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|Title||Genetic heterogeneity in human disease.| |Publication Type||Journal Article| |Year of Publication||2010| |Authors||McClellan, J, King, M-C| |Date Published||2010 Apr 16| |Keywords||CDCV, fitness effects, heritability, missing heritability, mutation, schizophrenia| Strong evidence suggests that rare mutations of severe effect are responsible for a substantial portion of complex human disease. Evolutionary forces generate vast genetic heterogeneity in human illness by introducing many new variants in each generation. Current sequencing technologies offer the possibility of finding rare disease-causing mutations and the genes that harbor them. Genetic heterogeneity in human disease. For years, I've worked on their bones. Now I'm working on their genes. Read more about the science studying these ancient people. From a finger bone of an ancient human came the record of a completely unexpected population. My lab is working on the science of the Denisova genome. The advent of agriculture caused natural selection to speed up greatly in humans. We're uncovering some of the ways that populations have rapidly changed during the last 10,000 years.
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Introduction / History Jews represent the oldest monotheistic religion of modern times. Because of the uniqueness of their history and culture, all Jews have a strong sense of identity. Persecution of and discrimination against the Jews have been the historical reasons for their migrations and settlements around the world. The Jews of Europe arrived on the continent at least 2,000 years ago during the early days of the Roman empire. Since then, they have been a significant influence in the history and culture of Europe. Much of what is considered "Jewish" today finds its roots among the European Jews. One of the unique features among European Jews is the distinction between the Ashkenazic Jews and the Sephardic Jews. The word Ashkenaz is derived from a Biblical word for the larger Germanic region of Europe. Therefore, Ashkenazim Jews are those whose ancestry is linked to that area. This group traditionally speaks the Yiddish language, which is a German dialect that has Hebrew and Slavic elements. The word Sephard was the name used by Jews in medieval times for the Iberian peninsula. Sephardim Jews, then, are the descendants of the Jews who lived in Spain or Portugal prior to expulsion in 1492 by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Sephardim also have a distinctive language called Ladino, or Judeo-Spanish. This is a dialect of Castilian Spanish with Hebrew and Turkish elements. What are their lives like? During the last few centuries, Eastern Europe had the largest Jewish population in the world. National attitudes toward the Jews were ambivalent, depending on the usefulness of the Jewish inhabitants to the nations' rulers. Anti-Semitism was prevalent and frequently led to either persecution or expulsion. The Holocaust of World War II was the climax of Jewish persecution in Europe, leading to the extermination of six million Jews. Many Eastern European countries lost the majority of their Jewish population in this tragedy. As a result of the Holocaust, thousands of Jewish survivors and their descendants have emigrated from Eastern Europe to Israel, the United States, or Western Europe. The recent memories of the Holocaust as well as the centuries of discrimination and persecution play a strong part in modern Jewish identity. European Jews are strong supporters of "Zionism," a revival of Jewish culture and support of Israel as a national, secure, Jewish homeland. Since the dissolution of the Soviet empire, former Soviet Jews no longer live under oppressive government rule. Anti-Semitism is still a concern, but Jewish life has been revitalized in recreated countries like the Ukraine. Synagogues are functioning and kosher (traditional, acceptable) food is once again available. The Jewish emigration from Eastern Europe is cause for concern among the remaining aged Jewish population. As the older Jews die, the Jewish community dwindles. Many of the younger Jews are unlearned in their Jewish identity. They are either non-observant or have assimilated into the prevailing culture. However, strong efforts are being made to maintain a Jewish presence and clarify their identity. Jewish schools are being opened and Judaic studies are being promoted in universities. Jewish hospitals and retirement homes are being built. Community centers also promote cultural events such as the Israeli dance, theater, Yiddish and Hebrew lessons, and sports. Western Europe now has the largest concentration of European Jewish residents. The Netherlands received a large influx of Sephardic Jews from Portugal in the late 1500's, and another contingent of Ashkenazic Jews after World War II. They have been very influential in the development of Dutch commerce. England's Jews are concentrated in the Greater London area and have been politically active for over 100 years. They have been avid supporters of Zionism and solidly committed to the settlement of Diaspora Jews in Israel. A large percentage of England's Jews are affiliated with the traditional Orthodox synagogues. Italy's Jewish population is primarily Sephardic due to its absorption of Spanish Jews in the 1500's. France's Ashkenazic community received 300,000 Sephardic Jews from North Africa in recent decades. What are their beliefs? For religious Jews, God is the Supreme Being, the Creator of the universe, and the ultimate Judge of human affairs. Beyond this, the religious beliefs of the Jewish communities vary greatly. European Jews are extremely diverse in religious practice. The Ashkenazic Jews are the most prevalent, representing the Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform movements. The unusual and adamantly traditional Hasidic movement was born in Poland and has gained a strong following in the United States and Israel. The Sephardic denomination is similar to the Orthodox Ashkenazic, but is more permissive on dietary rules and some religious practices. Each Jewish denomination maintains synagogues and celebrates the traditional Jewish holiday calendar. While most European Jews are religiously affiliated, there is a significant minority which is not religious. What are their needs? The Jews have a wonderful understanding of their connection with the Abrahamic covenant. However, they also have a history of rejecting Jesus Christ as Messiah, the one who has fulfilled that covenant. Pray that as the Gospel is shared, it will not be viewed as anti-Semitic, but rather as the fulfillment of what God promised through Abraham centuries ago. Prayer PointsView Jew, Eastern Yiddish-Speaking in all countries. * Ask the Lord of the harvest to send forth loving Christians to work among the Jewish communities. * Ask the Holy Spirit to grant wisdom and favor to the missions agencies that are focusing on the European Jews. * Pray that the Jewish people will understand that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah. * Ask the Lord to soften the hearts of the Jews towards Christians so that they might hear and receive the message of salvation. * Pray that the Lord Jesus will reveal Himself to the Jews through dreams and visions. * Pray that God will grant Jewish believers favor as they share their faith in Christ with their own people. * Pray that strong local churches will be raised up in each Jewish community. * Pray for the availability of the Jesus Film in the primary language of this people.
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By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - In the latest installment in the mammogram debate, a new study finds that getting a mammogram every other year instead of annually did not increase the risk of advanced breast cancer in women aged 50 to 74, even in women who use hormone therapy or have dense breasts, factors that increase a woman's cancer risk. The findings, released on Monday by researchers at the University California, San Francisco, support the conclusions of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an influential government panel of health advisers, which in 2009 issued guidelines that said women should have mammograms every other year starting at age 50 rather than annual tests starting at age 40. The controversial recommendations to reduce the frequency and delay the start of mammogram screening were based on studies suggesting the benefits of detecting cancers earlier did not outweigh the risk of false positive results, which needlessly expose women to the anguish of a breast cancer diagnosis and the ordeal of treatment. The matter, however, is not settled. The American Cancer Society still recommends women be screened for breast cancer every year they are in good health starting at age 40, but the group is closely watching studies such as this. "I don't think any one study ought to change everything," Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said in a telephone interview. But he added, "This is one of several studies that are all pointing in the same direction over the last several years." Brawley said he did not expect screening recommendations from professional organizations to change in the next year, but he does see doctors moving toward a more personalized approach over the next five years. There may be some women who need to be screened every six months and others every two years depending on their breast density, family history and genetic testing. In the latest study, Dr. Karla Kerlikowske of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues wanted to see whether risk factors beyond a woman's age play a role in the decision of when to start mammogram screening. In addition to age, the team considered whether women had dense breast tissue - which has a higher ratio of connective tissue to fat - or took combination estrogen and progesterone hormone therapy for more than five years, both of which can increase the risk of breast cancer. "If you have these risk factors, would it help if you got screened annually vs. every two years?" said Kerlikowske, whose study was published online in JAMA Internal Medicine. To study this, the team analyzed data from 11,474 women with breast cancer and 922,624 without breast cancer gathered from 1994 to 2008. Even after looking at these other factors, the team found no increased risk of advanced cancer in women 50 to 74 who got a mammogram every other year instead of every year. "It didn't matter whether you screened that group every year or every two years, the risk of advanced disease or having a worse tumor was no different," Kerlikowske said. More frequent screening in these women did result in more false-positive results. Women aged 50 to 74 who had annual mammograms had a 50 percent risk of having a false-positive result over a 10-year period, but a 31 percent risk when they were screened every other year. Studies suggest a false positive can have lasting psychological effects. A March study in the Annals of Family Medicine said, "Three years after a false-positive finding, women experience psychosocial consequences that range between those experienced by women with a normal mammogram and those with a diagnosis of breast cancer." Breast density was a factor in younger women, however. When the team looked at screening frequency in women 40 to 49, they found those with extremely dense breasts who were screened every other year had a higher risk of having a more advanced cancer than those who got screened every year. Younger women also were far more likely to have false-positive results and undergo unnecessary procedures. Without getting a mammogram in their 40s, Kerlikowske said, "women aren't going to know if they have extremely dense breasts." Among women in their 40s, about 12 percent to 15 percent have extremely dense breast tissue. For these women, Kerlikowske said she recommends that they get a mammogram if they have other risk factors that might put her at risk of breast cancer, including having a first-degree relative that a common term, or just "close relative"? such as a mother or a sister with breast cancer. "Once we see their breast density is high, we will offer annual mammography," she said. The American College of Radiology and the Society of Breast Imaging, groups that represent radiologists, said the study's methodology was flawed because it used early and late breast cancers to determine the outcomes of breast screening rather than more refined measures of tumor size, nodal status and cancer stage, which could determine whether screening detected cancers at an earlier stage. It also faulted the study for not being a closely controlled, randomized clinical trial. The study used data from the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium, a national mammography screening database that gathers information from community mammography clinics on millions of women. "We're never going to have a randomized study. This is the best in terms of the type of study anyone can actually hope for," said Brawley, whose group monitors scores of breast studies from around the world each year. He said such a study would take decades and would be prohibitively expensive. Catching cancers earlier does not always translate into lives saved, according to a November study published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Dr. Gilbert Welch of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice in New Hampshire. That study suggested that as many as a third of cancers detected through routine mammograms may not be life-threatening, contradicting the deeply ingrained belief that cancer screening is always good. Kerlikowske said the strength of her study is that it allows researchers to consider other risk factors, such as breast density, allowing doctors to offer women personalized choices about when to start breast cancer screening. "We're trying to move it away from this idea that it all should be based on age. There should be some thoughtfulness to it," she said. (Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Additional reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Jilian Mincer and Douglas Royalty)
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INDO-CHINA: The New Frontier TIME. Monday, May. 29, 1950 The U.S. now has a new frontier and a new ally in the cold war. The place is Indo-China, a Southeast Asian jungle, mountain and delta land that includes the Republic of Viet Nam and the smaller neighboring Kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia, all parts of the French Union. For more than three years this land, in prewar times the rich French colony of Indo-China, has been suffering, on a lesser scale, the ruinous kind of civil war which won China for Communism. The Mao Tse-tung of the Indo-Chinese is a frail, but enduring comrade, who looks like a shriveled wizard; his nom de guerre is Ho Chi Minh (or One Who Shines). Chiang Kai-shek has no counterpart in Indo-China. The initial brunt of the Red attack has been borne by French soldiers. Meanwhile, the job of rallying native anti-Communist forces falls mainly on the meaty shoulders of the Emperor Bao Dai (or Guardian of Greatness), who now bears the official title of Chief of State of Viet Nam. While the dust of the Chinese civil war was settling before the bemused eyes of the State Department, the U.S. paid scant attention to the Indo-Chinese struggle. It seemed largely a local affair between the French and their subjects. Since the dust has settled in China, Asia’s Communism is thrusting southward. Indo-China stands first on the path to Singapore, Manila and the Indies (see map). Last January, led by Peking and Moscow, the world’s Communist bloc recognized Ho Chi Minh’s “Democratic Republic.” It was more than the Kremlin had ever done for the Communist rebels of Greece. Over the past several weeks, arms and other supplies were reported passing from Russia and China to the comrades in Indo-China. The stakes in Southeast Asia were big—as big as the global struggle between Communism and freedom. A fortnight ago in Paris, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson drew a line in the dust that has so long beclouded U.S. diplomacy. He implicitly recognized that the war in Indo-China is no local shooting match. He pledged U.S. military and economic aid to the French and Vietnamese. The U.S. thus picked up the Russian gauntlet. What kind of frontier and what kind of ally had history chosen for the U.S.? A Golden Asset. Unlike China, where U.S. traders and missionaries began a fruitful acquaintance more than a century ago, Indo-China has had little contact with Americans, either commercial, cultural or diplomatic.* The last comprehensive U.S. book on the country was published in 1937. Among other things, its author observed: “IndoChina lies too far off the main scene of action to play any but a secondary role in the Pacific drama.” In the pre-French past, most of Indo-China had been conquered by the Chinese, who had left their culture indelibly behind.† Through the last half of the 19th. Century, the French converted Indo-China into a tight, profitable colonial monopoly. They explored its fever-laden jungles, lofty ranges, great river valleys. They discovered its antiquities, including the majestic loth Century towers of Angkor Wat in northern Cambodia. They wrote about its mandarins, its Buddhist temples and Confucian family life. The French invested $2 billion, built up Indo-China’s rice and rubber production; before World War II, the colony, along with Siam and Burma, was one of the world’s three leading rice exporters. Its surplus went to rice-short China, a fact of great significance these days in Communist China’s support of Communist Ho Chi Minh. All the raw rubber France needed came from Indo-China. There were other lucrative items: coal, wolfram, pepper, opium (which, to French shame, was sold to the natives through a state monopoly) and many jobs for a white bureaucracy. French politicians called the colony “our marvelous balcony on the Pacific.” A Dangerous Liability. Indo-China is no longer a golden asset for France. As everywhere in the East, the old colonialism has died beneath the impact of Western nationalist, egalitarian ideas, a process greatly hastened by the Japanese march in World War II under the slogan “Asia for the Asiatics.” The French have bowed grudgingly to the times. In an agreement signed March 8, 1949 with Bao Dai, they promised limited freedom for Viet Nam within the French Union. Under its terms, a Viet Nam cabinet has charge of internal affairs, the right to a national army. Paris keeps direct control of foreign policy, maintains military bases and special courts for Frenchmen, retains a special place for French advisers and the French language. By that time the French were up to their necks in a costly campaign to crush Ho Chi Minh and his Communist bid for power. The civil war has cut rice production in half and disrupted the rest of Indo-China’s economy. It has tied down 130,000 French troops, about half of the Fourth Republic’s army, and thereby weakened the contribution France might make to Western Europe’s defense. In lives, the Indo-China war has cost the French 50,000 casualties. In money, it has cost $2 billion—just about the sum of ECAid to France. Indo-China, in brief, has become a dangerous liability for France— nor does any realistic Frenchman think it can ever again be an asset. Why, therefore, spend more blood and treasure in thankless jungle strife? Why not pull out? The answer is: more than French war weariness and prestige are at stake. If Indo-China falls to Communism, so, in all probability”, will all of Southeast Asia. For U.S. citizens, the first fact about their new frontier is that it will cost money to hold—much more than the French can pay alone, much more than the $15 million in arms and $23 million in economic aid thus far promised by Washington. The second fact is more compelling : the new frontier, if it is not to crumble, may need U.S. troops as well as French. Otherwise, the U.S. might surfer another catastrophic defeat in the Far East. A Question of Sympathy. The French have made more than the usual colonial mistakes. All too often, especially since they put the Foreign Legion and its German mercenaries to the work of restoring order after World War II, they have been arrogant and brutal toward the Indo-Chinese. They are paying for it now, for the bulk of Communist Ho Chi Minh’s support comes from anti- French, or anti-colonial Indo-Chinese. A sign over an Indo-Chinese village street tells the story; it reads “Communism, No. Colonialism, Never.” But the issue of native sympathy is complex. The vast majority of the people are simple rice farmers, who want peace and order so they may tend their paddy-fields. Ho Chi Minh himself does not now preach Communism openly: his explanation is that his people have no understanding of the word. Besides a crude, hate-the-French appeal (including atrocity propaganda—see cut), he has another effective persuasion: terror. His guerrillas and underground operators stalk the countryside; his assassins and bomb-throwers terrorize the cities. Indefatigably he spreads the word that he is winning, as his comrades have won in China. The result is that many are cowed into helping him, or at least staying out of the anti-Communist effort. Others, especially among the intelligentsia, sit on the fence, waiting to jump on the winning side. This is where Bao Dai comes in. A Display of Strength. It is Bao Dai’s mission, and the U.S.-French hope, to rally his countrymen to the anti-Communist camp of the West. In this undertaking he needs time. “Nothing can be done overnight,” he says. He needs time to organize an effective native government, train an army and militia that can restore order in the villages, win over the doubting fence-sitters among the intelligentsia. Besides a military shield, he also needs a display of winning strength and patient understanding by his Western allies. As a national leader, Bao Dai has his weaknesses, and largely because of them he does not enjoy the kind of popularity achieved by India’s Jawaharlal Nehru. But, as the lineal heir of the old monarchs of Annam, he is his nation’s traditional “father & mother,” its first priest (Buddhist) and judge. The French say that Bao Dai should act more decisively; whenever he does, there is impressive popular response. Nehru’s government of India, trailed by Burma’s Thakin Nu, Indonesia’s Soekarno and even by the Philippines’ Elpidio Quirino, has so far refused to follow the major Western democracies in recognizing Bao Dai’s Viet Nam Republic. They look on him as a French puppet. But Bao Dai has shown a judgment on the crucial ideological conflict of his time that compares strikingly and favorably with the petulant, third-force position of Pandit Nehru. Recently, for example, Bao Dai told a TIME correspondent about his impressions of Ho Chi Minh in 1946, when both leaders were cooperating with the French to establish a new Viet Nam regime. “At first,” recalled Bao Dai, “we all believed the Ho government was really a nationalistic regime . . . I called Ho ‘Elder Brother’ and he called me ‘Younger Brother.’ . . . “Then, I saw he was fighting a battle within himself. He realized that Communism was not best for our country. But it was too late. He could not overcome his own allegiance to Communism.” A Royal Notion. Bao Dai is essentially a product of the old French colonialism—the best of it thwarted by some of the worst. Born in 1913, the only son of the ailing Emperor Khai Dinh, he studied under Chinese tutors until nine. Then his father’s French advisers decided he should go to France for a Western education. The emperor put on a parasol-shaped red velvet hat and a golden-dragon robe, accompanied his son on the first trip abroad for any of their dynasty. In Paris he put the prince under the tutelage of former Annam Governor Eugene Charles. “I bring you a schoolboy,” said Khai Dinh. “Make of him what you will.” Three years later, Khai Dinh died. He was buried in a splendid mausoleum, at Hué; at the foot of his tomb lay his prized French decorations, toothbrush, Thermos bottles and “Big Ben” alarm clock. Bao Dai, who had come ‘home for the funeral, was crowned the 13th sovereign of the Nguyen (pronounced New Inn) dynasty. He turned the throne over to a regent, and hurried back to Paris. The young Emperor continued his Chinese lessons, studied Annamite chronicles, browsed through French history, literature and economics. He was especially fond of books on Henry IV, the dynast from Navarre who began the Bourbon rule in France with the cynical remark, “Paris is worth a Mass,” and the demagogic slogan, “Every family should have a fowl in the pot on Sunday.” Bao Dai put his money in Swiss banks (and thereby saved it from World War II’s reverses), collected stamps, practiced tennis with Champion Henri Cochet, learned ping-pong, dressed in tweeds and flannels, vacationed in the Pyrenees, scented himself heavily with Coty and Chanel perfumes. Up to this point the Emperor had absorbed a good deal of the education of an intelligent, progressive French adolescent. He had high notions of applying what he had learned back home. In 1932, at 19, Bao Dai formally took over the Dragon Throne at Hué; two years later he married beautiful Mariette-Jeanne Nguyen Huu Thi Lan, the daughter of a wealthy Cochin-Chinese merchant. The Empress Nam Phuong was a Roman Catholic, educated at Paris’ Convent “Aux Oiseaux.” Bao Dai reigned but he did not rule. The French (Third Republic and Vichy) shrugged off his earnest pleas for social and economic reforms and more native political autonomy. Cleverly, as they thought, they encouraged the Emperor to devote himself to sport and pleasure. Bao Dai was hunting tigers near his summer villa at Dalat when the Japanese, early in 1945, made their 1940 control of the colony official and complete. They surprised his party, took him prisoner, installed him as a puppet emperor—until their own capitulation to the Allies a few months later. Agitator Ho. At this point, the lines of Bao Dai’s destiny first crossed those of his fellow Annamite Ho Chi Minh. The two men made a dramatic contrast. The Emperor was young (then 32), plump, clean-shaven, bland-faced, fond of snappy Western sport clothes. Ho was aging (55), slight (hardly 5 ft. tall), goat-bearded, steelyeyed, usually seen in a frayed khaki tunic and cloth slippers. Ho Chi Minh, too, had gone to France for education. As a young man, he had been sent into exile by the French police of Indo-China because of his family’s nationalist agitation. His father and a brother went to political prison for life. A sister received nine years of hard labor. In Paris, Ho (then known as Nguyen Ai Quoc) became a photographer’s assistant, wrote anti-imperialist articles. He also joined the French Communist Party. He was sent to Moscow for training, became a Comintern functionary, re-emerged in 1925 at Canton, where he helped Russian Agent Borodin in Communism’s first attempt to seize China. From Hong Kong in 1931 Ho Chi Minh organized the first Indo-Chinese Communist Party. The British clapped him into jail for a year. When he came out, he continued organizing Red cells in his country. Japan and World War II gave him his big chance. Using popular front-tactics, Ho established the Viet Minh—League for the Independence of Viet Nam. It directed guerrilla war against both Vichy French and Japanese, enlisted the support of many Indo-Chinese nationalists. American OSS agents and arms were parachuted to Ho’s side. “Uncle Ho.” By the time the French were ready to pick up the postwar strings again in Indo-China, Communist Ho was very much a popular hero, better known as “Uncle Ho.” He spoke a “soft” Communist line, talked more about freedom, democracy and reform. Bao Dai was in a different position. He had suffered in reputation because he had “gotten along” with Vichy French and Japanese. The returning French began negotiations with the Viet Minh leader. There were polite hints that Bao Dai must go—he was too “unpopular.” Bao abdicated, and Ho was in the saddle. Bao Dai stayed on in Indo-China for a while, as plain citizen Nguyen Vinh Thuy and Honorary Councilor to the Republic. Nobody had much use for him. He went abroad and flung himself into a reckless round of pleasure and sport. Playboy. Most of his time he spent at Cannes, on the French Riviera, where he had bought the palatial Château de Thorenc (reported purchase price: $250,000). In his garage were a pale blue Lincoln convertible, a black Citroen limousine, a blue Simca “Gordoni” one-seat racer, a sleek Italian two-seater, a Simca-8 sports model. He also kept several motorcycles. He insisted that every engine run “as accurately as a watch.” He dallied in the bars and casinos, chain-smoked cheap Gauloise cigarettes, treated hangers-on to champagne and caviar, played roulette for 10,000-franc chips (“His Majesty’s losses,” remarked a croupier, “befitted his rank”), sometimes conducted jazz bands, sent his secretary to open negotiations with the many women who caught his eye. (“My grandfather had 125 wives and 300 children,” Bao Dai once remarked to a journalist. “I have a few mistresses. What then?”) He played golf capably and bridge like a master. A crack shot with rifle or revolver, he often arranged target competitions with the château’s servants. Meanwhile the French, back in Indo-China, had broken with Ho Chi Minh, were floundering in a Communist-led nationalist uprising. They appealed to Bao Dai to come home again and help rally his people against the Red menace. They promised to grant Viet Nam gradual independence within the new French Union. Bao was persuaded. On March 8, 1949, he signed the document creating the new Indo-Chinese Republic which he would head as chief of state. As he left the gaudy safety of the Riviera for the hazards of a country torn by civil war, he grinned and said: “I risk my skin.” French Communists snarled: “Cet empereur des boites de nuit [this nightclub emperor].” Behind him, at the Château de Thorenc, he left Empress Nam Phuong and their family of two boys and three girls. Statesman. Bao Dai has been back in Indo-China about a year. He has made some progress, but it is slow and the difficulties are enormous. The French have promised his government more authority, but they are vague in making good and sometimes stupidly petty. One point of friction between Bao Dai and French High Commissioner Léon Pignon concerns the high commissioner’s residence in Saigon. It is the old imperial palace, and the symbol, in native eyes, of paramount place. Bao Dai wants it for his own use, and he stays away from the city lest he lose face by residing elsewhere. The French, with bureaucratic pigheadedness, have refused to part with it, though there are reports that they will soon do so. Another disappointment has been Bao Dai’s effort to enlist capable ministers and lower-echelon administrators. Partly this is because so many Vietnamese are fence-sitters or fear the terror of Viet Minh agents. Partly it is a consequence of French failure, in the past and at present, to train enough natives to take over the government. Bao Dai seems to be counting on U.S. pressure to loosen up the French in this respect. Most serious failure is the sluggish pace in recruiting a Viet Nam army. Bao Dai’s government has thus far assembled only four battalions, about 4,000 men. Field of Decision. Though Ho Chi Minh’s forces (70,000 regulars with equipment as good as the French, plus 70,000 well-trained guerrillas and an unknown number of poorly equipped village militia) have been pushed back from such centers as Hanoi in northern Viet Nam, French officers report that “the situation steadily grows no better.” French Commander in Chief Marcel Carpentier aims to sweep Ho Chi Minh’s men from the lower, heavily populated Mekong and Red River valleys. These are the best rice-producing areas and consequently the best source of rebel supply. By airlift and truck convoy, the French maintain a line of forts at the Chinese border, where aid could flow in for Ho. It is rugged hit & run fighting in forest and swamp terrain well suited for guerrilla tactics. By day the French control about half the countryside; and if they want to, they can penetrate where they will, though ambush takes its toll. At night, however, the French draw into their forts and garrisoned centers. Then Ho Chi Minh’s men steal forth, terrorize peasants, collect taxes (two-fifths of a farmer’s rice harvest), and run the countryside almost everywhere The French insist that the military problem is the No.. i problem, and that Western men and arms must lick it. Given sufficient U.S. equipment, up to $150 million a year or more, they think they can crush Ho Chi Minh within three years. Lacking such support, they may be facing a debacle within one year; and, of course, down in the wreckage would go Bao Dai. The Piecemeal Approach. All in all, the new U.S. ally in Southeast Asia is a weak reed. And the alliance is as ironic as anything in history. For the same U.S. Government which abandoned the Chinese Nationalists because they were not good enough was committed by last fortnight’s decision to defend a playboy emperor and the worst and almost the last example of white man’s armed imperialism in Asia. Nevertheless, Indo-China had to be defended—if it could be defended. So had Formosa, last stand of China’s Nationalists, which has advantages not to be found in Indo-China—a strong government, a well-trained defending fighting force, and easily defensible tactical position. The U.S. decision to go into such a doubtful project as the defense of Indo-China was the result of an idea that it ought to do something, somehow, to stop the Communists in Southeast Asia. But the U.S. policy in Indo-China was a piecemeal operation. Not until it saw the Southeast Asia problem whole, until it went to the help of all threatened governments, would the U.S. be making soldier’s or statesman’s sense. * There was one abortive attempt to get acquainted in the 18305, when President Andrew Jackson sent Envoy Edmund Roberts of New Hampshire to draw up a treaty with Emperor Ming Mang. Reported Roberts: “The insulting formalities required as preliminaries to the treaty . . . left me no alternative save that of terminating a protracted correspondence marked . . . by duplicity and prevarication in the official servant of the Emperor.” Roberts was told to 1) make five kowtows, 2) beg for “deep condescension,” 3) change a sentence in President Jackson’s letter to the Emperor from “I pray to God” to “I pray to the gods of heaven.” He refused. † The Chinese invasions took place between 213 B.C. and 186 A.D. From the latter date until the loth Century the Chinese governed the country. Then the Annamites threw off the Chinese yoke; it was clapped on again for a brief span in the 15th Century. French missionaries and traders (preceded by the Portuguese and Dutch) came to Indo-China in the 17th Century. In 1802, a French East India Company expedition helped establish Nguye INDO-CHINA: The New Frontier
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A testosterone test measures the blood level of the male sex hormone testosterone. Testosterone, which plays an important role in sexual development, is produced mainly by the testes in boys and in much smaller amounts by the ovaries in girls. Testosterone is also produced by the adrenal glands in both girls and boys. In young boys, testosterone levels are normally low. As puberty approaches — usually between the ages of 10 and 14 — the pituitary gland (a pea-sized gland near the base of the brain) secretes two hormones (luteinizing hormone, or LH; and follicle-stimulating hormone, or FSH) that work together to stimulate the testes to make testosterone. Increased testosterone production is what causes boys to develop deeper voices, bigger muscles, and body and facial hair. It also helps the testes produce sperm, and it plays a role in speeding a boy's growth in height during puberty. Two separate assessments may be performed as part of a testosterone test: total testosterone, which measures the entire amount of testosterone in the body, including both the amount bound to proteins that help transport the hormone through the bloodstream and free testosterone free testosterone, which measures only the testosterone that's not attached to proteins The doctor may order one or both tests. However, because sexual development involves many other hormones, a more complete picture can often be obtained by performing other tests at the same time, including an LH or FSH test. For example, low levels of testosterone can be due to a problem with the testes' production of testosterone or to the pituitary gland not making enough of the hormones that stimulate the testes to produce testosterone. Why It's Done Doctors may order a testosterone blood test if a boy appears to be entering puberty earlier or later than expected. High levels are associated with precocious (early) puberty, while low levels may indicate a delay in sexual development. In girls, high levels can be associated with the appearance of masculine characteristics, such as facial hair. The test may also be used in either boys or girls to check for damage or disease of the testes, ovaries, adrenal glands, or pituitary gland, or to check for steroid use. In teens and adults, testosterone levels can help doctors evaluate fertility or menstrual problems and sexual function. No special preparations are needed for this test. The doctor may want to perform the test in the morning, when testosterone levels usually are highest. On the day of the test, it may help to have your child wear a short-sleeve shirt to allow easier access for the technician who will be drawing the blood. A health professional will clean the skin surface with antiseptic, and place an elastic band (tourniquet) around the upper arm to apply pressure and cause the veins to swell with blood. Then a needle is inserted into a vein (usually in the arm inside of the elbow or on the back of the hand) and blood is withdrawn and collected in a vial or syringe. After the procedure, the elastic band is removed. Once the blood has been collected, the needle is removed and the area is covered with cotton or a bandage to stop the bleeding. Collecting blood for this test will only take a few minutes. What to Expect Collecting a sample of blood is only temporarily uncomfortable and can feel like a quick pinprick. Afterward, there may be some mild bruising, which should go away in a few days. The blood sample will be processed by a machine and the results are commonly available after a few days. The testosterone test is considered a safe procedure. However, as with many medical tests, some problems can occur with having blood drawn: fainting or feeling lightheaded hematoma (blood accumulating under the skin causing a lump or bruise) pain associated with multiple punctures to locate a vein Helping Your Child Having a blood test is relatively painless. Still, many children are afraid of needles. Explaining the test in terms your child can understand might help ease some of the fear. Allow your child to ask the technician any questions he or she might have. Tell your child to try to relax and stay still during the procedure, as tensing muscles and moving can make it harder and more painful to draw blood. It also may help if your child looks away when the needle is being inserted into the skin. If You Have Questions If you have questions about the testosterone test, speak with your doctor.
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12. June 2012 10:55 Retinal hemorrhage occurs when the blood vessels in the retina get damaged or ruptured, leading to abnormal bleeding. The retina, which is composed of rods and cones is the region of the eye responsible for sensitivity to light, and vision. The retinal vein and artery, along with a dense network of capillaries, are responsible for transmitting the blood supply to the retina. When these blood vessels are damaged, due to any reason, this affects the blood supply to the retina, which in turn leads to a decrease in visual acuity. Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in people aged between 20 and 65. The dense network of cells in the retina is extremely sensitive, and can be damaged with even a slight trauma. The causes due to which this damage might occur include: - High blood pressure - Forceful blows in the head region - Child abuse in infants - Improper development of blood vessels in infants born prematurely - Blurred vision - Spotted vision - Lines in the field of vision - Blind spots - Distorted vision - Progressive vision loss - The disease is diagnosed by an ophthalmologist, who uses an opthalmoscope to examine the internal structure of the eye. - Another method that is commonly used to detect the abnormalities in the blood vessels is a fluorescein angiography test, in which a fluorescent dye is injected into the patient’s bloodstream, after which photographs are clicked to view the blood vessels. - In some cases, the physician might also order for a blood test to be performed. - The disorder is self-limiting in most patients, with more than 85% cases healing on their own. - The most common treatment for retinal hemorrhages is laser treatment, in which a laser beam is used to remove the affected blood vessels. - If the disease is caused by some underlying medical condition like diabetes or hypertension, the treatment focuses on eliminating that disorder. - Injection of anti-VEGF drugs like Avestin has been found to be effective in the treatment of hemorrhages associated with the growth of new vessels. - The administration of various nutritional and herbal supplements like antioxidants, omega-3-rich foods, antioxidant vitamins, zinc, lutein, pine bark extract, grape seed extract, etc. has also been found to be effective in improving the symptoms of the disease. We at Killeen Eyecare center are renowned throughout Killeen for providing the highest quality eye care to all our patients. We help them maintain healthy eyes and treat various eye diseases using most sophisticated instruments. For more details, you can visit us at 416 North Gray Street, Killeen, TX 76541, Downtown Killeen or call at 254-634-7805. Eye Doctor Killeen - Eye Doctor Fort Hood
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By Chris Wickham LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists in Switzerland have come up with a material mimicking the way tendons connect to bones, which could speed the development of stretchy, wearable electronic devices. The stretchable electronics industry is in its infancy but devices that are able to flex without breaking could revolutionize devices from smartphones and solar cells to medical implants. Futurists have long predicted clothes with sensors that monitor the vital signs of the wearer, or smartphones and screens woven into the fabric of shirts or jackets. But while circuits and wiring are quite happy on rigid surfaces like those in a tablet computer, they break easily when combined with materials that stretch. "You have two materials with very different mechanical properties," Andre Studart, a researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, told Reuters. "The challenge is to bridge these different properties." Studart and his team have overcome the problem with a stretchy material made from polyurethane that contains "islands" stiff enough to house and protect delicate circuits. While the soft part can stretch by 350 percent, the stiff regions created by impregnating the material with tiny platelets of aluminum oxide and a synthetic clay called laponite, hardly deform and can protect the electronics. The material, presented in research published in the journal Nature Communications, is made from bonded layers and because the concentration of the platelets is gradually increased, the junction between the stretchy and stiff parts is also durable. "There are many biological materials that have these properties as well, like the way tendons link muscle to bone," said Studart. "But there are not so many examples in synthetic materials." One of the companies trying to commercialize stretchable electronics is MC10 Inc, a Massachusetts-based start-up born out of research by John Rogers and his team at the University of Illinois. The firm recently announced plans to start selling a sensor-laden, flexible skullcap that monitors impacts to the head during sports. It was developed with Reebok and goes on sale next year. Amar Kendale, the company's strategist, said the skullcap gives a level of contact with the head that previous attempts to put sensors in helmets or gum shields have not been able to achieve. MC10 is using a different approach from the Zurich team. The company uses extremely thin silicon chips sandwiched in a stretchable polymer and connected by tiny wires in a concertina configuration that can stretch about 60 percent, about the same as the body's soft tissues. MC10 has also developed a balloon catheter with built-in electronic sensors for heart patients, which researchers plan to start testing on people in the next year or so. "Decorating the surface of the balloon with sensors or a mechanism that delivers energy gives a good way of delivering therapy to soft tissue, like the heart, to correct arrhythmia," Kendale said. Market potential is difficult to estimate but Kendale said the technology could be applied to the monitoring and management of chronic diseases from diabetes to hypertension. The Swiss researchers say their technique could also be used to build synthetic cartilage or false teeth with better matches to their natural counterparts. Currently the ceramics used for dental fillings are so hard they can damage natural teeth if a patient bites too hard. And one treatment for women with crumbling vertebrae from osteoporosis involves injecting a stiff polymer that over time can damage the surrounding healthy vertebrae. "The problem is that it is equally stiff everywhere," said Studart. "The vision is that you will be able to make materials that are as heterogeneous as the biological ones." (Editing by David Holmes)
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Fertilizer Facts: April 1997, Number 15 Response of Oat to Water and Nitrogen Land Resources and Environmental Sciences Dept. Montana State University Nitrogen (N) is the most common nutrient that limits oat production in Montana. Deficiency symptoms are frequently characterized by general chlorosis (yellowing) of leaves and a reduction in overall plant vigor and growth. Oat N deficiency symptoms, as with other cereal grains, will most often appear in the early to late spring depending on severity. Once present, symptoms become more severe through vegetative growth stages. At flowering, N deficient plants are stunted and have fewer tillers and smaller heads than healthy plants. Grain yield is reduced primarily through a reduction in kernels per head and head density. Nitrogen typically represents a grower's largest fertilizer input cost. Current fertilizer N recommendations in Montana are based on an average relationship between N requirement (NR) and estimated yield potential [Yield potential (bu/a) x 1.1 = NR (lbs/a)] (Table 1). The recommendation assumes 1.1 lbs N/a are needed to produce each bushel of grain. However, this relation may vary with growing season and the yield potential at an individual site. Since yield potential is most closely associated with available water (stored soil water + growing season precipitation), we were interested in determining the effects of available water supply on the N requirement and oat yield potential. Field experiments were conducted on a Lohmiller silty clay loam (Ustic Torrifluvents) at the Southern Agricultural Research Center near Huntley during 1993 and 1994. Initial soil N levels (0-36 in. depth) were 15 and 22 lbs/a in 1993 and 1994. Field experiments were previously seeded to barley. A line-source sprinkler irrigation system was used to establish a water gradient in the field. Monida oats were planted in early April at 18 seeds per square foot. Stripped at right angles to the water gradient were six fertilizer N levels (0, 20, 40, 80, 120, 160 lbs N/a). The combined treatments produced a field site with a wide range of available water and N conditions. Table 1. Predicted N requirements for oats with growing season water. |Growing season water||Yield potential||Available N requirement||N:yield ratio| As expected, available water increased oat yield potential and the response to N. Under high water stress, the response to N was small and yield potential was low, producing a comparatively flat curve. As water conditions improved, the response to N increased, producing a steeper curve that reached a higher plateau (Figure 1). Yield potential at the plateau levels, or where N was no longer limiting yields, were similar for the two growing seasons. However, oat yields without N fertilizer were higher in 1994 than 1993. This difference may have been a result of greater N mineralization from organic matter in 1994, resulting in less N deficiency where no fertilizer N was applied. Maximum economic yield (MEY) was defined as the point along the yield-N curves (Figure 1) where increases in N no longer paid for themselves through higher yield (< 1 bushel increase in yield resulted from 4 lbs additional N), or where dollars returned from N was maximized. Maximum economic yields were generally within 2% of the theoretical maximum, hence they provide a good estimate of yield potential. The MEY-available water relationships (Figure 2) indicate that yield potential increased linearly with water in both 1993 and 1994. The relationships indicate that it takes approximately 4 to 5 in. of water to produce the first bushel of oat, and thereafter yield increases 12 to 14 bu/a with each inch of additional water. Available N requirements (soil N + fertilizer N) for MEY increased linearly with water for both growing seasons. The slopes of the lines for the two seasons were similar and indicate that N requirements increased approximately 8 lbs N with each inch of additional water. However, the intercepts for the lines differ for the two seasons. As a result, it took approximately 35 to 40 lbs/a less N in 1994 to achieve MEY than in 1993 at similar water levels. Background soil N analysis levels for the two seasons were similar. However, barley residue from the preceding crop was burned prior to seeding the 1994 oat crop. This likely enhanced organic N mineralization and resulted in the lower calculated N requirement. Typically, most cereal growers do not burn their residue, hence under most situations the upper line in Figure 3 is probably the better predictor of fertilizer N needs. Using this approach, sufficient fertilizer N should be applied to achieve 60 lbs available N/a where 8 inches of available water (soil water + rainfall) is expected during the growing season. If water conditions improve, N application is increased approximately 8 lbs/a per inch increase in available water. Edited by Jeff Jacobsen, Extension Soil Scientist
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When I work on a theme unit like this I usually spent two weeks on the subject. I like for the children to have numerous opportunities to practice the skills in different ways. I feel that this give each child a strong foundation to build on. Pocket Chart Story Bulletin Board with Cows and Sheep The children created the clouds and green hills by finger painting and roller painting. Creative Art Sheep The children first made marble paintings and then used those painting to create their sheep with. Barn Yard Addition Thursday and Friday Daily Plan Write Up Don’t forget that all of these ideas can be found in the Down on the Farm Theme Packet on Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook.
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Types of literature PRIMARY SOURCES are publications that report the results of original research. They may be in the form of conference papers, monographic series, technical reports, theses and dissertations, or journal articles. Because they present information in its original form (that is, it has not been interpreted or condensed or otherwise “repackaged” by other writers), these are considered primary sources. The works present new thinking/discoveries/results and unite them with the existing knowledge base. Journal articles that report original research are one of the more common and important steps in the information sharing cycle. They often go through a process in which they are “peer reviewed” by other experts who evaluate the work and findings before publication. SECONDARY SOURCES are those which are published about the primary literature, that generalize, analyze, interpret, evaluate or otherwise “add value” to the original information, OR which simplify the process of finding and evaluating the primary literature. Some examples of secondary sources are “review” articles and indexes or bibliographies, such as PubMed or the ScienceDirect. TERTIARY SOURCES compile or digest information from primary or secondary sources that has become widely accepted. They aim to provide a broad overview of a topic, or data, already proven facts, and definitions, often presented in a convenient form. They provide no new information. These include “reference” types of works such as textbooks, encyclopedias, fact books, guides and handbooks, and computer databases such as The Handbook of the Microbiological Media and SciFinder. GRAY LITERATURE are source materials not available through the usual systems of publication (e.g., books or periodicals) and distribution. Gray literature includes conference proceedings, dissertations, technical reports, and working papers. Locating this type of literature is a little more difficult, but there are finding tools such as Dissertations Abstracts and PapersFirst. What is a literature review? A literature review discusses published information in a particular subject area, and sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period. A literature review can be just a simple summary of the sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. A summary is a recap of the important information of the source, but a synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information. It might give a new interpretation of old material or combine new with old interpretations. Or it might trace the intellectual progression of the field, including major debates. And depending on the situation, the literature review may evaluate the sources and advise the reader on the most pertinent or relevant. But how is a literature review different from an academic research paper? While the main focus of an academic research paper is to support your own argument, the focus of a literature review is to summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of others. The academic research paper also covers a range of sources, but it is usually a select number of sources, because the emphasis is on the argument. Likewise, a literature review can also have an "argument," but it is not as important as covering a number of sources. In short, an academic research paper and a literature review contain some of the same elements. In fact, many academic research papers will contain a literature review section. But it is the aspect of the study (the argument or the sources) that is emphasized that determines what type of document it is. Why do we write literature reviews? Literature reviews provide you with a handy guide to a particular topic. If you have limited time to conduct research, literature reviews can give you an overview or act as a stepping stone. For professionals, they are useful reports that keep them up to date with what is current in the field. For scholars, the depth and breadth of the literature review emphasizes the credibility of the writer in his or her field. Literature reviews also provide a solid background for a research paper's investigation. Comprehensive knowledge of the literature of the field is essential to most research papers. Who writes these things, anyway? Literature reviews are written occasionally in the humanities, but mostly in the sciences and social sciences; in experiment and lab reports, they constitute a section of the paper. Sometimes a literature review is written as a paper in itself. Excerpt from “Literature Reviews” from The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (http://writingcenter.unc.edu/resources/handouts-demos/specific-writing-assignments/literature-reviews), 2007. Collection Development Librarian 1014 Boswell Ave. Crete NE 68333
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EducationALA's Great Web Sites for Kids The American Library Association’s search engine of recommended sites for children. Includes grade level appropriateness and summaries of each website. California Preschools and Daycare Centers Looking for a preschool or daycare for your child? This site lets you search preschools by city and includes address, phone number, tuition, hours of operation, and links to the school's Webpage.California Reading List (CRL) This site provides reading lists that corresponds with the child’s reading level from grades K-12, based on their scores reflected in the California English-Language Arts Standards Test.Education.com Advice, reference articles, and an online community for parents of preschool to high school students.Great Schools Discusses California school-related issues and provides ratings and tips on how to evaluate a school.Helping Your Child with Homework The U.S. Department of Education’s publication explaining the "hows" and "whys" of homework which includes helpful tips. Home Schooling Resources from the Librarian's Index to the Internet Links to home schooling websites including California organizations. STAR Program Resources Additional resources including the STAR scoring guide, sample subject and writing test questions and informative guides for parents and teachers. STAR Program Results School, district, county and statewide summary results for Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program for the current year. Includes prior year CST, SAT/9, and CAT/6 results. STAR Test Questions Gives a list of CST Released test questions and answers from 2003-2008, by subject and grade. Created by moms, this site contains books reviews from a parent's perspective. Find "fiction that fits" your criteria for a good book. Recommended by the 2010 Association for Library Service to Children's Great Websites for Kids Committee.
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Your Toddler 18 - 36 Months - Your 18-24 month old: Your toddler learns new things every day! He or she may carry books around and pretend to read, recognize favorite books, and develop a routine with a caregiver that involves reading. - By the age of 2, children have a constantly growing vocabulary of between 1,000 and 2,000 words. He or she may use words in simple combinations such as "all done" or "pick up." - Your 24-36 month old: Your toddler will be speaking in sentences, and will ask and answer simple questions. He or she will imitate sounds, actions, and words in books, as well as label parts of illustrations. Your toddler will enjoy hearing his or her favorite stories read aloud repeatedly and will enjoy reading being a part of daily routines. - By age 3, children often demonstrate obvious enjoyment of reading, and will label items in illustrations. Toddlers at this age may also begin creating scribbles that resemble printing. Tips for reading with your toddler: - Discuss the books that you read with your child. Ask who, what, where, when, why, and how questions. - Your child will enjoy the chance to answer questions like "what is this animal?" or "what do you think will happen next?" Be sure to give your child enough time to answer questions before telling them the answer or moving on. Counting to ten silently in your head will help you to wait long enough for a response. This will show your child that you have respect for their developing thinking and speaking skills. - Choose books that show characters doing things that your toddler does too (eating, playing, going to bed). - Keep books on low shelves so that your toddler has easy access to them. - Choose non-fiction books about colors, shapes, animals, families, etc. - Teach your toddler how to handle books correctly and carefully. - Share stories with repetitive text and encourage your child to repeat familiar parts along with you. - Recite rhymes and sing songs during daily routines. Books for Toddlers: - Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault - Freight Train by Donald Crews - From Head to Toe by Eric Carle - Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett - My Car by Byron Barton - Planes by Byron Barton - The Little Red Hen by Bryon Barton - The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle - We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury
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World Water Day is on Monday, March 22nd, and it's a crucial moment in the fight against the global sanitation and water crisis that’s killing thousands of people every single day. No matter where you are in the world you can celebrate World Water Day! Check out some of the ways below: The World’s Longest Toilet Queue is a mass mobilization event and Guinness World Record attempt bringing together thousands of campaigners from across the world to demand real change. Ever seen water flow uphill? Without help of petrol or electricity? Meet the hydraulic ram, a robust and simple water-powered water pump. The ram pumps uses the power of water with a height difference flowing in the spring, stream or river to lift a fraction of the water up to 200 meters vertically, and sometimes pump it over a kilometre or two to where it is needed. No fuel or electricity required. The ram pump holds great potential for rural drinking water and irrigation water supply in hilly and mountainous areas, such as Afghanistan, Colombia, Nepal, and the Philippines. Photo above: Children surrounding a hydraulic ram produced by AIDFI on the island Negros, the Philippines. If you are in the Los Angeles area, come celebrate World Water Day with a Night of Generosity at SKYBAR on March 22nd at 8pm. Water is big business. Just five beverage companies consume enough water over the course of a year to satisfy the daily water needs of every person on the planet. Of course, we may not be able to control how much water is put in a can of soda or a beer (less water, more alcohol, please) or the amount it takes to make paper, but we can control our own use at the workplace and even influence those who manage supplies. It may not be our nickel that gets spent on the utility bill at work, but the gains are certainly ours when we reduce the corporate water footprint on the planet. Water prices are poised to rise due to increased water stress, and corporate growth is expected to be impeded as resources dwindle. Make no mistake, all of this comes out of our paychecks in one way or another. At this very moment, millions of women are carrying 40 pounds of water on the return leg of their average 3.5-mile daily trek. So today, on International Women's Day, I want to pay tribute to the resiliency of these women, and highlight the collective possibility they embody -- if freed from the back-breaking and time-consuming burden of collecting water. Providing women with access to a nearby source of clean water frees up their days to earn an income or engage in other more productive activities – which can help significantly elevate their status in the community. photo by Beth Harper via Creative Commons. Outdoors is where we as residents tend to use huge amounts of water. In some parts of the country, mostly out in the arid West, 70 percent or more of residential water is used for lawn irrigation. Something is seriously wrong with this picture. Pink flamingos and fountains aside, decorative lawns that need lots of care and lots of water are scourges. It may be that suburbia is making the wells run dry. Indeed, homeowners use an average of 120 gallons of water each day for things outside. Think about that for a second: "things outside" -- where rain should be able to do the job nicely -- if we stick with the vegetation that grows naturally in our locale, that is. Irrigation, my dear water-freak neighbor, was invented to keep our fields of food alive, not your imported turf. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and former U.S. President Bill Clinton unveiled a new United Nations program to raise money to help fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and more. Through the program, called MASSIVEGOOD, travelers can donate a minimum of $2 on top of their airfare to support an international UN Health financing initiative by clicking on MASSIVEGOOD. Five clicks, the equivalent of $10, bought an insecticide-treated bed net, while 25 clicks was enough to pay for a year’s worth of HIV medication for one child. Around the world, most boreholes are drilled with big, heavy equipment which arrives by truck, makes a lot of noise, and gets the job done in a short time, at a cost of about $5,000 to $20,000 per borehole. But there is a growing interest in doing it in a different way -- drilling by hand. It takes longer, it is heavy work, but it also gets the job done. Why are people getting interested? A hand-drilled borehole costs about $500 or less. Läkarmissionen is one of our NGO partners in Sweden and is helping us to fight the global water crisis. Their operation began in 1958 to support a Swedish church related mission hospital in South Africa. That is what gave them the name Läkarmissionen - the Swedish Medical Mission Foundation. Läkarmissionen’s intention is to make it possible for marginalized people to gain improved quality of life. Our experiences indicate that circumstances can be changed, and that sustainable results can be achieved, as we include the people in need in the process of change.
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knowledge is from the heart as well as the mind. It is not a mere mental perception of the forms of things or a knowledge of their material nature; it must include the soul of things, the divine ideas that they enshrine. Everything is dependent on the small things: relaxation - you always relax more; acceptance, oneself and others - can always try; house-cleaning - will always be just as difficult, but at least you have done it before. It is important to do all these little things Question: - How can we discern whether it is the divine conscience animating us and directing us in a certain direction, or the animal soul seeking release from seemingly unfavorable environments: Answer: - The divine conscience acts in all struggles for betterment, but clouded more or less in each by reason of education and habit of thought; hence it varies in brightness. It is not possible to make a hard-and-fast fixed rule for finding out what is the animating motive. If we are trying to get into a better state, it is for us to decide if that be simply and wholly selfish. All actions are surrounded by desire as the rust is round the polished metal or the smoke round the fire, but we must try. So if we fix for ourselves the rule that we will try to do the best we can for others, we will generally be led right. If we rely on the higher self and aspire to be guided by it, we will be led to the right even if the road goes through pain, for sorrow and pain are necessary for purification of the soul. But if we wish to run away from an environment because we do not like it and without trying to live in it while not of it, we are not altering ourselves but simply altering the circumstances, and may not always gain anything. Questioner: What is your attitude to the early teachings of Theosophy, the Blavatsky type? Do you consider we have deteriorated or advanced? KRISHNAMURTI: I am afraid I do not know, because I do not know what Madame Blavatsky's teachings are. Why should I? Why should you know of someone else's teachings? You know, there is only one truth, and therefore there is only one way, which is not distant from the truth; there is only one method to that truth, because the means are not distinct from the end. Now you who have studied Madame Blavatsky's and the latest Theosophy, or whatever it is, why do you want to be students of books instead of students of life? Why do you set up leaders and ask whose teachings are better? Don't you see? Please, I am not being harsh, or anything of that kind. Don't you see? You are Christians; find out what is true and false in Christianity—and you will then find out what is true. Find out what is true and false in your environment with all its oppressions and cruelties, and then you will find out what is true. Why do you want philosophies? Because life is an ugly thing, and you hope to run away from it through philosophy. Life is so empty, dull, stupid, ignominious, and you want something to bring romanticism into your world, some hope, some lingering, haunting feeling; whereas, if you really faced the world as it is, and tackled it, you would find it something much more, infinitely greater than any philosophy, greater than any book in the world, greater than any teaching or greater than any teacher. We have really lost all sense of feeling, feeling for the oppressed, and feeling for the oppressor. You only feel when you are oppressed. So gradually we have intellectually explained away all our feelings, our sensitiveness, our delicate perceptions, until we are absolutely shallow; and to fill that shallowness, to enrich ourselves, we study books. The Theosophical Society has had three objects for more than a century. They are: Of these three objects the first has been considered the most important, at least since the time H.P. Blavatsky and H.S. Olcott arrived in India in 1879. Strangely enough the 'mission-statement' of the Theosophical Society in Wheaton (Adyar) rephrases the above, but leaves brotherhood out. It is as follows: To encourage open-minded enquiry into world religions, philosophy, science, and the arts in order to understand the wisdom of the ages, respect the unity of all life, and help people explore spiritual self-transformation. A mission statement is merely another word for aim or object. So one would expect the three objects of the Theosophical Society to agree precisely with the mission-statement. One would also expect the wording of the mission-statement to be more modern. In that vein it would have been a nice challenge if the board of directors of the US-section of the TS had found a new sex-neutral way of saying that people should treat each other well. What else does a 'nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity (etc)' mean? But to leave it all out is really going too far for me, and for several of the people I met in Wheaton this summer. This mission-statement sounds selfish to me. Great: I find an organisation where people will help me with my self-transformation en where my open enquiry into religions, spirituality and science will be supported. Wonderful. And there is no suggestion that I personally need to do anything at all. I don't need to practice loving kindness. I don't need to find tolerance in my heart for those I've learned to despise or ignore. I will perhaps learn to respect the unity of all life in abstract, but there is no need for me to do anything practical at all... I'm obviously being cynical. In actual fact the attempt to form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color is work. It means a constant attempt to overcome my conditioning. It means reaching out to people. It means practicing kindness. It means learning to deal with people I may not like. I find it very disappointing that the TS in America has edited this very important attempt out of its 'mission statement' and hope they will change things soon. Each summer the American Section of the Theosophical Society (TS) has a gathering that is both business meeting and summer school. Non-members of the TS are not explicitly invited, but in practice nothing is done to discourage them from coming either. The atmosphere of the gathering was both very familiar to me, as strange and new. Familiar, as it was as comfortable talking to these overseas theosophists, as it has always been talking to theosophists here in the Netherlands. Strange as well, as inevitably things are done differently, when there is a different host-country. The opening was a lot former than I'm used to seeing it. 'evening dress optional' says it all, I think. For those who have not been to Olcott for this: evening dress means suits and ties and dresses and in the case of theosophists: saris and Indian dresses in general. First Betty Bland, the national president of the TS in the USA, welcomed us. Then there were prayers from 'all the world's religions', though this is obviously practically impossible there were a lot. The atmosphere of that ceremony was more informal than I saw it in India. It looked like people could just come up and give whatever prayer they wanted. Among the many prayers more than one Christian denomination was represented, as well as Islam, the gayatri mantra and a humanist prayer. The opening ended with greetings from all over the world. I gave greetings from the Netherlands and the International Theosophical Centre at Naarden also in the Netherlands. The business meeting consisted of reports from the various departments. I was surprised to see the work that went into making it literally entertaining. The Quest Bookshop even got a (fake) sťance on the way in which Annie Besant appeared. This is certainly different from how I'm used to seeing it, but I enjoyed myself anyhow. The theme of the school was 'Theosophy in action'. Radha Burnier, international president, gave most of the lectures. Room had been made for Diana Chapotin's coverage of the Order of Service, John Algeo and Joy Mills. After the main lecture, each morning, there were group discussion that were - as usual - very interesting. In the afternoon there were usually lectures, workshops and meditation classes. To be honest I wasn't impressed with what I saw of the meditation classes. Theosophists don't have a reputation of being very good at meditation and this didn't help any in my book. The morning meditation even reminded me of group hypnosis. A bad sign that confirmed this impression was that several people told me that they had a tendency to fall asleep during the morning-meditation. The lectures were very good. Radha Burnier's opening lecture was about finding balance. She meant finding a balance between the development of buddhi (roughly intuition), thought, emotion and action. If there is insight, don't act on it immediately. Let it germinate, it will express itself naturally in action or words at some point. Spiritual aspiration as well needs to be in harmony. Too much of it leads to ambition, too much tension or waste of energy. Mental balance includes overcoming the duality of thought. This means that likes and dislikes will disappear and we will neither accept nor reject what IS. Diana Chapotin, in her lecture about the Theosophical Order of Service (TOS), stressed that theosophists are active in social service in various ways. One of the main ways is individual action. She meant that theosophists all over the world are active in social work through organisations that have nothing to do with theosophy. The second way in which theosophists are active practically in the world is through the activities of local theosophical lodges and sections. The TOS complements all that with very specific projects in area's like education, animal welfare, vegetarianism and help in case of natural disasters like recently Katrina. On an organisational level TOS-groups are led by theosophists, but the volunteers don't have to be members. Though any kind of social work can be taken on, it is necessary that central theosophical values behind the work are communicated regularly to keep the work theosophical. Diana explained that the work of the TOS has grown dramatically recently under her leadership. She can't cope on her own anymore and a reorganisation is necessary. Joy Mills gave a public lecture on the vitality of living truth. She stressed the difference between living wisdom and book wisdom. Theosophists always risk not going beyond book wisdom. If we really see the truth, our heart and our whole being will change. That's the power of living truth. In order for that to happen, we need to actually practice truth as we know it (not as we want it to be) in our daily lives. Every experience that broadens our sensitivity, mirrors living truth for us. In modern thought the interconnectedness of everything is becoming quite clear. H.P. Blavatsky actually went one step further: she saw everything as one living being, One Life. The theory of Gaia shows this on the level of the earth, but for Blavatsky it's true of the whole universe. Breath is used as an image of that Oneness. Radha's second lecture dealt with a very central theme: growing in wisdom. In this lecture she repeated a theme that threads through her Watchtower pieces in The Theosophist as well: Humanity grows in knowledge, but not in wisdom. The knowledge that has been developed over the past two centuries leads to destruction because there is no knowledge on what is right in the long run. It is relatively easy to develop knowledge. It is very hard to find out what right action is. We don't realise enough that in hurting someone else, we hurt ourselves. Wisdom leads to a peaceful, sensitive world. Knowledge leads to pride and this can only be challenged by becoming aware of the limitations of knowledge. Otherwise knowledge leads to a feeling of separateness. On the other hand it is necessary to learn to think independently and become aware to what extent we are all influenced by others. An example she gave is that the simple life is no longer seen as ideal. Everybody wants to live as is portrayed on television. In all her lectures this week Radha reminded us that our personal problems need to come second. Growth in wisdom means growth in altruism and that means forgetting self. Our personal problems and our joys are both temporary. We make them bigger than they are. Why is suffering such a large problem? The TS was founded to fight prejudice. Prejudice hinders an insight into real problems and can only be dissolved by a feeling of connectedness with all human beings. Our altruism needs to become universal. The Buddha said: it's better to give a little lovingly, than to give a lot without love. It was very impressive to hear the report of theosophists living near the area where Katrina hit. There were slides as accompanying there very personal report. The most important insight I got from that was that storms are normal for the people in this region. Normally people do not leave in case of a storm. Despite that fact, and this has not been stressed enough, this was the most successful evacuation in history. Around 90-95% of the people in the New Orleans region were evacuated. We were told that criminals always stay behind so they can loot. This is part of the pattern. Because this storm did so much more damage than most other storms, everything got bigger than usual. John Algeo spoke about the most holy mission of theosophy. He started by saying that Blavatsky in her final five years on earth, had left a legacy of five: These three letters were the backbone to Johns two lectures. They give direction to Theosophical work in the world. Blavatsky's last years were tough, but John stressed that out of disaster, blessings often come. Disasters mix things up. Tibetan Buddhism would never have spread to the West as it has, if China hadn't invaded Tibet. In her 1891 letter, Blavatsky mainly spoke of living theosophy, not the teachings. In her first letter she stressed the aim of the Theosophical Society to unite people of all nations and altruism. Organisations are important, but they can't created holiness, health or wholeness. We have to become fully human, that is what the word master signifies: to master ourselves. There can only be harmony in organisations, if opposites are balanced, not through wiping out differences. In his second lecture he returned to the theme of unifying people of all nations. He also pointed out that every wise administration knows that things can't be forced. No rule can open the heart-mind of people. No group is safe from fundamentalism. Theosophists too run this risk, though in real theosophy there can be no dogmas, because it is based on real insight and rational thinking. Real theosophy reflects divine reason, the reason of Buddhi. John closed with Blavatsky's words in the last letter to the American Conventions: to be theosophists, live theosophy. In her next lecture Radha talked about growing in Love. Love is our true being, that aspect of ourselves which is one with every other. Love is beyond words, it's part of Universal Life. It is necessary to feel affection for kids and animals. Continually looking for security, that wish masks a desire for Love. Our world is dark, there is little friendship, little Love. How do we remove the barriers that separate us from our essential nature: Love? To this practical question, Radha's answer is to be more sensitive. We have to feel as others feel, without identifying with their pain. You can't help others by going along with their pain, but you have to know what it is. Right action requires going beyond social custom and convention and being really sensitive. This sensitivity doesn't hinder our happiness. Our real nature isn't just Love, it's also Bliss. But we need to become conscious of other people. Unkind thoughts hurt others, and ultimately ourselves. They are like a hungry wolf that eats up our best tendencies. Annie Besant said that if we can't see God in others, we must be the worst possible atheists. The problem with gossip is that it is superficial. We have to learn to look under the surface, without judgment of any kind. The habit to criticize strengthens the ego. Be a missionary of Love and generosity. Be prepared to give of yourself. Don't just do what is necessary, but actively contribute to the welfare of people in conversation. Every tendency of personality has to disappear. That way of looking teaches us to overcome pettiness. The first step is the last step, because the direction in which we move is of primary importance. Radha's final lecture was called 'purification through action'. Real wisdom is in seeing action in non-action and non-action in action. The central question she asked: what is right action? Each of us has to decide that for ourselves. Keep in mind that our energy impacts the world, not just our actions. Everything is interconnected. That's why abstaining from action isn't the same thing as freedom from action. When actions create problems, it's not right action. Right action is necessary, but we have to avoid identifying with it. In everything you do, ask yourself if there is egoism involved. The tricky part is that even that thought is in a way selfish. We need an inner balance that is independent of success or failure. Success and failure are part of the ups and downs of life, but we don't have to inwardly get involved in that. The risk of accomplishment is that one starts thinking: I can do this. That feeling can get in the way of right action. The problem with selfish action is that even if the short-term result seems good, it's never permanent. Radha closed with one of Krishnamurti's insights: actions that are a product of the past, don't work. Action only works if it's the consequence of right insight. This lecture was very insightful, but I missed one aspect that the title does suggest: that sometimes insight follows unselfish action. Right action can help clean the personality. One has to start somewhere. The final session was a question and answer round with Radha Burnier, Joy Mills and John Algeo. The questions had come in through the internet and from the discussion groups. What follows is a selection. Can Muslims become members of the Theosophical Society? Yes, we have Muslim members in Indonesia, India and Pakistan. Radha stressed that Muslim women aren't forced to stay at home in all countries. In many countries they are free. Why do people ignore the Middle Path? The middle path is hard, said Radha, people prefer it easy. It's hard to overcome the tendency to overdo things. A question was asked about loving yourself. Joy Mills answered that it is important to look at yourself objectively. Observe yourself, it is unnecessary to become emotional or judgmental about yourself. Loving yourself means accepting what is, and resolving to change. Radha asks what it means to love yourself. Can you love your shadow? Reality IS, it doesn't need to be loved. As this summary shows, the lectures were very interesting and deep. I really enjoyed myself and met some very good people.
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Under a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Maryland State Department of Education receives funding to build the capacity of local school systems to deliver HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Programs. Funded program activities include strengthening coordinated school health programs at the local school system level to deliver training in HIV/AIDS prevention and developing policy and procedures. The CDC has identified promising and research based practices in HIV/AIDS prevention education. For more information and a list of the identified programs to be delivered within a coordinated school health model visit the CDC website. For a summary of Maryland laws and regulations relating to Health Education, HIV/AIDS and Teen Pregnancy Prevention education visit nasbe survey.pdf The 2004 School Health Education Profile (SHEP) assesses the status of HIV prevention efforts within high schools health education curriculum in Maryland schools. Maryland results are linked below: Principal Results in pdf format mdPrincipal04a.pdf Principal Results in PowerPoint MDPrincipal04a.ppt Teacher Results in pdf format mdTeacher04a.pdf Teacher Results in
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Math is all about problem solving. One of the best ways to help children learn math is to present them with a problem in which they have to devise their own strategies to find the solution(s). There is usually more than 1 way to solve math problems and children need the opportunity to discover shortcuts and their own algorithms to determine the appropriate solution, they should also justify their solution(s). The following math word problems are specific for children in the sixth grade and are divided into the main math cagegories: Number Concepts, Patterns and Algebra, Geometry and Measurement, Data Management and Probability. Children should be involved in problem solving activities every day. Problems for second grade students should be read to them. Students should also be able to describe why their solutions work or how they know it's the right solution. My favorite question to children is 'how do you know'. When they have to explain how they arrived at their answer, you immediately know the learning that has taken place. Patterns and Algebra Kelly's classroom organized an e-Pal club. 11 people joined the club. Each of of them sent an email to each of the members of the club. How many emails were actually sent? How do you know? Ticket sales for the bake sale were underway. Four people bought tickets on the first day of sales, twice as many people bought tickets on the second day and each day afterwards twice as many people bought tickets. How many tickets were sold after 16 days? Data Management and Probability Pet Parade: Mr. James has 14 cats, dogs and guinea pigs. What are all the combinations he could have? How many different types of pizza can you make with the following toppings: pepperoni, tomatoes, bacon, onions and green peppers? Show your answer. Sam bought 8 ball caps, one for each of her eight friends, for $8.95 each. The cashier charged her an additional $12.07 in sales tax. She left the store with a measely $6.28. How much money did Sam start with? Geometry and Measurement. Watch your favorite television show from beginning to end. Time each of the commercials and determine the percentage of commercial time for the entire show. Now determine the percentage of time the actual show is. What is the fraction of commercials? Two squares are beside each other. One square has 6 times the lenght of the other square, how many times greater is the area of the larger square? How do you know?
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Playing with Equations to Solve Problems Date: 09/16/2003 at 10:48:13 From: Mara Subject: To state the geometric property of an equation I need to give the geometric property common to all lines in the family x - ky = 1 I know that the answer is that all lines in this family have an x-intercept at x=1 but I am totally clueless about showing why this is the case. At first I thought that using the double-intercept equation (x/a) + (y/b) = 1 would work but I couldn't get it in the correct form. Then I tried to solve for x and y and got x = 1 + ky and y = (-1/k) + (-x/k) but now I do not know what to do with this. So I was wondering if you knew how to go about solving this? Date: 09/16/2003 at 12:28:52 From: Doctor Peterson Subject: Re: To state the geometric property of an equation Hi, Mara. I don't think there is any method you can use to solve this sort of problem without a lot of thinking and testing. Let's see how I personally would approach it (as well as I can construct it, considering that I know the answer already!). Then I'll look at some alternative approaches you might take. We have x - ky = 1 and we want to know what property all these lines have in common. Probably, since this is an open-ended question and I don't expect it to be straightforward, I would start by just "playing" with the equation, getting a feel for how it works by trying a few special cases. I might take k = 0, 1, and -1 and graph those three lines, x = 1 x - y = 1 x + y = 1 I would find that they all intersect at (1,0), and my answer would be that all the lines seem to contain that point. (In a sense this is a more purely "geometric" property than the x-intercept, since it does not refer to the coordinates.) Then I would want to prove that this is true for ALL k, to make sure I hadn't fooled myself by choosing three cases that happened to intersect. Thinking of this as a point shared by all lines in the family, I would prove it by simply substituting x=1, y=0 in the general equation: x - ky = 1 1 - k*0 = 1 is true for all k so (1,0) is indeed on all the lines, not just the three I tried. Or, I might think of it as a common x-intercept, as you said; then I would do what you suggested and put the equation into two-intercept form x/a + y/b = 1 That's easy; all it takes is to interpret -ky as y divided by -1/k: x/1 + y/(-1/k) = 1 So the x-intercept is 1 for all these lines, and the y-intercept is -1/k. So my approach is to experiment (the more adult word for "play"!) and make a conjecture (the more adult word for "guess"), and then prove that conjecture. Now, is there any other way you might approach this? If you were really smart (and I might possibly have done this if I were faced with the equation afresh), you could just see that the equation looks like the two-intercept form, and gone directly to the proof. If you could do that, fine; but you can't depend on such insight! You might instead just go through each form of the equation, starting probably with slope-intercept, and see whether any important feature (such as the slope or y-intercept) is constant. When that failed, it would be hard to move on to the point-slope or two-point form, because you would have to choose the point(s), and there is no obvious basis for that choice. So you would probably next try the two- intercept form (which many studuents never see, so you're lucky). Your approach came close. When you solved for x, you just had to look and see that the x-intercept (the constant in that form) is always 1. But since that form, the slope-x-intercept form, is little-known, it's not surprising that you did not know what to do with it. But I really think that my approach is the most reasonable hope to find the answer quickly. If you have any further questions, feel free to write back. - Doctor Peterson, The Math Forum http://mathforum.org/dr.math/ Search the Dr. Math Library: Ask Dr. MathTM © 1994-2013 The Math Forum
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Problem: An oil drilling rig located 14 miles off of a straight coastline is to be connected by a pipeline to a renery 10 miles down the coast from the point directly opposite the drilling rig. Laying pipe under water costs 500,000 dollars per mile. Laying pipe on land costs 300,000 dollars per mile. What combination of underwater and land-based pipe will minimize the total cost of the pipeline? For now I'd just like help drawing the picture because in my eyes this is very poorly written. So can someone help me out with a picture for this?
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The Physics Help Forum not working today, at least not from my ISP, so this goes here. It's basically a math deal anyway: The formula to calculate the force of a point of mass, let's call them planets, that results from its being gravitationally attracted by another point of mass is Newton's: Where is the force of the planet that results from the gravitational attraction exerted upon it by the other planet, is Newton's gravity constant, and are the respecive masses of the planets, and d is the distance between them. For simplicity's sake let's say all the planets considered are of the same mass, so we can write instead of . Now, if I'm not mistaken, the formula for calculating the force of a planet resulting from the gravitational attraction of more than two planets is: Where is the force on the jth planet resulting from the gravitational attraction of the other planets, and is the distance between the jth planet and the kth planet. My question is "where is the vector addition?" That is, when considering the force on one planet that results from the gravitational attraction of many other planets, we have to take into account not only the distance of the other planets from planet j but also their position with respect to it (right?). Take for example the simple case of three planets in the same plane. Planet j is at the origin. Planet k is one unit to the right of j on the x axis, while planet l is one unit up the y axis. If the masses all equal 1, then, by the formula above, the force on planet j would be: But is a function of both the distance and the position, right? So we must consider not only the Gravitational Forces individually exerted upon j by k and l, but also the angle at which these forces are exerted. That is, we must add the vectors. To add vectors you just plug in the x value and y value sums of the added vectors into pythagoras' formula. The force on planet j should therefore be: (Where is the angle subtended by a line drawn from planet j to planet x. I.e. and ) So, what am I missing here? I am fully aware that I, and not Newton, am missing something here. Someone please help point this out for me.
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The doping-drug Epo has an impact in the brain Sportsmen and women dope with the blood hormone Epo to enhance their performance. Researchers from the University of Zurich now discovered by animal testing that Epo has a performance-enhancing effect in the brain shortly after injection and not only after days by improving oxygen transport in blood. As Epo also increases motivation, it could be useful in treating depression. The well-known blood hormone Epo is not only used for medicinal purposes; some athletes misuse it for doping. It boosts the number of red blood cells, thereby increasing the transport of oxygen to the muscles. This leads to improvements in performance, which can especially give endurance athletes such as cyclists or marathon runners the edge. Epo has immediate impact on exercise performance In a recently published study, Max Gassmann, a veterinary physiologist from the University of Zurich, proved that Epo also drastically increases motivation in the brain as soon as it has been injected, without the number of red blood cells increasing. Gassmann's team tested exercise performance of differently treated mice, studying genetically modified mice that produce human Epo solely in the brain and mice that the researchers had injected with Epo and the hormone reached the brain thus by blood. Both mouse groups exhibited an increased performance on the treadmill compared to the untreated control animals. "We assume that Epo in the brain triggers a motivation boost to increase physical performance," explains Professor Gassmann. He and his team are now testing the performance-enhancing effect of Epo on volunteers. Epo probably has an impact on people's moods, too. It might thus be used in patients who suffer from depression. The latest experiments conducted by a German-Danish research group reveal that Epo can also alleviate the condition of patients suffering from schizophrenia by improving their mental performance. Provided by University of Zurich - Biker's warning! 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Cancer debate: Are tumors fueled by stem cells? How can a cancer come back after it's apparently been eradicated? Three new studies from American, Belgian, British and Dutch researchers are bolstering a long-debated idea: that tumors contain their own pool of stem cells that can multiply and keep fueling the cancer, seeding regrowth. If that's true, scientists will need to find a way to kill those cells, apart from how they attack the rest of the tumor. Stem cells in healthy tissues are known for their ability to produce any kind of cell. The new research deals with a different kind, cancer stem cells. Some researchers, but not all, believe they lurk as a persisting feature in tumors. Over the past decade, studies have found evidence for them in tumors like breast and colon cancers. But this research has largely depended on transplanting human cancer cells into mice that don't have immune systems, an artificial environment that raises questions about the relevance of the results. Now, three studies reported online Wednesday in the journals Nature and Science present evidence for cancer stem cells within the original tumors. Again, the research relies on mice. That and other factors mean the new findings still won't convince everyone that cancer stem cells are key to finding more powerful treatments. But researcher Luis Parada, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, believes his team is onto something. He says that for the type of brain tumor his team studied, "we've identified the true enemy." If his finding applies to other cancers, he said, then even if chemotherapy drastically shrinks a tumor but doesn't affect its supply of cancer stem cells, "very little progress has actually been made." The three studies used labeling techniques to trace the ancestry of cells within mouse tumors. Collectively, they give "very strong support" to the cancer stem cell theory, said Jeffrey M. Rosen, a professor of molecular and cellular biology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He did not participate in the work but supports the theory, which he said is widely accepted. Parada's team worked with mice genetically primed to develop a certain type of brain tumor. The scientists genetically labeled particular cells in the tumor and then attacked the cancer with the same drug given to human patients. It kills growing tumor cells and temporarily stops the cancer's growth. After treatment, when the tumor started growing again in the mice, the researchers showed that the vast majority, if not all, of its new cells had descended from the labeled cells. Apparently these were the tumor's cancer stem cells, they concluded. Parada said his team is now trying to isolate cancer stem cells from mouse brain cancers to study them and perhaps get some leads for developing therapies to eradicate them. He also said that preliminary study of human brain tumors is producing results consistent with what his team found in the mice. Parada's study appears in Nature. In a second Nature report, British and Belgian researchers found evidence for cancer stem cells in early stage skin tumors in mice. And in the journal Science, a Dutch group found such evidence in mouse intestinal polyps, which are precursors to colon cancer. Scott Kern of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is skeptical about whether tumors contain cancer stem cells. He said that since the new studies didn't involve human tumors, it's not clear how relevant they are to people. The two European studies focused largely on lesions that can lead to tumors, he said. And as for Parada's brain cancer study, he said he believed the results could be explained without relying on the cancer stem cell theory. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. - Study suggests new treatment target for glioblastoma multiforme Aug 01, 2012 | not rated yet | 0 - Cancer stem cell vaccine in development shows antitumor effect Apr 02, 2012 | not rated yet | 0 - Herceptin targets breast cancer stem cells Jul 09, 2008 | not rated yet | 0 - New role for Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in regulating skin cancer stem cells Oct 19, 2011 | not rated yet | 0 - Stem cells, potential source of cancer-fighting T cells Sep 20, 2011 | not rated yet | 0 - Motion perception revisited: High Phi effect challenges established motion perception assumptions Apr 23, 2013 | 3 / 5 (2) | 2 - Anything you can do I can do better: Neuromolecular foundations of the superiority illusion (Update) Apr 02, 2013 | 4.5 / 5 (11) | 5 - The visual system as economist: Neural resource allocation in visual adaptation Mar 30, 2013 | 5 / 5 (2) | 9 - Separate lives: Neuronal and organismal lifespans decoupled Mar 27, 2013 | 4.9 / 5 (8) | 0 - Sizing things up: The evolutionary neurobiology of scale invariance Feb 28, 2013 | 4.8 / 5 (10) | 14 Pressure-volume curve: Elastic Recoil Pressure don't make sense May 18, 2013 From pressure-volume curve of the lung and chest wall (attached photo), I don't understand why would the elastic recoil pressure of the lung is... 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Research finds novel airborne germ-killing oral spray effective in fighting colds and flu University Hospitals Case Medical Center clinical researchers will present findings about a one-two punch to prevent colds and flu in San Francisco at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) on September 9, 2012. The research team is presenting data in two poster presentations that a new oral antiseptic spray is effective in killing 99.9 percent of infectious airborne germs. Findings from these two presentations led to the development of Halo Oral Antiseptic, a first-of-its kind germ-fighting spray which is currently on store shelves. "Respiratory tract disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world," says Frank Esper, MD, infectious disease expert at UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital and lead author of one of the studies. "Yet there has been limited progress in the prevention of respiratory virus infections. Halo is unique in that it offers protection from airborne germs such as influenza and rhinovirus." Dr. Esper and a team of researchers used glycerine and xanthan gum as a microbial barrier combined with cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) as a broad-spectrum anti-infective agent to fight respiratory illnesses. To test this, clinical strains of 2009 pandemic H1N1 were used as a prototype virus to demonstrate Halo's anti-infective activity in cell culture assays. "The glycerine and xanthan gum prevent the germs from entering a person's system and the CPC kills the germs once they're trapped there," explains Dr. Esper, who is also Associate Professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Dr. Esper will present his findings that Halo will have clear benefit to aid against infection and reduce disease from epidemic, sporadic or pandemic respiratory viral infections, particularly helping people at risk for severe respiratory illness including immune-compromised individuals with chronic lung disease, and military personnel. Another study on Halo will be presented by Mahmoud Ghannoum, PhD, of UH Case Medical Center, showing Halo's effectiveness against disease-causing pathogenic germs. The presentation asserts that respiratory and/or systemic infections through airborne and manually transmitted pathogenic microbes often enter the system through the mouth, making Halo, an oral spray that targets these pathogens, an effective way to prevent infections. Additionally, preliminary data from the researchers found that Halo completely kills all 11 clinical strains of whooping cough (Bordetella pertussis) against which the spray was tested. The results showed that when a person used three sprays of Halo, it destroyed airborne germs breathed in for up to six hours, even when people were eating and drinking. The concept of coating the back of the oral cavity to prevent germs from entering and then providing sustained antiseptic action to kill airborne germs was developed by a Cleveland company, Oasis Consumer Healthcare. "Exposure to airborne germs is inevitable – especially in crowded environments and when traveling," said Dr. Ghannoum, who is also the Director of the Center for Medical Mycology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. "Unlike other products that support the immune system or protect from germs on surfaces or hands, Halo is the first and only product of its kind to offer protection from airborne germs." 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News tagged with renewable energy Related topics: energy , wind turbines , electricity , solar panels , fossil fuels Renewable energy is energy generated from natural resources—such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat—which are renewable (naturally replenished). In 2006, about 18% of global final energy consumption came from renewables, with 13% coming from traditional biomass, such as wood-burning. Hydroelectricity was the next largest renewable source, providing 3% of global energy consumption and 15% of global electricity generation. Wind power is growing at the rate of 30 percent annually, with a worldwide installed capacity of 121,000 megawatts (MW) in 2008, and is widely used in European countries and the United States. The annual manufacturing output of the photovoltaics industry reached 6,900 MW in 2008, and photovoltaic (PV) power stations are popular in Germany and Spain. Solar thermal power stations operate in the USA and Spain, and the largest of these is the 354 MW SEGS power plant in the Mojave Desert. The world's largest geothermal power installation is The Geysers in California, with a rated capacity of 750 MW. Brazil has one of the largest renewable energy programs in the world, involving production of ethanol fuel from sugar cane, and ethanol now provides 18 percent of the country's automotive fuel. Ethanol fuel is also widely available in the USA. While most renewable energy projects and production is large-scale, renewable technologies are also suited to small off-grid applications, sometimes in rural and remote areas, where energy is often crucial in human development. Kenya has the world's highest household solar ownership rate with roughly 30,000 small (20–100 watt) solar power systems sold per year. Some renewable energy technologies are criticised for being intermittent or unsightly, yet the renewable energy market continues to grow. Climate change concerns coupled with high oil prices, peak oil and increasing government support are driving increasing renewable energy legislation, incentives and commercialization. New government spending, regulation, and policies should help the industry weather the 2009 economic crisis better than many other sectors. This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
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Breast cancer represents one of the most common cancers among women in the United States. Data indicates that more than 180,000 American women received a diagnosis of breast cancer in 2009. The various risk factors include: the female gender, heredity, genetic factors, aging and idiopathic causes. What You Should Know About Breast Cancer The short answer to what you should know about breast cancer is that it’s a malignant tumor in the breast tissue. With non-invasive breast cancer, the tumor stays localized and does not spread (metastasize) from its origin of growth. Experts refer to this as “Carcinoma in Situ”. The tumor occurs in and remains confined to the ducts (ductal carcinoma in situ) or confined to the lobules (lobular carcinoma in situ). “Duct” and “Lobules” refer to the milk duct and the milk producing glands, respectively, in the mammary glands. Most breast cancers start in the ducts and spread to other tissues. Lobular carcinoma doesn’t meet the criteria of a true cancer by itself, but is a marker for many other types of cancer – both invasive and non-invasive. An invasive tumor spreads beyond its area of origin and can have three different stages of invasiveness – localized, regional and distant stages. As the names suggest localized types include those which remain localized to the breast tissues, the regional stage refers to the spread of the tumor to the tissues surrounding the breast (e.g. – lymph nodes) and the distant tumors are those that spread away from the breast to other tissues and organs. Needless to mention, patients with distant tumors are not easily managed. About Breast Cancer Stages Doctors base breast cancer stages on the tumor size, nodal status (involvement of lymph nodes) and degree of spread (metastasis) tumors are grouped into 5 stages – 0 to IV. Stage zero means the carcinoma cells confined to the duct or lobule and has not spread elsewhere. This is the foremost stage of breast cancer. In stage I the tumor is very small – less than or equal to 2 cm in diameter and is confined to an area in the breast, not spread to the lymph nodes or surrounding tissues. In stage II, the tumor grows to 1-2 inches in diameter and cancer cells appear at the lymph nodes. Sometimes the tumor is even bigger than 5cms, but the lymph nodes remain unaffected. In stage III, the tumor grows more than 5 cm and spreads to the lymph nodes and sometimes even to multiple lymph nodes, skin and chest wall. Stage IV is the last one and in this case the cancer spreads to somewhere else in the body. Diagnostic Tests for Breast Cancer A biopsy of the tumor determines the type of cancer. This enables the doctors to freeze on the treatment methods and also to figure out how quickly the cancer might grow. The hormone receptor status and HER2 status of the patient is also of prime importance to the doctors, because female hormones estrogen and progesterone play a vital role in the development of some cancer types. “ER+” and “PR+” are, respectively, estrogen receptor positive and progesterone receptor positive tumors. Hormonal therapy has been found to be beneficial in patients with such tumors. HER2 status also influences the mode of treatment. Therapy and Treatment of Breast Cancer The most widely used breast cancer treatment methods include mastectomy and lumpectomy procedures. The former refers to the removal of the entire affected breast through surgery and the latter refers to the removal of only the tumor and some surrounding tissues believed to contain the roots of the tumor. As is the case with most cancer types, the cancer cells in breast cancer are too tiny for detection and doctors cannot rule out the chances that some cells will remain in the body, even after a successful surgery. The leftover cells can cause recurrence. To rule out recurrence adjuvant therapies are advised. Such therapies include: - Hormonal therapy - Targeted biological therapy In chemotherapy, the oncology health care team will administer a chemical to the patient (usually intravenously, but sometimes orally) to disrupt communication and growth of the cancerous cells. Hormonal therapy involves dosing the patient with a drug that works to bring down the estrogen levels or reduce its action. Experts believe estrogen promotes growth in some tumors. In targeted biological therapy, doctors inject the body with monoclonal antibodies trained to recognize and destroy certain proteins and cells (the cancerous cells) through phagocytosis (mechanism of destruction through immune system). How to Cope with Breast Cancer It’s important that breast cancer patients get rid of the fear and traumas associated with the diagnosis and actually try to understand the disease. This will help them manage it more effectively: - Share your feelings with the near and dear ones. - Joining a support group helps get rid of the so called “blues”. - Indulge in activities of interest like books, music, movies etc. - Eat healthy, think healthy. - Take rest. Talk to your doctor about changes in symptoms etc. and discuss ways to manage them in the best possible manner. About the Author: Jessica Palin works as a health writer and blogger for Robertgrantmd, (New York plastic surgery). She researches and writes about a variety of women’s health topics from breast cancer and weight loss to pregnancy tips. Her special interest involves exploring the new trends in beauty and plastic surgery treatments for both men and women. Images: embracinghealthblog dot com
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The Oregon Trail opened the way west for intrepid settlers and enterprising miners. Once it was well established and the roads were cleared and expanded, once towns had grown up along the route and locations in the Rockies and further west were settled, it was only natural that a new method of transportation would take over: stagecoaches. The technology behind stagecoaches wasn’t new. Carriages were the primary form of mass transportation in the pre-locomotive age. What made stagecoaches different from regular carriages were their size and the way they were supported on the wheel frame. Rather than relying on springs, which jostled a rider up and down, stagecoaches made use of thoroughbraces, leather straps that supported the body of the stagecoach and gave it more of a rocking motion.Stagecoaches could generally fit nine passengers inside and six outside. Inside, as you can probably guess, meant that passengers traveled inside the body of the coach. They would ride on three benches, two facing forward and the foremost one facing backwards, three riders to a bench. As you can imagine, it was a tight squeeze. Passengers in the first two benches would often have to wedge their knees between one another to make room. They would carry their baggage and often have mail under their feet. But if that wasn’t bad enough, the six passengers riding outside of the carriage would be just as cramped and exposed to the elements. But what passengers lost in comfort, they made up for in speed. The most common type of stagecoach was the Concord stagecoach, manufactured in Concord, New Hampshire. These stagecoaches rarely broke down. They were drawn by a team of six horses and could cut through the new roadways of the west much faster than any wagon train ever could. This is part of the reason that almost all stagecoaches carried mail as well as passengers. More than just mail, in fact. It was common for stagecoaches to carry gold and cash being transported on behalf of one bank or another. This, of course, meant that there was a real danger of robberies along the road. The first major stagecoach robbery in California took place in 1852 when Reelfoot Williams and his gang robbed a Nevada City coach. The gang had set up a network of informants to monitor when stages were coming and what money and passengers they were carrying. They carried off the heist, setting a precedent that many would follow. For that reason, and because of the very real threat of attacks by Native Americans, passengers were advised to carry guns and knives with them and drivers were well armed. So, you might ask yourself. Who was in charge of all these stagecoaches? You probably already know the answer without knowing it. There were several stagecoach companies in the east that had been in operation even before the 19th century. But one of the biggest and most successful companies developed in the 1830s as a service to deliver packages between Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Adams & Company gradually moved west as steamships replaced overland routes for fast transportation between the major eastern cities. Adams & Company did well in California after the gold rush, until mismanagement and the emergence of a serious competitor changed everything. That competitor was a little company started by two men, Henry Wells and William G. Fargo. The company that Wells and Fargo started offered more than just stagecoach service. It offered banking and mail services as well. In fact, by the time the 1850s rolled around, Wells Fargo was widely known to be faster and more reliable about delivering the mail than the U.S. Postal service. Then came the Panic of 1855. The California banking system, puffed up on speculation of continued profits from the Gold Rush, collapsed. Many businesses, including Adams & Company, folded. But Wells Fargo managed to hold on. Not only did it hold on, it emerged as one of the only viable options in stagecoach transportation. Since Wells Fargo pretty much had a monopoly on stagecoach transportation in the west after 1855, they could make the rules. And some of those rules were: Abstinence from liquor is requested, but if you must drink share the bottle. To do otherwise makes you appear selfish and unneighborly. If ladies are present, gentlemen are urged to forego smoking cigars and pipes as the odor of same is repugnant to the gentler sex. Chewing tobacco is permitted, but spit with the wind, not against it. Gentlemen must refrain from the use of rough language in the presence of ladies and children. Buffalo robes are provided for your comfort in cold weather. Hogging robes will not be tolerated and the offender will be made to ride with the driver. Don’t snore loudly while sleeping or use your fellow passenger’s shoulder for a pillow; he or she may not understand and friction may result. Firearms may be kept on your person for use in emergencies. Do not fire them for pleasure or shoot at wild animals as the sound riles the horses. In the event of runaway horses remain calm. Leaping from the coach in panic will leave you injured, at the mercy of the elements, hostile Indians and hungry coyotes. Forbidden topics of conversation are: stagecoach robberies and Indian uprisings. Gents guilty of unchivalrous behavior toward lady passengers will be put off the stage. It’s a long walk back. A word to the wise is sufficient.* So there you have it. Stagecoach transportation in the Old West. Traveling by stagecoach was the only way to go in those days … until the railroad came along and changed everything….
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A machine for turning, that is, for shaping articles of wood, metal, or other material, by causing them to revolve while acted upon by a cutting tool. Basically, a machine that fashions work by making the work turn on an axis. The cutting is done by a tool that is not rotating. On wood lathes the wood usually turns between the headstock and the tailstock. The turner holds the tool by hand and moves it to cut various shapes on the wood. On metal lathes the work (whatever material is being fashioned) turns and the tool is held rigid whilst the operator moves the tool using hand wheels. Lathes are very versatile, come in a myriad of styles, and many contradict the above definitions. Wood can be cut in any metal lathe and soft metals can usually be cut on wood lathes. A machine that is used for working metals and plastics by rotating about the horizontal axis against a tool that shapes it. A machine that spins timber, This makes it unique as all other power tools move whilst the timber remains static. A lathes is a machine which holds a piece of wood or metal between two centers and turns it so the work can be shaped by hand-held "turning chisels." Foot operated or hand cranked. A machine designed to center a piece of wood on an axis: as it turns, the woodturner can cut into the wood to create symmetrical objects. a machine that hold a piece of metal or wood and turns it rapidly against a cutting tool for shaping Finally, he used a lathe to shape the wooden bowl. A machine on which logs are peeled to yield veneer for plywood. machine tool for shaping metal or wood; the workpiece turns about a horizontal axis against a fixed tool a common tool used in machining a machine for changing the shape of a piece of wood, metal, etc a machine for use in working metal or wood which holds the material and rotates it against a tool that shapes it a machine in which a piece of wood is rotated around a fixed axis while being shaped by a fixed tool a machine that cuts away small amounts of the comm to restore it to a trued state a machine that holds the wood on a rapidly spinning axis a machine that rotates a piece of wood to create a uniform circular design when the wood is cut with a chisel a machine that turns metal , wood, etc a machine tool for shaping metal or other material a machine tool, specifically designed to help in the a machine tool that generates circular sections by rotating the job around an axis and cutting it with a tool a machine tool that removes unwanted material from a cylindrical work piece by rotating it against a cutting tool a machine tool used to produce mechanical parts with cylindrical features a machine used for shaping parts a machine used for turning wood, metal and other materials by rotating the article against tools which cut it to shape a machine used to turn rounded objects a marvelous tool an ancient tool that was used by the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and other ancient and medieval peoples an object created by revolving a spline curve, which determines the contour of the shape, around an axis a power tool that spins the wheel around and slowly shapes it until all the sides are the same a tool for making round things a tool used to create objects with cylindrical symmetry such as table legs a VERY easy to make primitive tool a machine for shaping a piece of wood, metal, etc. by holding and turning it rapidly against the edge of the cutting tool. A tool, usually free standing, for turning a piece while tools are held against it. Typically several feet long and about a foot wide. Different lathes are used for wood or metal (or glass) pieces. A lathe commonly has a headstock that grips the piece and has gears and a motor drive for turning the piece and a tailstock that guides the other end of long pieces. Most lathes allow working a piece held only at the headstock, as for making bowl shaped pieces. The tailstock is normally mounted on rails (the bed) so it can be moved accurately to different distances while remaining centered on the headstock. A wood lathe will have a tool rest to help guide the handheld tools along the piece while a metal lathe will have a solid tool holder with screw adjustments to withstand the increased force. Glass lathes are used to join medium and large diameter tubing for scientific glass work, keeping two tubes aligned as heat is applied all around the joint. rev.2003-02-27 A lathe is used for turning materials like wood and bone when they are being worked. A machine tool by which work is rotated on a horizontal axis and shaped or cut by a fixed tool. A machine which derives its usefulness by rotating stock against which tooling may be brought to bear. Springs are often wound on a lathe. Power tool, which is used to turn wood or metal objects so that cutting tools may shape it while it, rotates. Machine for shaping turned parts by the application of cutting edges against the revolving wood. A lathe is a machine tool which spins a block of material to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, or deformation with tools that are applied to the workpiece to create an object which has symmetry about an axis of rotation. In 3 D computer graphics, a lathed object is a 3D model whose vertex geometry is produced by rotating the points of a spline or other point set around a fixed axis. The lathing may be partial; the amount of rotation is not necessarily a full 360 degrees. The point set providing the initial source data can be thought of as a cross section through the object. A metal lathe is generic description for a rigid machine tool designed to remove material from a workpiece, through the action of a cutting tool. They were originally designed to machine metals however with the advent of plastics and other materials, and with their inherent versatility, they are used in a wide range of applications, and a broad range of materials.
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Venerated from the early centuries of Christianity, Saint Christopher—whose name means "Christ-bearer"—was honored as the protector of travelers. According to "The Golden Legend," Christopher ferried a small child across a river. As he did so, the child's weight grew increasingly heavy. When Christopher complained that it seemed as if he had carried the weight of the world, the child replied, "Wonder not, Christopher, for not only has thou borne the whole world upon thy shoulders, but Him who created the world. For I am Christ thy King." In this imposing statuette-reliquary, Christopher strides through the water, twisting as he turns to look at the Christ Child, who holds an orb in reference to his dominion. The small leaves sprouting from the top of Christopher's staff are a harbinger of the miracle promised by Christ—that if the saint, upon his return home, planted the staff in the ground, it would bear leaves and fruit in the morning.The hallmarks stamped on the hem of the saint's cloak and on the statue's base indicate that this piece was made by a goldsmith in Toulouse. The reliquary, excellently preserved, reveals a masterful treatment of the material. The soft, rich folds of the saint's cloak belie their metal substance. The ungilded surfaces of the faces are framed by the crisp design of the hair. The engraving of the short curls of the Christ Child, the hair and flowing beard of the saint, and the fish in the turbulent water are accented by the juxtaposition of large areas of silver with bright flashes of gilding. A now-lost relic of the saint was placed in the small box covered with crystal on the statue's base, through which the relic could be seen.
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Halloween blackout of '57 spurs creation of portable pacemakerby Lorna Benson, Minnesota Public Radio Fifty years ago a massive Halloween blackout disrupted power across a highly populated section of Minnesota and western Wisconsin. People from St. Cloud to Faribault, the Twin Cities and Eau Claire had no electricity for up to three hours. For most, the outage was simply inconvenient. But for a few young heart patients connected to pacemakers it was life-threatening. The blackout did spur the creation the first portable, battery-powered pacemaker. Minneapolis, Minn. — At the University of Minnesota hospital 50 years ago, surgeons had recently started using pacemakers to help children recover from heart surgery. The devices plugged into a wall socket, so when the power went out in patients' rooms, their pacemakers stopped working too. It's hard to piece together exactly what it was like at the hospital during the blackout. But what can be gleaned from old newspaper accounts paints a frenzied picture, according to historian Jack Norton. "They had police officers pull up to the side of the surgery suites and simply turn on their headlights to provide light for the surgeons," says Norton. "They scrambled to try and keep blood cold by grabbing ice from various coolers to stick in the blood refrigerator." Norton dug up dozens of newspaper stories about the blackout while doing research for Medtronic. He says the articles show that the university hospital had no reason to suspect it was vulnerable to a power failure because it was connected to two different power plants. "They thought if one of them went down, the other would provide them with electricity," says Norton. But this was a rolling blackout that took down plants all across the power grid. No one anticipated that happening, Norton says. "It's a nightmare scenario and there's a certain amount of irony that it happens on Halloween, that this nightmare in critical care happens on the day when we all know it's famed for scary happenings." Probably the scariest place to be that morning was the children's cardiac recovery unit. A number of young kids were connected to pacemakers after undergoing heart surgery. When the power went off, doctors scrambled to find drugs to keep their patients hearts pumping. Still, one child didn't survive the three hour ordeal. The trauma of that event rattled pioneering University of Minnesota heart surgeon C. Walter Lillehei. The next day in the hospital hallway Lillehei flagged down Earl Bakken, an electrical engineer who spent a lot of his time collaborating with university surgeons on new medical devices. Bakken had just started Medtronic a few years earlier and was still running the company out of his garage. Bakken says Lillehei was clearly troubled about the blackout. "We got together and talked about it and said we have to have some way to back these pacemakers up when there's a power failure," Bakken said in a recent interview. Lillehei asked Bakken if he could create a portable pacemaker that ran on a battery. "So we talked about well how do we do that? How do we get the battery backup?," says Bakken. "And I said, 'Well, we'll take a six volt automobile battery and then use an inverter to convert the six volts to 115 volts to run the pacemaker.'" Bakken and a his employees built the device. Bakken says it would have worked fine, but the car battery produced more power than he needed for his pacemaker. So he started looking for alternatives. Then he remembered an article he had read in his Popular Electronics magazine. It was about a new circuit for a metronome. "A metronome has the same rates as heart rates," says Bakken. The metronome circuit also had the advantage of being much smaller. Bakken's invention fit in a box about the size of a small paperback book, which meant the pacemaker could be placed in the bed with the patient, rather than on a medical cart next to the bed. Bakken took his new invention to the University of Minnesota and tested it out on a laboratory dog that had been given an artificial heart block. "And I said, 'Okay now. This seems to work, so I'll go back to my garage and make a pacemaker we can use on humans,'" says Bakken. But he never got the chance. When Bakken returned to the hospital the next day, he saw his invention being used in the recovery room. "There was a child in there with this pacemaker connected to him...What a great feeling that is to see here's something we made with our own hands keeping this child alive." Still Bakken wasn't convinced his portable pacemaker was really ready for human use. He sought out Lillehei and asked him why he didn't wait for the human version of the machine. "And he said well as long as this battery operated pacemaker was available he wasn't going to risk losing another child to a power failure." Bakken says it was probably inevitable that a portable pacemaker would have been invented in the 1950's even if he hadn't created the device. Surgeons at the time were making remarkable advances in treating heart conditions. He says the Halloween blackout simply highlighted the urgency in developing new medical technologies as fast as possible. It's a trend that continues today. Modern pacemakers have advanced considerably in the past 50 years. They're still battery operated. But they're much smaller. They fit in the palm of your hand. And they're no longer a piece of excess body baggage. They are implanted directly into a patient's chest, making it much easier for patients to lead normal lives. - Morning Edition, 10/31/2007, 7:20 a.m.
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DUE: MONDAY MAY 13, 2013 As we have discussed in class, Elijah is surrounded by an aura of mystery: we know nothing of his parentage; his tribe of origin and birthplace are unknown (though he is identified as a “resident of Gilead”); we are ignorant about his early life and call to prophecy; he travels widely, performs miracles, and of greatest importance, defies a conventional death, ascending to heaven in a fiery chariot instead. Approximately four centuries after Elijah’s strange prophetic career came to a close, the prophet Malachi believed he would return to earth to fulfill another divine mission: “Behold, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of the Lord. He shall reconcile parents with children, and children with their parents, so that, when I come, I do not strike the whole land with utter destruction” (Malachi 3:23-24). Later on in rabbinic literature and folk legends, Elijah would take on a mythical role as the prophet who wanders the world generation after generation, protecting the weak and disadvantaged, humbling the arrogant who persecute the powerless. Capable of any disguise, he travels unrecognized through crowds of people, mysteriously appearing when needed and then just as mysteriously disappearing, revealing his identity on rare occasions only. It is fair to say that Elijah has captured the religious imagination of Jews as few other figures have. The final project for 8th grade TaNaKh will focus on Elijah’s larger-than-life role in Jewish literature and liturgy. Choose ONE of the following. Please note the final project is in lieu of a final exam, and will count significantly toward your grade — along with other factors like participation, conduct, effort and attendance. Here are your choices: 1. Draw 3-4 pictures about Elijah, each telling a different story. You may wish to draw upon the biblical texts or folk stories we have studied (listed below) in creating your images. At least one of your pictures should place the prophet in a modern context. If Elijah came back today where would he go and whom would he visit? What would he look like? Each of your pictures should be accompanied by a paragraph or two explaining the setting and the reasons for depicting the prophet as you have. 2. Create a folktale about Elijah. While drawing upon the biblical texts and folk stories we studied in class for inspiration, your literary effort should be creative, and not a simple retelling of a traditional story. I would encourage you to read Elie Wiesel’s powerful short story, An Evening Guest (copies will be available from Cassie Vichozsky as of 4/22, and will also be distributed at our next class), which places Elijah in a small Hungarian town in 1944 as a messenger sent to warn Jews about the Nazi death camps — it’s a great example of taking the traditional picture of Elijah . . . and then turning it inside out in a very compelling way. Your folktale should be no shorter than 3 pages (typed, double-spaced, 12-font type). 3. Research references to Elijah in the siddur and on religious occasions. At what ceremonies and celebrations do we invoke his name? Where in our liturgy does he appear? When and how did Elijah become connected with these particular rituals/prayers? Why do we mention his name at these specific times/places? Your research paper should be 4 pages at a minimum (typed, double-spaced, 12-font type). 4. Elijah has also captured the religious imagination of Christians and Muslims. Research how Elijah is depicted in Christian and Muslim Scripture and compare/contrast this with the ways in which Judaism describes his role. What are the similarities and differences in the Jewish understanding of the prophet Elijah and the way the other Abrahamic faiths view him? Your research paper should be 4 pages at a minimum (typed, double-spaced, 12-font type). We have studied the following sources about Elijah: First Kings, chapters 17, 18 & 19; Second Kings, chapter 2; Folk stories about Elijah (handout distributed in class from Peninah Schram’s Jewish Stories One Generation Tells Another). First Kings, chapter 21; Malachi, chapter 3; Elie Wiesel’s short story, An Evening Guest (available from Cassie as of 4/22).
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This sturdy, tannic, plumy red wine grape, a staple of Bordeaux for over a century, was in decline until it was discovered by Argentina. This was in fact a rediscovery, because Malbec's root origins in Argentina date to the days before phylloxera in the earlier 20th century. Its character is more plum-like than Merlot and slightly more tannic that Cabernet Sauvignon. It is still used in the French southwest in the dark, tannic wine of Cahors, where the grape is known as Cot. Though Chile and Australia also have adopted Malbec, it's Argentina that has made its reputation. There, it becomes a rich, lush red that can develop complexity as it ages.
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The Predator. The Reaper. The Gorgon Stare. The Dennymite. Today’s high tech UAVs have the lure of Hollywood to thank for their existence. One of the first drones was built by an English WWI pilot who hopped the pond to pursue his acting dream. In between small roles alongside Greta Garbo and Frank Sinatra, Reginald Denny turned his remote control airplane hobby into a military contract. His first RP-1, designed for military target practice, would become the US military’s first mass-produced unmanned aerial vehicle. “He pitched basically a radio controlled airplane to fly as a target,” says Tony Chong, the in-house historian at Northrop Grumman, which purchased Denny’s company in 1952. “A lot of people knew how to fly radio controlled planes back then. It wasn’t a big leap to teach military personnel how to use them.” Reginald Denny, OQ-3 launch, 1940. Denny (not to be confused with the L.A. riot’s Reginald Denny) named his company Radioplane and modified the design of his target drone, selling 53 RP-4s to the US Army in 1940. During World War II, the company manufactured 15,000 drones for the US Army from its factory at the Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles. The Navy also got in on the action, calling their drones the TDD-1: “Target Drone Denny 1”. It wasn’t until the late 1940s that Radioplane started developing the technology to pre-program plane routes. The next step was fully autonomous systems, which were around as early as the mid-70s. But before drones would become a strange sign of our robot future, Denny’s acting career would take off – he became a character actor, and appeared in Hitchcock’s Rebecca. And he and his enterprise might also take credit for helping to launch the career of the most famous actress ever. Denny, believing there was real ‘morale’ potential on his factory floor, urged the captain of the Army’s PR Hollywood division (Ronald Reagan, natch) to send over a photographer. And that’s where he found a young woman named Norma Jeane working the assembly line. Marilyn Monroe had been discovered. How’s that for morale?
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After the British Pyrrhic (costly) victory at Bunker Hill in 1775, British General William Howe decided a lethal blow needed to be delivered to the Patriot cause. Howe proposed to launch an attack on New York City using tens thousands of troops. He began mobilizing the massive fleet in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Meanwhile, American Commander-in-Chief George Washington had ordered General Charles Lee to prepare for the defense of the city. That June, Howe and 9,000 troops set sail for New York. Howe’s army was to be met in the city by additional regiments of German and British troops. Reinforcements from Halifax led by Howe’s brother would follow them. Howe’s initial fleet arrived in New York Harbor and began landing troops on Staten Island. On April 27, 1776, British forces engaged the Americans at the Battle of Brooklyn Heights (also called the Battle of Long Island). Howe’s army successfully outflanked Washington’s, eventually causing the Patriots, after some resistance, to withdraw to Manhattan under the cover of darkness, thereby avoiding a potentially costly siege at the hands of the British. After failed peace negotiations, the British Army next struck at Lower Manhattan, where 12,000 British troops quickly overtook the city. Most of the Continental Army had retreated to defensible positions at Harlem Heights and then to White Plains, well north of the city, but some soldiers remained at Fort Washington in Manhattan. Howe’s army chased Washington and the Continental Army into positions north of White Plains before returning to Manhattan. In Manhattan, Howe set his sights on Fort Washington, the last Patriot stronghold in Manhattan. In the furious, three-pronged attacked, British forces easily took the fort, capturing nearly 3,000 American prisoners and at least 34 cannons in the process. Most of the prisoners were taken to squalid British prison ships where all but 800 or so died of disease or starvation. General Washington, now at Fort Lee, directly across the Hudson River from Fort Washington, witnessed the events that happened. Following the fall of Fort Washington, British forces ferried up the Hudson River in barges toward Fort Lee. Washington ordered the evacuation of the fort’s 2,000 soldiers across the Hackensack River at New Bridge Landing. Washington would lead his army clear across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. Following the events in and around New York City, the outlook was bleak for the Continental Army. Morale in the army was extremely low, enlistments were ending, and desertions were commonplace. Even General Washington admitted his army’s chances of success were slim. Meanwhile, General Howe ordered his army into their winter quarters that December and established several outposts from New York City south to New Brunswick, New Jersey.
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- Position your mouse pointer over the image. - Click the right mouse button. - Select the "Save Picture As" or the "Save Image As" menu item. - Enter the directory and name of the file to create. Need a World file? Click the "World File" link located above the image on the right to obtain the geographic reference coordinates of the above image. Use your browser's File.SaveAs menu option to save the World File to the same directory where you saved the image. Make sure World File extension is It takes a few moments to construct a single image from the image tiles you were viewing. The repeating "Your image is being constructed..." message will be replaced with your image. Please be patient. Once the image is displayed, use your web browser's save picture or save image function to copy your image to a location on your computer system. On Microsoft Internet Explorer, you can save the image by clicking on the image with the right mouse button. A pop-up menu will be displayed. Click the "Save Picture As" menu item. On FireFox, right-click on the image and select the "Save Image As" menu item. The web browser will display a "Save Picture As" window. There will be "File name:" field on the bottom of the Save As window. Change the name of the file to your liking and click the Save button. Windows users, you should make sure you end your filename with the .jpg . All images downloaded from Microsoft MSR Maps are in the Jpeg image
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New study challenges previous findings that humans are an altruistic anomaly, and positions chimpanzees as cooperative, especially when their partners are patient. Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, have shown chimpanzees have a significant bias for prosocial behavior. This, the study authors report, is in contrast to previous studies that positioned chimpanzees as reluctant altruists and led to the widely held belief that human altruism evolved in the last six million years only after humans split from apes. The current study findings are available in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. According to Yerkes researchers Victoria Horner, PhD, Frans de Waal, PhD, and their colleagues, chimpanzees may not have shown prosocial behaviors in other studies because of design issues, such as the complexity of the apparatus used to deliver rewards and the distance between the animals. “I have always been skeptical of the previous negative findings and their over-interpretation, says Dr. de Waal. “This study confirms the prosocial nature of chimpanzees with a different test, better adapted to the species,” he continues.
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Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced on Twitter (@onetoughnerd) that he has signed Michigan's right to work laws. This makes Michigan the 24th state to protect workers from being forced to join a union. Earlier this year, Indiana became the 23rd state to do so. "I have signed the freedom to work bills into law." - Gov Rick Snyder— Rick Snyder (@onetoughnerd) December 11, 2012 Often misunderstood, "right to work" is actually a simple and very limited policy. It prevents union contracts from making payment of union dues a condition of employment. That's all. Unions can exist, but can't force people to give them money. That is, unions must convince workers that the union does something or provides something worth paying for. What anti-trust laws do to business, right-to-work laws do to unions: these laws prevent monopolies in order to protect consumers and workers. One reason monopolies are disfavored was on display today on the Michigan Capitol lawn. As Lord Acton said, power corrupts, but it is absolute power that tends to corrupt absolutely. When a union is granted a monopoly, that power is eventually reinterpreted as a "right," and then as an entitlement. Defense of union power becomes an ends that justifies almost any means. And so in Michigan today, supporters of right to work were brutally assaulted and their property vandalized and destroyed.
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The Jersey breed originated over 600 years ago on the Island of Jersey, located in the English Channel between France and England. Today, outstanding herds of Jerseys can be found from Denmark to New Zealand, from Canada to South America, and from South Africa to Japan. The first Jerseys to be registered by the American Jersey Cattle Association were imported to the United States in 1850, but cattle from Jersey Island had been imported to this country much earlier. Today, there are almost 400,000 Jersey cows in the United States and they are an important part of the dairy industry in all 50 states. California has the most Jersey cows, followed by Wisconsin, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Jersey calves weigh about 55 pounds at birth. Mature Jersey females usually weigh about 950 pounds and males about 1,500 pounds. Jerseys reach maturity the earliest of all dairy breeds and are efficient reproducers. They also have the longest productive life, or longevity in the milking herd, of any dairy breed. Jerseys are more tolerant of heat than the larger breeds, and are adapted to a wide range of climatic and geographical conditions. Jersey milk has a rich, smooth flavor because it naturally contains higher percentages of protein, calcium, and other important nutrients than milk from other dairy breeds (for the latest milk test results, click here). The extra protein is the reason Jersey milk yields the greatest amount of cheddar cheese: 12.35 pounds of cheese from 100 pounds of milk. This compares to the yield of average milk produced in the United States of 10.04 pounds of cheese. The Jersey is the most efficient dairy producer in the world, producing more pounds of milk per pound of body weight than any other breed. An average Jersey in the United States produces 16 times her bodyweight in milk each year, or about twice her body weight in Cheddar cheese. The Jersey production champion produced over 40 times her body weight in one year: 49,250 lbs. of milk containing 1,645 lbs. of protein. That is equal to 70,752 half-pint servings of milk, enough milk for an entire year's lunches in a school of 400 students. The American Jersey Cattle Association was organized in 1868 to improve and promote the breed of Jersey cattle in the United States. It is located at 6486 East Main Street in Reynoldsburg, Ohio 43068. For more information, subscribe to the Jersey Journal or log onto the AJCA's website at www.USJersey.com. Jersey breeders in your area may be found by visiting the Jersey Directory Online and All-Jersey® distributors are listed on the Distributors page.
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Iowa State University’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (VDL) at Ames closely monitors the incidence of animal diseases, including those caused by swine influenza viruses (SIV). The VDL uses state-of-the-art molecular diagnostic technology to diagnose SIV, track seasonal trends for prevalence and monitor which SIV strains or subtypes are most prevalent. This helps veterinarians and producers understand herd health status and appropriate vaccine or control measures. The emergence of the H1N1 influenza A virus that sickened people has led ISU swine veterinarian and virologist K.J. Yoon and his team of molecular diagnosticians to analyze a bank of SIV viruses from case submissions from October 2008 to April 2009. The goal is to determine if the H1N1 flu virus is in the Iowa swine population. So far, screening of samples has not detected the Novel H1N1 virus in the domestic hog population. “Each day we are learning more about this novel influenza virus,” Yoon says. “We are particularly learning about its genetic makeup. This virus was originally coined the name ‘swine flu’ as it contains viral components that have been previously identified in influenza viruses causing disease in pigs. However, this novel H1N1 virus has been reportedly spreading primarily from direct human-to-human contact, which is more similar to how emerging strains of ‘seasonal influenza’ are commonly transmitted. It is also important to understand that influenza virus is transmitted by direct exposure to respiratory secretions, and is not a foodborne illness or food safety concern.” Diagnostic testing for the hybrid flu virus at the VDL is done by gene sequence analysis which takes up to seven days. ISU researchers are currently developing a high throughput polymerase chain reaction diagnostic test that will differentiate human, swine and avian viruses usually within 24 hours. “We have an excellent team of applied veterinary diagnosticians and researchers working diligently to serve the emerging needs of our stakeholders helping safeguard both animal and human health,” says Rodger Main, DVM, director of ISU’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Operations.
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About 1 in 2,500 babies born in the UK has cystic fibrosis (CF). This inherited condition can affect the digestion and lungs. Babies with CF may not gain weight well, and have frequent chest infections. Screening means that babies with CF can be treated early with a high energy diet, medicines and physiotherapy. Although a child with CF may still become very ill, early treatment is thought to help them live longer, healthier lives. If babies are not screened for CF and they do have the condition, they can be tested later but parents may have an anxious time before CF is recognised.
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A mask carved from a human skull, the nose and tongue skewered by ceremonial daggers. This artifact, on display at the Field’s exclusive and expansive new exhibit, “The Aztec World,” exemplifies the most shocking aspects of the Mesoamerican tribe that, in just 200 years, shaped the foundations of modern-day Mexico. Caricaturized in the popular media as brutal and blood-thirsty, the Aztecs were in actuality a deeply complex, sophisticated society fascinated with dyads: male and female, light and darkness, life and death. This assemblage of nearly 300 artifacts has been collected in collaboration with ten Mexican museums. The exhibit explores the stark and shocking duality of the Aztecs: an empire that embraced life through technical and artistic achievements, and death through ritual human sacrifice. Museum guests can view wares from the Great Aztec Market, which dwarfed its European counterparts, as well as large stone statues excavated from the “House of Eagles” and the Templo Mayor in Mexico City. Another artifact—a large, rabbit-shaped drinking vessel for the alcoholic pulque—exemplifies a little-known aspect of Aztec culture: a charming and whimsical sense of humor. The Aztecs saw a rabbit’s silhouette in the face of the moon, thereby associating rabbits with a popular nighttime activity: drunkenness. (Laura Hawbaker) “The Aztec World” runs at the Field Museum, 1400 South Lake Shore, through April 19, 2009. Leave a Reply You must be logged in to post a comment.
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By Vaudine England BBC News, Hong Kong A study by doctors in Hong Kong has concluded that epilepsy can be induced by the Chinese tile game of mahjong. The study said the syndrome affects more men than women The findings, published in the Hong Kong Medical Journal, were based on 23 cases of people who suffered mahjong-induced seizures. The report's four authors, from Hong Kong's Queen Mary Hospital, said the best prevention - and cure - was to avoid playing mahjong. The study led the doctors to define mahjong epilepsy as a unique syndrome. Epileptic seizures can be provoked by a wide variety of triggers, but one cause increasingly evident to researchers is the playing - or even watching - of mahjong. This Chinese tile game, played by four people round a table, can involve gambling and quickly becomes compulsive. The game, which is intensely social and sometimes played in crowded mahjong parlours, involves the rapid movement of tiles in marathon sessions. The doctors conclude that the syndrome affects far more men than women; that their average age is 54; and that it can hit sufferers anywhere between one to 11 hours into a mahjong game. They say the attacks were not just caused by sleep deprivation or gambling stress. Mahjong is cognitively demanding, drawing on memory, fast calculations, concentration, reasoning and sequencing. The distinctive design of mahjong tiles, and the sound of the tiles crashing onto the table, may contribute to the syndrome. The propensity of Chinese people to play mahjong also deserves further study, the doctors say. What is certain though, is that the only sure way to avoid mahjong epilepsy, is to avoid mahjong, which for many people is easier said than done.
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Assessing the effectiveness of a model program they developed, Dartmouth Medical School researchers Dr. W. Carl Cooley, adjunct associate professor in pediatrics, and Jeanne McAllister, research associate in pediatrics, review the experience of four practices in Vermont and New Hampshire who used their program to identify and implement changes to improve the care they deliver to children with special health care needs. The concept of community-based "medical homes" places where care is managed through coordination of clinicians, educators, therapists, healthcare professionals, and caregivers has been advocated by national health policy makers and the American Academy of Pediatrics as the best model for providing systematic yet individualized care to children with complex conditions and multiple needs. Still, the changes required for a practice to become an effective medical home can be difficult to make. "Introducing change into a busy pediatric practice is like trying to repair a bicycle while riding it," the authors write. "Even the most motivated practice finds change difficult to implement. Many primary care providers believe that implementing the medical home concept is the right thing to do but question how they can do so and remain solvent." To make the process easier, the authors developed a medical home improvement tool kit that allows practices to look at key functions of the medical home, assess their own operation, and identify the steps and strategies they will follow to become a medical ho Contact: Andy Nordhoff Dartmouth Medical School
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Like the Sound of Music‘s Von Trapp family hiding in the Alps, plants may find refuge from a warming climate in the mountains. Research in the Swiss Alps suggests diverse mountain habitats could act as stepping stones to allow plants to escape into more hospitable hideaways as their usual homes heat up. A large, flat savannah offers little variation in temperature. If the temperature warms up, the whole area warms up. But Daniel Scherrer and Christian Körner from the University of Basel, Switzerland found a broad spectrum of habitats in the central Swiss Alps after studying an alpine meadow for two seasons. In the rugged mountain landscape, different conditions existed close together. The plants growing in those varied conditions were adapted to the particular set of temperatures of the micro-climates, the scientists found. The research suggests that these plants could start growing in neighboring habitats as the temperature increases. To test this, Scherrer and Körner used a computer model to simulate what would happen if the temperature went up 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. They found that only 3 percent of all temperature conditions disappeared. Some of the cooler habitats shrank or shifted, but pockets remained. This suggests that plants have the opportunity to shift habitats, instead of just dying off. Preserving mountain habitats is even more new important now in light of this research. A diverse Alpine meadow could save many different habitats, compared to a single habitat in a grassland of equal size. “It is known from earlier geological periods that mountains were always important for survival of species during periods of climatic change such as in glacial cycles, because of their ‘habitat diversity,’” concluded Körner. “Mountains are therefore particularly important areas for the conservation of biodiversity in a given region under climatic change and thus deserve particular protection,” Körner said. Photo: Different habitats exist close together in the Alps. Wikimedia Commons
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- It is not possible to clone Lonesome George now, but other endangered animals have been successfully cloned. - In the future, cloning and further studying Lonesome George might be possible, so scientists are focusing on preserving his tissues now. - Biobanks known as "frozen zoos" hold tissues and other remains of certain endangered animals. The recent death of Lonesome George, the famed Galapagos tortoise believed to be the last representative of his subspecies, has many experts wondering how we should try to save other endangered and at-risk animals. Cloning is one option. While cloning methods for reptiles are not as advanced as those for mammals, scientists also say they face other incredible obstacles. "At the most, I could envision one male turtle of this subspecies cloned in future or maybe two males, but where are you going to get a female?" asked Martha Gomez, a senior scientist with the Audubon Nature Institute, which has one of the world's few "frozen zoos." Frozen Zoos stockpile biological materials from a wide variety of rare and critically endangered species. The biological material is usually composed of gametes (sperm and egg cells), embryos, tissue samples, serum and other items. Together, they represent a bank vault of irreplaceable genetic information that can be preserved for possibly hundreds of years or more. In most cases, the materials are stored in holding tanks filled with liquid nitrogen. Oliver Ryder, director of genetics at the San Diego Zoo, spoke to Discovery News as his team was racing to the Galapagos Islands to help preserve the tissues of Lonesome George. The San Diego Zoo operates one of the other few frozen zoos. "This is an extremely urgent matter," Ryder said. "We had planned to meet in the Galapagos in two weeks to discuss preservation of the tortoises there. It is a bitter irony that Lonesome George died before we could even finish setting up the plans. It underscores the importance of preserving such animals." "We are facing some logistical problems now, but we don't want to look back with 'what if's,'" he added. "This may be the only chance we'll have to preserve, document and study this tortoise subspecies." Ryder believes discussions of cloning Lonesome George are premature at this point. Before that takes place, he thinks more must be learned about this particular tortoise's physiology and reproduction. Studying Lonesome George's remains may also help to reveal how tortoises often live to advanced ages, information that could one day lead to breakthroughs in extending human lifespans. For cloning, researchers are focusing more on "species where we have detailed knowledge of their reproductive biology," Ryder said. That is one reason why cats, dogs and mice were among the first animals to be cloned. Scientists are now working to clone endangered relatives of such animals, in hopes of releasing those individuals into the wild to strengthen natural populations. Earlier this year, Gomez and her colleagues successfully cloned endangered black-footed cats. An endangered wild ox, called a gaur, and a banteng (wild cattle) have also been successfully cloned. Work is underway to clone and otherwise increase the population of Sumatran rhinos, which presently number only about 200-300 in the wild. While one healthy clone is an interesting novelty, clones must also be able to reproduce in order to be fully successful. Gomez said that kittens of cloned wild cat parents have died "due to problems with nuclear programing," but some normal kittens have resulted and continue to thrive. Both she and Ryder say that there is no international policy calling for cloning and preservation of highly endangered species. Instead, isolated facilities and the work of dedicated individuals are responsible for the successes. "The effort needs to be more widespread and organized," Gomez said. Through published papers and talks, Ryder and his colleagues have repeatedly called for an organized global effort. It would need an "overarching international body" on par with UNESCO, he believes. "The first step is saving tissue samples, as we're in the process of doing for Lonesome George," he said. "But we who are among the forefront would like to train others to establish frozen zoo biobanks in other countries." "I am confident that one day such an international structure will come together, bringing in other conservation work, such as preserving habitat," Ryder concluded. "It's poignant to lose a subspecies like that of Lonesome George. People in the future will be looking back at us, wondering why we didn't act sooner."
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for National Geographic News Explosive population growth is driving human evolution to speed up around the world, according to a new study. The pace of change accelerated about 40,000 years ago and then picked up even more with the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago, the study says. And while humans are evolving quickly around the world, local cultural and environmental factors are shaping evolution differently on different continents. "We're evolving away from each other. We're getting more and more different," said Henry Harpending, an anthropologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City who co-authored the study. For example, in Europe natural selection has favored genes for pigmentation like light skin, blue eyes, and blond hair. Asians also have genes selected for light skin, but they are different from the European ones. "Europeans and Asians are both bleached Africans, but the way they got bleached is different in the two areas," Harpending said. He and colleagues report the finding this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Snips of DNA The researchers analyzed the DNA from 270 people in the International HapMap Project, an effort to identify variation in human genes that cause disease and serve as targets for new medicines. The study specifically looked for genetic variations called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs (pronounced "snips"), which are mutations at a single point on a chromosome. (See an interactive overview of human genetics.) "We look for parts of chromosomes that are common in the population but are new, and if they are common but recent, they must have gotten to high frequency by selection," Harpending explained. SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES
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This is outstanding, but how does the cerebrospinal fluid stop the brain receiving harmful pathogens in the same way that the blood would? Any answers welcome, I'm just interested! Image courtesy J. Iliff and M. Nedergaard, AAAS Green tracer molecules drift through cerebrospinal fluid crowding around a blood vessel. Image courtesy J. Iliff and M. Nedergaard, AAAS Published August 16, 2012 Talk about brainwashing—a newfound plumbing system, identified in mice, likely helps the brain empty its waste, a new study says. Because mouse biology is similar to ours, the same findings should apply to people too, experts say. Thanks to a blood-brain barrier—a natural wall that protects the brain tissue—the organ never touches blood, thus protecting it from microbes, viruses, and other pathogens. To get nutrients to brain tissue and remove its waste, the brain makes a liquid called cerebrospinal fluid. But exactly how the fluid removes gunk generated by brain cells wasn't certain until now. Watch a video explaining the newfound plumbing system. Experiments in the 1950s and '60s hinted that diffusion—the passive method by which, say, food coloring spreads out in a glass of water—moved cerebrospinal fluid around the brain. Yet this process is too slow to explain the brain's lightning-fast activity and immaculate cleanliness. It turns out that, while studying brain tissue, the researchers in the 1950s and '60s unwittingly turned off the plumbing that washes the tissue. "The idea of a cleaning system based on pressure has been around for a long time, but if you open the skull anywhere, like a hydraulic pump, it stops. They thought [the cleaning system] didn't exist," said study leader Maiken Nedergaard, a neuroscientist at the University of Rochester Medical Center. The pump system is "on the order of a thousand times faster than diffusion," she said. "I'm surprised that no one had discovered this until now." Brain Under Pressure Nedergaard and her colleagues dubbed the newfound plumbing the glymphatic system, after neural tissue called glial cells, which power the flow of cerebrospinal fluid. Glial cells do this by growing their "feet" around vessels and veins that carry blood, forming a sort of pipe around a pipe. Tiny pores in this outer pipe then suck nutrient-rich cerebrospinal fluid from the blood vessels into channels dense with nerve cells, and pores at other locations pump the fluid out. The process simultaneously carries away the brain's waste while feeding its cells. Nedergaard and her team used a special two-photon microscope, whose infrared light allows a deep, clear look into living brain tissue without harming it. "These microscopes are revolutionizing neuroscience, and they've only become commercially available in the past five or six years," Nedergaard said. Studying living mouse brains required opening their skulls. Yet unlike in previous experiments, the researchers sealed each hole with a tiny glass plate, keeping the fluid pressure while providing a window for the microscope. Fluorescent dyes injected into the mouse brains then allowed the team to record movies of the cerebrospinal fluid moving through brain tissue. "The fact we could look at it and make a movie was very important to showing the flow," Nedergaard said. (See brain pictures.) Brain Study Makes Scientist's "Heart Sing" Clinical neuroscientist Bruce Ransom, who studies glial cells but was not involved in the study, said the work makes his "heart sing." "It wasn't impossible to imagine that cerebrospinal fluid moves with enough force to be a garbage-disposal system, but that was always speculative," said Ransom, of the University of Washington in Seattle. "This team, however, has done something very clever to find this system: demonstrate how it works and show it can vigorously wash away waste." Now that the plumbing has been found, study leader Nedergaard and her colleagues are exploring its implications. A big one may be in its role in Alzheimer's disease, which is thought to arise when brain cells are killed by the accumulation of a protein waste called beta-amyloid. "Next we need to move beyond mice," Nedergaard said. "We need to see if this same system exists in humans—which I suspect it does." The study of the brain's plumbing system was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. These six scientists were snubbed for awards or robbed of credit for discoveries … because they were women. Sweden needs garbage to maintain its energy habits, so it’s begun importing trash—just over 881,000 tons—from nearby Norway to do it. A boulder-size meteor slammed into the moon in March, igniting an explosion so bright that anyone looking up at right moment might have spotted it.
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Washington, Aug 9 (IANS) The formation in the air of sulphuric acid, which smells like rotten eggs, is significantly impacting our climate and health, says a study. The study led by Roy Lee Mauldin III, research associate at the University of Colorado-Boulder's atmospheric and oceanic sciences department, charts a previously unknown chemical pathway for the formation of sulphuric acid, which can trigger both increased acid rain and cloud formation as well as harmful respiratory effects on humans. Sulphuric acid plays an essential role in the Earth's atmosphere, from the ecological impacts of acid precipitation to the formation of new aerosol particles, which have significant climatic and health effects. Our findings demonstrate a newly observed connection between the biosphere and atmospheric chemistry, Mauldin was quoted as saying in the journal Nature. More than 90 percent of sulphur dioxide emissions are from fossil fuel combustion at power plants and other industrial facilities, says the US Environmental Protection Agency, according to a university statement. Other sulphur sources include volcanoes and even ocean phytoplankton. Sulphur dioxide reacts with hydroxide to produce sulphuric acid that can form acid rain, harmful to terrestrial and aquatic life on Earth. Airborne sulphuric acid particles, which form in a wide variety of sizes, play the main role in the formation of clouds, which can have a cooling effect on the atmosphere, Mauldin said. Most of the lab experiments for the study were conducted at the Leibniz-Institute for Tropospheric Research in Leipzig, Germany.
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Glasses-free 3D is something available on just a handful of TVs, which manage it only through complicated hardware, and at no small cost. Still, the effect is pretty smooth and no more tiresome for the eyes than glasses-assisted technology, from what we've been able to gather. There is one more accomplishment that tech experts are looking for: holographic television, which offers a different perspective at the action, depending on the angle from which one beholds the TV. Researchers from the Massachusetts institute of Technology (MIT) claim to have created something of the sort. Called Tensor Display, it uses several layers of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) with a refresh rate of 360 Hz per second. The technique is different from the one used in Nintendo's 3DS , which has two layers of LCD screens (the bottom for light and dark bands and the top for the two slightly offset images). The problem with this old method (a century old really) is that the only way so far known for creating multiple perspectives would rely on complicated hardware and algorithms. Hundreds of perspectives would have to be produced in order to suit a moving viewer, and that means that too much info has to be displayed at once. Every frame of the stereo-3D video would need the screen to flicker 10 times, each with a different pattern. Thus, a convincing stereo-3D illusion would need a 1,000 Hz refresh rate. MIT's Tensor Display lowers that requirement by using a higher number of LCDs, although it does bring another problem: the pattern calculation becomes more complex. Fortunately, the researcher had a convenient factor to exploit: not all aspects of a scene change with the viewing angle. This reduced the amount of information that needed to be sent to the LCD screens. The end result was a panel that produces stereo-3D images based on calculations similar to those behind CT, X-ray and computed tomography, of all things (they produce 3D images of internal organs). The Media Lab researchers will demo a Tensor Display prototype at Siggraph 2012 (5-9 August), made of three LCD panels. A second model will have two LCDs with a sheet of lenses between them (refract light left and right), primarily for wider viewing angles (50 degrees rather than 20). Practical and commercial applications should appear soon, or at least sooner than any alternatives. “Holography works, it’s beautiful, nothing can touch its quality. The problem, of course, is that holograms don’t move,” said Douglas Lanman, a postdoc at the Media Lab. “To make them move, you need to create a hologram in real time, and to do that, you need little tiny pixels, smaller than anything we can build at large volume at low cost. So the question is, what do we have now? We have LCDs. They are incredibly mature, and they are cheap.”
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DUBAI, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- With new oil and gas nations coming up and renewable energy usage gaining global momentum, the fossil fuels-rich Gulf states might run into rough waters in the upcoming decades. The Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are today synonyms for oil, but that could change soon. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Gulf monopoly of oil supply is contested by the United States which is on the way to become the largest oil exporter throughout the world by 2030. Meantime, Lebanon and Israel, two old arch-foes in the Middle East technically still at war, started digging deeply off the Mediterranean coast in search for oil and gas. In addition, the global rise of solar power, wind energy and bio-thermal heat rivals the fossil fuels' monopoly as the only safe and reliable source of energy. At the 6th World Future Energy Summit (WFES) that was held on Jan. 15-17 in Abu Dhabi, the participants were able to see how the world would function without the use of oil and gas or at least with less fossil fuels. The Catecar, a Switzerland-based company, presented the Dragonfly, a solar-powered hybrid which does not need to be plugged because the solar panel is fixed on the roof. Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi's environmental city Masdar launched a pilot project aiming at running sea-water desalination plants with solar or wind power by 2020 "in order to reduce the very expensive use of oil and gas to run such plants," said Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber, the chief executive of Masdar. At present, half of the world's desalinated water is produced in the Gulf Arab region. During the summit, the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council presented how we live next in the Estidama-house, a building equipped only with environmentally-friendly installations that secure an efficient use of water and electricity. Washington's independence on Arab oil till 2030 would have deep implications for U.S. military bases in the region, where two thirds of the world's known oil reserves are located, the German daily Die Welt reported in a secret study which the German intelligence service BND released. The report estimated that most of Middle Eastern oil would flow to East Asia. Moreover, the United States is sitting on large shale gas reserves as a source of natural gas. Due to shale gas discoveries, the world's largest economy might also become autonomous in producing its own natural gas. However, the method to access shale gas through "fracking" is strongly slammed by environmentalists who see huge danger for nature if shale gas is extracted from mountainous regions. Meanwhile, Lebanon, known so far as the only Arab country without a desert and without oil, held the country's first International Oil and Gas Summit in Beirut. The summit was held after an exploration company from Norway found huge gas reserves beneath the Eastern Mediterranean Sea offshore of Lebanon, which would have the potential of becoming a second Kuwait once it starts exporting gas. Lebanon's southern neighbor Israel claims parts of that field known as Leviathan, comprising 17 trillion cubic foot of natural gas. A Dubai-based economist, who requested anonymity, said that the disputed gas field might lay the foundation for the next Middle East war. Morten Mauritzen, the president for the Gulf region at U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil, said at the energy summit in Abu Dhabi, which harbors some 7 percent of the world's known oil reserves, that the demand for oil and gas would rise 35 percent until 2040, dampening hopes that renewable energy like wind power, solar energy or thermal earth-heat would play a significant role in the future. "Oil and gas are reliable, safe and accessible for all, while solar energy is not scalable to satisfy the huge demand," said Mauritzen. According to ExxonMobil's forecast, world population will grow to 8.7 billion in the next 30 years, up from the current 7 billion. ExxonMoil currently upgrades together with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company drilling technologies in the Upper Zakum, the world's largest offshore oilfield. "We are reclaiming land to build four artificial islands in the Upper Zakum in order to build stations for machines and staff," said Mauritzen. He noted that this was a unique example how oil exploration can be done in a cost-efficient way.
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Warmer temperatures, variable monsoons, and other signs of climate change are a hot topic of conversation among many Himalayan villagers, according to scientific sampling of climate change perception among local peoples. “This area is cold and it’s often raining. Even during the non-monsoon times there is mist and fog so inevitably conversations here turn to weather,” said Kamal Bawa, biologist at the University of Massachusetts, Boston (UMB), and president of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) in Bangalore, India. “When you stop and have a cup of tea in someone’s kitchen, the conversation invariably turns to the weather. But then they soon start talking about how the weather has been changing.” Bawa is also a member of the National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration. Bawa didn’t set out to study Himalayan perceptions of climate change. But after hearing the same themes repeated again and again during household conversations he decided to investigate. With UMB graduate student Pahupati Chaudhary, he surveyed some 500 homes spread across 18 villages in Darjeeling Hills, West Bengal, India and Nepal’s Ilam district. The pair found some surprisingly consistent observations. Three-fourths of the people surveyed believe that their weather is getting warmer and two-thirds believe that summer and monsoon season have begun earlier over the past ten years. Seventy percent believe that water sources are drying up while forty-six percent said that they think there is less snow on the high mountains. Many villagers also told Chaudhary they’d noticed shifts in some species ranges and earlier flowering and budding of plants. New pests have also arrived, villagers routinely reported, to plague crops and people—including mosquitoes where none had been before. Most of these changes were reported by much higher percentages of people living at higher altitudes than by those at lower altitudes. “We’ve shown in earlier research that people at high altitudes seem to be more sensitive to climate change, and of course it’s known that climate change is more severe at higher altitudes, so that’s not a surprise,” Bawa said. Many Himalayan peoples live in areas where predicted and observed impacts of climate change, like species migration, are more acute. Many of them also live “close to the land,” where agricultural-based livelihoods make them especially attuned to weather patterns. Listening to Locals Can Help Climate Science Scientific data on climate change have been hard to come by in the region, Bawa reported. Few weather stations dot remote and high-altitude locales and where they do exist their data are often incomplete. But where data can be found they seem to corroborate local observations, Bawa said, citing his own research on temperature and rainfall records as well as the work of other scientists listed in recent Biology Letters and Current Science reports of Bawa and Chaudhary’s research. “Governments in the region are now gearing up towards more research,” Bawa said. “But it will take time to gather this climate data.” That’s why local knowledge can be such valuable human intelligence, he added. It can be gathered quickly and widely and used to “jump start” scientific efforts. “There seems to be quite a bit of knowledge residing with local communities, in the Himalaya and elsewhere, and we can really use that knowledge to formulate scientific questions for further research and make more rapid assessments of the impacts of climate change.” Bawa said it’s hard to determine to what extent local peoples are familiar with the global dialogue on climate change, or how much that might have influenced their perceptions. But most of those he spoke with didn’t identify a clear cause for the changes they’d observed. “We’re saying that people seem to be aware that the climate is changing, but they may not necessarily be aware of why it’s changing. I think when you come to that question people don’t have any ideas—or they may have some very different ideas.” Bawa pointed to a recent study of this topic in Tibet, where many respondents believed that humans are causing climate change—but not by producing greenhouse gasses as most climate scientists believe. “They seem to think that the climate is changing because the Gods are not happy and perhaps the people in the younger generations are not praying enough.” This research was supported in part by a Committee for Research and Exploration grant of the National Geographical Society.
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Use the back button to select a different record. Librarians' Conference of the Kentucky Negro Educational Association Start Year : 1935 End Year : 1956 The Librarians' Conference was established April 11, 1935, during the 59th Annual Session of the Kentucky Negro Educational Association (KNEA) in Louisville, KY. It was the first formal organization for African American librarians and teacher librarians in Kentucky. The group continued to meet annually during the KNEA Conference until desegregation in 1956, when it was subsumed into the Kentucky Education Association. For more see Librarians' Conference reports in the Kentucky Negro Educational Association publications from 1935-1956 at Kentucky State University and also available online in the Kentucky Digital Library - Journals. Subjects: Librarians, Library Collections, Libraries Geographic Region: Kentucky
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Violence Against Women Act March 24, 2008 The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Renewal passes the House and Senate and signed into law New law will safely and effectively meet the needs of more victims The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is the cornerstone of our nation's response to domestic and sexual violence. A strong bipartisan bill to reauthorize VAWA (S. 47) passed in the Senate on February 12, 2013 (78-22) and in the House of Representatives on February 28, 2013 (286-138). President Obama signed the bill into law on March 7, 2013. YOUR calls made a difference! This is our collective victory for survivors. Want to make one more call? Visit our Legislative Action Center to find out how you can thank your Senators and Representatives for voting for VAWA. What will this renewal of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) change? The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has improved our nation's response to violence. However, not all victims have been protected or reached. VAWA 2013 will close critical gaps in services and justice. VAWA 2013 reauthorized and improved upon lifesaving services for all victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking - including Native women, immigrants, LGBT victims, college students and youth, and public housing residents. VAWA 2013 also authorized appropriate funding to provide for VAWA's vitally important programs and protections, without imposing limitations that undermine effectiveness or victim safety. Justice and safety for Native American Women: Native American victims of domestic violence often cannot seek justice because their courts are not allowed to prosecute non-Native offenders -- even for crimes committed on Tribal land. This major gap in justice, safety, and violence prevention must be addressed. VAWA 2013 includes a solution that would give Tribal courts the authority they need to hold offenders in their communities accountable. Justice and safety for LGBT survivors: Lesbian, gay, bisexul and transgender survivors of violence experience the same rates of violence as straight individuals. However, LGBT survivors sometimes face discrimination when seeking help and protection. VAWA 2013 prohibits such discrimination to ensure that all victims of violence have access to the same services and protection to overcome trauma and find safety. Safe housing for survivors: Landmark VAWA housing protections that were passed in 2005 have helped prevent discrimination against and unjust evictions of survivors of domestic violence in public and assisted housing. The law, however, did not cover all federally subsidized housing programs. VAWA 2013 expands these protections to individuals in all federally subsidized housing programs, explicitly protects victims of sexual assault and creates emergency housing transfer options. Protections for immigrant survivors: VAWA 2013 maintains important protections for immigrant survivors of abuse, while also making key improvements to existing provisions including by strengthening the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act and the provisions around self-petitions and U visas. Justice on campuses: College students are mong thos emost vulnerable to dating violence. Provisions in VAWA 2013 add additional protections for students by requiring schools to implement a recording process for incidences of dating violence, as well as report the findings. In addition, schools would be required to create plans to prevent this violence and educate victims on their rights and resources. Maintaining VAWA grant programs: VAWA grants are effectively meeting the needs of millions of victims across the country. VAWA 2013 includes many important improvements to these grant programs, including allowing state domestic violence coalitions to be the lead applicant on the Grants to Encourage Arrest program; ensuring that specific stakeholders, including domestic violence coalitions, play a meaningful role in developing state STOP plans; and providing a formal process for the Office on Violence Against Women to receive coalition and other key domestic violence and sexual assault community input. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is effective and important: VAWA creates and supports comprehensive, cost-effective responses to the pervasive and insidious crimes of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking. Since its enactment in 1994, VAWA programs, administered by the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Health and Human Services (HHS), have dramatically improved federal, tribal, state, and local responses to these crimes. - There has been as much as a 51% increase in reporting by women and a 37% increase in reporting by men. - The number of individuals killed by an intimate partner has decreased by 34% for women and 57% for men, and the rate of non-fatal intimate partner violence against women has decreased by 67%. - VAWA not only saves lives, it saves money. In its first six years alone, VAWA saved taxpayers at least $12.6 billion in net averted social costs. A recent study found that civil protection orders saved one state (Kentucky) on average $85 million in a single year. - Find more information here. Initially passed in 1994, VAWA created the first U.S. federal legislation acknowledging domestic violence and sexual assault as crimes, and provided federal resources to encourage community-coordinated responses to combating violence. Its reauthorization in 2000 improved the foundation established by VAWA 1994 by creating a much-needed legal assistance program for victims and by expanding the definition of crime to include dating violence and stalking. Its subsequent reauthorization in 2005 took a more holistic approach to addressing these crimes and created new programs to meet the emerging needs of communities working to prevent violence. Included in the 2005 reauthorization were new focus areas such as prevention, landmark housing protections for survivors, funding for rape crisis centers, and culturally- and linguistically-specific services. VAWA 2013 will ensure the continuation and improvement of these vital, lifesaving programs and laws. NNEDV continues to be a leading force in efforts to reauthorize VAWA. NNEDV and its member state domestic violence coalitions also played a crucial role in the passage of VAWA in 1994 and its reauthorizations in 2000 and 2005. NNEDV is currently working with state coalitions, national organizations, and Congress to ensure VAWA’s swift reauthorization and targeted investments in VAWA grant programs through the appropriations process. NNEDV's Role in VAWA Reauthorization NNEDV played an integral role in efforts to reauthorize VAWA. NNEDV and its member state domestic violence coalitions also played a crucial role inthe passage of VAWA in 1994 and its reauthorization in 2000 and 2005. - NNEDV's press statements on VAWA - NNEDV's President Kim Gandy on MSNBC - NNEDV's Vice President of Development & Innovation Cindy Southworth on PBS Learn More and Take Action: - VAWA 2013 Reauthorization Factsheet - S. 47 - The full text of the bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act of 2013 - Legislative Action Center Learn More About VAWA: - VAWA 2005 Fact Sheet - Section By Section Summary of VAWA 2005 - The Violence Against Women Act of 2005 The full text of the "Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005" as signed into law on Jan. 5, 2006. VAWA 2005 Technical Corrections These corrections amended VAWA 2005, fixing minor errors.
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A group of teachers were keen to embed rich tasks from the NRICH website http://nrich.maths.org into their curriculum for all KS3 and KS4 students. In this article, the teachers share the issues they needed to consider and what they are doing to address them. The catalysts for change were our desire to: These changes took some of us, and our colleagues, out of our comfort zone as we adapted the way in which we worked in our classrooms and tried out different roles for ourselves and our We needed to take into account the different needs of individual teachers in our schools and their students as they began to use In order to improve BOTH teachers' and students' abilities to work on the rich tasks, it was necessary to take account of, and find ways of supporting: The challenges involved in learning mathematics through rich The use of a range of lesson structures The use of effective questioning to promote thinking In what follows, we have identified some problems from the NRICH website, closely linked to the curriculum, which are ideal for use by schools wishing to introduce rich tasks. The aim is to be able to predict the area of any tilted What areas are possible? What areas are impossible? Is there a connection between the "tilt" and the area of a What observations, thoughts and conclusions can you offer? The NRICH website offers Teachers' Notes to many problems. These include suggestions for how the problems might be used in the Briefly, introduce the environment with an interactive whiteboard (IWB), or drawing diagrams on the board. Ask students to work in pairs to find one or more ways to calculate the exact area of the square displayed on the board. Obtain suggestions, with students coming to the board to demonstrate their methods, until the group seem confident with both techniques i.e. 'boxing in' and dissection. Then pose the questions Give them five minutes to work on their own/in pairs to think about, and make some brief notes on how they will start working on the problem and why they think such an approach would be Share ideas about strategies as a whole group. They will need to find ways of breaking the problem down working systematically and keeping track of their data. It may be useful to stop the group and share "good ideas" as work progresses. The aim is to mediate the problem by encouraging systematic approaches. As conjectures emerge ask learners to write them on a poster/the board and ensure they have convincing arguments or proofs to hand that can justify them. Encourage students to find clear concise vocabulary to express their rules, and to express how certain they are about them (e.g. probable pattern/result from Choose four consecutive whole numbers, for example, 4 , 5 , 6 Multiply the first and last numbers together. Multiply the middle pair together. Choose different sets of four consecutive whole numbers and do What do you notice? Choose five consecutive whole numbers, for example, 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 and 7. Multiply the second and fourth numbers together. Choose different sets of five consecutive whole numbers and do What do you notice now? What happens when you take 6, 7, 8,'?¦ n consecutive whole numbers and compare the product of the first and last numbers with the product of the second and penultimate numbers? Explain your findings. Establish that the group knows the meaning of 'consecutive' - consecutive days, consecutive letters in the alphabet... Choose four consecutive numbers and tell your students that you will multiply the outer ones and the inner ones. Ask students to pick their own sets of four consecutive numbers and do the same. Record all the results on the board. What do they notice? Will this always happen? Even with consecutive negative How could we explain it? Encourage algebraic and geometric Much of what will follow will depend on the arithmetical and algebraic confidence of the group. Use the extension and support remarks below to indicate the best way to use this resource beyond the questions in the problem. This problem only operated on the end numbers and the 'end but one' numbers. Could you make a more general statement and justify If you have an odd number of consecutive numbers, what's the difference between the product of the end numbers and the square of the middle number? This problem could also be approached purely numerically, as an exercise in developing fluency with multiplication tables while looking for pattern and structure. A multiplication grid could be used for recording results, with the pair products highlighted according to how many consecutive numbers were being used. Visualisation through blocks of dots or rectangle areas may help students explain why their pattern must work in every case. Imagine you have a large supply of 3kg and 8kg weights. Four 3kg weights and one 8kg weight have an average weight of How many of each weight would you need for the average (mean) of the weights to be 6kg? If you had other combinations of the 3kg and 8kg weights, what other whole number averages could you make? What's the smallest? What's the largest? Can you make all the whole number values in between? What if you have a different pair of weights (for example 2kg What averages can you now make? Try other different pairs of weights. Do you notice anything about your results? Do they have anything in common? Can you use what you notice to find, for example, the combination of 17kg and 57kg weights that have an average of 44kg......of 52kg.......of 21kg.....? Explain an efficient way of doing this. Can you explain why your method works? Given the original 3kg and 8kg weights, can you find combinations that produce averages of 4.5kg ... of 7.5kg ... of 4.2kg ...of 6.9kg ...? Convince yourself that all averages between 3kg and 8kg are possible. What averages are possible if you are allowed a negative number of 3kg and 8kg weights? You may initially wish to restrict the weights used to those which have a difference of 2kg, then 3kg, then 4kg, etc. in order to model working systematically, and to make the pattern of results Some students may find multilink cubes useful to support their Here are two examples of students work on Searching for This is a game for two players. You will need a 100 square which you can download or you can use The first player chooses a positive even number that is less than 50, and crosses it out on the grid. The second player chooses a number to cross out. The number must be a factor or multiple of the first number. Players continue to take it in turns to cross out numbers, at each stage choosing a number that is a factor or multiple of the number just crossed out by the other player. The first person who is unable to cross out a number loses. Switch the challenge from winning the game to covering as many numbers as possible. Pupils can again work in pairs trying to find the longest sequence of numbers that can be crossed out. Can more than half the numbers be crossed out? This challenge could run for an extended period: the longest sequence can be displayed on a noticeboard and pupils can be challenged to improve on it; any improved sequences can be added to Ask pupils to explain why their choice of numbers is good. A semi-regular tessellation has two properties: Can you find all the semi-regular tessellations? Can you show that you have found them all? To help you when you are working away from the computer, multiple copies of the different polygons are available to print and cut out. Ask students to suggest shapes that could fit round a point. Test out their suggestions. Record what works and what doesn't. e.g. 1 pentagon, 2 squares and 1 triangle don't fit round a Why do some fit and some don't? Could you tell in advance, without using the interactivity? Elicit from students the idea that the interior angles of regular polygons are a crucial factor in determining whether the regular polygons will fit together or not. Before moving on to the computers ask students to work on paper finding combinations of regular polygons that will fit round a point. This may encourage students to work systematically when using the interactivity provided. Resources are provided at the end of the problem to support students working away from the Challenge students to find all the possible semi-regular tessellations and to provide convincing evidence that they have got the complete set. Each school worked in different ways. Here are examples of what some of the schools did: This is what the schools said about how their practice has This article is the result of the collaborative work of: Susanne Mallett, Steve Wren, Mark Dawes and colleagues from Comberton Village College Amy Blinco, Brett Haines and colleagues from Gable Hall School Jenny Everton, Ellen Morgan and colleagues from Longsands Community Craig Barton, Debbie Breen, Geraldine Ellison and colleagues from The Range School Danny Burgess, Jim Stavrou and colleagues from Sawston Village Catherine Carre and Fran Watson and colleagues from Sharnbrook David Cherry, Chris Hawkins and Maria Stapenhill-Hunt and colleagues from The Thomas Deacon Academy. Charlie Gilderdale, Alison Kiddle and Jennifer Piggott from the NRICH Project, Cambridge
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Throat cancer is a disease in which cancer cells grow in an abnormal way in the throat. Cancer occurs when cells in the body—in this case throat cells—divide without control or order. Normally, cells divide in a regulated manner. If cells keep dividing uncontrollably when new cells are not needed, a mass of tissue forms, called a growth or tumor. The term cancer refers to malignant tumors, which can invade nearby tissues and spread to other parts of the body. A benign tumor usually does not invade or spread. Factors that can increase your chance of developing throat cancer include: - Age: 40 or older - Sex: male - Smoking or use of any tobacco products - Excessive alcohol consumption - Family history - Vitamin A deficiency - Diet low in fruits and vegetables - Suppressed immune system Infections caused by certain viruses such as: - Epstein-Barr virus - Human papillomavirus - Radiation exposure - Excess consumption of cured meats or fish - Marijuana use Exposure to certain materials such as in: - Nickel refining - Working with textile fibers If you have any of these symptoms, do not assume it is due to throat cancer. These symptoms may be caused by other conditions. Tell your doctor if you have any of these: - Sore throat - Feeling that something is caught in the throat - Difficulty chewing or swallowing - Difficulty moving the jaw or tongue - Voice changes or hoarseness - Change in voice quality - Pain in the head, throat, or neck - Lump in the neck - Unexplained weight loss - Coughing blood The doctor will ask about your symptoms and medical history. A physical exam will be done. The doctor may feel for any lumps in your neck. You may be referred to an otolaryngologist, a doctor who specializes in head and neck surgery. Your bodily fluids and tissue may be tested. This can be done with: Your internal structures may need to be viewed and examined. This can be done with: When throat cancer is found, staging tests are done to find out if the cancer has spread. Treatment depends on the stage of the cancer. Surgery removes the cancerous tumor and nearby tissue, and possibly nearby lymph nodes. In very rare cases, surgery to remove large tumors of the throat may also require removal of tissue for swallowing. As a result, food may enter the windpipe and reach the lungs, which might cause pneumonia. In cases when this is a risk, your surgeon may remove the larynx or voice box. The windpipe will be attached to the skin through a hole in the neck, which is used for breathing. This is the use of radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Radiation may be: - External radiation therapy—radiation directed at the tumor from a source outside the body - Internal radiation therapy—radioactive materials placed into the throat in or near the cancer cells This is the use of drugs to kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy may be given in many forms including pill, injection, and/or via a catheter. The drugs enter the bloodstream and travel through the body killing mostly cancer cells, but also some healthy cells. Combined Modality Therapy Often times, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are used together to kill cancer of the throat. This combined approach may be better than surgery or radiation alone. To reduce your chance of getting throat cancer, take the following steps: - Don't smoke or use tobacco products. If you do smoke or use tobacco products, get help to quit. - Drink alcohol only in moderation. Moderate alcohol intake is two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women. - Eat a healthful diet, one that is low in saturated fat and rich in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. - See your doctor and dentist regularly for check-ups and cancer screening.
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Oceana released a new report today outlining the shocking amount of subsidies that pour into Europe’s fishing industry. European taxpayers are essentially paying for overfishing – to the tune of 3.3 billion Euros ($4.6 billion) in 2009. Here are some other stunning facts from the report: - Oceana’s analysis found that a total of at least €3.3 billion of subsidies were available to the European Union fishing sector in 2009. This is more than three times quoted public figures, which only reference the European Fisheries Fund. - Total subsidies to the fishing sector are equivalent to 50 percent of the value of the total fish catch by the European Union in the same year ( €6.6 billion) - Spain, France, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Italy received the most fishing subsidies. - 13 European Union countries had more fishing subsidies than the value of the landings of fish in their ports. - Europe is one of the world’s top three subsidizers, along with China and Japan. - As a result of these major subsidies, the European Union now has a fishing fleet that is two to three times larger than what is needed to fish sustainably. - More than two-thirds of these subsidies have the ability to enhance fishing capacity and promote overfishing. Check out the full report and pass it on! - What Do Historic CO2 Levels Mean for the Oceans? Posted Tue, May 14, 2013 - U.S. Coast Guard Captures Illegal Fishermen in Texas Posted Tue, May 14, 2013 - Victory! Delaware Becomes Seventh State in U.S. to Ban Shark Fin Trade! Posted Thu, May 16, 2013 - It's Endangered Species Day! Posted Fri, May 17, 2013 - Stocks Show Signs of Recovery, But Still Work to Do Posted Fri, May 17, 2013
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KIKUYU CULTURE & TRADITIONS |Kenya is famous for its 42 cultures, but other than the nomadic Maasai and Samburu, not many of these are widely known to the outside world. A new cultural centre devoted to the Kikuyu, Kenya’s largest offers a unique experience of this tradition rich culture existing in a modern world.| Riuki Cultural Centre is located not far outside of Nairobi, in the Kikuyu Heartland of Kiambu. The centre is run by Dr. Kinuthia Njoroge, who wanted to build a traditional Kikuyu village homestead to show local children the history and customs of their community. The Kikuyu are the largest community in Kenya, and have always played a central role in the development of the independent Nation. For this reason, many may believe that modern influence has eroded the traditional way of life for this community, who mainly live around the capital city and the highlands. But as Riuki demonstrates, this is not the case. While the traditional huts and ceremonies may be displays of a proud history, many of the same beliefs and customs persist in modern life. In cuisine, music, marriage and everyday family life, most Kenyan Kikuyus still hold true to their identity. It is this pride that Riuki strives to encourage and strengthen, with its own blend of the modern and traditional. Now visitors to Kenya can come to Riuki and spend a day learning more about this little known culture. Welcomed to the centre by a group of elders, all of whom live in the local area, guests are welcomed in true Kikuyu style, with an invitation to drink from a horn filled with Muratina, a locally brewed drink. There is a tour of a traditionally built hut with an explanation of how the traditional society operated. Communities always remained bound by strict and strong ties of clan loyalty and an even stronger sense of tribal unity - There was an age set system among young men, known as Mariika, but all clans and villages (itura) always paid deference to the wisdom and law of the tribe. At Riuki, traditional songs, proverbs and dances bring the myths and legends of the Kikuyu to life. According to Kikuyu mythology, all of creation began at the summit of Mount Kenya. The icy peak was the realm of Ngai, the Supreme Creator, who descended from the heavens to his mountainous throne to survey his newly created lands. The mountain became Kirinyaga, his resting place, and it was from here that he called forth Gikuyu, the father of the Kikuyu people. Ngai told him that all of the lands around Kirinyaga would be the home of Gikuyu and his children forever. He sent Gikuyu to grove of Fig trees, where he found a woman called Mumbi. This grove would become known as Mukuru wa Nyagathanga, the birthplace of all Kikuyu, still revered as a sacred place. Among the fig trees, Gikuyu and Mumbi produced nine daughters- Wanjiku, Wanjiru, Wanjeri, Wambui, Wangari, Wacera, Waithera, Wairimu, and Nyambura. (Traditionally all Kikuyu girls should be given one of these names) The girls grew into beautiful young women, who each full moon wandered the lands around Kirinyaga in search of men so that they could bear children. They begged their father to appeal to Ngai for help. Finally he bowed before the Mountain, and Ngai commanded him to make sacrifice among the figs and light a fire. The sacrifice of a goat beneath a fig tree is still considered a way to call rain in times of drought, but in this first case it was a different form of life sustaining rain that Gikuyu sought. After the sacrifice he plunged nine sticks into a fire, and prayed. The fire erupted into an inferno, from which nine strong young men emerged. Giving thanks, Gikuyu took them back to his daughters, and the nine marriages were blessed by Ngai. Each of the daughters made her own homestead, and nine separate clans of the Kikuyu were born. the unity of these clans was known as the Nyumba ya Mumbi, in honour of their Mother. The peak of Kirinyaga has since remained the sacred home of Ngai. As at Riuki, all Kikuyu homesteads were traditionally built to face this Holy Mountain. A group of local women come to the centre to perform for visitors, with a series of dances traditionally performed at weddings and initiations and to sing songs. These are simple love and courting songs, traditional hunting songs and chants used when going to work in the fields. The highlands of Kenya are rich fertile land, and this is a great farming culture- with a great cuisine that has grown from freshly grown vegetables. The highlight of the day is a chance to sample a typical Kikuyu meal- delicious healthy food including sweet potatoes, Githeri (a maize and bean stew), Mukimo (a mashed combination of green peas and potato) with roasted goat and Irio, a great Kikuyu favourite. There are also displays of traditional medicine, healing and divination. Riuki can arrange extended programs to visit local farms and schools, or even to spend the night under the stars by a campfire on a traditional banana fibre mat, or to spend the night in a specially arranged homestay in a typical Kikuyu home. For anyone with a free day in Nairobi, the Riuki Cultural Centre is an excellent way to discover more about another culture, and make many new friends along the way. For more info click here Click here or email the Centre.
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Irish Fiddle Lessons - Ian Walsh teaches the Irish Hornpipe The Golden Eagle. Tags:How to Play the Song "The Golden Eagle" on an Iris,Ian Walsh,irish Fiddle Lesson,Learn To Play Fiddle,Learning Irish Fiddle,The Golden Eagle,Violin fiddle lessons Grab video code: Hi! Welcome to OnLineLessonVideos.com. I’m Ian Walsh and I’m going to teach an Irish tune today on the fiddle. It’s called the Golden Eagle and it’s a horn pipe. We’ll play it in the key of G. I’ll start off by playing you a sample of the tune along to a quick track that I’ve set at about 70 beats per minute. So here we go with the Golden Eagle. Let’s begin by leading into this tune with some pickup notes. We’ll start on the C, this is on the A string here. You work up A, B, C which plays right next to your first finger pretty much right on top of it. So that could be our first note and we’ll start with the triplet here. So three notes and then we’ll go to the G. So let’s just cycle through that a few times [Demonstration]. Try sliding into your first note, the C and I’ll give it a little bit of an aggressive edge [Demonstration]. Let’s take a look at another section here, we go down to our B on the g string and we play. So we’re crossing three strings, pretty quickly there and I’m not doing anything special with my bow. I’m keeping my bow movement short and I’m working at the top of my bow but I’m not slurring any notes, I’m going straight up and down here. So from B [Demonstration], so those notes are B, D, G, B. Let’s take a look at another section here. We start with the open D. This is a little bit easier, you’re only working across two strings and you’re using your first and third fingers. Let’s take a look at another one. This is more or less a G arpeggio and it starts on the G on the d string and we play [Demonstration]. So again, you’re moving across three strings here ending on the e string on that G note with your second finger. So let’s go back to the beginning here and we’ll look at that pickup note, the C, B, A down to your first note of the tune, the G. Take a look at the second little section. You go down to that low B and all the way up to the B again. Then we look here to the low D [Demonstration] and then finally we have that G arpeggio [Demonstration]. Notice I’m leaving my fingers down on the A string here. You can visualize two of the double stamps that are readily apparent here for the G. You can use a G with a D with your A and your E string or you can do the G and the B. Leaving your fingers down can be good practice for getting your fingers just on the individual strings. Let’s put all of these together and see what it sounds like. I’ll count us in, one, two, three, [Demonstration] one, two, three [Demonstration]. One more time, one, two, three [Demonstration]
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Italian government scientists have claimed to have discovered evidence that a supernatural event formed the image on the Turin Shroud, believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. After years of work trying to replicate the colouring on the shroud, a similar image has been created by the scientists. However, they only managed the effect by scorching equivalent linen material with high-intensity ultra violet lasers, undermining the arguments of other research, they say, which claims the Turin Shroud is a medieval hoax. Such technology, say researchers from the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (Enea), was far beyond the capability of medieval forgers, whom most experts have credited with making the famous relic. keyboard shortcuts: V vote up article J next comment K previous comment
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Railroad worker injuries are covered under the Federal Employees Liability Act which requires that a railroad maintains their fleet, ensuring that their trains are in good working order and free of defects. If a railroad does not comply with these standards, they may be liable for injuries to their workers. Damages railroad workers may receive include medical treatments, present and future lost wages and mental trauma. An injury on the railway can range from a minor sprain to a spinal injury so severe that it leads to death. Some of the most common injuries that affect railway workers are head trauma, knee injuries, back injuries, neck injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, brain trauma or spinal cord injuries. The Federal Employees Liability Act protects railroad workers and others as diverse as clerical employees whose day-to-day functions do not directly involve trains or outdoor activity.
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Students in the 12-quarter Graphic Design bachelor?s degree program have an opportunity to expand on theory, practice and process, developing skills in creative problem solving. This program is designed to establish a strong foundation in traditional design and computer skills, and then build advanced competence in the application of the skills. Students have an opportunity to learn to couple their creativity with sound business skills necessary for entry into the field. They can learn to initiate, manage, produce, and deliver effective design concepts. Students study two- and three-dimensional design, marketing, and media design. They explore color theory, visual composition, typography, information graphics, digital and print production processes, and law as it relates to the graphic arts. Students also have an opportunity to learn to use computer illustration, image manipulation, web layout and programming, and page layout programs to master design skills. Graphic Design students have the opportunity to learn the skills to write effective r?sum?s and conduct successful job interviews. They graduate with a professional portfolio to show potential employers and are prepared to join the industry in entry-level positions in fields such as advertising, business communication, publishing, and education. For graphic designers, exciting challenges are available; they work on projects like corporate identity programs, consumer package designs, annual reports, exhibition materials, direct mail literature, brochures, manuals, catalogs, and interactive presentations. They create company logos, business cards and stationery, letterheads, print advertisements, magazine and CD covers, posters, signs, and billboards. Graduates will be prepared to seek entry-level positions in agencies, design firms, print houses, and corporate environments. Objectives: Upon completion of this program, graduates will be able to: ? Demonstrate and apply competencies in industry-specific computer software programs within the context of producing concrete projects. This includes technical aspects of prepress, output, and quality reproduction as well as Web design. ? Analyze and incorporate aesthetics and formal concepts of layout design. This includes spatial relationships, communication legibility and effectiveness, interrelationships among imagery and text, balance, typography, and color theory. ? Demonstrate design concepts and relate these to historical and contemporary trends and social context by producing successful visual solutions to assigned problems. ? Model the interdependence of content and visual expression and be able to evaluate and critique their ideas. Graduates must be able to verbally articulate the vision behind their creative work and explain and promote their solutions. ? Demonstrate professional presentation; articulation of knowledge of graphic design and visual problem solving, and mastery of industry standards, professional practices and ethics.
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About Our School Pathfinder K-8 is located at the Cooper Elementary Building on Pigeon Point in West Seattle. Pathfinder K-8 is an alternative public school where children are engaged in expeditionary learning. Native American cultures are the foundation from which we teach about many cultures, providing opportunities for our students to make their own cultural connections. Pathfinder educates students to become passionate, lifelong learners, respecting themselves, others and the environment. At Pathfinder we believe: - A safe, respectful environment is essential for learning. - High academic and behavioral standards encourage children to reach their personal best. - A complete education comes from a caring community, including the partnership of students, staff, parents and other contributors. - Children must learn to solve problems and be responsible citizens in social and academic settings. - Multicultural education broadens awareness of and fosters and appreciation for diversity. - Children need current technology, and the appropriate tools and physical environment to support their learning. - Teaching our children to respect and care for our natural environment creates future stewards for our planet.
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I’ve seen several articles debating when oil production will peak. For those of you who have missed them, oil prices rise due to scarcity (real or not) or increased production costs, and the latter become important sometime around when oil production peaks. Also, the time for us to go through the second half of the world’s oil will be considerably less than the history of oil use to date, and our transportation infrastructure in particular is heavily oil-based. Among climate change scientists, there seems to be less worry about running out of oil, and considerably more worry about its use. Recent readings have given me some understanding. David Greene, et al, from (pdf file) Running Out of and into Oil: Analyzing Global Oil Depletion and Transition Through 2050 “It is possible that the world could go partway down the path of developing unconventional oil resources and later reverse direction. But such a strategy would strand huge investments in the more capital-intensive production and refining of unconventional oil. If the transition to unconventional oil is gradual, there might be time to introduce low-carbon alternatives and a reversal might not be too costly. But if the transition to unconventional oil is sudden and massive, the world’s economies might quickly become locked into a high carbon future. Avoiding or even slowing the transition to unconventional fossil resources might improve the world’s chances of successfully dealing with global climate change.” The unconventional oil sources referred to are coal to liquids (synfuel), for example, or natural gas to liquids (isn’t all natural gas needed for electricity and heating?) Both increase carbon emissions, in part because of the energy needed to convert them to liquid. Both are expensive because they require so much energy for the process. Oil prices will rise if we hit a peak, but Europeans and others are already living with much higher gasoline prices. Detour: A vote on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is expected soon. My understanding is that oil companies are not particularly interested in drilling there without some kind of guarantee (a large guarantee, but will that dissuade Congress?), as there is relatively little oil, and it’s relatively far from where it would be used. I’m not sure why anyone would vote for opening up the site to oil drilling, both for practical reasons and because it’s nice to imagine those few places in the world not crowded by us. What I hear is, “got you, you crummy environmentalists”, but perhaps our legislators have other reasons, poorly articulated to date. Certainly these reasons have little to do with oil security, even for the rare person who also votes to increase car mileage standards. That said, the overwhelming concern to the caribou is not the drilling, but the use of oil. Climate change alters the environment at high altitudes faster, and refuge status will not protect ANWR. Return: From my reading, it is apparent that the rest of the world, as non-OPEC is generally referred to, is running out of oil much faster than is OPEC. Fareed Zakaria in The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad points out that governments that finance themselves without taxes are not as accountable to citizens. Hence there is worldwide discomfort at financing these governments. But the discomfort is not great enough here in the United States to taxing oil in order to encourage us to change our behavior. We would be much better off raising taxes on oil use today. Even a moderate tax, perhaps as little as $1/gallon, will begin to shift behavior, to help stretch out our current oil supply and allow the transitions away from fossil fuels, so that we don’t finance OPEC governments so heavily. Oh, I’ve heard many, particularly poor people, say, but we can’t afford it. Perhaps more earned income credit, or some other mechanism, could help the poor in this transition, and let people choose whether to spend the extra money on a car or the bus. It isn’t right to ignore those who will be hurt in a transition. But we are wrong if we do not transition. Some talk about making the carbon tax revenue neutral, an idea I was more sympathetic to until the Bush deficits, and back when I thought roads and bridges are paid for by the current gasoline tax rather than out of general revenue. We could do more regional planning of mass transit systems. We could use some of the gasoline tax to pay for the roads and mass transit that makes our roads less crowded. We could teach bicycling as a PE option, as those who learn to bicycle and signal correctly are less dangerous to themselves and others and are more likely to continue bicycling as adults. This would leave more oil for those of you who can’t or don’t want to bicycle. There’s lots we can do. The cost of our transportation continues to increase. The obvious increases in price are accompanied by the continued power of corrupt governments, the costs to agriculture and water supplies and human settlements and peace from climate change. Let’s add some of these costs, or the desire to avoid these costs, to the price of gasoline. The costs will be paid, either as lower costs consciously assumed today or higher costs imposed tomorrow.
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Tax Day has just passed by, and there has been customary grumbling in some circles about how awful income taxes are in the United States. However, most of the data on taxes indicate that Americans are actually paying the least they have in decades. The tax burden is lighter on nearly every segment of society. Politicians wonder how we wound up with a deficit The 1950s were an ideal decade to a lot of people. Wholesome and clean television shows like “Howdy Doody” and “Leave it to Beaver” ruled the airwaves; people pursued the American Dream with gusto and patriotism; and they paid more in income tax — before Medicare and Medicaid ever existed, according to USA Today. Average Americans devoted about 27 percent of their gross income to taxes from the 1950s until the 1990s, when the tax rate began to trail off. In 2010, it was down to 23.6 percent of gross income. Were taxes to be raised back to 1950s levels of taxation, it would raise approximately $500 billion. According to MSN, the Internal Revenue Service estimates that it issues more than $328 billion in tax refunds every year. The people who have benefited, at least in some way, from lower income taxes and some generous tax breaks are poorer households, according to CNN. It was widely reported that the Tax Policy Center found that 45 percent of households did not or would not have to pay a dime in income taxes. Not having to pay taxes does sound attractive, but 68 percent of those people earned $50,000 per year or less. For people who earned $500,000 to $1 million per year, only 1.6 percent didn’t owe or have to pay any taxes, and only 1 percent of people who earned $1 million or more didn’t owe or have to pay. Still, the tax burden placed on the wealthiest seems disproportionate even to the wealthy. Charles Munger, right hand man to none other than Warren Buffet, said at a recent Berkshire-Hathaway conference that hedge fund managers paying lower tax rates than “professors of physics or cab drivers” was “demented,” according to the Motley Fool. IRS not immune to fraud The Internal Revenue Service is collecting less and paying more these days. The IRS wound up paying more than $12 million to dead people in a tax scam ring, according to MSN. More than 5,000 returns were filed fraudulently using the names and Social Security numbers of deceased individuals in the hopes of fooling the IRS into cutting a check to someone who wasn’t alivet. A man in Florida was ordered to apply for an Electronic Filing Identification Number, which was used by others after he received it to find recently deceased people and electronically filing tax returns using their identities. The IRS has recovered more than $800,000 from Bank of America accounts and more than $700,000 in Chase accounts used for this purpose.
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Rutabagas are a wonderful addition to the winter diet. They are a member the brassica genus of plants which includes other cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and broccoli. Their sweet, yellow flesh can be mashed, roasted, steamed or sauteed. Rutabagas are rich in vitamin C, dietary fiber, potassium and antioxidant compounds, important nutrients for any healthy diet. And they offer plenty of those nutrients! - One cup of cubed, boiled rutabaga contains 66 calories’ It has 2.2 grams of protein, 4 percent of the recommended daily amount! - That one cup of rutabagas also offers 12 percent of the recommended daily intake of fiber. One cup provides 3.1 grams. - It also provides 16 percent of the daily potassium requirements and 10 percent of the daily value of magnesium and phosphorus. - Rutabaga is an excellent source of vitamin C. One cup provides 53 percent of the recommended daily value and 4 to 9 percent of the B-vitamins. - Rutabaga contains the phytochemicals called isothiocyanates. These are best obtained from raw cruciferous vegetables because they can’t be absorbed as well after the vegetable is cooked. The health benefits of you’ll gain from these flavorful roots are also impressive! - The phytochemicals remove carcinogens from the body and help the liver process toxins. One phytochemical, glucosinolate, may inhibit the growth of cancerous tumors. - It’s store of antioxidants help prevent free radical damage to our cells and DNA, boosts the immune system and helps prevent illness and disease. Rutabaga also contains carotenoids, which help stimulate the antioxidant activity. - Rutabaga is a good source of fiber which helps support the body’s digestive system, is essential to colon health, digestion and healthy metabolism. The glucosinolates may also help the stomach process bacteria. - The potassium found in rutabaga helps promote bone strength, aids in energy production and supports heart health and metabolism. Still not sold on rutabaga? Try slow-roasting with a touch of sea salt, and grape seed oil as part of a winter dinner, add to soups and stews, or get a big dose of phytochemicals with a crunchy salad of walnuts, chopped rutabaga, spinach, and dried cranberries. If you’re not already a rutabaga fan … give it a try, you will be!
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Oct. 13, 2010 -- The idiom “a dog’s life” suggests that pooches have it made when it comes to happiness, but new research indicates that the emotional states of dogs can be as varied as the moods of their owners. Dogs can see their food bowls as half empty rather than half full, just as human pessimists see a glass of water as half empty instead of half full. British researchers who tested separation reactions of dogs say they found that some dogs are more likely than others to become depressed and anxious when left alone, causing them to bark, scratch at doors, chew on furniture, and generally misbehave. On the other hand, optimistic dogs are more likely to behave better and become more relaxed when left alone. Mike Mendl, PhD, head of animal welfare and behavioral research at the University of Bristol, and colleagues, studied 24 dogs, males and females, that had been sent to two animal centers. Each dog was tested beforehand for separation anxiety-related behaviors. A researcher played with each dog in an isolated room for 20 minutes. The next day the dogs were taken back to their rooms and left alone for five minutes while video cameras recorded their behavior. Some of the dogs barked, jumped on furniture, and scratched at the door, but the “optimistic” ones did not -- or didn’t do it as much. To study optimistic or pessimistic tendencies, the dogs were trained so that when a bowl was placed at one location in a room, it contained food, but when put somewhere else, it didn’t. Then the bowls were placed at ambiguous locations between the positive and negative positions. “Dogs that ran fast to these ambiguous locations as if expecting the positive food reward were classed as making relatively ‘optimistic’ decisions,” Mendl says in a news release. "Interestingly, these dogs tended to be the ones who also showed least anxiety-like behavior when left alone for a short time.” He says about half of dogs may at some point engage in behaviors related to separation anxiety, such as barking, scratching, or tearing things up when separated from owners. “Our study suggests that dogs showing these types of behavior also appear to make more pessimistic judgments generally,” he says. “We all have a tendency to think that our pets and other animals experience emotions similar to our own, but we have no way of knowing directly because emotions are essentially private,” he says. “However, we can use findings from human psychology research to develop new ways of measuring animal emotion.” It’s known that the emotional states of people affect their judgments, and that happy people are more likely to judge an ambiguous situation in a positive way. And it’s apparently the same with dogs. “What our study has shown is that this applies similarly to dogs -- that a ‘glass-half-full’ dog is less likely to be anxious when left alone than one with a more pessimistic nature,” Mendl says.
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European Painting before 1900, Johnson Collection Green Park, LondonMade in London, England, Europe 1870 or 1871 Claude Monet, French, 1840 - 1926 Oil on canvas W1921-1-7Purchased with the W. P. Wilstach Fund, 1921 LabelIn the autumn of 1870, in the midst of the Franco-Prussian War, Monet and his wife left France for exile in London, where they remained until June 1871. There the artist painted this panorama of a park in the heart of the city. In later years Monet would return to London, painting numerous views of city sights, including the Houses of Parliament. Social Tags [?]green park [x] impressionist [x] landscape 19c [x] london [x] monet [x] [Add Your Own Tags] * Works in the collection are moved off view for many different reasons. Although gallery locations on the website are updated regularly, there is no guarantee that this object will be on display on the day of your visit.
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European Decorative Arts and Sculpture Cloister with Elements from the Abbey of Saint-Genis-des-FontainesMade in Roussillon, France, Europe 1270-80s, with medieval elements from southwestern France and modern additions Artist/maker unknown, French 1928-57-1bPurchased with funds contributed by Elizabeth Malcolm Bowman in memory of Wendell Phillips Bowman, 1928 LabelAt the heart of every medieval monastery stood a cloister, an arcaded walkway surrounding a courtyard. The Museum’s cloister is modeled after a thirteenth-century example at the Abbey of Saint-Genis-des-Fontaines in the Roussillon region of southwestern France, and includes sculpture originally from the abbey, contemporary elements from the province, and early-twentieth-century reproduction carvings. Medieval cloisters served both practical and spiritual purposes. Most were open air, often with a garden in the courtyard. A ninth-century architectural drawing known as the Plan of Saint Gall, which is considered a blueprint of the ideal monastic compound, features a large, centrally located cloister that would have been reserved for the monks. At Saint-Genis-des-Fontaines, the outer walkway held doors that opened into the dining hall, the chapter house (where the abbey was administered), and the church. In addition to functioning as a connecting space, the courtyard and its colonnade were used by the religious community for processions, services, and communal readings. The cloister also provided an area where individual monks could engage in private prayer and contemplation. Social Tags [?]european art 1100-1500 [x] period room [x] st-genis-des-fontaines [x] st-michel-de-cuxa [x] [Add Your Own Tags] * Works in the collection are moved off view for many different reasons. Although gallery locations on the website are updated regularly, there is no guarantee that this object will be on display on the day of your visit.
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Thursday, September 1st, 1859, 11:18am: Thirty three year-old Richard Carringto, widely acknowledged to be one of England's foremost solar astronomer, was in his well-appointed private observatory. Just as usual on every sunny day, his telescope was projecting an 11-inch-wide image of the sun on a screen, and Carrington skillfully drew the sunspots he saw. On that morning, he was capturing the likeness of an enormous group of sunspots. Suddenly, before his eyes, two brilliant beads of blinding white light appeared over the sunspots, intensified rapidly, and became kidney-shaped. Realizing that he was witnessing something unprecedented and "being somewhat flurried by the surprise," Carrington later wrote, "I hastily ran to call someone to witness the exhibition with me. On returning within 60 seconds, I was mortified to find that it was already much changed and enfeebled." He and his witness watched the white spots contract to mere pinpoints and disappear. Friday, September 2nd, 1859: Just before dawn the next day, skies all over planet Earth erupted in red, green, and purple auroras so brilliant that newspapers could be read as easily as in daylight. Indeed, stunning auroras pulsated even at near tropical latitudes over Cuba, the Bahamas, Jamaica, El Salvador, and Hawaii. Even more disconcerting, telegraph systems worldwide went haywire. Spark discharges shocked telegraph operators and set the telegraph paper on fire. Even when telegraphers disconnected the batteries powering the lines, aurora-induced electric currents in the wires still allowed messages to be transmitted. [Click the following images for better reading.] Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Forecasting the Impact of an 1859-calibre Superstorm on Satellite Resources THE 1859 SOLAR–TERRESTRIAL DISTURBANCE AND THE CURRENT LIMITS OF EXTREME SPACE WEATHER ACTIVITY May be read online. Space Radiation Hazards and the Vision for Space Exploration: Report of a Workshop
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Acrophobia is defined as a fear of heights. Unlike a specific phobia like aerophobia -- fear of flying -- and other specific phobias, acrophobia can cause a person to fear a variety of things related to being far from the ground. Depending on the phobia's severity, an acrophobic person may equally fear being on a high floor of a building or simply climbing a ladder. Acrophobia and Related Conditions True vertigo is a medical condition that causes a sensation of spinning and dizziness. Illyngophobia is a phobia in which the fear of developing vertigo can actually lead to vertigo-like symptoms. Acrophobia can induce similar feelings, but the three conditions are not the same. See a doctor for tests if you experience vertigo symptoms. Medical tests may include bloodwork, CT scans and MRIs, which can rule out a variety of neurological conditions. Bathmophobia, or the fear of slopes and stairs, is sometimes related to acrophobia. In bathmophobia, you may panic when viewing a steep slope, even if you have no need to climb the slope. Although many people with bathmophobia have acrophobia, most acrophobia sufferers do not also experience bathmophobia. Climacophobia is related to bathmophobia, except that the fear generally occurs only when contemplating making a climb. If you suffer from climacophobia, you are probably not afraid to see a steep set of stairs as long as you can remain safely at the bottom. However, climacophobia may occur in tandem with acrophobia. Aerophobia is the specific fear of flying. Depending on the severity of your fear, you may be afraid of airports and airplanes, or may only feel the fear when in the air. Aerophobia may occasionally occur alongside acrophobia. Symptoms of Acrophobia If you experience acrophobia, you may never experience vertigo symptoms. Instead, you may feel a sense of panic when at height. You may instinctively begin to search for something to cling to. You may find that you are unable to trust your own sense of balance. Common reactions include descending immediately, crawling on all fours and kneeling or otherwise lowering the body. Emotionally and physically, the response to acrophobia is similar to the response to any other phobia. You may begin to shake, sweat, experience heart palpitations and even cry or yell out. You may feel terrified and paralyzed. It might become difficult to think. If you have acrophobia, it is likely that you will begin to dread situations that may cause you to spend time at height. For example, you may worry that an upcoming vacation will put you into a hotel room on a high floor. You may put off home repairs for fear of using a ladder. You might avoid visiting friends' homes if they have balconies or upstairs picture windows. Danger of Acrophobia The biggest danger that most phobias present is the risk of limiting one's life and activities to avoid the feared situation. Acrophobia is unusual, however, in that having a panic attack while high in the air could actually lead to the imagined danger. The situation may be safe as long as normal precautions are taken, but panicking could lead you to make unsafe moves. Therefore, it is extremely important that acrophobia be professionally treated as quickly as possible, particularly if heights are a regular part of your life. Causes of Acrophobia Research shows that a certain amount of reluctance around heights is normal, not only for humans but for all visual animals. In 1960, famed research psychologists Gibson and Walk did a "Visual Cliff" experiment which showed crawling infants, along with babies of numerous species, who refused to cross a thick glass panel that covered an apparently sharp drop-off. The presence of the infant's mother, encouragingly calling him, did not convince the babies that it was safe. Therefore, acrophobia seems to be at least partially ingrained, possibly as an evolutionary survival mechanism. Nonetheless, most children and adults use caution but are not inordinately afraid of heights. Acrophobia, like all phobias, appears to be a hyper-reaction of the normal fear response. Many experts believe that this may be a learned response to either a previous fall or a parent's nervous reaction to heights. Cognitive-behavioral therapy, or CBT, is a main treatment of choice for specific phobias. Behavioral techniques that expose the sufferer to the feared situation either gradually (systematic desensitization) or rapidly (flooding) are frequently used. In addition, the client is taught ways of stopping the panic reaction and regaining emotional control. Traditionally, actual exposure to heights is the most common solution. However, several research studies performed since 2001 have shown that virtual reality may be just as effective. A major advantage of virtual reality treatment is the savings in both cost and time, as there is no need for "on-location" therapist accompaniment. This method is not yet readily available, but may be worth trying to find if you can. The drug D-Cycloserine has been in clinical trials for anxiety disorder treatment since 2008. It appears that using the medication in tandem with cognitive-behavioral therapy may improve results, but the research remains preliminary at this time. Acrophobia appears to be rooted in an evolutionary safety mechanism. Nonetheless, it represents an extreme variation on a normal caution, and can become quite life-limiting for sufferers. It can also be dangerous for those who experience a full panic reaction while at a significant height. Acrophobia can share certain symptoms with vertigo, a medical disorder with a variety of possible causes, as well as with other specific phobias. For these reasons, if you experience the signs of acrophobia, it is extremely important to seek professional help as soon as possible.Sources: Gibson, E. J., & Walk, R. D. "The 'visual cliff'." Scientific American. 1960. 202, 67-71. May 5, 2008. Retrieved from http://www.wadsworth.com/psychology_d/templates/student_resources/0155060678_rathus/ps/ps05.html Emmelkamp, Paul, Bruynzeel, Mary, Drost, Leonie, van der Mast, Charles. "Virtual Reality Treatment in Acrophobia: A Comparison with Exposure in Vivo" CyberPsychology & Behavior. June 1, 2001, 4(3): 335-339. May 5, 2008.
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With the worlds energy needs growing rapidly, can zero-carbon energy options be scaled up enough to make a significant difference? How much of a dent can these alternatives make in the worlds total energy usage over the next half-century? As the MIT Energy Initiative approaches its fifth anniversary next month, this five-part series takes a broad view of the likely scalable energy candidates. Of all the zero-carbon energy sources available, wind power is the only one thats truly cost-competitive today: A 2006 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration put the total cost for wind-produced electricity at an average of $55.80 per megawatt-hour, compared to $53.10 for coal, $52.50 for natural gas and $59.30 for nuclear power. As a result, wind turbines are being deployed rapidly in many parts of the United States and around the world. And because of winds proven record and its immediate and widespread availability, its an energy source thats seen as having the potential to grow very rapidly. Wind is probably one of the most significant renewable energy sources, simply because the technology is mature, says Paul Sclavounos, an MIT professor of mechanical engineering and naval architecture. There is no technological risk. Globally, 2 percent of electricity now comes from wind, and in some places the rate is much higher: Denmark, the present world leader, gets more than 19 percent of its electricity from wind, and is aiming to boost that number to 50 percent. Some experts estimate wind power could account for 10 to 20 percent of world electricity generation over the next few decades. Taking a longer-term view, a widely cited 2005 study by researchers at Stanford University projected that wind, if fully harnessed worldwide, could theoretically meet the worlds present energy needs five times over. And a 2010 study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that the United States could get more than 12 times its current electricity consumption from wind alone. But impressive as these figures may sound, wind power still has a long way to go before it becomes a significant factor in reducing carbon emissions. The potential is there with abundant wind available for harvesting both on land and, especially, over the oceans but harnessing that power efficiently will require enormous investments in manufacturing and installation. So far, installed wind power has the capacity to generate only about 0.2 terawatts (trillions of watts) of energy worldwide a number that pales in comparison to an average world demand of 14 terawatts, expected to double by 2050. The World Wind Energy Association now projects global wind-power capacity of 1.9 terawatts by 2020. But thats peak capacity, and even in the best locations the wind doesnt blow all the time. In fact, the worlds wind farms operate at an average capacity factor (the percentage of their maximum power that is actually delivered) somewhere between 20 and 40 percent, depending on their location and the technology. Some analysts are also concerned that widespread deployment of wind power, with its inherently unpredictable swings in output, could stress power grids, forcing the repeated startup and shutdown of other generators to compensate for winds variability. Many of the best wind-harvesting sites are far from the areas that most need the power, necessitating significant investment in delivery infrastructure but building wind farms closer to population centers is controversial because many people object to their appearance and their sounds. One potential solution to these problems lies offshore. While many wind installations in Europe have been built within a few miles of shore, in shallow water, there is much greater potential more than 20 miles offshore, where winds blow faster and more reliably. Such sites, while still relatively close to consumers, are generally far enough away to be out of sight. MITs Sclavounos has been working on the design of wind turbines for installation far offshore, using floating platforms based on technology used in offshore oilrigs. Such installations along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States could theoretically provide most of the electricity needed for the eastern half of the country. And a study in California showed that platforms off the coast there could provide more than two-thirds of the states electricity. Such floating platforms will be essential if wind is to become a major contributor to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, says research engineer Stephen Connors, director of the Analysis Group for Regional Energy Alternatives (AGREA) at the MIT Energy Initiative. Wind energy is never going to get big if youre limited to relatively shallow, relatively close [offshore] sites, he says. If youre going to have a large impact, you really need floating structures. All of the technology needed to install hundreds of floating wind turbines is well established, both from existing near-shore wind farms and from offshore drilling installations. All thats needed is to put the pieces together in a way that works economically. But deciding just how to do so is no trivial matter. Sclavounos and his students have been working to optimize designs, using computer simulations to test different combinations of platforms and mooring systems to see how they stand up to wind and waves as well as how efficiently they can be assembled, transported and installed. One thing is clear: It wont be one design for all sites, Sclavounos says. In principle, floating structures should be much more economical than wind farms mounted on the seafloor, as in Europe, which require costly construction and assembly. By contrast, the floating platforms could be fully assembled at an onshore facility, then towed into position and anchored. Whats more, the wind is much steadier far offshore: Whereas a really good land-based site can provide a 35 percent capacity factor, an offshore site can yield 45 percent greatly improving the cost-effectiveness per unit. There are also concerns about the effects of adding a large amount of intermittent energy production to the national supply. Ron Prinn, director of MITs Joint Center for the Science and Policy of Global Change, says, At large scale, there are issues regarding reliability of renewable but intermittent energy sources like wind that will require adding the costs of backup generation or energy storage. Exactly how big is offshore wind powers potential? Nobody really knows for sure, since theres insufficient data on the strength and variability of offshore winds. You need to know where and when its windy hour to hour, day to day, season to season and year to year, Connors says. While such data has been collected on land, there is much less information for points offshore. Its a wholly answerable question, but you cant do it by just brainstorming. And the answers might not be what wind powers advocates want to hear. Some analysts raise questions about how much difference wind power can make. MIT physicist Robert Jaffe says that wind is excellent in certain niche locations, but overall its too diffuse that is, too thinly spread out over the planet to be the major greenhouse gas-curbing technology. In the long term, solar is the best option to be sufficiently scaled up to make a big difference, says Jaffe, the Otto (1939) and Jane Morningstar Professor of Physics. Connors is confident that wind also has a role to play. This planet is mostly ocean, he says, and its pretty windy out there. This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching. Explore further: Study IDs two compressed air energy storage methods, sites for the Northwest More information: Tomorrow: Vast amounts of solar energy radiate to the Earth constantly, but tapping that energy cost-effectively remains a challenge. -- Read part 1: "What can make a dent?"
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The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft is expected to discover its 1,000TH comet this summer. The SOHO spacecraft is a joint effort between NASA and the European Space Agency. It has accounted for approximately one-half of all comet discoveries with computed orbits in the history of astronomy. "Before SOHO was launched, only 16 sun grazing comets had been discovered by space observatories. Based on that experience, who could have predicted SOHO would discover more than 60 times that number, and in only nine years," said Dr. Chris St. Cyr. He is senior project scientist for NASA's Living With a Star program at the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "This is truly a remarkable achievement!" About 85 percent of the comets SOHO discovered belongs to the Kreutz group of sun grazing comets, so named because their orbits take them very close to Earth's star. The Kreutz sun grazers pass within 500,000 miles of the star's visible surface. Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, is about 36 million miles from the solar surface. SOHO has also been used to discover three other well-populated comet groups: the Meyer, with at least 55 members; Marsden, with at least 21 members; and the Kracht, with 24 members. These groups are named after the astronomers who suggested the comets are related, because they have similar orbits. Many comet discoveries were made by amateurs using SOHO images on the Internet. SOHO comet hunters come from all over the world. The United States, United Kingdom, China, Japan, Taiwan, Russia, Ukraine, France, Germany, and Lithuania are among the many countries whose citizens have used SOHO to chase comets. Almost all of SOHO's comets are discovered using images from its Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) instrument. LASCO is used to observe the faint, multimillion-degree outer atmosphere of the sun, called the corona. A disk in the instrument is used to make an artificial eclipse, blocking direct light from the sun, so the much fainter corona can be seen. Sun grazing comets are discovered when they enter LASCO's field of view as they pass close by the star. "Building coronagraphs like LASCO is still more art than science, because the light we are trying to detect is very faint," said Dr. Joe Gurman, U.S. project scientist for SOHO at Goddard. "Any imperfections in the optics or dust in the instrument will scatter the light, making the images too noisy to be useful. Discovering almost 1,000 comets since SOHO's launch on December 2, 1995 is a testament to the skill of the LASCO team." SOHO successfully completed its primary mission in April 1998. It has enough fuel to remain on station to keep hunting comets for decades if the LASCO continues to function. For information about SOHO on the Internet, visit: Explore further: Long-term warming, short-term variability: Why climate change is still an issue
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What leadership traits can we learn from wolves? In The Wisdom of Wolves author Twyman Towery shares the milieu of the wolf pack where teamwork, loyalty and communication are the norm rather than the exception. Whether it�s their traits of curiosity, perseverance, loyalty or play, wolves exist for the survival of the pack - a lesson humans can apply in business, family or personal relationships. The Wisdom of Wolves shows us that not only has the teamwork of the wolves among themselves been critical to their success, but the teamwork between humans and wolves has helped boost the life environment for both species. The Wisdom of the Wolves provides food for thought: The strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf is the pack. Simple Truths provides customers with inspirational and motivational gift books and movies. Our books and movies are comprised of short inspirational stories and motivational quotes that are certain to make a positive lasting impression. Simple Truths gift books and movies are great for friends & family, co-workers, teachers, students, corporations and businesses.
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Forcing yourself to look at the big picture, or pretending that you are a fly on the wall observing a scene as it unfolds, can be an effective anger management strategy. Experts say that changing the focus from being a participant in a stressful situation, to being an observer from a distanced perspective can help an individual come to a true understanding of their feelings. Researchers call this strategy “self-distancing.” In a new study, college students who believed a lab partner was berating them for not following directions responded less aggressively and showed less anger when they were told to take analyze their feelings from a self-distanced perspective. “The secret is to not get immersed in your own anger and, instead, have a more detached view,” said Dominik Mischkowski, lead author of the research performed at Ohio State University. “You have to see yourself in this stressful situation as a fly on the wall would see it.” While other studies have examined the value of self-distancing for calming angry feelings, this is the first to show that it can work in the heat of the moment, when people are most likely to act aggressively, Mischkowski said. The worst thing to do in an anger-inducing situation is what people normally do: try to focus on their hurt and angry feelings to understand them, said Brad Bushman, Ph.D., a co-author of the study. “If you focus too much on how you’re feeling, it usually backfires,” Bushman said. “It keeps the aggressive thoughts and feelings active in your mind, which makes it more likely that you’ll act aggressively.” Study findings are found online in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and will be published in a future print edition. To prove the concept, researchers performed to related studies. The first involved 94 college students who were told they were participating in a study about the effects of music on problem solving, creativity and emotions. The students listened to an intense piece of classical music while attempting to solve 14 difficult anagrams (rearranging a group of letters to form a word such as “pandemonium”). They had only seven seconds to solve each anagram, record their answer and communicate it to the experimenter over an intercom. But the plan of the study was to provoke the students into anger, which the experimenters did using a technique which has been used many times in similar studies. The experimenter interrupted the study participants several times to ask them to speak louder into the intercom, finally saying “Look, this is the third time I have to say this! Can’t you follow directions? Speak louder!” After this part of the experiment, the participants were told they would be participating in a task examining the effects of music on creativity and feelings. The students were told to go back to the anagram task and “see the scene in your mind’s eye.” They were put into three groups, each of which were asked to view the scene in different ways. Some students were told to adopt a self-immersed perspective (“see the situation unfold through your eyes as if it were happening to you all over again”) and then analyze their feelings surrounding the event. Others were told to use the self-distancing perspective (“move away from the situation to a point where you can now watch the event unfold from a distance and watch the situation unfold as if it were happening to the distant you all over again”) and then analyze their feelings. The third control group was not told how to view the scene or analyze their feelings. Each group was told to replay the scene in their minds for 45 seconds. Then the researchers tested the participants for aggressive thoughts and angry feelings. Results showed that students who used the self-distancing perspective had fewer aggressive thoughts and felt less angry than both those who used the self-immersed approach and those in the control group. “The self-distancing approach helped people regulate their angry feelings and also reduced their aggressive thoughts,” Mischkowski said. In a second study, the researchers went further and showed that self-distancing can actually make people less aggressive when they’ve been provoked. In this study, 95 college students were told they were going to do an anagram task, similar to the one in the previous experiment. But in this case, they were told they were going to be working with an unseen student partner, rather than one of researchers (in reality, it actually was one of the researchers). In this case, the supposed partner was the one who delivered the scathing comments about following directions. As in the first study, the participants were then randomly assigned to analyze their feelings surrounding the task from a self-immersed or a self-distanced perspective. Participants assigned to a third control group did not receive any instructions regarding how to view the scene or focus on their feelings. Next, the participants were told they would be competing against the same partner who had provoked them earlier in a reaction-time task. The winner of the task would get the opportunity to blast the loser with noise through headphones – and the winner chose the intensity and length of the noise blast. Investigators discovered participants who used the self-distancing perspective to think about their partners’ provocations showed lower levels of aggression than those in the other two groups. That is, their noise blasts against their partner tended to be shorter and less intense. “These participants were tested very shortly after they had been provoked by their partner,” Mischkowski said. “The fact that those who used self-distancing showed lower levels of aggression shows that this technique can work in the heat of the moment, when the anger is still fresh.” Of interest is the discovery that those who used the self-distancing approach showed less aggression than those in the control group, who were not told how to view the anger-inducing incident with their partner. This suggests people may naturally use a self-immersing perspective when confronted with a provocation – a perspective that is not likely to reduce anger. Thus, the tendency to immerse oneself in a problem (anger) to work through the situation, may backfire and make an individual more aggressive. A better technique to use when angry is distraction – thinking of something calming to take the mind off the anger. However, even this technique is only a short-term strategy. Mischkowski believes the research clearly shows that self-distancing is the best method to mitigate anger. “But self-distancing really works, even right after a provocation – it is a powerful intervention tool that anyone can use when they’re angry.” Source: Ohio State University
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Within the next 10 years the EU-funded Diabetes Prevention study, part of an international study called TRIGR (Trial to Reduce IDDM in the Genetically at Risk), coordinated at the University of Helsinki, Finland, will generate a definite answer to the question whether early nutritional modification may prevent type 1 diabetes later in childhood. Type 1 diabetes is a growing health problem among European children. European data indicate that the disease incidence has increased five-six-fold among children under the age of 15 years after World War II, and there are no signs that the increase in incidence is levelling off. The most conspicuous increase has been seen among children under the age of 5 years. The TRIGR study is the first study ever aimed at primary prevention of type 1 diabetes. The study is designed to answer to the question whether excluding cow's milk protein from the infant's diet decreases the risk of fu-ture diabetes. All subjects are followed for 10 years to get information on whether the dietary recommendations for infants at increased genetic risk of type 1 diabetes should be revised. Starting in May 2002, 76 study centres from 15 countries (Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and USA) have been recruiting families for the study. To be eligible the newborn infant has to have at least one family member (mother, father and/or sib) affected by type 1 diabetes and carry a HLA genotype conferring increased risk for type 1 diabetes. The initial recruitment target of 2032 eligible infants was reached at the be-ginning of September 2006, but the Study Group has decided to continue recruitment till the end of December 2006 (when the EU contribution will finish) to make the study even more powerful statistically. A majority of the study participants (52%) have been recruited in Europe. The International Coordinating Cen-tre (ICC) is located at the University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland and the Data Management Unit (DMU) at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA. The trial has logistically been a true challenge for both the ICC and DMU. DMU has been successful in establishing a secure, real-time, web-based, interactive data management system that works extremely well. This system can be directly applied to future international mul-ticentre studies. The TRIGR study is generating a wealth of information on breast-feeding practices, infant nutrition and growth in young children in various countries. At 2 weeks of age almost all the participating infants were breast-fed. Exclusive breast-feeding continued longer in Europe than in North America. More than one third of the infants (35 %) received other foods in addition to breast milk and/or infant formulas at the age of 4 months, while WHO recommends that supplementary food should be introduced at the earliest by the age of 6 months. In Europe the first foods to be introduced are typically vegetables and fruits, whereas gluten-free cereals are most commonly introduced in North America. Newborn infants in Northern Europe (NE) had a higher birth weight but a shorter birth length than infants in Central and Southern Europe (CSE). The NE children remained heavier than those from CSE at least up to the age of 18 months. The NE children were also taller than the CSE children starting already from the age of 3 months up to the age of 18 months. Accelerated growth in infancy has been identified as a risk factor for type 1 diabetes later in childhood. Accordingly the observed growth pattern may contribute to the higher incidence of type 1 diabetes in NE compared to CSE. Professor Mikael Knip, University of Helsinki Phone: +358 40 844 7671 Study websites: http://www.trigr.org Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 21 Feb 2009 Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
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- The growing field of global health delivery is in need of technological strategies to improve transparency and operations research. - Our organization has implemented several simple “Web 2.0” strategies while delivering medical and public health services in rural Nepal. - These strategies help Nyaya Health improve transparency, receive critical commentary from outside experts, and compare approaches to organizing budgets, pharmaceutical procurement, medical treatment protocols, and public health programs. - The platforms include quantitative outcomes data and logistics protocols on a wiki; an open-access, online deidentified patient database; geospatial data analysis through real-time maps; a blog; and a public line-by-line online budget. Nyaya Health and Global Health Delivery 2.0: Using Open-Access Technologies for Transparency and Operations Research Publicado por Manuel Menéndez January 23, 2010 Etiquetas: Benefits of Open Access
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The clutch assembly consists of a clutch disc, a clutch pressure plate, and a clutch release bearing. All these components are usually replaced at the same time. The clutch assembly has two key functions: it transmits power produced by the engine to the gearbox, and it allows that power to be interrupted when the clutch pedal is depressed. Power produced by the engine requires this interruption. It makes it possible to change gears and to shift into neutral at a traffic light or stop sign. When the clutch assembly is not operating correctly, two things can happen. It either doesn't interrupt the power from the engine to the gearbox, which causes grinding sounds and difficulty in selecting gears. Or it fails to transmit the drive from the engine to the gearbox. This results in the engine “revving up” without the vehicle speed increasing. In the case of a complete failure, the engine will rev up, but the vehicle will not move. Clutch components naturally wear out. Clutch components may fail or wear due to; bad driving habits, being driven with the clutch improperly adjusted, or from exposure to oil. To replace the clutch assembly, the driveshaft (or half shafts where applicable) and the manual transmission (gearbox) must be removed to gain access to the clutch components. New clutch components are fitted and the gearbox is then reinstalled.
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People who struggle to find enough food to eat are poor. The World Bank’s poverty line is an income of less than $1.25 a day. Financial Times readers, who spend more than that amount on their morning newspaper, are in no position to dispute that judgment. In the past two decades, economic growth in China and India has reduced global poverty by an unprecedented amount. That achievement is not diminished because some individuals in both these countries have become very rich. Fundamentally, poverty is about absolute deprivation.Kay observes that there is also a relative definition of poverty: Under the definition that I have proposed on this blog for wealth, poverty would simply be an absence of wealth, or a deficit of valued outcomes. The median income is the level that equal numbers of people are above and below, so that a rise in Sir Martin Sorrell’s bonus does not lead anyone into poverty – that would confuse poverty and inequality. But the choice of median income as a reference level has a wider significance. It encapsulates the idea that in a rich society, poverty is an enforced inability to participate in the everyday activities of that society. You might therefore be poor if you lack access to antibiotics or Facebook, even though in this respect you are no worse off than the Sun King or John D. Rockefeller, and in other respects considerably better off than most people in the world. However, to define poverty as social exclusion takes the definition far away from the assessment of income. It is not hard to imagine places in which few, if any, people experience a sense of exclusion. These might include both sophisticated societies with high incomes per head – towns in Scandinavia – and simple cultures without access to modern essentials – rural villages in the developing world. Poverty becomes a cultural and political phenomenon rather than an economic one. But once we define poverty in terms of outcomes beyond simple incomes as measured in currency units, we have indeed entered the territory of culture and politics, and ultimately, what constitutes a life worth living. Just as GDP doesn't measure all that matters when it comes to wealth, I am deeply skeptical of efforts to define multi-dimensional metrics of "poverty" that integrate different valued outcomes. Statistics are indeed important inputs to policy, and I prefer mine simple and transparent. So let's leave poverty defined in terms of absolute income, as defined by the World Bank and others. If we care about obesity, lack of access to antibiotics or even Facebook -- all perfectly legitimate valued outcomes -- then let's track these outcomes on their merits and based on transparent variables that measure these outcomes. Just don't label these issues "poverty" as it will conflate arguments about what it means to be wealthy with efforts to attain whatever valued outcomes we as a society decide to pursue.
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- Giovanni Battista Montini Son of a prominent newspaper editor. Ordained in Brescia, Italy on 29 May 1920, he continued his studies in Rome, Italy, and became part of the Vatican secretariat of state in 1922. One of two pro-secretaries to Pope Pius XII. Archbishop of Milan from 1954 to 1963 where he worked on social problems and to improve relations between workers and employers. Created cardinal-priest of Santi Silvestro e Martino ai Monti on 15 December 1958. Elected 262nd Pope in 1963. As Pope, Paul continued the reforms of John XXIII. He re-convened the Second Vatican Council, and supervised implementations of many of its reforms, such as the vernacularization and reform of the liturgy. He instituted an international synod of bishops; bishops were instructed to set up councils of priests in their own dioceses. Powers of dispensation devolved from the Roman Curia onto the bishops, rules on fasting and abstinence were relaxed, and some restrictions on inter-marriage were lifted. A commission to revise canon law revision was established. In 1964, Paul made a pilgrimage to the Holy Lands, becoming the first pope in over 150 years to leave Italy. That was followed by trips to India in 1964, the United States in 1965, where he addressed the United Nations, Africa in 1969, and Southeast Asia in 1970. Relations between the Vatican and the Communists improved, and Communist leaders visited the Vatican for the first time. Paul met with leaders of other churches, and in 1969 addressed the World Council of Churches, and limited doctrinal agreements were reached with the Anglicans and Lutherans. Paul issued frequent reassertions of papal primacy in the face of growing dissent within the Roman Catholic Church itself. He enlarged the college of cardinals, and added cardinals from third world countries. In the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, Paul reaffirmed the church’s ban on contraception, a disappointment to many liberals. It led to protests, and many national hierarchies openly modified the statement. Liberals raised questions about priestly celibacy, divorce, and the role of women in the church, but Paul held to traditional Church positions. - if you have information relevant to the beatication of Pope Paul, contact Rev. Antonio Marrazzo, CSSR Associazione Paolo VI Via Trieste, 13 25121 Brescia, ITALY - “Venerable Pope Paul VI“. Saints.SQPN.com. 6 February 2013. Web. 21 May 2013. <>
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By Tom Baxter A few years ago, Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum hosted a fascinating exhibit based on the papyrus legal records of a family which lived in Egypt in the 5th Century BC. As a testament to the lasting lessons such archaeological treasures can transmit, it came to mind last week when Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to endorse same-sex marriage. The papyri were the legal documents of a couple, Ananiah, a Jewish temple official, and his wife Tamut, an Egyptian woman who’d been sold into slavery as a child. They lived on the island of Elephantine in the Nile, in a time when Egypt was part of the Persian Empire and Jewish mercenaries guarded its southern border. As it is today, relationships could be complicated back then. When she married Ananiah on July 3, 449 BC, Tamut was owned by another man, Meshullam, who didn’t free her or her daughter for another 22 years. Things worked out, though. Later papyri record Ananiah giving Tamut part ownership of their house, selling a house to his son-in-law and making payments on a wedding gift for their daughter. The records are a striking contrast of the bizarre with the familiar. The conventions of legalese have changed so little over the millenia that a modern-day lawyer would feel completely at home with these contracts. But the concept of marriage around which these legal proceedings revolve appears to have been radically different from ours today. The contract between Ananiah and Tamut is so detailed that it specifies on which side of the stairs each is to walk up and down. But as far as the state was concerned, marriage contracts like theirs – the notarized enumeration of what one party could take the other to court for, if things didn’t work out – was all the marriage was. Since Ananiah was a religious leader, there may have been a ceremony to sanctify the marriage within the Jewish community on the island, but over the whole of Egyptian society, the state’s involvement in defining, protecting and preserving marriage was quite limited and specific to each coupling. If government has developed a better way to deal with this complex aspect of human society, it was not in evidence last week, when North Carolina voters overwhelmingly declared their support for an amendment defining marriage solely as the union between a man and a woman, and Obama declared the next day that he’d decided his “evolving” views on the subject and supports the right of people of the same sex to marry. By comparison with other historic stands taken by presidents, Obama’s carried remarkably little weight. The states decide this issue, and one just had. Obama’s statement on a morning news show the following day was couched more as something which had been forced by Vice President Joe Biden’s unguarded comments on the subject rather than the embarrassment of a big vote in the state where the Democrats will hold their convention this summer. This sounds progressively more fishy the longer you think about it, particularly when you hear how angry the Obama staffers sounded about Biden’s goofiness, according to the reporters who repeated on-the-record what the staffers told them off-the-record. Yet symbolically, Obama’s statement was rightly looked on as an historic event. The North Carolina vote, which put into the state constitution what was already on the books as state law, was also largely symbolic. And lemme tell you – as former Gov. Roy Barnes might have said after his bitter experience with changing the state flag – symbolism is the rat poison of good government. Should government get more involved in marriage, as those on both sides of the current controversy would have it, or less? At present the states and the federal government find themselves in a cycle of ineffectiveness. Washington has no power over what the states define marriage to be, but because of the Defense of Marriage Act, signed by President Clinton, which prohibits same-sex couples from the rights and protections of marriage in more than a thousand federal laws, it really doesn’t matter what the states do either. Because our modern concept of marriage — unlike the Egyptians — involves a certain fusion, long since blurred, between the provinces of religion and the state, we appear bound to debate state by state an issue which in some respects can only be settled congregation by congregation. Nor does government at the federal or the state level have the ability to stop the steady decline in heterosexual marriage, as attested by a voluminous array of statistics on divorce, unwed mothers and single-parent households. In terms of the work hours it has to invest, government’s biggest involvement with marriage today is the administration of breakups and the management of the carnage that often comes with them. Administratively, things were much easier for Ananiah and Tamut, which makes it impossible to replicate the arrangements of their day. But their preserved family records challenge us to think about whether we’ve really figured out what aspects of marriage government should involve itself in, and what it shouldn’t.
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Whenever citing a reference in the text source, it is made with its author’s surname and the year of publication is to be inserted in the text. Choose from the listed below to see examples: • Citing the author in the • Using direct quotes • Citing works by more than • Citing works by three or more authors • Citing a chapter of section • Citing an organization • Citing works by the same author written in the same year • Citing secondary sources Citing the Author in the Text Dogs were the first animals to be domesticated (Sheldrake, 1999). If the author’s name occurs naturally in the sentence the year is given in brackets. Sheldrake (1999) asserted that dogs were the first animals to be domesticated. Using Direct Quotes If you quote directly from a source, you must insert the author’s name, date of publication and the page number of the quotation. The domestication of dogs, long predated the domestication of other animals (Sheldrake, 1999). Citing works by more than one Author If your source has two authors, you should include both names in the text. Anderson and Poole (1998) note that a “narrow line often separates plagiarism from good scholarship.” Citing works by three or more Authors If there are three or more authors, you should include the first named author and then add ‘et al.’ in italics followed by a full stop. This is an abbreviation of ‘et alia’ which means ‘and others’ In the United States, revenue from computer games now exceeds that of movies (Kline et al., 2003). Citing Chapter or Section When referring to a chapter or section which is part of a larger work, you should cite the author of the chapter not the editor of the whole work. The sea level has risen by approximately 10cm in the last 100 years (Mason, Citing an Organization If an organization or company (e.g., Department of Health, Arcadia Group Limited) is named as the author of a work rather than a person, you should cite their names. Make sure that you use the same version of the organizations name in both the Text and List of references (e.g., always use ‘Department of Health’, don’t abbreviate to ‘DoH’). Spain became a member of the United Nations in 1955 (United Nations, 2000). Citing Secondary Sources When citing secondary sources (i.e., an author refers to a work which you have not read) cite the secondary source, but include the name of the author and date of publication of the original source in the text. Only the secondary source should be listed in your List of references. You should only cite secondary sources if you are unable to read the original Sheff (1993) notes that Nintendo invested heavily in advertising (cited in Kline et al., 2003, p. 118).
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Introduction to How Colorblindness Works Roses are red, violets are blue -- well, bluish. The sky is blue, too. Grass is green. These are things that most of us know for a fact and don't question. But what if you were colorblind? What would you see? Is life one long black-and-white movie? In "The Wizard of Oz," Dorothy Gale steps out of her black-and-white Kansas farmhouse and into the color-saturated Land of Oz. She moves from a humdrum existence of chores and troubles to an intense fantasyland peopled with curious creatures, trading in a clapboard house for yellow brick roads, red ruby slippers and a brilliant green city of emeralds. What would her transformation have been without this rainbow of colors? Color isn't just a component of vision. We associate color with beauty, like in a gorgeous sunset. Some colors have meaning in and of themselves -- purple is for royals, red signifies passion. Colors seep into our expressions -- If we're depressed, we say we're feeling blue. We're also "green with envy," we "see red" and we might go "white with fear." Colors even have practical meaning -- red means stop, green means go. Certain colors are said to help you sleep, while others make you hungry. And never underestimate the effect of a bright red dress. Color is important. In this article, we're going to learn what the world looks like for someone who's colorblind.
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You have to break a few (hundred) eggs to make a good crystal Space Science News home You have to break a few (hundred) eggs to make a good crystal Bell curve shape to crystal quality may point to best candidates for flight Sept. 20, 1999: Did you ever ask the teacher to grade a tough test "on the curve"? What you were asking was that the grades be adjusted so that a "C" fell under the part of the curve where most of your classmates had scored. A few were to the left and got a D or F; and few were to the right and got a B or an A. Right: To the crystallographer, this may not be a diamond but it's just as priceless. A lysozyme crystal grown in orbit looks great under a microscope, but the real test is X-ray crystallography. The colors are caused by polarizing filters. Links to 549x379-pixel, 69KB JPG. Credit: NASA/Marshall. That's basically how the bell curve works. In nature, objects and events quite often can be grouped along a bell curve. In a population of adult animals, most will be around the same size. A few will be larger and a few will be smaller. "If you talk to statisticians," noted Dr. Russell Judge of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, "variations within populations in nature can be described in terms of distributions." December 3: Mars Polar Lander nears touchdown December 2: What next, Leonids? November 30: Polar Lander Mission Overview November 30: Learning how to make a clean sweep in space The question now is whether scientists can use the microgravity of space to shift the curve to the right to grow the large, nearly perfect crystals they need for molecular lock-picking, the first step in designing drugs that can treat a broad range of diseases and disorders. "We want to determine how the growth of crystals effect their quality," Judge said in May when NASA selected his investigation for development, "and then take that into space to see how microgravity is enhancing the growth characteristics that lead to good crystals. From this we want to develop techniques, so that by observing crystal growth on the ground, we can predict which proteins are likely to benefit the most from microgravity crystallization." Sign up for our EXPRESS SCIENCE NEWS delivery These functions are a result not just of a chemical formula, but of structure which can be quite large (on the atomic scale) and fragile. If the shape isn't right, the protein cannot match up with other proteins or chemicals to do its job, just as the wrong key won't unlock a door. Sickle cell anemia, for example, results from structural differences in the hemoglobin that carries oxygen in red blood cells. Designing new treatments means designing altered proteins or other chemicals that act as a skeleton key or as a sophisticated lock pick. Proteins can form crystals, generated by rows and columns of molecules that form up like soldiers on a parade ground. Shining X-rays through a crystal will produce a pattern of dots that can be decoded to reveal the arrangement of the atoms in the molecules making up the crystal. Like the troops in formation, uniformity and order are everything in X-ray crystallography. X-rays have much sorter wavelengths than visible light, so the best looking crystals under the microscope won't necessarily pass muster under X-rays. Left: Judge (left) and Dr. Edward Snell, a National Research Council fellow working at NASA/Marshall, inspect the sample holder in the X-ray crystallography unit. Links to 600x616-pixel, 188KB JPG, or click here for a 1207x1240-pixel, 543KB JPG. Credit: NASA/Marshall. This has become an invaluable tool for understanding the structure and the function of dozens of proteins. But many proteins remain shrouded in mystery because on Earth crystal imperfections are introduced by fluid flows and the settling of the crystals to the bottom of the container. This leaves internal defects that distort or blur the view of the structure. "In order to have crystals to use for X-ray diffraction studies," Judge said, "you need them to be fairly large and well ordered." Scientists also need lots of crystals since exposure to air, the process of X-raying them, and other factors destroy the crystals. Getting just one perfect specimen isn't enough. Dozens may be needed, and the quality might not be known until well into the analysis. Research has Heavy Implications. July 1998. Crystal-clear view of insulin should lead to improved therapies for diabetics Growing protein crystals in the microgravity of space has yielded striking results, such as determining to a fine resolution how certain molecules of insulin join so scientists can improve injectable insulin needed by diabetics. There have also been disappointments when crystals in other experiments did not grow as expected. Since the 1970s, scientists have used a variety of approaches in trying to determine what leads to the growth of a large, perfect crystal. Judge tried a different approach that built on results noted by researchers dating as far back as 1946. He and his team looked at the effects of concentration, temperature, and pH (acid vs. base) on the growth of lysozyme, a common protein in chicken egg white. Lysozyme's structure is well known and it has become a standard in many crystallization studies on Earth and in space. Although lysozyme has an atomic mass of 14,300 Daltons - almost 92 times that of the ordinary sugar that many of us crystallized in elementary school science - it's a relative lightweight in the protein world. To exclude impurities often found in commercial lysozyme preparations, Judge and his team purified lysozyme extracted from eggs obtained from a local egg farm. While one experiment run required only five dozen eggs, the full series of experiment consumed about 200 eggs. Judge and his team grew the crystals in trays with small plastic wells filled with solutions containing a trace of salt to help stimulate crystal growth. Temperatures ranged from 4 to 18 deg C (39-64 deg F) and pH from 4.0 to 5.2 (slightly acidic; pure water theoretically has a pH of 7). Judge also varied the driving force behind the crystal growth process, called supersaturation, by varying the initial concentration of protein. Protein concentration must be set above a critical limit, the solubility, in order to form crystals (below this concentrations the protein stays dissolved and never forms crystals) Left: A bell curve for lysozyme crystals produced in Judge's experiments, and a possible shift in the curve that microgravity experiments might produce. Links to 660x440-pixel, 39KB JPG. Credit: NASA/Marshall. The tough part was examining each of the over 2000 wells and counting the crystals. It turned out that the solution pH had the largest effect on the growth of the crystals, possibly due to changes in charges on the surface of the molecules. When solution conditions had been optimized to give a small number of large crystals, a sample of 50 crystals was withdrawn for X-ray diffraction analysis. Judge hoped that when the ideal conditions were found and then applied to subsequent batches, he would be able to grow consistently large, high quality crystals of lysozyme. The expectation was that with ideal conditions, quality crystals could be cranked out as if in a factory. Instead, nature put him on the curve. "Some variation is occurring there," Judge said, "but we haven't quite pinpointed the cause." Judge got a bell curve when he measured the X-ray clarity, properly called the signal-to-noise ratio (a radio with static has a low signal-to-noise ratio). A graph of the number of crystals versus the signal-to-noise ratio forms a bell curve, albeit slightly skewed to one side. Right: Distribution of diffraction characteristics - essentially a measure of quality - for a batch of crystals approximates a bell curve. Links to 875x637-pixel, 66KB JPG. Credit: NASA/Marshall. "The distribution is saying a very few crystals form perfectly in solution," he continued, "and a small number are really poor. The majority of crystals are in-between." It's doubly puzzling because the crystals were grown from the same batch of lysozyme that was poured into 120 wells in the experiment tray and crystallized under the same conditions. "We have some ideas," Judge said, "but we haven't tested them yet, so we're hesitant to say it might be this or that." The research will continue with insulin, the crucial protein that conveys sugar from the blood stream into a body's cells, and with glucose isomerase, a larger (46,000 Daltons) protein used in industrial processes to convert glucose to a sweeter sugar called fructose. Left: Crystals of insulin grown in space let scientists determine the vital enzyme's structure and linkages with much higher resolution that Earth-grown crystals had allowed. Links to 640x448-pixel, 104KB JPG. Larger format versions of these and related images are available from the NASA Image Exchange and using the keyword "insulin." Credit: NASA/Marshall. "In all of the proteins we're using the structure is pretty well known," Judge added. In addition to ground-based experiments, Judge hopes to conduct flight experiments in the next year or so. He would use the Vapor Diffusion Apparatus, a device developed by the University of Alabama in Birmingham and well-proven in a number of Space Shuttle flights. "Most researchers say that crystals grown in microgravity will be better than those on the ground," Judge said. And a number of experiments bear out that belief. "Somehow, microgravity pushes up the end of the distribution curve." Right: Crystals of glucose isomerase, a larger molecular weight protein, will be grown to see if they, too, are graded "on the curve." Links to 1018x749-pixel, 365KB JPG. Credit: NASA/Marshall. With expected flight experiments on lysozyme, insulin and glucose isomerase, Judge will have crystals grown in conditions as close as possible to the ideal conditions he had determined so far. At the same time, he will grow crystals on Earth from the same mix as the flight batch and using identical hardware and conditions so that microgravity is the only variable. Eventually, he hopes that his studies will lead to a tool for screening candidate proteins for flight. The Effect of Temperature and Solution pH on the Nucleation of Tetragonal Lysozyme Crystals. Biophysics Journal, September 1999, p. 1585-1593, Vol. 77, No. 3 Russell A. Judge,*Randolph S. Jacobs,#Tyralynn Frazier, §Edward H. Snell, and ¶Marc L. Pusey *Alliance for Microgravity Material Science and Applications, NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama 35812; #Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, Alabama 35899; § Biochemistry Department, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48825; and ¶Biophysics SD48, NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama 35812 USA Part of the challenge of macromolecular crystal growth for structure determination is obtaining crystals with a volume suitable for x-ray analysis. In this respect an understanding of the effect of solution conditions on macromolecule nucleation rates is advantageous. This study investigated the effects of supersaturation, temperature, and pH on the nucleation rate of tetragonal lysozyme crystals. Batch crystallization plates were prepared at given solution concentrations and incubated at set temperatures over 1 week. The number of crystals per well with their size and axial ratios were recorded and correlated with solution conditions. Crystal numbers were found to increase with increasing supersaturation and temperature. The most significant variable, however, was pH; crystal numbers changed by two orders of magnitude over the pH range 4.0-5.2. Crystal size also varied with solution conditions, with the largest crystals obtained at pH 5.2. Having optimized the crystallization conditions, we prepared a batch of crystals under the same initial conditions, and 50 of these crystals were analyzed by x-ray diffraction techniques. The results indicate that even under the same crystallization conditions, a marked variation in crystal properties exists. More Space Science Headlines - NASA research on the web Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications information from NASA HQ on science in space Microgravity Research Programs Office headquartered at Marshall Space Flight Center Microgravity News online version of NASA's latest in Microgravity advancements, published quarterly. Join our growing list of subscribers - sign up for our express news delivery and you will receive a mail message every time we post a new story!!! For more information, please contact:| Dr. John M. Horack , Director of Science Communications Curator: Linda Porter NASA Official: M. Frank Rose
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Technology Review has a writeup on the latest advance in the lab towards an invisibility cloak made of metamaterials, described this week in Science. We've been following this technology since the beginning. The breakthrough is software that lets researchers design materials that are both low-loss and wideband. "The cloak that the researchers built works with wavelengths of light ranging from about 1 to 18 gigahertz — a swath as broad as the visible spectrum. No one has yet made a cloaking device that works in the visible spectrum, and those metamaterials that have been fabricated tend to work only with narrow bands of light. But a cloak that made an object invisible to light of only one color would not be of much use. Similarly, a cloaking device can't afford to be lossy: if it lets just a little bit of light reflect off the object it's supposed to cloak, it's no longer effective. The cloak that Smith built is very low loss, successfully rerouting almost all the light that hits it."
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Freshwater Drum - (Aplodinotus grunniens) Length: up to about 14 inches, although it may become quite large in rivers Weight: 5-15 pounds, world record is 54 1/2 pounds Coloring: Gray or silvery in turbid waters, bronze-colored in clearer waters. The head is somewhat darker than the rest of the body; the ventral portion of the fish is white. The pectoral and pelvic fins are white, but the rest of the fins are dusky. Common Names: sheepshead, croaker, thunder pumper, lake drum, grunt, bubbler, grinder Found in Lakes: all Great Lakes The freshwater drum is the only member of its family that lives entirely in freshwater habitats, and it has the largest native range of any sport fish in the region. Drum are an important commercial crop on the Mississippi River but constitute only a small portion of the commercial perch catch in Lake Michigan. The drum earned part of its Latin name, "grunniens" (meaning "grunting"), by its odd grunting noises, which are produced by a special set of muscles located in the body cavity that vibrates against the swim bladder. The purpose of the noise is unknown, but only mature males develop the structure (by the time they reach three years of age), suggesting that it is most likely related to spawning. Drums also may croak like bullfrogs when removed from the water, and scientists still don't know if the croaking noise is generated in the same way. Identification of this fish is fairly easy. Drum have two dorsal fins that are joined by a narrow membrane. The anterior fin is spiny, and the posterior fin has soft rays. The are the only fish found in Wisconsin with a lateral line that extends through the caudal fin. The drum's otoliths are exceptionally large and look a great deal like ivory. In times past they have been worn as protective amulets, made into jewelry, and traded into areas far from the fish's native range (such as Utah and California). Drum are a bottom-dwelling species found in lakes and rivers; they tolerate both clear and turbid conditions. Their diet consists mainly of immature insects, crayfish, and minnows, although they may also feed on mollusks. The white, flaky flesh of the drum is tasty and has a low oil content. (nutritional information) When cooking, be sure that the fish doesn't dry out and become hard. The low oil content means that fillets dry out much more quickly than other, more oily, fish. Recommended cooking methods include pan frying (in batter) or deep fat frying. Smoking also works well, as long as you're careful not to heat them for too long. Freshwater drum are good fighters and will take bait such as crayfish, minnows, and worms. In warm weather they move in schools to shallow waters to feed and possibly spawn (spawning has not been witnessed by scientists). By winter their activity levels and feeding activity are sharply reduced. copyright 2001 University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute This page is Bobby Approved.
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Assessing Students' Understanding of Complex Systems Assessing student understanding of complex thinking is quite challenging. As with assessing student learning on any topic, the first step is to identify your learning goals for your students. Once you have identified learning goals, it becomes easier to choose one or more assessment tools appropriate to the task. Here is a list of possible learning objectives related to students' thinking about complex systems (i.e., skills expected from students who exhibit complex systems thinking). While this is in no way intended to be a comprehensive list of possible learning goals, it may help you to articulate your own list. A student who demonstrates complex systems thinking can: - Identify and explain the characteristics of a complex system - Describe and/or model a process where there is a feedback mechanism at work - Build a model that mimics the expected behavior of the target system - Identify stocks/reservoirs and flows - Correctly identify positive/negative feedbacks - Test a model through trial and error and comparison to real-world data - Explore the possible outcomes of a system under different parameters - Bridge across scales: student explanations of processes show fidelity across scales (e.g., a student applies the concept of homeostasis at multiple levels) - Create and interpret graphical information - Predict attributes of system behavior based on specific inputs or components of the system - Understand that a complex system is irreducible, unpredictable, historical, nonlinear, and has emergent properties, and be able to describe what these terms mean A number of assessment tools can be used to assess students' understanding (or progress toward understanding) of complex systems. A few of these tools are listed below. A concept map is a diagram with hierarchical nodes, labeled with concepts. The nodes are linked together with directional lines and are arranged from general to specific. By developing concept maps, students literally illustrate their understanding of a complex system. This method can be used for summative or formative assessment, and has the benefit of highlighting any misconceptions. Students can develop and run physical or computer models to gain an understanding of how a system works. The choices a student makes in developing a model (what components of the system to include, how they are linked, and so on), along with how the student explains his or her choices, illustrate that student's understanding of the system in question. Their ability to explain the behavior of the model (describe the outcomes given different inputs, find patterns in the output, etc.) offers further opportunity for assessment. This method can be employed for summative or formative assessment (or both). An understanding of graphical representations of data is an essential component of data analysis. Students can demonstrate their understanding of complex systems by interpreting graphical data illustrating the relationships between system variables. This method can be employed for summative or formative assessment (or both). For more information about using graphs in the classroom, see the Starting Point web pages on describing and analyzing graphs. Assessing Students' Thinking Processes Much frustration can be avoided by engaging in formative assessment: assessing student learning during the learning process. One way to do this is to incorporate several "checkpoints" in each teaching activity or assignment where you ask students to articulate what the results are and how they got there. This serves two functions: 1) it exposes misconceptions or misapplications at an early stage, and 2) it requires students to think about what they are doing and why -- and whether their progress makes sense in the context of what they know or expect. This opens up the realm of metacognition, wherein students think specifically about their own learning and engage in self-monitoring and self-regulatory behavior. Research demonstrates that metacognition improves learning (Lovett, 2008 ).
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Many people think that a robot: - Is not 'natural' / was made by man. - Can see, hear or feel. - Can do a job / useful work. - Is intelligent, or can make choices. - Can be programmed to do different things. - Can move. - Seems to have a life of its own, like an animate object. - Is roughly the same shape as a human. People have been interested in building machines to do work for us for a long time. But it takes time and money to build just one machine, so early ideas stayed ideas, or were built to make rich people laugh. Leonardo Da Vinci designed a man-shaped machine to look like a knight in 1464. It would be controlled with ropes and wheels. Other engineers and dreamers drew mechanical men. So in 1920, Karel Čapek wrote a novel about them, and he used a word from Czech that is connected with 'work': robot. But the most successful robot designs in the 1900's were not made to look like people. They were designed for their use. George Devol made the first of these, the Unimate, in 1954, and General Motors bought it in 1960. The next year, it started work in a factory in New Jersey. The engineers could program it, and reprogram it if they had to. Modern Robots [change] Robots now have many uses. Many factories use robots to do lots of hard work quickly and without many mistakes. These are 'industrial' robots. The military uses robots to find and get rid of bombs. If someone makes a mistake, the robot is damaged or destroyed, which is better than a person being killed. There are also robots that help at home, to vacuum or cut grass, for example. Such robots must learn about the area of work. There are two robots on Mars. Because it takes a long time to send a signal from Earth to Mars, the robots do much of their work alone, without commands from Earth. People still think of robots as having a shape like a person—two legs, two arms, and a head. ASIMO is one robot that is helping scientists learn how to design and program robots. It can walk, which is not easy to program. Eastern and Western Views [change] Eastern Thoughts on Robots [change] Roughly half of all the robots in the world are in Asia, 32% in Europe, and 16% in North America, 1% in Australasia and 1% in Africa. 30% of all the robots in the world are in Japan. Japan has the most robots of any country in the world, and is the leader in the world robotics industry. Japan is actually said to be the robotic capital of the world. In Japan and South Korea, ideas of future robots have been mainly positive. The positive reception of robots there may be partly because of the famous cartoon robot, 'Astroboy'. China expressed views on robotics that are similar to those of Japan and South Korea, but China is behind both America and Europe in robotic development. The East Asian view is that robots should be roughly equal to humans. They feel robots could care for old people, teach children, or serve as assistants. The popular opinion of East Asia is that it would be good for robots to become more popular and more advanced. This view is opposite to the popular Western view. "This is the opening of an era in which human beings and robots can co-exist," says Japanese firm Mitsubishi about one of the many human-like robots in Japan. The South Korean Ministry of Information and Communication has predicted that every South Korean household will have a robot by between 2015 and 2020. In this sense, people in Japan are much more likely to be affected by Technosexuality, as they are much more exposed to robots in their society. South Korea aims to put a robot in every house there by 2015-2020 in order to help catch up technologically with Japan. This will obviously have an impact on the technosexuality of South Korea. China, like South Korea, wishes to catch up with Japan, and has been developing robots very quickly. After China becomes more developed, and each person has more money to view the media, where robots could be seen, or to buy robots, as is happening in Japan and South Korea, technosexuality will probably rise there too, when considering the current opinions of the people of robots. With a limited number of robots in the rest of the world away from Japan, and even in Japan too, movies and literature are the where most of the technosexuality will be towards. Futuristic images/descriptions or robots may encourage technosexuality. At the moment, there are not that many real human-like robots in the world. The most human-like robot in the world, 'Actroid', made by Japanese company 'Kokoro' a division of 'Sanrio', is a good example of the target for technosexuality. Western Thoughts on Robots [change] Western societies are more likely to be against, or even fear the development of robotics, through much media output in movies and literature that they will replace humans. The West regards robots as a 'threat' to the future of humans, which is also muchly due to religious influence of the Abrahamic religions, in which creating machines that can think for themselves would almost be playing God. Obviously, these boundaries are not clear, but there is a significant difference between the two ideologies. Robot Laws [change] The writer Isaac Asimov told many stories about robots who had three robot laws to keep them safe, as well as to keep humans safe from them. - A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. - A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. - A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. These were not used in real life when he invented them. However, in today's world robots are more complicated, and one day real laws may be needed, much like Isaac Asimov's original three laws. These laws are talked about in the Megaman video games. Other pages [change] Other websites [change] |Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robots| - Research societies - IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) and its wiki. - International Foundation of Robotics Research (IFRR) - Robotics at the Open Directory Project - http://robots.net – Daily news about robots, robotics, and AI - A brief history of robotics - A giant list of known robots - NASA and robots - NASA Robotics Division - International Federation of Robotics - Should we be worried by the rise of robots? - Podcast 'Talking Robots' - interviews with high-profile professionals in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence - French collection of toy robot - Introduction to Robotics - Robot World News - Robot news, robot tutorials, robot videos and robot chatbox - Robot news, theory of robotics - List of robots - Brandweek: Even Robot Suicide Is No Laughing Matter - Robots Today and Tomorrow: IFR Presents the 2007 World Robotics Statistics Survey; World Robotics; 2007-10-29; retrieved on 2007-12-14 - Reporting by Watanabe, Hiroaki; Writing and additional reporting by Negishi, Mayumi; Editing by Norton, Jerry;Japan's robots slug it out to be world champ; Reuters; 2007-12-02; retrieved on 2007-01-01 - Lewis, Leo; The robots are running riot! Quick, bring out the red tape; TimesOnline; 2007-04-06; retrieved on 2007-01-02 - Biglione, Kirk; The Secret To Japan's Robot Dominance; Planet Tokyo; 2006-01-24; retrieved on 2007-01-02 - Domestic robot to debut in Japan ; BBC News; 2005-08-30; retrieved on 2007-01-02 - Robotic age poses ethical dilemma; BBC News; 2007-03-07; retrieved on 2007-01-02; - Chamberlain, Ted; Photo in the News: Ultra-Lifelike Robot Debuts in Japan; National Geographic News; 2005-06-10; retrieved on 2008-01-02 - Yang, Jeff; ASIAN POP Robot Nation Why Japan, and not America, is likely to be the world's first cyborg society; SFGate; 2005-08-25; retrieved on 2007-01-02 - Spencer, Richard (2007-03-08). "S Korea devises 'robot ethics charter'". The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1544936/S-Korea-devises-robot-ethics-charter.html. Retrieved 2013-03-27.
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The Modern Olympics 1932 -- Los Angeles, The United States of America 1,408 athletes, 37 nations Despite the stock market crash of 1929, Los Angeles put on a impressive show for 1932 Games and still ended up with a million-dollar surplus. Attendance was low because many other countries did not even have the money to participate in the Games. The American Team dominated the competition. for Olympic posters Many new innovations were showcased at the Games. The first Olympic village was built and every athlete was housed, fed and transported for less than $2 a day. The village included a hospital, library, post office, barber shop, cinema, and dining rooms. Since Los Angeles athlete villages have been the norm at the Olympic Games. Electric-photo timing, the victory stand, and the playing of the national anthems were also introduced in Los Angeles. Duncan McNaughton won a gold medal in the high jump and Horace "Lefty" Gwynne placed first in bantamweight boxing. Canada's other medals came from track and field, wrestling, rowing and yachting events. Canadians were disappointed when their female athletes were outclassed and did not repeat the success they had in Amsterdam. Hilda Strike of Montreal won two silver medals in track after coming second to Stella Walsh from Poland. When Walsh was shot and killed years later an autopsy showed "she" was actually a man. If a sex-test had been used in 1932 Strike would have won gold. A sex-test was not introduced at the Olympics until 1968. Before the 1968 Games several world-class athletes suddenly retired indicating that Walsh was probably not the only man who ever tried to pass as a female athlete. Gold 2, Silver 5, Bronze 8 PREVIOUS OLYMPICS - 1908-1952 PHOTOS
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12 Feb 13 Biodiversity is a recent word. It was used for the first time in Washington in 1986 by an entomologist (Edward O. Wilson) and can be a misunderstood topic. In actual fact it should be a simple concept, because at its essence, it signifies nature, life itself, and the diversity of life on many levels - from the smallest and most basic (genes - the building blocks of life) to animal and plant species, up to the most complex levels (ecosystems). All these levels intersect and influence each other and each other’s evolution. Studies from the University of Stanford have compared the species and varieties of an ecosystem to rivets that hold an airplane together. If we remove the rivets, for a while nothing will happen and the airplane will continue to operate. But little by little the structure will weaken and, at a certain point, just removing one rivet will cause the plane to crash. In the history of the planet, everything has a beginning and an end, and in every era, many species have become extinct. But never at the horrifying rate of recent years, one that is a thousand times greater than previous eras. This summer after a thorough study of many years, the prestigious University of Exeter in England declared that the earth is undergoing its sixth mass extinction (with the fifth, 65 million years ago, the dinosaurs disappeared). Yet there is a substantial difference between this and the extinctions of the past: the cause. For the first time man is responsible. Man continues to destroy rainforests, cement the land, pollute waters and grounds with chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and accumulate plastic in the oceans. And he insists on excluding the earth’s last custodians: those small-scale farmers, shepherds and fishers that know and respect the fragile equilibrium of nature. Slow Food started its work with biodiversity in 1997 and our foot in the door - that since the beginning has given us a unique perspective - was food. If biodiversity disappears what will happen to our food? Together with the plants and wild animals, the plants domesticated by man, breeds selected (for milk or meat) will also disappear. According to the FAO, 75% of plant varieties have been irreversibly lost. In the USA the figure is 95%. Today 60% of the world’s food is based on three cereals: wheat, rice and corn. Not on the thousands of rice varieties selected by farmers that once were cultivated in India and China, or on the thousands of varieties of corn that were grown in Mexico, but on the few hybrid varieties selected and sold to farmers by a handful of multinationals. Slow Food’s first intuition was this: look after domestic biodiversity. Meaning not just the panda or the seal, but also the Gascon chicken and the Alpago lamb; not just the edelweiss, but also the violet asparagus from Albenga. But not just this. We became interested in taste and the knowledge connected to it, and traditional techniques of breeding, growing, and processing. And this led us to our second intuition: on our Ark of Taste – a catalogue of products to save – we have also included transformed foods: breads, cheese, cured meats, sweets. Because this is also biodiversity. Once we had identified our field of action, how did we work? We linked diverse worlds that normally didn’t interact: farmers, cooks, veterinarians, journalists… In order to achieve two objectives: 1 – Help small-scale farmers: To save a breed, we didn’t start from genetic selection; to save an apple variety, we didn’t start from a collection of varieties. Instead, we began by seeking out the shepherds that bred that certain breed, the farmers that still cultivated that apple, and we went and spoke to them. With this crucial step, the Presidia project was launched, that today is supporting producers in every corner of the world. 2 – Raise awareness about biodiversity: We need to work with producers and experts, but also with schools, journalists, restaurant and so on. We need to write and tell these stories of producers with every tool at our disposal, because these themes transcend university lecture halls and scientific institutions, and become the heritage of us all. Biodiversity can’t be saved by scientists alone, nor by the powerful of the world, because it is of no interest to the market. And it’s probable that Noah won’t be arriving with his Ark. This battle, therefore, is one that needs to be taken up by us, together with all the people we manage to involve, on our lands, every day - with our Ark of Taste, Presidia, Earth Markets, community and school gardens, and the thousands of other ideas still to come. Because the battle to save biodiversity isn’t like any other battle. It’s the battle for the life of our planet. Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity General Secretary Search the Slow Stories archive Latest Slow Stories Italy | 20/05/2013 | Buzzword, fad or innovative philosophy? A UNISG Master’s student sheds some light on the natural wine... Mexico | 17/05/2013 | A massive wind farm development threatens the environment and livelihood of indigenous fishers and farmers in... United States | 16/05/2013 | Slow Food USA reconnects around local food at their 2013 National Leadership Conference from today in New... Italy | 15/05/2013 | FAO and Slow Food agree today to a three-year plan to develop joint actions to improve biodiversity and the... Italy | 14/05/2013 | The problems and possible solutions to the massive overfishing of small fish for use as animal feed around...
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Giant chipmaker Intel has a new baby born from the One Laptop Per Child project called the Studybook, a rugged tablet PC meant for use by students of all ages in developing countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Scientific American Wednesday reported that computer makers in participating countries will make the Intel Studybook, and students at the nearest schools will use the tablets, a manufacturing system that will dramatically reduce the cost per unit. The Studybook will have a 17.8-centimeter multi-touch LCD screen about the size of an Amazon Kindle Fire. It has basic front and rear cameras with 0.3- and 2-megapixel capacities, a microphone, one gigabyte of memory, and 22 gigabytes of storage. The Intel tablet—its low cost notwithstanding—will also be equipped with an accelerometer and light sensor. And since the Studybook is primarily meant for use by students in all conceivable environments, one of its best features is its sturdiness. Made from a single piece of plastic, the Studybook frame contains a rubber gasket seat for its screen, making the tablet waterproof. The sturdy plastic construction allows the Studybook to absorb a 70-centimeter or 2-foot drop without breaking. Intel’s Wayne Grant, director for research and planning for the chipmaker’s Education Market Platforms group, said the tablet can also connect to networks via Wi-Fi, 3G or Bluetooth, and current models now run on Windows 7 OS. Grant said in a few months, versions that run on Google’s Android operating system would be available, depending on schedules announced by the various participating manufacturers. The tablet will likely cost around $200 – $300 each, a clear third of the price of other tablets in the market today.
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The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family (also known as the nightshades). The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species. Potatoes were first introduced outside the Andes region four centuries ago, and have become an integral part of much of the world’s cuisine. It is the world’s fourth-largest food crop, following rice, wheat, and maize. Long-term storage of potatoes requires specialised care in cold warehouses. Wild potato species occur throughout the Americas, from the United States to Uruguay. The potato was originally believed to have been domesticated independently in multiple locations, but later genetic testing of the wide variety of cultivars and wild species proved a single origin for potatoes in the area of present-day southern Peru (from a species in the Solanum brevicaule complex), where they were domesticated 7,000–10,000 years ago. Following centuries of selective breeding, there are now over a thousand different types of potatoes. Of these subspecies, a variety that at one point grew in theChiloé Archipelago (the potato’s south-central Chilean sub-center of origin) left its germplasm on over 99% of the cultivated potatoes worldwide. Following the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, the Spanish introduced the potato to Europe in the second half of the 16th century. The staple was subsequently conveyed by European mariners to territories and ports throughout the world. The potato was slow to be adopted by distrustful European farmers, but soon enough it became an important food staple and field crop that played a major role in the European 19th century population boom. However, lack of genetic diversity, due to the very limited number of varieties initially introduced, left the crop vulnerable to disease. In 1845, a plant disease known as late blight, caused by the fungus-like oomycete Phytophthora infestans, spread rapidly through the poorer communities of western Ireland, resulting in the crop failures that led to the Great Irish Famine. Nonetheless, thousands of varieties persist in the Andes, where over 100 cultivars might be found in a single valley, and a dozen or more might be maintained by a single agricultural household. The annual diet of an average global citizen in the first decade of the 21st century included about 33 kg (73 lb) of potato. However, the local importance of potato is extremely variable and rapidly changing. It remains an essential crop in Europe (especially eastern and central Europe), where per capita production is still the highest in the world, but the most rapid expansion over the past few decades has occurred in southern and eastern Asia. China is now the world’s largest potato-producing country, and nearly a third of the world’s potatoes are harvested in China and India. The English word potato comes from Spanish patata (the name used in Spain). The Spanish Royal Academy says the Spanish word is a compound of the Taino batata (sweet potato) and the Quechua papa (potato). The name potato originally referred to a type of sweet potato rather than the other way around, although there is actually no close relationship between the two plants. The English confused the two plants one for the other. In many of the chronicles detailing agriculture and plants, no distinction is made between the two. The 16th-century English herbalist John Gerard used the terms “bastard potatoes” and “Virginia potatoes” for this species, and referred to sweet potatoes as “common potatoes”. Potatoes are occasionally referred to as “Irish potatoes” or “white potatoes” in the United States, to distinguish them from sweet potatoes. The name spud for a small potato comes from the digging of soil (or a hole) prior to the planting of potatoes. The word has an unknown origin and was originally (c. 1440) used as a term for a short knife or dagger, probably related to Dutch spyd and/or the Latin “spad-” root meaning “sword”; cf. Spanish “espada”, English “spade” and “spadroon”. The word spud traces back to the 16th century. It subsequently transferred over to a variety of digging tools. Around 1845 it transferred over to the tuber itself. The origin of “spud” has erroneously been attributed to a 19th century activist group dedicated to keeping the potato out of Britain, calling itself The Society for the Prevention of an Unwholesome Diet. It was Mario Pei’s 1949 The Story of Language that can be blamed for the false origin. Pei writes, “the potato, for its part, was in disrepute some centuries ago. Some Englishmen who did not fancy potatoes formed a Society for the Prevention of Unwholesome Diet. The initials of the main words in this title gave rise to spud.” Like most other pre-20th century acronymic origins, this one is false. There are about five thousand potato varieties worldwide. Three thousand of them are found in the Andes alone, mainly in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, and Colombia. They belong to eight or nine species, depending on the taxonomic school. Apart from the five thousand cultivated varieties, there are about 200 wild species and subspecies, many of which can be cross-bred with cultivated varieties, which has been done repeatedly to transfer resistances to certain pests and diseases from the gene pool of wild species to the gene pool of cultivated potato species. Genetically modified varieties have met public resistance in the United States and in the European Union. The major species grown worldwide is Solanum tuberosum (a tetraploid with 48 chromosomes), and modern varieties of this species are the most widely cultivated. There are also four diploid species (with 24 chromosomes): S. stenotomum, S. phureja, S. goniocalyx, and S. ajanhuiri. There are two triploid species (with 36 chromosomes): S. chaucha and S. juzepczukii. There is one pentaploid cultivated species (with 60 chromosomes): S. curtilobum. There are two major subspecies of Solanum tuberosum: andigena, or Andean; and tuberosum, or Chilean. The Andean potato is adapted to the short-day conditions prevalent in the mountainous equatorial and tropical regions where it originated. The Chilean potato, native to the Chiloé Archipelago, is adapted to the long-day conditions prevalent in the higher latitude region of southern Chile. The International Potato Center, based in Lima, Peru, holds an ISO-accredited collection of potato germplasm. The international Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium announced in 2009 that they had achieved a draft sequence of the potato genome. The potato genome contains 12 chromosomes and 860 million base pairs making it a medium-sized plant genome. Above 99 percent of all current varietiesof potatoes currently grown are direct descendants of a subspecies that once grew in the lowlands of south-central Chile. Nonetheless, genetic testing of the wide variety of cultivars and wild species affirms that all potato subspecies derive from a single origin in the area of present-day southern Peru (from a species in the Solanum brevicaule complex) Most modern potatoes grown in North America arrived through European settlement and not independently from the South American sources. However, at least one wild potato species, Solanum fendleri, is found as far north as Texas and used in breeding for resistance to a nematode species that attacks cultivated potatoes. A secondary center of genetic variability of the potato is Mexico, where important wild species that have been used extensively in modern breeding are found, such as the hexaploid Solanum demissum, as a source of resistance to the devastating late blight disease. Another relative native to this region, Solanum bulbocastanum, has been used to genetically engineer the potato to resist potato blight. Potatoes yield abundantly with little effort, and adapt readily to diverse climates as long as the climate is cool and moist enough for the plants to gather sufficient water from the soil to form the starchy tubers. Potatoes do not keep very well in storage and are vulnerable to molds that feed on the stored tubers, quickly turning them rotten. By contrast, grain can be stored for several years without much risk of rotting. If you require a high quality printout of this article, just click on the printer symbol next to ’Share and enjoy’, and we will do the rest. This site is hosted by (click on the graphic for more information) Return from potato to Home Page If you want to increase your site popularity and gain thousands of visitors – check out these sites THEY ARE FREE. Spanishchef more than doubled its ‘New Visitors’ last month simply by signing up to these sites:
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According to news reports, the recent heat wave in California resulted in about 150 deaths. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that global warming will exacerbate the problem dramatically, doubling or tripling the number of heat-related fatalities in North American cities in the next decade. The UN is dead wrong, because it assumes what climate researchers call the “Stupid People Hypothesis”: that people will simply sit around and fry to death without doing anything to beat the heat. Global warming or not, our cities are warming, and will continue to do so. Sprawling masonry and blacktop retain heat, and the density of urban construction prevents wind from cooling it off. (Here in D.C., there’s an additional warming effect: waste heat from all the money changing hands.) But heat and heat-related deaths are not synonymous. In fact, in several refereed papers published in recent years, my Virginia colleague Robert Davis and I demonstrated that heat-related deaths have, in aggregate, declined significantly as our cities have warmed. In fact, in a statistical sense, we have completely engineered heat-related mortality out of several of our urban cores, particularly in eastern cities like Philadelphia. Considering every decade of mortality data at once is misleading; examining it decade-by-decade is more informative. When looked at sequentially, the data reveals a remarkable adaptation: as cities have warmed, the “threshold” temperatures at which mortality begins to increase have also risen — more than the temperatures of the cities. For example, in Philadelphia in the 1960s, mortality began to increase once the high temperature exceeded 83 degrees. In the 1970s, the mortality threshold rose to the low 90s. In the last decade, there has been little evidence for any threshold at which mortality increases. In other words, people have adapted to their changing climate. How? Instead of simmering, people buy air conditioning. Every level of government warns of the danger of excessive exposure to heat, and people seek out cooler places. Social adaptation can take place very quickly. In mid-July 1995, over 500 people died from an intense weekend heat wave in Chicago. Research by University of Illinois climatologist Michael Palecki, published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society in 2001, shows that a 1999 Chicago heat wave of comparable intensity resulted in only 15 percent as many deaths. This summer’s heat is a bit unusual. Usually, when it’s very hot in the eastern U.S., temperatures are normal or below average in the West, or vice-versa. This year it’s hot everywhere. Is history repeating itself, or is global warming at work? It’s hard to say. Several summers in the 1930s were known for intense heat across the nation. Nineteen-thirty was a scorcher: in rural Virginia, far from Washington’s sprawl, people suffered a total of 21 triple-digit days. Even with the excess heat contributed by the growth of the city, Washington currently averages only one 100 degree day per year. The fact is that we cannot completely discriminate between repetitive history and prospective warming when it comes to a single summer. The better place to look for warming is in the winter. Greenhouse-effect theory predicts that the coldest temperatures of winter will rise much more sharply than the hottest ones of summer. And indeed, for the last several decades, winter’s lows have warmed out of proportion to summer’s highs. All of which illustrates the complexity of global warming. Would people accept — even welcome? — climate change that greatly alleviated winter discomfort at the cost of slightly higher summer temperatures? Clearly, people have adapted to the heat. The evidence shows that, the warmer the city, the more quickly its residents adapt. Heat-related deaths are increasing in only one major American city: chilly Seattle. San Francisco and Los Angeles, two other cities that are relatively cool in the summer compared to those to their east, show no change in mortality. As the UN’s climatologists should recognize, heat waves are dangerous when they are rare and unexpected, because people are unfamiliar with them and slow to take appropriate actions to minimize their exposure. As heat waves become more common, we will simply be better prepared for them and incorporate them into our daily lives and routines — just as the people of Phoenix and Dallas and Houston and New Orleans do, every summer day. Because they’re not stupid.
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Britain has, at least going by ministerial statements, apparently grasped the difference between arranged marriages, which are part of the Indian cultural tradition, and forced marriages, unjustifiable from any standpoint. Yet it is a challenging task to tackle the problem of forced marriages. According to the British reckoning, the figures for this sordid practice are around 3,000 per year. Unofficial estimates suggest that the tally may be even higher. Most victims are known to be women aged between 15 and 24. Another 15-20 per cent of cases involve young men. About 65 per cent of known cases involve those of Pakistani origin, another 25 per cent are of Bangladeshi origin, and the rest are of Indian or various African and Eastern European origins. Individual stories are heart-rending, with many of the ‘husbands’ extraordinarily violent and abusive to the victims. The British government and Parliament have now begun taking this issue seriously. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has put up a website on this problem of forced marriages, giving links to groups and helplines run by people, including former victims, who have specific experience in the field. Annually, the FCO’s Forced Marriage Unit website receives about 5,000 inquiries and currently helps about 400 victims; some British diplomatic missions abroad have taken victims into safe custody for repatriation to the United Kingdom. Legislation raises awkward issues. Although forced marriage itself is not a British criminal offence, the violent actions that often ensue are criminal offences, and any non-consensual sex is of course rape. Many victims have pointed out that they would not have been forced into marriage by their parents had forcible marriage been made a criminal offence. Yet there is the concern that if the practice is made a criminal offence, it would not be eliminated but only go underground, preventing legal action against this abhorrent trend. Hence the British government has proceeded cautiously in this regard. The English Forced Marriages (Civil Protection) Act 2007 is only a civil measure. But the pressure to take firm action is building. Visa regulations for young married people from abroad joining British spouses have been tightened. The British Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee has suggested that the subjects of forced marriages and honour killings be made a compulsory part of the sex and relationships curriculum in schools. Other agencies in the U.K. are now becoming aware of this problem. But this awareness must translate into concerted efforts to stop forced marriages, which are nothing but the criminal abuse of hapless women. 6 months ago
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Tooth decay prevalent among Alaska native children Sep 23, 2011, 7:36 a.m. By Yereth Rosen ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Native Alaskan children living in remote villages have rates of tooth decay about four times the national average, a government study showed. Lack of fluoridated water and an abundance of sugary, carbonated soda pop were the major reasons cited in the research that tracked dental health of children in the mostly Yupik Eskimo region of southwestern Alaska. Dr. Brad Whistler, Alaska state oral health director and a co-author of the study, said children need major dental work. "When they smile, you see a lot of silver teeth," he said. Such severe decay sets up children to have serious dental problems as adults, Whistler said. One reason for the high level of tooth decay is poor water-system infrastructure in many Alaska Native villages, which prevents the fluoridation of drinking water that has helped lower rates of tooth decay. In some villages that were part of the study, residents must haul water home from central pumps, he said. Even those places with more sophisticated systems are likely to lack fluoride in drinking water, because few qualified technicians are available to work in such far-flung locations and install the necessary equipment. The other major problem is the erosion of the traditional Native diet with the introduction of food laden with sugar, Whistler said. The study, by the federal Centers for Disease Control and the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, analyzed 2008 dental records and habits of 348 children between the ages of four and 15. (Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Cynthia Johnston)
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How to do just that particularly in the Virgin Islands was on display Tuesday at Good Hope School as the St. Croix Environmental Association sponsored its second Environmental Science Career Expo in partnership with the V.I. Network of Environmental Educators. The goal of the event was to enable middle school and high school students to learn about the career path choices, work experience and skills required to attain jobs in science and technological fields with representatives from private enterprises, government and nonprofit agencies participated. “We want to get kids excited about science. We live on a small piece of land and are surrounded by the ocean and we have to take care of it,” said St. Croix Environmental Association spokeswoman Lynnea Roberts. “Beyond that, we want kids to be excited about college and going to study science,” she said. “There is a lot of science going on around the island that is sort of undercover and a lot of people don’t know about it.” Roberts said she hopes to put on two more of these career fairs later this year at both Central and Complex High Schools. Marcia Taylor of the University of the Virgin Islands’ Center for Marine and Environmental Studies said she was there to recruit the future. “We want more young people going into careers related to the marine environment,” Taylor said. “We want to get more local students trained so they can take the jobs here in their home.” “There are a lot of opportunities down here and it would be great if people that lived here could benefit from that,” Taylor said. She said graduates of the program, if they’ve wanted to stay and work in the territory, have had success in finding careers here. She also noted the same marine issues Roberts mentioned — overfishing and ocean acidification. She said future job prospects in these fields would be plentiful for those interested in learning how to manage those problems and mitigate the effects of them, especially as they pertain to the V.I. coral reef systems. “There are more federal dollars being spent down here because we realize we’re on the brink of losing an incredible resource. There’s more grants related to that, more people studying it and that’s an area where there’s more money being pumped in all the time.” As students wandered from booth to booth learning about the work of those participating organizations, some teachers were even collaborating with agency representatives in the hopes of doing hands on work inside the classroom at a later date. Leila Muller of the V.I. Energy Office and teacher Sarah Christiansen of AZ Academy were just one example as they were planning renewable energy demonstrations for Christiansen’s fifth- and eighth-grade science students. “This is the future, right here,” Christiansen said, pointing at some solar energy demonstrations. “Kids need to know what the future is going to be like and need to prepare for the future and what types of jobs and careers will be available.” Muller said, “We’re also going to be doing more sustainable buildings and green buildings,” adding that’s where the future is. “And we want the young minds to know what opportunities there are in the field of energy.” AZ Academy sophomores Conrad Yanez and Rick Beggs said they came away from the event with more environmental knowledge of how to protect St. Croix and with a possible goal to attain in the future. “I might be interested in the science part of it,” Beggs said. “Maybe one day I’ll come up with a new way to protect corals.” “I think I might be a marine biologist, maybe mangroves or something like that,” Yanez added. “I like working in places like Salt River. It’s pretty interesting.”
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Elements | Blogs Wednesday, September 7, 2011 Is There Oxygen in Space? Yes, this summer astronomers using the Herschel Telescope identified oxygen molecules in space. They found these molecules in the Orion nebula, 1,344 light years away. Oxygen is the third most abundant element in the universe. Until now, scientists have only seen individual oxygen atoms in space. We do not breathe individual oxygen atoms, but rather oxygen molecules. (A molecule is a group of atoms banded together and it is the smallest unit of chemical compound that can take part in a chemical reaction.) Oxygen molecules make up 20% of the air we breathe. Scientists theorize that the oxygen molecules were locked up in water ice that... Thursday, March 10, 2011 I'm Atoms (Scientific Cover of Jason Mraz's I'm Yours) Here in Chicago it has been gray for the last three weeks – no sun, just melting snow and rain. This song made our day. It has sunshine, great music and atoms! The lyrics include fabulous lines such as: “Atoms bond together to form molecules Most of what’s surrounding me and you…” This science verse has been set to the music of Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours”. This is a must watch! Saturday, February 26, 2011 The Deep Carbon Observatory Here at SuperSmart Carbon, we love learning about carbon. Apparently, we are not alone. There is a project being launched called the Deep Carbon Observatory that is being funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The purpose of this group is to study carbon deep inside the earth. Carbon makes up somewhere from 0.7% to 3.2% of the earth’s elements. We know that there is carbon trapped under the earth’s crust, but we don’t know how much. The Deep Carbon Observatory is going to study how much carbon there is in the earth and what happens to it. Another question is what form is the... Friday, February 25, 2011 Where does gas come from? Carbon! (We always love it when the answer is carbon.) The gas we use to power our cars comes from decomposing organic matter. What does that mean? All life has carbon in it -- this includes everything living from you and me to zebras, tapeworms, tulips and seaweed. Since all living things have carbon in them, they are referred to as organic matter. Non-organic matter includes things like rocks, water and metals. When something organic dies, it goes into the earth’s surface. For example, when a leaf falls off a tree, it settles on the ground. Over the next months, it slowly rots and... Friday, February 11, 2011 How to Name an Element After Yourself Here on the SuperSmart Carbon blog, I will talk about the elements a lot because "Carbon" is an element. SuperSmart Carbon is a blue guy with a green hat and in this blog, he looks like he is 1 1/2 inches high. He has two rings around him with six yellow spheres. Although cute, SuperSmart Carbon does not exactly look like elements in the real world. Elements are really, really, small. You cannot see them with the naked eye, or even with a microscope. Although you can't see elements, they are all around you. Everything is made up of elements: the computer you are reading this blog on, the table the computer sits on, the air you...
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Politically incorrect? What does this mean? Definitions can include something that is potentially offensive to a particular group of people or disregarding political correctness. Should elected officals be held to at least an equal if not higher standard? This is my story. It began in a crowded room at a political event this past week. It started as a civil conversation. I asked an elected offical, "What items can be voted on by paper ballot? It sure seems like that would not be a form of transparent, representative government." That discussion struck a nerve with the elected official. It seemed like hell unleashed its fury on me that night. "F" bombs spewed from the elected official's mouth like ash and flames spew from a volcano. Feeling offended, I asked the volcano to quit spewing its fury. Only after a second elected official enouraged the volcano to stop, did the "F" bombs cease. If my objective question illicits that type of response, it begs the larger question of this elected official's integrity and respect for common sense and decency.
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At NIDA's last Drug Facts Chat Day, Razorfang asked this question: "can you get viruses from drugs?" The answer to this might surprise you. Although you can't get viruses directly from drugs, using drugs can increase your chances of catching a virus like HIV (the virus that causes AIDS). In fact, behaviors associated with drug abuse are one of the biggest factors in the spread of HIV across the US. That's because drugs can mess up your judgment and lead to bad decisions—bad decisions like unsafe sex. And risky sex can lead to more than pregnancy. It can also lead to becoming infected with HIV or other sexually transmitted viruses.
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Tutorials - GRANTS WORKSHOP Resources for History & Social Studies Teachers Resources and Links compiled and annotated by SALEM in History staff. Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institution Grants Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum The Roosevelt Presidential Library provides grants of up to $2500 for research in their archives on the Roosevelt Era. See website for application and deadlines. This page of the H-Net website includes a listing of upcoming grant deadlines. Grants for Individuals Michigan State University The MSU library website has a large list of grants available to individuals in a number of areas, including history and education. Kennedy Library Research Grants John F. Kennedy Presidential Library The JFK Library offers several grants for researchers utilizing the collections of the library. Although preference is given for PhD candidates, all proposals are welcome. Stipends range from $500 to $2500. See website for details. Local Cultural Council Program Massachusetts Cultural Council Through the MCC Local Cultural Council Program, cities and towns make grant money available for arts and education programs in their communities. The website has a list of contacts for local cultural councils. The Millipore Foundation funds programs including educational institutions and programs with an emphasis on grades K through 12 and culture. Presidential Libraries Grants National Archives & Records Administration Funding is available from private foundations for research in several presidential libraries, including the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in New York and the Herbert Hoover Library in Iowa. Grants range from $500 to $2500. Rogers Family Foundation The Rogers Family Foundation was funded by the owners of Eagle-Tribune Publishing Company. They fund programs in the area of historical preservation, education and youth development, among others. Save Our History Grants The History Channel offers grants up to $10,000 for schools to partner with local history organizations on projects that work to preserve local history. See website for application details and deadlines. Associated Grant Makers Associated Grant Makers is an organization connecting non-profit and philanthropic organizations. Their Boston office has a library of grant resources and offers classes on grant research and writing (some are free). There is also free public access to many of AGM’s resources at the Lowell Telecommunications Corporation at 246 Market Street, Lowell (http://www.ltc.org). Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library Social Sciences Department in Copley Square has a collection of material for grant researchers and writers, including grant directories and guides to proposal writing. The Foundation Center website has information on grant seeking and grant writing, and much of the material is free. Provides a free database of grants that can be searched by keyword and funding agency. Salem State College The Salem State College Grants Office provides grant research and writing support to SSC faculty, staff and students. The Grants Office website has a list of resources, grants databases, proposal writing guides and a glossary of grants terminology. The website also has a list of upcoming grants deadlines. “A Teacher’s Guide to Fellowships and Awards” Massachusetts Department of Education This is an online guide to fellowships and awards available to teachers in Massachusetts. Included is a section on history/social studies. Of particular interest: - Ellender Fellowships, for high school teachers to travel to Washington, D.C. with their students. - FASSE General Grant, for innovative projects in social studies education. - Geraldine R. Dodge Curriculum Design Award in History, for grade 7-12 innovative history curriculum design. - Outstanding Social Studies Teacher of the Year Awards. - Taft Seminars for Teachers, advanced courses in American constitutional government for teachers. - TORCH Programs, one week summer institutes for middle and high school teachers. Also on the DOE website is information on the following Educator Recognition Programs (http://www.doe.mass.edu/eq/recognition): - George Washington Teachers’ Institute, a one-week study program held at Mount Vernon. - Preserve American History Teacher of the Year. Christa McAuliffe Reach for the Stars Award National Council for the Social Studies Grants of up to $1,500 to assist social studies classroom teachers in developing and implementing imaginative, innovative, and illustrative social studies teaching strategies; and supporting student implementation of innovative social studies, citizenship projects, field experiences, and community connections. C-SPAN Teacher Fellowships The C-SPAN Teacher Fellowships bring middle and high school teachers who use material from the C-SPAN online archives in their classroom to Washington, D.C. to share their lessons with other educators. National Endowment for the Humanities The NEH offers fellowships for primary and secondary school teachers to conduct full-time advanced research in the humanities. See the website for instructions and deadlines. James Madison Memorial Foundation Fellowships James Madison Fellowships are granted to a select group of individuals desiring to become outstanding teachers of the American Constitution. The Boston Athenaeum offers up to eight month-long fellowships to conduct research in their collections. Research may be used to develop curriculum and programs, and secondary school teachers are invited to apply. Stipends of up to $1,500 are provided for selected applicants. See the website for details and restrictions. Massachusetts Historical Society The Massachusetts Historical Society offers two summer fellowships for K-12 teachers. They each provide a $4000 stipend for one month of research to prepare primary source-based curricula based on material in the MHS collections. The Adams Teacher Fellowship requires the use of the Adams Family Papers (http://www.masshist.org/adams). The Swensrud Teacher Fellowship is available for projects using any primary sources in the MHS collections. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SEMINARS & INSTITUTES Civil War Teachers Institute The Civil War Preservation Trust runs a free Civic War Teachers Institute for grade 4-12 teachers. Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks of American History summer workshops for teachers are offered across the country during the summer. They are designed to facilitate learning about particular aspects of American history through the study of primary sources and the interpretation of historical sites. K-12 teachers are eligible to apply for workshops. If selected, applicants receive a stipend of $500 to help cover travel, living expenses and books. See the website for an updated list of summer workshops and application details. Summer Seminars for Teachers Gilder Lehrman Institute The Gilder Lehrman Institute (in NYC) runs week-long summer seminars for teachers of history. Seminars are taught by scholars from universities across the country. Tuition is free and accepted teachers receive books, housing and a $500 stipend. See website for upcoming topics, applications and deadlines. Supreme Court Institutes and Seminars Supreme Court Historical Society & Street Laws, Inc. “The Institutes and Seminars are designed to help teachers grow professionally by deepening their knowledge about the Supreme Court and learning innovative teaching methods to help students master standards-based content related to the Court and its cases.” Teacher Resource Center Organization of American Historians This website provides information about publications, resources and activities for history teachers. Includes links to the OAH Magazine of History, recommended reading, conferences and professional development opportunities.
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Painting, artists and art (technique, of all times) Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface. In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay or concrete. Paintings may be decorated with gold leaf, and some modern paintings incorporate other materials including sand, clay, and scraps of paper. What Is Painting? is the fourth in a series of installations drawn from the Museum's collection of contemporary art. It presents a selection of artworks made since approximately 1965, including a number of recent acquisitions and many works displayed for the first time since the Museum's reopening. A variety of responses to the question "What is painting?" are proposed in loose chronological sequence, ranging from ironic to sincere; from figurative to abstract; and from an embrace and creative reimagining of painting's possibilities to a critical engagement with its limits. The installation's title derives from John Baldessari's eponymous painting of 1966–68 (with the addition of a question mark), acknowledging the ongoing debates over the practice of painting and its place within contemporary art. Painting is a mode of expression, and the forms are numerous. Drawing, composition or abstraction and other aesthetics may serve to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner. Paintings can be naturalistic and representational (as in a still life or landscape painting), photographic, abstract, be loaded with narrative content, symbolism, emotion or be political in nature...wikipedia
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September 3rd, 2012 03:56 PM ET The Empowered Patient is a regular feature from CNN Senior Medical News Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen that helps put you in the driver's seat when it comes to health care. While there's no ironclad way to keep hantavirus away, there are steps you can take to minimize the chances that it will hurt you or your family. The virus is relatively rare: Only 602 cases have been reported in the United States since 1993, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Recently, six cases of hantavirus were reported among people who visited Yosemite National Park in California. Two of those infected people died. However, it's very deadly: About half of all people who get hantavirus die of it, according to the National Institutes of Health. Though some people do get it from camping, such as the recent Yosemite cases, many more people contract hantavirus in their own homes, according to the CDC. The virus is spread by rodent droppings and urine. Here are some tips from the CDC and NIH for keeping hantavirus at bay: 1. Seal holes inside and outside your home to keep rodents out. 2. Trap rodents around your home. 3. While camping, sleep on ground cover and a pad. 4. When opening an unused cabin, open all doors and windows. Leave for 30 minutes, and when you return, spray disinfectant and then leave for another 30 minutes. 5. Know the signs: Early symptoms include chills, fever and muscle aches. Within one or two days, it becomes hard to breathe. September 3rd, 2012 03:00 PM ET We all know stress is bad for you, but just how bad? It would be unethical to intentionally subject people to extreme psychological duress in the name of science. But ongoing military operations offer opportunities to see what happens to people exposed to stressful situations. Researchers in the Netherlands found the brains of soldiers who go into combat show impairment in function and structure upon returning, but that these effects largely go away over time. About this blog Get a behind-the-scenes look at the latest stories from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and the CNN Medical Unit producers. They'll share news and views on health and medical trends - info that will help you take better care of yourself and the people you love.
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Turning Of The Tide At Tonle Sap Tonle Sap is an interesting body of fresh water. Certain times of the year, it is a lake and other times of the year it is a river. During the dry season (November-May) the water drains into the Mekong in Phnom Penh creating a river and when the monsoon season hits (June-October), the flow of water reverses back and forms a lake. The lake/river hybrid is also an important element of Cambodia because of the area’s rich diversity of ecological life and the water’s importance to the villagers in the area. Bon Om Thong or the Khmer Water Festival is celebrated during late October or early November’s full moon when the water reverses its flow. For three days, the towns and villages along the river, including Phnom Penh bursts into life with fleets of luminously decorated boats filling Tonle Sap. Celebrations also happen in Angkor Wat, although smaller in scale it is still impressive, with the temple serving as a scenic backdrop. The highlights of the festival are the boat races that draw huge crowds from all over and are contested by hundreds of boats comprising thousands of paddlers.The festival itself has ancient roots. Angkorian kings would hold competitions and see who the greatest warriors were. You can compare this competition to a joust in Europe as a means of training and a contest under the king’s watchful eye. Bon Om Thong also has spiritual significance. People would pray and thank the river for providing water, fertile land, and fish. Being around Tonle Sap around this time is an excellent time to discover Cambodia and join the locals in the biggest celebration of the year. * * * * * Published on 11/12/09
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