is to reduce your exposure to sunlight. Always use sunscreen:
Other measures to help you avoid too much sun exposure:
Published Date : July 12, 2019
Published By : Michael Lehrer, MD, Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Dermatology, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.
Habif TP. Premalignant and malignant nonmelanoma skin tumors. In: Habif TP, ed. Clinical Dermatology: A Color Guide to Diagnosis and Therapy. 6th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2016:chap 21.
National Cancer Institute website. Skin cancer treatment (PDQ®) - Health Professional Version. www.cancer.gov/types/skin/hp/skin-treatment-pdq#section/_222. Updated December 19, 2019. Accessed February 24, 2020.
National Comprehensive Cancer Network website. NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines): Basal cell skin cancer. Version 1.2020. www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/pdf/nmsc.pdf. Updated October 24, 2020. Accessed February 24, 2020.
US Preventive Services Task Force, Bibbins-Domingo K, Grossman DC, et al. Screening for skin cancer: US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. JAMA. 2016;316(4):429-435. PMID 27458948 www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27458948. | <urn:uuid:61b63f7f-09bc-48f3-8ee3-6c014be54770> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://www.medifind.com/conditions/basal-cell-skin-cancer/5657 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662606992.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20220526131456-20220526161456-00167.warc.gz | en | 0.923575 | 1,198 | 2.6875 | 3 | 1.275655 | 1 | Basic reasoning | Health |
By Kate Holton and Elizabeth Piper
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain would cut carbon emissions by 78 per cent by 2035 in what he hailed as the world’s most ambitious climate change target that would put the country on track to become a net zero producer.
The new timetable, nearly 15 years ahead of the previous target, will require a fundamental restructuring in the way Britain powers its homes, cars and factories, how it feeds its people and what it does to dispose of carbon dioxide.
It comes days after China and the United States agreed that stronger pledges were required to tackle climate change, and ahead of a US climate summit this week and the UN Climate Change Conference, known as COP26, in November in Britain.
“We want to continue to raise the bar on tackling climate change, and that’s why we’re setting the most ambitious target to cut emissions in the world,” Johnson said, adding that it would attract pioneering businesses and innovation to the UK.
Britain in 2019 set a greenhouse gas emission target of net zero by 2050, in line with the 2015 Paris climate agreement which called on countries to take steps to keep the global temperature rise as close to 1.5 degrees Celsius as possible.
The new target, which will require the United Kingdom to cut emissions by 78 per cent by 2035 compared with 1990 levels, will mean the UK is more than three-quarters of the way there, according to the government.
It was proposed by an advisory committee which said transport, heating and industry will need to move to renewable electricity or hydrogen instead of fossil fuels. Building insulation will need to improve, diets will need to change away from high-carbon meat, and more trees need to be planted.
Johnson has pitched the shift to a greener economy as part of Britain’s recovery from the pandemic and his spokesman said the government had a 10-point plan to reduce emissions, including helping polluting industries to decarbonise.
For the first time, the target will also include Britain’s share of international aviation and shipping emissions.
British opposition parties and environmental campaigners have welcomed the new target but said the move has so far been undermined by a lack of policies to deliver it, and warned the country was even struggling to meet its less ambitious targets.
Greenpeace said the building of new roads and runways would have to stop. “Targets are much easier to set than they are to meet, so the hard work begins now,” it said.
Tom Burke, a former government adviser, said Britain’s approach to cutting emissions had so far looked like a “Boris blunderbuss” with a huge range of marginal moves rather than a coordinated structural change.
Myles Allen, of the Climate Dynamics Group at the University of Oxford, said the focus needed to turn to carbon dioxide.
“Disposing of carbon dioxide safely by reinjecting it back under the North Sea always costs money because it is far, far cheaper to fly-tip it into the atmosphere,” he said. | <urn:uuid:c40eef1c-95c4-4127-a7e7-6c3d1cdec3ca> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://cyprus-mail.com/2021/04/20/johnson-commits-britain-to-78-emissions-cut-in-14-years/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446711221.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20221207221727-20221208011727-00548.warc.gz | en | 0.965054 | 631 | 2.765625 | 3 | 2.910206 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Politics |
The role of polices is very crucial for the success of any program. The policies are a guideline statement that helps organizations and business in achieving its objectives and goals. Business policy defines the scope that set the path of decision making. A business that lacks policy will surely come to an end sooner or later due to mismanagement and chaos.
“Business policies are guidelines-statements guide to plans & decision making to facilitate predetermined objective on the mode and manner in the structural & functional aspects to achieve the objective formulated as plans at all levels of management in the business organization.”
Business policies mainly consist of company’s rule, its process and relationship. One can call business policies as mission statements as well. It is business policy that defines strategic management and helps in improving performance.
Features of Business Policy
An effective business policy must have the following features-
- Specific- Set specific policies pertaining to organization’s goals and objectives. Implement these policies smartly and achieve the goal
- Clear- Policy must be unambiguous. It should avoid use of misleading phrases and connotations. There should be no misunderstandings in following the policy.
- Reliable/Uniform- Policy must be uniform enough so that it can be efficiently followed by the subordinates.
- Appropriate- Policy should meet the organization’s goal, in short it has to be appropriate.
- Simple- A policy should be simple and easily understood by all in the organization.
- Inclusive/Comprehensive- Plan comprehensive policy for the better and secure future of the organization.
- Flexible- Policy should be flexible in operation/application. There should always be a scope of alteration in time of emergency. Though over flexibility could harm the organization but little flexibility in policy is required for healthy growth.
- Stable- Policy should be stable else it will lead to indecisiveness and uncertainty in the minds of those who look into it for guidance.
To beat the increasing level of competition organizations are planning their policies following the concept of SWOT.
SWOT analysis (alternately SLOT analysis) is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses / Limitations, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture and identifying the internal and external factors that could cause hindrance in achieving business goals and marking the factor that could facilitate the growth of the business. The technique is designed to Albert Humphrey, who led a convention at Stanford University in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies.
A SWOT analysis starts with setting objective for the organization. A SWOT analysis is incorporated into the strategic planning model. For the proper management of any business it is essential to identify the SWOT and work according to it. Identification of SWOT is important from the planning purpose.
First, the policy makers have to decide whether the objective is achievable if the objective is tough or unachievable then new objective has to be considered. The SWOT analysis is often used in many business areas including academics to highlight and identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is particularly helpful in identifying areas for development.
Difference between Policy and Strategy
The term “policy” is totally different from strategy and two should not be used synonymously”. The difference between policy and strategy can be summarized as follows-
- Policy is a blueprint of the organizational activities. While strategy deals with strategic decisions.
- Policy is mostly formulated by the top level management whereas strategy is set by middle level management.
- Policy involves with routine/daily activities essential for running of an organization, policy is relate to both thought and action whereas strategy is mostly concerned with action alone.
There are various factors that affect business polices. The condition of market, global economic condition, competitors and most importantly customer’s area of interest plays crucial role in the business policies. To remain in the race and to be ahead businesses are spending time in reading current trend of market and buyers and introducing desired change in their business policy for the betterment. Follow the strategic planning and set realist business policies for further growth of the business. | <urn:uuid:d8d5eecc-5b7f-4534-a0a2-1ee8e19f11ce> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://www.citeman.com/18301-business-policies.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178389472.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20210309061538-20210309091538-00412.warc.gz | en | 0.944602 | 854 | 2.953125 | 3 | 2.372392 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Finance & Business |
The Importance of Grammar
Grammar is very important in IELTS. Your grammar determines 25% of your grade. Therefore, you must explain your meaning precisely and accurately.
Take a look at the following breakdown. On the left are IELTS bands, and on the right are remarks about grammar.
|7||Only 3 mistakes|
|6||Natural mix of sentence types|
No errors in simple sentences
Really basic correct punctuation
Simple structures usually correct
Mostly simple sentences
For a band 4 you can make lots of mistakes, but at band 7 you can only make 3 grammar errors. The higher your band, the more accurate your language should be.
So let’s review some very common grammar mistakes that IELTS students make all the time. If you can successfully avoid these errors, you’ll be on your way to a better IELTS band!
This is the most common grammar error IELTS students make. A sentence fragment cannot be a sentence by itself. It does not even have one independent clause.
Remember: a simple sentence is an independent clause, which requires 3 things:
- A subject
- A verb
- A complete thought
Sometimes it seems to be a sentence, but if we examine it closely it lacks the necessary parts and thus cannot stand alone.
- The doctor worked round the clock. Operating on the boy.
- As Vietnam has entered the WTO. The local entrepreneurs are faced with both challenges and opportunities.
How can we correct these sentences?
- The doctor worked around the clock, operating on the boy.
- As Vietnam has entered the WTO, the local entrepreneurs are faced with both challenges and opportunities.
Run-on Sentences and Comma Splices
A run-on sentence consists of two or more main clauses that are joined together without proper punctuation. We often speak in run-on sentences but our pauses indicate meaning; however, when we write we need to use punctuation to break up our sentences and impart proper meaning.
Comma splices occur when two independent clauses are joined by a comma. Remember: a comma is not strong enough to join these clauses itself! You need a conjunctive coordinator to complement it, or else use a semi-colon and a conjunctive adverb.
Most importantly, to do well in the IELTS writing you don’t need to be a punctuation expert. Just knowing commas and periods is usually sufficient for a good grade.
- Van Gogh is a world-famous artist his paintings can be found in many museums and art galleries.
- Allen Ginsberg is a renowned American poet, his most famous poem is Howl.
How can we fix these?
- Van Gogh is a world-famous artist whose paintings can be found in many museums and art galleries.
- Van Gogh is a world-famous artist. His paintings can be found in many museums and art galleries.
- Van Gogh is a world-famous artist; his paintings can be found in many museums and art galleries.
- Allen Ginsberg is a renowned American poet, whose most famous poem is Howl.
- Allen Ginsberg is a renowned American poet. His most famous poem is Howl.
- Allen Ginsberg is a renowned American poet; his most famous poem is Howl.
As you can see above, there is more than one way to fix these errors. Make sure, however, that you use the correct fix according to the sentence’s precise meaning.
A dangling participle occurs where a participle doesn’t quite match with the preceding clause. If you begin a sentence with, for example, a subordinate clause, then it doesn’t match with the independent clause that follows, you have a dangling participle. A common mistake is in introducing a person with a participle phrase, “Born in 1985…” and then tying this to, for example, the person’s work rather than the person. You might say, “Born in 1985, his most famous book was released in 2012.” What’s wrong with this? “Born in 1985…” should match with a person, yet here it is modifying a book.
- Driving along the road, the mountains appeared ahead.
- Wishing I could eat, the bread looked tantalizing.
How can these be fixed?
- Driving along the road, I saw the mountains appearing ahead of me.
- Wishing I could eat, I looked at the tantalizing bread.
You cannot put a verb in its plural form for a singular subject and vice versa. This is another very common error.
- The endless credits at the beginning and end of the film confuses the audience.
- The president, accompanied by his wife and children, are going on holiday.
- Salt is one of the traditional methods that is used to preserve meat.
How should we change these to make them correct?
- The endless credits at the beginning and end of the film confuse the audience.
- The president, accompanied by his wife and children, is going on holiday.
- Salt is one of the traditional methods that are used to preserve meat.
Make sure that you avoid faulty parallelism, be clear with your use of pronouns, and maintain unity and coherence throughout each sentence. | <urn:uuid:b44bf358-1d67-442c-8078-986dffc1f16a> | CC-MAIN-2019-26 | https://ted-ielts.com/improve-grammar-ielts/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560627998600.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20190618003227-20190618025227-00066.warc.gz | en | 0.949167 | 1,112 | 3.8125 | 4 | 1.547053 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Education & Jobs |
North Britain has a specific meaning within the context of Dark Age Britain and refers to the territory between the river Humber and the Antonine Wall.
The first incursions of the Anglo-Saxons in the Sub-Roman period appear to have been in those areas along the south and south-east coasts of the island of Britain whereas the traditional date for the foundation of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia is as late as 547 and that kingdom probably remained little more than a coastal foothold until the reign of Aethelfrith in 597. In short the native British held out longer in the north and North Britain therefore became host to a number of Brythonic kingdoms, known to their Welsh cousins as Gwyr y Gogledd or
the 'Men of the North'.
A Literary Curiousity
All the early Welsh poetry that has survived, such as the work of Taliesin and Aneirin, comes not from Wales, but from North Britain. Amongst the works atributed to Taliesin are works in praise of of the warrior prince Cunedda, Urien Rheged and his son Owain ab Urien prince of Rheged, northern figures all. From Aneirin comes the tale of Y Gododdin, of a doomed warband coming south from the kingdom of Gododdin to do battle with the Anglo-Saxons at Catraeth. Many of the Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain were to be found in the north and numerous Welsh Triads refer to the kings of the north such as Rhydderch Hael.
What this illustrates is that during the immediate post Roman period from the fifth to the mid seventh century, North Britain and Wales were simply one cultural continuum.
Old King Cole
The Welsh Genealogies record the descent of many of these kings of the north, most of whom would claim descent from the figure of Coel Hen, that is 'Coel the Old', Old King Cole himself. Tradition accords this figure of Coel an important role in the history of North Britain, who is usually placed sometime in the years 380 to 420. This marks the period at which the hold of the Roman Empire over Britain was weakening and when Roman governors of Britannia such as Magnus Maximus and Constantine III had aspirations that extended beyond the confines of the island. As they persued their imperial ambitions on the continent they may well have looked to local warlords and chieftains to maintain order within the province whilst they directed their attention elsewhere.
If the genealogies are to be believed then Coel Hen was 'king of the north' and a succession of minor kingdoms were established by his sons and grandsons. On his death North Britain was divided between his two sons; Gorbanian the younger, who founded the dynasty that ruled over the kingdom of Bryneich and Ceneu the elder who ruled the rest of the north from York. When Ceneu died his kingdom was divided between his two sons, Gwrgant and Mor; with Gwrgant taking Rheged and Mor the kingdoms of Caer Ebrauc and Caer Guendoleu.
The one North British kingdom that fails to boast any dynastic link with Coel Hen is that of Strathclyde where the genuine historic figure of Ceretic Guletic appears as a founder figure in the mid fifth century.
The kingdoms of North Britain
Most of which ended up as part of Northumbria by the end of the seventh century, but Strathclyde and Gododdin eventually ended up as southern Scotland.
Other possible kingdoms (for which there is little discernible evidence are Dunoting based around the area of Dent in Yorkshire and a possible Brythonic fore-runner of the later Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Pecset in northern Derbyshire. | <urn:uuid:0f4d4032-f98f-46ca-9493-6be43dccd62c> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://everything2.com/title/North+Britain | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501169776.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104609-00300-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970601 | 789 | 3.765625 | 4 | 2.968356 | 3 | Strong reasoning | History |
RADICULAR PAIN SYNDROME
The term “sciatica” is commonly used to describe pain traveling in the distribution of the sciatic nerve. Sciatica is a symptom caused by a disorder occurring in the lumbar spine. The sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in the human body, about the diameter of a finger. The sciatic nerve then runs vertically downward into the back of the thigh, behind the knee branching into the hamstring muscles (calf) and further downward to the foot.
Usually sciatica affects one side of the body. The pain may be dull, sharp, burning, or intermittent shocks of shooting pain beginning in the buttock traveling downward into the back or side of the thigh and/or leg. Sciatica then extends below the knee and may be felt in the feet. Sometimes symptoms include tingling and numbness. Sitting and trying to stand up may be painful and difficult. Coughing and sneezing may intensify the pain.
The Cause: Nerve Compression
The most common cause is a herniated disk in your back, although there are other causes as well. An MRI Scan of your lower back may help in making the diagnosis. Rarely is nerve damage permanent and paralysis is seldom a danger. Several different nerves can result in sciatica. A combination of a good assessment and studies
Q. What if I don't have a herniated disk?
A. There are other causes for pain radiating into the leg:
- Sacroiliitis or SI Joint Pain
- Lumbar Facet Joint Syndrome
- Piriformis Syndrome
- Iliolumbar Syndrome
- Lumbar Spinal Stenosis
Q. Wow! Can you explain what they mean!
- Sacroiliitis is an inflammation of your Sacroiliac joint. That’s the joint where your hip meets the spine. Inflammation caused by trauma or just plain arthritis can give you sciatica-like symptoms. Sometimes a cortisone injection and/or anti-inflammatory medication can help.
- Lumbar Facet Joint Syndrome is pain that comes from the joints of your back causing not only back discomfort, but also it can give you sciatica-like symptoms. The Facet joint is like any other joint of your body, like the knee or elbow that can get inflamed and cause pain.
- Piriformis Syndrome is simply pain caused by the Piriformis muscle that may be in spasm, inflamed, or irritated. This muscle is in your buttock and lies right on top of the sciatic nerve as it exits the spine and goes down your leg.
- Iliolumbar Syndrome is simply inflammation or a tear of the Iliolumbar ligament. This ligament extends from the spine to the iliac crest, which is the back of your pelvis.
- Spinal Stenosis which is narrowing of the spinal canal can cause sciatica-like symptoms. The narrowing can be caused by disk problems as well as arthritis of the spine.
13710 Olive Boulevard (Primary Office)
Chesterfield, MO 63017
Telephone: 314-469-PAIN (7246)
Exchange: 314-441-6965 (for after-hour Emergencies Only)
Monday thru Friday
8:30 AM – 4:30 PM | <urn:uuid:38537e29-6619-424e-9bf3-ba4bd14d0b26> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | http://www.painprevent.com/sciatica/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376827281.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20181216051636-20181216073636-00242.warc.gz | en | 0.888814 | 702 | 3.078125 | 3 | 0.966582 | 1 | Basic reasoning | Health |
WHEN, in 1910, like several of its sister republics, Mexico celebrated the centennial anniversary of its independence, the era of peace and progress inaugurated by Porfirio Diaz seemed likely to last indefinitely, for he was entering upon his eighth term as President. Brilliant as his career had been, however, and greatly as Mexico had prospered under his rigid rule, a sullen discontent had been brewing. The country that had had but one continuous President in twenty-six years was destined to have some fourteen chief magistrates in Iess than a quarter of that time, and to surpass all its previous records for rapidity in presidential succession, by having one executive who is said to have held office for precisely fifty-six minutes!
It has often been asserted that the reason for the downfall of Diaz and the lapse of Mexico into the unhappy conditions of a half century earlier was that he had grown too old to keep a firm grip on the situation. It has also been declared that his insistence upon reelection and upon the elevation of his own personal candidate to the vice presidency, as a successor in case of his retirement, occasioned his overthrow. The truth of the matter is that these circumstances were only incidental to his downfall; the real causes of revolution lay deep-rooted in the history of these twenty-six years. The most significant feature of the revolt was its civilian character. A widespread public opinion had been created; a national consciousness had been awakened which was intolerant of abuses and determined upon their removal at any cost; and this public opinion and national consciousness were products of general education, which had brought to the fore a number of intelligent men eager to participate in public affairs and yet barred out because of their unwillingness to support the existing régime.
Some one has remarked, and rightly, that Diaz in his zeal for the material advancement of Mexico, mistook the tangible wealth of the country for its welfare. Desirable and even necessary as that material progress was, it produced only a one-sided prosperity. Diaz was singularly deaf to the just complaints of the people of the laboring classes, who, as manufacturing and other industrial enter-prises developed, were resolved to better their conditions. In the country at large the discontent was still stronger. Throughout many of the rural districts general advancement had been retarded because of the holding of huge areas of fertile land by a comparatively few rich families, who did little to improve it and were content with small returns from the labor of throngs of unskilled native cultivators. Wretchedly paid and housed, and toiling long hours, the workers lived like the serfs of medieval days or as their own ancestors did in colonial times. Ignorant, poverty-stricken, liable at any moment to be dispossessed of the tiny patch of ground on which they raised a few hills of corn or beans, most of them were naturally a simple, peaceful folk who, in spite of their misfortunes, might have gone on indefinitely with their drudgery in a hopeless apathetic fashion, unless their latent savage instincts happened to be aroused by drink and the prospect of plunder. On the other hand, the intelligent among them, knowing that in some of the northern States of the republic wages were higher and treatment fairer, felt a sense of wrong which, like that of the laboring class in the towns, was all the more dangerous because it was not allowed to find expression.
Diaz thought that what Mexico required above everything else was the development of industrial efficiency and financial strength, assured by a maintenance of absolute order. Though disposed to do justice in individual cases, he would tolerate no class movements of any kind. Labor unions, strikes, and other efforts at lightening the burden of the workers he regarded as seditious and de-serving of severe punishment. In order to attract capital from abroad as the best means of exploiting the vast resources of the country, he was willing to go to any length, it would seem, in guaranteeing protection. Small wonder, therefore, that the people who shared in none of the immediate advantages from that source should have muttered that Mexico was the “mother of foreigners and the stepmother of Mexicans. ” And, since so much of the capital came from the United States, the antiforeign sentiment singled Americans out for its particular dislike.
If Diaz appeared unable to appreciate the significance of the educational and industrial awakening he was no less oblivious of the political outcome. He knew, of course, that the Mexican constitution made impossible demands upon the political capacity of the people. He was himself mainly of Indian blood and he believed that he understood the temperament and limitations of most Mexicans. Knowing how tenaciously they clung to political notions, he believed that it was safer and wiser to forego, at least for a time, real popular government and to concentrate power in the hands of a strong man who could maintain order.
Accordingly, backed by his political adherents, known as cientificos (doctrinaires), some of whom had acquired a sinister ascendancy over him, and also by the Church, the landed proprietors, and the foreign capitalists, Diaz centered the entire administration more and more in himself. Elections became mere farces. Not only the federal officials themselves but the state governors, the members of the state legislatures, and all others in authority during the later years of his rule owed their selection primarily to him and held their positions only if personally loyal to him. Confident of his support and certain that protests against misgovernment would be regarded by the President as seditious, many of them abused their power at will. Notable among them were the local officials, called jefes politicos, whose control of the police force enabled them to indulge in practices of intimidation and extortion which ultimately became unendurable.
Though symptoms of popular wrath against the Diaz régime, or diazpotism as the Mexicans termed it, were apparent as early as 1908, it was not until January, 1911, that the actual revolution came. It was headed by Francisco I. Madero, a member of a wealthy and distinguished family of landed proprietors in one of the northern States. What the revolutionists demanded in substance was the retirement of the President, Vice President, and Cabinet; a return to the principle of no re-election to the chief magistracy; a guarantee of fair elections at all times; the choice of capable, honest, and impartial judges, jefes politicos, and other officials; and, in particular, a series of agrarian and industrial reforms which would break up the great estates, create peasant proprietorships, and better the conditions of the working classes. Disposed at first to treat the insurrection lightly, Diaz soon found that he had underestimated its strength. Grants of some of the demands and promises of reform were met with a dogged insistence upon his own resignation. Then, as the rebellion spread to the southward, the masterful old man realized that his thirty-one years of rule were at an end. On the 25th of May, therefore, he gave up his power and sailed for Europe.
Madero was chosen President five months later, but the revolution soon passed beyond his control. He was a sincere idealist, if not something of a visionary, actuated by humane and kindly sentiments, but he lacked resoluteness and the art of managing men. He was too prolific, also, of promises which he must have known he could not keep. Yielding to family influence, he let his followers get out of hand. Ambitious chieftains and groups of Radicals blocked and thwarted him at every turn. When he could find no means of carrying out his program without wholesale confiscation and the disruption of business interests, he was accused of abandoning his duty. One officer after another deserted him and turned rebel. Brigandage and insurrection swept over the country and threatened to involve it in ugly complications with the United States and European powers. At length, in February, 1913, came the blow that put an end to all of Madero’s efforts and aspirations. A military uprising in the city of Mexico made him prisoner, forced him to resign, and set up a provisional government under the dictatorship of Victoriano Huerta, one of his chief lieutenants. Two weeks later both Madero and the Vice President were assassinated while on their way supposedly to a place of safety.
Huerta was a rough soldier of Indian origin, possessed of unusual force of character and strength of will, ruthless, cunning, and in bearing alternately dignified and vulgar. A cientifico in political faith, he was disposed to restore the Diaz régime, so far as an application of shrewdness and force could make it possible. But from the outset he found an obstacle confronting him that he could not surmount. Though acknowledged by European countries and by many of the Hispanic republics, he could not win recognition from the United States, either as provisional President or as a candidate for regular election to the office. Whether personally responsible for the murder of Madero or not, he was not regarded by the American Government as entitled to recognition, on the ground that he was not the choice of the Mexican people. In its refusal to recognize an administration set up merely by brute force, the United States was upheld by Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Cuba. The elimination of Huerta became the chief feature for a while of its Mexican policy.
Meanwhile the followers of Madero and the pronounced Radicals had found a new northern leader in the person of Venustiano Carranza. They called themselves Constitutionalists, as indicative of their purpose to reestablish the constitution and to choose a successor to Madero in a constitutional manner. What they really desired was those radical changes along social, industrial, and political lines, which Madero had championed in theory. They sought to introduce a species of socialistic régime that would provide the Mexicans with an opportunity for self-regeneration. While Diaz had believed in economic progress supported by the great landed proprietors, the moral influence of the Church, and the application of foreign capital, the Constitutionalists, personified in Carranza, were convinced that these agencies, if left free and undisturbed to work their will, would ruin Mexico. Though not exactly antiforeign in their attitude, they wished to curb the power of the foreigner; they would accept his aid whenever desirable for the economic development of the country, but they . would not submit to his virtual control of public affairs. In any case they would tolerate no interference by the United States. Compromise with the Huerta régime, therefore, was impossible. Huerta, the “strong man” of the Diaz type, must go. On this point, at least, the Constitutionalists were in thorough agreement with the United States.
A variety of international complications ensued. Both Huertistas and Carranzistas perpetrated outrages, on foreigners, which evoked sharp protests and threats from the United States and European powers. While careful not to recognize his opponents officially, the American Government resorted to all kinds of means to oust the dictator. An embargo was laid on the export of arms and munitions; all efforts to procure financial help from abroad were balked. The power of Huerta was waning perceptibly and that of the Constitutionalists was increasing when an incident that occurred in April, 1914, at Tampico brought matters to a climax. A number of American sailors who had gone ashore to obtain supplies were arrested and temporarily detained. The United States demanded that the American flag be saluted as reparation for the insult. Upon the refusal of Huerta to comply, the United States sent a naval expedition to occupy Vera Cruz.
Both Carranza and Huerta regarded this move as equivalent to an act of war. Argentina, Brazil, and Chile then offered their mediation. But the conference arranged for this purpose at Niagara Falls, Canada, had before it a task altogether impossible of accomplishment. Though Carranza was willing to have the Constitutionalists represented, if the discussion related solely to the immediate issue between the United States and Huerta, he declined to extend the scope of the conference so as to admit the right of the United States to interfere in the internal affairs of Mexico. The conference accomplished nothing so far as the immediate issue was concerned. The dictator did not make reparation for the “affronts and indignities ” he had committed; but his day was over. The advance of the Constitutionalists southward compelled him in July to abandon the capital and leave the country. Four months later the American forces were withdrawn from Vera Cruz. The “A B C” Conference, however barren it was of direct results, helped to allay suspicions of the United States in Hispanic America and brought appreciably nearer a “concert of the western world.”
While far from exercising full control throughout Mexico, the “first chief ” of the Constitutionalists was easily the dominant figure in the situation. At home a ranchman, in public affairs a statesman of considerable ability, knowing how to insist and yet how to temporize, Carranza carried on a struggle, both in arms and in diplomacy, which singled him out as a remarkable character. Shrewdly aware of the advantageous circumstances afforded him by the war in Europe, he turned them to account with a degree of skill that blocked every attempt at defeat or compromise. No matter how serious the opposition to him in Mexico itself, how menacing the attitude of the United States, or how persuasive the conciliatory disposition of Hispanic American nations, he clung stubbornly and tenaciously to his program.
Even after Huerta had been eliminated, Carranza’s position was not assured, for Francisco, or “Pancho, ” Villa, a chieftain whose personal qualities resembled those of the fallen dictator, was equally determined to eliminate him. For a brief moment, indeed, peace reigned. Under an alleged agreement between them, a convention of Constitutionalist officers was to choose a pro-visional President, who should be ineligible as a candidate for the permanent presidency at the regular elections. When Carranza assumed both of these positions, Villa declared his act a violation of their understanding and insisted upon his retirement. Inasmuch as the convention was dominated by Villa, the “first chief ” decided to ignore its election of a provisional President.
The struggle between the Conventionalists headed by Villa and the Constitutionalists under Carranza plunged Mexico into worse discord and misery than ever. Indeed it became a sort of three-cornered contest. The third party was Emiliano Zapata, an Indian bandit, nominally a supporter of Villa but actually favorable to neither of the rivals. Operating near the capital, he plundered Conventionalists and Constitutionalists with equal impartiality, and as a diversion occasionally occupied the city itself. These circumstances gave force to the saying that Mexico was a “land where peace breaks out once in a while!”
Early in 1915 Carranza proceeded to issue a number of radical decrees that exasperated foreigners almost beyond endurance. Rather than resort to extreme measures again, however, the United States invoked the cooperation of the Hispanic republics and proposed a conference to devise some solution of the Mexican problem. To give the proposed conference a wider representation, it invited not only the “A B C” powers, but Bolivia, Uruguay, and Guatemala to participate. Meeting at Washington in August, the mediators encountered the same difficulty which had confronted their predecessors at Niagara Falls. Though the other chieftains assented, Carranza, now certain of success, declined to heed any proposal of conciliation. Characterizing efforts of the kind as an unwarranted interference in the internal affairs of a sister nation, he warned the Hispanic republics against setting up so dangerous a precedent. In reply Argentina stated that the conference obeyed a “lofty inspiration of Pan-American solidarity, and, instead of finding any cause for alarm, the Mexican people should see in it a proof of their friendly consideration that her fate evokes in us, and calls forth our good wishes for her pacification and development. ” However, as the only apparent escape from more watchful waiting or from armed intervention on the part of the United States, in October the seven Governments decided to accept the facts as they stood, and accordingly recognized Carranza as the de facto ruler of Mexico.
Enraged at this favor shown to his rival, Villa determined deliberately to provoke American intervention by a murderous raid on a town in New Mexico in March, 1916. When the United States dispatched an expedition to avenge the outrage, Carranza protested energetically against its violation of Mexican territory and demanded its withdrawal. Several clashes, in fact, occurred between American soldiers and Carranzistas. Neither the expedition itself, however, nor diplomatic efforts to find some method of cooperation which would prevent constant trouble along the frontier served any useful purpose, since Villa apparently could not be captured and Carranza refused to yield to diplomatic persuasion. Carranza then proposed that a joint commission be appointed to settle these vexed questions. Even this device proved wholly unsatisfactory. The Mexicans would not concede the right of the United States to send an armed expedition into their country at any time, and the Americans refused to accept limitations on the kind of troops that they might employ or on the zone of their operations. In January, 1917, the joint commission was dissolved and the American soldiers were withdrawn. Again the “first chief ” had won!
On the 5th of February a convention assembled at Querétaro promulgated a constitution embodying substantially all of the radical program that Carranza had anticipated in his decrees. Besides providing for an elaborate improvement in the condition of the laboring classes and for such a division of great estates as might satisfy their particular needs, the new constitution imposed drastic restrictions upon foreigners and religious bodies. Under its terms, foreigners could not acquire in industrial concessions unless they waived their treaty rights and consented to regard themselves for the purpose as Mexican citizens. In all such cases preference was to be shown Mexicans over foreigners. Ecclesiastical corporations were forbidden to own real property. No primary school and no charitable institution could be conducted by any religious mission or denomination, and religious publications must refrain from commenting on public affairs. The presidential term was reduced from six years to four; reelection was prohibited; and the office of Vice President was abolished.
When, on the 1st of May, Venustiano Carranza was chosen President, Mexico had its first constitutional executive in four years. After a cruel and obstinately intolerant struggle that had occasioned indescribable suffering from disease and starvation, as well as the usual slaughter and destruction incident to war, the country began to enjoy once more a measure of peace. Financial exhaustion, however, had to be overcome before recuperation was possible. Industrial progress had become almost paralyzed; vast quantities of depreciated paper money had to be withdrawn from circulation; and an enormous array of claims for the loss of foreign life and property had rolled up. | <urn:uuid:d44a1748-cff5-408d-801f-0acb71e44121> | CC-MAIN-2014-41 | http://travel.yodelout.com/hispanic-nations-mexico-in-revolution/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-41/segments/1410657124771.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20140914011204-00103-ip-10-196-40-205.us-west-1.compute.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981683 | 3,916 | 3.109375 | 3 | 3.018668 | 3 | Strong reasoning | History |
Recycling sewage to drinking water could save city of San Diego money: Study
The city of San Diego could save hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrade and expansion costs for its Point Loma sewage treatment plant , and get more drinking water in the bargain, according to a final draft study given to the city in late May.
With the savings, recycling sewage to drinking water standards costs roughly the same as importing more water, according to the final draft of the San Diego Recycled Water Study. The precise numbers depend on what assumptions are made about which costs can be avoided.
If the study's recommendations are followed, new sewage treatment plants would be built in Point Loma, University City and the South Bay. The cost of upgrading the existing Point Loma sewage plant would drop from an estimated $1.2 billion to $710 million.
Release of the final draft study comes as the county's main water supplier is in the late stages of negotiating for another new water supply, desalinated sea water from a plant to be built off the coast of Carlsbad.
Poseidon Resources Corp. is negotiating a water purchase agreement with the San Diego County Water Authority, which supplies most of the water used in the county. The authority says it expects to get a completed contract ready this summer for a 60-day public review before a final vote is held.
Under the draft study, sewage treated to drinking water standards would yield 100 million gallons a day, about 20 percent of the region's water use. Assuming the study's numbers are accurate, the net cost to the city per unit of water amounts to about half that estimated for water from the proposed desalination plant.
The study presented three scenarios for the cost of repurified sewage in dollars per acre foot. One acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons:
- $1,200, counting avoided costs from reduced usage of the Point Loma sewage treatment plant,
- $1,100, including a "salt credit" for removing salt from the treated sewage
- $700, including those savings along with avoided costs of upgrading of the Point Loma plant, which discharges treated sewage into the ocean.
"These costs compare well to the existing untreated water cost of $904 per acre foot, and are more economical than most other new water supply concepts being proposed," the report stated.
Peace with local environmentalists would be another potential benefit. Environmentalists have long complained that the treated sewage, expelled into the ocean 4.4 miles off the coast at a depth of 320 feet, harms marine life. The city disputes the claim.
Livia Borak , an attorney from Coast Law Group, urged the city to forgo the Poseidon desalination proposal and choose sewage recycling instead. Borak spoke at a May meeting of the Water Authority, She pointed out that the city has great leverage with the agency because of its weighted vote.
The city of San Diego contains a little more than half the 3.1 million population of San Diego County, with proportionate clout on regional agencies such as the Water Authority. So what San Diego decides to do will greatly influence the water supply picture for the whole region.
Moreover, the city faces water- and sewage-related financial considerations that don't apply to North County.
San Diego's potential costs for upgrading the Point Loma plant exceed $1 billion . So far, the city has obtained waivers, the latest of which expires in 2015. There is no guarantee the city, already reeling from high water bills, will receive another waiver.
Counting those avoided costs, the net cost to the city of San Diego for recycled sewage amounts to about half that of buying water from the proposed desalination plant.
In water industry jargon, recycling sewage to drinking water standards is called indirect potable reuse , or IPR. The purified sewage is sent to reservoirs or underground storage, then drawn off with new supplies for treatment and distribution. This contrasts with direct potable reuse, in which reclaimed water is directly put back into treated drinking water pipelines.
The study's numbers for IPR seem reasonable, said water policy expert David Zetland , who has long researched Southern California's water infrastructure. Zetland said he did not review the study, but was making a general observation about the cost of indirect potable reuse compared to seawater desalination.
"IPR can easily be cheaper than desalination, as it takes partially-treated wastewater and further cleans it for consumption," said Zetland, a senior water economist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. "That's why the "marginal" cost will be quite low. A new IPR plant can also be cheaper than desal, since there are fewer salts to remove."
The desalinated ocean water from the Carlsbad plant would cost about $1,865 per acre-foot , according to an estimate made last year by Poseidon Resources, based in Stamford, Conn.
While the city of San Diego would not directly buy the desalinated water, the plant's 50 million gallons a day capacity would increase the region's total supply by about 10 percent. Desalinated water from Carlsbad would also bring a new source of local water to the arid county, which has seen its traditional sources of imported water threatened by drought, environmental restrictions, over-optimistic assumptions, and legal challenges.
Recycling sewage to drinking water would also provide a reliable local supply to the county. But the city's leaders and the San Diego Union-Tribune, now U-T San Diego , have rejected it because of discomfort of what's been dubbed "toilet to tap."
Regardless, the approach is being used in Orange County, and scientists have said evidence indicates indirect potable reuse can provide water as safe as that from untreated imported water. A new report from the respected National Research Council encouraged exploration of its use.
"The report presents a brief summary of the nation’s recent history in water use and shows that, although reuse is not a panacea, the amount of wastewater discharged to the environment is of such quantity that it could play a significant role in the overall water resource picture and complement other strategies, such as water conservation," the NRC study stated.
With water costs skyrocketing and imported supplies increasingly more difficult to come by, the city of San Diego commissioned the study to get a fresh look at the pros and cons of repurified sewage. | <urn:uuid:40a10711-c0c7-4738-8889-c80286c61c01> | CC-MAIN-2016-07 | http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2012/jun/02/recycling-sewage-to-drinking-water-could-save/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701163512.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193923-00045-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953033 | 1,321 | 2.625 | 3 | 3.052496 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
An organism may be placed into one of the three major nutritional groups according to their carbon, energy, and electron sources.
The basis for energy metabolism of most chemotrophic organisms are oxidation-reduction reactions in which electrons move from an electron donor to an electron acceptor. Energy is released during the reaction. Therefore, compounds used as electron donors by chemotrophs must be diverted into both energy-yielding oxidative pathways and biosynthetic reductive pathways. The range of possible pairs of electron donors and acceptors for chemotrophs is limited to those whose reaction is exergonic enough to conserve enough energy for the transition of at least one proton over a membrane (equals to -15 to -20 kJ/mol). In contrast, phototrophs may use any electron donor and can even catalyse highly endergonic reactions (e. g. the photosynthetic production of starch from water and CO2).
It should be noted that the terms aerobic respiration, anaerobic respiration and fermentation are not referring to primary nutritional groups, but simply reflect the different use of possible electron acceptors in the energy metabolism of chemotrophic organisms, such as O2 (aerobic respiration), NO3-, SO42- (), or fumarate(anaerobic respiration), or intrinsic metabolic intermediates (fermentation).
All sort of combinations may exist in nature. For example a cyanobacteria is photolithotrophic, and fungi are chemo-organo-heterotrophic. Eucaryotes are generally easy to categorise. All animals are heterotrophic, as are fungi. Plants are photoautotrophic. However, some eucaryotic microorganisms are not limited to just one nutritional mode. For example, there are some algae that live photolithoautotrophically in the light, but shift to chemoorganoheterotophic life in the dark, and even higher plants retained their ability to respire heterotrophically on the starch at night, which has been synthesised phototrophically during the day.
On the contrary, procaryotes show a great diversity of nutritional categories. For example, purple S bacteria, or cyanobacteria are photolithoautotrophic, purple non-sulfur bacteria are photoorganoheterotrophic. Some bacteria are limited to only one nutritional group, whereas others are facultative and switch from one mode to the other, depending on the nutrient sources available. For example, archeobacteria are chemo-organo and/or chemo-litho autotrophic. | <urn:uuid:840e0109-8bde-47a4-9494-5a43372508b9> | CC-MAIN-2014-15 | http://www.bio-medicine.org/biology-definition/Primary_nutritional_groups/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1397609539447.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20140416005219-00288-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.89601 | 533 | 3.3125 | 3 | 2.708905 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
Elevations RTC has always strived to help teens with their mental health. They have different types of therapy used on campus to help in various ways.
As listed on their website, they use four specific techniques in most cases to see successful changes in how students act. Thanks to a dedicated staff of trained and certified therapists working with students, finding the correct type of therapy has become more manageable.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
Known as DBT, for short, this type of therapy can help teenagers find a specific language that they can use to get rid of internal conflict. In turn, it helps develop skills they can use to experience feelings.
If a student deals with a personality disorder, DBT proves most effective. It’s a way to get a valuable group and individual therapy for a set amount of time to have long-lasting results.
The 12-Step Model
Teenagers have the chance to internalize values and better understand how their actions affect more than just the present. Being able to see themselves during that moment also helps.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Getting rid of negative beliefs comes down to challenging them. Having the opportunity to challenge negative beliefs and other feelings is a crucial part of CBT. Students can connect these beliefs and feelings to themselves or anyone.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
Going through trauma as a young child can be devastating. EMDR focuses on processing trauma and looking for ways to resolve lingering issues. Creating stronger, positive associations also helps.
Additional Therapeutic Care
The standard types of therapy are covered, but that’s not all Elevations RTC provides. Psychiatric and medical care handle teens dealing with complex issues. Around-the-clock coverage ensures that there is still a way to receive quality care if a breakdown occurs.
In addition, there is vital clinical care for complex situations. The goal is always to create better relationships with students to get the care and help they need.
Interacting With Peers
Many teenagers might not realize until they arrive on the campus at Elevations RTC that therapy doesn’t just stop when working with trained therapists. In a way, all students are helping each other and providing therapy through their daily interactions.
There are many cases of people opening up and talking about what they are facing with one another. Living on campus allows for this type of interaction with peers.
Benefitting From a Gender-Inclusive Campus
Residential treatment centers mostly stay with a format of all-male or all-female. Elevations RTC hasn’t gone in that direction, opting for an all-affirming, gender-inclusive campus. The reasoning is relatively simple, as it creates a safe space for each student to be themselves and helps the campus better resemble real life.
Exploration Through Extracurriculars
What’s available at Elevations RTC? One of the best ways for teenagers to improve their mental health is to have some sort of distraction away from the daily grind. Teenagers are tackling schoolwork, therapy, and more each day, and finding something to do as an extracurricular improves mental health instantly.
Elevations RTC has a dedicated team ready to offer extracurricular options, such as an extensive recreational programming. It allows a student to pour their efforts into their passion in life. Some graduates of the program even turn their extracurricular passion into a career.
The campus is filled with opportunities for extracurricular activities. There’s space to spread out and enjoy, whether it’s the arts, sports, gardening or other passion projects.
Additionally, there are experiential learning opportunities off-campus. Hidden in many of these activities is a focus on teamwork and communication with peers.
Is Elevations RTC The Right Place For Teenagers Dealing With Mental Health Issues?
Some teenagers can deal with mental health issues through standard therapy without ever having to leave home. For those who don’t respond to that type of therapy, Elevations RTC is a great solution.
They offer an opportunity to focus on making improvements while on campus. The first few days may involve some adjustment, but after that, most settle in and see positive changes.
To learn more about Elevations RTC and the program, visit their website at elevationsrtc.com or contact their admissions team for more information and to set up a tour of the program. | <urn:uuid:991c53fe-9f5d-4991-97a1-fc9510358389> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://thdailymagazine.com/elevations-rtc-helping-teens-with-their-mental-health/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100304.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20231201183432-20231201213432-00837.warc.gz | en | 0.945474 | 913 | 2.78125 | 3 | 2.171145 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Health |
Vincent Van Gogh painted his most turbulent images when insane. The Labrador Current resembles Van Gogh’s paintings when it becomes unstable. There is no reason that mental and geophysical instability relate to each other. And yet they do. Russian physicist Andrey Kolmogorov developed theories of turbulence 70 years ago that Mexican physicist applied to some of Van Gogh’s paintings such as “Starry Sky:”
The whirls and curls evoke motion. The colors vibrate and oscillate like waves that come and go. There are rounded curves and borders in the tiny trees, the big mountains, and the blinking stars. Oceanographers call these rounded curves eddies when they close on themselves much as is done by a smooth wave that is breaking when it hits the beach in violent turmoil.
Waves come in many sizes at many periods. The wave on the beach has a period of 5 seconds maybe and measures 50 meters from crest to crest. Tides are waves, too, but their period is half a day with a distance of more than 1000 km from crest to crest. These are scales of time and space. There exist powerful mathematical statements to tell us that we can describe all motions as the sum of many waves at different scales. Our cell phone and computer communications depend on it, as do whales, dolphins, and submarines navigating under water, but I digress.
The Labrador Shelf Current off Canada moves ice, icebergs, and ice islands from the Arctic down the coast into the Atlantic Ocean. To the naked eye the ice is white while the ocean is blue. Our eyes in the sky on NASA satellites sense the amount of light and color that ice and ocean when hit by sun or moon light reflects back to space. An image from last friday gives a sense of the violence and motion when this icy south-eastward flowing current off Labrador is opposed by a short wind-burst in the opposite direction:
Flying from London to Chicago on April 6, 2008, Daniel Schwen photographed the icy surface of the Labrador Current a little farther south:
The swirls and eddies trap small pieces of ice and arrange them into wavy bands, filaments, and trap them. The ice visualizes turbulent motions at the ocean surface. Also notice the wide range in scales as some circular vortices are quiet small and some rather large. If the fluid is turbulent in the mathematical sense, then the color contrast or the intensity of the colors and their change in space varies according to an equation valid for almost all motions at almost all scales. It is this scaling law of turbulent motions that three Mexican physicists tested with regard to Van Gogh’s paintings. They “pretended” that the painting represents the image of a flow that follows the physics of turbulent motions. And their work finds that Van Gogh indeed painted intuitively in ways that mimics nature’s turbulent motions when the physical laws were not yet known.
There are two take-home messages for me: First, fine art and physics often converge in unexpected ways. Second, I now want to know, if nature’s painting of the Labrador Shelf Current follows the same rules. There is a crucial wrinkle in motions impacted by the earth rotations: While the turbulence of Van Gogh or Kolmogorov cascades energy from large to smaller scales, that is, the larger eddies break up into several smaller eddies, for planetary-scale motions influenced by the Coriolis force due to earth’s rotation, the energy moves in the opposite direction, that is, the large eddies get larger as the feed on the smaller eddies. There is always more to discover, alas, but that’s the fun of physics, art, and oceanography.
Aragón, J., Naumis, G., Bai, M., Torres, M., & Maini, P. (2008). Turbulent Luminance in Impassioned van Gogh Paintings Journal of Mathematical Imaging and Vision, 30 (3), 275-283 DOI: 10.1007/s10851-007-0055-0
Ball, P. (2006). Van Gogh painted perfect turbulence news@nature DOI: 10.1038/news060703-17
Wu, Y., Tang, C., & Hannah, C. (2012). The circulation of eastern Canadian seas Progress in Oceanography, 106, 28-48 DOI: 10.1016/j.pocean.2012.06.005 | <urn:uuid:648affce-536a-4b8d-9d38-d1bc92bbf42e> | CC-MAIN-2020-34 | https://icyseas.org/2013/05/08/the-turbulence-of-van-gogh-and-the-labrador-shelf-current/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-34/segments/1596439738858.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20200811235207-20200812025207-00269.warc.gz | en | 0.919366 | 927 | 3.234375 | 3 | 2.845815 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
19th century philosophies of history france and the ancien regime the internet modern history sourcebook is one of series of history primary sourcebooks. The period of crisis that happened in europe in the seventeenth century was one of the toughest in history this mid 17th century since queen elizabeth of. First established in france in been circulated since the 16 th century of censorship since ancient times history is littered with facts of. Final project 17th century louis below is an essay on 17th century european history from - france became the ideal culture since he put great care into its. Other articles where history of france is discussed: french domination of the area dates from the 17th century history - history of france discover france. The role of new france in the history of the united states of america home by the late 17th century, a great rivalry had developed between france and britain. Books shelved as 17th-century-french: tartuffe by molière, the true story of the novel by margaret anne doody, les bûchers de sodome: histoires des inf.
I have spent some time working through cases from 16th- and 17th-century france and have slowly pregnant since ‘three modern history at the. Seventeenth-century clothing - fashion, costume, and culture: clothing, headwear, body decorations, and footwear through the ages. Professor douglas johnson, review of france since 1945, (review no 58) date accessed: 23 april, 2018. History1700scom is the starting place to find information about the long 18th century this means that the period approximately covers the years from 1660 through 1830.
Food timeline: food history reference ---17th century---french onion heritage radio interviews food timeline editor (2013) since we launched in. On history, a gamefaqs message but the 17th century saw a clear move towards gunpowder armies since france's troops were simply more experienced at that. Since the 17th century one of the greatest theorists and teachers in the history of ballet after france had led the ballet for several centuries.
Major eras in world history study guide students at new saint andrews college get a 17th century education 18th century powers: france and louis xiv. History of french cuisine viking age - 8th to 11th century france 17th to 18th century jan 1, 1701 18th.
Other history sourcebooks world us power us society western europe since 1945 eastern europe since 1945 decolonization asia in 17th century france. Since they spent more there are four principal ways of analysing gender in the proceedings the criminality of women in eighteenth-century england, journal. France in the seventeenth century louis xiii of france louis xiii and religion charles duke of luynes history learning site home.
Food timeline: history notes--colonial america and 17th & 18th century france. Canada’s recorded population history begins in the 16th century with the arrival of europeans and population of canada beginning in the 17th century.
Another defeat a half century later from pre-revolutionary period till now, a comprehensive guide to the history of france wikipedia: history of france. A history of 17th century england women in the 17th century daily life in england in the 16th century daily life in 18th century britain daily life in 19th. The history of france starts with the early 17th century saw the first successful french economic history since its late-18th century revolution was. History of normandy normandy has been settled since ancient suffered greatly during the religious wars that devastated france in the 17th century. | <urn:uuid:d27807af-3da0-40e8-8477-442e51724551> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | http://hwessayusfd.michellany.us/the-history-of-france-since-the-17th-century.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221209650.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20180814225028-20180815005028-00392.warc.gz | en | 0.945813 | 786 | 3.21875 | 3 | 2.814057 | 3 | Strong reasoning | History |
The stories in the Fairy Books have generally been such as old women in country places tell to their grandchildren. Nobody knows how old they are, or who told them first. The children of Ham, Shem and Japhet may have listened to them in the Ark, on wet days. Hector's little boy may have heard them in Troy Town, for it is certain that Homer knew them, and that some of them were written down in Egypt about the time of Moses.
People in different countries tell them differently, but they are always the same stories, really, whether among little Zulus, at the Cape, or little Eskimo, near the North Pole. The changes are only in matters of manners and customs; such as wearing clothes or not, meeting lions who talk in the warm countries, or talking bears in the cold countries. There are plenty of kings and queens in the fairy tales, just because long ago there were plenty of kings in the country. A gentleman who would be a squire now was a kind of king in Scotland in very old times, and the same in other places. These old stories, never forgotten, were taken down in writing in different ages, but mostly in this century, in all sorts of languages. These ancient stories are the contents of the Fairy books.
Now "The Arabian Nights," some of which, but not nearly all, are given in this volume, are only fairy tales of the East. The people of Asia, Arabia, and Persia told them in their own way, not for children, but for grown-up people. There were no novels then, nor any printed books, of course; but there were people whose profession it was to amuse men and women by telling tales. They dressed the fairy stories up, and made the characters good Mahommedans, living in Bagdad or India. The events were often supposed to happen in the reign of the great Caliph, or ruler of the Faithful, Haroun al Raschid, who lived in Bagdad in 786-808 A.D. The vizir who accompanies the Caliph was also a real person of the great family of the Barmecides. He was put to death by the Caliph in a very cruel way, nobody ever knew why. The stories must have been told in their present shape a good long while after the Caliph died, when nobody knew very exactly what had really happened. At last some storyteller thought of writing down the tales, and fixing them into a kind of framework, as if they had all been narrated to a cruel Sultan by his wife. Probably the tales were written down about the time when Edward I. was fighting Robert Bruce. But changes were made in them at different times, and a great deal that is very dull and stupid was put in, and plenty of verses. Neither the verses nor the dull pieces are given in this book.
People in France and England knew almost nothing about "The Arabian Nights" till the reigns of Queen Anne and George I., when they were translated into French by Monsieur Galland. Grown-up people were then very fond of fairy tales, and they thought these Arab stories the best that they had ever read. They were delighted with Ghouls (who lived among the tombs) and Geni, who seemed to be a kind of ogres, and with Princesses who work magic spells, and with Peris, who are Arab fairies. Sindbad had adventures which perhaps came out of the Odyssey of Homer; in fact, all the East had contributed its wonders, and sent them to Europe in one parcel. Young men once made a noise at Monsieur Galland's windows in the dead of night, and asked him to tell them one of his marvellous tales. Nobody talked of anything but dervishes and vizirs, rocs and peris. The stories were translated from French into all languages, and only Bishop Atterbury complained that the tales were not likely to be true, and had no moral. The bishops was presently banished for being on the side of Prince Charlie's father, and had leisure to repent of being so solemn.
In this book "The Arabian Nights" are translated from the French version of Monsieur Galland, who dropped out the poetry and a great deal of what the Arabian authors thought funny, though it seems wearisome to us. In this book the stories are shortened here and there, and omissions are made of pieces only suitable for Arabs and old gentlemen. The translations are by the writers of the tales in the Fairy Books, and the pictures are by Mr. Ford.
I can remember reading "The Arabian Nights" when I was six years old, in dirty yellow old volumes of small type with no pictures, and I hope children who read them with Mr. Ford's pictures will be as happy as I was then in the company of Aladdin and Sindbad the Sailor.
In the chronicles of the ancient dynasty of the Sassanidae, who reigned for about four hundred years, from Persia to the borders of China, beyond the great river Ganges itself, we read the praises of one of the kings of this race, who was said to be the best monarch of his time. His subjects loved him, and his neighbors feared him, and when he died he left his kingdom in a more prosperous and powerful condition than any king had done before him.
The two sons who survived him loved each other tenderly, and it was a real grief to the elder, Schahriar, that the laws of the empire forbade him to share his dominions with his brother Schahzeman. Indeed, after ten years, during which this state of things had not ceased to trouble him, Schahriar cut off the country of Great Tartary from the Persian Empire and made his brother king.
Now the Sultan Schahriar had a wife whom he loved more than all the world, and his greatest happiness was to surround her with splendour, and to give her the finest dresses and the most beautiful jewels. It was therefore with the deepest shame and sorrow that he accidentally discovered, after several years, that she had deceived him completely, and her whole conduct turned out to have been so bad, that he felt himself obliged to carry out the law of the land, and order the grand-vizir to put her to death. The blow was so heavy that his mind almost gave way, and he declared that he was quite sure that at bottom all women were as wicked as the sultana, if you could only find them out, and that the fewer the world contained the better. So every evening he married a fresh wife and had her strangled the following morning before the grand-vizir, whose duty it was to provide these unhappy brides for the Sultan. The poor man fulfilled his task with reluctance, but there was no escape, and every day saw a girl married and a wife dead.
This behaviour caused the greatest horror in the town, where nothing was heard but cries and lamentations. In one house was a father weeping for the loss of his daughter, in another perhaps a mother trembling for the fate of her child; and instead of the blessings that had formerly been heaped on the Sultan's head, the air was now full of curses.
The grand-vizir himself was the father of two daughters, of whom the elder was called Scheherazade, and the younger Dinarzade. Dinarzade had no particular gifts to distinguish her from other girls, but her sister was clever and courageous in the highest degree. Her father had given her the best masters in philosophy, medicine, history and the fine arts, and besides all this, her beauty excelled that of any girl in the kingdom of Persia.
One day, when the grand-vizir was talking to his eldest daughter, who was his delight and pride, Scheherazade said to him, "Father, I have a favour to ask of you. Will you grant it to me?"
"I can refuse you nothing," replied he, "that is just and reasonable."
"Then listen," said Scheherazade. "I am determined to stop this barbarous practice of the Sultan's, and to deliver the girls and mothers from the awful fate that hangs over them."
"It would be an excellent thing to do," returned the grand-vizir, "but how do you propose to accomplish it?"
"My father," answered Scheherazade, "it is you who have to provide the Sultan daily with a fresh wife, and I implore you, by all the affection you bear me, to allow the honour to fall upon me."
"Have you lost your senses?" cried the grand-vizir, starting back in horror. "What has put such a thing into your head? You ought to know by this time what it means to be the sultan's bride!"
"Yes, my father, I know it well," replied she, "and I am not afraid to think of it. If I fail, my death will be a glorious one, and if I succeed I shall have done a great service to my country."
"It is of no use," said the grand-vizir, "I shall never consent. If the Sultan was to order me to plunge a dagger in your heart, I should have to obey. What a task for a father! Ah, if you do not fear death, fear at any rate the anguish you would cause me."
"Once again, my father," said Scheherazade, "will you grant me what I ask?"
"What, are you still so obstinate?" exclaimed the grand-vizir. "Why are you so resolved upon your own ruin?"
But the maiden absolutely refused to attend to her father's words, and at length, in despair, the grand-vizir was obliged to give way, and went sadly to the palace to tell the Sultan that the following evening he would bring him Scheherazade.
The Sultan received this news with the greatest astonishment.
"How have you made up your mind," he asked, "to sacrifice your own daughter to me?"
"Sire," answered the grand-vizir, "it is her own wish. Even the sad fate that awaits her could not hold her back."
"Let there be no mistake, vizir," said the Sultan. "Remember you will have to take her life yourself. If you refuse, I swear that your head shall pay forfeit."
"Sire," returned the vizir. "Whatever the cost, I will obey you. Though a father, I am also your subject." So the Sultan told the grand-vizir he might bring his daughter as soon as he liked.
The vizir took back this news to Scheherazade, who received it as if it had been the most pleasant thing in the world. She thanked her father warmly for yielding to her wishes, and, seeing him still bowed down with grief, told him that she hoped he would never repent having allowed her to marry the Sultan. Then she went to prepare herself for the marriage, and begged that her sister Dinarzade should be sent for to speak to her.
When they were alone, Scheherazade addressed her thus:
"My dear sister; I want your help in a very important affair. My father is going to take me to the palace to celebrate my marriage with the Sultan. When his Highness receives me, I shall beg him, as a last favour, to let you sleep in our chamber, so that I may have your company during the last night I am alive. If, as I hope, he grants me my wish, be sure that you wake me an hour before the dawn, and speak to me in these words: "My sister, if you are not asleep, I beg you, before the sun rises, to tell me one of your charming stories." Then I shall begin, and I hope by this means to deliver the people from the terror that reigns over them." Dinarzade replied that she would do with pleasure what her sister wished.
When the usual hour arrived the grand-vizir conducted Scheherazade to the palace, and left her alone with the Sultan, who bade her raise her veil and was amazed at her beauty. But seeing her eyes full of tears, he asked what was the matter. "Sire," replied Scheherazade, "I have a sister who loves me as tenderly as I love her. Grant me the favour of allowing her to sleep this night in the same room, as it is the last we shall be together." Schahriar consented to Scheherazade's petition and Dinarzade was sent for.
An hour before daybreak Dinarzade awoke, and exclaimed, as she had promised, "My dear sister, if you are not asleep, tell me I pray you, before the sun rises, one of your charming stories. It is the last time that I shall have the pleasure of hearing you."
Scheherazade did not answer her sister, but turned to the Sultan. "Will your highness permit me to do as my sister asks?" said she.
"Willingly," he answered. So Scheherazade began.
Sire, there was once upon a time a merchant who possessed great wealth, in land and merchandise, as well as in ready money. He was obliged from time to time to take journeys to arrange his affairs. One day, having to go a long way from home, he mounted his horse, taking with him a small wallet in which he had put a few biscuits and dates, because he had to pass through the desert where no food was to be got. He arrived without any mishap, and, having finished his business, set out on his return. On the fourth day of his journey, the heat of the sun being very great, he turned out of his road to rest under some trees. He found at the foot of a large walnut-tree a fountain of clear and running water. He dismounted, fastened his horse to a branch of the tree, and sat by the fountain, after having taken from his wallet some of his dates and biscuits. When he had finished this frugal meal he washed his face and hands in the fountain.
When he was thus employed he saw an enormous genius, white with rage, coming towards him, with a scimitar in his hand.
"Arise," he cried in a terrible voice, "and let me kill you as you have killed my son!"
As he uttered these words he gave a frightful yell. The merchant, quite as much terrified at the hideous face of the monster as at his words, answered him tremblingly, "Alas, good sir, what can I have done to you to deserve death?"
"I shall kill you," repeated the genius, "as you have killed my son."
"But," said the merchant, "How can I have killed your son? I do not know him, and I have never even seen him."
"When you arrived here did you not sit down on the ground?" asked the genius, "and did you not take some dates from your wallet, and whilst eating them did not you throw the stones about?"
"Yes," said the merchant, "I certainly did so."
"Then," said the genius, "I tell you you have killed my son, for whilst you were throwing about the stones, my son passed by, and one of them struck him in the eye and killed him. So I shall kill you."
"Ah, sir, forgive me!" cried the merchant.
"I will have no mercy on you," answered the genius.
"But I killed your son quite unintentionally, so I implore you to spare my life."
"No," said the genius, "I shall kill you as you killed my son," and so saying, he seized the merchant by the arm, threw him on the ground, and lifted his sabre to cut off his head.
The merchant, protesting his innocence, bewailed his wife and children, and tried pitifully to avert his fate. The genius, with his raised scimitar, waited till he had finished, but was not in the least touched.
Scheherazade, at this point, seeing that it was day, and knowing that the Sultan always rose very early to attend the council, stopped speaking.
"Indeed, sister," said Dinarzade, "this is a wonderful story."
"The rest is still more wonderful," replied Scheherazade, "and you would say so, if the sultan would allow me to live another day, and would give me leave to tell it to you the next night."
Schahriar, who had been listening to Scheherazade with pleasure, said to himself, "I will wait till to-morrow; I can always have her killed when I have heard the end of her story."
All this time the grand-vizir was in a terrible state of anxiety. But he was much delighted when he saw the Sultan enter the council-chamber without giving the terrible command that he was expecting.
The next morning, before the day broke, Dinarzade said to her sister, "Dear sister, if you are awake I pray you to go on with your story."
The Sultan did not wait for Scheherazade to ask his leave. "Finish," said he, "the story of the genius and the merchant. I am curious to hear the end."
So Scheherazade went on with the story. This happened every morning. The Sultana told a story, and the Sultan let her live to finish it.
When the merchant saw that the genius was determined to cut off his head, he said: "One word more, I entreat you. Grant me a little delay; just a short time to go home and bid my wife and children farewell, and to make my will. When I have done this I will come back here, and you shall kill me."
"But," said the genius, "if I grant you the delay you ask, I am afraid that you will not come back."
"I give you my word of honour," answered the merchant, "that I will come back without fail."
"How long do you require?" asked the genius.
"I ask you for a year's grace," replied the merchant. "I promise you that to-morrow twelvemonth, I shall be waiting under these trees to give myself up to you."
On this the genius left him near the fountain and disappeared.
The merchant, having recovered from his fright, mounted his horse and went on his road.
When he arrived home his wife and children received him with the greatest joy. But instead of embracing them he began to weep so bitterly that they soon guessed that something terrible was the matter.
"Tell us, I pray you," said his wife, "what has happened."
"Alas!" answered her husband, "I have only a year to live."
Then he told them what had passed between him and the genius, and how he had given his word to return at the end of a year to be killed. When they heard this sad news they were in despair, and wept much.
The next day the merchant began to settle his affairs, and first of all to pay his debts. He gave presents to his friends, and large alms to the poor. He set his slaves at liberty, and provided for his wife and children. The year soon passed away, and he was obliged to depart. When he tried to say good-bye he was quite overcome with grief, and with difficulty tore himself away. At length he reached the place where he had first seen the genius, on the very day that he had appointed. He dismounted, and sat down at the edge of the fountain, where he awaited the genius in terrible suspense.
Whilst he was thus waiting an old man leading a hind came towards him. They greeted one another, and then the old man said to him, "May I ask, brother, what brought you to this desert place, where there are so many evil genii about? To see these beautiful trees one would imagine it was inhabited, but it is a dangerous place to stop long in."
The merchant told the old man why he was obliged to come there. He listened in astonishment.
"This is a most marvellous affair. I should like to be a witness of your interview with the genius." So saying he sat down by the merchant.
While they were talking another old man came up, followed by two black dogs. He greeted them, and asked what they were doing in this place. The old man who was leading the hind told him the adventure of the merchant and the genius. The second old man had not sooner heard the story than he, too, decided to stay there to see what would happen. He sat down by the others, and was talking, when a third old man arrived. He asked why the merchant who was with them looked so sad. They told him the story, and he also resolved to see what would pass between the genius and the merchant, so waited with the rest.
They soon saw in the distance a thick smoke, like a cloud of dust. This smoke came nearer and nearer, and then, all at once, it vanished, and they saw the genius, who, without speaking to them, approached the merchant, sword in hand, and, taking him by the arm, said, "Get up and let me kill you as you killed my son."
The merchant and the three old men began to weep and groan.
Then the old man leading the hind threw himself at the monster's feet and said, "O Prince of the Genii, I beg of you to stay your fury and to listen to me. I am going to tell you my story and that of the hind I have with me, and if you find it more marvellous than that of the merchant whom you are about to kill, I hope that you will do away with a third part of his punishment?"
The genius considered some time, and then he said, "Very well, I agree to this." | <urn:uuid:da9107c1-cb85-4617-be63-d66a4f63b8e7> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | https://tablo.io/classics/the-arabian-nights | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267866358.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20180624044127-20180624064127-00139.warc.gz | en | 0.990621 | 4,622 | 2.875 | 3 | 2.8953 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Literature |
“Water is the driving force of all nature;” so said Leonardo da Vinci. The survival of our planet depends on the availability of water and the condition that it is in. It is therefore vital to make sure that it is able to provide a hospitable environment for those that live in it, and is free from harmful levels of substances for those that drink it.
Not monitoring water quality levels can have detrimental impacts on ecosystems and qualities of life. This can range for disrupting or damaging aquatic environments, to causing illness or even loss of human life in the most severe cases.
Today we are going to look at some of the most important indicators of water quality, as well as assessing where irregular levels of these can cause harm.
pH measures the concentration of hydrogen ions in water on a scale of 0 to 14 where 7 is neutral and anything above 7 is alkaline and anything below 7 is acidic. The pH of most natural water is between 6 and 8.5. Levels below 4.5 and above 9.5 are usually lethal to aquatic organisms. pH affects the solubility of organic compounds, metals, and salts. In highly acidic waters, certain minerals can dissolve and release metals and other chemical substances into the water. As pH or temperature rises, so too does the toxicity to aquatic organisms.
Levels of dissolved oxygen
Dissolved oxygen is essential for a healthy aquatic ecosystem. Fish and aquatic animals need the oxygen dissolved in the water to survive. As water temperature increases, the amount of oxygen that dissolves in water decreases. Ice-cold water can hold twice as much dissolved oxygen as warm water. The need for oxygen depends on the species and life stage; some organisms are adapted to lower oxygen conditions, while others require higher concentrations. Drastic alterations in the usual levels in dissolved oxygen can cause great amounts of damage to environmental ecosystems. This can be caused by a number of environmental impactors such as, streamflow runoff and changes in temperature.
Levels of total dissolved solids
The concentration of total dissolved solids (TDS) is a measure of the amount of dissolved material in water. TDS includes solutes such as sodium, calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, and chloride that remain as a solid residue after the evaporation of water from the sample. Natural weathering, mining, industrial waste, sewage, and agriculture are some of the main sources of TDS. High levels of total dissolved solids make water less suitable for drinking and irrigation.
Levels of metals
A number of metals, such as copper, manganese, and zinc are essential to biochemical processes that sustain life. However, high concentrations of these and other metals in water can be toxic to animals and humans if they are ingested, or if they are found in animals that are then consumed by humans. Dissolved metals are generally more toxic than metals bound in complexes with other molecules. Metals can appear in water both naturally through weathering of rocks and soils, and unnaturally through industrial waste.
Levels of chemicals
Industrial waste can also introduce chemicals into water. Some industrial chemicals like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) present a threat to aquatic ecosystems. PCBs cause a variety of serious health effects on the immune, reproductive, nervous, and endocrine systems. It is for this reason that PCBs were banned in the UK in the 1980s, previous to this they were used in a variety of manufacturing processes, particularly for electrical parts. Their high stability means they resist biological, chemical, and thermal degradation in the environment. As they are difficult to break down, high levels can still be found in waterways today.
Constant monitoring of all these indicators is needed to make sure that water remains safe to all those that use it. Here at Aquaread we offer a wide variety of water monitoring equipment for both portable and installed use, that has been tested to the highest standards by our skilled team of engineers, designers and scientists. | <urn:uuid:620cb059-495d-4aa0-b0cf-b7ac116c080c> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | https://www.environmental-expert.com/articles/what-are-the-main-indicators-of-water-quality-715818 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948521292.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20171213045921-20171213065921-00001.warc.gz | en | 0.954263 | 809 | 3.78125 | 4 | 2.602238 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
These borrowed characters Sātvik has a good answer, but I can say a bit more on what sounds English doesn’t have, and there are a lot. International Phonetic Alphabet American English Vowels Word And . The symbols used in this alphabet can be used to represent all sounds of all human languages. Click on a symbol to hear the associated sound. In spin, the phoneme is pronounced ânormallyâ; Phoneticians—linguists who specialize in phonetics—study the physical properties of speech. /S/ SOUND. Sounds can disappear in any context, but they are most prone to loss from the endings of words, where articulation is not as strong. Examples of words whose long vowel sounds do not correspond with their spelling are they, try, fruit, and few. Learn more. There are only 7 basic sounds for the whole alphabet. Phonics is very important when learning the english language. Our IPA chart is responsive, this means it adjusts to any screen size. A digraph is formed when two consonants come together to create an entirely new sound that is distinctly different from the sounds of the letters independently. The five short vowel sounds in English are a, e, i, o, and u. Phoneticians—linguists who specialize in phonetics—study the physical properties of speech. l, as in /Ëlɪtl/. See examples of each of the IPA Consonant Sounds with examples in common English words. It occurs in the phonemic transcriptions of pin /pɪn/ and The letters c, q, and x are not denoted by unique phonemes because they are found in other sounds. ʳ means that r is always pronounced in American English, ? The i: sound is … The letters in each column all have the same vowel sound. Listen to the 42 letter sounds of Jolly Phonics, spoken in British English. Find out more about the interactive mobile app version of the phonemic chart. A…. mean two different phonemes in American and British English. An r-controlled vowel is a vowel whose sound is influenced by the r that comes before it. far gone is pronounced /ËfÉ: ËgÉn/ the flap t (heard in this one) with separate symbols. Alibaba English Phonetic Alphabet Phonetic Alphabet Phonetics . /ËrɪtÉn/, Index of contents Words - elementary level Phonetic exercises - level 1 Phonetic exercises - level 2 Symbols - lessons - … The Phonetic Transcriptions Of The English Vowels In Words . Closely associated with Phonetics is another branch of Linguistics known as Phonology. The following is the American English Phonetic alphabet. Instead of Én, some dictionaries use a regular n, as in /Ërɪtn/. this ânormal pâ sound is represented by p in the IPA. The chart represents British and American phonemes with one symbol. The five short vowel sounds in English are a, e, i, o, and u. This list includes phonetic symbols for the transcription of English sounds, plus others that are used in this class for transliterating or transcribing various languages, with the articulatory description of the sounds and some extra comments where appropriate.. But if we really want to communicate, which means speak, understand, read and write English, we have to deal with both of them. This means that symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet are used to represent the sounds and features that distinguish one word from another in English. It was designed by the International Phonetic Association (1999) as a standardised system for representing sounds … These 26 letters stand for 44 different English phonetic sounds. Scroll down to the bottom of this page for The Sounds of English, our video guide to all the consonant and vowel sounds in the English language. I’ll use some terminology, but also give examples. Remember that these sounds are not necessarily indicative of spelling. It’s the smallest unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another. Fortunately, all modern operating systems have at least one font with IPA symbols. in a dictionary. Phonetic symbols of vowel sounds in english. /ËÊÅkÉl/. For example, notice the sound that the letter “a” gives in the words: ‘palm’, ‘date’, ‘sea’, ‘that’. Your tip of the tongue goes on the roof of your mouth. The Phonetic Transcriptions Of The English Vowels In Words . For best results, use an IPA-enabled font from the start. Vowels are speech sounds produced without obstructing the flow of air from the lungs, so that the breath stream passes freely through the mouth. ânormalâ characters that you can type on your keyboard. More examples of this include better, first, and turn. Examples of words whose short vowel sounds do not correspond with their spelling are busy and does. Short vowels in the IPA are / ɪ /-pit, /e/-pet, /æ/-pat, /ʌ/-cut, /ʊ/-put, /ɒ/-dog, /ə/-about. Tracing phonics sounds of english alphabets in hindi 20 days to mastery with 26 letters and sounds. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabet of phonetic notation designed to capture all the different ways words in English can be pronounced, based on the Latin alphabet. Aug 23, 2018 - Explore sumiti's board "phonetic sounds" on Pinterest. automatically âborrowâ missing symbols from a font which has them (this is called font substitution). The 44 Sounds (Phonemes) of English A phoneme is a speech sound. this is evident in the shortening of words that will be discussed in Lexical Changes to English. It is generally agreed that there are A word might sound as if it contains a certain vowel that is not there. You wonât find phonetic symbols on your computerâs keyboard. Find out more about the interactive mobile app version of the phonemic chart. These 26 letters stand for 44 different English phonetic sounds. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system where each symbol is associated with a particular English sound. International Phonetic Alphabet American English Vowels Word And . this is evident in the shortening of words that will be discussed in Lexical Changes to English. Buy the ebook—with over five hours of MP3 audio included—and start learning now! Sounds can disappear in any context, but they are most prone to loss from the endings of words, where articulation is not as strong. For example, if we write that far is pronounced /fɑ:ʳ/, we mean that it is pronounced /fɑ:r/ in American English, and /fɑ:/ in British English. Select any word on this page to check its definition and pronunciation Forum Learn English English Irregular Verbs With Phonetic . The interactive phonemic chart is available for you to download from the Google Play store for Android devices or the App store for Apple devices. Do You Know Everything About Consonant Sounds and Letters in English? mean that it is pronounced /fÉ:r/ in American English, and /fÉ:/ in British English. Your tip of the tongue does not go on the roof of your mouth. By phonemes is meant all sounds that make up the sound inventory of the English language and that includes both consonant and vowel sounds (as opposed to letters). The first column provides an example of the sound when it is word initial (at the beginning of the word). Instead of Él, some dictionaries use a regular for English learners. (In other words, it groups a number of similar sounds Vowels are speech sounds produced without obstructing the flow of air from the lungs, so that the breath stream passes freely through the mouth. The Arpabet A Phonetic Alphabet Developed By Arpa The Pentagon S . English Phonetics and Phonology . Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans make and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. The symbols on this clickable chart represent the 44 sounds used in British English speech (Received Pronunciation). How do you type them in a Word document, e-mail message, or The International Phonetic Alphabet chart with sounds lets you listen to each of the sounds from the IPA. A vowel sound is made by shaping the air as it leaves the mouth, we use the lips, tongue and jaw to make the shape.There are 11 shapes of the mouth in GB English, and 18 sounds in total (some sounds use two shapes).
2020 phonetic sounds in english | <urn:uuid:f99f3c45-893b-4b39-80a7-1f6f5a4d04c2> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://theanimegallery.com/sego-lily-orhkov/tsivxt.php?tag=29594f-phonetic-sounds-in-english | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178347293.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20210224165708-20210224195708-00185.warc.gz | en | 0.925462 | 1,845 | 3.4375 | 3 | 2.052868 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Literature |
Purpura fulminans in Child
PF can be categorized into 3 types: acute infectious purpura fulminans, idiopathic or acquired purpura fulminans, and neonatal purpura fulminans. Acute infectious PF is the most common type and is associated with an acute infection and DIC. This type is due to an acquired deficiency of protein C secondary to the consumption of profibrinolytic cofactors. Decreased function of protein C induces a hypercoagulable state. The most common bacterial causes are Neisseria and Streptococcus pneumoniae, and varicella is the most common viral cause. PF develops in 10%-20% of patients with meningococcal septicemia. Urosepsis and staphylococcal sepsis are further common causes. Rickettsial disease, Capnocytophaga canimorsus (from a dog bite), and malaria may also lead to PF.
Acute illness, eg, septic shock, presents with high fever and rapid deterioration leading to hypotension and end-organ dysfunction. Physical or functional asplenia and immunosuppression increase the risk of developing acute infectious PF.
Idiopathic or acquired PF develops 7-10 days following a febrile illness, typically varicella or scarlet fever. It is rare and is due to an acquired protein S deficiency state. Anti-protein C or S antibodies bind to protein C or S. Cross-reacting immunoglobulin G (IgG) autoantibodies increase protein S clearance from the circulation and are thought to trigger postinfectious PF. Diminished protein S activity results in decreased activation of protein C and a subsequent hypercoagulable state. Acquired PF is associated with a lower mortality rate than the other types of PF.
Neonatal PF manifests early in life and is secondary to hereditary or acquired deficiency of protein C, protein S, or antithrombin III. See neonatal purpura fulminans for further discussion.
D65 – Disseminated intravascular coagulation [defibrination syndrome]
13507004 – Purpura fulminans
- Coumadin necrosis (warfarin necrosis) – Purpura from warfarin is more prominent on fatty areas such as the breasts, buttocks, and thighs, while PF is usually more extensive.
- Necrotizing fasciitis
- Rocky Mountain spotted fever
- Toxic shock syndrome
- Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura
- Acute meningococcemia
- Overanticoagulation with heparin or warfarin
- Cocaine levamisole toxicity
- Catastrophic antiphospholipid antibody syndrome
- Cryoglobulinemic vasculitis
- Granulomatosis with polyangiitis
- Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis | <urn:uuid:0c4a7dac-3f58-48a1-bd29-c83161816727> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://www.visualdx.com/visualdx/diagnosis/purpura+fulminans?diagnosisId=52235&moduleId=100&contentModuleId=102 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233511000.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20231002132844-20231002162844-00215.warc.gz | en | 0.851957 | 689 | 3.046875 | 3 | 2.139991 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Health |
Late Cenozoic fresh water molasses sediments (+6000 m thick) deposited all along the length of the Himalayan fore deep, form the Siwalik Supergroup. This paper reports the results of the paleodrainage and paleohydrology of the Middle Siwalik subgroup of rocks, deposited in non-marine basins adjacent to a rising mountain chain during Pliocene. Well-exposed sections of these rocks have provided adequate paleodrainage data for the reconstruction of paleochannel morphology and paleohydrological attributes of the Pliocene fluvial system.
Cross-bedding data has been used as inputs to estimate bankfull channel depth and channel sinuosity of Pliocene rivers. Various empirical relationships of modern rivers were used to estimate other paleohydrological attributes such as channel width, sediment load parameter, annual discharge, and channel slope and flow velocity. Computed channel depth, channel slope and flow velocity are supported independently by recorded data of scour depth, cross-bedding variability and Chezy’s equation.
The estimates indicate that the Middle Siwalik sequence corresponds to a system of rivers, whose individual channels were about 400 m wide and 5.2–7.3 m deep; the river on an average had a low sinuous channel and flowed over a depositional surface sloping at the rate of 53 cm/km. The 700-km long Middle Siwalik (Pliocene) river drained an area of 42925 km2 to the north–northeast, with a flow velocity of 164–284 cm/s, as it flowed generally south–southwest of the Himalayan Orogen. Bed-load was about 15% of the total load of this river, whose annual discharge was about 346–1170 m3/s normally and rose to approximately 1854 m3/s during periodic floods. The Froude number of 0.22 suggests that the water flows in the Pliocene river channels were tranquil, which in turn account for the profuse development of cross-bedded units in the sandstone. The estimated paleochannel parameters, bedding characteristics and the abundance of coarse clastics in the lithic fill are rather similar to the modern braided rivers of Canada and India such as South Saskatchewan and Gomti, respectively.
Volume 131, 2022
Continuous Article Publishing mode
Click here for Editorial Note on CAP Mode | <urn:uuid:545552ba-b2f0-4bbc-a5d5-81f61415f099> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://www.ias.ac.in/describe/article/jess/120/03/0531-0543 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656103322581.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20220626222503-20220627012503-00465.warc.gz | en | 0.917804 | 534 | 2.859375 | 3 | 2.858746 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
Humans can leverage the power of data to combat epidemics such as the coronavirus outbreak that has put the world in siege during the first quarter of 2020.
Epidemiology is the branch of medicine which deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases and other factors relating to health. It plays a key role in public health, informing decisions and policies and assisting evidence-based practice by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive healthcare.
Two important activities in epidemiology are disease surveillance and outbreak investigation and response. In disease surveillance, epidemiologists collect data from different levels of health in routine data collection and case reporting for specific diseases. In outbreak investigation and management, epidemiologists report on suspect and confirmed cases, do contact tracing to proactively discover possible transmissions, and map the transmission chain to identify the source of the outbreak and make recommendations to control it.
How is data managed in the current epidemic?
In today’s epidemic a lot of the data is still collected on paper forms, delaying the extraction of conclusion. Below you can see forms used by CDC.
WHO and JHU are doing a great work at collecting, compiling and communicating data through their dashboards, which are used by other health organisations, by the media, and by public health authorities to make decisions and to keep the population informed.
Mapping cases is key in epidemiology, as it facilitates the identification of possible transmission chains and planning health intervention. The use of geographic information systems (GIS) gives public health teams a competitive advantage against disease, but today most of the data is collected, stored and analysed in silos, causing repeated work across organisations that could save days of work through collaboration and data sharing agreements.
If all the data currently held by health systems was digitalised and shared amongst the different health systems fighting coronavirus, an earlier detection of cases, better contact tracing and faster intervention in the suspect cases would be possible.
Where does my faith in data for epidemic control come from?
Ebola response. Liberia, 2015.
In 2015 I worked in West Africa as part of the Ebola Response. My tiny contribution was to manage a a project that consisted on developing, rolling out and improving an app to help health care workers keep track of Ebola cases and their contacts, as well as to survey the contacts for the complete length of the incubation period to assess if they had any indications of contracting the disease. What I learnt about disease transmission and epidemiology back then resonates a lot today, in the middle of another pandemic that has managed to affect countries in the developed and developing world alike. Apart from hygiene measures, avoiding crowds and limiting contacts, the early reporting of symptoms… the importance of data in the early detection and control of disease outbreaks is again top of my mind these days.
Heath Information Systems. Guinea, 2015-2016
By the end of 2015 I went back to West Africa, this time to support the design and implementation of a national health information system for the Ministry of Health in Guinea. We were challenged by a lack of agreement on the list of clinics and hospitals, the uncertainty about the number of people who lived in each city and the absence of official means of identification for patients that resulted in duplicated or triplicated medical records for individuals without a link that would allow the detection of chronic diseases or comorbidity. These, together with a young data culture, meant no zero reporting, delays in data transmission and other challenges.
Sleeping Sickness. DRC, 2015-2016.
All through 2015 and 2016 I was also involved in a project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where we wanted to digitalise historical data and improve current data collection to end with sleeping sickness, a disease transmitted by the tse-tse fly that is close to being eradicated and could benefit greatly from data to better target the latest efforts.
In 2016 I left eHealth Africa, discovered chatbots and started working on a project called bots4health and, specifically, on Eva, a chatbot to help humans have healthier lives through conversations. I believed chatbots were a great help to collect data from humans and to share health messages with them. Messaging channels, combined with natural language processing, looked like a good solution for a lot of the problems I had seen during my work in Africa. My faith in this kind of conversation remains, that’s why I am training Eva to be able to respond to questions related to coronavirus and to send daily updates to users that opt-in to alerts.
What do others say about the potential of data in disease prevention and control?
What would happen if all health institutions took this task as seriously? Would it have been possible to prevent the epidemic instead of responding to it? I want to invite you to reflect on this thought with me, and to support my argument I’d like to share 5 online talks around the topic of humans, epidemics, and data.
How social media can predict epidemics by Nicholas Christakis
In his talk, “How social media can predict epidemics”, Nicholas Christakis, explains how data related to networks and the identification of the use of certain keywords related to diseases or symptoms, can be used to predict a flu epidemic before it happens – or the spread of an idea.
How data can predict the next pandemic by Adam Kucharski
Adam Kucharski explains how tracking patterns of human contact, such as hugs, we can actually predict how a pandemic will spread. With enough data, perhaps this could be a viable tool for preventing the spread of diseases?
Infectious Disease Forecasting… For The World by Dr. James Wilson
In this talk Dr. James Wilson reveals the real methods already in place for the forecasting and early detection and intervention of infectious diseases in places like the United States of America.
Mathematics of Epidemics by Trish Campbell
Through Trish Campbell’s talk you can better understand how mathematical models can help predict spread of infectious diseases, using the example of how videos and images can become viral on the internet.
Forecasting Infectious Disease Epidemics Using Dynamic Modelling: Ebola and Zika as Case Studies
Last but not least this is an interesting talk that talks about dynamic modelling for the forecasting outbreaks of infectious diseases, using Ebola and Zika data and epidemiology as examples.
I hope these videos have convinced you of the potential of data and of how urgent it is that all levels of healthcare in all countries go through digital transformation. All healthcare systems need to advance and connect so that we can together face and fight disease, one of the biggest enemies of humankind. Viruses and bacteria don’t understand what borders are and a strong health system is only as strong as the health systems surrounding it. | <urn:uuid:77246abb-6fc4-4ad8-8a04-c77dae717f0f> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://cristinasantamarina.com/2020/03/10/humans-epidemics-and-data/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337595.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005073953-20221005103953-00571.warc.gz | en | 0.945119 | 1,403 | 3.109375 | 3 | 3.028913 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Health |
The task addressed in this section is the choice of reportable attributes that will form columns of a Consumer Report. Each of the quality characteristics mentioned in earlier sections will give rise to a number of such reportable attributes.
The attributes we seek to identify are descriptions of a system's performance in a given setup which allow the customer (the user of the evaluation) to make the decisions they require about a set of systems in a class. We have just seen how a combination of the requirements and task model can be used to give detailed requirements statements that can be based on measurement. Our task here is to decide what to consider when reporting the results of these tests to the user.
The choice of reportable attributes is driven by considering the requirements of the customer -- the user of the evaluation. In general, the customer and the end-user (the user of the system) may have different requirements, and they play distinct roles in the design of the evaluation. The customer's requirements may be based on the impact of the whole end-user/system setup that is being evaluated on wider tasks in a wider corporate setup. In the case of grammar checkers (which are relatively mass-market products commonly used by non-corporate writers) the customer and the end-user may often be the same person, but in principle the end-user who actually interacts with the system is a variable in the setup the customer is evaluating. Thus, arriving at a list of reportable attributes involves an analysis of the interaction of the product and the end-user in the immediate task, and of the place of this task and its outputs in the wider task that may interest the customer. We have already outlined a model of the immediate task, which is relevant both to this choice of attributes and to the development of test methods for the functional aspects of the systems. In this section, a further model, of customer types, is in theory called for.
In the case of grammar checkers, and particularly the functionality attributes we are currently concentrating on, we feel that customer and end-user perspectives are not likely to differ significantly . This is particularly true of the quality characteristic we are concentrating on in this report, functionality. Different characteristics, however, will be relevant to each role, and so we continue here as if our end-user model has no relation to our new customer model.
The customer must be analysed to find out how the functionality results ought to be reported, in terms of choice of reportable attributes, and perhaps what supplementary material, such as explanations of attribute choice and methods or case studies of typical users, should be supplied. Choice of attributes comes first, and derives from the researcher's knowledge about the system's performance on the task and the customer's requirements; how to describe them is secondary.
However, it should be remembered that the Consumer Report is a multi-user artefact, in that it contains information relevant to a number of different customer classes, and indeed end-user and writer classes in which customers may be interested. It relies on self-diagnosis by the customer in choosing which attributes to pay attention to, and how to combine the values for those attributes to form their own evaluation. Thus, our aim is to choose attributes that will support most evaluations of grammar checkers. In terms of the functionality aspects we are concentrating on, this means producing information that can be interpreted for a number of different end-user/writer types.
The customer can be expected to know and construct their own comparative evaluation on certain aspects of end-user, writer, and system compatibility, such as the target language of the system and the language in which its advice is couched. Accordingly, such system characteristics will be included as straightforward attributes that will appear in the report.
We have motivated the production of a taxonomy of errors that is at least notionally couched in terms close to the writer's sources of error. However, it was also designed at quite a detailed level to support the development of test material, and so may be too detailed to be used as a set of attributes for reporting functionality to the customer. We may want to talk about the functionality performance for particular types of error individually -- especially errors whose significance varies with writer or end-user classes. For other types, we may want to group a number together under a group attribute name. Our emphasis here is on NLP evaluation, and it is relatively clear that NLP, broadly conceived, is central to the functionality quality characteristic of grammar checkers. Given the mass-market nature of such tools, it is also clear that, whether the customer is the same as the end-user or not, it is likely that we will need to put a good deal of effort into finding ways of presenting and explaining the results of testing functionality in terms of attributes that are meaningful to the customer. Standard sets of examples and illustrations, and particularly case studies giving examples to allow a customer to diagnose their requirements, should be developed as part of our future work, and for anyone building on it, for example in a new language.
Thus, we have attributes based on error types and groups of error types. When we start to think about what sort of measure to use to convey performance on these errors, we encounter some complications that might lead us to convey some of the information not as measures (because they would be too complicated, or have too many dimensions) but as separate attributes, which might be grouped into aggregates or replicated individually for each error type attribute.
One such measure relates to precision/recall, which is a key property of this application, as in information retrieval, but here is complicated by the range of advice types. It is almost certainly not valuable to many customers to present measurements of recall separate from some consideration of precision (saying that a given system succeeds in all instances of it's/its confusion if in fact it flags all instances of either is likely to be misleading, even if the precision figures are given somewhere else). However, different end-users have different requirements and different interfaces may change the effect, as may customisability. An end-user who needs a lot of tutorial advice will not be benefitted by a high recall, low precision and poor advice type service, while they might be able to use the same recall and precision if the advice included enough information to let them make an accurate diagnosis.
Another such measure relates to the type of coverage a system has for a particular error type. Some systems may find only easily identified instances of an error type, but do that reliably. This may be of use to some users and not to others, who only make more complicated versions of the error. A measure that simply aggregates results of different levels of difficulty, with whatever weighting function, will not be able to support customer self-diagnosis on this dimension.
There is a case, therefore, for having separate attributes for noting false positive and coverage variability. | <urn:uuid:cec78f46-62c4-4594-8130-e89f55d653ca> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | https://www.issco.unige.ch/en/research/projects/ewg96/node133.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232256163.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20190520222102-20190521004102-00036.warc.gz | en | 0.953468 | 1,398 | 2.515625 | 3 | 2.991024 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Software |
05 August 2014
Mars Up Close
On Aug. 6, 2012, after travelling 254 days and nearly 352 million elliptical miles, NASA’s Curiosity rover touched down in Gale Crater on Mars and began its journey across the surface of the red planet. Timed to the second anniversary of Curiosity’s dramatic landing, National Geographic will publish MARS UP CLOSE: Inside the Curiosity Mission, written by Marc Kaufman with an introduction by SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk.
In this comprehensive and visually stunning book, Kaufman shares the excitement, science, challenge and eye-opening wonder of the most ambitious space expedition ever undertaken.
Kaufman, a veteran science journalist, spent two years embedded with engineers and scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, observing the Curiosity mission. This intimate access has allowed Kaufman to provide an exclusive inside look at the mission thus far as well as a look ahead. In MARS UP CLOSE, he shares the perspectives of the people who are making the mission happen and brings readers alongside Curiosity as it makes its 6-mile trek to Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-high and 60-mile-wide mound at the centre of Gale Crater. Mount Sharp is layered with exposed minerals and rocks that can tell the story of Mars.
Kaufman brings us into the laboratories and control rooms and shares the challenges and triumphs of operating the most sophisticated rover ever created on a planet 150 million miles from Earth — explaining the complex science of the mission in a way that’s accessible to all readers.
Accompanying Kaufman’s descriptions of the mission are astonishing images of Mars — some never seen before — as well as detailed satellite images of the planet’s surface, revealing seasonal shifts; the most advanced maps of Mars ever created, with intricate layered views of remains of ancient bodies of water; original artwork of the red planet; and maps of Curiosity’s path across its surface.
In “Mission Makers” features, readers meet the key scientists and engineers who planned and continue to execute this remarkable undertaking, including “sky crane” engineer Adam Steltzner; project systems engineer Jennifer Trosper, who set the rover in motion on the red planet and is now second in command of the mission; and project scientist John Grotzinger, a geologist guiding the rover’s path.
Throughout the book, a special icon on certain images denotes the inclusion of those images in NASA’s free Spacecraft 3D app, a tool that allows users to view a three-dimensional experience of Mars on their smartphone or tablet.
MARC KAUFMAN writes about NASA and space science for NationalGeographic.com and The Washington Post, where he was a reporter on the national staff for 10 years. A veteran journalist with 35 years of reporting on science and international affairs, Kaufman now writes and lectures on astrobiology and space exploration. Kirkus named Kaufman’s book “First Contact” one of the best nonfiction titles. | <urn:uuid:87af8030-dda8-46fd-9c4f-932ea93f68f2> | CC-MAIN-2017-51 | http://www.lrtpublicity.co.uk/releases.php?rel_id=56 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-51/segments/1512948527279.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20171213143307-20171213163307-00218.warc.gz | en | 0.90768 | 625 | 2.734375 | 3 | 2.434438 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Science & Tech. |
Presentation on theme: "SIRS Discoverer Opens a world of information to students"— Presentation transcript:
1SIRS Discoverer Opens a world of information to students Online Tutorial discoverer.sirs.com | proquestk12.com
2Welcome to SIRS Discoverer An award-winning database designed with the young researcher in mind.Strengthens research, reading, writing, and computer skills.Articles and graphics from more than 1,900 U.S. and international magazines, newspapers, and U.S. government documents.
3Welcome to SIRS Discoverer Materials are carefully selected for their educational content, interest, and level of readability.Because it includes middle and elementary curriculum topics, Discoverer can be easily integrated into classroom activities.
4SIRS Discoverer WebFind Now includes Discoverer WebFind as a content set.Dynamically updated collection of websites.Websites are evaluated for research value, high interest, credibility, and age appropriateness.Sites are monitored for content changes by SIRS' sophisticated software.
5How Can I Utilize SIRS in My Library or Classroom? SIRS Solutions Make The GradeHow Can I Utilize SIRS in My Library or Classroom?Research PapersPersuasive SpeechesDebate Team ResearchCurrent Events DiscussionsConsult Primary Source MaterialsAnalyze Statistical DataFind Materials Linked to State, National, Canadian StandardsSupplement Outdated TextbooksCreate Reading ListsProvide PathfindersCurriculum IntegrationHomework HelpDownload Photographs, Graphics, Maps, Charts
6Database Features What’s Inside Activities Biographies Country Facts CareersFictionHolidaysPathfindersPhoto EssaysPicturesMaps of the WorldWebsites
7Database Features Top Pick Articles, images, and websites are regularly selected by our SIRS research team comprised of 40+ professionals with diverse educational backgrounds.Highlights interesting articles and images that are tied to timely themes.
8Database Features Pathfinders Research ideas to help pupils start researching right away. Includes:Born this Month BiographiesHolidays & Celebrations World culturesChallenge Quest Quiz and pathfinders aid information literacySuggested Research TopicsStart research with these top searches
9Database Features Activities Provides a shortcut to full-text articles that offer activities:Science experimentsCraft projectsWriting activitiesActivities are marked with a label in the article results list (an a) to make them easy to identify within results.
10Database Features Biographies 1,500+ full-text biographies of famous and notable people are available, including U.S. Presidents.Available in multiple reading levels.WebFind features sites with biographical information on artists, scientists, inventors, historical figures, and more.
11Database Features Fiction From Historical Fiction to Myths and Fairytales, SIRS Discoverer provides hundreds of articles, and websites, to suit every interest.
12Database Features Country Facts Articles with information on nearly 200 countries.Printable maps, flags, population statistics, government information, languages spoken, economic data, history.Many countries also have links to Culture Facts.In addition, profiles and graphics are included for every U.S. State and Canadian Province.
13Database Features Photo Essays Photo Essays portray social issues and global concepts.Each topic consists of several essays containing photographs, maps, or other graphic elements, along with brief, informative text.
14Database Features Pictures Keyword search or browse for pictures using an alphabetical index.33,000+ high-quality pictures accompany full-text articles.Pictures include photographs, illustrations, maps, charts, and more.Send pictures as attachments, or save to HD/CD/USB flash drives for use in presentations.
15Database Features Maps of the World More than 3,000 detailed, printable maps are available as an online reference almanac.Maps include all 50 United States, the provinces and territories of Canada, as well as nations and regions of the world.Includes U.S. Historical, World Historical, and Outline Maps.
16Additional resources and usage boosters available @ proquestk12.com Database FeaturesEducators’ ResourcesIncludes a collection of materials designed to help librarians and library patrons.Access anywhere in Discoverer from a link provided in the footer of every page, and on the home page.Additional resources and usage boosters proquestk12.com
17Database Features Educators’ Resources Podcasts What's New NewslettersReference ToolboxDiscoverer WorkbooksSource ListsDirectory of PublicationsLibrary Promotional MaterialsSystem Administrator OptionsFrequently Asked QuestionsFree online trainingMore
18Database Features Reference Works Current Events Spotlight of the MonthThe World Almanac ® for KidsEncyclopedia Britannica ®
19Database Features Current Events Dynamically updated with full-text articles and graphics.New content added daily.Editor-selected to encourage research and awareness of current events.
20Database Features Spotlight of the Month Spotlight of the Month features a new topic each month covering timely to encourage further research.Preview the upcoming spotlight for lesson planning, or review the archive from the previous year.
21Database Features World Almanac The World Almanac for Kids provides information on a variety of topics including people, countries, animals, the environment, and history.Search or browse a table of contents.View maps and other related graphics.
22Database Features Encyclopedia Search Encyclopedia Britannica's 17,440 entries.Research articles and images covering science, math, history, cultures, ideas, the natural world, places, people, and more.
23SIRS Discoverer Search Paths Three Search Methods1. Subject Tree SearchLocate content via 15 category buttons.Categories are divided into sub-topics, or “branches,” creating a subject tree.Useful when you have a general subject in mind and allows you to explore many different fields without limiting you to predetermined topics.
24Database Features Three Search Methods 1. Subject Tree Search Topics appear in each category and may be followed by article or website titles.An < indicates the branch has been expanded.Select the branch to return to that level of the tree.An > indicates there are additional levels beyond this branch in the tree.
25Database Features Three Search Methods 2. Keyword Search Boolean Operators AND, OR, NOTTruncation farm* -> farmers, farmingPhrase Searching “affirmative action”Natural Language Why is the sky blue?Article Sorting Relevance Date Lexile
26Database Features Three Search Methods 2. Keyword Search (Advanced) Additional search fields available, search by Title or Author, or together in conjunction with Full-Text.Reading Level Selectors: Easy, Moderate, ChallengingSearch in almanac or encyclopediaLimit results to a Lexile range.
27Database Features Three Search Methods 3. Subject Headings Search Use this method when you have a specific research topic in mind.Articles are indexed according to Library of Congress subject headings.
28Database Features Search Results Results are returned with special icons and tools that aid in selecting content:1. Source & Summary2. Article or Website Title3. Subjects4. Pictures5. Article Labelsa – Activityf – Fictionp – People6. Source/Publisher7. Date8. Size
29Database Features Source Tabs & Modify Source tabs have been added to help further narrow your results.A search box at the bottom enable users to modify a search without having to start over.
30Database Features Source & Summary Source information accompanies every full-text article and website.Summaries are written by SIRS editors to help students and teachers judge relevance quickly.
31Database Features Full-Text Articles 100% Full-Text Keyword bolding of search termsArticle Reading LevelsIn-line pictures support readingLinks to related articlesarticles and picturesPrint for reading or reference
32Database Features WebFind Sites Selected by subject specialists to ensure age appropriateness, credibility, reliability.Continually monitored for content changes.Source, Summary, and Descriptor information aids in determining content.Supports curriculum through assigned Reading Levels, Topics, and Subjects.
33Database Features Reading Levels General (All grades) Articles and sites are assigned a reading level according to editorial judgement, the Flesch Reading Ease and Lexile scale.Limit searches to include articles or websites of a single reading level or broader Lexile range, in any combination.General (All grades)Easy (Grades 1-4)Moderate (Grades 5-7)Challenging (Grades 8+)
34Lexile Score Table @ www.lexile.com Database FeaturesLexile Score Table @Reading LevelsAgeSchool YearTypical Lexile LevelWhy use two separate reading levels?SIRS editorially-assigned reading levels take into account subject matter, depth of coverage and Flesch Reading Ease scale.Lexile Scores provide a formalized measurement by which students and teachers can track their reading progress, one of the necessary requirements for NCLB funding.(All grade levels) (Grades 1-4) (Grades 5-7) (8th Grade & Beyond)
35Database Features Subjects Subjects are words or phrases based on Library of Congress subject headings that describe what an article is about and link to related articles.All articles and websites are hand-indexed to ensure relevant results.
36Database Features Pictures The Camera icon signifies that there are one or more pictures available.Select the icon to view a list.In addition, articles include inline thumbnail images, which assist researchers and create context.
37Database Features Article Labels a - Designates the article contains an activity.f - Designates the article is a work of fiction.p - Designates the article contains biographical information about a person.
38Database Features Email Users may full-text articles and pictures to their personal addresses right from the article display.
39Database Features Print A Print button displays at the top of each article.Allows quick and easy access to the print dialog box of your browser.
40SIRS Discoverer Additional Help SIRS educational and training materials meet the funding criteria for the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.Provide a means for testing student achievement and highlighting performance improvement strategies with student research worksheets.
41SIRS Discoverer Additional Help In addition, SIRS provides links to Standards Correlations in our Educator’s Resources area.Also online at proquestk12.com under Curriculum Support.
42SIRS Discoverer Additional Help Tutorial Dictionary &Thesaurus Help IndexSearch TipsHow to CiteWorkbooksEducators’ ResourcesBookmark
43Additional Aids Dictionary + Thesaurus A dictionary and thesaurus are available to assist users in defining words, checking spelling, choosing the perfect word, and more.
44Additional Aids Help Index Context-sensitive help provides detailed instructions on locating articles and using database features.SIRS Discoverer's Help feature may be searched by keyword or table of contents.All database keywords are indexed for easy reference.
45Additional Aids Search Tips Search tips are provided in a handy reference sheet that can be viewed or printed.Review meanings and search syntax.Learn how to choose a search method, use Boolean operators, phrase searching, and more.
46Additional Aids How to Cite How to Cite provides descriptions and real examples on how to cite using the Modern Language Association Format (MLA), the American Psychological Association Format (APA), and Turabian.
47Additional Aids Workbooks SIRS workbooks contain exercises that help users master search methods.Educator’s GuidePrimary School Edition, targeting grades 1-5Middle School Edition, targeting grades 6-8Available in PDF and HTML.
48Additional Aids Educators’ Resources Includes a collection of materials designed to help librarians and library patrons.Access anywhere in from a link provided in the footer of every page.
49SIRS Source Lists & More @ proquestk12.comDownload the latest source lists.Researcher, Discoverer, Renaissance, DecadesAdditional background information, training materials, posters, custom flyers, videos.
50SIRS Discoverer Questions. Call our ProQuest representatives at 1. 800 | <urn:uuid:144b6b0a-1590-4482-9b0e-551cc0728cbc> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://slideplayer.com/slide/680162/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886107744.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20170821080132-20170821100132-00695.warc.gz | en | 0.806476 | 2,547 | 2.875 | 3 | 1.751245 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Education & Jobs |
A 17th-century fresco in the Lateran Baptistery shows the vision of Constantine before the battle of the Milvian bridge in October 312. (Photo: Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP)
On October 28, 312, Emperor Constantine met Emperor Maxentius in
battle just outside the city of Rome at the Milvian Bridge, spanning the Tiber.
This battleoccurring exactly 1,700 years agois one of the most important
events in the history of Christendom, since it was through Constantine’s
victory that Christendom began. It is a battle well worth reflecting upon.
As is well known, the previous day Constantine experienced a
vision of a cross of light in the sky, with the words “By this sign you shall
conquer” (in Greek, not Latin, by the way). That night, so we are told,
Constantine had a dream wherein he was told to paint the cross on the shields
of his soldiers.
He did. And so it happened, as the vision said.
The next day, October 28, 312, Constantine defeated Maxentius.
Interestingly enough, Maxentius could have stayed within the walls of Rome. He
was plentifully stocked to endure a siege. Inexplicably, he decided to go out
and engage Constantine. His troops were defeated, and Maxentius himself drowned
in the Tiber trying to escape.
Such was the beginning of Constantine’s embrace of Christianity,
and such was the beginning of the transformation of the Roman Empire from
paganism to Christianity.
It is, again, a well-known story, and unfortunately, as with other
well-known stories, it is not well-known enough, or at least, not thought about
There are, for example, those who take Constantine’s conversion as
the beginning of the end of real Christianity. Christianity, they argue, is the
Christianity of the early Church, the Church before it became favored and hence
entangled with the empire, the pure Church, the Church before Constantine, the Church
of the martyrs.
The problem with this romantic vision of the pure early Church is
that it wasn’t shared by the early Church. We owe it to them to take things,
first of all, from their point of
From very early on Christians were horribly persecuted by the
pagan Roman Empire. When the famous great fire in Rome in 64 AD wreaked such
destruction (whether it was caused by Nero, or merely enjoyed by him), Nero
blamed the Christians as scapegoats, and made of them an imperial spectacle.
As the historian Tacitus tells us, “Their deaths were made
farcical. Dressed in wild animals’ skins, they were torn to piece by dogs, or
crucified, or made into torches to be ignited after dark as substitutes for
daylight. Nero provided his Gardens for the spectacle, and exhibited displays
in the Circus…”
Persecutions continued under the Emperors Domitian (ruled 89-96
AD), Trajan (98-117 AD), Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD), Septimius Severus
(193-211), Maximinus (235-238), Decius (249-251 AD), and Valerian (253-260 AD),
and then peaked in their severity under Diocletian (284-305) and Galerius
Leading right up to Constantine’s conversion in 312, Christians
periodically suffered the most horrible treatment by the pagan Roman state.
Christians were stripped and flogged with whips, put on the rack,
scraped with iron combs used to card wool, and had salt and vinegar poured over
their fresh wounds; they were slowly roasted to death over fires individually
or thrown on great piles to be burned alive en masse (an entire town in Phrygiamen,
women, and childrenwas set on fire by soldiers); they were strangled or run
through with swords; they were tied hand and foot, put into boats, and once
pushed out to sea, drowned; they were jailed, and then led into the arena to be
torn to pieces by panthers, bears, boars, and bulls; they had their skin torn
bit by bit with pottery shards, or they were decapitated; women were stripped
and hung upside down for public humiliation, and sometimes believers were hung
this way over a fire so as to be choked by the smoke; Christians had their
limbs tied to trees that were bent down and then let snap, tearing their legs
or arms from their bodies; sharp reeds were driven under fingernails, molten
lead was poured down backs, genitals horribly mutilated, eyes gouged out and
cauterized with a hot iron, and the list goes on.
I document these very real atrocities in such detail so as to
combat any notion of romanticism we might have about martyrdom. Christians then
were no more romantic about such hideous treatment at the hands of a pagan
state, than were Christians in the 20th century tortured and mowed down by the
If you think about what these Christians actually endured at the
hands of the pagan state, you will realize with what jubilation, what extreme
thankfulness to God, what declarations of it all being miraculous, Christians 1,700
years ago greeted the news of Constantine’s conversion.
And I do believe that is precisely the right attitude that
Christians today should have in rememberingindeed, celebratingthe conversion
of Constantine. Rarely has Divine Providence achieved so much in so short a
With Constantine’s favor, the Church began to blossom, and was free
to spread out all over the Western, and then Eastern, parts of the Empire,
thereby shifting its civilization from pagan to Christian moorings.
This was no small shiftit entailed a vast moral and political
transformation that laid the foundation and built the structure of Christian
To take some poignant examples, the pagan Roman culture happily
affirmed contraception, abortion, infanticide, suicide, homosexuality,
homosexual marriage, euthanasia, pornography, prostitution, concubinage,
divorce, pederasty, and the mass killing of human beings for entertainment in
gladiatorial combat. Once the emperors became Christian, both the Church and
the Christian imperium engaged in the moral transformation of pagan society,
and the Christian moral understanding was incorporated into law in the various
imperial codes. And also, quite unlike Rome, both the Church and Christian
state began to care for the poor and destitute, the widows and orphans.
What we notice, in the list of evils smiled upon by pagan Rome and
rejected by Christendom, is that so many of them have returned today. In many
respectswith our contemporary affirmation of contraception, abortion,
homosexuality, pornography, and so onChristians find themselves in a society not
very much different from the one in which, prior to Constantine’s conversion,
Christians were so severely persecuted.
The beneficial effects of Constantine’s conversion, we might say,
are coming undone. We are falling back into a pagan society where Christians are
no longer welcome.
So, in this celebration of Constantine’s conversion, we should
also pause to reflect more deeply on why we, in Western society, seem to be
converting back to paganism.
Now all of this doesn’t mean that Constantine’s conversion was
without its ambiguities. If we’re going to celebrate, it must be done soberly,
so to speak.
To begin with, imperial sponsorship of Christianity did lead to periods
of imperial control of the Church, and in emperors after Constantine, to the
corruption of doctrine itself. Here, too, there is ambiguity.
Constantine himself called the famous Council of Nicaea (325), the
council from which all Christians have received the Nicene Creed outlining the
basics of the Christian faith. Contrary to our notion that everyone in the early
Church was singing the same doctrinal tune, the bishops of the third-century Church
were themselves split into irreconcilable factions, those who affirmed Christ’s
full divinity and those who declared that he was created and hence a creature
(the Arians, after the bishop Arius). Scripture itself couldn’t decide the
issue because both sides were quoting it to their purposes, and in fact, the
canon of the New Testament had yet to be officially decided.
Constantine demanded that the gathered bishops settle the issue
(rather than, as a pagan emperor might, simply deciding the issue for himself).
All Christians holding to the Nicene Creed as the fundamental
statement of orthodoxywhich really means all Christians, since deviating from
the Creed means you’re something elseowe Constantine a debt of gratitude. He
made the bishops settle the issue (and they did, on the side of orthodox
affirmation of Christ’s full humanity and divinity). Even more amazing, he refrained
from doing so himself.
But even though Nicaea turned out well, trouble soon arose, and it
was, alas, related to Constantine himself. (Remember, this is a sober,
well-informed celebration of Constantine).
To make a short story a bit longer, Constantine did not actually,
officially, really become a Christian until very near his dying day. Like so
many of the time, he held off on being baptized until the threshold of his
departure. Feeling the approach of death, he very piously laid aside the royal
purple, took upon himself the humble white robes of the to-be-newborn
Christian, and entered the waters of regeneration.
The bishop doing the royal baptism was one Eusebius, an Arian, that is, heretical, bishop.
It would take too long to explain how that came about, but when
heretical Arianism infected the imperial household, the nasty result was that
heresy became the favored orthodoxy of the emperors after Constantine.
Such is the danger of royal patronage: the Church, and even its
doctrine, can be defined by the state.
No doubt, that is why many who rue Constantine’s conversion do not
wish to celebrate its 1,700th anniversary. It is a sobering thought, very
sobering. The Church must not, cannot, be subordinate to the state. Otherwise,
it becomes a mere instrument of politics.
But that doesn’t mean that the Church can happily ignore the
political powers that be, or pretend that Christianity is entirely apolitical,
concerned only with things of the next life.
We are now, as I said above, entering a time in history when the
state is becoming more and more an adversary rather than a friend of
Christianity, more like the pagan state that persecuted Christians up until the
time of Constantine’s conversion.
For those wanting to gain a fresh, and I think very inviting,
perspective on Constantine, I highly recommend Peter Leithart’s Defending Constantine.
we certainly want to avoid what has been called “Constantinianism” (the
subordination of the Church to the interests of the state), we should also have
a very healthy appreciation of what was accomplished through his conversion. | <urn:uuid:9ea24542-6106-456c-bcd9-e4f472431376> | CC-MAIN-2016-07 | http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/1697/constantines_gift_to_christianity.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-07/segments/1454701159031.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160205193919-00272-ip-10-236-182-209.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95961 | 2,426 | 3.140625 | 3 | 2.934123 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Religion |
Students learn how to save lives with the National Center for Disaster Medicine & Public Health
BY RACHEL MARKFELDER
On Monday, March 27, the National Center for Disaster Medicine & Public Health (NCDMPH) conducted a study at Mason’s Johnson Center to calculate just how well the average person could apply first aid if needed.
The Stop the Bleed campaign teaches three simple steps to take immediate action in case of bleeding injuries. “A person who is bleeding can die from blood loss within five minutes,” according to the Department of Homeland Security’s website.
The first step is to firmly apply pressure with your hands on the bleeding site, and the second is to apply a dressing and maintain “firm, steady pressure,” according to the Department of Homeland Security’s website. The last step, which is practiced with kits at the events, is to properly apply a tourniquet.
The last step is where instructors, like the center’s Project Coordinator Victoria Klimczak, come into play. Klimczak taught students at the demonstration how to properly apply medical devices and compression to imaginary wounds.
Klimczak said that demonstrating how to properly apply a tourniquet is something she teaches every time she visits a university or organization, and she has “done this event before at other universities, including University of Maryland’s ROTC.”
Stop the Bleed events were launched in 2015 when the Department of Homeland Security set out to increase the number of people who can properly perform first aid. Their goal is that, in situations such as shootings, terrorist attacks or natural disasters, the number of survivors will increase, according to an article from The Journal of Emergency Medical Services.
“This is one part of the larger Obama White House initiative,” Kelly Gulley, project coordinator for the center, said. These campus research studies are just one of the efforts taken by the Department of Homeland Security. Along with research studies that teach first aid skills, students may also attend Bleeding Control for the Injured (B-Con) courses taught by the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians.
With these training sessions and research studies, Stop the Bleed is making progress on teaching the public how to save lives.
“We hope to do this in the future, possibly with the athletic department,” Klimczak said. | <urn:uuid:d30e0a45-6289-4f34-ad6b-a366fd310920> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://gmufourthestate.com/2017/04/03/mason-students-stop-the-bleed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463608652.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20170526090406-20170526110406-00170.warc.gz | en | 0.934961 | 501 | 2.75 | 3 | 2.381638 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Health |
Can we change our diets to help us lose weight?
Ben - Researchers in Aberdeen are now trying to develop new types of diet food that help you cut calories by making you feel fuller for longer. Dr. Alexandra Johnstone...
Alexandra - Well, I'm interested in appetite control and that mostly is applied within the context of weight loss because one of the main reasons why we fail to lose weight is because we feel hungry. So, if we can develop dietary strategies that help control appetite then we'll help people lose weight.
Ben - So, regardless of the content of the diet itself, the problem is that we keep eating and we eat more than we should.
Alexandra - Yes, we have a huge obesity epidemic in the UK and it will be nice to think if we would have preventative strategies to stop our waistlines expanding further, but we also need therapy. So, it's not just drug therapy. It's not just bariatric surgery. We need other lifestyle approaches to help people maintain and manage their body weight.
Ben - So, what is it that stops our appetite? How do we actually feel full? Is it more than just literally filling up the bag that is our stomach?
Alexandra - Well, the volume of the food of course is important and that's governed from the stomach, but the work that I'm interested in is the role of protein in influencing how full we feel. That's when I use the word 'satiety'. So, what I'm interested in is protein induced satiety, so what is it about protein, the macro-nutrient protein that helps fill us up and makes us feel fuller for an extended period of time? Just to remind you, our protein sources are primarily from meat, whether red meat or fish, poultry, but can also be non-meat sources from cereals, dairy products, and peas, beans, and pulses.
Ben - Protein of course is a huge over action termed for anything that's made up a long chain of amino acids. So, it really could be any source of protein or are we looking at specific proteins that we think have an effect?
Alexandra - The work that I've done would tend to indicate that vegetable and meat source protein are both effective at influencing appetite during weigh loss. So that's encouraging. So, it gives us insight to a variety of different sources that we can use to try influence how full we feel.
Ben - So, what do we think is actually happening when we eat protein compared to let's say, a high-fat diet or a high-carbohydrate diet?
Alexandra - That's a good question. I'm not sure I have the answer unfortunately, but some of the mechanisms that will be involved is when protein reaches the stomach and then is digested and partly absorbed, then that will influence the gut hormones that are released from the stomach and they are fed directly into the brain via the vagus nerve. So, we know that that's potentially one of the mechanisms. Other mechanisms, as you said is the amino acid structure of the proteins and that the change and influx of amino acid concentration in the blood would potentially also influence the brain. I keep mentioning the brain because it's our traditional view that the brain is very important in regulating and sensing changes in energy, and is thought to be our traditional hunger and fullness centre.
Ben - So, what are we going to do now to investigate this further, if we still need to shed some light on the physiological mechanism? What can we start doing?
Alexandra - Today, we've been speaking about a work that's funded by the EU. It's a very large multi-million project across 9 European countries and 18 academic and food industry partners. So, it's pulling together all that expertise to develop new products that can be tried and tested in humans to help control appetite. And skipping forward a few years, within the SATIN grant, or satiety innovation is the name of the grant, we'll be looking at how diet can influence appetite with a view to helping people lose weight.
Ben - So, lots of research is done telling us what foods we should and shouldn't eat, and the right sort of balance, and how much red meat we're supposed to eat per day, and so on. You're taking that a step further in looking at developing new foods that have the right protein mix or the right components to actually make us feel fuller.
Alexandra - That's exactly right, yes. We will be testing it in a whole diet, it's going to be done in Denmark, so we have volunteers where they're provided all of their food items for an extended period of time - say, 6 months. So, we'll be able to look at changes in body weight over that prolonged period of time. So it's quite a challenging project.
Ben - The other way to look at this though is that problem is responsible for telling people that they're full, and we know some people in conditions where they might be ill, need to actually eat more and they need to overcome their own feeling of fullness in order to take on more calories. Can we do essentially the reverse of what we're talking about and engineer foods so that people can take more on before they feel satisfied?
Alexandra - Yeah, that's a very good point to make in that although we're dealing with the obesity epidemic, there is a small proportion in the UK, nonetheless, extremely important and that's the elderly undernourished. Protein probably does have a role to play and certainly, some of my work involved in other EU funded projects, looking at the role of protein in a liquid form and how that influences appetite and food intake. So, in that sense, it's used as a between meal kind of supplement in order to give them essential nutrients and vitamins, and minerals in a drink form that can help potentially improve quality of life. | <urn:uuid:eb1942ed-d146-49cb-ad5a-106fa74d3da6> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/interviews/can-we-change-our-diets-help-us-lose-weight | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818690029.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20170924134120-20170924154120-00244.warc.gz | en | 0.972152 | 1,208 | 2.578125 | 3 | 2.81838 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Health |
Ewing Young had thirteen 90-pound packs of beaver fur in his possession in early May 1827, and he wasn’t interested in having them confiscated. According to the rumors, outgoing Governor Narbona was cracking down on trappers without the proper permissions and incoming Governor Manuel Armijo was likely to be even stricter than Narbona.
So Young did the only sensible thing an American trapper could do. He hid his furs at the Pena Blanca home of his associate Luis Maria Cabeza de Baca.
But he had neglected to realize that some of the men with him might have different ideas about the most sensible approach to government mandates. A member of his trapping party, Ignacio Sandoval, told officials in Santa Fe what Young was up to.
From that point on, things took a turn for the worse. Governor Narbona ordered soldiers to Pena Blanca to confiscate the furs and, in the process, Luis Maria Cabeza de Baca was killed. Then Manuel Armijo became governor on May 20 and signed an order for Young’s arrest for illegal trapping. Young seems to have talked his way out of that predicament and instead got permission to clean the confiscated furs. He and the Santa Fe alcalde were in front of the governor’s long adobe palace, shaking out and inventorying the furs, when another member of Young’s trapping party appeared on the scene. Milton Sublette grabbed a bundle of pelts and made off with them.
When Sublette and the furs disappeared, the governor blamed Ewing Young. He called Young to the palace and threatened him with jail. Young turned on his heel and walked out of Armijo’s office, but he wasn’t free for long. And when the soldiers did catch up with him, he was thrown in the calaboza, where he languished until he became ill and was finally released.
But he didn’t get his furs back. Many of them had been badly damaged by rain leaking through the roof of the building where they were stored, so they were sold for about two-thirds what they would have brought in good condition. The total was still a decent amount, about $3500. But it’s not clear who received the resulting funds. After all, the plews were government-confiscated property.
Sources: Carl P. Russell, Firearms, Traps, and Tools of the Mountain Men, Skyhorse Publishing, 2010; David J. Weber, The Taos Trappers, University of Oklahoma Press, 1970. | <urn:uuid:25b71cec-2b27-4f9d-bcd0-780e0007369f> | CC-MAIN-2018-39 | https://lorettamilestollefson.com/2018/05/19/fur-catch-causes-nothing-but-trouble/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-39/segments/1537267160142.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20180924031344-20180924051744-00205.warc.gz | en | 0.983873 | 539 | 2.75 | 3 | 2.976011 | 3 | Strong reasoning | History |
On Valentine's Day 2011, we explored the correlation that appears to exist between what motor gasoline prices are today and what the unemployment rate will be two years from now. At the time, we found that:
While the correlation is far from a perfect match, what we do see suggests that Americans can indeed use the real price of gas at the pump to reasonably anticipate how the unemployment rate will change two years down the road.
We then went on to create a tool where anybody can plug in the average price of gasoline today to forecast the U.S. unemployment rate two years later (we later simplified the tool, which is currently featured at the top of our website in our "Good Morning, White House Staffer" feature.)
At the time, we offered a vision of two possible scenarios based on the U.S. Energy Information Administration's projections of average U.S. motor gasoline prices that would play out through the end of 2012 (emphasis ours):
For example, using the default data for our tool, which takes the average retail price of motor gasoline in the United States from 21 February 2011 and pairs it with the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) from January 2011, our tool projects that the unemployment rate will be about 8.3%, which is lower that the 9.0% unemployment rate reported in January 2011, suggesting a mild improvement from now until then.
However, if average gasoline prices rise quickly to exceed $3.50 per gallon across the nation, as they already have in California, our tool would project that no significant improvement in the U.S. unemployment rate will take place over the next two years.
This year, we've watched the second scenario take hold. What's more, those higher gasoline prices have forced the White House to alter its view of how the U.S. economy will perform through the end of 2012 (emphasis ours, again):
President Obama's mid-session budget review confirms what most private and government projections have recently concluded -- that the economy is considerably weaker than earlier forecasts held, and won't fully recover from the Great Recession for years.
Most troubling, both for the country and for Obama politically, is that near-term unemployment is expected to remain significantly higher than expected, averaging 9 percent in fiscal year 2012.
Obama's budget office initially calculated its economic forecast based upon data available through June. Even that data presaged an 8.8 percent average unemployment rate in 2011 and an 8.3 percent average rate next year. But the mid-session review got delayed, and when the Office of Management and Budget revised it to incorporate the data through the end of August, the picture became much gloomier. Unemployment will average 9.1 percent this year, and 9.0 percent next year, OMB concluded, and won't dip below 7 percent until 2015 at the earliest.
Don't those numbers look familiar! Our site's "Good Morning, White House Staffer" feature would appear to be attracting its target audience!
But they would really rather you not think the much higher-than-they-expected unemployment rate they now expect through the end of 2012 has anything to do with the average retail price of gasoline in the United States:
The revised figures "reflect the substantial amount of economic turbulence over the past two months," OMB says, triggered by the European debt crisis, the earthquake in Japan, congressional brinkmanship over the debt ceiling among others. They also take into account the fact that GDP growth in the first half of fiscal year 2011 turned out to be significantly lower than originally thought.
Because that would mean having to admit that the higher-than-expected gasoline prices that we've seen this year are not so much an accident, but rather, a signature achievement of an administration that has consistently sought to increase gasoline prices in the U.S.:
Odd that the Obama administration wouldn't want to trumpet or draw attention to the successful achievement of another one of the President's major domestic policy objectives.
Instead, the President is becoming increasingly desperate as he tries to force the U.S. Congress to pass another massive stimulus package to try to "create or save" more jobs that even his party's leaders in the Senate are hesitant to take up.
Because maybe, just maybe, those White House staffers have finally worked up their own chart showing the correlation of average U.S. gasoline prices and the U.S. unemployment rate two years later, and realized that it looks like this:
Going by the elevated motor gasoline prices that have come to characterize Barack Obama's years as U.S. President, it appears that the U.S. unemployment rate will skyrocket up to 11% early in 2013 if the correlation between gasoline prices and the unemployment rate two years later continues to hold.
Regardless, whoever wins the Presidential election in November 2012 is going to have their work cut out for them in cleaning up what looks to be one big man-caused disaster.
U.S. Energy Information Administration. Short-Term Energy Outlook - Real Energy Prices. [Excel spreadsheet - monthly real U.S. City Average Motor Gasoline Prices]. Accessed 14 September 2011.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey, LNS14000000, Seasonally-Adjusted Unemployment Rate. Accessed 14 September 2011.
Previously on Political Calculations
- Surprising Impotence
- Who's Behind the Drop in Gas Prices?
- Changing the Outlook for Oil Prices
- Holy Gas Prices Batman! It's the New Batmobile!...
- Using Gas Prices to Forecast the Unemployment Trend
- Correlating the Price of Gas and the Unemployment Rate
- Why Are Americans Driving Less?
- How Much Does Your Commute Cost You?
- Should You Move Closer to Work to Save Commuting Costs?
- How to Save Money on Gas, Without Driving Less
- How Much Are Higher Gas Prices Really Hurting You?
- Should You Trade in Your Gas Guzzler?
- Is It Worth the Drive?
- Do Hybrids Really Save Money?
- How Much Do You Pay in Gas Taxes? | <urn:uuid:2ef5fda3-1957-4858-85e1-4876f63319ea> | CC-MAIN-2015-22 | http://www.businessinsider.com/gas-prices-the-unemployment-rate-and-desperation-2011-9 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-22/segments/1432207931085.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20150521113211-00197-ip-10-180-206-219.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948845 | 1,256 | 2.515625 | 3 | 2.914246 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Politics |
Anatidae - Ducks, Geese and Swans
The 162 species of ducks, geese and swans are found throughout the world in all manner of wetland habitats from small ditches to rugged coasts (though they generally eschew the open ocean). They range in size from the small teals (weighing 250g-300g) to the swans, which may weigh 15kg or more. All species are aquatic, with webbed feet and a broad, flattened bill. Nearly all nest on, or beside the water, though a few, such as the Goldeneye nest in holes in trees. Ducks and geese produce large clutches of eggs (up to 10-15), though swans tend to lay fewer.
Swans are amongst the largest flying birds in the world with long necks and a wingspan of over six foot; most of the 7 species have an all-white plumage. The Mute Swan is found in parks and lakes throughout Britain, the other two species are winter visitors from their arctic breeding grounds.
Geese are intermediate in size between ducks and swans and most breed in the far north. The Greylag is the ancestor of all modern farmyard geese, though some wild birds do still breed in the northwest of Britain.
Ducks that occur in Europe can be split into three main groups: the dabbling ducks, such as the Teal, which up end feeding on weed and small insects on or just below the water's surface; the diving ducks, like the Tufted Duck which feed on the bottom for weed and small molluscs or insects, and so have feet set further back; and the seaducks, typified by the Eider, primarily marine species who dive for animal prey, with the mergansers actively pursuing fish and the like. The Mallard is the progenitor of the farmyard duck. Because of their colourful plumage, and ease of keeping, ducks are popular in bird collections and many escape each year - a further problem is that many species will mate with a bird of another species if the opportunity arises, creating confusing (but usually infertile) hybrids.
Regularly Occurring Species
One bird, twelve journeys, 60 000 miles and invaluable scientific data: PJ the Cuckoo has left an incredible legacy. | <urn:uuid:3d7770ac-fa90-4c75-8904-64992656b856> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/bird-families/waterfowl | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338244.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007175237-20221007205237-00634.warc.gz | en | 0.932318 | 524 | 3.453125 | 3 | 1.438475 | 1 | Basic reasoning | Science & Tech. |
© Rob3000 | Dreamstime
Once you’ve reached your senior years, there’s a better-than-average chance you have diverticulosis, the development of small pockets, or diverticula, in the muscular layers of the colon (large intestine). Sounds serious, right? Not always. In fact, most of the time these pockets are harmless. But, about four out of 100 people with them develop diverticulitis, which is inflammation or infection of one or more diverticula.
If you have diverticulosis or a history of diverticulitis, diet is important to help promote good digestive health, and it might help you avoid painful repeat episodes of the disease. Essentially, a diverticulitis diet is a colon-friendly diet.
Understanding Diverticular Disease
Diverticula range from pea-sized to marble-sized and form when increased pressure from gas, waste, or straining due to constipation is applied to weak areas of the colon wall. Although they can develop in the stomach or anywhere in the intestines, most diverticula occur in the sigmoid, the lower left side of the colon.
Diverticulosis usually does not cause symptoms, but sometimes the small blood vessels next to the diverticula become exposed, resulting in bleeding. In other instances, one or more diverticula become blocked with waste, fostering a buildup of bacteria and leading to the inflammation and infection of diverticulitis. The disease causes painful cramps that resemble appendicitis; diverticulitis symptoms, however, usually occur on the lower left side of the abdomen instead of the right. Some patients with diverticulitis develop chills or fever.
Most diverticulitis patients have a relatively mild attack and mild infection that resolves relatively quickly. Patients with severe diverticulitis may require hospitalization and intravenous antibiotics. Less commonly, abscesses or a perforation of the colon can occur, requiring emergency surgery.
Diverticulitis Diet Strategies
For years, seeds, nuts, popcorn, and other hard-to-digest foods were considered taboo for a diverticulitis diet. The fear was that these foods would become lodged in the diverticula and cause inflammation and other complications.
However, in its 2015 guidelines for managing acute diverticulitis (the most common form of the disease), the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) recommends against routinely advising patients with a history of diverticulitis to avoid eating seeds, nuts, and popcorn. Still, it’s best not to consume these foods during a bout of diverticulitis.
Diverticulitis Diet Recommendations
While your diverticula are inflamed or infected, your doctor will recommend you follow a low-fiber diverticulitis diet for a few days to allow your colon to rest.
At first on your diverticulitis diet, you might be limited to items such as water, pulp-free fruit juices, broth, gelatin, or tea or coffee (without cream). Then, as your symptoms begin to improve, you might move to lower-residue foods, such as white bread, white rice, or white pasta; milk, yogurt and other dairy products; poultry, eggs, or fish; or certain fruits or vegetables without seeds or skin. Your doctor and/or a nutrition specialist can guide you on the appropriate diverticulitis diet choices.
If you have diverticulosis and aren’t suffering acute diverticulitis, diet advice changes, and fiber becomes the focus. The AGA recommends that you get ample fiber from your diet or, if necessary, fiber supplements. A diet low in fiber can result in stools that are hard to pass and increased colonic pressure—the higher the pressure in the colon, the greater the risk of forming diverticula. Beans, peas, and lentils, as well as oats, and vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, and potatoes, are good sources of insoluble fiber, which helps move stool through the digestive tract.
The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies recommends consuming 38 grams of fiber a day for men up to age 50 and 30 grams a day for older men, while women up to age 50 and those age 51 and older should consume 25 and 21 grams of fiber a day, respectively. Unfortunately, most Americans eat only about 15 grams of fiber daily.
Still, the amount of fiber that promotes good digestive function varies from person to person. So, talk to your physician and/or a registered dietitian about the appropriate amount of fiber you need so that you produce normal, soft stools that pass easily. Plus, balance the pros of fiber consumption with the cons—namely, gas or bloating that you might experience from eating more fiber. To minimize these effects, try increasing your fiber intake gradually by five-gram increments over a few weeks.
Treat Your Colon with Care
Besides following a diverticulitis diet, you can take other steps to care for your colon and, potentially, reduce your risk of diverticular disease:
- Maintain a healthy weight. Research suggests that people who are overweight or obese face an increased risk of diverticulitis and diverticular bleeding. If you’re overweight or obese, work with your healthcare team to develop a diet and exercise plan that can help you lose weight.
- Stay physically active. Multiple studies have found that physical activity, especially more vigorous activity, can improve the function of the colon and help counter constipation, thus lowering pressure in the colon.
- Practice good bowel hygiene. Don’t put off going to the bathroom if you feel the urge. If you do, you can cause stool to back up in the colon and rectum, leading to constipation that increases colonic pressure.
Sources & Resources
For related reading, see these posts:
- Break the Diverticulitis Cycle
- 8 Diverticulitis Symptoms You Should Watch Out For
- Diverticulitis Definition, Treatments, and Prevention
Originally published in 2017, this post is regularly updated. | <urn:uuid:915ff5ad-864a-49dd-b664-c6b44f7eff99> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://universityhealthnews.com/daily/digestive-health/diverticulitis-diet-make-smart-food-choices/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575541288287.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20191214174719-20191214202719-00422.warc.gz | en | 0.91317 | 1,268 | 3.453125 | 3 | 2.13611 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Health |
Nitrogen gas plant is used for industrial production of the non-reactive gas. We get high purity nitrogen gas through distillation of liquid air. It is estimated that every year around 50 million tons nitrogen is produced. It is found in living beings, fossil fuels and coal. We manufacture nitrogen plants using the latest technology with premium quality materials and components. Being the leading nitrogen plant manufacturers, we pay a great deal of attention to the satisfaction of customers. Having years of experience in designing of the plant machinery, we have reputation of building well-designed nitrogen machines. Complete compliance with quality control has enabled us to get ISO 9008:2015 and CE certifications. Nitrogen abounds in the atmosphere of the planet earth constituting around 78%. For its various industrial and medical applications, it is known as the largest industrial gas.
Nitrogen Gas Plant
Applications of Nitrogen
It is a well-known fact that nitrogen is essential for chemical industry as it is used for making fertilizers, nitric acid, nylon, dyes, and explosives. Another important application is to create an un-reactive atmosphere, essential for preserving foods as well as for manufacturing transistors. It is so used in annealing stainless steel and numerous other products used in the manufacturing of steel. Annealing is a heat treatment which makes steel easier to work upon. Liquid nitrogen is used for cryo-preservation of, eggs and other cellular materials for medical research and reproductive technology. It is also used for freezing food so as to maintain their freshness.
- Oil & gas
- Beverage industry (coca cola ,juice bottling )
- Glass industry
- Freezing seafood
- Nitrogen refinery
- Tunnel freezing
- Easy installation and commissioning
- Low power consumption due to Low pressure (5 to 7 Bar) process
- Low maintenance due to no reciprocating parts
- Fully automatic air cooled design Rotary Air Compressor
- Nitrogen output at high purity up to 5 PPM
- CE certified product with design as per European Gas Association guidelines for ASP’s.
- Cryogenic expansion of air for cooling via Expansion Turbines
- No special civil foundation required for any part of the plant
- Hydrocarbon vapor level reduced below 0.003 PPM to ensure safe operation
Scope & Supply of Nitrogen Gas Plant
- Air Compressor: Rotary air compressor screw type can be used for smaller size plants up to 50 m3/hr & 1000 m3/hr. Upto 40000m3/hr. Centrifugal compressor can be used for higher size plants.
- Air pre cooling system: Air separation plants adopt chilling system in all air pre-Cooling systems.
- Air purification system: Molecular sieves are used in the air purification system to remove the Co2 & moisture for the process air at low- Pressure.
- Air separation column: (Air separation column-cold box) consists of outer steel casing, Main heat exchanger, liquefier, Bottom column, Top column, Condenser, Sub-cooler, Liquid oxygen & nitrogen filter. Cooling pipe line, insulation material, Digital electronic temperature indicator & scanner, PT 100 sensor, DP gauge monometer, Expansion valve with long stem type with pointer & index & wheel -1 set.
- Expander: Expander is used for giving cooling to the air for the liquefaction process and broken by booster, so as to reduce the expanded air volume, stabilize the upper columns working condition and reduce power consumption. The turbine expanders have complete trouble free working and long life and reliability.
- Control Panel: Nitrogen gas plants can be configured for automatic operation through a pc. This will use out switching valves of German or Japanese and motorized cryogenic valves on cold box.
|MODEL||CAPACITY IN M3/HOUR||NUMBER OF CYLINDERS PER DAY||Purity of oxygen produced||Pressure of oxygen in cylinders|
|OXYGEN NITROGEN PLANTS||UB-25||25||100||99.7%||150-200 BAR| | <urn:uuid:7e57cd4f-8aaa-4811-a933-3c142fe1e48e> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | http://www.nitrogenplants.com/products/nitrogen-gas-plant/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570986658566.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20191015104838-20191015132338-00402.warc.gz | en | 0.839067 | 850 | 2.90625 | 3 | 1.905049 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Industrial |
I’m so excited to announce that I’m bringing back Theme Thursday for fall and winter! Swing by each Thursday for tons of fun themes for speech-language therapy! To kick this series back off, I’m starting with a classic fall theme – Apples!
*This post contains Amazon Affiliate links*
First up, let’s talk about another Dice Drills craft hack! I adore this packet, because it’s so versatile! You can find this resource in my membership – The Speech is Sweet Club! Check out these fun apples!
This craft is super simple! Here are the directions:
- Print the Dice Drills pages on Astrobrights paper or students can simply color in the squares red, yellow, or green!
- Students trace a circle on the paper or just cut out an approximation of an apple.
- Cut out a rectangle out of brown construction paper.
- Glue the rectangle on the top of the circle (to create the stem).
- Cut out an oval from green construction paper.
- Glue the oval next to the stem to make a leaf!
Voila! Students will love taking their apple home and practicing their words!
Here is a “before” picture:
Your students will also love this Apple Trouble cut and paste craft! It can be found in my Apple Trouble book companion that’s in my membership:
There are also a few games I recommend for an apple theme!
- Apples to Apples Junior – This game is so much fun! It’s perfect for language therapy and or students who are working on making comparisons!
- Attribute Apples – This game is perfect for sorting, classifying, and comparing/contrasting!
- Hi-Ho Cherry-O – This game is a classic and you can usually find it in stores for only $5! Students can compare the different fruits that they gather, work on quantitative concepts, or you can simply use this game as a reinforcer.
- Apple Articulation
- Fall Interactive Articulation Notebook – features an apple activity! This is also found in my membership!
- Apple Themed Lesson Plans
Lastly, there are so many apple-tastic books to use in speech-language therapy! You’ll definitely want to stop by the library to check out some of these great picture books!
Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins
This is such a fun counting book and I love Pat Hutchins. An apple farmer is excited about all his apples! That is until his animals each stop by to grab one off of the the tree! Luckily, they save an apple for him and they later discover another apple tree! You can use this book to work on:
2) Quantitative Concepts
3) Vocabulary – This is perfect for working on farm themed vocabulary! Students can also compare/contrast the different animals!
Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington
This is a wonderful book to use during an apple theme in speech therapy! Annie picks and sorts her apples each fall! She also makes a variety of apple goodies and sells them at the market! Use this book to work on:
2) Vocabulary – discuss all of the things you can make out of apples! You can also sort them into categories (drinks, desserts, snacks, etc)
3) Following Directions – You can also make the applesauce recipe that is found at the end of the book!
Apples by Gail Gibbons
What is a theme without a Gail Gibbons non-fiction book?! haha.. Students will love learning about the history of apples and the science behind them. Use this book to work on:
2) WH Questions
3) Sequencing – Discuss how to plant an apple tree!
Bad Apple: A Tale of Friendship by Edward Hemingway
This is a brand new book to my collection and oh my! It is the sweetest story ever! Mac is a happy-go-lucky apple and one day a worm moves in! Mac and his worm, Will, become the best of friends! He’s so happy with his friendship, but one day the other apples realizes he has a worm and they begin to make fun of him! They tease him relentlessly until Will moves out, because he doesn’t want Mac to get bullied anymore! This leads Mac on a journey to find Will again.. seriously, so sweet! This book can be used to work on so many skills:
1) Social Skills – Discuss how to identify and handle bullies. This is also the perfect book for working on friendships.
2) Problem Solving
The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall
This is such a cute book! It follows an apple tree’s journey throughout all four seasons! It’s barren in the winter and blossoms in the spring. When it’s autumn, two sisters use the apples from the tree to make a pie! You can use this book to work on:
2) Compare/Contrast – Compare the apple tree throughout each season!
3) Inferencing – Have students infer what’s going to happen to the tree each season!
*It looks like this book can only be purchased new from the Scholastic Teacher Club.
Apple Trouble by Ragnhild Scamell
This is possibly my favorite apple themed book! It’s so hard to pin-point a favorite, but I think this is the one! A little hedgehog is ready to hibernate, but an apple falls onto her back and gets stuck! She can’t fit into her nest and seeks out a little help from her friends! It’s funny and endearing! This book isn’t in circulation anymore, except you can still buy it from the Scholastic Teacher Club! If you work in a school, you can order the book! If you don’t work in a school setting, you can buy it used on Amazon or Ebay! Use this book to work on:
There are a variety of sequencing activities found in my book companion!
2) Problem Solving
3) Cause and Effect!
Let’s take another peek inside the companion! It features interactive notebook activities, a flip book, clip cards, and more!
What books do you like to use during an apple theme?!
Thank you for stopping by! Be sure to check back next Thursday, I have another fun fall themed planned for you! | <urn:uuid:3230f4f4-a370-4d7f-b94f-c64dda8969cb> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | http://speechissweet.com/apple-theme-in-speech-therapy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250606975.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20200122101729-20200122130729-00201.warc.gz | en | 0.919687 | 1,350 | 2.703125 | 3 | 1.422158 | 1 | Basic reasoning | Education & Jobs |
Vesicular stomatitis is a notifiable disease
Under Queensland legislation, if you suspect the presence of any vesicular disease in pigs, you must report it to Biosecurity Queensland.
Call us 13 25 23 or
Emergency Disease Watch Hotline 1800 675 888
Vesicular stomatitis (VS) is caused by a virus belonging to the family Rhabdoviridae.
VS is an infectious viral disease of cattle, horses, pigs and people. The disease in animals is characterised by blisters in the mouth and on the feet and teats, clinically indistinguishable from those of foot and mouth disease (FMD). Rapid identification of the virus is essential to rule out the presence of FMD, although the involvement of horses would indicate that vesicular stomatitis is the most likely cause of the disease.
|Where the disease occurs||
The disease is confined to North and South America. Epizootics occurred in the United States in 1997 and 1998. There have been no occurrences in Australia.
|The disease in animals||
Clinical disease occurs in cattle, horses and pigs. Sheep and goats can be infected experimentally but natural disease is rare. Many species of American wildlife are susceptible to VS including deer, raccoon and skunks.
The earliest signs are fever and loss of appetite. Blisters develop on the tongue, in the mouth, just above the hooves or on the teats, near the teat opening. Teat blisters may worsen and inflammation of the mammary glands may develop and milk production cease. This may be followed by excess salivation, difficulty in eating, lip smacking and lameness.
The incubation period is short, generally 2-3 days. The disease can affect up to 100% of animals but death rates are usually low unless secondary bacterial infection causes complications.
The disease causes significant losses in livestock.
|Spread of the disease||
Infection is thought to be spread to, and between livestock, by:
The virus is relatively unstable and apparently survives no more than several days in premises that have housed infected animals. The virus is sensitive to most commonly used disinfectants, moderately high temperatures (50-60°C), acids, alkalis and ultraviolet light. The virus does not survive pasteurisation. Carrier or latent infections have not been demonstrated in domestic animals.
|Control of the disease||
The strategy is to eradicate the disease, recognising it could be transmitted by a variety of insect vectors and may not follow normal disease patterns. Eradication will involve:
Vaccination may have a role but its potential usefulness in eradication is not known.
|Can people get the disease?||
Humans can become infected with VS resulting in an influenza-like disease. | <urn:uuid:55b8b97a-2634-43af-a956-8073946adfe2> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | https://www.daf.qld.gov.au/animal-industries/animal-health-and-diseases/a-z-list/vesicular-stomatitis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886116921.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20170823000718-20170823020718-00522.warc.gz | en | 0.933142 | 575 | 3.34375 | 3 | 2.367744 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Health |
Early and Late Miscarriages
Miscarriage is the lay term for what is medically referred to as a spontaneous abortion. It refers to the loss of a pregnancy in the early stages, usually prior to 20 weeks or before the the fetus reaches 500 grams, where it is not viable for the fetus to exist outside of the uterus. It is also known as early pregnancy loss before 12 weeks although this term may also include an induced abortion where a woman purposefully undergoes any medical or surgical treatment to end the pregnancy.
Late miscarriages occur after the first 12 weeks and before the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. Up to 20% of pregnancies (2 out of 10) end in miscarriage and in the majority of cases this occurs in the first trimester (12 weeks). However, miscarriage is mainly a once off occurrence and a woman may go on to have a health full term pregnancy afterwards. Less than 1 out of 100 women will experience 2 to 3 consecutive miscarriages.
There is no guarantee that every pregnancy will go on to full term despite the best efforts of the mother, caregivers and medical professionals. While some factors such as advancing maternal age, generally over 35 years, is known to be associated with a greater risk of miscarriage, there is no sure way of knowing at the outset whether a pregnancy will end with the delivery of a healthy baby or in a miscarriage. Nevertheless, if a miscarriage happens more than once consecutively, it needs to be investigated further.
Why do women miscarry?
The exact reason for a miscarriage cannot always be determined. Intensive investigation is warranted in the event of recurrent spontaneous abortions. Some of the possible causes of a miscarriage includes :
- Genetic abnormalities, also known as chromosomal abnormalities, are the most common causes of miscarriage with most occurring within the first trimester and less frequently before 24 weeks.
- Various factors, sometimes unknown, may be teratogenic (causes embryo malformation) or mutagenic (causes gene mutation). This can at times be associated with lifestyle factors such as cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption and illicit drug use.
- Structural problems of the uterus, cervix and endocervical canal. This includes uterine fibroids.
- Previous uterine surgery can cause adhesions (scar tissue) which may also complicate the pregnancy and lead to miscarriage. This is known as Asherman’s syndrome. Certain medication may also be a causative factor particularly in an unplanned pregnancy. Surgical and medical factors are known as iatrogenic causes. Read more on drugs that affect pregnancy.
- Infections such as rubella (German measles), toxoplasmosis and Listeria infection.
- Chronic diseases particularly endocrine and gynecological disorders such as polycystic ovary syndrome, thyroid disorders, uncontrolled diabetes mellitus, Cushing syndrome and corpus lutem deficiency which is more often acute. Other conditions such as kidney disease, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), severe hypertension, sickle cell anemia and antiphospholipid-antibody syndrome may also be associated with a miscarriage.
- Lifestyle factors including tobacco use, alcohol consumption, illicit substances like cocaine and crack and excessive caffeine intake.
- Psychological and physical stress may also be responsible for a miscarriage.
- Injury to the pregnant uterus may be associated with assault, car accidents, falls or even a high voltage electric shock can also cause a miscarriage depending on the severity of the trauma. | <urn:uuid:42cf0642-0027-466b-8e79-c8fc6af71c0e> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | https://www.phaa.com/reasons-for-a-spontaneous-abortion-in-first-12-to-24-weeks-of-pregnancy.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583660529.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20190118193139-20190118215139-00002.warc.gz | en | 0.949928 | 712 | 3.3125 | 3 | 2.42328 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Health |
Raisins may be "nature's candy", but when the kids have their hands out for a treat, they may not be their first choice. Instead, let them try a variety of grape that manufacturers often use to produce the sweet snack, Black Monukka (Vitis vinifera "Black Monukka"). This variety of sun-loving seedless grape grows well in Sunset Climate Zones 6 through 24. After the first year, this drought-resistant table grape requires minimal care, allowing you to enjoy the fruits of your labor, without much actual labor.
Clear a site in your yard that provides at least seven to eight hours of southern or southwestern sun exposure everyday. The University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (see reference 4) also suggest locating an area that features a 3- to 4-foot-deep, well-draining soil layer above the hardpan, or stratifying layer of rock. This ensures the Black Monukka’s roots have enough room to spread.
Work a thin layer of compost or manure into the soil, as this is sufficient to provide enough nutrients for the vines to thrive. Spread the compost or manure over the ground and work it into the soil with a hoe.
Dig holes in rows that are approximately 8 feet apart and large enough to accommodate the grape seedling’s root balls. Providing this much space is crucial to ensure the growing vines have enough room to spread.
Remove the Black Monukka seedlings from their pots or burlap sacks. Examine their root balls for any infestations and remove any damaged or decaying roots and foliage. Carefully lower the root balls into the holes and backfill with the surrounding soil, paying attention that tops of the root balls are level with the soil’s surface.
Provide the newly planted grapes with enough water to moisten the ground, not create a muddy disaster. Pour the water directly over the vine’s base.
Continue to monitor the grapes during the first year of growth. Provide enough water to keep the ground around the vines moist, but avoid overwatering. After the first few weeks, only water the grapes during periods of drought.
Things You Will Need
- Compost or manure
- Wait until the second spring after planting before training the Black Monukka’s canes to grow along a trellis. When ready, secure two wire trellis’ that feature lower wires at 3 feet and upper wires at 5 to 7 feet. The grape’s canes are secured to the trellis at the two heights and trained to grow along the trellis over the following three to four years.
- Four Wind Growers: Grape Care
- University of California Garden Web: Growing Grapes in Your Backyard
- Gardening from the Ground Up: Growing Grapes in New Mexico
- BBC: How to Grow Grapevines
- University of California-Davis Integrated Viniculture: Black Monukka
- Grape Seek: Frequently Asked Grape Growing Questions...
- Learn2Grow: Vitis vinifera "Black Monukka" | <urn:uuid:fa619870-6d33-483f-86bc-2cbc40ddd1a7> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://homeguides.sfgate.com/plant-seedless-black-monukka-23175.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463608058.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20170525083009-20170525103009-00440.warc.gz | en | 0.921259 | 647 | 3.375 | 3 | 1.707299 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Home & Hobbies |
The True Effects of Alcohol on the Body
Discover the actual effects, long and short-term, that alcohol has on the body
Most of us are aware that excessive use of alcohol over a long period has extremely harmful effects on the body. This Alcohol Awareness Month, it is important to uncover the impact of the most widely used social drug – alcohol – on the body.
What is Alcohol Awareness Month?
Created by the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Alcohol Awareness Month was created to provide education on causes and effects and outreach surrounding the dangers of alcoholism to halt the growing number of alcohol addictions at a young age – like in college years.
The Effects of Alcohol
Alcohol does not have the same effect on every person – how much you drink, how often you drink, and what you drink play a large part in the effects seen. Also, your body’s unique composition like genetics, metabolism, and much more can affect how your body reacts to alcohol.
What are the Short-Term Effects of Alcohol on the Body?
- Altered Behavior – more susceptible to falls and accidents and interpersonal conflicts
- Blurred or Disrupted Vision
- Hangovers – nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration
- Alcohol Poisoning
- High Blood Pressure
- Inflammation of Skin
- Lack of Muscle Coordination
What are the Long-Term Effects of Alcohol on the Body?
Alcohol is the leading factor for over 200 diseases and injuries. Here are some of the most common long-term effects.
- Nutrition-related issues like malnutrition or overweight/obesity
- Liver failure
- Increase in mental health conditions
- Cognitive impairment
- Nerve pain
- Muscle weakness or atrophy
- Decreased fertility
- Increase transmission rate of infectious diseases like HIV
In addition to the possible long-term effects, the top three diseases caused by alcoholism are:
How to Avoid The Effects of Alcohol?
Not drinking alcohol is the only way to avoid the effects alcohol has on the body. To minimize the negative responses, you can drink at a low level or avoid binge drinking.
The chance of long-term risks increases the more alcohol you intake. Here are some quick tips to reduce lifetime risks:
- Drink no more than ten alcoholic drinks per week.
- Drink no more than four drinks per day.
- The amount you drink reflects directly in the alcohol-related bodily harm, so for some, no drinking is necessary.
Compassionate & Exceptional Care
If you are suffering from a medical emergency from excessive alcohol intake, Albuquerque ER & Hospital is here 24/7/365 to get you feeling better quicker. At our state-of-the-art facility, you and your loved ones can be treated for any illness or injury, from IVs for severe dehydration to inpatient care for severe alcohol poisoning, by our expert staff, matched with our advanced technology.
Disclaimer: As a service to our readers, Albuquerque ER & Hospital and Nutex Health state no content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinicians.
Leave a Comment | <urn:uuid:01a458d3-d640-4077-85e7-650d9d8ca619> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://abqhospital.com/the-true-effects-of-alcohol-on-the-body/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224653501.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20230607010703-20230607040703-00620.warc.gz | en | 0.905376 | 650 | 3.15625 | 3 | 2.083558 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Health |
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|Cathedral Church of St Martin|
Leicester Cathedral exterior
|Denomination||Church of England|
|Number of spires||1|
|Spire height||67.1 metres (220 ft)|
|Diocese||Leicester (since 1927)|
|Subdean||Alison Adams, Acting Dean and Canon Pastor (SSM)|
|Canon(s)||Karen Rooms, Canon Missioner|
|Director of music||Christopher Johns|
The Cathedral Church of St Martin, Leicester, usually known as Leicester Cathedral, is a Church of England cathedral in the English city of Leicester and the seat of the Bishop of Leicester. The church was elevated to a collegiate church in 1922 and made a cathedral in 1927 following the establishment of a new Diocese of Leicester in 1926.
- 1 History
- 2 Architecture
- 3 Services
- 4 Cathedral staff
- 5 Choir
- 6 Organ and organists
- 7 Bells
- 8 Tomb of Richard III
- 9 See also
- 10 References
- 11 External links
A church dedicated to St Martin has been on the site for about a thousand years, being first recorded in 1086 when the older Saxon church was replaced by a Norman one. The present building dates to about that age, with the addition of a spire and various restorations throughout the years. Most of what can be seen today is a Victorian restoration by architect Raphael Brandon. The cathedral of the former Anglo-Saxon diocese of Leicester was on a different site.
A cenotaph memorial stone to King Richard III of England was until recently[when?] located in the chancel; it was replaced by the tomb of the king himself. The monarch, killed in 1485 at the Leicestershire battlefield of Bosworth Field, had been roughly interred in the Greyfriars, Leicester. His remains were exhumed from the Greyfriars site in 2012 and publicly identified in February 2013. Sir Peter Soulsby, Mayor of Leicester, and David Monteith, the cathedral's canon chancellor, announced the king's body would be reinterred in Leicester Cathedral in 2015. This was carried out on 26 March.
The East Window was installed as a monument to those who died in World War I. The highest window contains a sun-like orb with cherubs radiating away from it. In the centre Jesus sits holding a starry heaven in one hand with one foot on a bloody hell. Surrounding Jesus are eight angels whose wings are made from a red glass. To the far right stands St Martin, who stands on the tail of a dragon. The dragon goes behind Jesus and can be seen re-emerging under the feet of St George who stands on its head. On the bottom row can be seen from left St Joan of Arc, Mary, Jesus with crying angels, Mary Magdalene, James, and St Martin of Tours. The window includes an image of a World War I soldier..
The tower and spire were restored both internally and externally in 2004–5. The main work was to clean and replace any weak stonework with replacement stone quarried from the Tyne Valley. The cost was up to £600,000, with £200,000 being donated by the English Heritage, and the rest raised through public donations.
The cathedral has close links with Leicester Grammar School which used to be located directly next to it. Morning assemblies would take place each week on different days depending on the school's year groups, and services were attended by its pupils. The relationship continues despite the school's move to Great Glen, about seven miles south of Leicester.
In 2011, after extensive refurbishment, the cathedral's offices moved to the former site of Leicester Grammar School, and the building was renamed St Martin's House. The choir song school also relocated to the new building, and the new site also offers conference rooms and other facilities that can be hired out. The new building was officially opened by the Bishop of Leicester in 2011.
In July 2014, the cathedral completed a redesign of its gardens, including installation of the 1980 statue of Richard III. Following a judicial review decision in favour of Leicester, plans were made to reinter Richard III's remains in Leicester Cathedral, including a new tomb and a wider reordering of the cathedral interior. Reinterment took place on 26 March 2015 in the presence of Sophie, Countess of Wessex (representing the Queen) and Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
Leicester Cathedral is a Grade II* listed building comprising a large nave and chancel with two chancel chapels, along with a 220-foot high spire which was added in 1862. The building has undergone various restoration projects over the centuries, including work by the Victorian architect Raphael Brandon, and the building appears largely Gothic in style today. Inside the cathedral, the large wooden screen separating the nave from the chancel was designed by Sir Charles Nicholson and carved by Bowman of Stamford. In 2015 the screen was moved eastward to stand in front of the tomb of Richard III, as part of the reordering of the Chancel by van Heyningen and Haward Architects.
The Vaughan Porch which is situated at the south side of the church was designed by J. L. Pearson, who was also the architect of Truro Cathedral. It is named the Vaughan Porch because it was erected in memory of the Vaughans who served successively as vicars throughout a great part of the nineteenth century. The front of the porch depicts seven saintly figures set in sandstone niches, all of whom are listed below.
- Guthlac c 673–713 was a Christian saint from Lincolnshire who lived when Leicester was first made a diocese in the year 680
- Hugh of Lincoln c 1135–1200 was a French monk who founded a Carthusian monastery and worked on the rebuilding of Lincoln Cathedral after an earthquake destroyed it in 1185. In Norman times Leicester was situated within the Diocese of Lincoln.
- Robert Grosseteste c 1175–1253 was an English statesman, scholastic philosopher, theologian, scientist and Bishop of Lincoln. He is also the most famous of the medieval Archdeacons of Leicester.
- John Wycliffe c 1329–1384 was an Oxford scholar and is famous for encouraging two of his followers to translate the Bible into English. Foxe's famous "Book of Martyrs" (which commemorates the Protestant heroes of the reformation era) begins with John Wycliffe.
- Henry Hastings c 1535–1595 was the 3rd Earl of Huntingdon. The Leicester home of the Earls of Huntingdon was in Lord's Place off the High Street in Leicester, and Mary, Queen of Scots stayed there as a prisoner on her journey to Coventry.
- William Chillingworth 1602–1643 was an Oxford theologian, a friend of Jeremy Taylor and nephew of Archbishop Laud. He was Master of Wyggeston Hospital and became a Chaplain to the Royalist army in the Civil War.
- William Connor Magee 1821–1891 was Bishop of Peterborough and encouraged the building of many of Leicester's famous Victorian churches and a large number of parochial schools. He appointed the first suffragan Bishop of Leicester, Francis Thichnesse, in 1888. Magee later became Archbishop of York.
The cathedral contains four separate chapels, three of which are dedicated to a different saint. St Katharine's and St Dunstan's Chapels act as side chapels and are used occasionally for smaller services and vigils. St George's Chapel, which is located at the back (or west) of the cathedral commemorates the armed services, and contains memorials to those from Leicestershire who have been killed in past conflicts. The new Chapel of Christ the King adjoins the East Window.
St Katharine's Chapel is located on the north side of the Cathedral to the left of the sanctuary. In the window above the altar is St Katharine, who was tied to a wheel and tortured (hence the firework named after her). Below this is a carved panel showing Jesus on the cross with Mary and John on either side of him. St Francis of Assisi and the 17th-century poet Robert Herrick are also pictured – indeed, the chapel is sometimes referred to as the "Herrick Chapel".
St Dunstan's Chapel, located on the other side of the chancel to St Katharine's Chapel, is specially put aside for people to pray in. A candle burns in a hanging lamp to show that the sacrament of Christ's body and blood is kept here to take to those who are too ill to come to church. The walls of the chapel are covered with memorials to people who have prayed in the chapel. St Dunstan was Archbishop of Canterbury in the 10th century, and scenes from his life are depicted in the south-east window.
St George's Chapel was the chapel of the Guild of St George. The effigy of England's national saint, on a horse, was kept here and borne through the streets annually on 23 April in a procession known as "riding the George". The legend of George killing a dragon is shown in one of the chapel's windows. The chapel, enclosed by a carved wooden screen, was reconstructed in 1921 and contains memorials to the men of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment. Here the battle honours of the Regiment and the names of those killed in the Crimean, South African and two World Wars are recorded and remembered.
The new Chapel of Christ the King was created at the east end of the cathedral as part of the re-ordering work for the burial of Richard III.
Provosts and deans
- 1927–1934 Frederick MacNutt (was the first provost of Leicester Cathedral, and also acted as Archdeacon of Leicester, 1921–1938, and was subsequently a Canon at Canterbury Cathedral, 1938–1948)
- 1938–1954 Herbert Jones (subsequently Dean of Manchester, 1954–1963)
- 1954–1958 Mervyn Armstrong (subsequently Bishop of Jarrow, 1958–1965)
- 1958–1963 Richard Mayston
- 1963–1978 John Hughes
- 1978–1992 Alan Warren
- 1992–1999 Derek Hole
- The title of Provost was changed in 2002 to Dean.
- 2000–2012 Vivienne Faull (was the first Dean of Leicester Cathedral after the post was renamed in 2002. She was also the first female dean to be appointed in the Church of England. She became Dean of York Minster in September 2012).
- 2013–present David Monteith
Canons and clergy
The Leicester Cathedral Choir is made up of the Boys Choir, the Girls Choir and the Cathedral Songmen. Boys and girls are recruited from schools throughout Leicester and Leicestershire, whilst many of the songmen originally joined the choir as trebles and have stayed on after their voice broke. The cathedral also offers scholarships worth around £1000 a year to gap year and university students at Leicester University and De Montfort University. Whilst the choir occasionally produces CDs and other recordings, it is also one of the few cathedral choirs never to have appeared on BBC Radio 3's Choral Evensong. As part of the preparations for the reburial of King Richard III at Leicester Cathedral, British furniture designers Luke Hughes designed new choir and clergy furniture from solid oak for a new choral layout within the nave.
The choir participates in regular festivals, with the annual RSCM Leicestershire festival in September often taking place in the cathedral itself. Each year during February the choir joins those of Derby and Coventry cathedrals and, more recently, Southwell Minster for what is known as the Midlands Four Choirs Festival. Hosting duties rotate among the four cathedrals, although the repertoire is chosen, and music conducted, by the directors of music of all participating choirs.
The cathedral choir tours abroad typically once every three to four years, and in both 1998 and 2005 they visited Japan. Other destinations abroad have included Rhode Island in the United States, Germany, and France. In other years, the choir has spent a week during the summer in residence at another English cathedral church, such as Lincoln, Wells, York and Chester. The boys and girls choirs, as well as the younger songmen also spend five days in August at Launde Abbey, a retreat house in east Leicestershire.
Organ and organists
The present organ was installed by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd in 1873 and since then has been rebuilt by Harrison and Harrison in 1929 and 1972. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.
Organists and directors of music
- William Boulton (to 1765)
- Anthony Greatorex 1765 – c. 1772 (father of Thomas Greatorex, who became organist at Westminster Abbey)
- Martha Greatorex 1772–1800 (daughter of Anthony Greatorex)
- Sarah Valentine 1800–1843 (sister of Ann Valentine, who was organist at St Margaret's Church, Leicester)
- John Morland 1870–1875
- Charles Hancock 1875–1927
- Gordon Archbold Slater 1927–1931 (subsequently organist at Lincoln Cathedral 1931–1966)
- George Charles Gray 1931–1969 (previously organist at St Michael le Belfrey, York and St. Mary le Tower, Ipswich
- Peter Gilbert White 1969–1994 (previously Assistant Organist of Chester Cathedral 1960–1962)
- Jonathan Gregory 1994–2010 (previously organist of St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast, now Director of Music of the UK Japan Choir)
- Christopher Ouvry-Johns 2011–present (formerly Choral Director in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Leeds)
Assistant organists and assistant directors of music
- Frederick William Dickerson
- Dennis Arnold Smith 1918
- Stanley Vann 1932 (subsequently Master of the Music at Peterborough Cathedral 1953–1977)
- Thomas Bates Wilkinson 1933
- Wallace Michael Ross 1951 (subsequently assistant organist at Gloucester Cathedral 1954–1958, and organist of Derby Cathedral 1958–1982)
- Sidney Thomas Rudge 1955
- Robert Prime 1965
- Geoffrey Malcolm Herbert Carter 1973 (subsequently organist of St Mary's Church, Humberstone)
- David Cowen 1995 (now Associate Organist of Leicester Cathedral)
- Simon Headley 1999 (now Assistant Director of Music – see below)
In 2013, the Assistant Director of Music's title was changed to Cathedral Organist and Assistant Director of Music.
- Simon Headley 2010–present (also acted as Acting Director of Music in the Autumn of 2010 between the departure of Jonathan Gregory and the appointment of current Director of Music, Christopher Ouvry-Johns)
The tower of the cathedral has 13 bells (including a peal of 12). These can be heard on Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings, with peals being rung on special days. The tenor bell weighs 25-0-20.
The following is the full list of the inscriptions on the thirteen bells.
- XII THE CORONATION BELL OF HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE VIth RECAST BY THE FREEMASONS OF LEICESTERSHIRE AND RUTLAND 12 May 1937. F B MACNUTT PROVOST C F OLIVER PROVINCIAL GRAND MASTER GOD SAVE THE KING H Watchorn Esq. Mayor J Nichols. W Capp Churchwardens Edwd. Arnold Fecit 1781
- XI THE NORTH BELL RECAST BY ALDERMAN SIR JONATHAN NORTH J.P. MAYOR OF LEICESTER 1914–1918 and WILLIAM ALBERT NORTH J.P. HIGH SHERIFF OF LEICESTERSHIRE 1935–36. 12 May 1937 GOD SAVE CITY AND SHIRES Recast by J Taylor and Co. 1879 Edward Arnold Fecit 1781 Thomas Ingram 1879
- X THE BELL OF THE CONGREGATION RECAST BY THE CONGREGATION OF THE CATHEDRAL 12 May 1937 GOD SAVE HIS CHURCH H Watchorn Esq. Mayor J Nichols. W Capp Churchwardens Edward Arnold Fecit 1781
- IX THE SAMSON SMITH BELL RECAST BY SAMSON SMITH OF LEICESTER 12 May 1937 CHRIST IS RISEN ALLELUYA H Watchorn Esq. Mayor J Nichols. W Capp Churchwardens Edwd. Arnold Fecit 1781
- VIII THEJARVISBELL RECAST BY WILLLAM GEORGE JARVIS CHURCHWARDEN AND DEPUTY WARDEN OF ST MARTINS 12 May 1937 ADESTE. FIDELES. GAUDETE. ORATE. Praise him upon the well tuned cymbals: Praise him upon the loud cymbals. 1781
- VII THE PARTRIDGE BELL RECAST IN MEMORY OF SAMUEL STEADS PARTRIDGE J.P. BY HIS WIFE ELIZABETH PARTRIDGE 12 May 1937 GOD SEND US PEACE IN CHRIST J Taylor & Co. Founders Loughborough MDCCCLXXIX Continentia THE STELFOX BELL (HALF-TONE) GIVEN IN MEMORY OF JAMES WALTER STELFOX, LAY CANON, CHURCHWARDEN AND DEPUTY WARDEN OF ST MARTINS BY HIS WIFE EVELYN MARSLAND STELFOX 12 May 1937 NON CLAMOR SED AMOR
- VI THE DANIELS BELL RECAST BY SAMUEL KILWORTH DANIELS, LAY CANON OF ST MARTINS IN MEMORY OF HIS WIFE CAROLINE DANIELS 12 May 1937 IN HIS WILL IS OUR PEACE
- V THE FIELDING JOHNSON BELL RECAST IN MEMORY OF THOMAS FIELDING JOHNSON MA, J.P. LAY CANON OF ST MARTINS AND HIS WIFE FLORENCE LYNE JOHNSON BY THEIR CHILDREN FLORENCE JULIA FIELDING EVERARD J.P. AGNES MIRIAM FIELDING JOHNSON, WILLIAM SPURRETT FIELDING JOHNSON 12 May 1937 PEACE TO THEM THAT ARE AFAR OFF AND TO THEM THAT ARE NIGH Rev. Edward Thomas Vaughan Vicar, Henry Sharpe Jones. Joseph Simpkin Church Wardens. John Taylor & Son Bellfounders Loughhorough Late of Oxford, Bideford Devon and St. Neots Hunts. Successors to the old and celebrated Founders Newcombe, Watts, Eyre and Arnold of Leicester. Names of high repute dating as early as 1560.
- IV THE GERTRUDE ELLIS BELL RECAST IN MEMORY OF GERTRUDE ELLIS BY HER DAUGHTER FREDA LORRIMER AND HER NIECE KATHLEEN BROWNING 12 May 1937 JOHN TAYLOR AND SON FOUNDER OXFORD AND LOUGHBOROUGH A.D. 1854.
- III THE BOWMAR BELL RECAST IN MEMORY OF WALTER HAMMOND BOWMAR BY HIS WIFE EVA BOWMAR 12 May 1937 JESU CHRISTE MISERERE NOVIS John Taylor & Son Founders Loughborough A.D. 1854.
- II THE JOHN EDWARD ELLIS BELL GIVEN IN MEMORY OF JOHN EDWARD ELLIS LAY CANNON, CHURCHWARDEN AND DEPUTY WARDEN OF ST MARTINS BY HIS WIFE MABEL ELLIS AND HIS DAUGHTER FREDA LORRIMAR AND HIS NIECE KATHLEEN BROWNING 12 May 1937 PRAISE GOD FOR BLESSED MARTIN, SOLDIER BISHOP SAINT
- I THE BELLFOUNDERS BELL GIVEN BY E DENISON TAYLOR BELLFOUNDER LOUGHBOROUGH 12 May 1937
Tomb of Richard III
On 26 March 2015, King Richard III was reburied in Leicester Cathedral. The last funeral for an English monarch prior to this was for Edward VIII, who died (as Duke of Windsor) in 1972, 43 years before Richard's burial.
His cathedral tomb was designed by van Heyningen and Haward Architects and made by James Elliott. The tombstone is deeply incised with a cross, and consists of a rectangular block of pale Swaledale fossil stone, quarried in North Yorkshire. It rests on a low plinth of dark Kilkenny limestone incised with Richard’s name, dates and motto carved by Gary Breeze and Stuart Buckle. The plinth also carries his coat of arms in pietra dura by Thomas Greenaway.
The remains of Richard III are in a lead ossuary, inside an English oak coffin crafted by Michael Ibsen, a direct descendant of Richard's sister Anne of York, and laid in a brick-lined vault below the floor, and below the plinth and tombstone.
- List of cathedrals in the United Kingdom
- List of ecclesiastical restorations and alterations by J. L. Pearson
- Leicester Cathedral Go Leicestershire
- "'Strong evidence' Richard III's body has been found – with a curved spine". The Daily Telegraph. London. 12 September 2012.
- "Richard III dig: DNA confirms bones are king's". BBC News. 4 February 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
- "£2m package to repair cathedrals". The Guardian. London. 29 January 2004.
- Leicester Grammar School Teamwork – Moral & spiritual well being Archived 3 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
- Leicester Grammar Junior School Who we are[permanent dead link]
- Neil Binley. "About St Martins House Leicester". stmartinshouse.com.
- Leicester's Richard III statue reinstated at Cathedral Gardens BBC News Leicester, 26 June 2014
- Richard III tomb design unveiled in Leicester BBC News, 16 June 2014
- Bird, Daniel (13 April 2017). "Queen visits Leicester: Her Majesty and Prince Philip attend Maundy Service". Retrieved 13 April 2017.
- The spire is a Broach Spire. Arts in Leicestershire Archived 14 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
- "Leicester Cathedral". Cathedral Plus. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- "Richard III Tomb and Burial". Leicester Cathedral. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- "The Vaughan Porch". Leicester Cathedral. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- Leicester Cathedral Guide
- "Service and Opening Times". Leicester Cathedral. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- "City's dean 'honoured' by new role at York Minster". Leicester Mercury. 6 July 2012.
- Diocese of York staff accessed 23 February 2013
- "The Very Rev Vivienne Faull appointed Dean of York Minster". BBC News.
- "New Dean of Leicester announced". anglican.org.
- "The Very Revd David Monteith installed as Dean". anglican.org.
- "Canon appointed at cathedral". accessmylibrary.com.
- Leicester Cathedral notice sheet, 2 October 2016
- Leicester Cathedral – 2011 Report and Annual Account
- "University Choral Scholarships". Leicester Cathedral. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- Warzynski, Peter. "New seating installed at Leicester Cathedral". Leicester Mercury. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
- Leicester Cathedral Tours Archived 5 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
- "BCSD - Leicester Cathedral Choir". boysoloist.com.
- "Home - Launde Abbey". Launde Abbey.
- "The National Pipe Organ Register - NPOR". npor.org.uk.
- Kroeger, Karl (Summer 2008). "Leicester's Lady Organists, 1770–1800" (PDF). CHOMBEC News. Bristol: Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth (5): 9–10.
- Kroeger, Karl (2001). "Valentine, John". In Sadie, Stanley. New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 26. London: Macmillan. pp. 207–8. ISBN 0-333-60800-3.
- Who's who in Music. Fourth Edition. 1962. p.229
- Dove, R. H. (1982) A Bellringer's Guide to the Church Bells of Britain and Ringing Peals of the World, 6th ed. Aldershot: Viggers
- "Richard III Tomb and Burial". Leicester Cathedral. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- "Richard III: Leicester Cathedral reburial service for king". BBC News. 26 March 2015.
- Gannon, Megan (19 September 2013). "Stately Tomb Design for Richard III's Reburial Revealed". LiveScience.
- "Richard III: Making of the Tomb". James Elliott. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- "Portfolio: Richard III Coat of Arms for tombstone in Leicester Cathedral". Greenaway Mosaics. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
- "Tomb Design". King Richard in Leicester. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leicester Cathedral.| | <urn:uuid:c2f6da8e-f026-46f2-8f60-31217307abd1> | CC-MAIN-2017-17 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leicester_Cathedral | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-17/segments/1492917121644.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20170423031201-00225-ip-10-145-167-34.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92709 | 5,357 | 2.546875 | 3 | 2.161034 | 2 | Moderate reasoning | Religion |
The new assessment of the sturgeons and paddlefishes of the IUCN-SSG
The latest global assessment conducted by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Sturgeon Specialist Group), dating back to 2010, classified all 27 species that compose the order of Acipenseriformes as Vulnerable to Critically Endangered. This has earned the Sturgeons the undesirable title of the animal group most at risk of extinction in the world. On 21 July 2022, the updated version of the Acipenseriformes status was published, again carried out by the IUCN-SSG. Unfortunately, the situation has generally worsened. One species, the Chinese paddlefish, Psephurus gladius, is to be considered extinct. For eight species, the status is more critical than the 2010 assessment; the status of 17 species remained the same criticality, and the status for one species, though still listed as critical, did improve.
The Yangtze sturgeon or Dabry’s sturgeon, Acipenser dabryanus, also endemic to the Yangtze River in China, has been reclassified from ‘Critically Endangered’ to ‘Extinct in the Wild’ since, even if animals can still be caught in their native habitat, they are from restocking programs, and no natural reproduction has been observed in the last 20 years. Only 22 remaining individuals (11 males and 11 females) of the Chinese sturgeon, Acipenser Sinensis, participated in the last recorded natural spawning in 2015, as assessed by genetic investigation. The ship sturgeon, Acipenser nudiventris, is one of the eight species found in Europe and has been declared extinct in the Danube River, even though all European species of sturgeon are granted protection status under the 1992 Habitat Directive.
In general, the species that are in less dramatic conditions are those in North America. Conservation programs and other management actions were put in place before many of the natural populations were on the verge of extinction. However, even in these cases, there is a general decline in population status compared to the assessment of 2010 for many populations.
The causes of the sturgeons and paddlefishes rapid decline towards extinction are attributable to humans, with the primary causes associated with overfishing, ecological fragmentation and pollution. Overfishing is mainly attributable to the caviar market. Once the food of the poor and without value, caviar became a luxury food in Europe in the mid-1700s. It was not until the end of the nineteenth century in the United States that caviar was no longer considered worthless and served in saloons as a bar snack to prompt patrons to drink more beer. Today, sturgeon fishing is prohibited practically everywhere, and the approximately 500 tons of caviar produced every year in the world is produced from farmed animals. Legal fishing is therefore no longer a threat, and residual poaching is limited to some specific areas.
Ecological fragmentation is the second major cause for the decline of sturgeons and paddlefishes. Most species of sturgeon are anadromous and dams that have been built in large numbers since the 1950s make their reproductive migrations difficult, if not impossible, and profoundly change the ecological characteristics of rivers, thus preventing the reproduction of these species. It is no coincidence, for example, that the Chinese paddlefish became extinct as its habitat, was the Yangtze River. The course of the Yangtze River was completely modified by the mammoth Three Gorges Dam completed in 2006 and by the Gezhouba Dam built in 1981. These dams interrupt the migration route between spawning grounds and feeding grounds of this iconic species.
Water pollution has also negatively influenced sturgeons and paddlefishes, as has the introduction of alien species that in some cases compete with or predate on sturgeons and paddlefishes, such as the case of the European catfish (Silurus glanis) in Italy.
The new IUCN assessment shows that Europe presents one of the most dramatic situations: all eight species present are in fact classified as ‘Endangered’ or ‘Critically Endangered’. But there is some sign of hope. The discovery of young Adriatic sturgeon, Acipenser naccarii, in Northern Italian River suggests that natural reproduction is occurring most likely in animals released over the last 30 years through conservation propagation efforts. Thus, this species has been reclassified from ‘Extinct in the Wild’ to ‘Critically Endangered’. Also, the recent rediscovery of juveniles of the ship sturgeon, Acipenser nudiventris, in the Rioni River in Georgia, considered extinct in the Black Sea Basin before, may enable the rescue of the Black Sea genotype of this species if actions are taken in time.
|Acipenser naccarii||CR (pew)||CR||↑|
CR=Critically Endangered, EN=endangered, EW=Extinct in the Wild, pEW= possible EW, EX=extinct, LC=Least Concern. NT=Near Threatened, VU=vulnerable | <urn:uuid:297366d2-d50d-46e2-90bb-c5c381d566b6> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://nasps-sturgeon.org/iucn-assessment-2022/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510983.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20231002064957-20231002094957-00184.warc.gz | en | 0.891795 | 1,569 | 3.421875 | 3 | 2.998385 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
ArtCenter provides undergraduate and graduate degrees in artistic disciplines taught by a school of practising artists and designers. Illustrative arts, equivalent to scientific illustration, are a type of art as communication. Friedrich Schiller , Wallenstein, Prolog, line forty. In Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 43-45. Cicero , Oratio Pro Licinio Archia, I. In Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia Of Sensible Quotations (1922), p. forty three-45.
Artists resembling M.C. Escher have used his curiosity in geometry to create artistic optical illusions. Visual arts comprise many forms of art—portray, drawing, sculpture, music, literature and performance art being the most widely known. Artists and artisans often create artworks to reinforce cultural ties and traditions.
For instance, if you don’t perceive how gentle works, you won’t be capable to create artwork with correct lighting, and so on. If you do not know how the pen tool works in Illustrator, you then won’t have the ability to create good artwork, similar to a traditional artist who doesn’t know how you can use a pencil.
This mechanism being observed … the inference we predict is inevitable, that the watch must have had a maker — that there should have existed, at a while and at some place or different, an artificer or artificers who shaped it for the purpose which we discover it really to answer, who comprehended its construction and designed its use.
Led by Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director & Chief Curator, High Line Art invites artists to engage with the unique structure, historical past, and design of the High Line in artistic and provocative ways. Some artists in their vision of what might be but is not, have been acutely aware rebels.
Keep in mind that bitumen could also be painted over numerous surfaces so for all these artists on the market who love texture and layering, you’ll discover that this really is a fantastic medium to layer over a textured floor, for instance: If you are using foil as a medium on canvas and you’ve got painted the desired color that you’re wanting over the foil, you would then paint over the colour with bitumen, wipe it back with turpentine and see how bitumen can showcase the feel and once again add another level of interest and intrigue to your artwork.
Artists have discovered easy methods to trick our eyes with lines, colors and the placement of photographs in an artwork. Extra communication is great for PR and in that way is a great help to artists. In 2015, Art Basel and BMW launched their joint initiative to recognize and help rising artists worldwide – the BMW Art Journey. | <urn:uuid:a39ef810-143b-4f42-a7fd-823296a5f9e7> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.bringingupbobbymovie.com/art-4.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703538741.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20210123222657-20210124012657-00501.warc.gz | en | 0.94057 | 588 | 2.59375 | 3 | 2.705608 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Art & Design |
In 2016, Google announced they had developed their own chip to handle machine learning workloads. They now use these custom-made chips in all their major datacenters for their most important daily functions.
Even in 2006, Google engineers had identified the need for a machine learning based hardware, but this need became acute in 2013 when the explosion of data to be mined meant they might need to double the size of their data centers. In just under 2 years, they hired, designed, and built the first versions of their TPU’s. A time that was described as ‘hectic’ by one of the chief engineers.
The units were marvels of simplicity based on observing a neural network workload. Machine learning networks consist of the following repeating steps:
- Multiply the input data (x) with weights (w) to represent the signal strength
- Add the results to aggregate the neuron’s state into a single value
- Apply an activation function (f) (such as ReLU, Sigmoid, tanh or others) to modulate the artificial neuron’s activity.
The chip was then designed to handle the linear algebra steps of this workload after they analyzed the key neural net configurations used in their operations. They found they needed to handle operations with anywhere from 5 to 100 million weights at a time – far more than the dozens or even hundreds of multiply units in a CPU or GPU could handle.
They then created a pipelined chip with a massive bank of 65,536 8-bit integer multipliers (compared with just a few thousand multipliers in most GPU’s and dozens in a CPU), a unified 24MB cache of SRAM that worked as registers, followed by activation units hardwired for neural net tasks.
To reduce complexity of design, they realized their algorithms worked fine using quantization, so they could utilize 8-bit integer multiplication units instead of full floating point ones.
In looking further at the workload, they utilize a ‘systolic’ system in which the results of one step flow into the next without having to be written out to memory – pumping much like the chambers of a heart where one step feeds into the next:
The results: astounding. They are able to make 225,000 predictions in the same time it takes a GPU to make 13,000, or a CPU to make only 5500.
Their simplistic design and systolic system that minimizes writes to memory greatly reduces power usage – something important when you have thousands of these units in every data center:
They have since built 2 more versions for the TPU, one in 2017 and another in 2018. The second version improved on the first after they realized the first version was bandwidth limited – so they added 16GB of high bandwidth memory to achieve 45TFLOPS. They then expanded the reach by allowing each chip to be combined into a single 4 chip module. 64 modules are combined into a single pod (making 256 individual chips).
I highly suggest giving the links a further read. It’s not only fascinating from an AI perspective, but a wonderful story of looking at a problem with outside eyes and engineering the best solution given today’s technology. | <urn:uuid:cbc7e575-fb01-4f1e-9729-6928163e0b6e> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://mattfife.com/?m=201808 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764499541.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20230128090359-20230128120359-00774.warc.gz | en | 0.961025 | 658 | 3.375 | 3 | 2.81783 | 3 | Strong reasoning | Science & Tech. |
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