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Anyone can be raped.
- Rape happens among all age groups, from infants to elder women, among all economic classes, from rich to poor, among all ethic groups/races of people, and in heterosexual and same-sex relationships.
- Rape happens to all genders. Statistics show that 1:4 girls and 1:6 boys are sexually assaulted before they reach the age of eighteen. About one in six women and one in eleven men are raped after turning eighteen.
- Rape is not sex. Rape is an act of violence. Rape is not sex but is used as a way of dominating, humiliating, and terrifying another person.
- Rape is never the fault of the victim. It has nothing to do with what the victim wore, where the victim went, what the victim did, or whether or not they are “attractive.” Only the person committing the assault is to blame. Rape is painful, humiliating and hurtful. No one ever asks to be raped.
- A rapist can be someone you know. Most rapes happen between people of the same race or ethnicity. You are also much more likely to be raped by someone you know than a stranger. Approximately 75% of rapes are committed by someone the survivor knows.
- You have the right to say ‘No’ anytime. You can be raped by someone you’ve had sex with before, even your spouse or partner. Each time you are asked to have sex, you have the right to say ‘no’, even if you’ve said ‘yes’ before. You also have the right to stop having sex at any time.
- Rape is against the law. Not only is rape always wrong, it’s also a crime.
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A reverse-right-oblique surface rupture, associated with a ML 2.5 earthquake, formed in a diatomite quarry near Lompoc, California, in the northwesternmost Transverse Ranges on April 7, 1981. The 575-m-long narrow zone of ruptures formed in clay interbeds in diatomite and diatomaceous shale of the Neogene Monterey Formation. The ruptures parallel bedding, dip 39o-59oS, and trend about N84oE on the north limb of an open symmetrical syncline. Maximum net slip was 25 cm; maximum reverse dip slip was 23 cm, maximum right-lateral strike slip was about 9 cm, and average net slip was about 12 cm. The seismic moment of the earthquake is estimated at 1 to 2 X 1018 dyne/cm and the static stress drop at about 3 bar. The removal of an average of about 44 m of diatomite resulted in an average load reduction of about 5 bar, which decreased the normal stress by about 3.5 bar and increased the shear stress on the tilted bedding plane by about 2 bar. The April 7, 1981, event was a very shallow bedding-plane rupture, apparently triggered by crustal unloading. -Authors
Additional publication details
Triggered reverse fault and earthquake due to crustal unloading, northwest Transverse Ranges, California.
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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) limited permission to use drones in parts of San Diego County. SDG&E is a Sempra Energy utility, and is the first utility in the nation to be granted FAA approval for the technology.
The FAA granted the company an experimental certificate, also known as a Special Airworthiness Certificate for a small Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). That certificate specifically allows SDG&E to use drones for research, testing and training flights in sparsely populated airspace in Eastern San Diego County. Current FAA regulations restrict the use of drones to hobbyist flights, and a limited number of commercially approved flights in the arctic.
A Special Airworthiness Certificate is the only certification means available for civil (non-government) operators to use drones. Since July 2005, the FAA has issued 94 certificates, to 13 civil operators covering 20 unique types of drones. Recently, Amazon asked for an exemption from FAA rules governing small hobbyist drones, those rules have to date received very little official public commentary. Amazon said that following the restrictive regulations for experimental airworthiness certificates would unduly burden the company’s ability to innovate.
The FAA approval of SDG&E’s experimental operations comes as many other industries find themselves intimidated by FAA regulations and increasingly frustrated by a slow regulatory process that is restricting innovation. Earlier this year the FAA announced that they would likely miss a Congressionally mandated deadline for integration of small drones into the national airspace. While the FAA has approved SDG&E’s tests, it will likely be years before this cost effective method of inspection is allowed in the United States.
“The unmanned aircraft system provides us with another tool in our electric and gas operations tool chest,” said Dave Geier, SDG&E’s vice president of electric transmission and system engineering. “This versatile technology would allow us to improve our response to emergency situations such as fires, as well as complete aerial inspections in remote areas that are otherwise difficult to access, and locate the cause of power outages faster. By using these devices, we hope to enhance the reliability of the energy network and promote public safety for the benefit of the entire region.”
SDG&E wants to use small drones for electric and gas line inspections, particularly in areas that are off-limits to helicopters or difficult to access by road or other means. Drones can provide utility companies with improved situational awareness during emergencies such as fires.
Drones are oftentimes seen as superior to helicopters due to the smaller device’s cheaper equipment and personnel costs, reduced noise, and smaller environmental impact. The SDG&E drone measures just 16 inches in diameter and weighs less than a pound. The drone uses a camera to inspect utility equipment and relay live images back to the controller. The drone can access infrastructure that is difficult to reach for utility crews and alert them if repairs are needed.
SDG&E plans to test their new technology strictly within FAA approved airspace in Eastern San Diego County. The four approved test areas in Eastern San Diego County are approximately 2.5 miles long and half a mile wide containing no residences or businesses. The company has worked with the FAA to develop a testing protocol that focuses on safety and privacy. SDG&E also received approval for a small, 100 yard diameter airspace for training purposes at a utility training facility in San Diego.
Approval of this less than one pound drone to actually operate may take years, as SDG&E says that once the technology is tested, and if it proves effective, the company will then need to seek FAA approval to use the drones for real world inspections. The company has more than 26,000 miles of transmission and distribution power lines, all of which require inspections for safety and compliance. The company believes that drones may prove to be a powerful new ally in the effort to keep the electrical grid functioning securely, safely and reliably.
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One of my most popular posts on Just History Posts is my post about Georgian women’s hairstyles. They certainly were most fantastical creations, towering above the wearer and imbued with powder, colour, feathers, ribbons, and more. But many do not realise that the men of the Georgian period also indulged in fancy wigs – if not quite as extreme as the women – and so I thought I would do a post explaining how the men’s hairstyles were executed to perfection.
A portrait of an unknown young man, 18th century, Allan Ramsay. V&A.
At the end of the 17th century in England, men were still sporting the ‘cavalier’ type of hairstyle – long, flowing locks reaching the shoulders with lots of volume. This large hairstyle began to shrink as the Georgian period arrived, and wigs became more in-vogue. Tighter, rolled curls and ponytails became the fashion, partly introduced by the French King Louis XV, who liked to wear small white or grayish coloured hair. In England, George II preferred longer locks that reached well below his shoulders, but his white, curly wigs were a firm favourite and helped to cement its popularity in England. Often this long hair was tied back into a long ponytail, tied with a large bow.
King Charles II (left) sporting a more cavalier-style hairstyle in the 1660s, and King Louis XV (right) with tight, white curls in 1748. Both via WikiCommons.
As with their female counterparts, men were obsessed with powdering their wigs. Not only did this reduce the smell (they were not often washed, and many unsanitary products were put on it which we will come to later) but it could give a nicer, more natural colour to the wig than dyes. In fact, it was this obsession with powdering that gave rise to the term “powder-room” still used today – it was such a messy job to powder one’s hair, the wealthiest of society had a whole room dedicated to it!
A Man Called William Strahan, by an unknown painter c1765. WikiCommons.
This powder was often made from sifted wheat powder, powdered chalk, or even white clay. The powder was blown onto the hair or wig with bellows, whilst the receiver covered their face. This powder was sometimes accompanied with a pomade (more popular with the elaborate women’s hairstyles, but still used by men) which was essentially a type of grease to slick the hair into place. This was usually made from lard and fat – hence the smelly greasiness that required powdering to hide! It was also, obviously, a lure for flies, fleas, and other creatures. It was not the most pleasant of fashion as may be expected when seen on film or television!
A man having his hair powdered by a barber, from a print after Carle Vermat, c 1768.
As George III took over the throne, the wigs in England began to shorten, as he preferred the shorter style seen in France. This did not mean that less money was spent – at one point, Viscount Fairfax was wearing a newly-dressed wig almost every single day, racking up huge bills from his hairdressers.
By the end of the century, the elaborate white wigs and powder had become more associated with older, less fashionable men. Continuous taxation on hair powder by governments keen to raise funds had also hit the industry hard. William Pitt the Younger placed a sales tax on hair powder in 1786, at a variable rate. However, his next tax in 1795 meant that those who wished to use it had to pay a whole guinea every year to purchase a certificate to show they were allowed to use it. This was an extortionate rate, even for the fashion-forward, and it hastened the end of the pristine white wigs.
King George II (left, 1744) preferred longer, curly wigs, whereas his grandson George III (right, 1762) popularised a shorter style. Pictures via WikiCommons.
As with women’s wigs, by the end of the 18th century more natural hairstyles were gaining popularity as an interest in classical styles of the ancient Romans and Greeks grew. Hair continued to shorten, and wigs were eschewed for natural hair. Powder continued to be used for a while, and curls were still very much the fashion, although they tended to be looser and more natural, rather than tightly wound.
Captain Gilbert Heathcote sporting the now-popular short, natural look with sideburns c. 1801-1805. Via WikiCommons.
George IV by Thomas Lawrence, c1814. WikiCommons.
Men’s hair began to extend down their faces, with sideburns becoming popular as the Georgian period entered the Regency period. One of the leaders of this new, shorter, fashion was the 5th Duke of Bedford, Francis Russell, who sported a cropped, unpowdered, natural hairstyle in protest at Pitt’s second powder tax, and encouraged his friends to join him. King George IV also wore his hair in a short, wavy, ruffled style. Wigs were out, and natural was in. This more natural style began to extend to all aspects of a man’s facial hair, with moustaches and beards becoming popular once more. This eventually led to the generally very-hairy Victorian men’s fashion.
Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford, sporting his short haircut in the 1790s. Via WikiCommons.
Although Georgian women’s hairstyles ebbed and flowed, switching between elaborate and natural, Georgian men’s hair had a slow and steady trajectory. From the huge, curly, frizzy messes of the 17th century, to the long, curled white wigs, the styles got shorter and tighter until it was deemed best to go short and natural. Which type of hairstyle do you think looks best?
Previous Blog Post: Monthly Round-Up: History in the News, 2019
You may like: Historical Fashion: Georgian Women’s Hairstyles
Check out my history book recommendations on Bookshop UK.
Read more here:
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The guest quarters
The Great Guest House was built around the end of the XIth. Century, when the demand for monastic hospitality was such that a proper hospice detached from the monastery was needed. During the medieval period the Great Guest House was therefore the centre of hospitality for pilgrims and guests.
The current Guest House is largely a reconstruction dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, during which the building was crowned with battlements. However, a significant mistake was made in that these battlement are stylistically Ghibelline (dovetail), whereas the abbey should have had battlements in the Guelph style (simple parallel pipes), reflecting its tie to the papacy.
The Little Guest House probably originated as some sort of service centre, though the exact use is difficult to identify.
Today the Great Guest House is used as conference room, while the Little Guest House has become the ticket office and bookshop.
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What Is Modern About...?
Please answer the following questions about the examples below:
- Are these examples of modern technology? If so, think of a contrast (i.e., modern as opposed to what? Pre-modern? Traditional? Postmodern?)
- Are there differences within the examples, and if so, what are they (e.g., "modern" vs. "some other kind" of city)
- What does it mean for technology to be modern? It is simply "new and improved"? "Current"? How could technology fit into a modern way of understanding the world?
The steam engine
The cell phone
Virtual reality (simulation)
For more, see the list located here
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Buddhism and the Environment
Monday 2 May 2016, by
Buddhism and the Environment
To live in harmony with nature is a crucial Buddhist practice.
Nick Wallis explains why.
When we look at the traditional Buddhist texts there seems to be very little direct reference to what would these days be called environmental or ecological ideas. As we imaginatively enter the world in which the Buddha lived and taught, the reason for this becomes clear. The picture that emerges is one of a culture that lived in far greater harmony with its environment, if sometimes at its mercy, and an ’Environmental Movement’ simply wasn’t needed. The strong connection that people felt with nature is illustrated particularly in the story of the Buddha’s life, in which all the most significant events occur in the countryside and are associated with trees: his birth at Lumbini as his mother grasped the branch of a sal tree, his early experience of states of meditative absorption beneath the rose apple tree, his Enlightenment beneath the Bodhi-tree, and his Parinirvana (death) between twin sal trees. So in seeking to apply the Dharma to the area of the environment, we have to look for underlying principles that are appropriate to the very different world that we ourselves inhabit.
We don’t have to look very far. In the vision of universal interpenetration, one of the Mahayana flowers of the Buddha’s teaching of Conditioned Co-production (pratitya samutpada), we have a basic insight into our relationship with nature. This vision is exemplified in the simile of Indra’s Net: High above in heaven, on the roof of the palace of the god Indra, there hang innumerable jewels interlaced in a great network. As the light reflects off these multifaceted gems not only does each jewel reflect the whole cosmos, but also every other jewel in the net, including all the reflections from all the jewels, the reflections of the reflections, and their reflections.
In this beautiful vision we can begin to connect imaginatively with the mutual interdependence of all processes. Bringing this insight down to earth it becomes clear that by harming nature we are in fact harming ourselves. There are plenty of examples to demonstrate this in the current media: acid rain, the greenhouse effect, the ozone hole, radioactive contamination, to name but a few. These reactions of nature to our carelessness harm us not only physically but also psychologically, as we face the threat of our environment becoming increasingly inimical to healthy human life.
Restating this vision of interpenetration in a positive sense, to improve the quality of our lives we need to live in greater harmony with nature. This may sound like a simple truism, but in fact it is certainly not the way in which our culture approaches nature. In the modern materialist culture, no doubt strongly influenced by the traditional Christian view that God put nature there for people to use for their own purposes, we approach the environment from the viewpoint of resource management. In many cases with large industrial companies this is better termed resource mis-management, as the narrow-minded drive for profit means that huge amounts of toxic substances are pumped into our skies, rivers, and oceans, and scattered across the land where they become someone else’s problem’.
The ’resource management’ approach leads us into difficulties on a more personal level though. In seeing ourselves as the ’managers’, and therefore above nature, we can easily lose those very qualities which give us our humanity. This is particularly noticeable source. Whether it is the immeasurable brutality involved in the slaughter of animals to keep the kitchens of the world constantly supplied with meat, or the killing of the peaceful giants of the sea by wealthy countries such as Japan, these acts degrade the human race as a whole. The Buddhist position, on the other hand, emphasizes a harmonious interaction between ourselves and nature, neither passive nor attempting to dominate, and quite naturally leads us to consider the possibility of vegetarianism.
So this is the vision, but how do we put it into practice? Here we find Buddhist ethics come to our aid, with the basic principle of non-violence (ahimsa) or harmlessness. In the statement of the first precept, abstention from harming living beings, we can see how much of the industrial use of resources contravenes the principle; in chopping down a rain forest we destroy a habitat for other creatures and set up the conditions for top soil erosion, which in turn leads to floods and famine thereby incurring untold suffering on others. So to put this principle into practice we also need a high degree of awareness of the consequences of our actions-this is a prerequisite for any truly skilful action.
Often, the actions that we commit in relation to the environment also contravene the second precept, abstention from taking what is not given. This can happen in quite a crude sense or in a very subtle one. How many of us have, while wandering through a field of flowers, plucked some up-more than we needed-as if they belonged to us and without a thought that others will be deprived of the pleasure of appreciating them? The principle of non-violence should not be taken to mean that people should absolutely abandon their use of the earth’s resources for fear of harming any living beings whatsoever. After all, we are also part of nature, and need to maintain a healthy concern for our own welfare and that of fellow human beings. We need to use the resources available to free ourselves from the clutches of nature’s destructiveness: storms, floods, and famines. However, with the awareness of the consequences of our actions, we have a great responsibility to use the resources in as harm-free and useful a way as possible. As Sangharakshita has said, ’Right use of nature is part of the spiritual life.’ This again leads us to consider the possibility of vegetarianism. At a rough estimate it takes ten times as much vegetable matter as it does to feed that person on a vegetarian diet. In a world with an ever increasing strain on the food supply the luxury of eating meat seems more and more unethical, quite apart from the slaughter of the animals involved.
If we can begin to deepen our relationship with nature through an understanding of interpenetration, and live more in harmony with our environment using the principle of non- violence, then a growing awareness of nature will begin to feed into our spiritual practice. Our ability to develop as individuals is closely bound up with the environment in which we live; harmonizing that environment will have a positive effect on our spiritual practice. After all, in the natural world we find many of the most inspiring symbols of our potential for development; the blue sky, the great ocean, the lofty mountain peaks. There are many examples of the fruits of inspiration that come from humankind’s experience of the beauty and splendour of nature, especially the wildest places. From the scientist to the mystic, individuals have found the mysteries and complexities of nature to be a source of insight and uplift. For this reason alone it is vital that at least some of our wild places remain.
We must beware of over-sentimentalizing nature though; the cycle of life in the natural world can be at times a very harsh one. Our technological development has to some extent freed us from this and a ’back to nature’ movement will certainly not solve humanity’s problems. With so much at stake every little action counts. Hopefully enough people will wake up to the fact that we urgently need to change our attitudes to nature so that we and future generations may continue to be inspired by the process that is life on earth.
Source : fwbo.org
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Operation Cerberus took place in February 1942. Operation Cerberus is the name given to a dash up the English Channel by three major warships of the German Navy – the Scharnhorst, the Gneisenau and the Prinz Eugen. They had been effectively trapped in Brest harbour by the British but Hitler ordered that they should return to Germany. Any run through the English Channel was seen as being fraught with danger – but a Fuhrer Order had to be obeyed.
On March 22nd 1941, the Gneisenau and the Scharnhorst had sunk 22 British merchant ships in the Atlantic – totalling 115,000 tons. Such losses simply could not have been sustained and destroying the two ships was seen as critical if the English were going to win the Battle of the Atlantic. Both formidable ships returned to Brest harbour for repairs after their triumphs on the 22nd.
Brest was an unusual choice for a refuge as the ships could easily be trapped in by the British Home Fleet if they attempted to sail back to Germany or by the fleet in Gibraltar if they attempted to get the Mediterranean. Brest was also in reach of RAF bombers. When it became known that both ships had berthed in Brest, Bomber Command made them a primary target following an order from Winston Churchill. Several bombing raids had damaged the two ships but did not disable them. In one raid, Flying Officer Kenneth Campbell of No 22 Squadron hit the Gneisenau with a torpedo – but to no avail. Campbell was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his bravery. In June 1941, the Prinz Eugen joined both ships in Brest
In April 1941, the French Resistance had gained information that the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau were about to break harbour and make a dash for Germany. The Royal Navy covered this threat with ‘Operation Fuller’ should it have taken place. In fact, there was no dash for Germany but the addition of the Prinz Eugen made the force even more formidable.
The Royal Navy assumed that Raeder, the head of the German Navy, would not tolerate three ships remaining in harbour and not doing anything. The Royal navy therefore assumed that the three ships would make a dash. It concluded that:
- The three ships would make their dash at night
- They assumed that this would be done on a cloudy night to give the ships cover and make it impossible for bombers to operate
- The assumed that any dash would be as near to the French coast as was possible for such large ships so that fighter cover could be called if the Germans needed it – night time or not.
Admiral Ramsey’s force at Dover was suitably strengthened for any attempt by the Germans to get to Germany. The Royal Navy and the RAF worked in unison on the plan to destroy the German ships – a plan that involved the Fleet Air Arm, Coastal Command, Bomber Command and Fighter Command. Though Bomber Command would not fly at night, it made plans for any attempt by the three ships to make a daylight dash.
In June 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa – the attack on Russia. While the attack was massively successful in its initial stages, Hitler became more and more obsessed with defending his northern flank – believing that the Allies would launch an attack via Norway or land men and equipment in Murmansk. He therefore ordered that all three ships should return to Germany rather than risk yet more damage from bombing raids in Brest. Hitler had already ordered the massive Tirpitz to Norwegian waters. The addition of the Prinz Eugen, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau would make for an awesome naval presence there. On January 12th, 1942, Hitler gave the order for them to return to Germany.
The British very quickly became aware of increased Germany activity not only in Brest but also along the French northern coastline. The French Resistance reported that former French coastal airbases were being more and more used by the Luftwaffe. The Royal Navy concluded that they knew the ships would be leaving Brest at night – they just did not know when! In response to this, the Royal Navy tried to predict the route the ships might take and laid more mines – a total of 1000+ British mines were already placed in the English Channel.
A study of weather predictions led the Navy to conclude that the ships would sail between February 10th and 15th 1942, as cloud cover would make such a journey much safer. Coastal Command, the Fleet Air Arm, Fighter Command, etc were all put on the alert. A submarine, the ‘Sea Lion’, had been positioned off of Brest – its task was to watch the harbour as opposed to attacking the ships.
The Germans had put a great deal of thought into Operation Cerberus. British coastal radar had been jammed as a matter of course – but by February 1942, the success of the jamming had become extensive. Vice-Admiral Ciliax, commander of the battle-cruisers, could also sail knowing that the Luftwaffe could provide a total of 280 fighter planes to give aerial cover for the duration of the journey. Colonel Adolf Galland, charged with the task for the Luftwaffe, had mostly formidable Me-109’s and FW-190’s at his disposal, along with Me-110’s. From the start of the journey, Ciliaz could expect a minimum of 16 fighters covering his force and a maximum of 32. When he got near to the Straits of Dover, this number would be increased significantly.
The convoy, which included 6 destroyers, left Brest harbour at 22.45 hours on February 11th 1942. The Sea Lion had ended its watch at 21.35 hours as it assumed that the ships would not leave after this time on that day as they would not get to the Dover Straits in darkness. Nine German naval vessels and their supporting ships left Brest without being seen – a Hudson spotter plane using radar had swept past the convoy but faulty radar was common in early 1942 and it ‘saw’ nothing. Any visual contact was impossible due to the cloud cover. Other spotter planes also suffered from radar failure, allowing the convoy to round the Brest peninsula unseen.
By dawn next day, February 12th, the convoy was sailing off Barfleur, south of the Isle of Wight. Fog had assisted in camouflaging its movements. Both Coastal Command and Fighter Command had failed to pass on to Admiral Ramsey at Dover Castle, the fact that their surveillance had been hindered by faulty equipment. On February 12th, Ramsey still believed that the German convoy had yet to sail and he stood down the forces that had been brought together to attack the Germans.
For three large warships and six destroyer escorts, to sail up the English Channel undetected for 300 miles seems incredible. However, the weather and faulty radar equipment served the Germans well and gave them 13 hours at sea undetected. Ramsey’s defence force was also in disarray. His MTB (motor torpedo boat) force based in Ramsgate had been in action the previous night and was still recovering from this; Bomber Command’s planes would have found it nearly impossible to operate because of the weather conditions and the Bristol Beaufort squadrons based around the coast were forced to use different air strips because the one they wanted to use (North Coates) was snow bound. One patrol pane had flown directly over Ciliax’s force but had not broken radio silence and only passed on its information when the plane had reached its base – by which time the convoy was steaming passed Beachy Head in Sussex.
At Dover, the gun batteries based there engaged the Germans. However, their shells fell short simply because they had to guess the exact whereabouts of the ships because of the poor weather conditions. MTB’s from Dover attacked but they could not get near to the ships and had to fire their torpedoes from a distance of 2 miles – none hit. German fighter cover was ferocious. An attack by torpedo-carrying Swordfish planes also failed. All six planes were lost in the attack and their commander, Lieutenant-Commander Eugene Esmonde, was awarded the Victoria Cross.
As the German convoy continued to steam towards its base, there were more British attacks. Poor weather, poor communications and a curious desire for secrecy even among the British forces fighting during the attack all played a part in the Germans successfully getting through.
The bad weather (cloud at 700 feet) meant that bombers could not get to the 7000 feet they needed to drop their armour-piercing bombs if they were to be effective – they simply could not see their targets. Of the 242 bombers involved in the engagement, only 39 are known to have dropped their bombs – and none of them found their target. British destroyers sent out from Harwich to attack the Germans were attacked by planes from the RAF as no-one had told the RAF that destroyers from Harwich were being sent into action.
At dawn on February 13th, the German convoy sailed into port. The Scharnhorst had hit a mine but Ciliax was eager to contact Berlin that their operation had been a great success. The Germans had lost just one of their minor escort ships and seventeen fighter planes. The British response to the breakout from Brest had been ineffective from a military point of view. However, there were few recriminations as the Gneisenau, Prinz Eugen and Scharnhorst were now all bottled up to the east of Britain where they could play no part in the Battle of the Atlantic. Even the commander of the Kriegsmarine, Admiral Raeder, stated that the Germans had won “a tactical victory (but) had suffered a strategic defeat.” Roosevelt contacted Churchill to congratulate him on what had occurred:
|“The location of all the German ships in Germany makes our joint North Atlantic naval problem more simple.”|
What happened to the three ships Hitler so desperately wanted back in Germany? The Gneisenau was hit by Bomber Command just 2 weeks after the ‘Channel Dash’ and never went to sea again; the Prinz Eugen was sunk during post war tests in the Pacific and the Scharnhorst, hit by a mine, was out of action for eight months for repairs – but was sunk in December 1943.
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CC-MAIN-2016-18
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http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-two/world-war-two-in-western-europe/operation-cerberus/
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en
| 0.988614 | 2,128 | 3.625 | 4 |
Product Sector: Energy → Energy Generation → Fuel Cells → Coolant
Dynalene FC is a nanoparticle and water-based coolant with extremely low electrical conductivity (less than 1.0 ÁSiemens/cm). It has been specifically designed to maintain a low level of electrical conductivity for at least two years while providing excellent heat transfer properties similar to a water-based fluid. This coolant is primarily used for cooling PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell stacks and liquid cooled computers. The low electrical conductivity of the coolant enables the fuel cell to work efficiently (without "short-circuiting" the cells) and safely (without electrical shock hazards).
Dynalene FC coolant is designed to suppress the formation of these ions by two different mechanisms. First mechanism deals with the use of non-ionic corrosion inhibitors that reduces the rate of corrosion of the metal components, which otherwise would increase the concentration of the ions in the coolant fluid. The second mechanism of ion suppression is by utilizing nanoparticles in the coolant fluid that would react with the free ions and immobilize them. Once the free ions are immobilized by the nanoparticles, they do not contribute towards the electrical conductivity. Nanoparticles are designed to immobilize both the positive and the negative ions in the fluid, and they continue to work that way until they are saturated with the ions.
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CC-MAIN-2014-23
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http://www.nanowerk.com/products/product.php?id=49
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en
| 0.912053 | 287 | 2.75 | 3 |
This course provides the foundational knowledge to understand the fundamentals of budgeting, the tools and processes to build and manage a budget, as well as some useful skills targeted at building and managing budgets for businesses from company financial data. Budgets are the means by which financial assets are planned, controlled and strategically managed. For business, an effective budget provides the strategic planning and the tools to verify the plans are tracking to specific goals. Required textbook: "Budgeting Student Manual" (AX0619148527). Be sure to order your text book well before your start date of class from Logical Operations. Visit store.logicaloperations.com and search for the text by entering the word "Budget" into the search field on the Logical Operations website.
“The most valuable aspect of the class was the instructor and his knowledge and enthusiasm to teach. I looked forward to each class! Thanks!!” – Kim H.
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.campusce.net/everett/course/course.aspx?C=922&pc=203&mc=247&sc=346
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en
| 0.943862 | 190 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Erik Sorto had been paralyzed for 10 years when he volunteered for a bold neural engineering experiment: He would receive a brain implant and try to use the signals it recorded to control a robotic arm. Erik had no qualms about signing up for brain surgery, but his mother wasn’t happy about it. “She was just being a mom,” Sorto says with a smile. “She was like, ‘Your brain is the only part of your body that works just fine. Why would you mess with that?’ ”
Instead of reducing his capacities, the surgery gave Sorto superhuman abilities. In the experiments, Sorto simply imagines reaching out to grab an object and the robotic arm carries out his commands. While a handful of paralyzed people have previously used brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) to control robotic limbs, those subjects’ implants recorded signals from the primary motor cortex, which is linked directly to the spinal cord and muscles. Sorto’s implant was the first to record instead from the posterior parietal cortex, a brain region involved in planning movements.
Lead researcher Richard Andersen, a neuroscience professor at Caltech, says that tapping into a subject’s intentions may provide more intuitive control of the robotic limb, and with less lag time. When the scientists asked Sorto to focus on the object he wished to grab, the system was able to identify that goal very quickly, says Andersen, usually within 200 milliseconds. The BCI then combined that high-level signal with smart robotics functions such as object recognition and simultaneous localization and mapping, or SLAM. “Erik worked with the robotic intelligence to manage the limb’s movement, rather than try to control all the kinematic details,” Andersen says. He and his colleagues revealed their novel approach recently in an article in Science.
To prepare for Sorto’s surgery in April 2013, the researchers first used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify two precise regions of his parietal cortex that activated when he imagined reaching and grasping motions. The surgeons implanted two tiny microelectrode arrays, each with 96 electrodes that could record the electrical activity of single neurons. The grids linked to two metal “pedestals” that jutted out of Sorto’s skull. Within one month of surgery, Sorto was ready to get to work. The researchers connected cables to the pedestals, bringing the neural signals to a computer that analyzed them and sent commands to the robot arm. In the first experiment, a scientist made a simple twisting motion with his own wrist, and Sorto imagined himself imitating the gesture. And that’s just what the robot arm did. “It was pretty much effortless,” Sorto says.
From the population of neurons tapped by those electrodes, the researchers could distinguish cells whose activity coded for the location that Sorto wanted to reach, movement trajectories, and particular types of movement. Each day’s experiments began with system calibration, because the electrodes shifted slightly within Sorto’s head and picked up different neurons. “Our decoding algorithms took that into account,” Andersen says. If a given electrode was no longer contributing useful information to the decoding of a goal location, for example, the algorithm would ignore its signal and substitute other inputs. Andersen thinks such adaptive algorithms may enable a wide range of BCIs to record reliably over time.
Most of the prior studies in which paralyzed people used implanted BCIs were conducted by John Donoghue, director of Brown University’s Institute for Brain Science and a pioneer in the use of implants in the motor cortex. Donoghue says that the new research advances our understanding of the parietal cortex’s role in generating movements and proves that it can provide a useful control signal. However, he’s not convinced it’s inherently a better signal than that provided by the motor cortex. “You get pretty good control from all these places, but it’s not clear how to get really good control,” he says.
While Andersen has suggested that combining the signals from the parietal and motor cortices might yield clearer commands for a robotic limb, Donoghue says that combination wouldn’t necessarily add value. “When you move your hand, you’re probably using 80 percent of your brain,” Donoghue says. The parietal and motor cortices provide similar signals, Donoghue says, so some other brain region may hold the key information that would result in truly natural movement. “It’s one of the great mysteries,” Donoghue says. “There’s something we still haven’t detected about the way the brain does movement.”
Sorto, meanwhile, has continued to work with what he has: More than two years after his surgery, his electrodes are still functioning and his enthusiasm is undimmed. In his second year of experiments, he mastered precise reaching and grasping movements by dint of an unusual exercise. “I played over 6,700 rounds of rock-paper-scissors,” Sorto says with agonized emphasis. “I want everybody to know that I worked hard.” It paid off, though, at the end of that second year, when he reached a long-held goal: He used the robot arm to lift a bottle of Modelo beer to his mouth and take a long swig.
This article originally appeared in print as “Telekinesis Made Simple.”
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CC-MAIN-2016-44
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http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/a-better-way-for-brains-to-control-robotic-arms
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en
| 0.960498 | 1,144 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Diary handwritten by Ally Heathcote on 'SS Northumberland', during her migrant voyage from England to Melbourne in 1874. Her two page Preface outlines a brief biography. Born in Preston in the North of England, she arrived in Australia at the age of nineteen with her parents and two siblings Willie and Maggie, whom she states 'had for years thought of visiting Australia at length'. Ally also states that she had often thought of immigrating but that she 'never had the remotest idea that my dreams of travelling 16 thousand miles would ever be realised.'
Ally's diary begins with the departure: they left on Monday 21 September 1874, travelling on the steamship 'Northumberland,' they considered travelling by clipper but due to her mother's health, wanted the shortest journey possible. She describes the route, shipboard life, food, illnesses, navigational details such as longitude and latitude, distances and speed, first impressions of Australia and general feelings of excitement, the sorrow of separation, the joys and relief of arrival.
The diary has been written with a sense of audience. Near the beginning is an undertaking to her uncle to keep a diary, and at its conclusion there is a letter written by Ally from 88 Drummond St Carlton to her aunt and uncle which implies that she sent it to them in England. In the letter she invites them to circulate it and even to perhaps get printed in the 'Times'.
76 page handwritten stitched journal, densely written on front and reverse pages. Diary commences with a preface then continues "Steamship Northumberland - passage to Australia in 52 days - Brief sketches of life onboard a steam vessel." The diary is divided into dated, day by day descriptions.
Journals such as these offer an invaluable insight into the migrant experience. They represent an important memory tool for the people who create them and a sense of the historical importance of their undertaking. They record the freshness of the personal voice at the time of the experience, rather than the retrospective recollections after many years past. Ally's experience represents the experience of thousands of late nineteenth century migrants and provides an invaluable research tool in terms of her descriptions of shipboard life, other passengers, navigational details and first views of Melbourne. The diary concludes with a fascinating glimpse into the initial landing, Yarra Yarra and Hobsons Bay, train journey from Sandridge to the Pier and then on through Brunswick St Fitzroy to Northcote. Her style is very engaging, light, heartfelt, sometimes humorous and provides may 'quotable quotes' for exhibitions and web publishing.
Purchase from Charles Leski Auctions Pty Ltd, 12/03/2003
Type of item
190 mm (Width), 7 mm (Depth), 235 mm (Height)
114 mm (Width), 186 mm (Height)
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<urn:uuid:ba800dc0-4cda-452c-99ff-2e8c8216da5c>
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CC-MAIN-2016-18
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http://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/272753
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en
| 0.936968 | 579 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Last month, I covered the topic of giving kids choices, and how we need to be responsible for both the options we give, as well as accepting the choice that the child makes. Today, I want to dive into what is very much the flipside to the choices coin – and that is responsibility.
Tying It Together With Choices
To see how this ties together, let’s go with the picking-out-their-clothes example that I used in the previous article. Once your child has their clothing picked out for the day, you’ll go about the activities you have planned. What if they’ve decided to put on something that isn’t appropriate for the weather (say, shorts in the winter) or the activity (a party dress when headed out to the trails)? Provided we stick with our earlier decision to abide by their choice (well, perhaps we’ll put a warmer coat and snow pants on in that first example), they’ll start to learn that their decisions have ramifications – and they’re responsible for those choices and their results.
This Is Important!
But why is this important? As your child begins to pick up on the concept of responsibility, you can begin to instill the lessons that they are more than just an isolated person. You’ll start off by teaching them to be a contributing (and responsible) member of your immediate family. This will then be able to be extended to the larger family, perhaps your local congregation. Ultimately, this will lead to them learning how to be a responsible member of society.
Of course, that’s the end goal. Before we get there, we’ve got a lot of smaller steps to cover. This is a journey we ourselves are fairly early on with, as our oldest is just about four. That isn’t to say we don’t have her being responsible for things, though. These can be fairly little things, but they’ll be lessons that add up.
For example, we’ve started having her clear her plate from the dinner table once she’s been excused. When this started out, we had to remind her each night of what was expected of her. Now, it’s become routine – she knows it’s something she needs to do. We had a wonderful reminder of her progress over the Thanksgiving weekend. At both my parents’ and my sister’s house, after being excused (at every meal) she would take her dishes over to the sink without being asking. She may not realize it yet, but she’s learning the lesson of contributing to the smooth running of our family, aka being a responsible family member.
… and Loading Up
Another lesson she’s been learning has been with what she brings along in her backpack. We’ll try to give some guidelines for what she packs in there (coloring books, a favorite stuffed toy, etc), but she’s more or less given free reign once she’s got the specific things we want her to have packed in. Sometimes, she’ll be ready to head out the door, and we’ll put the backpack on her shoulders, only to hear her say “it’s too heavy!” It’s at this point that I’ll remind her that the weight is from her own activities – she packed in everything she wanted to bring. While I’ll occasionally help her carry the bag, I’d be more inclined to help her clear things out to lighten the load. It’s a small lesson, but she’s learning to be responsible for her own belongings, as well as some self sufficiency (in other words, pack what you can carry, not to depend on others to help).
Drawing The Line
Don’t get me wrong – we help our kids as much as we can with many things, especially in areas they’re still learning. Here and there, though, we’ll take that small step back just to see what happens – what they’re learning, where we need to focus – that sort of thing. I’ve said it before in these articles, and I’m sure I’ll say it again: this is yet another one of those areas that we’re working through, and it’s definitely a trial-by-error. Even for those of you reading this – you might try my examples, and they may or may not work for your kids or your parenting style. Every child is different, and of course that changes the dynamics of this thing called parenting.
Enjoying the Journey
That all said, I’m curious what other situations our readers have come across with giving their kids more responsibility. I’m sure there are plenty of stories (good, funny, or otherwise) that we could ultimately all learn from. In our house, we’re learning as we go, and seeing how our kids react to what we’re opening up to them. The ultimate goal is to have a productive and responsible member of our family and society. We’re just enjoying the fun and rolling with the bumps and bruises as we travel the path to getting them there.
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<urn:uuid:3e07de10-ad48-46d2-b8c1-10ef85d2e4cf>
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CC-MAIN-2021-17
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https://www.engagedmarriage.com/category/children/
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en
| 0.972185 | 1,102 | 2.734375 | 3 |
In terms of the kinds of books are involved, you will discover books in main forms: digital books and traditional books. Now, now you ask , can the eBooks certainly be a cheaper way of learning? Most of people will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of each and every type. The simple fact with the matter is the fact that both physical books and eBooks provide a lots of benefits. But also in this informative article, we intend to talk about the features of ebooks. Continue reading to learn more.
Availability. The very first major good thing about eBooks is they will almost always be available. They don’t get out of stock. Plus, you don’t have to wait for book to become shipped for your requirements. As soon as you have made payment for the book, it’s going to be readily available for download. You won’t must wait for the favorite book.
Enriched education. This is true for young students designed to use social media sites, like YouTube and Netflix. Based on almost all of K-12 teachers, tablets help students learn things inside a better way.
Text-to-speech features. Text-to-speech, often abbreviated to TTS, offers multiple functions. These traits can improve the chance to learn of students. Some really good for example the characteristics that really help students with reading challenges, dyslexia or visual impairments, in order to name some. In addition to this, the features help students reduce eyestrain, boost learning and listening skills.
Green. Nowadays, schools don’t need to purchase physical copies of the course books after curriculum updates or changes. So, you shouldn’t have to dumb a great deal of old books as eBooks might be updated and deleted without adding to the waste within the environment. In case you have got a current book, all you want do is delete that old book. That is certainly it. This can be done in some seconds.
Cost-effective. Mathematically, eBooks offer a affordable way of getting your reading curriculum. Goods fact, the price tag on electronic books is half the expense of physical text books. So, these books can conserve students a lot of cash for many years.
Space for storage. You can store thousands of books on a tablet computer. In addition to this, you can do investigation and solve quizzes without making use of a note book. The best thing about eBooks is they do not require a lot of space. You just need space to keep your tablet. That is it! You don’t have to use a bulky bag of books with you.
To read more about online ebook store view the best site.
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CC-MAIN-2018-39
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http://zoo-chambers.net/page/2/
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en
| 0.95537 | 554 | 2.625 | 3 |
The Agriculture sector remains one of the fundamental drivers of a strong Ghanaian economy.
The Agriculture sector remains one of the fundamental drivers of a strong Ghanaian economy. However, over the past decade, the agriculture sector has seen steady slow growth, after witnessing a major slump in growth in 2007, it is estimated that the agriculture sector will grow at an average of 3.3% yearly until 2018 while contributing just about 25% to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Economy experts hint, the Agriculture sector can contribute more to Ghana’s GDP.
Abdul Jaleel Hussein, Head of Commercial Banking at Stanbic Bank, noted Ghana’s agriculture sector is largely rural and concentrating on using basic tools for farming will not yield much. Rapid industrialisation of the sector, he reckons, is required to see major boost in its contribution to the nation’s GDP, and the livelihoods of farmers.
“Customary beliefs and traditions also remain a hindrance to the sector’s development,” he stated. “We have to think about how to add value to our agriculture industry through effective, vibrant and sustainable systems, as well as the right machinery.”
Another issue Jaleel finds threatening to the acceleration of agriculture industrialisation in Ghana, is the country’s land tenure system. According to him, the private sector would need access to hundreds of acres of land to commercialise agriculture – a need the country’s land tenure system does not provide.
Jaleel Hussein, is optimistic massive investment and recapitalisation could transform Ghana’s agriculture sector. He believes the thrust for agriculture sector development lies in a combination of efforts from both the private and public sector with finance being central in the drive.
Speaking to the issue of financing, Mr. Hussein indicated the current nature of the agriculture sector makes it difficult to access finance. Nevertheless, he remains confident of the capability of Stanbic Bank in financing, considering the Bank’s financial muscle and amazing track record in financing agriculture on the African continent.
“At the Stellenbosch University, the Standard Bank Centre for Agribusiness Leadership and Development focuses on strategic leadership and transformation in Agribusiness through its research activities and laboratories and the linking of farmers to commercial Agri-food value chains,” he said. “We have the pedigree to transform Ghana’s agriculture sector under the right circumstances.”
Agriculture is essential to Ghana’s economy and conservative figures have it that it employs almost 50% of the working population in Ghana. Although its share of GDP seems to be low, it is important to growth. Standard Bank has provided financial services to the agriculture sector for over 150 years and we remain committed to the development of agriculture and to adding value to business.
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CC-MAIN-2017-26
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http://www.pulse.com.gh/agriculture/economy-agricultural-sector-can-contribute-more-to-ghanas-gdp-banking-expert-id6390574.html
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| 0.916886 | 585 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Crescent ♌ Leo
Previous main lunar phase is the New Moon before 4 days on 27 May 2006 at 05:26.
Moon rises in the morning and sets in the evening. It is visible toward the southwest in early evening.
Moon is passing first ∠2° of ♌ Leo tropical zodiac sector.
Lunar disc appears visually 5.2% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1796" and ∠1892".
Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon of June 2006 after 11 days on 11 June 2006 at 18:03.
There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.
The Moon is 4 days young. Earth's natural satellite is moving from the beginning to the first part of current synodic month. This is lunation 79 of Meeus index or 1032 from Brown series.
Length of current 79 lunation is 29 days, 10 hours and 40 minutes. It is 1 hour and 46 minutes shorter than next lunation 80 length.
Length of current synodic month is 2 hours and 4 minutes shorter than the mean length of synodic month, but it is still 4 hours and 5 minutes longer, compared to 21st century shortest.
This New Moon true anomaly is ∠64.2°. At beginning of next synodic month true anomaly will be ∠97.5°. The length of upcoming synodic months will keep increasing since the true anomaly gets closer to the value of New Moon at point of apogee (∠180°).
8 days after point of perigee on 22 May 2006 at 15:29 in ♓ Pisces. The lunar orbit is getting wider, while the Moon is moving outward the Earth. It will keep this direction for the next 3 days, until it get to the point of next apogee on 4 June 2006 at 01:41 in ♍ Virgo.
Moon is 399 204 km (248 054 mi) away from Earth on this date. Moon moves farther next 3 days until apogee, when Earth-Moon distance will reach 404 080 km (251 084 mi).
8 days after its ascending node on 22 May 2006 at 18:00 in ♓ Pisces, the Moon is following the northern part of its orbit for the next 5 days, until it will cross the ecliptic from North to South in descending node on 5 June 2006 at 12:10 in ♎ Libra.
8 days after beginning of current draconic month in ♓ Pisces, the Moon is moving from the beginning to the first part of it.
2 days after previous North standstill on 29 May 2006 at 01:13 in ♋ Cancer, when Moon has reached northern declination of ∠28.490°. Next 11 days the lunar orbit moves southward to face South declination of ∠-28.452° in the next southern standstill on 12 June 2006 at 10:30 in ♑ Capricorn.
After 11 days on 11 June 2006 at 18:03 in ♐ Sagittarius, the Moon will be in Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and this alignment forms next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy.
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http://lunaf.com/lunar-calendar/2006/05/31/
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en
| 0.908663 | 685 | 2.703125 | 3 |
State Senator Gloria Romero recently introduced Senate Bill 624 to remove serpentine as California's state rock due to the presence of carcinogenic asbestos in the rock. Romero and her staffers say asbestos—and by extension, serpentine—is a bona fide health hazard. The bill has received unanimous approval from the state Assembly’s Natural Resources Committee. But the bill does not mention the importance of serpentine to California's biodiversity. For instance, it has been estimated that serpentine-endemic plant species represent 10 percent of the California Floristic Province's endemics. If you think Senator Romero overlooks serpentine's important role in California natural history, let her know at DISTRICT 24 and also tell your own state representatives in the Assembly and Senate. (from Jake Sigg's Nature News)
On the map below you will see the network that we have worked on since January, widening to make some trails accessible and closing duplicate spurs or steep ascents when necessary to aid habitat restoration on the cuts. For the sake of clarity, the trails have been given names (which can be changed at a later date with more input) so that we can pinpoint areas when talking with one another. Any of you who have helped up here know that this has been a big challenge. On June 27 we had an AWESOME work party (above) with 18 volunteers, including our youngest volunteer Jack, 10; our oldest volunteer (to date) Doretta, 80+; and birthday woman Deidra, who treated us to homemade birthday cake and lemon-pear bubbly! We had enough people to split into three teams:
Team 1 watered, weeded, and mulched around the 110 native plants that were planted for Earth Day. Susan Miller, native-plant specialist, thinks that all but 10 of the plants have survived. These can use water through the summer. If interested in watering them periodically, or even once a month, please let me know. I'll set up a watering schedule and arrange for a 50-gallon drum of water up there.Team 2 cleared and widened the middle ridge trail where it joins the arroyo trail, which was completely closed in for a pretty long stretch with pampas grass, pine, and coyote bush. It is now open if you want to walk a loop and not go out and back.
You can buy a DVD of the documentary film Remembering Playland at the Beach from Playland-Not-at-the-Beach Museum, 10979 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito on weekends from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cost is $20. Or you can order it for $25 with a credit card by calling 510-232-4264, extension 24. The preview DVD sold at the Balboa cinema premiere did not include extras that are now in this full-length DVD.
When a doe crosses the road, her fawns will follow, so please slow down and be extra cautious, especially along Rosita Road, Sharp Park Road, and other areas where deer come down from the mountains to reach the creeks and delicious ornamental plants growing in our yards. Another way to protect the lovely creatures that share our environment is to keep dogs out of San Pedro Valley County Park, which is clearly posted "No Pets Allowed" precisely to protect wildlife. If you see a dog in the park, call the ranger at 650-355-8289.
John Maybury photo
Broad opposition to offshore drilling and support for smart ocean policy are part of California's Marine Life Protection Act, which expands its Marine Protected Area (MPA) system. In August 2009 the state Fish and Game Commission approved this network of protected areas for the north central coast, and is developing similar networks for the rest of the California coast. Resources:
THE FRAGILE EDGE: DIVING AND OTHER ADVENTURES IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC
By Julia Whitty
Rangiroa, Funafuti, and Mo’orea are among Earth’s 330 coral atolls. From space they look like pearl necklaces whirled onto a cobalt blue sea. First formed around volcanic mountains, they became, as the great mounts wore down, chains of living coral surrounding shallow lagoons that can stretch more than 50 miles: 500-pound spotted eagle rays leap and somersault; bluefin tuna, marlin, and blackfin barracuda hunt their prey outside the thin circlet of isles, while within the glassy waters of the lagoon, rainbow-colored juvenile sea creatures swarm, flying fish glide in long, glittering flights, terns drop like arrowheads. On the windy side of an atoll, which might be as little as a football field in width and nine feet in height, 15-foot swells break in a continuous roar against a protective berm. Down from the atoll, a shelf slides thousands of feet into the utter darkness of the sea floor.
Mainland environmental issues deeply affect the much more fragile atolls: pollution, lack of fresh water, overpopulation. rising sea levels, more powerful storms. When surface-water temperatures climb or fall, polyps die and the dead reefs crumble. As hurricanes scour the atolls, people still tie themselves to coconut palms. In Whitty’s rich, humor-filled language, the creatures that live there become palpable. Fat little poi dogs learn to team up to catch fish in the lagoons, or starve. Each page is a festival of detail. “On the outer edge of Tiputa Pass, gray reef sharks … spend the daytime hours schooling. At about one hundred feet underwater, we find shoals of ten or twenty gray reef sharks drifting in close formation. At one hundred fifty feet, the shoals coalesce into squadrons. Below two hundred feet, they become curtains of shark drifting slowly in the bottleneck of the deep pass.” Whitty’s prose rivals Rachel Carson’s, or Annie Dillard’s, or Gary Snyder’s, with much of the storytelling talent of Barry Lopez. This is a blue jewel of a book, and you won’t put it down. I finished it and, sorry it was over, immediately began it again.JIM LECUYER
Florey's Books at 2120 Palmetto in Pacifica presents award-winning author A.R. Silverberry's new book Wyndano's Cloak. Discover the magic of Wyndano’s Cloak: Jen has settled into a peaceful life when a terrifying event awakens old fears of being homeless and alone, of a danger horrible enough to destroy her family and shatter her world forever. She is certain that Naryfel, a shadowy figure from her past, has returned and is concentrating the full force of her hate on Jen’s family. But how will she strike? A knife in the dark? An attack from her legions? Or with the dark arts and twisted creatures she commands with sinister cunning. Wyndano’s Cloak may be Jen’s only hope. If she can only trust that she has what it takes to use it. A tale of madness, friendship, and courage, Wyndano’s Cloak reveals the transformative power of love and forgiveness, and the terrible consequences of denying who you really are. Book trailer:
In Pacifica City Council chambers June 22, an informative, scripted, and controlled meeting was held on the proposed widening of Highway 1. The San Mateo County Transportation Authority (SMCTA) presented information on its long-standing plan to widen Highway 1 from four to six lanes between the Fassler/Rockaway Beach and Reina del Mar intersections.
The preferred alternative plans, according to SMCTA consulting engineers, actually widen to eight lanes at the Rockaway Beach intersection, including two turn lanes. Many alternatives were listed on one sheet of paper for the first time, and visual diagrams of various alternatives were papered on the walls of the room.
Estimated commute time saved in building this "parkway" is five to seven minutes. The term "freeway" was mistakenly used several times by the moderator, an accomplished public outreach consultant. It didn’t fit the script and a public official was heard to mutter from the back of the room, "It’s not a freeway!"
A key question from the audience (on a form read by the moderator—no town hall style here, thank you) asked about Pacifica City Council’s responsibility in the coming process: What is council's role and how will it influence the process? SMCTA’s Joe Hurley replied that it was "too early to ask that question" but ultimately said that no formal requirement of the council is needed.Public comment on the Calera Parkway Project closes July 22. Mail comments to SMCTA, P.O. Box 3006, San Carlos, CA 94070; fax to 650-508-7938; or email to [email protected] (put "SR1/Calera Parkway" in subject line).
During Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month in June, one nonprofit is renewing its effort to inform LGBT older adults in San Mateo County of a free resource that helps them stand proud and overcome prejudice. Family Service Agency of San Mateo County, a San Mateo-based nonprofit dedicated to transforming the lives of children, families and older adults, provides free peer counseling to LGBT older adults age 55-plus through its groundbreaking Senior Peer Counseling Program. Launched in 2008, the Senior Peer Counseling Program trains volunteers to provide free one-on-one and group peer counseling to older adults in the LGBT community who struggle with a unique set of challenges particular to their sexual orientation and gender identity. The program—which serves the LGBT community and other clients in English and also provides counseling in Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin and Tagalog—is on the cusp of renewing a one-year, $283,140 contract from San Mateo County’s Behavioral Health and Recovery Services Division to continue through June 2011. As such, the Senior Peer Counseling Program is seeking LGBT clients to benefit from the counseling, as well as volunteers to serve them.
Family Service is seeking volunteers age 50-plus who are caring individuals to serve as peer counselors for the program’s LGBT component. Volunteers will serve older adults living in San Mateo County, should have access to a reliable car, and should be willing to make a one-year commitment. Following volunteer training sessions, peer counseling takes place at a mutually agreeable location for the counselor and client. To volunteer, please contact Geri Lustenberg at 650-403-4300, x4389 or [email protected].
To qualify to receive free counseling through Family Service’s Senior Peer Counseling Program, LGBT older adults must reside in San Mateo County and be 55 years or older. Both individual and group therapy sessions are available. Family Service Agency of San Mateo County is a private nonprofit organization that for 60 years has helped Peninsula children, families and older adults transform their lives through the provision of programs and services including: child development and education; supervised family visitation and exchange; older worker employment and training; support services for older adults; and family loans. Nearly 20,000 people in need are assisted annually. For more information, please call 650-403-4300 or visit http://www.familyserviceagency.org/
Caltrans Releases Final Environmental Review for Highway Project That Will Degrade Ancient Humboldt County Redwood Grove
Conservation Groups Vow Legal Challenge, Seek 100,000 Letters of Opposition
GARBERVILLE, Calif.— The California Department of Transportation has released the final Environmental Impact Report for a controversial highway-widening project that threatens to degrade the ancient redwood grove at Richardson Grove State Park and could change the rural character of Humboldt County. The Environmental Protection Information Center and the Center for Biological Diversity have vowed an all-out legal challenge of the project, and are seeking to have state and federal legislators pressure Caltrans to rescind the project.
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A thin client is a lightweight computer that is purpose-built for remoting into a server (typically cloud or desktop virtualization environments). It depends heavily on another computer (its server) to fulfill its computational roles. This is different from the traditional desktop PC (fat client), which is a computer designed to take on these roles by itself. The specific roles assumed by the server may vary, from hosting a shared set of virtualized applications, a shared desktop stack or virtual desktop, to data processing and file storage on the client's or user's behalf.
Thin clients occur as components of a broader computing infrastructure, where many clients share their computations with a server or server farm. The server-side infrastructure makes use of cloud computing software such as application virtualization, hosted shared desktop (HSD) or desktop virtualization (VDI). This combination forms what is known today as a cloud based system where desktop resources are centralized into one or more data centers. The benefits of centralization are hardware resource optimization, reduced software maintenance, and improved security.
- Example of hardware resource optimization: Cabling, bussing and I/O can be minimized while idle memory and processing power can be applied to users sessions that most need it.
- Example of reduced software maintenance: Software patching, security updates, application/OS updates, and OS migrations can be applied, tested and activated for all users in one instance to accelerate roll-out and improve administrative efficiency.
- Example of improved security: Software assets are centralized and easily fire-walled, monitored and protected. Sensitive data is uncompromised in cases of desktop loss or theft.
Thin client hardware generally consists of a computer terminal which provides I/O for a keyboard, mouse, monitor, jacks for sound peripherals, and open ports for USB devices, e.g. printer, flash drive, web cam, card reader, smartphone, etc. Some thin clients include legacy serial and/or parallel ports to support older devices such as receipt printers, scales, time clocks, etc. Thin client software typically consists of a GUI (graphical user interface), cloud access agents (e.g. RDP, ICA, PCoIP), a local web browser, terminal emulations (in some cases), and a basic set of local utilities.
Characteristics of thin clients
In using cloud based architecture, the server takes on the processing load of several client sessions, acting as a host for each endpoint device. The client software is narrowly purposed and lightweight; therefore, only the host server or server farm needs to be secured, rather than securing software installed on every endpoint device (although thin clients may still require basic security and strong authentication to prevent unauthorized access). One of the trade-offs of using cloud architecture and thin clients is that the host becomes a single point of failure. If the hosting server crashes, for example, all users lose their session unless a fail-over process is predefined. This risk can be mitigated by building redundancies into the host environment. Redundancy provides reliable host availability but adds cost to the cloud computing model. Redundancy can be provided in the form of networked servers, clustered file systems, load balancing, etc.
The simplicity of thin client hardware and software results in a very low TCO (total cost of ownership), but some of these initial savings can be offset by the need for a more robust cloud infrastructure required on the server side. NOTE: infrastructure costs can be spread out by choosing a subscription based cloud model known as Desktop as a Service or DaaS. DaaS allows IT organizations to outsource the cloud infrastructure to a third party.
Thin client computing is known to simplify the desktop endpoints by reducing the client-side software footprint. With a lightweight, read-only OS (operating system), client-side setup and administration is greatly reduced. Cloud access is the primary role of a thin client which eliminates the need for a large suite of local user applications, data storage and utilities. This architecture shifts most of software execution burden from the endpoint to the data center. User assets are centralized for greater visibility and control. Data recovery and desktop repurposing tasks are also centralized for faster service and greater scalability.
While the server must be robust enough to handle several client sessions at once, thin client hardware requirements are minimal compared to that of a traditional PC desktop. Most thin clients have low energy processors, flash storage, memory, and no moving parts. This reduces the cost and power consumption, making them affordable to own and easy to replace or deploy. Since thin clients consist of fewer hardware components than a traditional desktop PC, they can operate in more hostile environments. And because they typically don't store critical data locally, risk of theft is minimized because there is little or no user data to be compromised.
Modern thin clients have come a long way to meet the demands of today's graphical computing needs. New generations of low energy chipset and CPU (Central Processing Unit) combinations improve processing power and graphical capabilities. To minimize latency of high resolution video sent across the network, some host software stacks leverage multimedia redirection (MMR) techniques to offload video rendering to the desktop device. Video codecs are often embedded on the thin client to support these various multimedia formats. Other host software stacks makes use of UDP (User Datagram Protocol) in order to accelerate fast changing pixel updates required by modern video content. Thin clients typically support local software agents capable of accepting and decoding UDP.
Some of the more graphically intense use cases, however, remain a challenge for thin clients. These use cases might include the applications like photo editors, 3D drawing programs, and animation tools. This can be addressed at the host server using dedicated GPU cards, allocation of vGPUs (virtual GPU), workstation cards, and hardware acceleration cards. These solutions allow IT administrators to provide power-user performance where it is needed, to a relatively generic endpoint device such as a thin client.
To achieve such simplicity, thin clients sometimes lag behind desktop PCs in terms of extensibility. For example, if a local software utility or set of device drivers are needed in order to support a locally attached peripheral device (e.g. printer, scanner, biometric security device), the thin client operating system may lack the resources needed to fully integrate the required dependencies (although dependencies can sometimes be added if they can be identified). Modern thin clients address this limitation via port mapping or USB redirection software. However, these methods cannot address all use case scenarios. Therefore, it is good practice to perform validation tests of locally attached peripherals in advance to ensure compatibility. Further, in large distributed desktop environments, printers are often networked, negating the need for device drivers on every desktop.
While running local productivity applications goes beyond the normal scope of a thin client, it is sometimes needed in rare use cases. License restrictions that apply to thin clients can sometimes prevent them from supporting these applications. Local storage constraints may also limit the space required to install large applications or application suites.
It is also important to acknowledge that network bandwidth and performance is more critical in any type of cloud-based computing model. IT organizations must ensure that their network can accommodate the number of users that they need to serve. If demand for bandwidth exceeds network limits, it could result in a major loss of end user productivity.
A similar risk exists inside the data center. Servers must be sized correctly in order to deliver adequate performance to end users. In a cloud-based computing model, the servers can also represent a single point of failure risk. If a server fails, end users lose access to all of the resources supported by that server. This risk can be mitigated by building redundancies, fail-over processes, backups, and load balancing utilities into the system.
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Thin clients have their roots in multi-user systems, traditionally mainframes accessed by some sort of terminal computer. As computer graphics matured, these terminals transitioned from providing a command-line interface to a full graphical user interface, as is common on modern advanced thin clients. The prototypical multiuser environment along these lines, Unix, began to support fully graphical X terminals, i.e., devices running display server software, from about 1984. X terminals remained relatively popular even after the arrival of other thin clients in the mid-late 1990s. Modern Unix derivatives like BSD and Linux continue the tradition of the multi-user, remote display/input session. Typically, X software is not made available on non-X-based thin clients, although no technical reason for this exclusion would prevent it.
Windows NT became capable of multi-user operations primarily through the efforts of Citrix Systems, which repackaged NT 3.5.1 as the multi-user operating system WinFrame in 1995. Microsoft licensed this technology back from Citrix and implemented it into Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition, under a project codenamed ‘Hydra’. Windows NT then became the basis of Windows 2000 and Windows XP. As of 2011[update] Microsoft Windows systems support graphical terminals via the Remote Desktop Services component.
The term thin client was coined in 1993 by Tim Negris, VP of Server Marketing at Oracle Corp., while working with company founder Larry Ellison on the launch of Oracle 7. At the time, Oracle wished to differentiate their server oriented software from Microsoft’s desktop oriented products. Ellison subsequently popularized Negris’ buzzword with frequent use in his speeches and interviews about Oracle products. Ellison would go on to be a founding board member of thin client maker Network Computer, Inc (NCI), later renamed Liberate.
The term stuck for several reasons. The earlier term ‘graphical terminal’ had been chosen to distinguish such terminals from text-based terminals, and thus put the emphasis heavily on graphics - which became obsolete as a distinguishing characteristic in the 1990s as text-only physical terminals themselves became obsolete, and text-only computer systems (a few of which existed in the 1980s) were no longer manufactured. The term ‘thin client’ also conveys better what was then viewed as the fundamental difference: thin clients can be designed with less expensive hardware, because they have reduced computational workloads.
By the 2010s, however, thin clients were not the only desktop devices for general purpose computing that were ‘thin’ - in the sense of having a small form factor and being relatively inexpensive. The Nettop form factor for desktop PCs was introduced, and nettops could run full feature Windows or Linux; tablets and tablet-laptop hybrids had also entered the market. However, while there was now little size difference, thin clients retained some key advantages over these competitors, such as not needing a local drive. However, ‘thin client’ can be a misnomer for slim form factor computers using flash memory such as compactflash, SD card, or permanent flash memory as a hard disk substitute.
Thin client variants
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While a traditional thin client is streamlined for multi-protocol client-server communication, it still contains a full operating system. A zero client makes use of very lightweight firmware that merely initializes network communication through a basic GUI (Graphical User Interface), decodes display information received from the server, and sends local input back to the host. A device with such simple functionality has less demand for complex hardware or silicon, and therefore becomes less prone to obsolescence. Another key benefit of the zero client model is that its lightweight firmware represents an ultra-small attack surface making it more secure than a thin client. Further, the local firmware is so simple that it requires very little setup or ongoing administration. It's the ultimate in desktop simplification but the trade-off is flexibility. Most mainstream zero clients are optimized for one communication protocol only. This limits the number of host environments that a zero client can provide its users with access to.
Web clients only provide a web browser, and rely on web applications to provide general-purpose computing functionality. However, note that web applications may use web storage to store some data locally, e.g. for "offline mode", and they can perform significant processing tasks as well. Rich Internet Applications for instance may cross the boundary, and HTML5 Web Applications can leverage browsers as run-time environments through the use of a cache manifest or so called "packaged apps" (in Firefox OS and Chrome).
Chromebooks and Chromeboxes also have the capability of remote desktop using the free Chrome Remote Desktop browser extension, which means, other than being a web thin client, they can also be used as an ultra-thin client (see above) to access PC or Mac applications that do not run on the Chromebook directly. Indeed, they can be used as a web thin client and an ultra-thin-client simultaneously, with the user switching between web browser and PC or Mac application windows with a click.
Chromebooks are also able to store user documents locally – though, with the exception of media files (which have a dedicated player application to play them), all such files can only be opened and processed with web applications, since traditional desktop applications cannot be installed in Chrome OS.
Repurposing a PC as a thin client
The following tools/solutions can allow a PC to be used as a thin client – in some cases, even if it has no working hard drive:
- Software Thin Client
- Linux Terminal Server Project
- Puppy Linux
- Remote desktop software
- V2 Cloud Client
- IGEL Technology UDC2 or Universal Desktop Converter 2
List of protocols used by thin clients
- Appliance Link Protocol
- Citrix ICA or Independent Computing Architecture
- Citrix HDX
- HP RGS or Remote Graphics Software
- LTSP or Linux Terminal Server Project
- PCoIP or PC over IP
- various video codecs
- Microsoft RDP or Remote Desktop Protocol
- Microsoft RemoteFX or RFX
- Secure Shell or SSH, an encrypted replacement for telnet.
- Virtual Network Computing
- X11, central to traditional Unix graphical windowing systems
- XML, HTML, or JSON over HTTP (Ajax)
- NoMachine NX Software (NX)
- SPICE (protocol)
- Blade PC
- Centralized computing
- Desktop Virtualization
- Dumb terminal
- Fat client
- Hybrid client
- Multiseat configuration
- Smart client
- Terminal services
- Univention Corporate Client (UCC), an Open Source solution for the central management of PCs, notebooks and thin clients
- Windows PE
- AOL TV
- X11, central to Unix windowing
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DPI is the most widespread term, but the correct thing would be to talk about CPI in gaming mice.
One of the most important components to play video games on PC is the mouse. Currently there are many options to have the best experience in front of the computer, but some aspects must be taken into account. You can see them best cheap gaming mice for pcwhere you will find terms like DPI or CPI. If you don’t know what these acronyms refer to, today we tell you the fundamental differences between DPI and CPI in mice.
What does DPI and CPI mean?
Before seeing these differences, it is necessary to define the meaning of both terms. On one side, DPI (Dots per Inch) is a unit of measurement for print resolutions that refers to the dots per inch (dpi). It is the system of higher definition printers to achieve sharper and more detailed prints, so the more number of points per inch, better resolution is obtained. Incorrectly it is also used to measure the sensitivity of a mousebeing the distance the mouse travels per inch.
For example, Logitech’s top rated gaming mouse has 25,600 DPI, so for every inch (2.54 cm), the mouse will move up to 25,600 pixels on the screen. Although DPI is the most widely used term among major brands, it is a incorrect nomenclature which is actually called CPI (Counts per Inch)a measure to determine the distance the mouse travels per screen jumps.
Differences between DPI and CPI in a gaming mouse
Now that you know what each term means, we can only summarize the main differences. The DPI is a resolution measure that applies to images, while the CPI is a measure of space which determines how many pixels it travels per inch. Therefore, you shouldn’t talk about DPI in mice and yes from CPI.
Manufacturers use the former term to refer to CPIs because it is more familiarso in this case both refer to the same thing and try to measure sensitivity of the mouse with the pixels that it travels on the screen per inch in physical movement of the same. This data is especially interesting for gamers to have a more precise control in video games, as the sensitivity of the mouse can be set as needed.
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Hi Health Beauties
To those who don't already know, Vitamin A is a an organic compound needed for the human body as a nutrient for various roles and functions such as
- Boost our immune system
- Enhance growth and repair
- Assist cells and organs carrying out their jobs.
In this post I'll give you a breakdown on our first vitamin. VITAMIN A
Benefits of Vitamin A
- flourishing skin
- keeps intestines,mouth,nose,throat and lungs healthy.
-required for sight
Where can we get Vitamin A from?
This vitamin can be gained from the fats and oils of both animal and plant foods.such foods are dark orange and green veg such as carrots,broccoli,peppers,yellow melons and peaches. Animal foods include; liver (sounds repulsive but boy its so damn good for you peeps) milk, cheese and egg yolks.
Lack of this vitamin can result in a Vitamin A deficiency. you could experience symptoms such as bad acne, weak hair and nails , rapid weight loss , slow development of bones and faulty teeth..and quite honestly much much worse.
So to conclude guys, make sure you get enough of this nutrient. put down the choco bar and have a CARROT! you wont regret it.
Vitamin A ? yeah budddddy!
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In 2020, the Minneapolis Fed was given a special assignment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic—to set up and lead one of the Federal Reserve System’s emergency lending facilities. The Paycheck Protection Program Liquidity Facility, or PPPLF, was created jointly with the U.S. Treasury for the purpose of supporting lenders who provide even the smallest businesses with forgivable loans through the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP.
Emergency lending in action
First, a quick review of the PPP: the Small Business Administration (SBA) started the PPP at the beginning of the pandemic once the program was established by the CARES Act. The PPP provides payroll support to small businesses. PPP loans are guaranteed by the SBA and are forgivable if loan proceeds are used to keep employees on the payroll or pay related expenses. The first round of PPP funding was available from April to August in 2020.
To increase the effectiveness of the PPP, the Federal Reserve established the PPPLF as an emergency lending program, with the Minneapolis Fed at the helm.1 The PPPLF was designed to supply liquidity to SBA-approved PPP lenders in order to increase their lending capacity and confidence to make PPP loans. The PPPLF is similar to other emergency lending facilities set up during the 2007-08 financial crisis that provided backstop funding to a wide variety of markets.
On April 16, 2020, the PPPLF began operations by making advances to banks, savings associations, and credit unions. On April 30, 2020, the Federal Reserve expanded the PPPLF to include nonbank PPP lenders, such as community development financial institutions (CDFIs) certified by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, small business lending companies licensed and regulated by the SBA, agricultural credit associations that are members of the Farm Credit System, and some fintech firms.
The image below depicts the relationships between the small business owners, PPP lenders, and the Federal Reserve.2
How the PPPLF works
A second round of PPP funding, established by the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act, was available from January to May of 2021. Through May 31, 2021, the SBA had approved 11.8 million PPP loans totaling $800 billion.
Among banks that have participated in the PPPLF, community banks (those with $10 billion or less in assets) received more than 90 percent of total PPPLF advances.3 One of those community banks that is also a certified CDFI is Sunrise Banks of St. Paul, Minn. When asked about Sunrise Banks’ participation, Chief Executive Officer David Reiling said that “this is an opportunity that represents a ‘bigger than us’ moment. We’re being called to serve our country and get these funds out the door so we can keep people employed and keep our economy running. Together we need to save Main Street.”
PPPLF volume overview
As of May 2021, north of $80 billion in liquidity was extended to PPPLF participants. For nonbanks, their participation in the PPPLF has steadily increased as the figure above shows. Nonbanks frequently reached small businesses that may not have traditional banking relationships. The average PPP loan originated by nonbanks was significantly smaller than that of banks.
How PPP lenders helped meet the need
PPP lenders who borrowed from the facility each had specific reasons to participate. We asked a few participants about their journey through PPP lending and how the facility has helped them better serve their customers. Here’s what they had to say:
Brian Choi, chief financial officer, speaking for Centerstone SBA Lending Inc., Los Angeles, Calif.: The PPP has impacted our organization in a very positive way, from allowing us to provide the much-needed assistance to our existing 7(a) borrowers as well as to provide PPP loans to new borrowers, allowing them to continue operations and, more importantly, to continue to pay employees in these uncertain times. As we transitioned to PPP round two in 2021, we were able to expand our PPP borrower base from approximately 900 to over 1,800, representing approximately $109 million and $160 million in total PPP funding, respectively. The two rounds of PPP not only assisted the thousands of small business owners by providing the extra liquidity needed to continue to fund payroll and keep businesses open, but it also helped our organization through origination fees earned for each PPP loan funded.
Without the Federal Reserve’s PPPLF, our organization would not have been able to fund the number of loans (volume and dollar amount) that we did, as we are not a depository institution and heavily rely on our warehouse line with our banking institution to fund our loans. That we had access to credit with the PPPLF’s lower interest rate made originating PPP loans economical for our organization. We would not have been able to help the thousands of small business owners without the PPPLF.
Throughout this process, we were able to forge close relationships with our borrowers. We received many words of praise and appreciation from our borrowers, and we were happy that we could play a part, however small, to assist small business owners during this time.
Chris Hurn, chief executive officer, speaking for Fountainhead SBF LLC, Lake Mary, Fla.: The PPP enabled us to help a tremendous number of small businesses in their time of need. We sacrificed a significant amount of our time and resources to help out, but we were honored to be in a position to contribute so much to so many. The turmoil of the time also had the added benefit of bringing our team much closer together, despite most working from home. We sometimes say that we squeezed 10 pressure-packed years into that time period (since last April), which improved all of our skills immeasurably.
As one of the very first (if not the first) small business lending companies to utilize the PPPLF, we knew how important this access to liquidity would be for us and our ability to fund more small businesses. Without it, we simply wouldn’t have been able to be as impactful as we were. The PPPLF was a critical piece of our operations.
This has been a tremendous public-private partnership in the truest sense, and we’re very grateful to have been a part of it.
Luke Lahaie, chief investment officer of ACAP, speaking for the Loan Source Inc., New York, N.Y.: The PPP has been a catalyst of growth for our organization. By focusing on the PPP, we have been able to establish and grow one of the largest SBA-focused servicing companies (ACAP) in the U.S., as well as help the Loan Source become one of the country’s largest nonbank SBA lenders.
The PPPLF has been the key to executing our growth plan for the PPP. Without the PPPLF, we would not even have gotten started with our purchase or origination program. The amount of liquidity needed and low rate of interest on the underlying loans prevented us from obtaining third-party funding for PPP loans. The Fed’s program to establish the PPPLF was the difference maker for us to participate (we now have originated over $11 billion in loans), and from my discussions around the industry, it’s been instrumental for banks and nonbanks alike to participate in the program. Without the PPPLF, I think the entire PPP effort would have been smaller scale and only participated in by larger banks. Additionally, there would not be a secondary market. The secondary market has proven valuable for banks that were able to originate loans but don’t have the infrastructure and/or desire to service the loans for two to five years.
Mark Schmidt, chief executive officer, speaking for Fund-Ex Solutions Group LLC, Syracuse, N.Y.: The PPP had a profound impact on our small and relatively new company. We were just starting to hit stride when the pandemic arrived in March. After a few weeks of uncertainty about whether to participate and to what extent (primarily due to funding constraints), the PPPLF solved our funding issues, and we pivoted quickly to PPP. We threw almost all of our company’s resources at the PPP—along with about 40 staff members that were “borrowed” from our parent company.
The rapidly evolving nature of the PPP and the overwhelming immediate needs of small businesses posed many challenges, but we were able to meet those challenges thanks to the tireless efforts and incredibly long days, hours, and weeks on the part of FSG staff. We also focused heavily on customer service and provided hands-on assistance to a large majority of our PPP borrowers. We are proud to say that our young company has advanced over $220 million in PPP loans to over 1,400 small businesses with about 20,000 total employees.
Without the PPPLF, we would have had extremely limited means with which to finance PPP loans, especially given the 1 percent interest rate on those loans. We most likely would have made very few PPP loans and focused primarily on our existing small business 7(a) borrowers. In other words, PPPLF made all the difference for FSG and is the sole reason we were able to participate in the PPP.
From my perspective, the PPP was a resounding success. That could not have happened without the tremendous efforts of all who contributed—including the SBA, Treasury, Federal Reserve, and lending staff. Despite the time pressures and uncertainties—especially in the early days of the program—many thousands of businesses and employees were helped during this particularly difficult and unprecedented crisis.
Minneapolis is honored to play a part
From banks to nonbanks, PPP lenders were able to reach more borrowers, keep more employees on the payroll, and ultimately decrease COVID-19’s negative impact on many more businesses and individuals than would have been possible otherwise. The Minneapolis Fed, on behalf of the Board of Governors, is honored to be part of this public-private partnership through our role supporting the liquidity and stability of the U.S. financial system.
1 The PPPLF was established with approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, under section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act.
2 See also Conversations with the Fed session presentation by Christine Gaffney, "Paycheck Protection Liquidity Facility: Supporting American Workers in a Time of Crisis," April 6, 2021.
3 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Financial Stability Report, May 2021, p. 33 (accessed June 18, 2021).
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Learn something new every day
More Info... by email
Listing the side effects of aspartame sparks controversy because there are many clams about the adverse properties of this artificial sweetener that are not verified by traditional medical sources. Some of the worst claims include that aspartame results in brain cancers (inferred from a study on rats), or that this sweetener causes seizures. Despite the many unsubstantiated claims, there is verified information about the side effects that may affect some people, including digestive problems, headaches, and dizziness.
People might most associate aspartame with diet sodas, but it can be present in a number of sweetened foods and is occasionally placed in medications to alter their taste. It’s not clear that rare and moderate use of aspartame always results in most reported side effects, but there is strong suggestion that routine use, which replicates some of the circumstances under which it has been studied, is problematic for some people.
First among the side effects of aspartame is diarrhea, especially when large amounts of the product are consumed. This is not the only artificial sweetener that causes this effect. Another commonly reported side effect is headache, and it appears from human testing that people already prone to get migraines might be most at risk for developing this symptom. An increase in headaches could be a reason to say no to a diet drink and accept a cool glass of water instead. Dizziness is an another relatively common side effect.
The rate at which these side effects occur is pretty limited, and about 4 to 10% of the population might suffer them. Aspartame doesn’t cause people to feel “sugar-sated” and dieters who use it may consume more calories than dieters who don’t. It’s not clear that it causes people to crave sweets, but it certainly doesn’t alleviate cravings and may not aid diets.
People with phenylketonuria (PKU) should never consume aspartame because it has phenylalanines in it and can make them very ill. Those who have mental disorders, particularly depression or mood disorders, may want to consider a study done on aspartame and depression, which had to be canceled because the first dozen people tested had a sharp increase in depression symptoms.
Ultimately, people must decide if the side effects of aspartame outweigh the potential benefits it might hold. There are many who advocate the product be removed from the market and feel that regulating agencies like the US Food and Drug Administration are not doing their jobs in regard to aspartame. Others suggest that like all things, moderate use is the key, and infrequent consumption is unlikely to cause lasting side effects for most people.
I am using sugar free tablets in milk or tea. When I increase the quantity, I get the feeling of my body or head jerking during sound sleep. My partner noticed, but I don't know what is the root cause. Can you please explain what is the reason?
One of our editors will review your suggestion and make changes if warranted. Note that depending on the number of suggestions we receive, this can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Thank you for helping to improve wiseGEEK!
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Whether spring has sprung or has yet to appear in your neck of the woods, seasonal decorations are a great way to cheer up a classroom and can serve as an introduction to lessons on weather, local flora, holidays and more. Changing decorations regularly helps provide a visual structure for the school year. If you buy sturdy weather classroom decorations, a little care when removing them will help them last for years. If you make your own, creating decorations with your students provides a break from the usual lessons while helping them learn about plants and weather. Consider these options for spring decorations that will look lovely and help your students grasp the concepts around changing seasons.
Frost bites the dust. The last frost is a sign of spring, but do your students know when that is? Set up a Frost Watch with snowflakes and have students write in the previous day's low temp. Ask if that means if a frost did occur, or if they noticed frost on their way to school. Announce the last frost and remove the weather classroom decorations when the last frost has occurred.
April showers-- but how much does April shower? Use dry erase window clings to track spring rain fall. Have your students draw rain clouds on the window clings and write in the amount of precipitation after each time it rains. If your grade has studied clouds, have them draw nimbus clouds, the cloud type most associated with rain.
Those April showers do bring May flowers, but what kind of flowers bloom in your area? Find out what is in bloom in your area, and have your students create paper versions of these blossoms. Your students will develop an awareness of the nature surrounding them that goes beyond what a textbook can offer.
Teach your students about the actual birds and bees. Feature birds returning from migration in your decorations, and discuss the bees that pollinate the flowers in your area with a chart on beehive hierarchy.
The countdown to summer approaches. Track the rising temps with a thermometer cling. Your students will fill in the day's projected high, and you can track the month's weather on a separate chart. As students spend much of their day in climate-controlled buildings and vehicles, weather classroom decorations help them connect to nature even when they can't experience it directly.
These ideas will offer your students the chance to expand on science curriculum and practice art concepts while seeing their art displayed proudly.
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- Life in the Project
- Travel Info
- Language Training
- Whats Included?
- How to Apply?
- After You Apply
- Cost and Dates
- Project FAQs
- General FAQs
This project involves teaching English in underprivileged public schools with limited economic resources located in the south and central parts of Quito, the areas of the city where the low economic classes live. These schools lack many resources and qualified or motivated teachers, while the students are often unmotivated or uninterested in learning. The opportunity to learn English for these children could mean the chance to get a good job in the future, so volunteers teaching these students English could literally change their lives. Volunteers will teach English to classes of primary school children between the ages of 5 and 12 years, as well as assist other teachers in class planning and preparing class materials. This project is the ultimate experience in teaching and education in impoverished urban areas, as well as the opportunity to make a difference and truly inspire young children looking for a friend and a role model.
Working with children is one of most fulfilling jobs. Among the things that most touch the volunteers are the simplicity and humility of these children, who are often happy and content just to have a hug. The project’s location in the center of Quito also allows volunteers the chance to get to know parts of the city visitors rarely see. Volunteers can also take advantage of their location in a metropolitan city with a rich colonial history, so they will never be bored!
|Location||Quito (Andes Mountain)|
|Distance from Quito||About 45 minutes by bus|
|Housing||Volunteer Apartment or Host Family|
|Do i need to speak spanish?||Intermediate Spanish required|
|Age Limit||At least 18 years of age, no maximum age limit.|
|Free-time Activities||Sites and tours around Quito’s Historical Center, Mitad del Mundo, Museums, Teleferico, Panecillo; many parks, shopping centers, restaurants, and clubs to meet up with friends.|
|Nearest Health Centre||Hospitals and major health clinics are located throughout the city, about 15 minutes from the project site.|
This Teaching English project takes place in several deprived schools with limited economic resources located in the south and central parts of Quito. Although public schools are available to all Ecuadorian children, the associated costs of school materials, teachers, and other important resources often surpass the funds provided to the schools by the government. As a result, qualified and motivated teachers are rare and limited and outdated classroom materials are rare. Furthermore, most of the children come from lower class families that have may have issues with child neglect, abuse, and alcoholism. As a result, the children often have poor attendance, low motivation, and learning disorders which often go unnoticed due to the shortage of teachers.
Due to the scarce economic resources of these schools, the number of teachers in relation to students is unbalanced. Currently, there is only one English teacher for all of the 178 students and for all of the grades at the elementary school. As a result, this project seeks volunteers to collaborate in the educational sector and lend continuity and development to the learning process. Volunteers will assist in teaching English to classes of 20 to 30 elementary school children, between the ages of 5 an d 12 years. It is essential that volunteers offer the children positive reinforcement and personalized attention in order to build up the students’ self-confidence in the classroom. Volunteers should also reinforce classes with group and interactive activities as the teacher may not have the time or training to plan such activities for all of the classes.
Why the Project Needs Volunteers
The activities taken on by the volunteers improve the skills of the teachers at the schools by suggesting new teaching methods, building ties with the children, and reinforcing classroom activities to obtain better results every day, every hour, every minute, and every second of work with the most important human resource that we have—our children. Volunteers are essential to collaborate in the educational sector and lend continuity and development to the learning process, while giving children the gift of self-confidence and, ideally, a deeper interest in learning.
Volunteers are mainly involved with teaching English and other subjects and with supporting other teachers at the school. Volunteers also have the opportunity to develop and implement educational activities and extracurricular activities that develop the children’s creativity and interest in learning. If possible, the volunteer can also organize field trips and excursions to complement the classroom topics. It is essential that volunteers take into account the facilities and resources available and establish intercultural relations with the children inside and outside the classroom.
Life in the Project
Volunteers have a choice of one of two accommodations. The first is a host family, where the volunteer will have a private room, either shared or private bathroom, 3 meals daily and laundry service. There is sometimes but not always internet access at the host family’s house. The second option is our Volunteer Apartment, which has two shared bedrooms, shared bathrooms, and a communal living and kitchen area. Breakfast is included, wifi internet and cable television available, and the kitchen free for anyone’s use.
With host families, volunteers generally eat with the family and are given 3 meals a day, though volunteers with specific dietary needs may have trouble eating the same meals as the family. At the Volunteer Apartment, the Apartment Coordinator makes continental breakfast. Volunteers are free to buy and prepare their own lunch and dinner or eat out at restaurants.
The project runs during the school year, which lasts from September to June. Volunteers are expected to work 20 – 40 hours per week, Monday through Friday. The schools open at 7:00 am and close at 1:00 pm
Free Time Activities
Volunteers mostly have free time on weekends and during holidays. During free time, volunteers can take trips to other parts of the country or stay in the city to get to know better the local people and the wealth of cultural and tourist sites that Quito offers.
Quito, the capital city of Ecuador, is considered one of the most beautiful cities in Latin America. It is located at the foot of the volcano Pichincha and surrounded by grandiose mountains. The streets and houses of Quito are both colonial and modern, and the people are proud to conserve their traditions and history.
As in any metropolitan city, Quito is home to great cultural diversity. Although the volunteers will work within the environment that surrounds them in the childcare centers in the south of the city, they will develop their private life in the residential areas located at the north end of the city. In the north of Quito, most of the families are middle and upper class with access to technology, internet, and a better quality of food, education, and multicultural knowledge. This enables the day-to-day activities and lifestyle of volunteers to be comfortable and minimizes the effects of culture shock during their time in Ecuador.
Like any large city, there are people of different nationalities living in Quito. In different parts of the city, you may see stores and restaurants that reflect different cultures and countries. There is a Bohemian sector called Guapalo in the east of the city, and the Mariscal sector in the center of the city has a mixture of Middle Eastern, British, and American food as well as the heart of Quito’s nightlife in the Plaza Foch. This variety makes Quito a diverse and fun place to live, so be sure to take advantage of all the city has to offer!
• Have teaching experience (preferably, teaching English) and/or a desire to study a related career
• Have the patience to work with school-age children
• Be team-oriented and able to maintain good working relationships
Volunteers should be at least 18 years of age, though exceptions can be made for families or high school groups. There is no maximum age limit.
An intermediate level of Spanish is required to be able to make a significant contribution to the project.
Hepatitis A & B, tetanus, typhoid, diphtheria, and rabies (optional)
Travel insurance is required of ALL volunteers and must cover: 1) transportation in case of emergency, and 2) repatriation in case of death.
Volunteers should fly into the Quito Mariscal International Airport (airport code UIO) and plan for 2 business days in Quito before going to their project site. For volunteers under 18 years of age, it is important they have a Minor Consent Form signed by their parents to permit them to fly internationally.
Ecuador Volunteer will meet volunteers at the airport in Quito to transfer them to their accommodations in Quito. We will also assist the volunteers in arranging accommodations (host families, volunteer apartment, or hostel). On the following business day, volunteers will have an Orientation (safety and security, travel information, and cultural orientation) before heading to their project site.
For a stay of less than 90 days, volunteers from most North American, Asian, and European countries can enter without a visa (indicate the purpose of your stay as “tourism” at immigration). An extended tourist visa may be issued to volunteers for 90 to 180 days (for the purpose of “tourism”). For volunteers staying for more than 180 days, Ecuador Volunteer can help them attain a volunteer visa. If you are unsure of visa requirements for citizens of your country, please contact the nearest Ecuadorian Consulate or Embassy.
Safety and Insurance
Travel insurance is required of ALL volunteers for the entirety of their stay and must cover: 1) transportation in case of emergency, and 2) repatriation in case of death. No exceptions will be made, and volunteers must leave their insurance information with Ecuador Volunteer in case of an emergency.
Ecuador’s large cities have hospitals and clinics equipped with the latest in medical technologies, while smaller and medium-sized cities have hospitals and clinics equipped to handle basic medical emergencies. Smaller towns often have local clinics to handle basic healthcare, but volunteers will have to travel to the nearest city if there is a major health problem. Ecuador Volunteer has an Emergency Response Plan in place to handle medical emergencies. It is important that volunteers disclose all relevant health conditions so that project coordinators are prepared for any sudden health problems.
Highly recommended for all volunteers: Hepatitis A & B, tetanus, typhoid, diphtheria. For projects located in the Amazon Rainforest region, we also recommend the Yellow Fever Vaccination and malaria pills. For projects that involve work with animals, the volunteer may want to receive a rabies vaccination as well.
Language and Training
Ecuador Volunteer works alongside a qualified Spanish school, Equinox Spanish School, in Quito, and many volunteers have taken intensive language courses to improve their Spanish before entering their project. One-to-one intensive courses (4 hours/day, Monday to Friday) are most popular for volunteers, and cost $125 per week. The Spanish School also offers classes per hour and a Comprehensive Program that includes guided group tours and activities around Quito. If volunteers are interested, Ecuador Volunteer can help them organize Spanish courses.
• Airport pick-up service from the airport to accommodations in Quito (one way).
• In-country informational workshop to highlight aspects of the project(s).
• In-country workshop upon arrival on safety and security tips and information, and a cultural introduction to Ecuador to help volunteers with the effects of culture shock.
• 24 / 7 contact in case of emergencies, health problems, or similar problems.
• Monitoring and regular check-ins during the volunteer program.
• Training Workshop and Orientation (mandatory for all volunteers).
• International phone call in our office in Quito to contact family.
• International phone calls and Internet service in our office in Quito in case of emergency.
• Local phone calls to landline numbers from our office in Quito.
• Pre-arrival information about activities around the country for the volunteer during his/her free time.
• Certificate of Participation when the volunteer has completed his/her volunteer program (upon request).
• Accommodation and food that is included in the program costs, 1-3 meals per day from Monday to Friday (depending on project and accommodation).
• International Airline tickets or fees related to travel.
• Visa costs and expenses related to the necessary paper work.
• Travel insurance (a travel insurance that includes repatriation in case of emergency or death is required of ALL volunteers).
• Costs associated with vaccinations and personal medications.
• Meals or food outside of the program, including weekends (depending on project and accommodation).
• Land or air transportation within the country (in Quito, from Quito to project site, etc).
• Expenses related with cultural and/or tourist activities during free time.
• Airport drop-off service to go back to home country.
• Personal expenses / Items for personal use (such as laundry service, medicine, daily internet use, or phone calls).
How to Apply
Follow the Four C’s
- Confirm your interest in a project(s).
- Choose your participation dates.
- Check you meet the project requirements.
- Complete the Registration Form.
After You Apply
Things to do
- Once accepted, pay your minimum deposit ($250) to officially reserve your spot.
- Book your flight to Quito.
- Turn in a digital copy of your passport, flight itinerary, and travel insurance.
- If necessary, get the necessary paperwork or visa to travel to Ecuador.
- If possible, pay your program costs before arrival.
- Read the pre-arrival information sent by EVF to prepare for your trip.
- Get excited for the experience of a lifetime!
Costs & Dates
2 weeks: 350 USD
4 weeks: 700 USD
6 weeks: 1050 USD
8 weeks: 1400 USD
10 weeks: 1750 USD
Additional week: 140 USD
Select your Date
You can start your program in the following dates:
|November 2013||3rd o 17th|
|December 2013||8th o 22nd|
|January 2014||5th o 19th|
|February 2014||2nd o 16th|
|March 2014||2nd o 16th|
|April 2014||6th o 20th|
|May 2014||4th o 18th|
|June 2014||1st o 15th|
|July 2014||6th o 20th|
|August 2014||3rd o 24|
|September 2014||7th o 21st|
|October 2014||5th o 19th|
|November 2014||2nd o 16th|
|December 2014||7th o 21st|
1. Will there be other volunteers there when I go?
As in all of our projects, Ecuador Volunteer cannot guarantee there will be other volunteers at the Organic Farm during your same volunteer dates. You can check around 4 weeks before to see if anyone else has signed up, but keep in mind people do sign up at the last minute some of the time. Do not let this be the deciding factor; remember you will be with a family with a lot of activities to keep you busy.
2. Can I take time from the project to travel?
All of our projects are flexible and understanding of your interest in traveling and seeing different parts of Ecuador. If you would like to take a few extra days for a long weekend once a month, just let the family know and there should not be any problem. Please keep in mind that your primary concern should be your volunteer project, so do not take a long weekend every week.
3. Why can’t I live closer to the schools?
Unfortunately, the schools we work with are located in areas that, at night, can be quite dangerous though our volunteers have never had any problems during the day. Our pre-arranged accommodations are located in safer areas where volunteers do not have to be worried about waiting to catch a taxi or going to the corner store. Our host families have worked with our organization for years and are trusted families to host our volunteers, so it is safer and more comfortable for volunteers to stay with the pre-arranged accommodations.
4. Which is a better choice for accommodations, the Volunteer Apartment or a host family?
The best housing option for you will depend on what your expectations are. If you are in Ecuador to improve your Spanish and learn about the Ecuadorian culture through direct interaction with Ecuadorians, then the host family will be the ideal situation for you. The families are very open and welcoming, and volunteers truly become part of the family. The Volunteer Apartment allows volunteers more freedom and the chance to interact with other volunteers. If you are more interested in making friends with fellow volunteers, then the Volunteer Apartment may be the best option as volunteers often form strong bonds.
1. What is the principle function of the Ecuador Volunteer Foundation?
The Ecuador Volunteer Foundation is a non-profit organization whose principle function is to select and train volunteers and create a bridge between them and local community projects throughout Ecuador.
2. Is the Ecuador Volunteer Foundation authorized to operate?
The Ecuador Volunteer Foundation has been legally authorized in Ecuador, as recognized by Ministerial Resolution Nº 0350 and is one of the few volunteer organizations in Ecuador authorized by the government to select national and international volunteers.
3. How long should I be in Quito before I begin volunteer work?
Volunteers should be in Quito for about two or three days before beginning any work. This allows enough time for the volunteer to obtain all necessary information about their project, important guidelines about safety and travel, and useful advice about the culture, and challenges of the project to prepare him or her for culture shock. If the volunteer needs to buy any personal items, sort out any paperwork, or take care of any last minute arrangements, this would be the ideal time.
4. When should I travel?
The majority of the projects are available year-round, but it is still very important to plan your trip at least one month in advance. Most volunteers travel in the late spring and early to mid-summer (April to July), but be aware these are also the most expensive times travel.
5. Why do I have to pay to volunteer?
As a non-profit and non-government entity in Ecuador, the Ecuador Volunteer Foundation does not receive financial support from any public or private organization. The Ecuadorian government offers little to no grants for non-governmental organizations, so Ecuador Volunteer relies on volunteer contributions in the form of Registration and Support fees to allow the organization to carry out the functions and services provided to volunteers.
Furthermore, the daily project costs are essential for projects to be able to host volunteers. Nearly all our projects take place in communities with limited economic resources, so in most cases supporting a volunteer for free is not possible and would only cause more strain for the communities we support.
6. Where do my volunteer funds go?
Funds paid by the volunteers principally serve as a cover for administrative costs for the foundation, volunteer transportation from the airport to their accommodations in Quito, informational material, and website promotion to make our foundation as accessible as possible for future volunteers. The daily project costs go directly to the project coordinators and/or host families to allow them to buy food for volunteers and project materials to be able to complete the necessary activities.
7. Why are the project costs so low?
Our main focus is to improve the quality of life for the communities we support through intercultural exchange and sustainable development. We coordinate our efforts in order to allow volunteers to work towards those goals through daily interaction and exchanging ideas and knowledge. We do not want communities to rely on the financial support of volunteers, but rather the cultural and interpersonal support they bring. This is how we distinguish ourselves from other organizations– by looking into all alternatives in order to find the best possible way to allow volunteers to live comfortably in Ecuador, while always being mindful of volunteer’s selflessness.
8. How and when can I pay my program fees to Ecuador Volunteer?
At the moment, you can pay via bank transfer, Western Union, or check (only in the US). We ask you to complete your payment in full before your arrival in Ecuador. For more information to complete your payments, email [email protected].
9. What is Ecuador Volunteer’s refund policy?
Ecuador Volunteer operates on a strict no-refund policy, with certain exceptions made in cases of emergency. It is important that volunteers make concrete plans before committing, otherwise they should be prepared to lose the unused funds. If a volunteer is not sure about their exact travel or volunteer dates, they should commit to a minimum number of weeks or months, then pay the remaining balance if they decide to volunteer longer.
This post is also available in: Spanish
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Terry Fellows, Liverpool
This is, thankfully, a question founded on hypothesis: there is, of course, a wide portfolio of actions we all could and should be trying to do in unison to tackle climate change as opposed to a single one-off act, but it is still an intriguing query to ponder. Toss this question around among a handful of people and a few predictable answers fly back immediately - get rid of your car, become a vegan, don't have any children, don't fly, insulate your home.
If you keep on boiling the answers down, you start to reach a thick, sticky conclusion that says flicking the switch on humanity itself is just about the only act that will ultimately make any difference in the grand geophysical scheme of things. But the concept of self-extinction isn't much of a vote-winner these days. So back in the real world of Saving the Planet™, what are the biggies - the things that will truly make a difference?
The Union of Concerned Scientists, a US-based "alliance of more than 200,000 citizens and scientists ... working for a healthy environment and a safer world", says that the "most important personal climate decision" you can take is choosing what car you drive. (It doesn't actually recommend not having a car, but that may be just too unpalatable for its US audience.)
Greenpeace believes the single most important thing you can do is concentrate on reducing energy use at home. It cites the Energy Savings Trust that says the powering, lighting and heating of our homes is responsible for 27% of the UK's carbon dioxide emissions. In comparison, the transportation of people accounts for 15% of emissions. But then again, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation recently said that livestock farming across the world generates more greenhouse gas emissions - 18% - than all the world's transportation needs. And then there's the Optimum Population Trust, which believes that the UK's population level in the 22nd century may need to fall to 30 million in order to be environmentally sustainable. It says that "stopping at two children is probably the most effective action that people can take to halt climate change".
Now, if someone could just work out the varying carbon emissions that would result from ticking the different boxes on a ballot paper, then we would have all the information we need at our disposal ...
· Post questions and answers to Ask Leo
The Guardian, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1 3ER Fax: 020-7713 4366. Email: [email protected] Please include your address and telephone number.
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A quick look at your toddler's growth.
16 Month Old Toddler
This is the age of climbing for many toddlers who, once they have mastered walking, seem to want to see the world from a higher vantage point. Couches, chairs, benches and even bookcases will all provide an opportunity for your 16 month old to scale onwards and upwards on their sturdy little legs. You’ll be constantly surprised this month about how they interpret different household objects and the imaginative ways they’ll use them. Containers become hats; empty tissue boxes are really shoes and your handbag the latest “must have” fashion item to be paraded around the house. When you have a toddler in the house, everyday life takes on another dimension. They tend to be noisy little people too, with little consideration for other people’s needs or belongings. For a 16 month old, what’s yours is theirs; what they want they get and there are no social niceties to adhere to.
Your toddler is too young to understand that some things are not meant to be touched or picked up, but this does not mean you can’t start some early discipline and guidance strategies. Saying “no”, removing an object and putting it somewhere safe and then offering them an alternative to play with is sufficient at this age. Distraction is a vital component of turning their attention away from a less safe activity to something more suitable. Modify your home environment so that you don’t constantly need to divert your 16 month old away from precious or unsafe items. Aim for a simple, peaceful family life. You may need to accept the fact that although your home may not appear exactly as you’d like it to for now, it is safe and suitable for a young family.
Growth and Development
Your toddler may not have fully grasped the concept of walking just yet and could be still unsure about taking their first steps. If you are concerned, have them checked by your early childhood nurse or your GP. Walking age has a genetic component and is influenced by many other factors. Make sure your toddler has lots of opportunity to practise their walking skills and isn’t spending long hours in their pram or cot, a walker or a play-pen. Even being carried in a back pack for lengthy periods can impact on time spent on the floor.
Your toddler will be able to play with blocks this month and build a tower of 3-4 on top of each other. They’ll practice the same repetitive game over and over and then delight in them all crashing to the floor. Watch them as they copy your actions and mimic your behaviour. Sweeping the floor, using a towel, opening the fridge will all be seen as wonderful games by your little one. You’ll hear yourself replicated in their voice too and although they won’t be able to speak clearly yet, the pitch and rhythm of your tone will be mimicked.
Don’t be alarmed if your toddler has flat feet just now. This is completely normal in the toddler years and it won’t be until they are around 4 years of age that the arch in their feet may develop. Likewise, their hands may still look very small with short, plump fingers. With time, all of your toddler’s bones will grow and their muscles and ligaments, joints and body shape will change considerably. How they appear now is not a snapshot of their final appearance when they have matured fully.
Play and Interaction
Get out the finger paints, non-toxic crayons and stacks of paper this month. Your toddler’s fine motor skills are further developing and they’ll delight in learning about their mastery over their hands and fingers. Glue some pasta, glitter and bits of string onto large pieces of paper and make a collage. Finger painting will be fun too and will help to create a lovely mess. Date your toddler’s art work and keep the very best of them. Over time it is lovely to look back and see how far they have developed in their skill and technique.
Go to the park when you can and encourage your toddler to climb on the equipment. Watch your own reactions to their explorations and be encouraging. Show them how to scale the ladders, swings and climbing frames safely and have a go yourself. Your 16 month old will love it when you become involved in their games.
Aim to rotate your toddler’s toys to keep them interested in the novelty of something new. Your toddler will have a very short term memory and the saying “out of sight out of mind” must have been written for a 16 month old. Avoid thinking the more money you spend on a toy the more fun it will be. Toddlers make their own games and are attracted to anything bright that fosters their imagination. Look for toys which have lots of colour and noise and which they can interact with in some way. They may even take a liking to an item of your clothing and insist on taking it wherever they go. Some toddlers develop a deep affection for quite unusual household items, particularly those made of fabrics which feel soft. This is all part of being a toddler and in the big scheme of things to be concerned about, doesn’t really rate any concern.
What you can Expect This Month
Some frustrations, anger and oppositional behaviour this month may come from your toddler. Try to stay calm and in control of your own emotions when they are having their own little meltdown. There may be times when you need to take a deep breath and just walk away for a few moments. Counting to ten, asking your partner to watch them while you have a break, or phoning a friend for a chat can all help when the heat is on. But you’ll be amazed at how quickly your toddler can turn from being an angry little person to being their happy self again. Having a short fuse and little tolerance for frustrating situations is all part and parcel of a toddler’s personality. It doesn’t take much to set them off but through you, they will learn about the qualities of patience and perseverance.
Your toddler’s concept of time still needs to develop so they won’t appreciate when you are in a rush or just want to get something done. They’re on their own time frame which means there’s bound to be a battle of wills sometimes. Allow for some interesting moments when they’ll want to dress themselves or do something which would only take you a minute. Aim to look for a compromise and give them some control and autonomy over one aspect of the job and you do the rest. Make a fuss of them and praise your toddler when they achieve a task. Giving a toddler attention is as vital to them as food – they will thrive on it so don’t be economical when it comes to telling them they’ve done a good job. They will want to please you and make you happy.
Food and Nutrition
Your toddler needs to be eating the same meals as the rest of the family now, so avoid cooking them special or separate foods. Cereals, bread and pasta, rice, milk and dairy foods, meat, fish and chicken, fruits and vegetables will supply their total nutritional requirements for growth and energy. Think about your own attitude and relationship to food and role model appropriate eating behaviours. If you are eating something, your toddler will want to try it too so be careful about what they see you putting in your own mouth.
Keep taking food with you whenever you go out and remember your toddler only has a small stomach. They will need to eat every couple of hours to satisfy their hunger and to help avoid mood swings. Processed cereal or fruit bars, packaged biscuits and processed “snack foods” are generally a less healthy alternative to simple foods which still bear some resemblance to their original state. Fresh fruit cut up into small pieces, sandwiches, cheese and crackers are all healthy choices.
Keeping Your Toddler Healthy
Check your home for poisons and chemicals which your toddler could access. Now that they are at a climbing age, the potential for them to access dangerous compounds has expanded. Think about your own habits when it comes to household products and how and where you use them. You’ll be amazed by how quickly your toddler can find a way to get to what they want. Childproof lids are not a guarantee of security so make a point of keeping all chemicals well out of reach.
• If your 16 month old is still waking during the night, think about your own responses to them. A short, brief period of reassurance and cuddling is fine; any more is being a little generous. This is the age where they may still need some reminding that you are close and will come to them when they need you.
• It is still too early to think about toilet training your toddler yet, no matter what other adults may tell you. Wait until closer to 2 years of age before you start this process. Save yourself and your toddler unnecessary stress and tension. They are simply too young just now.
• Expect big messes when there is water and dirt around. Your toddler will be drawn to dirt like a magnet. Be realistic about the clothing they wear and don’t expect them to have any respect for “good” or “special” clothing. Dress them the minute before you leave the house if you want them to stay clean and tidy.
• Have a supply of special treats just for you and your partner to eat when your toddler goes to bed at night. You deserve some positive rewards for the hard work you’re investing into parenting through these busy months.
Do you know that an average baby will need 1057 nappy changes in the first 6 months? Get exclusive promotions and free diaper samples by joining the Huggies Club now! As a member, you can also gain exclusive access to the Huggies Forum and connect with experts to get more personalized pregnancy and parenting advices.
The information published herein is intended and strictly only for informational, educational, purposes and the same shall not be misconstrued as medical advice. If you are worried about your own health, or your child’s well being, seek immediate medical advice. You should never delay seeking medical advice, disregard medical advice, or discontinue medical treatment because of information on this website. Kimberly-Clark and/ or its subsidiaries assumes no liability for the interpretation and/or use of the information contained in this article. Further, while due care and caution has been taken to ensure that the content here is free from mistakes or omissions, Kimberly-Clark and/ or its subsidiaries makes no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of the information here, and to the extent permitted by law, Kimberly-Clark and/ or its subsidiaries do not accept any liability or responsibility for claims, errors or omissions.
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As dogs’ loving friends, they associate the taste of caramel with someone being good to them. Unfortunately, not everyone is aware that some caramels contain too much the chemical acrylamide, which can potentially cause health issues for your dog.
Acrylamide comes from cooking foods or working with chemicals in the manufacturing process that then combine together and solidify. When heated at high temperatures or for long periods of time, it produces free radicals and eventually acrylamine, which are both very harmful to humans and animals.
In studies conducted on rats, acrylamide was linked to cancerous tumors and reproductive problems. It also caused neurological damage and behavioral changes. For dogs, internal exposure has been linked to digestive and kidney complications.
Caramel is a popular food flavor made by boiling sugar and water until all the liquid has evaporated. Because acrylamide will remain in any remaining liquids, including milk, when baking or toasting products, most people assume that using regular intensity baked goods like cookies, cakes, and brownies is safe.
However, not every style of caramel contains enough acrylamide to be unsafe for dogs. Some light-colored caramels, such as chocolate dipped ones, may contain less than one part per million (1 ppm), even though they are marketed as having higher amounts.
- 1 Too much caramel can cause diarrhea
- 2 Some dogs are allergic to caramel
- 3 Too much caramel can make your dog gain weight
- 4 There are many other health issues that can come from giving your dog too much caramel
- 5 Keep caramel out of your dog’s reach
- 6 Tell your dog to stay away from it
- 7 Wash your hands with soap after giving your dog any treats
- 8 Try giving your dog some of his own treats to taste test
Too much caramel can cause diarrhea
Many people adore giving their dogs caramels, but unfortunately not everyone knows what kind of caramels are safe to give your dog!
Caramel is an often-given treat that many owners enjoy preparing for their pets. Unfortunately, some types of caramel contain additives or ingredients that are not healthy for your dog. The most common ingredient in caramels is sugar, which dogs’ bodies cannot process properly. When too much sugar is consumed, it may go into excessive digestion, causing vomiting or diarrhea.
Certain colors of caramel like chocolate and strawberry also contain iron, and when enough is ingested, it can be harmful to your dog’s health. If you are ever unsure if your dog has had enough of a specific type of food, check its stomach by running it through the toilet paper. If there is still food in the stomach, then they have probably already finished that particular meal and should be given more of the same food.
Sugary foods can contribute to weight gain as well, so make sure to keep an eye on your dog while they are eating these snacks. Also, make sure to correct any potential nutritional deficiencies by speaking with your vet.
Some dogs are allergic to caramel
Although most dog owners adore their pets, there are some who may not! These people may actually enjoy making your dog sick by introducing an allergen into his diet.
Caramel is a popular food ingredient that many humans love to add to desserts and snacks. Unfortunately, some dogs have a sensitivity to this natural sugar compound.
If you like recipes that call for carmel, make sure they are gluten-free or contain no raw meat ingredients as these can be a source of trace amounts of glutamic acid (GLU), which is a common cause of food allergies in dogs.
Glutamate is an amino acid that helps transmit nerve signals in animals and plants. It comes from protein foods such as meats, dairy, and grains. Glutamate is also found in certain vegetables like potatoes, carrots, and parsnips.
For some dogs with allergy symptoms, eating one small amount of carmel can be the difference between whether they show signs and severity of disease or not. For those sensitive individuals, it can create severe health issues.
Dogs who are intolerant to glutamate develop a condition called oral epitheliotropism, where cells lining the mouth become irritated and overreact to the chemical.
Symptoms include red, swollen gums and loose teeth due to inflammation; hives and skin rashes caused by excessive saliva production; and breathing problems due to dry mucus.
Too much caramel can make your dog gain weight
While carmel is delicious, there are some rumors that it is not healthy for dogs. People claim that too much of it may cause obesity in dogs.
Some say eating too much carmel can contribute to pancreatic cancer in dogs. However, this isn’t true!
Dogs don’t have any way to process carmelose, a natural sugar found in milk and chocolate. So when they eat lots of carmalized foods, their bodies don’t get rid of the excess glucose.
This can put extra stress on your dog’s body to process the carbs. Many nutritionists believe that too many carbs is what causes overweight dogs.
However, just like people, individual dogs’ metabolisms work differently. Some dogs need more or less carbohydrate than others to stay lean.
There are many other health issues that can come from giving your dog too much caramel
When dogs eat too much sugar, it is often by sweet foods or through ingesting sodas or sweets that they find themselves in trouble.
A common diet trend that seems to be rising among some breed types of dogs is adding extra sugars to their food. This includes adding pure sucrose (table sugar), high-sugar fruits like apples, or using caramels as an ingredient in their kibble.
Caramel is a popular flavor option for dry dog snacks and treats because it is said to promote dental health. Many brands add little bits of caramel powder to some of their products, with no calories!
Sadly, this isn’t always the case. A small amount of excess carbs can result in excessive insulin production, which can have negative effects on overall canine health.
Keep caramel out of your dog’s reach
Many people believe that adding sugar to food is a good thing because it helps promote healthy digestion. But actually, eating too much sugar can be harmful for dogs!
Sugar can have very serious health consequences for dogs, including hyperglycemia (too high a blood glucose level), ketosis (when the body uses fat as an energy source instead of glucose) and death.
Some types of sugars are especially dangerous when ingested by dogs. These include coconut sugar, brown rice syrup and maple syrups, which all contain excessive amounts of glucose. The term “maple” in this context does not refer to the sweet ingredient used in making pancakes or waffles but rather to the sugary liquid that comes from pressing fresh sap.
Because these other carbohydrates are more easily absorbed than glucose, they increase the amount of sugar in the blood stream more rapidly. This can lead to problems for dogs who are already physiologically stressed due to illness or lack of nutrition.
Tell your dog to stay away from it
As mentioned before, dogs are not immune to sugar effects. They can suffer similar health problems as people when exposed to too much glucose or sugar.
Carbohydrates in foods can be broken down into simple sugars in our bodies. These include sugars such as lactose (found in milk) and glucose (which comes from food sources like fruits, vegetables, and carbs.
When we eat carbohydrates, some of the carbohydrate is absorbed into our blood stream and used to give us energy. This process requires insulin, a hormone that helps bring the blood’s glucose levels back to normal.
Some dogs have genetic issues which don’t regulate insulin properly. When this happens, their body doesn’t remove the excess glucose effectively, leading to high blood glucose levels.
This can cause symptoms such as weight gain, lethargy, vomiting, diarrhea, hyperactivity, seizures, and even death. Because of this, it is very important for owners to know if there are any signs of diabetes in their dog.
If you notice anything strange about your dog, talk with your doctor right away! There may be other causes but knowing how to identify potential diabetic symptoms will help rule out whether this is related to diet.
Wash your hands with soap after giving your dog any treats
Many people believe that adding flavor to food is bad because it can upset their stomachs or taste buds. This theory was popularized in human media, where reports talk about how dogs will get sick eating chocolate, caramels, or even table sweets like cookies and cakes.
However, this assumption is not supported by research! Food additives are never harmful when consumed according to instructions. Adding flavors to foods is actually a good thing because it helps satisfy your dog’s hunger.
When you give your dog snacks, they may eat some of them right away but most of them end up getting wasted. If you want to save those leftover bits, do not put the caramel, cookie, or chocolate bar inside of the bag first before washing your hands.
Instead, wash your hands and then pour the liquid out, leaving no trace of the melted sugar behind. Then, rinse the bag and cut off any strings, again making sure to avoid any sticky residue.
Try giving your dog some of his own treats to taste test
Have you ever noticed that your dogs seem a little more playful or active after eating something sweet? They are constantly chasing balls, jumping around the house, or even acting nervous and/or aggressive towards other animals!
It’s actually called stereotypic behavior, and it can be fun to watch! However, this behavior can have disastrous effects in puppies and older dogs who copy what they see being done by their trainers.
When puppies under three months old learn how to respond to things like food or toys by doing whatever was just shown to them, this is referred to as conditioning. Because they are learning from someone else, however, there is no need for repeated instructions until their behaviors go out-of-control.
For example, if a puppy learns how to roll over by watching its owner do so, then he will keep rolling and trying to get himself into position for another round of rolling! This kind of repetition is very unnatural and should be discouraged.
If you notice signs such as frequent barking, repetitive actions (like spinning or chewing) when your dog is hungry, try ignoring him while he eats to determine whether or not this behavior has been trained. Also make sure to never give your dog any foods that were not approved for use with pets.
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Plankton of the Land: Mosses, Lichens, and Fungi in Pacific Northwest Forests
Presenter: Kem Luther, PhD; Naturalist and Writer, Vancouver Island, BC
Plankton are the foundation of life in the ocean. Is there an analogy in terrestrial ecosystems? Yes, there is! In the Pacific Northwest, the foundation of terrestrial ecosystems is the “Stegnon”, the layer of organic life just above, within, and below the soil of the forest floor. Here, mosses, lichens, and fungi create and process nutrients essential for other life.
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Tsunami are produced by undersea earthquakes, landslides or volcanic eruptions. In the deep ocean tsunami pass almost unnoticed at only 1-2 metre swells but as they approach shallower water and land, they change dramatically and can reach over 30metre in height. Some tsunami come from the Hikurangi Trough and fault lines just offshore, such as the 10 metre high wave that washed a house & bridge at Te Mahanga in 1947, while most come from distance sources across the Pacific Ocean such as Chile and Alaska, such as the 3-4 metre wave that moved buildings and boats in Ahuriri harbour in 1960. Scientists are also finding signs of huge waves before human settlement.
What’s Stan’s Plan in a tsunami?
Read about the 1947 Gisborne Tsunami
The videos require Quicktime 7 or higher.
If you do not have Quicktime 7 or higher it is available as a free download at www.apple.com/quicktime/download.
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What is Phishing?
"Phishing" is a general term for the creation and mass distribution of 'spoofed' e-mail messages and websites in order to deceive the recipient into disclosing their bank and financial account information or other personal data such as usernames and passwords. Because these emails look "official," recipients may respond to them. The "phishers" then take that information and use it for criminal purposes, resulting in financial losses, identity theft, and other fraudulent activity. What is an example of Phishing?
Phishing attacks usually start with an email that seems to come from a legitimate source. The email includes links to sites that look real, but are in fact counterfeit. At this bogus site, customers are asked to enter personal information like account number and password. You might receive an email that warns you, with little or no notice that an account of yours will be shut down unless you reconfirm your billing information, do not reply, or click on the link in the email. Instead, contact the company cited in the email using a telephone number or Web site address you know to be genuine. Some recent phishing scams even play off of victims' fear of identity theft, asking them to login to learn more about recent attempts to steal personal information.
- What Are The Risks of Responding to Phishing E-Mails? Phishers can use the data to access existing accounts of those Internet users, and withdraw money or buy expensive merchandise or services.
- Phishers can use the data to open new bank or credit-card accounts in the victims' names, and use the new accounts to cash bogus checks or buy merchandise. If the phishers open those new accounts with the victims' names, but use addresses other than the victims', the Internet users may not realize that they have become victims of identity theft until they are contacted by creditors or they check their credit reports.
- Recent phishing schemes have involved the use of computer viruses and worms to disseminate the phishing e-mails to still more people.
What if I receive an e-mail from Plaquemine Bank and Trust Company requesting personal information? Contact us immediately at 225-687-6388. It is not the practice of Plaquemine Bank and Trust Company to request personal or account information from our customers via e-mail.
- What should I do if I think I have received a phishing email?
Report it. Send a copy of the email to: [email protected] as well as notifying the company it was alleged to come from.
- What should I do if I have given out my personal information?
Click and paste the following link for detailed information on what to do if you have given out personal information: http://www.antiphishing.org/consumer_recs2.html
Anti Phishing Tips:
- Check with your bank, credit Card Company etc. about their email policy. Would they send you an email requesting information?
- Hold your mouse over the link in the email before you click on it. Does the address in the yellow box match the address of the link? If not, it might be fraudulent.
- Go to any of the following websites to learn more about "Phishing".
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As far as the nervous system is concerned, the health effects and action mechanisms of EMFs are better established (see the Bioinitiative Report). In accordance with the precautionary principle, ARTAC considers that public authorities urgently need to take measures to regulate the use of wireless technologies – principally mobile phone masts, WiFi and mobile phones. Many people now claim to be “electrohypersensitive” and feel unwell when in the presence of EMFs (headaches, memory problems, insomnia, fatigue, etc). In Sweden, a country which first developed wireless technologies in the early 1980s, electrohypersensitivity is recognised as a “handicap” which affects to a greater or lesser degree 250,000 people out of a population of 9 million.
For almost a year Professor Belpomme has undertaken examinations of several dozen patients who claim to be electrohypersensitive. These people are real patients and have enabled ARTAC to carry out scientific research in this field. First, ARTAC produced a clinical description of what Professor Belpomme calls the EMF intolerance syndrome. Two phases have been identified : an initial phase characterised by headaches and neurological problems, heart rhythm disturbances and difficulties concentrating.
a secondary phase characterised by a trio of chronic symptoms – insomnia, fatigue, depression. These symptoms can be accompanied by memory and behavioural problems – irritability, aggression, and even suicidal tendencies.
Sri Lanka, Colombo
Thousand Oaks, California
Moreno Valley, California
Al Hulaylah, United Arab Emirates, Al Hulaylah, UAE
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“Leading efforts in Latvia was exactly something we saw as an opportunity for Canada to contribute security and stability, defence and deterrence at a time where that’s very much necessary.”
With these words Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, is promoting Canada’s leading role in the new NATO military buildup close to Russia’s borders in the Baltics. But this new military move has many scratching their heads. Is Russia really such a threat, and how so? We’re not in the Cold War anymore, so what’s the big deal with Russia and NATO?
NATO ON THE RISE
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is not just a Cold War relic as many believe. The organization, formed in 1949 following the end of World War II, once devised all sorts of plans against a Cold War attack that never came. However in it’s recent years, following the fall of the Soviet Union, NATO has become an actual military force and has been behind many bloody imperialist atrocities committed under the auspices of the “international community”. NATO has expanded it’s membership, with most of it’s 28 members joining following the end of the Cold War, and NATO actively working on expanding its membership further.
NATO’s debut as a military force started in the 1990’s, when NATO intervened in Yugoslavia with numerous military missions which served to help break up former Yugoslavia. NATO’s military missions culminating in a 78-day bombing campaign in 1999. The brutal and indiscriminate bombing by NATO members was condemned by peace-loving people and organizations around the world. Yugoslavia was bombarded by 14,000 bombs, including depleted uranium bombs and cluster munitions which have had long-lasting destructive impacts. This so-called “humanitarian intervention” resulted in over 2,000 civilians killed, thousands more injured, and over 200,000 people displaced and forced to leave their homes. The airstrikes destroyed more than 300 schools and libraries, over 20 hospitals and at least 40,000 homes were either completely eliminated or damaged. In a June 2000 Amnesty International report, the human rights organization accused NATO of war crimes when it reported that “NATO forces did commit serious violations of the laws of war leading in a number of cases to the unlawful killings of civilians”. As part of NATO, Canada had a role in this deplorable attack on the people of Yugoslavia. The Canadian Air Force deployed 18 CF-18 fighter jets, and was responsible for 10% of all bombs dropped on Yugoslavia.
NATO has more frequently become a tool of imperialist intervention since the start of the new era of war and occupation, which began with the war and occupation of Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The new era of war and occupation, in which we have seen a heightened and strategic war drive carried out by the United States and their allies, has been possible with NATO enabling a division of labour amongst imperialist countries. That division of labour being, the task of no-fly zones, occupation forces, and bombing campaigns.
In Afghanistan, NATO did a lot of the heavy lifting, enabling the United States to focus on their war and occupation of Iraq. NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) made up the bulk of the occupation forces in Afghanistan, from August 2003 to December 2014. ISAF was NATO’s longest mission which at its height commanded more than 130,000 troops from 51 NATO and partner countries. This included a large number of Canadian troops, who at times had the third highest number of troops deployed, after the US and Britain. Canada also held command of ISAF from February 9 to August 12, 2004 under Lieutenant-General Rick Hillier, as well as Canada has commanded regional operations for NATO’s ISAF force. Since 2015, NATO reworked their mission to a vaguely defined “train, advise and assist” mission of 13,200 troops, which is continuously being extended and continues today.
After 15 years of war and occupation in Afghanistan, what does the US, Canada and NATO have to show for itself? Life for the Afghan people is not getting better, and more and more people have no other choice but to leave their homes and join the massive refugee crisis that the new era of war and occupation has resulted in. 2015 was the deadliest year for civilians since the start of the war, with over 11,000 men, women and children killed. This includes the October 3rd, 2015 US airstrike on a Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in which continuous, repeated bombings killed more than 42 innocent people, mainly patients and staff.
NATO also holds a role in the war on Iraq. NATO forces held a training mission in Iraq from 2004 to 2011, and have recently started another training mission of Iraqi officers in Jordan. At the recent NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau announced that Canada will also be a part of this new training mission. While a “training mission” may seem tame enough, take this into consideration. Canada’s current “train, advise and assist” mission includes about 200 special forces soldiers. They are made up of the Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2) counter-terrorism unit as well as the Canadian Special Operations Regiment. In 2010 the Globe and Mail described the Joint Task Force 2 as “a shadowy counter-terrorism force about which little concrete can be said” and “Canada’s most elite troops – the faceless soldiers who go to places they won’t name, to complete missions they won’t talk about.” While training missions are sold to the public as “non-combat” this was proven otherwise on March 6th 2015 when Sgt. Andrew Joseph Doiron from the Canadian Special Operations Regiment was killed in a friendly fire incident near the front lines while on the training mission in northern Iraq. On March 8th, 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new “non-combat” military strategy authorized Canadian soldiers to shoot first in Iraq as soon as they detect “hostile intent” from Daesh fighters. With about 20% of Canadian Special Forces training time taking place close to or directly at front lines, and authorization to shoot first, how “non-combat” are these training missions?
Another country destroyed at the hands of NATO forces is Libya. The no-fly zone imposed by NATO from March 19 to October 31, 2011 launched nearly 10,000 sorties against Libya. Canada was a major player in the bombing campaign, and deployed six CF-18 fighter jets and also provided three planes for air-to-air refuelling and two reconnaissance aircrafts. Libya, which before this imperialist intervention had the highest standard of living in Africa, now five years later is in a chaos with no viable government, an economy in shambles and has become a new haven for terrorist organizations such as Daesh (also known as ISIS). NATO is now taking another strike not just against Libya, but against the huge number of refugees, many victims of war and occupation, traveling through Libya in an attempt to reach safer shores in Europe. At the recent NATO summit the decision was made to deploy NATO warships and potentially drones in the Mediterranean sea to stem the flow of refugees leaving the Libyan coast. Human Rights Watch spoke out against this decision, stating that “NATO’s involvement in migration control signals a dangerous shift toward militarisation of a humanitarian crisis.”
NATO SUMMIT 2016 - TARGET ON RUSSIA
The July 8-9, 2016 NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland brought imperialist countries together to set their targets on a bigger fish – Russia. An irrational fear-mongering and demonization campaign has painted Russia as an aggressor. As you have just read above though, it is NATO who has dropped their bombs and planted their troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. It is the US government who backed a right-wing coup in Ukraine. Now it is NATO who is building up military forces on the border with Russia. So who is the aggressor?
The NATO summit announced that NATO will rotate four combat battalions of up to 1000 troops each, from Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, in Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Also decided at the summit is that NATO will take command of and develop a US-built European “missile shield defense system” which also has Russia in it’s targets. As Justin Trudeau stated at the beginning of this article, Canada is taking a leading role by commanding the battalion in Latvia, sending at least 450 troops to this battalion (bringing Canada’s troops in Eastern Europe to 800) as well as supplying armored vehicles, up to six CF-18 fighter jets, and continuing to send naval frigates to the region, which Canada has had stationed for the past two years. This new military buildup has no end-date and as Canada’s Chief of the Defence Staff General Jonathan Vance has stated, “this is an open-ended commitment.”
The NATO summit was preceded by another provocative move by NATO forces. NATO members conducted “Anaconda 2016”, the largest war games in Eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War. The 10-day military exercise involved 31,000 troops and thousands of vehicles from 24 countries, including Canada.
Looking at the recent history of NATO and it’s increasing actions against Russia, we must be able to define what the objectives of this military body are. NATO is a tool of imperialist forces, specifically US allied imperialist forces. In order to maintain and expand US hegemony in today’s world, militarily, politically and economically, the US and their allies must expand their markets, resources and influence, as we have seen them do in this new era of war and occupation, with the help of NATO. They must eliminate sovereign and independent states, as they have done in Libya through NATO, are attempting to do in Syria and are poised to do in Iran. They must also keep at bay other rising and competing economic and political powers such as Russia and China, and prevent them from growing their economies on a global scale. US sanctions against Russia has been one method. Saber-rattling and building up a military force on Russia’s borders is a new and dangerous step that NATO is leading.
NO TO NATO! CANADA OUT OF NATO!
NATO’s actions have not been without opposition, both throughout NATO’s history to today. The NATO summit in July 2016 was met with an international call for demonstrations and actions against NATO. Activists from around the world came together for conferences and a demonstration directly in the face of the NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland. Cities around the world mobilizated in coordination with the actions in Warsaw, including in Vancouver, Canada where Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO) held a rally and petition campaign.
Peace and justice loving people must take Canada’s participation in NATO seriously. We need to stop looking at NATO as a Cold War relic or a body of international cooperation. NATO is the increasingly utilized military force used to launch imperialist interventions, occupations, airstrikes and even to militarize the largest refugee crisis humanity has ever seen. NATO members are pressured to commit at least 2% of their GDP to military spending, which is now used to build up a military force against the false threat of Russia. Peace-loving people in Canada can think of vastly more important places that money can go to here in Canada, like education, healthcare, housing, jobs and infrastructure just to name the most obvious. Even Canada could be helping to bring in more refugees, fleeing countries that NATO, along with Canada, has made uninhabitable through their wars and occupations!
The Vancouver action was just the beginning of a new campaign initiated by Mobilization Against War and Occupation demanding “No to NATO! Canada Out of NATO!” The campaign includes a petition to the government of Canada demanding that Canada end it’s alliance with NATO and withdraw Canadian troops and military equipment from Europe and from all NATO missions. This campaign will be moving forward with more literature, materials and educational and protest events and actions, which will be listed on www.mawovancouver.org
While imperialist countries are joining together to launch wars and occupations on oppressed nations and flex their military muscles, it’s up to peace and justice loving people world wide to also come together, in the pursuit of peace. Together let’s demand:
No to NATO!
Canada Out of NATO!
Follow Janine on Twitter:@janinesolanki
Back to Article Listing
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Whether for the public, private, or home school, Mardel’s educational resources provide teachers and administrators with the tools necessary to achieve academic success. Search our expansive selection of materials to find options that suit your individual needs – from resource books, manipulatives, and incentives to decorations, art, and office supplies, we offer the support you need at the prices you crave!
Time to make a pizza! This clever game teaches fraction concepts and skills using slices of pizza to identify fraction denominations. Students play seven different games to practice identifying fractions, matching fraction equivalents and performing fraction addition and subtraction by building pizzas.
Game includes 13 double-sided pizzas (one side shows fractions) and three double-sided spinners, providing different levels of learning. For 2-6 players.
Whole pizzas measure 10 3/4".
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Hip Dysplasia in Dogs
Dog Hip Dysplasia Overview
Hip dysplasia is a hereditary disorder that occurs when your dog’s hip joints don’t grow properly. This abnormal development can cause pain, arthritis and in some cases crippling lameness. In other words, if your dog’s hip dysplasia is severe he or she will be unable to walk or run.
Clinically speaking, hip dysplasia occurs when your dog has abnormal looseness between the ball (femoral head) and socket (acetabulum). When the ball and socket don’t fit snugly, they tend to rattle around, eventually deforming the bone and causing arthritis and pain.
Hip dysplasia is most commonly found in large breed dogs but can affect even the smallest breeds as well.
Facts: Hip Dysplasia in Dogs
- Canine hip dysplasia occurs in 50% or more of some of the larger breeds of dogs
- From 1974 through December 2010 over 72% of English Bulldogs examined by OFA were dysplastic
- Hip replacement surgery costs $5,000 but can be far more depending on the type of breed and where you live
- There are 25 dog breeds with a 1 in 4 chance of being dysplastic
Signs and Symptoms
The signs and symptoms of hip dysplasia in dogs are usually mild and subtle because the disease worsens over time. Early signs include mild to moderate lameness that does not seem to improve. You may also notice your dog favoring one side or the other to compensate for the pain in one of the hip joints. Other symptoms include stiffness, difficult moving, lethargy, irritability or licking of the hip area.
Clinical Testing and Diagnosis
If you suspect your dog may be suffering from hip dysplasia your veterinarian can run tests for you. The most common way to diagnose hip dysplasia is to take x-rays. Your veterinarian will also perform hip scores, which help evaluate your dog’s hip flexibility and pain levels in that region. The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals has created a hip grading system to assist veterinarians on the diagnosis and treatment of hip dysplasia in dogs.
There are seven classifications defined by the OFA. Three classifications are non-dysplastic, one is right in the middle, and the last three are dysplastic (hip dysplasia is the diagnosis).
- Excellent – This classification is the best rating a dog can get regarding hip structure and health.
- Good – Slightly less than excellent but still a very healthy ball and join structure in the hips.
- Fair – There are minor irregularities in the hip joints. Could be normal for some breeds but a yellow flag for others.
- Borderline – This is the line between your dog being diagnosed as dysplastic or not. Typically 50% of the dogs classified as borderline do not see deterioration in the hip.
- Mild – The ball is partially out of the hip socket, which is creating some joint space. Your vet will keep an eye on deterioration over time.
- Moderate – There is a significant amount of subluxation and the ball is only barely sitting in the socket. Left untreated the arthritis in the hip will deteriorate over time.
- Severe – This is where the ball is partly or completely out of the socket. Typically there are significant amounts of cartilage build up and arthritis around the joint.
PennHIPP is a not-for-profit program wholly owned and operated by the University of Pennsylvania. Their mission is to develop and apply evidence-based technology to direct appropriate breeding strategies aimed at reducing in frequency and severity the osteoarthritis of canine hip dysplasia.
PennHIP incorporates a new method for evaluating the integrity of the canine hip. It is accurate in puppies as young as 16 weeks of age. It has great potential to lower the frequency of CHD when used as a selection criterion.
Dog Hip Dysplasia Treatment
Once your dog has been diagnosed with hip dysplasia the changes are irreversible. They key to successful treatment is to help your dog manage pain and reduce the stress factors. Depending on the classification and age of your dog, treatments for dog hip dysplasia can range from simple weight reduction and exercise to full hip replacement surgery.
If your dog suffers from mild hip dysplasia then weight reduction and exercise management may be enough to reduce pain and allow your dog to live a normal life. Some canines might also benefit from a dog hip brace to help alleviate the pain associated with the miss formed joint. For milder cases of hip dysplasia, medications range from $20 to $30 per month.
Dogs that are classified as moderate dysplastic will also benefit from weight reduction and exercise management, however they may need physical therapy or alternative therapies to manage the pain and other symptoms. There are also anti-inflammatory medications that can help manage pain. Some medications are oral and others are injected into the hip region on a regular basis by a licensed veterinary professional. Physical therapy can range from $100 to over $1,000 depending on the number of sessions needed and the type of treatment required.
In cases of severe hip dysplasia your dog may need surgical treatment. Sometime corrective surgery is enough to reduce the pain and discomfort. In these situations a surgeon will shave the cartilage and bone matter to provide a more functional ball and socket formation in the hip. In other cases a full hip replacement surgery may be needed. Depending on your dog’s size and where you live, the average cost for hip replacement surgery is between $4,000 to $6,000 per hip.
Cost to Treat: $4,000 to $6,000 per hip
Dog Hip Dysplasia Incidence Rates by Breed
The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals was founded to promote the health and welfare of companion animals through a reduction in the incidence of genetic disease. Here is a list of the top 10 most affected dog breeds.
- English Bulldog
- Olde English Bulldogge
- Dogue de Bordeaux
- Neapolitan Mastiff
- Brussels Griffon
- St. Bernard
- Clumber Spaniel
- Black Russian Terrier
Source: OFA Database
The OFA is guided by the following four specific objectives; to collate and disseminate information concerning orthopedic and genetic diseases of animals, to advise, encourage and establish control programs to lower the incidence of orthopedic and genetic diseases, to encourage and finance research in orthopedic and genetic disease in animals, to receive funds and make grants to carry out these objectives.
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Usually expressed as a percentage, Labour Cost Ratio provides revenue managers with a key performance indicator to compare labour costs to hotel revenue. It shows the amount of labour costs required to produce each dollar of sales.
Employee salaries or wages are generally a large percentage of total labour costs. Other examples of labour costs include medical insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, pensions contributions and related taxes, and life insurance.
What is Labour Cost Ratio For?
Hotel managers regularly calculate and observe labour cost ratios to find opportunities to save on salary costs. It is also used for identifying major inefficiencies in labour costs. As the labour cost ratio for a hotel decreases, it can be seen as increasing the efficiency of its labour force. In other words, a lower labour cost ratio is viewed favorably for a hotel’s bottom line.
Benefits of Labour Cost Ratio
The major benefit of calculating the labour cost ratio for a hotel is to see if the hotel is overspending on employee wages or salaries. These ratios can be broken down by department to further analyze labour costs, as well as identify areas in which the company can reduce these costs.
Limitations of Labour Cost Ratio
Employee satisfaction plays a large role in creating a healthy guest experience at a hotel, and also impacts employee productivity — i.e. how much value employees produce per wage/salary dollar paid. Therefore, managers must assess many other methods of increasing sales revenue before solely focusing on reducing labour costs.
How is Labour Cost Ratio Calculated
The Labour Cost Ratio is calculated by dividing labour costs by total sales. The result is then multiplied by 100 to represent the final ratio as a percentage.
Example of Labour Cost Calculation
Labour Cost Ratio = (Labour Costs / Total Sales) x 100
Labour Costs = $840,000
Total Sales = $20,260,000
Labour Cost Ratio = ($840,000 (Labour Costs) / $20,260,000 (Total Sales)) x 100 = 4.15%
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Growing of intercrops in coconut lands produces more food and agricultural products, ensuring food security of the people in rural and urban areas. At the same time, the practice generates jobs and livelihood, enhancing farm incomes and the purchasing power of people, thus alleviating poverty in farming communities. Moreover, successful farmers serve as inspiration and enterprise leaders in their communities, eventually treating coconut farming in an agribusiness way to create wealth and more capital resources.
Cacao is a tree crop that is highly suitable or compatible under different production systems (intercropping or multistory farming, agroforestry, etc). In cacao producing countries, it is grown mainly for its beans, processed into cacao powder, cake and cocoa butter. These products are largely used in the manufacture of chocolates, soaps, cosmetics, shampoo and other pharmaceutical products.
Cacao is also a high value crop wherein the potential is not yet explored in our country with an extensive area suitable for cacao growing as a monocrop or intercrop of coconut. In fact, over 1M ha highly suitable or wet zone of coconut areas (except in coastal areas excessively high in Na or saline soils) are suitable for coconut-cacao intercropping. Its cultivation could promote an agro-industrial development aimed: at value-adding export products, as well as reduction of importation of cacao beans from countries like Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Malaysia. PCARRD mentioned that to date, more than three-fourths of the cacao beans requirement of the country is imported from major producing countries.
Cacao, a popular, stable and marketable long-term beverage crop is widely planted under and between stands of coconut trees. To be a compatible and productive intercrop, cacao tree is best planted not closer than 2 meters from the base of coconut trees, at 3 m between hills and 3 m between rows. Furthermore, where there is limited land for cacao monocropping, the inter-spaces of coconut lands (with 8-15 meters of spacing of coconut palms) are amenable for several rows of cacao crop. Also important, the bio-physical environmental conditions, soil-wise, sunlight-wise and micro-climate variation within the 70-80% space between coconut trees in a farm has been known to be highly suitable for a coconut-cacao ecosystem.
Advantages and Benefits
Coconut trees – produces many basic food products and non-food raw materials for high value products. If there is regular or seasonal demand for tender 8-month old nuts (buko) for tender nut water (buko juice) and tender nut for pies and desserts, the farmers get higher net income compared to the 12-month old mature nuts as buko nuts are usually priced 3-4 times higher than mature nuts. From its inflorescence, coconut sap can be produced which in turn can be processed into high value food products, e.g. coconut sugar, honey, fresh drink and vinegar.
Cacao crop – dried fermented cacao beans (DFCB), the main product of this crop, are first roasted, cracked and grinded to give a powdery mass from which fat is extracted and usually processed into cocoa products such cocoa butter, powder, paste/liquor and chocolate confectionaries. Basically, the chocolate beverage is prepared from cocoa derived from DFCB. The Philippines was the first in Asia to plant cacao and prepare chocolate drinks from cocoa.
Cocoa butter is utilized in confectionaries and in the manufacture of tobacco, soap and cosmetics; and largely considered the world’s most expensive fat and used widely in the emollient “bullets” for hemorrhoids.
Download full article at www.sidalc.net/repdoc/A3486i/A3486i.pdf
source: www.pca.da.gov.ph, www.sidalc.net
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Whether you need to learn Japanese because you work for Japan’s company, move to Japan, or a passion, joining Japanese language classes seems like a challenge. However, once you get started, it is actually quite easy and simple. The first important thing is learning their basic phrases and using them often. Here, we will share frequent common words that every beginner should be familiar with.
How to greet people is always be the first step when someone learns a certain language. Therefore, you need to know how to start a conversation when you say hello to people. In Japanese, there are eight common ways to greet.
- Konnichiwa – Hello
- Ohayou gozaimasu – Good morning
- Konbanwa – Good evening
- Moshi moshi is used to say hello when you answer a call on the phone
- Ogenki desu ka? – How are you?
- Genki desu – I’m fine / I’m good
- Ohisashiburi desu ne – Long time no see
- ……….. –san mo? – and you? [mention the name of someone you’re speaking to when using this phrase]
Getting to Know Your Partner
Once you greet your friends, let them know that you are interested in getting to know them further. Therefore, these expressions will help you to carry on the chat. Every Japanese language classes will teach you how to use these.
- Namae wa nan desu ka? – What is your name?
- Watashi no namae wa ……….. desu – My name is ………..
- Doko kara kimashita ka? – Where are you from?
- Watashi wa ……….. kara kimashita – I’m from ………..
- Sou desu ka? – Really? Is that so? [Japanese use this expression a lot]
Japanese is very polite to one another, whether it is to someone they know or even to strangers. Besides studying their language, being familiar with their customs will give you a better understanding. Here are some polite utterances Japanese mostly spoke.
- Arigatou gozaimasu – Thank you
- Douitashimashite – You’re welcome
- Sumimasen – Excuse me/I’m sorry
- Gomen nasai – I’m truly sorry
- Yoroshiku onegaishimasu – Thank you very much/ I’m in your debt
- Itadakimasu – Thank you for the meal [Japanese always say this word when they will enjoy their food. It is a way to show gratitude for the meal served]
There will be times when you don’t understand what your partner is saying, get confused, or extra explanation is needed. Do not stress it because these common expressions will help you cope with the situation.
- Eigo te iu no wa ……….. ? – In English, is that ……….. ?
- Wakarimasen – I don’t understand
- Shirimasen – I don’t know
- Nihongo de perapera de wa nai desu – I can’t speak Japanese fluently
- Tetsudatte kuremasen ka? – Can you help me?
- Mou ichido kudasai – Can you repeat that once more?
- Wasuremashita – I forgot
- ……….. te iu no imi wa nan desu ka? – What does ……….. mean?
Never fear to make a discussion using Japanese. Once you join Japanese language classes, set a goal and be determined during the learning program. By mastering those basic phrases, you’ll gain more confidence when speaking with native speakers.
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Earth's Energy Sources (pre-assessment)
Learn tips for how best to conduct "Earth's Energy Sources," which allows you to assess student knowlege of global change and related topics.
Demonstration slide set for teachers.
Your slide tray is being processed.
Funded by the following grant(s)
The Environment as a Context for Opportunities in Schools
Grant Numbers: 5R25ES010698, R25ES06932
Foundations for the Future: Capitalizing on Technology to Promote Equity, Access and Quality in Elementary Science Education
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USF Researchers Find Spatial Scale Changes Ecological Processes Driving Disease
The research team examined how human activities drive distributions of West Nile virus, Lyme disease, and a fungus causing worldwide declines of amphibian populations.
TAMPA, Fla. (May 30, 2016) - Researchers from the University of South Florida (USF) and a colleague at the Institute of Zoology in Beijing, China have found that outbreaks of three emerging diseases and parasites - West Nile virus, Lyme disease and amphibian chytridiomycosis - are driven by different ecological processes at different spatial scales. Their data also suggests that focusing on a single spatial scale can lead to inaccurate estimations of the impact humans are having on biodiversity, disease emergence, and the environment.
A paper describing their research was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Humans are contributing to unprecedented rates of infectious disease emergence, climate change and biodiversity loss," said study leader Jeremy Cohen, a graduate student in USF's Department of Integrative Biology. "However, whether human ecological impacts affect the distribution of disease and other organisms differently at local or regional scales has been a compelling question, one that the research team wanted to answer."
Because understanding emerging diseases is critically important to both biodiversity conservation and human health, the team's research goal was to determine whether and how spatial scales influenced the perceived importance of various ecological processes to disease distributions across the US. The researchers subsequently examined how human activities drive the distributions of three important diseases and parasites: West Nile virus, carried by mosquitoes, Lyme disease, carried by ticks, and a fungus causing worldwide declines of amphibian populations.
Their results suggest that human alterations to biodiversity affect disease distributions at local scales while climate change is impacting disease at regional scales. They also found that factors were important at the scales where they tended to vary the most, a finding providing a likely mechanism for the study results.
"Our multi-scale analysis demonstrated that in the US, the drivers of three emerging diseases and parasites - amphibian chytridiomycosis, West Nile virus and Lyme disease - are based on spatial scales that modulate the strength of ecological processes," said study co-author Dr. Jason Rohr, an associate professor in the USF Department of Integrative Biology. "Moreover, our findings were consistent across a bacterium, virus and fungus, invasive species and native species."
"If human impacts stretch across multiple scales, scientists who only look at data at a single scale may be missing key details about why diseases are spreading," said Cohen. "In other words, it is unlikely that a single scale can be used to identify all the factors influencing the distribution of human and wildlife pathogens."
Although the results of this study have been hypothesized by scientists for decades, cross-scale analyses involving fine and broad-scale data could not be carried out until sufficient computing power and large datasets became available, said study co-author Dr. David Civitello, a postdoctoral fellow in the USF Department of Integrated Biology.
"As humans continue to modify species composition, dispersal, and climate across scales, it is critical that we fully understand the consequences related to these changes," said Civitello. "Without multi-scale analyses, we are likely to underestimate the impact of human activity on biodiversity and the environment."
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Common Core State Standard L.CCS.1/2/3/4 Grades 6-12: Video of a current news event is presented for discussion to encourage student participation, but also inspire the use of evidence to support logical claims using the main ideas of the video. Students must analyze background information provided about a current event, draw out the main ideas and key details, and review different opinions on the issue. Then, students should present their own claims using facts and analysis for support.
Indoor airplane aerobatics
Amazing what Radio Controlled airplanes have evolved into.
■Class discussion: So what are you doing in your spare time that's this cool?
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Doctors at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute (VCCRI) have employed computer gaming technology to help better diagnose patients suffering from a heart rhythm disease.
Using the same technology that powers video games, researchers have built a virtual heart that simulates heartbeats. Scientists then screened the recorded heartbeats and searched for abnormalities.
Dr Adam Hill, VCCRI computational cardiologist and senior author on the study, said the findings are a step closer to understanding rhythm disturbances in the heart.
"This research is hugely exciting. We were able to identify why some patients have abnormal ECG signals, and how a person's genetic background can affect the severity of their disease," he said.
The analysis of the simulation was conducted on the CSIRO's Bragg GPU-based supercomputer. According to the Institute, this enabled researchers to take advantage of the supercomputer's ability to render complex graphics in the computer games and multi-task on hundreds of computing cores.
In the end, the process took 10 days, instead of the 21 years it would have taken if the same job was conducted using a standard desktop PC.
"In the past, we were limited because we didn't have enough computational grunt to do an effective job," Hill said.
Hill added that while taking a computational approach to research is not particularly new, it is a different application for those in biology research.
"We're probably fairly latecomers. Our colleagues in geology and physics have been using this computational approach for years," he said, noting that it will be inevitable that "more and more people will use it for other types of research".
Scientists at the VCCRI will use the findings to develop automatic computerised tools for diagnosing heart rhythm disorders.
Hill said he hopes the discovery will ultimately mean better diagnosis and much better treatment for those who suffer from heart conditions.
"We hope this will help doctors read ECGs more accurately, which will mean faster, more accurate diagnosis. By understanding why the same disease affects people differently, the right treatment can be given to the right patients," he said.
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SAMUEL IBN ʿĀDIYĀ (al-Samawal b. Ghārid Ablaq; mid-sixth century), poet in *Tayma, Hejaz, N. Arabia. Samuel b. Ādiyā's Arabic poetry ranks with the finest heroic traditional Arabic battle poetry of the pre-Islamic period and shows little trace of Jewish origins and themes. For a time he resided in the citadel of Ablaq near Tayma and was called "King of Tayma" by the local Arabs. His mother was an Arab of the Ghassan tribe. He was Jewish, although Shaikho, the Jesuit who published his diwan, attempted to prove that he was a Christian, or at least belonged to a Judaeo-Christian sect. He lived to be an old man and was known for his loyalty and fulfillment of pledges. When the noble Imruʾal-Qays deposited his arms in Samuel's home, and the castle was besieged by his enemies after he left for Byzantium, Samuel allowed his own son to be killed rather than surrender Imru's arms to the invader. This act earned him lasting fame among Arabs, and he is the subject of several poems by later authors. A popular proverb on the extent of one's loyalty was coined, "more loyal than Samuel" (Ar. Awfā min al-Samawʾal). His descendants were landowners in the region of Taima during the Umayyad dynasty and later converted to Islam. Moses Ibn Ezra in his book Shirat Israel (Helper edition, 49) notes Samuel as a Jewish poet. One of his sons and a grandson are said to have been poets, too.
Nine poems and fragments attributed to Samuel were collected by the philologist Nifṭawayh (d. 935). Most scholars agree that these poems were composed by a Jew but doubt that all were written by Samuel. The first poem is considered an example of classical Arabic poetry. Called Lāmiyyat al-Samawʾal, it expounds the virtues of purity of blood, generosity, honor, and strength. The battles of his people and their deaths on the battlefield are extolled, indicating the extent of the cultural assimilation of the Jews to Arab society. The second poem, however, expresses his belief in resurrection and glorifies the kings and prophets of Israel, also mentioning the splitting of the Red Sea. Its philological importance lies in the rhyming of certain stanzas as an aid to exegesis of the *Koran and in the traces of the Arabic dialect of the Jewish tribes. Poem number 6 exalts the fortress of Samuel's father and his loyalty to Imruʾal-Qays. A 26-line poem attributed to Samuel appears in the collection edited by Sheikho, who interpreted the phrase "our prophet came and brought peace to all men" as evidence of the poet's Christian origin. His opinion has been contested, as the poem possesses a koranic style and hence indicates its later composition by a Jew refuting Muslim claims. A fragment from the Cairo *Genizah, signed Samuel of the *Qurayẓa (al-Quraẓi) tribe, had previously been attributed to Samuel ibn ʿĀdiyā. H.Z. Hirschberg, however, presumes that the author wrote this poem during the period of struggle between the Jews and *Muhammad, and therefore is not Samuel ibn ʿĀdiyā. Hirschberg sees the influence of the Jewish aggadah and Midrash in Samuel's poetry, rather than their Koranic adaptations. Schwartzbaum perceives these verses as poetic examples of the Israi'liyyāt and Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ literature. The Muslim–Arab legends are literature which draws upon Jewish aggadic and midrashic sources, and especially upon the Jewish elements in the Koran.
H. Hirschfeld, in: JQR, o.s. 15 (1903), 167–179; H.Z. Hirschberg, Yisrael ba-'Arav (1946), 242ff.; idem, Diwan des As-Samauʾal Ibn ʿAdyāʾ (1931); Baron, Social2, 3 (1957), 72f.; I. Lichtenstaedter, in: PAAJR, 10 (1939), 192. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. Schwartzbaum-Ben-Yaacov, in: Horev, 5 (1939), 169–89; A. Goren, in: Ariel, 42 (1976), 55–65.
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Shays' Rebellion lasted for a little more than a year and ended with Shays' defeat by General Benjamin Lincoln's state militia. Although it was relatively short-lived, Shays' Rebellion played a key role in the formation of some of the most crucial legislation in the early United States. Even the Constitution was created in part because of Shays' Rebellion.Know More
After the American Revolutionary War, the United States suffered from a crushing economic decline. Former international trading partners were lost, the U.S. market diminished, and many U.S. citizens found themselves falling into debt. In the 1780s, farmers in Massachusetts, one of the hardest hit areas, pleaded state governments to enact pro-debtor laws to reduce the economic strain. When the government ignored these pleas, many farms were seized and farmers who could not pay their debts were imprisoned. These actions caused growing discontent in the local population and led to protests and demonstrations.
In 1786, the demonstrations and protests grew into an armed uprising led by Daniel Shays. The Shaysites, however, were not well-equipped or trained. The governor of Massachusetts, James Bowdoin, organized a militia led by General Benjamin Lincoln which quickly crushed the rebellion in the winter of 1787. Even though Shays' Rebellion did not last long, the discontent among farmers and citizens continued. The rebellion shocked politicians and was used as justification for political reform ending with the Articles of Confederation being replaced by the Constitution.Learn more about US History
The outcome of the Battle of Trenton was a victory for General George Washington's colonial army. Almost 1,000 Hessians in the employ of the British army were killed, wounded or captured. The triumph, coming after a string of defeats, encouraged and unified the Continental Army.Full Answer >
The outcome of the Revolutionary War allowed the original 13 colonies to join together as one nation and become the United States. The U.S. would become free from British rule, which made it possible to pursue freedom and express new ideas from the Declaration of Independence.Full Answer >
The Whiskey Rebellion was triggered by a tax imposed on distilled liquors in 1791, which farmers in western Pennsylvania believed was unfair. It resulted in a strengthening of the recently established United States because the federal government demonstrated its ability to keep the union together.Full Answer >
Shay's Rebellion convinced American politicians and citizens that the Articles of Confederation needed to be heavily revised. When lawmakers began to write the Constitution, Shay's Rebellion was cited during the debates that helped establish the document.Full Answer >
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|(40 cited 1978)|
Cafundó (Portuguese pronunciation: [kafũˈdɔ]), or Cupópia ([kuˈpɔpjɐ]), is an argot ("secret language") spoken in the Brazilian village of Cafundó, São Paulo, now a suburb of Salto de Pirapora. The language is structurally similar to Portuguese, with a large number of Bantu words in its lexicon.
Cafundó was at first thought to be an African language, but a later study (1986) by Carlos Vogt and Peter Fry showed that its grammatical and morphological structure are those of Brazilian Portuguese, specifically the rural hinterland Southeastern variety, caipira. Whereas its lexicon is heavily drawn from some Bantu language(s). It is therefore not a creole language, as it is sometimes considered.
The speaker community is very small (40 people in 1978). They live in a rural area, 150 km from the city of São Paulo, and are mostly of African descent. They also speak Portuguese, and use cafundó as a "secret" home language. A cafundó speaker and an African-born Bantu (Angolan or Mozambican) speaking Portuguese and Bantu languages can understand each other, because Angolan and Mozambican Portuguese also have their particular Bantu-derived characteristics.
- Peter Fry and Carlos Vogt (1996) Cafundó, a África no Brasil: Linguagem e Sociedade. São Paulo, Companhia das Letras. ISBN 85-7164-585-X.
- Sílvio Vieira de Andrade Filho (2000) Um Estudo Sociolingüístico das Comunidades Negras do Cafundó, do Antigo Caxambu e de seus Arredores. Secretaria da Educação e Cultura of Sorocaba. Also Ph.D. diss., University of São Paulo. ISBN 85-89017-01-X. Available on-line.
- Web page on Cafundó (in Portuguese)
- Explanation and examples of the Cafundó language (in Portuguese)
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When choosing colors for a quilt, it can be confusing and overwhelming to figure out which colors go great with each other.
A nifty tool that has been around for centuries has made its way into the quilting community: the color wheel.
Using a color wheel for quilting might seem strange initially, but after reading this post, you will have an excellent grasp of choosing the right shades, tones, and fabric hues for your next quilt project.
What Is a Quilter’s Color Wheel?
Sir Isaac Newton invented the first color wheel in 1666.
Throughout the years, other people have come up with versions and renditions of the color wheel.
Today, the color wheel, including any quilting color wheel, has 12 pure hues. They are broken down into three different sections.
- Primary- Red, Blue, Yellow
- Secondary- Green, Purple (Violet), Orange
- Tertiary- Red Orange, Red Purple, Blue Purple, Blue Green, Yellow Orange, Yellow Green
Many color wheels also include shades, tones, and tints in the center of the wheel.
Shades are created by adding black to a pure hue. Tones are created by adding grey to a pure hue. Tints are created by adding white to a pure hue.
How Do You Use a Quilting Color Wheel?
There are several ways to use a color wheel to select quilt fabrics. Remember, the color wheel is a guide and tool, so if you choose whatever colors you want to use, that will also work!
Quilting is an art form, after all.
Here are a few suggestions for using a color wheel for fabric selection:
- Monochromatic: Choose one color from the color wheel. You can use different shades, tones, and tints of that color, but you only stick to one color.
- Complimentary: Choose colors directly across from each other on the color wheel. For example, Blue-Green and Red-Orange are complementary colors.
- Split Complimentary: Choose three colors side by side. Next, choose the color directly across from the center color of your first trio selection. For example, if I choose Green, Yellow-Green, and Yellow as my trio, I would select Red-Purple as my complementary color. You then have four colors to work with for your fabric selection.
- Analogous: Choose a starting color, for example, Red. Next, choose the two colors directly to the right and the two colors directly to the left on the color wheel. We now have Purple, Red-Purple, Red, Red-Orange, and Orange. You can stop there or continue adding colors making your way around the wheel.
Picking out fabric should be a fun process. As soon as it isn’t, take a step back and wait till you are ready to try again. These different ways to use a coloring wheel should help you get started.
How Do You Coordinate Colors in Quilting?
A coloring wheel is an excellent tool for finding coordinating colors. Use the suggested methods in the last section to take full advantage of the color wheel.
Another way to choose coordinating colors is to choose one main fabric, preferably one with several colors. You must find materials matching the other colors in your main fabric. This is one of my favorite ways to choose coordinating fabrics for a new quilt project.
How Many Colors Should You Use in a Quilt?
The number of colors (pure hues) you choose to use in your quilt will depend on your preference and the pattern you choose to make.
Most quilt pattern designers include fabric requirements and suggestions to help you select the fabric for your quilt.
There is no “right” or “wrong” answer to this question. If you prefer a monochrome look, just choose one hue and use a few other shades or tones to add dimension.
On the other hand, if you love to mix and match colors, then why not throw them all into the mix and make a technicolor rainbow-inspired masterpiece? It’s totally up to you and what you like.
The Best Color Wheel for Quilting: 7 Excellent Options to Consider
I have found seven of the best color wheel options that you can use for quilting and any other textile crafting.
These are all great options, and you can’t go wrong with any of them for your quilting needs.
Here is a color wheel made specifically for quilters! This easy-to-use color wheel has the entire color spectrum to help you choose fabrics for your next quilting project.
One of the features that makes this a unique color wheel is it has “windows” in each color quadrant. Using these windows, you can figure out what colors will go best with your chosen fabric.
To use this particular feature, you place the color wheel over the fabric that you have chosen and view the material through the windows. This will help you visualize what color hues, shades, tones, and tints will look best with your fabric.
This color wheel is an excellent choice for anyone that wants to use a lot of color in their quilts. On one side of the wheel, you will find different shades to play with, and on the other, you will find different tints.
Having the shades and tints on opposite sides will be helpful for those who might get overwhelmed with all the different hues. The wheel measures 9.25” in diameter and is perfect for traveling or going to quilt workshops.
Katie Fowler, a quilter, designed the Foolproof Color Wheel Set! She understood how choosing coordinating fabrics and colors can be overwhelming and wanted to do something about it.
She created this easy-to-use color wheel set that comes with ten discs to help you see the different types of color combinations. You can use this for quilting and other crafting hobbies you have. This is a great beginner-friendly color wheel that you can use with confidence next time you need to select fabrics.
Here is another fantastic choice for those unsure about choosing fabrics on your own or using a color wheel. This wheel is extremely beginner-friendly and has strategically placed cut-outs to help you visualize what colors go best together.
You may think this color wheel is best for painters, but many quilters have used it to select exciting color combinations for their quilt projects.
This color wheel is multi-functional, and here is why. It not only has several helpful diagrams of how to combine colors and a beautiful central color wheel, but it is also a tote bag!
It is a fantastic choice for quilters who travel or like to go to quilt workshops and retreats. You will always have your color wheel with you! You can also take it with you when you go to your favorite quilt shop to select fabrics in the store.
The tote bag is large enough to carry an 18”x24” cutting mat and all your quilting notions to your next quilting gathering.
Here is another beautiful color wheel that features hues, shades, tones, and tints at your fingertips. This wheel also includes color definitions and teaches you about color theory.
This color wheel allows you to choose complimentary or split color combinations effortlessly. It also features labels for warm and cool colors, which is helpful when trying to figure out an initial color palette for your quilt—the color wheels measures about 9” in diameter.
This color wheel has 12 primary, secondary, and tertiary color hues and their tones, tints, and shades. This easy-to-read color wheel includes cut-outs and a spinning piece that helps visualize the different color combinations.
It also has definitions and helpful tips printed on the spinner of the wheel, so you’ll have all the necessary information when deciding on your fabric selection. The diameter of the wheel is 9.25”, which makes it great for travel.
More Related Articles
I hope this post has shown you that you don’t have to be nervous to use a color wheel to select fabric for your quilts, and mixing and matching colors can be fun!
The color wheel has been a staple tool in the crafting arena for centuries, and it’s a great tool to use even in quilting.
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Information engineering (IE) or information engineering methodology (IEM) is a software engineering approach to designing and developing information systems. It can also be considered as the generation, distribution, analysis and use of information in systems.
Information engineering methodology involves an architectural approach to planning, analyzing, designing, and implementing applications. It is defined as: "An integrated and evolutionary set of tasks and techniques that enhance business communication throughout an enterprise enabling it to develop people, procedures and systems to achieve its vision". It is also defined as the generation, distribution, analysis and use of information in systems. This later definition involves the usage of machine learning, data mining and other computational methods to enhance the presentation and understanding of the high-throughput data that is generated by different systems. An example is bioinformatics, applying information engineering to biological data.
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Operation Bernhard was the codename of a secret Nazi plan devised during the Second World War by the RSHA and the SS to destabilise the British economy via economic warfare by flooding the global economy and the British Empire with forged Bank of England £5, £10, £20, and £50 notes. It was the largest counterfeiting operation in the history of economic warfare, and the first that employed the full technical/scientific and management expertise of a nation state, to produce and deploy bogus currency to destabilize an enemy belligerent’s economic standing with its allies; and its acceptance by neutral powers.
Britain was especially vulnerable because its war effort was founded upon, and sustained by its global and Imperial economy. That economy was based on directly ruled colonial possessions; self-governing Commonwealth Dominions; and, the whole Empire’s Sterling Preference Area (currency zone) in commerce with neutral powers; to acquire the manpower and materiel necessary to fight a global war. The first two years of which; it fought alone. All of these trading partners were both accepting (in exchange for goods and services); and holding British Pounds Sterling, in their currency reserves for transactions with; and within the Empire. Confidence in the integrity of this (still then global) currency, both in and outside of the Sterling Preference Area; was essential to sustaining the vitality of the Empire, and thru it, the war effort. This German operation has been dramatised in books, the BBC comedy-drama miniseries Private Schulz and a 2007 Oscar-winning Austrian film, The Counterfeiters (Die Fälscher).
The plan was directed by, and named after, Schutzstaffel Sturmbannführer (SS Major) Bernhard Krüger, who set up a team of 142 counterfeiters from inmates at Sachsenhausen concentration camp at first, and then from other camps, especially Auschwitz. Beginning in 1942, the work of engraving the complex printing plates, developing the appropriate rag-based paper with the correct watermarks, and breaking the code to generate valid serial numbers was extremely difficult, but by the time Sachsenhausen was evacuated in April 1945 the printing press had produced 8,965,080 banknotes with a total value of £134,610,810. The notes are considered among the most perfect counterfeits ever produced, being almost impossible to distinguish from the real currency.
The plan was to destabilize the British economy during the war by dropping the notes from aircraft, on the assumption that most Britons would collect the money and spend it, thus triggering inflation. This scheme was not put into effect: it was postulated that the Luftwaffe did not have enough aircraft to deliver the forgeries, and by that time the operation was in the hands of SS foreign intelligence. From late 1943, approximately one million notes per month were printed. Many were transferred from SS headquarters to a former hotel near Meran in South Tyrol, Northern Italy, from where they were laundered and used to pay for strategic imports and German secret agents operating in Allied countries. It has been rumoured that counterfeit currency was used to finance the rescue of Benito Mussolini in 1943.
The Bank of England learned of a plot from a spy as early as 1939 and detected forged notes in 1943, which were called "the most dangerous ever seen". Clerks first recorded the counterfeits from a British bank in Tangiers. Every banknote issued by the Bank of England was recorded in large leather-bound ledgers, still in the Bank's archives and it was found that one of the notes had been recorded as having been paid off.[clarification needed] The counterfeiting team turned its attention to US currency, producing samples of one side of $100 bills on 22 February 1945, with production scheduled to start the next day but the Reich Security Head Office (RSHA) ordered the work halted and the press dismantled.
On the evacuation of Sachsenhausen, the counterfeiting team was transferred to Redl-Zipf in Austria, a subsidiary camp of Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. At the beginning of May 1945, the team was ordered to transfer to Ebensee subsidiary camp, where they were to be murdered. Their SS guards had only one truck for the prisoners, so the transfer required three trips. The truck broke down during the third trip and the last batch of prisoners had to be marched to Ebensee, where they arrived on 4 May. The guards of the first two batches of prisoners fled when the prisoners at the Ebensee camp revolted and refused to be moved into tunnels, where they would have probably been blown up. The counterfeiters then dispersed among the prisoners at Ebensee. The order was that all the counterfeiters be liquidated together; the delayed arrival of the third batch therefore saved the lives of all of them.
The Ebensee camp was liberated by US forces on 6 May 1945. One of the prisoners, the Jewish Slovak printer-turned-counterfeiter Adolf Burger, later contributed to the awareness of Operation Bernhard with several versions of his memoirs published in Central European languages and in Persian. An English version was published in 2009 as The Devil's Workshop.
After the war, Major Krüger was detained by the British for two years, then turned over to the French for a year. He said they asked him to forge documents but that he refused. He was released in 1948 without charge. In the 1950s he went before a De-Nazification Court, where statements were produced from the forger-inmates whose lives he had been responsible for saving. He later worked for the company that had produced the special paper for the Operation Bernhard forgeries.
After the defeat of the Third Reich, large bundles of fake pounds ended up in the hands of the Jewish underground, which used the forged notes to buy equipment and to bring colonists to Palestine, among them Chaim Shurik, a Polish printer whose 20-page account of his counterfeiting days was written in Hebrew.
It is believed that most of the notes produced ended up at the bottom of Lake Toplitz near Ebensee, from where they were recovered by divers in 1959. But examples turned up in circulation in Britain for many years, which caused the Bank of England to withdraw all notes larger than £5 from circulation. A new £5 banknote colored blue was issued on 21 February 1957 and the other denominations were reintroduced on February 21, 1964 (£10), July 9, 1970 (£20) and March 20, 1981 (£50).
German spy Elyesa Bazna (codename "Cicero") was paid with counterfeit notes, sued the German government after the war for outstanding pay and lost the case.
The 2007 Oscar-winning Austrian film, The Counterfeiters (Die Fälscher), tells the story of Salomon Sorowitsch, loosely based on the lives of counterfeiter Salomon Smolianoff and Adolf Burger, a Jewish Slovak book printer who was put to work on Operation Bernhard in Sachsenhausen concentration camp and whose memoirs were turned into the screenplay.
In the British comedy series Goodnight Sweetheart starring Nicholas Lyndhurst, the episode "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie" involves the main characters catching a Nazi spy who was uttering notes, forged by Operation Bernhard, in local pubs and shops in London.
The 1941 novel Traitor's Purse (US title The Sabotage Murder Mystery) by Margery Allingham featured (presumably by coincidence) a similar plot where the forged notes were to be posted to every household in Britain, in parallel with a secretly-planned genuine Government mailing.
"Reichsbank forgeries" are mentioned in the James Bond novel Goldfinger during Bond's interview with a Colonel Smithers of the Bank of England.
- Superdollars – high-quality counterfeit dollars suspected to come from a foreign power
- The Black Island – a Tintin adventure concerning a German-inspired counterfeiting ring in Britain
- Malkin, Lawrence. Krueger's Men: The Secret Nazi Counterfeit Plot and the Prisoners of Block 19 (2006) ISBN 0-316-05700-2 ISBN 978-0-316-05700-4, p184
- Max Garcia, "Befreiung des KZ-Nebenlagers Ebensee: Neue historische Details." Zeitschrift des Zeitgeschichtemuseums Ebensee, 1998.
- Adolf Burger, The Devil's Workshop. 2009. Frontline Books. ISBN 978-1-84832-523-4
- Kalish, Jon (July 4, 2008). "The Counterfeit Saga(s): What Really Happened at Sachsenhausen?". The Forward. Retrieved 2014-01-21.
- "Nazis Try To Raise Fortune From Seabed.". The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995) (ACT: National Library of Australia). 27 September 1963. p. 7. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
- Counterf-Hitler: Examples from the £134million in dodgy bank notes Adolf hoped would ruin the British economy expected to fetch £2,000 at auction
- "Bank of England: Withdrawn Banknotes Reference Guide" (PDF). Bankofengland.co.uk.
- Compare records of Smolianoff's 1946 debriefing, PRO MEPO 3/2766, from Lawrence Malkin's website
- Burger, Adolf. The Devils Workshop: A Memoir of the Nazi Counterfeiting Operation. 2009. Frontline Books. ISBN 978-1-84832-523-4
- Burke, Bryan. Nazi Counterfeiting of British Currency during World War II: Operation Andrew and Operation Bernhard (1987) ISBN 0-9618274-0-8 (Limited edition of 1000)
- Delgado, Arturo R. Counterfeit Reich: Hitler's Secret Swindle (2006) ISBN 978-1-4241-0389-8
- Malkin, Lawrence. Krueger's Men: The Secret Nazi Counterfeit Plot and the Prisoners of Block 19 (2006) ISBN 0-316-05700-2 ISBN 978-0-316-05700-4
- Malkin, Lawrence. Hitlers Geldfälscher: Wie die Nazis planten, das internationale Währungssystem auszuhebeln (2006) ISBN 978-3-7857-2249-7 (ab 1.2. 2007)
- Nachtstern, Moritz & Arntzen, Ragnar. Falksmyntner i Sachsenhausen: Hvordan en norsk jøde overlevde holocaust (1949) ISBN 978-82-430-0404-7
- Pirie, Anthony. Operation Bernhard. New York: William Morrow & Company, 1962. No ISBN; Library of Congress Card Catalogue Number 62-11353.
- Lawrence Malkin's website - Author of "Krueger's Men: The Secret Nazi Counterfeit Plot and the Prisoners of Block 19"
- The Great Nazi Cash Swindle - webchat with director/producer of a Channel 4 documentary on Operation Bernhard.
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Gaucher disease is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder caused by mutations in the GBA gene. This gene contains the information necessary for the production of an enzyme called beta-glucocerebrosidase (GCase). Deficiency of GCase results in the accumulation of a fatty molecule called glucocerebroside in various organs to toxic levels.
Types of blood disorders seen in Gaucher patients
The most common blood disorder seen in type 1 Gaucher disease patients is low platelet count, or thrombocytopenia. Platelets, or thrombocytes, are blood cells that help in blood clotting. Low platelet count may cause bleeding in the gums and nose, making the patient prone to bruising. Heavy menstrual bleeding and hemorrhages (loss of blood from a ruptured blood vessel) due to minor injuries, surgery, or labor are also seen in as many as 43 percent of Gaucher disease patients.
Alongside low platelet counts, the levels of clotting factors in the blood are also greatly reduced in Gaucher disease patients, the most common deficiencies being factors II, V, and X.
Cells with accumulated glucocerebroside (Gaucher cells) often infiltrate the bone marrow in Gaucher disease. The bone marrow is where red blood cells (RBCs) are produced; the infiltration of Gaucher cells impairs the ability of the bone marrow to produce RBCs. This combined with the enlarged spleen (the spleen is the graveyard for damaged RBCs) results in anemia that ultimately leads to fatigue and shortness of breath.
Anemia and thrombocytopenia are observed in type 2 as well as in the Norrbottnian variant of type 3 Gaucher disease.
Treatment of blood disorders
Although there is no definitive cure for Gaucher disease, enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) and substrate reduction therapy (SRT) are generally prescribed. Depending on the extent of bleeding and anemia, a blood transfusion might also be required.
It has been shown that the severity of thrombocytopenia can be reduced within one to two years of ERT if there is no splenomegaly (enlarged spleen). If thrombocytopenia is still persistent after four years of ERT, splenomegaly is the likely reason and the patient may be advised to undergo a splenectomy.
Clotting factor levels can also be normalized after regular administration of ERT after about 28 months.
Administration of recombinant erythropoietin (rEPO) may help in elevating RBC counts but carries a risk of thrombosis (clotting) and aggregation of RBCs. rEPO therapy is not needed for those who respond positively to ERT with increased hemoglobin levels.
Gaucher Disease News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
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There are several benefits in Taekwondo for kids. Taekwondo is an Olympic sport originating in Korea and also an recognized world wide as a skill and art form. To parents looking to enroll their children in some extra physical activities, Taekwondo may come to mind. At first glance, Taekwondo may appear violent with the fast and flash spinning kicks to the head when in reality it is actually an excellent sport that teaches important values and we highly recommend Taekwondo for kids.
Amazing sport for fitness
Taekwondo is an excellent tool to increase physical activity. New drills and techniques keep every class exciting. This is essential in keeping kids’ interest in participation and maintaining consistency.
Taekwondo for kids teaches discipline and respect
It is important to learn respect and discipline at an early age. Taekwondo for kids helped teach important values and how to treat one another. Kids will learn martial arts but also restraint, for self-defense and to not abuse power. Structured curriculum in classes promote discipline while instructors and peers inspire lessons of respect through mutual appreciation.
Self-confidence and social interaction
Taekwondo training and sparring practice will immensely improve your child’s confidence by utilizing training in different situations with and without a competitive nature will dampen the fear of physical confrontations. Having a state of mind where you are able to defend and remove yourself from harmful situations gives confidence that radiates through everyday life.
There is a team mentality when it comes to Taekwondo training. Everyone receives support from their peers in the gym. Taekwondo for kids especially helps with their social interaction as they can train and compete with others of similar age and mindset.
Valuable skills and lessons can be learnt through Taekwondo for kids and adults. Lifelong values are instilled and everlasting friendships can be formed inside the gym. For fitness and health, Taekwondo keeps us active and always excited for the next class.
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In the Fig Tree:
The Italian St. Rita, as is usually the case with the saints, greatly desired to join a convent as a young child, but was prevented. In obedience to her parents, at 12 years old she married, and bore her violent and otherwise criminally-inclined husband two sons. He beat her continually and brought her not much in the way of happiness, but she stayed with him, and towards the end of his life even managed to convert him to Catholicism and a new path. This was one of the first steps towards what she would become: the patron saint of impossible dreams and lost causes--and abused women.
However, she persevered, and one morning, the good nuns awoke to find that she had been spirited into the locked convent in the middle of the night by her own patron saints. Feeling they could not ignore such a clear statement from God, they permitted her to stay.
Later, on her death bed in the convent, she made another impertinent request. She asked that a visitor bring her a fig and a rose from a garden she had always loved. The problem, of course, was that it was the dead of winter, and there would be no figs and no roses.
But, of course, there were. The visitor went to the garden she'd named, and found there just the fig and just the rose, and brought them to Rita.
There are many details that make the fig tree a good companion for a saint. First of all, that it will grow out of rock, like an orchid, only gigantic, that it could even (and in some places has) grown out of the 'ruins' of our civilization. It is now believed that fig trees were the first plant species to be bred for food, some 11,000 years ago in the Middle East--several hundred years before wheat cultivation began. According to legend, underneath it, Buddha found enlightenment, and from between its roots sprung the Srasvati river; according to a NASA clean air study, the weeping fig also produces clean air, processing out our nasty pollutants--bringing us back full circle, with new life forming from our ruins--by way of the fig tree.
The roses shown in ink are Alain Blanchard, from the species 'Rosa gallica,' which is reputed to be one of the earliest cultivated species of roses. As she sits, in the ink version, in the curve of the tree trunk, she pushes the bark outwards in waves--that is how I imagine it looks when reality 'shifts' to allow an impossibility new space in the world. Being a saint, she lets the bird take the fig.
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In the Bible the prophet Habakkuk is the first one to dare call God to account. For centuries, faith had been announcing God’s justice. However, this justice had not always been obvious. After many kept silent about their doubts, Habakkuk was the first biblical author who asked boldly: Why does the Lord allow injustice to triumph? Why, when he punishes one oppressor, does he replace him with someone worse?
The answer is twofold:
– The Lord keeps secret how he rules the world and all he asks is that we remain faithful: the upright will live by his faithfulness.
– The prophet contemplates the glory of the Lord who will judge in the end.
Habakkuk spoke his oracles from 605-600, when Nebuchadnezzar, who had just destroyed the cruel Assyria, became very powerful himself and plundered Israel.
« Go back
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Pachypodium lealii subs. Saundersii
P. saundersii is native to KwaZulu-Natal, Mozambique, Northern Provinces, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. In its habitat the plant grows in woodland and in stony places in full sun.
P. saundersii is a shruby caudicform succulent belonging to Apocynaceae botanical family. The plant can reach up to 2 m in height and up 1 m in diameter. The plant has a woody, thick, partially subterranean caudex that can reach 1 m in diameter. The caudex is spherical, smooth, dark grey in color. The stem branches from the base. Branches are long and armed with sharp spines. Leaves and blossom are borne at the top of the spines. Branches reaches 1 m in length. Leaves are obovate, bright green, deciduous, undulate, arranged in tufts. Blooming occurs from early spring to late summer. Flowers are bell-shaped, large, showy, light pink to purple and yellow stamens. Flower are borne at the top of the branches in tufts. Seeds are numerous, ovate in outline and compressed.
This is a rare plant, easy to cultivate and drought resistant. The best sun-exposure is full sunlight, and the plant does not like temperatures below 10 °C so it needs to be placed indoors. The soil should be mixed with pumice, clay and loam to allow the drainage and prevent the root rot, the plant is prone to it indeed. Remember to use perforating pot to drain excess water. Watering can be done regularly from March to September: during the vegetative period you can water the plant (every 7 days), checking that the soil is completely dry before watering again; in winter you should stop the watering to allow to the plant to enter dormancy. If you want a faster and lush growth you can fertilize the plant once a month during the growing season with the specifics fertilizers for cacti; stop fertilizing throughout the winter. If the pot starts to be too small for the plant you can repot the plant in a pot 2 cm wider. Repotting should be done early in the growing season with fresh new potting soil. Be careful to red spiders and mealy bugs.
Propagation can be done by seed or by cutting. By cutting you can use the offsets during the spring. Cut an offset and then let it dry; after a few days the cut surface will dry and a callus will form, then place the cutting in a mixture of sand, soil and pumice. To increase success of propagation you can cut two or more offsets at the same time. For cuttings is recommended temperatures around 20 °C. By seed is very simple to propagate the plant, it is enough to sow the seed in a sandy loam soil and keep it with high level of humidity.
Also called “palm trees of Madagascar”, the Pachypodiums get their name from the shape of the trunk, wider at the base and it gradually narrowes with the height. Literally, Pachypodium means in fact “big foot” (from the Greek “pachys”, big and “podos”, foot). The name “Saundersii” derives from Sir Charles James Saunders, an English colonial administrator and botanist who described about 400 species of plants.
Official Web Site:
Read our advice
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and they came to him.
He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles,
that they might be with him
and he might send them forth to preach
and to have authority to drive out demons:
He appointed the Twelve:
Simon, whom he named Peter;
James, son of Zebedee,
and John the brother of James, whom he named Boanerges,
that is, sons of thunder;
Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus;
Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean,
and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.
- Mark 3:13-19
Today's Gospel reading depicts the appointment of the Twelve Apostles by Jesus. In it, Jesus is described as sending them forth preach and giving them the authority to drive out demons. The reading then lists their names. These Apostles became the foundation of the early church and are the forerunners of today's bishops. They had authority to teach and, in other places, are given the authority to forgiven sins. In many respects, these twelve men could be considered Jesus' closest confidants and followers.
So why do we still read about the appointment of the Apostles today. The Apostles are meant to serve as an example for all of us about how to follow Christ and be his disciples. Just as they were tasked with going forth and preaching the Good News, so to we must preach the Good News in our world today. We may not have the ability to drive out demons or work miraculous cures, but we do have the ability to serve others and witness to Jesus through that service. This is how we must live out our discipleship today. As St. Francis said: "Always remember to preach the Gospel, and if necessary, use words."
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The issues of globalisation and hence immigration are ever-increasing topics in Europe. Only recently it was stated that every second student is supposed to have sufficient knowledge of at least one foreign language at the age of 15. An action plan formulated by the European Commission for the years 2004-2006 shows the importance of languages as means for integration and cultural awareness. “It is a priority for Member States to ensure that language learning in kindergarten and primary school is effective, for it is here that key attitudes towards other languages and cultures are formed, and the foundations for later language learning are laid.” (Commission of the European Communities 2003: 7)
With reference to the educational system it is demanded that two other languages should be learned in schools under the heading of the ‘life-long language learning’ programme. Although today’s countries are already coined by bilingualism and multilingualism the development and maintenance of different languages is still emotionally debated within politics and societies (cf. Meisel 2004:1). This is especially the case in child language acquisition because it is assumed that different language input could negatively influence the cognitive mechanisms and that the children could be trapped between two or more unsteady developed languages. Referring to the situation of children with a migrant background the arguments on the one hand claim that the maintenance of the family language is threatened and on the other hand that the proficiency of the majority language is insufficient to interact within the environment and to proceed academically (cf. ibid.). Recalling the European Commission it is stated that because of the globalisation the knowledge of more than one language is seen as a basic skill and the competence to communicate in languages apart from English takes on an important role. Since children with a migrant background are usually raised with various language, for instance, the family language (minority language), the language of the host country and further languages at school, they bring along apposite characteristics to become multilingual and to fulfill the goal set by the European Commission. However, these different language contacts in various settings also provide difficulties. The input from the close environment like relatives and neighbourhood shapes their language progress. As a result the children with migrant backgrounds happen to enter primary school with serious disadvantages (cf. Driessen, van der Slik & de Bot, 2002: 176). Thus Stanat et al. (2010) reported in their presentation of the PISA tests and the compared results
from 2000 – 2009 that within Europe children with a migrant background still have considerable lacks in majority language competences compared to their monolingual peers. Because these results are often seen as consequences of insufficient language proficiency, this paper scrutinizes the bilingual development of children with a migrant background with the goal to find out how maintenance of the minority language and acquisition of the majority language are best achieved. The question is whether children with a migrant background develop language deficits in their first or second language and if so, why this happens. Thus factors which influence language development are examined whereas age as a main factor is particularly focused next to home language and formal educational impacts. Finally, it should be considered if there is something like linguistically balanced bilingualism and if it could be compared to monolingual language proficiency. The examination paper at hand looks at cases of bilingual children who are exposed to a minority language at home and a majority language in society by birth or in early or late childhood. Furthermore the children’s linguistic development is scrutinised throughout various analyses to show if probable language...
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The True Size: The site that fixes country sizes
Cartography is an ancient and nevertheless inexact science. History began in antiquity with the Greek Erastotenes, who first calculated the circumference of the earth and its radius. To do so, he compared the angle of incidence of the sun in Alexandria and Aswan, cities of Egypt. The result was unbelievable: 46, 100 kilometers in circumference.
Thousands of years ago, the guy managed to get close to the exact value we have today: 40, 000 km. It is evident that, so many years after this kickoff, cartography has undergone several changes and evolutions. However, since everything good is short-lived, its inaccurate science status was discovered by the German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss in the 19th century. According to him, it is impossible to represent a sphere on a completely flat sheet of paper - inevitably, distortions will happen.
The cartographic dilemma
Cartographers then had a dilemma to solve. They should choose which dimension to privilege: area, angle or distance of territories - because all three at the same time was not feasible.
Fortunately, science and technology are there to overcome even seemingly unbeatable challenges. The True Size has done what cartography has never been able to do: represent countries in the right proportion. After all, it is unacceptable that Greenland is larger than Brazil - as we see on maps during geography classes.
Those responsible for this project are James Talmage and Damon Maneice, who used one of the world's most famous 2D projections: Mercator's. This projection is cylindrical and was created by the Belgian Gerardus Mercator in 1569. The idea is that, to make a map, the planet Earth had to be "wrapped" in an imaginary cylinder.
In Mercator, country angles are conserved. But as latitude increases, the area of countries suffers distortions. In short, the closer to the North and South Pole, the larger the territories will be.
How to use the site "The True Size"?
First, access the site by clicking here. A Google Maps map will appear on your screen with a top right tab. Here you will enter the country you want to "distort". This country will be colored and you can move your mouse outline anywhere on the map.
You can apply this command to multiple countries at the same time, which still calculates the exact area of each of them. For example, we see in the image above a comparison between Brazil and Greenland. The actual size of each is respectively 8, 511, 000 km² and 2, 166, 000 km². However, due to the distortions that occur in Mercator's projection, Greenland appears to be 14 times larger than it actually is - when in fact it narrowly beats little Madagascar.
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Food and Farming
No economic sector is more socially and environmentally destructive than the current global food system, which relies on corporate monopolies and industrial agriculture. But famers are reclaiming the role of food as a powerful way to bring people together.
Farmers and food justice advocates are transforming the status quo with sustainable food systems and regenerative farming practices. These incredibly dynamic solutions are changing how we eat — serving as community-oriented, healthy and delicious ways to manage food production from seed to shelf.
“We’re facing the sixth major extinction on the planet, so we feel a very strong imperative to engage as many of our fellow members of our species to do what they can on whatever little patch of paradise that they manage, to learn to work with nature, to not use toxins, to build up the ecology, to build up the whole community of natural enemies – the predators, parasites, pathogens, and antagonists – and grow stuff, sequester carbon into the soil, pull the carbon dioxide out of the air where it’s a pollutant and fix it into the life forms in the soil. That’s what sustains us on the planet.”
Check out these great partner organizations:
Center for Food Safety works to protect our food, our farms, and our environment.
The Marin Carbon Project seeks to enhance carbon sequestration in rangeland, agricultural, and forest soils through applied research, demonstration and implementation in Marin County.
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It is estimated that fresh water makes up only 2-3 per cent of the total water resources on earth, with most of it frozen in the form of glaciers and ice caps. The rapid increase in global population has stressed the world’s available water resources, and cities like Cape Town in South Africa, and Shimla in India are both facing a severe water crisis. While desalination could be an alternative to using surface water, it is restricted by geography and is an expensive process that consumes a large amount of electricity.
As a solution to this problem, a team of scientists from UC Berkeley, USA has developed a prototype for a water harvester that can collect water from the atmosphere using sunlight and a water absorber, which is a highly porous material called a metal-organic framework (MOF). The water harvester collects drinkable water from dry desert air over the course of an entire day and night. For this purpose, it uses the MOF that absorbs water during the night, and through solar heating during the day, releases it to be condensed and collected. MOFs are solids with so many internal channels and holes that a mere sugar-cube-sized water absorber could have an internal surface area that is equivalent of six football fields. Its surface area can easily absorb gases or liquids and quickly release them when heated.
The structure of the harvester can be described as a box placed inside another box. The inner box holds a 2-square-foot bed of MOF grains that are open to the air for absorbing moisture. The outside box is a two-foot plastic cube with a transparent top and sides. The top is left open at night to let air flow in, allowing contact with the MOF. It is then closed during the day so the box can heat up like a greenhouse to drive water back out of the MOF. The released water condenses on the inner surface of the outer box and falls to the bottom, where it can be collected with a pipette. Various types of MOFs are already being tested for applications such as absorbing water, packing more gas into the tanks of hydrogen-fuelled vehicles, absorbing carbon dioxide from smokestacks and storing methane. The advantage of such a device is that it can extract water even in areas with low levels of humidity. That, coupled with its low operational costs, makes it ideal for inhabitants of arid regions. The device also functions well at ambient temperatures without electricity and so it does not depend on a specific location to be able to operate.
The current MOFs being used (MOF-801) are made of zirconium, which can be expensive. They can extract about 200 ml of water for every kilogram of MOF. However, the team has developed a new aluminium-based MOF (MOF-303), which is 150 times cheaper, and has been proven to show that it can absorb twice as much water as the MOF-801. The researchers are expecting the per kilogram amount of water absorbed daily by the new MOF to be about 400 ml, or about 1.5 cups of water.
The research team recently conducted a field trial in Scottsdale, in the Arizona desert, to test the device outside the laboratory. The humidity levels in the region can vary from 40 per cent at night to 8 per cent during the day. The practical demonstration showed that the amount of water harvested could be scaled up by simply adding more of the water absorber inside the device. In the next phase, the team will test the aluminium-based MOF in Death Valley, California, during the summer, where day-to-night temperatures can vary from 43o to 21o Celsius, with the humidity at night dropping to as low as 25 per cent.
The industry has shown active interest in this technology and there are reportedly several start-up companies interested in taking this technology from the lab to the market using the cheaper aluminium-based MOF. The team is also collaborating with King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as part of their joint research at the Centre of Excellence for Nanomaterials and Clean Energy. Although the technology is still being tested on a smaller scale, a commercial-scale prototype could be ready in a few years as a result of the recent advances made in MOF technology.
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"Students' best chance at success is when they are not just serving time, but time is serving them." So says Prisoners of Time, a 1994 report from the National Education Commission on Time and Learning. Carve out 10 minutes of your own to reflect on that idea. As yourself:
Is student learning limited to core instructional time?
How do you support students that need more to "get it"?
How can you turn "dead zones" into reinforcement?
Don't forget to add your comments to our Reading Message Board.
The pace of instruction seems our first enemy. We all can identify students for whom the curriculum moves too fast. They can't seem to master skills before we move to a new concept. These students often keep schools from making adequate yearly progress or, at best, leave frustrated teachers saying "they met the minimum standard; we have to move on." All that makes it imperative that we create multiple opportunities to enforce what we most want children to learn. How do we do that?
Use small groups to review explicitly, while others work independently. Even if you can afford only 15 minutes at a time, that's 15 minutes of review they wouldn't have had. Target one skill (identifying nouns, for example) and approach it from a different perspective. Spread out single word flashcards and let children choose the words they know are nouns and identify them. Discuss the remaining words as different parts of speech, or review the "person, place or thing" definition as you name others. Our first Reading Coach column, The Use of Multiple Grouping to Improve Student Achievement, gives more tips for working with small groups. Master moving efficiently from one task to another, and teach your students to do the same.
Use repetition meaningfully. Struggling readers need to use all their senses to learn; they must hear, see, say, write, and experience over and over again. Replace mindless "drill and kill" with quick reinforcing activities like this one:
Anytime students wait in line, share from a quick read bag such books as Ripley's Believe It or Not for middle school students, Jon Scieszka's Time Warp Trio series for 7-12 year olds, and small books like Larkin's Little Readers for K-1. Have students explore/read whenever the line stops. Keeping a line busy is easier than "shushing" and you add another layer. Choose fun-to-read books they can pick up again at free reading time.
Use coming-together and waiting time to reward students. Let K-12 students play computer learning games, such as The Grammar Gorillas or Where is That? (available free at Funbrain.com) to reinforce knowledge. Play such quick ticket-out-the-door games as Spell a Capital: children must give a short answer to a question before they exit to specials, the library, or home.
Reach outside class for more layering. Use opportunities when you meet parents to suggest quick targeted at-home activities that meet specific needs of their child. List them in your newsletter. Offer choices of at-home activities that relate to key grade-level reading standards.
Let families pick a short, fun activity that works for them, and change activities once a semester. For example, second grade students might give their parents a spelling test on the week's words (takes all of five minutes). Students then grade the tests based on their own knowledge. Any words they are unsure of? Families can check the study guide together.
Utilize community resources. Is a volunteer tutoring program nearby? Ask the program to add phonics games, comprehension strategies, or literature reviews to its lessons, so every minute of the tutoring session targets skills you teach. In the model I designed for a volunteer-based tutoring program (See RIFE), sight word play happens for five minutes of each session, building quick, automatic recognition of key words.IN THE REAL CLASSROOM:
This month's suggestion comes from Annette Protz of Alabama's Cleveland Elementary School:
Pull 3 vocabulary words a day from a book read in class. Put the words on a WOW (Working On Words) board and encourage students to use the words as much as possible. My students do WOW stories. Anytime we have a few extra minutes, I have them tell me a sentence using as many of their vocabulary words as possible. That lets me know they remember the words and know how to use them.
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http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/reading/ReadingCoach/ReadingCoach003.shtml
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719215.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00524-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.945656 | 919 | 3.546875 | 4 |
MELBOURNE, FLA.—A National Science Foundation grant of $405,000 will fund Florida Institute of Technology Professor of Biological Science Mark Bush and graduate students on summer field research explorations to Brazil, Peru, and Panama over the next three years. They will investigate the cause of the largest recent mass extinction of megafauna, or large mammals. The extinction event occurred between 15,000 and 9,000 years ago—a time of rapid warming at the end of the last Ice Age and the arrival of humans in the Americas.
Rapid climate change and over-exploitation by hunters vie as competing explanations for the loss of over 50 genera of large mammals, such as sabre-toothed cats, mastodons, and giant ground sloths.
Understanding the vulnerability of large mammal populations to sudden warming has relevance to conserving modern mammal-rich areas such as the American West, Alaska and the Serengeti.
The researchers will collect the layered muds that gradually accumulate in ancient lakes at 13 settings in Peru, Brazil and Panama. They will drill and collect cores of muds that were continuously deposited from 25,000 to 5,000 years ago. By analyzing fossil pollen, charcoal, diatoms (algae) and fungal spores they will document climate change, human arrival, and the decline of large mammal abundance. This evidence will help determine the timing and causes of the extinction of large mammals.
The team will also work with museums in Brazil and Panama to create displays depicting the relationship of megafaunal collapse and ecological principles.
Bush will recruit undergraduates as well as graduate students for international field-work and to participate in the publication of findings. “These experiences are often a truly transformative experience for undergraduates,” said Bush.
Bush’s research website, in English and Spanish, is http://research.fit.edu/paleolab. The addition of Portuguese pages is planned.
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<urn:uuid:e74b37c4-6a3d-4385-8c4d-27ffb44d4ab8>
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CC-MAIN-2014-52
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http://www.fit.edu/newsroom/news/5106/405000_grant_funds_florida_tech_investigation_of_pleistocene_large_mammal_collapse
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802772398.133/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075252-00085-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.939744 | 402 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Essential Fatty Acids are needed to take part in virtually every function of our body. From our mental capacity to our daily energy, governing our growth rate, converting food into fuel for our bodies through oxidation, taking part in hemoglobin production and in damage prevention from the “hard fats”, the list could continue on and on.& Essential Fatty Acids play a direct part in our metabolism as well. The more saturated, hard fats we eat, the slower our metabolism runs, and vice versa.In short, the Essential Fatty Acids are so named because they are essential to the life of our body. However because the body doesn’t produce these nutrients, we must get them through the food we eat, such as nuts and seeds. The two familiar grouping names of the Essential Fatty Acids are the Omega-6 EFA’s and the Omega-3 EFA’s. Although both are needed for correct functioning of the body, the ratio over the years has skewed heavily into an excess of Omega-6 EFA’s (the main source in vegetable oils - think “fried foods”) and that can lead to dire consequences. The body is set up to receive them in about a 1:1 ratio, yet our lifestyles today tip the scale to a more 20:1 ratio of Omega-6 EFA over Omega-3 EFA.&
Overuse of the Omega-6 EFA’s can lead to obesity, diabetes, and premature aging, just to name a few problems. Omega-3 EFA’s are those commonly found in things such as flaxseed oil, walnut oil, fatty fish and fish oil. Much study has been done in the work that these Omega-3’s do for the body, specifically in the area of heart health. For example, fish oil has been seen to reduce blood pressure, maintain the “elasticity” of the blood vessels, even stabilize heart rhythms, which is one of the reasons we are encouraged to eat some sort of fatty fish in our diets at least once weekly.&
Common names of other supplements containing Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids would be Evening Primrose oil, Borage oil, and Flaxseed.&
Evening Primrose is a flower that has been used for centuries in medicinal work. The oil that is extracted contains linoleic acid which is an Essential Fatty Acid. A common use of Evening Primrose Oil is to relieve the symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis, which the Arthritis Foundation considers as an option in relieving the pain of inflammation. Mild side effects have been reported, mostly stomach aches and headaches.&
Borage oil is another supplement used for the relief of Rheumatoid Arthritis pain, however, borage oil may contain liver toxins, and extreme caution should be used if consuming this particular supplement.&
Flax seed oil is a powerhouse of nutrients and Essential Fatty Acids. The seed is made up of 4.9% linoleic acid and 20.3% Alpha Linoleic Acid, among other fibers and nutrients. To eat the seed, the hull or shell must be crushed for it to be digested, otherwise it will just pass straight through.&
To receive maximum benefits from Essential Fatty Acids, aim for a 12-15% part of total calorie intake. For example, a man on a 2500 calorie a day plan would consume roughly 2 2/3 tablespoons of some sort of Essential Fatty Acid oil. For a woman on a 2000 calorie a day plan, that number would be right around 2 tablespoons. It is also wise to take a daily Vitamin E supplement, because some of the oils will lower the content of Vitamin E in the blood.
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<urn:uuid:ea836758-0bf9-4efc-bbed-11f8b95dbd6d>
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CC-MAIN-2019-26
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https://www.vitabase.com/articles/essential-fatty-acids/essential-fatty-acids.aspx
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-26/segments/1560628000231.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20190626073946-20190626095946-00437.warc.gz
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en
| 0.943767 | 779 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Making good on his most dramatic presidential campaign promise, newly elected Dwight D. Eisenhower goes to Korea to see whether he can find the key to ending the bitter and frustrating Korean War.During the presidential campaign of 1952, Republican candidate Eisenhower was critical of the Truman administration’s foreign policy, particularly its inability to bring an end to the conflict in Korea. President Truman challenged Eisenhower on October 24 to come up with an alternate policy. Eisenhower responded with the startling announcement that if he were elected, he would personally go to Korea to get a firsthand view of the situation. The promise boosted Eisenhower’s popularity and he handily defeated Democratic candidate Adlai E. Stevenson.Shortly after his election, Eisenhower fulfilled his campaign pledge, though he was not very specific about exactly what he hoped to accomplish. After a short stay he returned to the United States, yet remained mum about his plans concerning the Korean War. After taking office, however, Eisenhower adopted a get-tough policy toward the communists in Korea. He suggested that he would “unleash” the Nationalist Chinese forces on Taiwan against communist China, and he sent only slightly veiled messages that he would use any force necessary (including the use of nuclear weapons) to bring the war to an end unless peace negotiations began to move forward. The Chinese, exhausted by more than two years of war, finally agreed to terms and an armistice was signed on July 27, 1953. The United States suffered over 50,000 casualties in this “forgotten war,” and spent nearly $70 billion. The most frustrating war in U.S. history had come to an end. America’s first experience with a “limited war,” one in which the nation did not seek (and did not obtain) absolute victory over the enemy, did not bode well for the future. Conflict in Vietnam was just around the corner.
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<urn:uuid:6d2ee0e1-bb91-4b19-9ae5-b1eb2bca802f>
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CC-MAIN-2017-04
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http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/eisenhower-goes-to-korea?catId=3
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285001.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00376-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.977788 | 386 | 2.953125 | 3 |
When it comes to long-distance transmission, considering the cost, the old driver will first think of two things: fiber optic transceivers and bridges. With fiber optics, use transceivers. If there is no optical fiber, it depends on whether the actual environment can connect to the bridge.
More than ten kilometers and dozens of kilometers, but also to ensure stable and reliable transmission, optical fiber is imperative.
Today, let’s talk about the leading solution in optical fiber communication – optical fiber transceiver.
A transceiver is a device for signal conversion, usually referred to as a fiber optic transceiver. The emergence of optical fiber transceivers converts twisted pair electrical signals and optical signals to each other, ensuring smooth transmission of data packets between the two networks, and at the same time extending the transmission distance limit of the network from 100 meters of copper wires to 100 kilometers (single mode fiber).
With the continuous development of technology, it has become the current trend that high-speed serial VO technology replaces traditional parallel I/O technology. The fastest parallel bus interface speed is 133 MB/s of ATA7. The transfer rate provided by the SATA1.0 specification released in 2003 has reached 150 MB/s, and the theoretical speed of SATA3.0 has reached 600 MB/s. When the device works at high speed, the parallel bus is susceptible to interference and crosstalk, which makes the wiring quite complicated. The use of serial transceivers can simplify layout design and reduce the number of connectors. Serial interfaces also consume less power than parallel ports with the same bus bandwidth. And the working mode of the device is changed from parallel transmission to serial transmission, and the serial speed can be doubled as the frequency increases.
FPGA-based embedded Gb speed level and low-power architecture advantages, it enables designers to use efficient EDA tools to quickly solve the problem of protocol and speed changes. With the wide application of FPGA, the transceiver is integrated in FPGA, which has become an effective way to solve the problem of equipment transmission speed.
High-speed transceivers make it possible to transmit large amounts of data point-to-point. This serial communication technology makes full use of the channel capacity of the transmission medium and reduces the number of required transmission channels and device pins compared to parallel data buses, thereby greatly reducing communication. cost. A transceiver with excellent performance should have the advantages of low power consumption, small size, easy configuration, and high efficiency, so that it can be easily integrated into the bus system. In the high-speed serial data transmission protocol, the performance of the transceiver plays a decisive role in the transmission rate of the bus interface, and also affects the performance of the bus interface system to a certain extent. This research analyzes the realization of the high-speed transceiver module on the FPGA platform, and also provides a useful reference for the realization of various high-speed serial protocols.
This small box has a very high exposure rate in the long-distance transmission scheme, and can often be seen in our monitoring, wireless, optical fiber access and other scenarios.
how to use
Optical fiber transceivers are generally used in pairs, and are deployed at the access end (which can be connected to terminals such as cameras, APs, and PCs through switches) and the remote receiving end (such as computer room/central control room, etc., of course, it can also be used for access. terminal), thus building a low-latency, high-speed and stable communication bridge for both ends.
In principle, as long as the technical specifications such as rate, wavelength, fiber type (such as the same single-mode single-fiber product, or the same single-mode dual-fiber) are consistent, different brands are matched, and even one end of the fiber transceiver and one end of the optical module can be achieved. communication. But we don’t recommend it.
Single and Dual Fiber
The single-fiber transceiver adopts WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) technology, one end transmits wavelength 1550nm, receive wavelength 1310nm, and the other end transmits 1310nm and receives 1550nm, so as to realize data receiving and sending on one optical fiber.
Therefore, there is only one optical port on this type of transceiver, and the two ends are exactly the same. In order to distinguish, the products are generally identified by the A and B ends.
Single fiber transceiver (pictured is a pair, zero one)
The optical ports of the dual-fiber transceiver are “one pair” – the transmitting port marked with TX + the receiving port marked with RX, one end is a pair, and each sending and receiving performs their respective duties. The wavelengths of TX and RX are the same, both are 1310nm.
Dual-fiber transceiver (pictured is a pair, zero one)
At present, the mainstream single-fiber products on the market. In the case of comparable transmission capabilities, single-fiber transceivers that “save the cost of one fiber” are obviously more popular.
Singlemode and Multimode
The difference between single-mode optical fiber transceivers and multi-mode optical fiber transceivers is simple, that is, the difference between single-mode optical fiber and multi-mode optical fiber.
The core diameter of single-mode fiber is small (only one mode of light is allowed to propagate), the dispersion is small, and it is more anti-interference. The transmission distance is much higher than that of multi-mode fiber, which can reach more than 20 kilometers or even hundreds of kilometers. Usually applied within 2 kilometers.
That is precisely because the core diameter of single-mode fiber is small, the beam is difficult to control, and a higher-cost laser is required as the light source (multi-mode fiber generally uses LED light source), so the price is higher than that of multi-mode fiber, which is more cost-effective.
At present, there are many single-mode transceiver products on the market. Multi-mode data center applications are more, core equipment to core equipment, short-distance large-bandwidth communication.
three key parameters
1. Speed. There are Fast and Gigabit products available.
2. Transmission distance. There are products of several kilometers and dozens of kilometers. In addition to the distance between the two ends (optical cable distance), don’t forget to look at the distance from the electrical port to the switch. The shorter the better.
3. The mode type of the fiber. Single-mode or multi-mode, single-fiber or multi-fiber.
Post time: Mar-17-2022
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<urn:uuid:8c1673a2-f541-4140-b971-d655e2fe6443>
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CC-MAIN-2023-14
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https://www.cffiberlink.com/news/how-to-achieve-tens-of-kilometers-of-ultra-long-distance-transmission-by-two-small-boxes-quickly-collect-knowledge-points/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945317.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20230325064253-20230325094253-00271.warc.gz
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en
| 0.930311 | 1,409 | 3.609375 | 4 |
Increasing children's physical activity: Individual, social, and environmental factors associated with walking to and from school
Trapp, G. S. A., Giles-Corti, B., Christian, H. E., Bulsara, M., Timperio, A. F., McCormack, G. R., et al. (2011). Increasing children's physical activity: Individual, social, and environmental factors associated with walking to and from school. Health Education and Behavior, Online First. doi:10.1177/1090198111423272
Background: Efforts to increase the prevalence of children’s active school transport require evidence to inform the development of comprehensive interventions. This study used a multilevel ecological framework to investigate individual, social, and environmental factors associated with walking to and from school among elementary school-aged children, stratified by gender.
Method: Boys aged 10 to 13 years (n = 617) and girls aged 9 to 13 years (n = 681) attending 25 Australian primary schools located in high or low walkable neighborhoods completed a 1-week travel diary and a parent/child questionnaire on travel habits and attitudes.
Results: Boys were more likely (odds ratio [OR] = 3.37; p < .05) to walk if their school neighborhood had high connectivity and low traffic and less likely to walk if they had to cross a busy road (OR = 0.49; p < .05). For girls, confidence in their ability to walk to or from school without an adult (OR = 2.03), school encouragement (OR = 2.43), scheduling commitments (OR = 0.41), and parent-perceived convenience of driving (OR = 0.24) were significantly associated (p < .05) with walking. Irrespective of gender and proximity to school, child-perceived convenience of walking (boys OR = 2.17 and girls OR = 1.84) and preference to walk to school (child perceived, boys OR = 5.57, girls OR = 1.84 and parent perceived, boys OR = 2.82, girls OR = 1.90) were consistently associated (p < .05) with walking to and from school.
Conclusion: Although there are gender differences in factors influencing children walking to and from school, proximity to school, the safety of the route, and family time constraints are consistent correlates. These need to be addressed if more children are to be encouraged to walk to and from school.
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<urn:uuid:a6f4fcee-6ccf-4179-a995-eefbc06a73ec>
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CC-MAIN-2021-43
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https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/med_article/517/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-43/segments/1634323585504.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20211022084005-20211022114005-00491.warc.gz
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en
| 0.949781 | 511 | 3.1875 | 3 |
If you love history, mystery and happy endings, you'll enjoy learning about autumn apples. One of the earliest cultivated fruits, the apple has come a long way from its crabapple-like ancestors. Careful cultivation has transformed those original small, sour apples into large, sweet fruits. Grown in many parts of the globe, modern apples come in more than 7,500 varieties, representing a number of different shapes, colors and flavors.
Careful grafting practices account for much of the consistency in today's apples. Without relying on grafted stock from established strains, cross pollination would produce somewhat different apples with each new tree, and eventually apples would revert back to the smallish, unappealing stock that man first started cultivating in the Iron Age or before.
Selective crosses of established apple strains create new varieties, and some of the most popular apples sold in the United States today, like Gala and Fuji, are the result of carefully planned crosses.
The next time you eat an apple, show a little appreciation. Besides tasting good, most apples have long and respected pedigrees.
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<urn:uuid:2ff3ff84-3c70-48eb-bc38-4ad03069892e>
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CC-MAIN-2014-10
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http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/5-autumn-apples.htm
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999654285/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060734-00035-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz
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en
| 0.944665 | 223 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Definition of Acrostic
a poem or puzzle in which the first letters of each line spell out the word or phrase
Examples of Acrostic in a sentence
The poet made an acrostic in which the letters of all five lines spelled out the word “fear.”
In the newspaper, the acrostic puzzle contained 5 phrases that formed another word from their first letters.
An acrostic poem was lined up so that the first letters of the lines would give a cryptic message to the readers.
Other words in the Grammar & English Usage category:
Most Searched Words (with Video)
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<urn:uuid:d0d32f27-8e34-4427-96d8-8c9dc181b054>
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CC-MAIN-2022-05
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https://wordsinasentence.com/acrostic-in-a-sentence/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320301475.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20220119155216-20220119185216-00629.warc.gz
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en
| 0.939692 | 129 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Works in the Paracas Reserve
Migratory and Local Birds
Work in the Paracas Reserve with Dr. Felipe Benavides, president of the World Wildlife Fund of Peru (PRODENA).
Problematical of El Niño affecting thousands of migratory and local birds
Bohic Ruz Explorer team in the Paracas Reserve working on the ecological and environmental impacts due to El Niño.
Felipe Benavides, president of WORLD WILDLIFE FUND PERU (PRODENA), creator and promoter of the Paracas Reserve.
In climatology it is called El Niño, a cyclical climate erratically syndrome, which is a change in the patterns of movement of air masses causing therefore a delay in the kinetics of the "normal" currents, triggering warming of South American waters; that causes real Worldwide damage affecting South America, Indonesia and Australia. The name "El Niño" is due to fishermen from the port of Paita in north Peru that found that the waters of the Peruvian Current or Humboldt Current, which flows from south to north off the Peruvian coast, warmed at the time of Christmas holidays of fish or fleeing south, due to a warm current from the Gulf of Guayaquil (Ecuador). This phenomenon was given the name El Niño Current,.The scientific name is El Niño Southern Oscillation (El Niño-Southern Oscillation, ENSO, for its acronym in English). It is a phenomenon with over eleven thousand years of climate history.
Francisco Serrat, Bohic Ruz Yacht Captain and member of the exploration team, wildlife specialist working in the area of Paracas with the World Wildlife Fund of Peru.
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<urn:uuid:0d202258-6c77-45c4-bbe5-5a687ea96bb8>
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CC-MAIN-2018-43
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http://www.pirambla.com/en/works/paracas.html
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583517495.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20181023220444-20181024001944-00341.warc.gz
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en
| 0.895776 | 348 | 2.921875 | 3 |
H.R. 997 – The English Language Unity Act
HR 997 IH
H. R. 997
To declare English as the official language of the United States, to establish a uniform English language rule for naturalization, and to avoid misconstructions of the English language texts of the laws of the United States, pursuant to Congress’s powers to provide for the general welfare of the United States and to establish a uniform rule of naturalization under article I, section 8, of the Constitution.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 12, 2007
Mr. KING of Iowa (for himself, Mr. KING of New York, Mr. SALI, Mrs. BACHMANN, Ms. FOXX, Mr. BURTON of Indiana, Mr. PENCE, Mr. DOOLITTLE, Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr. FEENEY, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Mrs. MCMORRIS RODGERS, Mr. GINGREY, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr. BURGESS, Mrs. CUBIN, Mr. SAXTON, Mr. MILLER of Florida, Mr. SHUSTER, Mr. WESTMORELAND, Mr. LINDER, Mrs. CAPITO, Mr. HALL of Texas, Mr. LEWIS of Kentucky, and Mr. CULBERSON) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
To declare English as the official language of the United States, to establish a uniform English language rule for naturalization, and to avoid misconstructions of the English language texts of the laws of the United States, pursuant to Congress’ powers to provide for the general welfare of the United States and to establish a uniform rule of naturalization under article I, section 8, of the Constitution.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
This Act may be cited as the `English Language Unity Act of 2007′.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds and declares the following:
The United States is comprised of individuals from diverse ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds, and continues to benefit from this rich diversity.
Throughout the history of the United States, the common thread binding individuals of differing backgrounds has been the English language.
Among the powers reserved to the States respectively is the power to establish the English language as the official language of the respective States, and otherwise to promote the English language within the respective States, subject to the prohibitions enumerated in the Constitution of the United States and in laws of the respective States.
SEC. 3. ENGLISH AS OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF THE UNITED STATES.
(a) In General- Title 4, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new chapter:
`CHAPTER 6–OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
`Sec. 161. Official language of the United States
`The official language of the United States is English.
`Sec. 162. Preserving and enhancing the role of the official language
`Representatives of the Federal Government shall have an affirmative obligation to preserve and enhance the role of English as the official language of the Federal Government. Such obligation shall include encouraging greater opportunities for individuals to learn the English language.
`Sec. 163. Official functions of Government to be conducted in English
`(a) Official Functions- The official functions of the Government of the United States shall be conducted in English.
`(b) Scope- For the purposes of this section, the term `United States’ means the several States and the District of Columbia, and the term `official’ refers to any function that (i) binds the Government, (ii) is required by law, or (iii) is otherwise subject to scrutiny by either the press or the public.
`(c) Practical Effect- This section shall apply to all laws, public proceedings, regulations, publications, orders, actions, programs, and policies, but does not apply to–
`(1) teaching of languages;
`(2) requirements under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act;
`(3) actions, documents, or policies necessary for national security, international relations, trade, tourism, or commerce;
`(4) actions or documents that protect the public health and safety;
`(5) actions or documents that facilitate the activities of the Bureau of the Census in compiling any census of population;
`(6) actions that protect the rights of victims of crimes or criminal defendants; or
`(7) using terms of art or phrases from languages other than English.
`Sec. 164. Uniform English language rule for naturalization
`(a) Uniform Language Testing Standard- All citizens should be able to read and understand generally the English language text of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the laws of the United States made in pursuance of the Constitution.
`(b) Ceremonies- All naturalization ceremonies shall be conducted in English.
`Sec. 165. Rules of construction
`Nothing in this chapter shall be construed–
`(1) to prohibit a Member of Congress or any officer or agent of the Federal Government, while performing official functions, from communicating unofficially through any medium with another person in a language other than English (as long as official functions are performed in English);
`(2) to limit the preservation or use of Native Alaskan or Native American languages (as defined in the Native American Languages Act);
`(3) to disparage any language or to discourage any person from learning or using a language; or
`(4) to be inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States.
`Sec. 166. Standing
`A person injured by a violation of this chapter may in a civil action (including an action under chapter 151 of title 28) obtain appropriate relief.’.
(b) Clerical Amendment- The table of chapters at the beginning of title 4, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to chapter 5 the following new item:
`Chapter 6. Official Language’.
SEC. 4. GENERAL RULES OF CONSTRUCTION FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEXTS OF THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES.
(a) In General- Chapter 1 of title 1, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
`Sec. 8. General rules of construction for laws of the United States
`(a) English language requirements and workplace policies, whether in the public or private sector, shall be presumptively consistent with the Laws of the United States; and
`(b) Any ambiguity in the English language text of the Laws of the United States shall be resolved, in accordance with the last two articles of the Bill of Rights, not to deny or disparage rights retained by the people, and to reserve powers to the States respectively, or to the people.’.
(b) Clerical Amendment- The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 1 of title 1, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 7 the following new item:
`8. General Rules of Construction for Laws of the United States.’.
SEC. 5. IMPLEMENTING REGULATIONS.
The Secretary of Homeland Security shall, within 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, issue for public notice and comment a proposed rule for uniform testing English language ability of candidates for naturalization, based upon the principles that–
(1) all citizens should be able to read and understand generally the English language text of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the laws of the United States which are made in pursuance thereof; and
(2) any exceptions to this standard should be limited to extraordinary circumstances, such as asylum.
SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE.
The amendments made by sections 3 and 4 shall take effect on the date that is 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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<urn:uuid:744a217a-4eff-49fd-a87a-50205fc205d0>
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CC-MAIN-2021-04
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https://www.usenglish.org/legislation/hr-997-the-english-language-unity-act/
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s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703517966.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20210119042046-20210119072046-00052.warc.gz
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en
| 0.895471 | 1,739 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Migaloo, the famous white humpback whale, has been spotted off the NSW coast in a mass annual migration that reportedly includes a juvenile whale that shares his white hue.
The whale, whose name derives from an Aboriginal word for "white fella", has been sighted near Yamba in NSW and has now passed the Gold Coast and Hervey Bay in his voyage north to the warmer waters of tropical Queensland.
Another white whale, believed to be a juvenile, was seen in a separate pod of humpbacks near Wollongong. Scientists are attempting to determine whether the two are related.
It was previously thought that Migaloo was the only white humpback whale in the world, before pictures emerged of a younger white whale near the Whitsundays in 2011.
Humpback whales spend the summer months feeding in the Antarctic before migrating north to warmer waters around the Coral Sea to breed and raise their young. Their journey takes them along both the west and east coasts of Australia.
Migaloo, who is thought to be about 14 metres long, was first observed in 1991 near Byron Bay. DNA samples collected from Migaloo's skin by researchers from Southern Cross University in 2004 confirmed that he is a male.
Scientists have downplayed reports that Migaloo is albino, pointing to the fact that he does not have pink eyes.
Ronny Ling, president of the Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia, said: "It's more likely that he's extremely piebald. Whales are naturally black and white, he's just a bit more white than other whales."
"Humpbacks aren't the most paternal animals. He won't be looking after the younger one. He'll be chasing girls. His purpose is to sow his seed at the moment."
Humpback whale numbers have successfully rebounded since the hunting of the species off the east coast of Australia was banned 40 years ago. The population dipped to as low as 100 before recovering to the present day total of about 17,000.
"Migaloo has become a celebrity and people feel a great connection to him," said Matthew Collis, marine campaigns manager at the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
"It's encouraging to see healthy numbers return to our coastline. It shows that the decision to ban whaling has proved beneficial."
According to Collis, increasing development, noise and shipping along the Queensland coast is a potential threat to Migaloo and his aquatic cohorts. In 2003, Migaloo was struck by a trimaran near Townsville, an injury from which he still bears the scars.
The Queensland government has special legislation to prevent Migaloo being harassed or further injured. While boats are generally required to take care if whales are within 300 metres, a special 500 metre exclusion zone is enforced around Migaloo.
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Sunday, 1 March marked the 25th anniversary of Clean Up Australia
Day, an annual event at which hundreds of thousands of volunteers collect the litter from their local environment. (In the case of many Wildlife Queensland Branches and catchment groups this kind of clean-up activity continues regularly year round).
This year Wildlife Queensland joined forces with Clean Up Australia and the Boomerang Alliance in calling for the new Queensland government to step up its efforts to stop plastic bags and containers being discarded into the environment in the first place.
According to the Clean Up Rubbish Report 2014, plastics and drink containers are still a major problem, with beverage containers representing over 37 percent of the Top 10 items collected by volunteers.
”We are calling on the Queensland government to phase out single-use plastic bags and introduce a container deposit scheme,” said founder of Clean Up Australia, Ian Kiernan, on behalf of the partnered organisations. ”After 25 years of solid work by hundreds of thousands of Queenslanders, it’s time for their government to acknowledge the efforts of these volunteers and demonstrate some leadership,” he said.
Wildlife Queensland and the Boomerang Alliance have followed up this call, presenting the new Government with a 100-Day Plan to demonstrate that the state is serious about litter and removing its threat to our precious wildlife.
Within the 100 days, the allied organisations wish to see:
- The public release of a discussion paper on options to restrict single-use plastic bags (and other non-biodegradable plastic packaging)
- The instigation of an investigation into a container deposit scheme for Queensland.
Please join our campaign! Contact your local MP and ask them to publicly support this action. If your local MP is from the ALP, remind them these actions are election promises. If your local MP is from the LNP, make the point that these actions should have been part of their policies.
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A washer disinfector is used for the automated cleaning and disinfection of instruments in practices, clinics, dental offices, medical centers and hospitals. The reliable monitoring and documentation of the relevant process parameters ensures standardized and reproducible decontamination procedures.
What is a Washer Disinfector?
Whether you run a dental clinic, veterinary or a medical practice, keeping clean and hygienic is of paramount importance. The battle against germs is a critical one, and that’s where washer disinfectors come in.
A washer disinfector is the best way to clean and disinfect reusable dental, medical and veterinary instruments. Medical guidelines in fact suggest that, where possible, the use of equipment such as washer disinfectors is preferred to manual hand cleaning. This is because the cleaning and disinfecting process is much more effective.
What happens in a Washer Disinfector?
Firstly, its important to note that there are different washer disinfectors depending on your requirements. For example, a dentist may require a smaller washer disinfector, so that it fits in the clinic. They also tend to see less patients than a hospital, who will see several at one time. A hospital will therefore require a much large machine to cope with the demand of washing a large quantity or reusable medical equipment.
However, the core of each of these washer disinfectors remains the same. All are machines that use heat to thoroughly disinfect instruments so that they can be reused again.
The first stage of a washer disinfectors cycle is to clean the instruments within. Using cold water, the machine will perform a pre-rinse, removing any thick soiling. Next, a detergent cycle will work to remove any remaining agents to ensure instruments are thoroughly cleaned.
Next, comes the disinfection. This is performed at a high heat, around 90°C, over a period of time that can be set by the user. Dekomed Washer disinfectors also come pre-programmed to ensure the correct length of time for the disinfecting process. This process is critical, without it, your instruments may not be safe. Ensuring the equipment is kept at high heat for a period of time ensures any bacteria is killed off so the equipment is safe to use again.
The final stage is the drying stage. Using a washer disinfector helps to save time, as not only do you not have to clean the equipment by hand, but you also save the tedious process of drying it too!
Using a HEPA filter, the washer disinfector will ensure that no additional bacteria or microorganisms transmit onto the equipment during the drying process. The result? Medical equipment that is ready and safe to use right out of the washer disinfector.
Advantages of a Washer Disinfector
Using a washer disinfector has many benefits. Firstly, as we know, Dentists, vets and those in the medical profession don’t have much time. Washer disinfectors help give back some time by providing a level of cleaning that is both effective and efficient. With the machine cleaning and drying, it means that’s one thing less to worry about. It also means you can concentrate on providing care rather than doing the washing up!
Furthermore, with viruses being ever more prevalent, improving the health and safety of your practice can never be underestimated. By thoroughly cleaning your instruments using washer disinfectors, you’re subjecting the utensils to high heat for a prolonged period of time. This kills off bacteria, protecting your patients as well as your staff. Furthermore, instruments can be safely packed away inside the washer disinfector, rather than being handled by your staff, which in itself can lead to injury.
What about maintenance?
To get the most out of your washer disinfector, we recommend that, like many appliances, they are serviced regularly. Fortunately, with Dekomed, we can support you with full maintenance and servicing. This means that any potential issues are prevented rather than having to be reacted to. So your practice and cleaning process can continue uninterrupted.
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share . . . .
Partners | Contact
Register to stay informed about BRICKER progress
The Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is named for its use of an organic, high molecular mass fluid with a liquid-vapor phase change, or boiling point, occurring at a lower temperature than the water-steam phase change.
By tracking the position of the sun, parabolic collectors can concentrate the solar radiation on a tube, thus heating the fluid which flows in the tube up to 250-300°C. The hot fluid can be used for many purposes. This technology is already used for large solar power stations.
Heat recovery ventilation can be integrated into windows, walls, shutters, and heating and cooling units. HRV provides fresh air and improved climate control, while also saving energy.
A sustainable lightweight ventilated façades constitutes a second skin outside the existing façade. A natural vented cavity is located between these two skins creating a void gap for “chimney effect”.
Thermally activated cooling involves harnessing waste heat and using it for cooling applications. There are various techniques for achieving this, that can be applied to different types of building.
Biomass CHP plants are commonly used in district heating systems as well as in industries with high heating and cooling demand.
PCMs are materials that can adsorb and store thermal energy while its structural phase changes.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No 609071
Keep in touch:
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Advice on recycling electrical goods
Recycling is the safest and most responsible way to dispose of electrical item that are faulty or otherwise beyond repair. Read on to discover advice about recycling everything from large kitchen appliances through to handheld gadgets.
Why recycle electrical items?
170 million new electrical items are purchased in the UK each year, but we currently recycle less than a third of these when they come to the end of their lifecycle.
Electrical and electronic equipment is made up of a wide variety of materials, many of which can be reused (for example, there’s enough steel in an iron to produce 13 steel cans).
By recycling your old and unwanted electrical items, you’re doing your bit to help the environment by preventing potentially hazardous waste from entering landfill and causing soil and water contamination.
What is the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive?
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, which was first introduced in 2007, governs how manufacturers and retailers in European countries behave in regards to recycling.
The regularly-updated WEEE directive is designed to ensure that less harmful electrical waste is sent to landfill; though the regulations don’t directly affect consumers, they do ultimately make it simpler for you to recycle your old electrical goods.
You can find more information about how the regulations in the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive help you to recycle your electrical products more easily in the ‘How do I recycle my electrical item?’ section below.
What electrical items can be recycled?
Almost all electrical items with a plug or a battery can be recycled, including the following:
- Large household appliances like fridges, freezers, microwaves, dishwashers and washing machines.
- Smaller household appliances like irons, toasters, kettles and vacuum cleaners.
- IT and communication equipment like laptops, fax machines, printers, phones and smartphones.
- Audio, audio-visual and other entertainment-related equipment like mp3 players, stereos, TVs, DVD players and games consoles.
- Tools like drills, saws, lawnmowers and sewing machines.
- Personal grooming gadgets like electric toothbrushes, hairdryers, straighteners and curling tongs.
‘Can it be recycled?’ checklist
If you can answer ‘yes’ to any of the following questions, them your electrical item can be recycled:
- Does it have a plug?
- Does it use a charger?
- Does it use batteries?
- Does it carry the WEEE wheelie bin logo (a crossed out wheelie bin, see pic)?
How do I recycle my electrical item?
Recycling electrical goods is usually a straightforward process thanks to the variety of options available:
- Take your item to your local recycling centre – you can easily locate your nearest centre on the Recycle Now website.
- Under the terms of the WEEE directive, all retailers must provide a way for customers to dispose of their old household electrical and electronic equipment when they sell them a new version of the same item, either through a collection service or a store take-back scheme. Check with your retailer for details (some may apply charges for the collection service).
- Some councils offer a household recycling collection service for small electrical items; contact your local authority for more details.
More information on the WEEE Directive
Visit http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3113/contents/made for more information on the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013.
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This specification defines the Mathematical Markup Language, or MathML. MathML is an XML application for describing mathematical notation and capturing both its structure and content. The goal of MathML is to enable mathematics to be served, received, and processed on the World Wide Web, just as HTML has enabled this functionality for text.
This specification of the markup language MathML is intended primarily for a readership consisting of those who will be developing or implementing renderers or editors using it, or software that will communicate using MathML as a protocol for input or output. It is not a User's Guide but rather a reference document.
MathML can be used to encode both mathematical notation and mathematical content. About thirty-five of the MathML tags describe abstract notational structures, while another about one hundred and seventy provide a way of unambiguously specifying the intended meaning of an expression. Additional chapters discuss how the MathML content and presentation elements interact, and how MathML renderers might be implemented and should interact with browsers. Finally, this document addresses the issue of special characters used for mathematics, their handling in MathML, their presence in Unicode, and their relation to fonts.
While MathML is human-readable, in all but the simplest cases, authors use equation editors, conversion programs, and other specialized software tools to generate MathML. Several versions of such MathML tools exist, and more, both freely available software and commercial products, are under development.
This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.
This document is a W3C Public Working Draft produced by the W3C Math Working Group as part of the W3C Math Activity. The goals of the W3C Math Working Group are discussed in the W3C Math WG Charter (revised July 2006). A list of participants in the W3C Math Working Group is available.
Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.
This fourth Public Working Draft specifies a new version of the the Mathematical Markup Language, MathML 3.0 which is at present under active development. The Math WG hopes this draft will permit informed feedback. There is a description of some considerations underlying this work in the W3C Math WG's public Roadmap [roadmap]. Feedback should be sent to the Public W3C Math mailing list .
The MathML 2.0 (Second Edition) specification has been a W3C Recommendation since 2001. After its recommendation, a W3C Math Interest Group collected reports of experience with the deployment of MathML and identified issues with MathML that might be ameliorated. The rechartering of a Math Working Group allows the revision to MathML 3.0 in the light of that experience, of other comments on the markup language, and of recent changes in specifications of the W3C and in the technological context. MathML 3.0 does not signal any change in the overall design of MathML. The major additions in MathML 3 are support for bidirectional layout, better linebreaking and explicit positioning, elementary math notations, and a new strict content MathML vocabulary with well-defined semantics generated from formal content dictionaries. The MathML 3 Specification has also been restructured.
Public discussion of MathML and issues of support through the W3C
for mathematics on the Web takes place on the public mailing list of the Math Working
Group (list archives).
To subscribe send an email to [email protected]
with the word
subscribe in the subject line.
Please report errors in this document to [email protected].
This document was produced by a group operating under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.
The basic chapter structure of this document is based on the earlier MathML 2.0 Recommendation [MathML2]. That MathML 2.0 itself was a revision of the earlier W3C Recommendation MathML 1.01 [MathML1]; MathML 3.0 is a revision of the W3C Recommendation MathML 2.0. It differs from it in that all previous chapters have been updated, some new elements and attributes added and some deprecated. This Public Working Draft differs in structure from the initial Public Working Draft as renewed efforts to separate the formal from the explanatory have resulted in eight chapters not seven. Much has been moved to separate documents containing Primer material, material on Characters and Entities and on the MathML DOM. First Working Drafts of these documents will be published soon. A current list of open issues, pointing into the relevant places in the draft, follows the Table of Contents.
The present draft is an incremental one making public some of the results of Math Working Group work in recent months. The biggest difference this time is in Chapter 4, although there have been smaller ameliorations throughout the specification. A more detailed description of changes from the previous Recommendation follows.
With the second Working Draft, much of the non-normative explication that formerly was found in Chapters 1 and 2, and many examples from elsewhere in the previous MathML specifications, were removed from the MathML3 specification and incorporated into a MathML Primer being prepared as a separate document. It is expected this will help the use of this formal MathML3 specification as a reference document in implementations, and offer the new user better help in understanding MathML's deployment. The remaining content of Chapters 1 and 2 is being edited to reflect the changes elsewhere in the document, and in the rapidly evolving Web environment. Some of their text used to go back to early days of the Web and XML, and its explanations are now commonplace.
Chapter 3, on presentation-oriented markup, in this draft adds new
material on linebreaking and on markup for elementary math
notations. Material introduced in the last draft revising the
maction elements has been further revised as a result of active
discussion. It is possible it may undergo further modification.
In addition, the layout of schemata such
as that for long division and its associated
mcolumn element have been carefully revised.
Earlier work, as recorded in the W3C Note Arabic
mathematical notation, has allowed clarification of the
relationship with bidirectional text and examples
with RTL text have been added.
Chapter 4, on content-oriented markup, contains major changes and additions in this Working Draft. The meaning of the actual content remains as before in principle, but a lot of work has been done on expressing it better. The text of this chapter is generated by filtered extraction from XML Content Dictionaries written in accordance with OpenMath. The details of the Content Dictionary format have been further specified and the generation procedure improved. It is expected that the Content Dictionaries will become a separate joint publication of the W3C and OpenMath referenced by the MathML3 specification. The Content Dictionaries are now publicly available in draft and much work has already been done on refining them. Their format is given in Chapter 8.
Chapter 5 is being refined as its purpose has been further clarified. This chapter deals with interrelations of parts of the MathML specification, especially with presentation and content markup.
Chapter 6 has been rewritten and reorganized to reflect the new situation in regard to Unicode, and the changed W3C context with regard to named character entities. The new W3C specification of Entity Definitions for Characters in XML, which incorporates those used for mathematics is becoming a public working draft [Entities]. It is expected that some new ancillary tables will be provided that reflect requests the Math WG has received.
Chapter 7 has been restored with a new and clearer purpose. This chapter looks outward to the larger world in which MathML must function.
Chapter 8 will specify the format of MathML3 Content Dictionaries, as previously handled more briefly in sections 4.5 and 4.6. The DOM for MathML, previously in a chapter at this point, is being prepared as a separate specification.
The Appendices, of which there are eight shown, have not been fully reworked. Eventually what amount to revisions of the present appendices A, F, G, H, I and J are all that are expected to remain. Appendix A now contains the new RelaxNG schema for MathML3 as well as discussion of MathML3 DTD issues.
1.1 Mathematics and its Notation
1.2 Origins and Goals
1.2.1 Design Goals of MathML
1.3 A First Example
2 MathML Fundamentals
2.1 MathML Syntax and Grammar
2.1.1 General Considerations
2.1.2 Children versus Arguments
2.1.3 MathML Attribute Values
2.1.4 Attributes Shared by all MathML Elements
2.1.5 Collapsing Whitespace in Input
2.2 Interfacing MathML with other contexts
2.3.1 MathML Conformance
2.3.2 Handling of Errors
2.3.3 Attributes for unspecified data
2.4 Future Extensions
2.4.1 Style Sheets
2.4.2 XML Extensions to MathML
2.4.3 Scientific Documents
2.4.4 XML Extensions to MathML
2.5 Embedding MathML in other Documents
2.5.1 MathML and Namespaces
2.5.2 The Top-Level math Element
3 Presentation Markup
3.1.1 What Presentation Elements Represent
3.1.2 Terminology Used In This Chapter
3.1.3 Required Arguments
3.1.4 Elements with Special Behaviors
3.1.6 Linebreaking of Expressions
3.1.7 Summary of Presentation Elements
3.2 Token Elements
3.2.1 MathML characters in token elements
3.2.2 Mathematics style attributes common to token elements
3.2.3 Identifier (mi)
3.2.4 Number (mn)
3.2.5 Operator, Fence, Separator or Accent (mo)
3.2.6 Text (mtext)
3.2.7 Space (mspace)
3.2.8 String Literal (ms)
3.2.9 Using images to represent symbols (mglyph)
3.2.10 Line mline
3.3 General Layout Schemata
3.3.1 Horizontally Group Sub-Expressions (mrow)
3.3.2 Fractions (mfrac)
3.3.3 Radicals (msqrt, mroot)
3.3.4 Style Change (mstyle)
3.3.5 Error Message (merror)
3.3.6 Adjust Space Around Content (mpadded)
3.3.7 Making Sub-Expressions Invisible (mphantom)
3.3.8 Expression Inside Pair of Fences (mfenced)
3.3.9 Enclose Expression Inside Notation (menclose)
3.4 Script and Limit Schemata
3.4.1 Subscript (msub)
3.4.2 Superscript (msup)
3.4.3 Subscript-superscript Pair (msubsup)
3.4.4 Underscript (munder)
3.4.5 Overscript (mover)
3.4.6 Underscript-overscript Pair (munderover)
3.4.7 Prescripts and Tensor Indices (mmultiscripts)
3.5 Tabular Math
3.5.1 Table or Matrix (mtable)
3.5.2 Row in Table or Matrix (mtr)
3.5.3 Labeled Row in Table or Matrix (mlabeledtr)
3.5.4 Entry in Table or Matrix (mtd)
3.5.5 Alignment Markers
3.6 Enlivening Expressions
3.6.1 Bind Action to Sub-Expression (maction)
3.7 Elementary Math
3.7.1 Addition, Subtraction, and Multiplication
3.7.2 Long Division
3.7.3 Repeating decimal
3.8 Semantics and Presentation
4 Content Markup
4.2 Strict Content MathML
4.2.1 The structure of MathML Content Expressions
4.2.2 Encoding OpenMath Objects
4.2.3 Numbers (cn)
4.2.4 Symbols and Identifiers
4.2.5 Function Application (apply)
4.2.6 Bindings and Bound Variables (bind)
4.2.7 Structure Sharing (share)
4.2.8 Attribution via semantics
4.2.9 In Situ Error Markup
4.3 Pragmatic Content MathML
4.3.1 Pragmatic Numbers (cn)
4.3.2 Operator Elements
4.3.3 Pragmatic Elements with Attributes
4.3.4 Bindings with apply
4.3.5 Container Markup
4.3.6 Symbols and Identifiers With Presentation MathML
4.3.7 Elementary MathML Types on Operator and Container Elements
4.3.8 Qualifiers for Bound Variables
4.3.9 Lifted Associative Commutative Operators
4.3.10 basic elements
4.3.11 Arithmetic, Algebra and Logic
4.3.13 Calculus and Vector Calculus
4.3.14 Theory of Sets
4.3.15 Sequences and Series
4.3.16 Elementary classical functions
4.3.18 Linear Algebra
4.3.19 Constant and Symbol Elements
4.4 Deprecated content Elements
4.4.1 Declare (declare)
4.5 Rendering of Content Elements
4.5.2 Symbols and Identifiers
4.5.6 Structure Sharing
5 Mixing Several Markups
5.1 Semantic Annotations
5.1.1 Annotation elements
5.1.2 Annotation references
5.1.3 Alternate representations
5.1.4 Flattening semantic annotations
5.2 Elements for Semantic Annotations
5.2.1 The semantics element
5.2.2 The annotation element
5.2.3 The annotation-xml element
5.3 Combining Presentation and Content Markup
5.3.1 Presentation Markup in Content Markup
5.3.2 Content Markup in Presentation Markup
5.4 Parallel Markup
5.4.1 Top-level Parallel Markup
5.4.2 Parallel Markup via Cross-References
6 Characters, Entities and Fonts
6.2 Unicode Character Data
6.3 Entity Declarations
6.4 Special Characters Not in Unicode
6.5 Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols
6.6 Non-Marking Characters
7 MathML interactions with the Wide World
7.1 Invoking MathML Processors: namespace, extensions, and mime-types
7.1.1 Recognizing MathML in an XML Model
7.1.2 Resource Types for MathML Documents
7.1.3 Names of MathML Encodings
7.2 Transferring MathML in Desktop Environments
7.2.1 Basic Transfer Flavors' Names and Contents
7.2.2 Recommended Behaviors when Transferring
7.3 Combining MathML and Other Formats
7.3.1 Mixing MathML and HTML
7.3.4 MathML and Graphical Markup
7.4 Using CSS with MathML
8 MathML3 Content Dictionaries
A Parsing MathML
A.1 Use of MathML as Well-Formed XML
A.2 Using the RelaxNG Schema for MathML3
A.2.1 Full MathML
A.2.2 The Grammar for Presentation MathML
A.2.3 The Grammar for Strict Content MathML3
A.2.4 The Grammar for Pragmatic MathML
A.2.5 Deprecated Features
A.2.6 MathML as a module in a RelaxNG Schema
A.3 Using the MathML DTD
A.4 Using the MathML XML Schema
B Operator Dictionary (Non-Normative)
B.1 Format of operator dictionary entries
B.2 Indexing of operator dictionary
B.3 Choice of entity names
B.4 Notes on lspace and rspace attributes
B.5 Operator dictionary entries
C Sample CSS Style Sheet for MathML (Non-Normative)
D Glossary (Non-Normative)
E Working Group Membership and Acknowledgments (Non-Normative)
E.1 The Math Working Group Membership
F Changes (Non-Normative)
F.1 Changes between MathML 2.0 Second Edition and MathML 3.0
G References (Non-Normative)
H Index (Non-Normative)
H.1 MathML Elements
H.2 MathML Attributes
The following is a list of open issues which are highlighted in this draft. The issue name links to the text of the issue in this specification. There is also a W3C member-only link to the Math Working Group wiki. (Note that in many cases the wiki does not have a page discussing the issue, but will offer to create such pages on demand.) In some cases there is also a (member only) link to the Math Working Group's Issue tracking system.
csymbolwith pMathML content
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| 0.825722 | 3,870 | 2.75 | 3 |
It is said that urbanization has its fair share of benefits, but brings along with it a slew of problems as well. Certain quarters out there feel that we as humans are going to get extinct in due time simply because of our selfishness, not to mention the kind of pollution that we send into our environment that just about everything we eat and consume these days have been processed or synthesized, that what used to be natural and pure is now deemed as “organic”. Ironic, don’t you think so? Having said that, all the different pollution might even affect our future in terms of reproductive health, as there are scientists who wonder whether using Wi-Fi on a laptop when you’re surfing could cause harm to a man’s fertility.
How did they come across this theory? Well, lab work pointed to ejaculated sperm being damaged significantly a mere four hours into exposure of a Wi-Fi blanket, where these sperm were less mobile in their swimming, experiencing some changes to the genetic code that they carry to boot. Of course, the experts claim that this might not translate to a real world scenario, so all the men out there need not worry too much. Will this news see potential dads return to an Ethernet connection for their daily dose of Internet on a laptop?
Filed in wifi.. Read more about
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http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/12/can-wi-fi-on-laptops-damage-sperm/
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Metagenomics indicates changes in microbial communitiesMarch 26, 2008
A new bioinformatics technique, developed by researchers at the US Argonne National Laboratory, is allowing researchers to rapidly screen the genetic sequences present microbial communities.
The computational technique can identify subtle differences between the metabolic processes of the different microbial communities, and the information can be used to detect how the microbes are adapting to changes in the environment, such as the effects of global warming.
"It is also extremely relevant for human health. It is important to understand how a change in the microbial communities could affect us, and they are affected by global warming," Folker Meyer, a researcher at Argonne, told LabTechnologist.com. "We need to know which metabolic processes are present; we are now looking at DNA in the world around us to find new pathways to this information."
Researchers are now turning to the growing discipline of metagenomics to find this information. Whereas traditional genetics techniques would require each microbe in a sample to be cloned and studied separately, metagenomics takes a raw sample, made from a mixture of different organisms, and sequences all of the genomes present in the sample at once. The genetic information obtained is then pieced together, to identify the different organisms that are present in the sample, and to identify the metabolic processes they are exhibiting.
So far the researchers have analysed the frequency distributions of more than 14 million microbial and viral sequences from almost 90 different ecological communities. The computational resources needed to piece together all of the different fragments of DNA present in a sample are phenomenal, so the scientists at Argonne have developed innovative computational shortcuts to reduce the number of necessary computations, and high performance computing infrastructures to accelerate the speed at which these are performed.
The high-throughput pipeline used for this study, called the metagenomics RAST server, compares the sequences found in the sample to the SEED directory of known microbial genetic information, to identify which organisms are present, and to find genes known to be responsible for metabolic enzymes. This tells the researchers which enzymes the microbes were using for their metabolism, suggesting which metabolic processes were active in the sample.
Rather than repeating these calculations again and again for the same organism or for the same molecular processes within different organisms, the system intelligently saves resources and does not repeat the same calculations more than once.
"Without the RAST technology this simply wouldn't be possible - the samples sizes are too large," said Meyer. "The [SEED] database at the National Microbial Pathogen Data Resource is a huge resource. They have cleaned up the database for microbes, helping us to reconstruct the metabolic pathways of different communities."
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Attributions for success and failure in Spanish team sport players
This study examined the role of ability, effort, luck and difficulty of the task in attributions for successful and unsuccessful performances made by Spanish team sport players, and determined if differences exist between athletes at different competition levels. Participants were 143 young men (soccer: N = 64; indoor soccer: N = 37; basketball: N = 42), ages 17 to 25 years (M = 20, SD = 5). Winners perceived ability and effort as the reasons behind their success while losers made attributions mainly to luck and the difficulty of the task. Ability and effort were in the three sports the reasons given for successful outcomes at various competition levels. Difficulty of the task was the factor rated higher by those who lost competing at a national level, while luck and effort were rated higher for those who lost competing at a regional and local level.
KEY WORDS: attribution, team sports. competition levels
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A Study Of Educational Inequalities In South Carolina (1936)A documentary produced by the National Association For the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on the racial disparities in the education provided in South Carolina public schools.
Back to the Documentary Films Library
Viewing Sluggish? Click on the Pause buttom to allow the Video to Pre-Load for a few seconds, then click the Play button to continue.
back to Uncle Earl's Classic TV Channel
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An organisation can find it hard to devise and develop a course that has learning objectives consistent with that organisation’s business aims. In many cases a course is built around objectives that aren’t clear and this negatively impacts those using the online tools. This leads to a situation where the objectives weren’t clear at the outset, ensuring that the outcome is a failure to meet the objectives set.
This lack of clarity does present problems for a business and the success of an e-Learning course is not the adoption of this learning model but the outcome. Without clear objective a course cannot even fulfil its most basic aims.
Establish clear goals
There are a number of areas that need to be considered to develop a successful and enticing course.
It’s a good idea to ask these questions right at the start:
- Why is this course being developed?
- What’s the expected outcome for participants?
- How can we meet the objectives set?
An information-based course must have a goal that’s clear and easy in terms of its application. In many instances, the goal isn’t based on immediate performance expectations. An organisation has to realise that offering a course will not change the inherent behaviour and interactions of employees. Instead a course should be developed that reinforces positive traits and reminds the employees of the organisation’s moral and ethical perspectives.
A business can use e-Learning to support its rules on employee behaviour and reiterate the way that it wants its staff to interact with co-workers and bosses. In this case an information based course and its assessment is limited (usually) to one point at the end of the year. The objective then is simple; certify familiarity of the organisations policies by a specific date.
There is another course type to consider known as a performance course. This course is different from the information course and its objectives are more far-reaching. A performance course is measured through change, so it’s about teaching, rather than reinforcing knowledge.
Both course types are valuable and it’s up to the organisation to choose which one suits its employees the best. There are benefits to each approach and it’s likely that a forward thinking business could even integrate the two successfully to create a singular course that encompasses both e-Learning approaches mentioned.
There are a number of simple approaches to developing learning objectives and it’s important to be aware of your intentions and for those using your e-Learning services to be aware of those aims too. At the heart of creating a strong and useful learning objective is the determination of the action required. The question to ask is, “What will this objective look like when I see it applied?”
If you’ve managed to identify your action, you can then measure the effectiveness of your course. A badly devised learning objective is hard to measure, intangible really, and even harder to see in action. Define exactly what you want in the clearest terms possible and how you will see it in action.
Break down your learning objective further
When you have a learning objective in mind you’ll likely find that it’s fairly large and over arching. If you consider it in enough depth, it’s probable that you’ll be able to break down that objective even further into manageable sub headers and categories. The learning objectives often appear as a larger goal, which is a good, basic aim that should be measureable.
To achieve the larger objective it will more than likely require other actions. These actions should also be identified and the steps to determining each sub category should be similar to the ones you embarked on to discover your key-learning objective.
This means, that for your course to successfully meet the main learning objective, it has to first hit each and every sub-category. These smaller secondary objectives are nearly as important as the larger objective and each step towards achieving them means that the main aim is increasingly likely to be attained.
The power of the list
Lists are always useful and when it comes to determining your objectives they can be applied well. Write a list with your main learning objective at the top and then list all of the periphery actions required to achieve that goal. Each action should clearly support your over all objective.
The smaller objectives can serve as modules within the course and they provide smaller chunks of learning that your employees can use to gauge how well they’re doing. It can help a business determine if the course is headed in the right direction and whether learning is moving towards the final goal.
E-Learning is a burgeoning market and it’s a good idea to remember that successful implementation of this online approach relies heavily on good course design and management. Make sure that you identify clear objectives, good smaller goals, and develop a course that engages with users and helps them to achieve the collective goal that benefits both them, and your business.
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2 edition of Characteristics of open education found in the catalog.
Characteristics of open education
Herbert J. Walberg
by Education Development Center, Pilot Communities Program in Newton, Mass
Written in English
|Statement||by Herbert J. Walberg [and] Susan Christie Thomas.|
|Contributions||Thomas, Susan Christie, joint author., Education Development Center., United States. Office of Education|
|The Physical Object|
|Pagination||1 v. (various pagings)|
Distance learning, also called distance education, e-learning, and online learning, form of education in which the main elements include physical separation of teachers and students during instruction and the use of various technologies to facilitate student-teacher and student-student communication. Distance learning traditionally has focused on nontraditional students, such as full-time. Education is a matter of sharing, and the open educational resources approach is designed specifically to enable extremely efficient and affordable sharing. Leveraging the Internet: The Internet has frequently been compared to the printing press, which was in turn frequently compared to the process of writing books by hand. Today, the cost of.
In educational literature, the study of alternative education systems often mentions “open systems”, “non-formal education”, “distance learning”, “non-conventional studies”, among other education characteristics are found when the adopted strategy does not require student. If they know that specific characteristics of educational software influence learning, they can strategically design programs that incorporate the effective characteristics. The relationship between the characteristics of learning multimedia and learning outcomes of students are considered in this chapter. The aims of the chapter are as follows: 1.
Using the book bin, students check to see that books meet the criteria that they have established for their assigned genre. (Using the book bin supports those readers who may have some struggles.) If they get stuck, they will be able to look at the book blurbs to assist them in creating the criteria list and make sure that their books really do Missing: open education. Characteristics of Islamic education and the various methods of Islamic education.
Lectures on the history of Christian dogmas
The Several humble petitions of D. Bastwicke, M. Burton, M. Prynne and of Nath. Wickins, servant to the said Mr Prynne, to the honourable House of Parliament
osteological analysis of a late Thule/early historic Labrador Eskimo population
Low pay among clerical grades in the Irish Civil Service
Sam Houston State University
Wide-swath, embracing lines in pleasant places
The influence of the time interval upon the rate of learning in the white rat
Health policies, health politics
hovels of Ireland
elements of mechanics
Improvements to induction heating techniques in metal industries
Licensing of Marine Radiotelegraph Operators
New American abstract painting.
Get this from a library. Characteristics of open education: toward an operational definition. [Herbert J Walberg; Susan Christie Thomas]. Research comparing ‘open’ and ‘traditional’ classrooms is described, the findings and some criticisms discussed.
Some of the theoretical issues and practical problems Characteristics of open education book with curriculum evaluation in general are explored, and the implications for the evaluation of open education programs touched : Donald Hogben. Additional Physical Format: Online version: Walberg, Herbert J., Characteristics of open education.
Newton, Mass., Training Development Research, Characteristics of Open Education: A Look at the Literature for Teachers. Walberg, Herbert J.; Thomas, Susan Christie. This study attempted to provide an analytic basis for an operational definition of open by: 6. Characteristics of Open Education: Toward an Operational Definition.
Walberg, Herbert J.; Thomas, Susan Christie This report describes the concept of open education, analyzes the content of the literature, and describes the development and final revision of a list of the characteristics of open by: 8.
Open Educational Practices and Resources. OLCOS Roadmap The report is based on own research work, expert workshops and other consultations with many international projects that promote the creation, sharing and re-use of Open Educational Resources. Available from the OlCOS web site.
Open Education encompasses resources, tools and practices that are free of legal, financial and technical barriers and can be fully used, shared and adapted in the digital environment. THE EMERGENCE OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Learning resources are often considered key intellectual property in a competitive higher education world.
However, more and more institutions and individuals are sharing their digital learning resources over the Internet, openly and for free, as Open Educational Resources (OER).
1) Open distance learning (ODL) is easy and accessible to all. ODL is a learning distance that can open or available for anyone and is regardless of age, qualification or to the ethnic group as well.
The distance is to study away from the institution or college and the. Top 10 Characteristics of open system. Importation of Energy: An open system takes energy — various types of inputs — from the environment.
Without these inputs, no open system can survive. Throughput: An open system converts the inputs into some kind of outputs. This process is known as throughput or transformation process. Open systems contain five basic elements: inputs, transformation process, outputs, feedback, and the environment.
In this article, I discuss each of these five elements of social systems. The open systems view of schools provides an excellent framework for analyzing the process of education and the role the school administrator plays in that. Important Features of OER. OER can either be in the public domain, or under a more lax intellectual property license.
OER can be revised, remixed, added upon, translated, and then shared again to meet different needs. OER can take many forms, such as: syllabi, lesson plans, videos, software, tests, teaching techniques, group activities, writing prompts, textbooks, learning modules.
About Barbara Blackburn. Barbara Blackburn was named one of the Top 30 Global Gurus in Education in, and She is a best-selling author of 18 books including Rigor is NOT a Four-Letter Word and Motivating Struggling Learners: 10 Ways to Build Student Success.
An internationally recognized expert in the areas of instruction, rigor, student motivation, and leadership. Open education is a philosophy about the way people should produce, share, and build on knowledge.
Proponents of open education believe everyone in the world should have access to high-quality educational experiences and resources, and they work to eliminate barriers to this goal.
Open Book Examinations K. Mohanan education treats the information content of a subject to be the most important. The teacher's understanding of the structural characteristics of Old English, students cannot copy anything from the textbook.
In an open book exam ination, it is meaningless to ask questions "Define the notion ' atom'". Overview of Open Textbooks: Definition and Distinguishing Characteristics: /ch This chapter highlights the specific features of open education from the perspective of dynamic (social) equilibrium.
It is an attempt to bring the current. An Educational platform for parents and teachers of pre-k through 5th grade kids. Support your kids learning journey with games, worksheets and more that help children practice key skills. Download, print & watch your kids learn today. Open Courseware for Higher Education, emphasizing the idea of free sharing of knowledge and digital teaching, learning and research materials (Butcher, ; Poposki, ).
Open Educational Resources (OER) encompass any educational and research resources including curriculum maps, course materials, entire and parts of. Open Systems Theory Michael N. Bastedo, University of Michigan Entry, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Leadership and Administration Draft: Ap Open systems theory refers simply to the concept that organizations are strongly influenced by their environment.
The environment consists of. Open Up Education at its core, is a book about creating the right culture in a classroom or preferably a school for modern learning. It addresses many innovations that shouldn't be considered fads but movements in education including Project Based Learning and Competency Based s:.
Open book tests teach you how to find information when you need it and under a significant amount of pressure. Even more importantly, the questions are designed to teach you how to use your brain.
And contrary to popular belief, you do not get off the hook when it comes to studying for an open book exam.We believe that the future of education is open.
We support initiatives that advance that vision coupled with tangible results that build access to resources, research, and communities committed to open education. For Students, Faculty, and Staff: MyU One Stop.
College of Education and Human Development. Center for Open Education.Open and attentive to new approa ches, each educator keeps Marianist education up to date by their contributions.
Even. 3 to practice of the characteristics of Marianist Education will be a blessing for all those whom we serve in the educational communities in which we minister.
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A kit is a package containing items a person will need to be able to carry out a certain job or activity-
Students recieve a student packet or kit when they enroll in school. Soldiers are issued a kit when they volunteer for service to their country. Inside these kits are literature about this new life they are beginning, giving them what is required of them by the school or by the particular branch of armed services they are in. The literature consists of:
- Their personal identification- something that is exclusively theirs which no one else can legally use.
- The history of the organization, and the current leadership.
- What is expected of each person who enrolls or signs up with the organization.
- Information on how to contact authorities to ask questions or make requests for help when they run into difficulty.
- If they have problems understanding they have been assigned an advisor, or an officer who can help them.
- Access to places and valuable tools they will need in the future.
The Holy Scriptures tell us that when each believer accepts Jesus as Saviour we are given a Guide in the person of the Holy Spirit to lead and help us through this new life. But did you know that you were also given a "kit" when you became a disciple of God? This kit is what I will explore in my blog today.
Inside this kit every believer is given:
- A personal ID which no one else can use.
You become a part of a new family and are given the family name so that you can be identified as such.
This isn't just any family that is adopting you, this is the God of Heaven and earth himself.
This bond-- this adoption is an eternal transaction. (Jn. 3:16)
You are given a timeless and divinely inspired book
- All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for inspiration in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Timothy 3:16,17
- -- the Holy Bible which gives you:
- the history of all creation(Genesis)
- as well as your new family(The four gospels)
- An introduction to Jesus who made it possible for you to be offered freedom from sin
- Information on how to contact the One who can answer all your requests and who is there to give help anytime it is needed through the person of the Holy Spirit
- Grace that enables you to live a life that will be pleasing to God your Heavenly Father
- Peace that comes from knowing the will of God and submitting to it in your life
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To Yoga Home Page
(See also, "Hatha Yoga")
The concept of the Kundalini, or Kundala, was apparently ancient when Patanjali referred to it eighteen hundred years ago in his Sutra (see "Classical Yoga"). Kundala goes back to the most ancient pre-Ayrian Shavite Yogic rituals, and references to it are found in the earliest archeological findings of the Indian sub-continent.
The Kundalini is the repository of potentialised spiritual energy, which is personified as a female serpent that resides in the base of the spine in every individual. The Kundalini is waiting to be awakened so that a person's spiritual path in life may be fulfilled. The concept of the Kundalini is very close to that of the Shakti, the potential spiritual energy that exists in all of nature (see "Tantric Yoga"). Shakti is also sometimes translated in Yoga as "Grace".
The Kundalini can be awakened in many ways. This is said to be a Shaktipat experience. Shaktipat means the transference of spiritual energy, or transference of Grace. Shaktipat can take place when a person experiences something that provokes them to awaken, or transform, or to attain a higher state of existence. This can come from experiencing great works of art, or meeting someone that inspires one greatly, or it can come from a near-death experience, from meditation, or some kind of recognition of god's presence, or it can be consciously or unconsciously transmitted by a Guru. Anything that shuts down the internal dialogue can be a trigger to a Shakti experience (I say, "can", but that doesn't mean it necessarily does. A person can have many experiences that shut down the internal dialogue without having their Kundalini awakened).
Once the Kundalini is awakened in a given individual, their spiritual path begins to take shape, though that path can take an infinite variety of forms, and it may take a long time before a person becomes aware that they are "on the spiritual path". This spiritual path becomes the Sadakha's (Yoga student's) personal experience, open to their interpretation. Each Sadakha has a Sadhna, or daily practice. For one person, this daily practice may mean meditation for 30 minutes each day. For another person it may mean Hatha Yoga. For another it may mean service to a Guru. The word Sadhna in Sanskrit is very interesting, because as well as meaning "daily practice", it also means "what one is witnessing on one's journey through life". This is affected by Karma, which means, "action", so one's action directly affects what one experiences, and what one experiences is the same thing as one's daily practice.
Kundalini Yoga connects the Kundalini-Shakti with the Chakras and the Nadis. A Nadi is an energy pathway, similar to the meridians in Chinese Accupuncture. There are many Nadis in every human body. They are an important part of the process of living. Through the Nadis flows one's life force, or Prana (see the "Hatha Yoga" section).
"Chakra" means, "wheel" in Sanskrit. Chakras are wheels of energy that exist at certain points along the Nadis. They are very similar to Accupressure or accupuncture points in Chinese medicine. These Eastern sciences seek to bring a person to health by unblocking energy that has gotten knotted up in a chakra. Yoga seeks to give a person exercises that keep the chakras from getting blocked up to begin with.
It's important to keep in mind that in Yoga, we really don't have the distinctions between the body, mind and spirit that we have in the West. The Chakras are as much a part of one's spiritual and mental well-being as one's physical well-being.
The three most important Nadis are the Ida Nadi, the Pingala Nadi and the Sushumna Nadi.
The Ida Nadi lies to the left of the spine. It is the prime repository of "Tha" energy (see "Hatha Yoga"). The Pingala Nadi lies to the right of the spine. It is the main artery of "Ha" energy. Both the Ida and Pingala Nadis originate at the base of the spine. The Ida Nadi ends in the left nostril, and the Pingala Nadi ends in the right nostril.
The Sushumna Nadi rises up through the center of the spine. It originates at the base of the spine and terminates in the third eye point between the two eyebrows. The Sushumna Nadi is all-important.
The Kundalini lies sleeping in the base of the spine, at the very point of origination of the Sushumna Nadi. When the Kundalini is awakened through Shakti experience, she begins her ascent up the Sushumna Nadi through the center of the spine.
As one advances spiritually, the Kundalini/Shakti encounters each of the seven primary Chakras that lie along the path of the Sushumna Nadi.
1) Muladhara Chakra - At the base of the spine - connected with basic physical needs and security.
2)Swadishtana Chakra - In the sex organs - connected with sexual desire and passion in general.
3) Manipura Chakra - In the naval point - connected with self-esteem and personal power
4) Anahata Chakra - At the top of the heart - connected with love in a global sense (compassion, understanding).
5) Vishuda Chakra - In the throat - connected with communication ability and self-expression.
6) Ajna Chakra - The "Third Eye" between the two eyebrows - connected with transendental wisdom and ultimate detachment.
7) Sahasrara Chakra - At the top of the head - connected with Samadhi, enlightenment, complete spiritual fulfillment.
It is said that when the Kundalini Shakti has pierced and integrated all of the chakras, and has made her way to the top of the head, she unites with Shiva, lord and master. That is when the student achieves Nirvana, complete Samadhi, the goal of Yoga. (See also "Tantric Yoga").
The Aura, which surrounds the total individual is said to be the eight chakra. There are many smaller chakras and nadis throughout the body.
The student will find many correlations between this system and the Hebrew form of mysticism that is called, "Kabbalah" (see my section on the tarot).
Back to Top
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In June and July this year (2014), Barbara Arrowsmith-Young, founder of the Arrowsmith program and the Arrowsmith School is speaking at events around Australia and in New Zealand.
Who is this remarkable woman who overcame her own severe learning difficulties to develop a program - the Arrowsmith Program - that treats learning disabilities including dyslexia and memory by using the principles of neuroplasticity?
Barbara Arrowsmith-Young was diagnosed with learning disabilities as soon as she started school and had great trouble reading and writing (she read and wrote everything backwards). She was physically unco-ordinated and often got lost.
She eventually learnt to read and write normally (from left to right) and managed to complete her formal education at school and University, although with considerable difficulty with specific aspects of learning. While working on her Masters thesis in 1982, Ms Arrowsmith-Young observed that standard academic remedial programs had limited success in helping children with specific learning disabilities.
So she went on to develop a suite of mental exercises designed to improve the learning capacity of children struggling with a range of learning difficulties.
Principles of Brain Plasticity
Barbara Arrowsmith-Young says that her experience in tapping into neuroscience research and using the principles of brain plasticity to overcome her own learning difficulties, formed the basis for the development of the Arrowsmith program.
For more about Barbara, the Arrowsmith Program and the Arrowsmith School:
- Read her book: “The Woman who Changed her Brain”, by Barbara Arrow-Smith Young
- Read Chapter 2 of “The Brain that Changes Itself” by Dr Norman Doidge.
This is the same book where, in Chapter 3, Dr Doidge describes Fast ForWord, the neuroscience based learning and reading development program which has now been used by over 2 million students around the world.
Watch this TEDx video, “The Woman Who Changed her Brain”
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Have fun looking at minerals that have been discovered by geologists. Explore physical characteristics of minerals. Great Photos!
Read and click on the numbers to learn even more about our fabulous Earth
Basic bullet points of information
Learn about Moh's scale of hardness and more
Wonderful and interesting videoUpper level vocabulary is used
Basic simple vocabulary describing how the three types of rocks are formed
learn about formations that develop inside caves
Basic interactive mineral hunt
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Food and Community
Food and wine writer Marc Millon considers the role of food and drink in strengthening community relations.
What is food without community? Eating is a social act. We share food with family, with friends, sometimes with strangers. Food is more than mere sustenance: it brings us together around the table, fuels conversation, and nourishes the soul as much as the body.
The food we eat connects us to a wider community, to where the food we are enjoying has come from, and to those who created or brought it to us: the producers, the farmers, the fishermen, the market gardeners and a host more. The act of acquiring provisions can bring us into the community when we visit farmers markets, or have a chat with the butcher, or discuss the ripeness or maturity of a favourite cheese.
It seems that we do indeed like to know where our food comes from, and as precisely as possible. Better still if we can grow, catch or forage it for ourselves. Restaurants and pubs now proudly boast that they source their ingredients from within as small a radius as possible. The provenance of ingredients, even the names of farms are proclaimed on the menus and web sites of cafés, pubs and restaurants. Such knowledge adds to the enjoyment of the foods we consume because it takes us to the origin, connects us with places, with people, with community.
Of course not everyone cares about such things. The vast majority still shop in supermarkets; the sale of ready-meals is apparently on the up-and-up; for many who buy foods wrapped in plastic there is a vast disconnect between what is consumed and where it has come from (in many cases, we would not want to know where it has come from!); and eating is becoming less a communal act than a solitary scoff, often in front of the telly or the laptop.
The community aspects of food and eating, therefore, are something to be cherished, not taken for granted. I have on many occasions attended Terra Madre, the gathering of food communities from around the world, organised by Slow Food. This remarkable bi-annual event brings together people from 130 countries to discuss, to share, to show, to sell, to eat and drink, break bread and share wine, all in the simple belief that food should be ‘good, clean, and fair’. There are farmers, fishermen, cheesemakers, fruit growers, bakers, beekeepers, beer makers, cider makers, picklers, distillers, wine makers, foragers, chefs, communicators, educators, young and old. It is an overwhelming and inspiring experience: the colourful national costumes and dress; the cacophony of languages, many never heard before; the produce, flavours, ingredients never imagined or tasted! Terra Madre is a truly beautiful thing to witness, for somehow, everyone manages to communicate, to connect through an understanding and a sharing of that most basic element that we all require: food. Indeed, it is a reminder that food and the myriad communities to which it is linked are fundamental to our existence, to our very humanity.
An appreciation of the fundamental value of food and community is central to all that the Oxford Cultural Collective stands for.
Through our gastronomy field trips to Piedmont and to Devon, students have gained an understanding of the deep and vital roots that collectively shape a region’s gastronomic culture. It’s a culture that is defined by many factors, including terroir, artisan craftsmanship, a quest for and a dedication to quality, as well as a commitment to sustainability and localism. Perhaps most important of all is the passion and dedication of individuals – food and drink producers; fishermen; cheesemakers; winemakers; chefs; retailers; food writers; and intelligent consumers who know, value and appreciate the difference between the industrially produced and the artisan, and who are prepared to pay for local quality. Collectively such individuals form the heart of a vital community around which excellence can thrive. Whether in Piedmont or in Devon, such factors ensure that food culture remains vibrant, exciting, delicious, and, rather than locked in a straitjacket of centuries-old tradition, is still evolving, defining and re-defining itself.
Marc Millon is a food, wine and travel author, a lecturer on gastronomy, and a patron of the Oxford Cultural Collective.
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Since 2011, there has been a surge of fatalities recorded in trenching and excavation operations. Among these, 80% occurred in private construction companies. OSHA believes that the climbing rate of deaths can be curbed through encouraging operations to enforce safer trenching practices and improving excavation inspection procedures.
OSHA has published guidelines on their website concerning safety practices and protective systems to prevent cave-ins and improve worker safety. However, the first step for a safer operation is pre-planning.
Pre-job planning is critically important for accident-free trenching, as most incidents occur due to inadequate initial planning. To successfully preplan, employers should learn as much as possible about the jobsite and the materials they will have to have on-hand in order to work in compliance with OSHA trenching and excavation standards. Some factors to consider when preplanning are soil classification, proximity of nearby structures, and quantity of shoring or protective systems that may be required.
Once the job has begun, implementing OSHA-compliant protective systems is the best way to prevent cave-ins. The easiest way to remember them three most commonly used types of protective systems are “The Three S’s”: shoring, shielding, and sloping. Employers are required to slope and bench the sides of the excavation; support the sides of the excavation; and place a shield between the side of the excavation and the work area.
Employers are free to choose the most practical protective system design that will provide the necessary protections for their employees. OSHA trench excavation slope requirements specify that the slope angle be not steeper than 1.5:1; which is a safe gradation for any type of soil. Sloping and benching systems must be approved by a registered professional engineer. When using trench boxes or shields, employees must use ones that have been approved by a registered professional engineer.
Other precautions employers are required to take include providing support systems such as shoring, bracing, or underpinning to ensure that adjacent structures remain stable for the protection of workers. These needs should be identified during pre-planning.
OSHA also has requirements regarding the safe installation and removal of protective systems once the job is complete. These are required to prevent failures due to sliding, falling, and overloading that could result in the injury or death of employees, or damage to structures.
Stopping cave-ins starts with your operation. If you want to learn more about OSHA safety training and requirements, contact your nearest Papé Machinery location to speak with one of our specialists.
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One of the most remarkable of Red Deer’s pioneer families is also one of the oldest.
The McKenzie family came to Red Deer from the Red River country of southern Manitoba more than 130 years ago.
The McKenzies were a very old fur trade family before their arrival in Central Alberta. Their father, Captain David McKenzie, worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company in the Columbia River country.
Their mother, Mathilde Bruce, was a native of the Red River settlement.
In the spring of 1882, Roderick McKenzie, with other family members including Magnus Brown and William Beauchemin, came out from Headingly, Manitoba to settle along the Red Deer River, between the mouths of Waskasoo Creek and the Blindman River.
Although their first winter was a hard one, with the cold claiming several of their cattle, they went back to Manitoba and returned with eight families of relatives and friends.
The trip was an epic one.
They traveled more than 1,600 km (1000 miles) cross-country, with no roads to follow or bridges to cross.
They brought with them with several cartloads of household effects, supplies, a steam boiler and engine, a threshing machine and a complete sawmill outfit.
A later group made a similar trip, but in the middle of a bitterly cold winter.
The McKenzies and the other Headingly settlers planted their crops and built up their livestock herds.
In order to make some cash income, they put their sawmill into operation and began selling lumber to the other settlers for $35 per 1,000 ft.
When Fort Normandeau was built during the Riel Rebellion in the spring of 1885, they sold supplies and provisions, first to the soldiers and later to the North West Mounted Police after the police took over the fort.
The spot where the old Calgary-Edmonton Trail crossed the Blindman River was notorious as a dangerous ford.
Consequently, the McKenzies created a new secondary trail, dubbed the McKenzie Trail, to the mouth of the Blindman where they built a ferry.
The McKenzies were devoutly religious.
In 1883, Roderick McKenzie hosted Rev. A.B. Baird, a Presbyterian minister. The first formal church service in Central Alberta was conducted in the McKenzie home.
On May 1, 1887, the McKenzies invited Rev. Edward K. Matheson, an Anglican missionary and an old friend from the Red River, to hold a service. Nearly 50 people attended and 15 took communion.
The next day, Roderick McKenzie led the organization of an Anglican congregation. Church wardens and vestrymen were elected. It was a remarkable instance of a group of Métis settlers organizing a grass-roots congregation.
The fledgling congregation was able to persuade Bishop Cyprian Pinkham to periodically send Rev. Edward Paske-Smith to minister to the group. Paske-Smith was later replaced by Rev. Henry Collier who took up residence in the community.
Rev. Collier also opened a school by the McKenzie’s farm.
Unfortunately, the McKenzies, and many others, found out that they had settled on land that the federal government had sold to the Saskatchewan Land and Homestead Company.
Although they had legitimate legal claims, by way of squatters’ rights, the government was oblivious to their petitions and protests.
Finally, in 1890, they gave up in disgust and moved north to Beaver Lake, near the current town of Tofield.
The McKenzies did make a return trip to Red Deer.
In 1894, David and Roderick got the contract to build the first traffic bridge across the river.
Although they did not have formal training, they built quite a serviceable bridge. Five years later, government engineers built a replacement bridge. It washed out a few months later with the spring flood.
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( – promoted by navajo)
Ask some non-Cherokees to name some prominent historical Cherokee leaders and there are three names which frequently come up: (1) John Ross, the chief who led the Cherokee during the first half of the nineteenth century, (2) Sequoia, the genius who created Cherokee writing, and (3) Wilma Mankiller, the well-known twentieth century chief. There are, however, many other prominent Cherokee historical figures and there were powerful chiefs before John Ross. One of these was Attakullakulla.
Attakullakulla was born into a prominent Cherokee family. During his youth he was trained by the elders to assume a position of responsibility. As an adult he became well-known for skills at oratory, diplomacy, and negotiation.
In 1730, Attakullakulla was among the Cherokee leaders who were taken to England to meet with King George. At that time, he was the head warrior of Tassatchee and was known by the name of Oukah Ulah (also spelled Ookounaka and Oukandekah). The English, blissfully unaware of Cherokee government, simply assumed that he was the “King” of the Cherokees.
Upon meeting King George, the Cherokee presented him with a number of gifts, including the “crown of Tannasee” (a crown made from opossum tails), scalps from their enemies, and five eagles’ tails.
During their four months in England, the Cherokee were grandly entertained, taken to fairs, and given gifts. They also competed with the King’s archers and were entertained by plays which included sham fights and acrobats. They also negotiated a treaty of friendship and trade with the English.
After his return from England, Attakullakulla maintained a strong friendship with the English. When the French approached the Overhill Cherokee towns in 1736 to open the doors for peace and trade, Attakullakulla refused to attend the meeting.
In 1738, Attakullakulla was captured by the Ottawa who were French allies. He spent more than six years as a captive.
In 1753, the governor of Carolina called for a meeting with the Cherokee for the purpose of concluding a treaty of peace between the Cherokee and the Creek. Attakullakulla informed the governor that when he had met with King George in England that the king had asked him to avenge the English lives taken by the Creek. When the governor tried to insist that he now spoke for the king, Attakullakulla simply told him that he would go to England again and meet with the king. Attakullakulla’s personal experience with the king plus his knowledge of the treaties with England enabled him to negotiate a favorable agreement with the governor.
In 1755, the governor met with 506 Cherokee chiefs, headmen, and warriors in Saluda near the present-day Greenville, South Carolina. Attakullakulla stood before the group with a bow in one hand and a sheaf of arrows in the other and acted as the principal spokesperson for the Cherokee Nation. The English accounts of the meeting describe Attakullakulla as having “the dignity and graceful action of a Roman or Grecian orator, and with all their ease and eloquence.”
At the meeting Attakullakulla presented a child to the governor saying:
“I have brought this child that when he grows up he may remember our agreement this day and tell it to the next generation that it may be known forever.”
Attakullakulla also asked that the proceedings of the meeting be written down so that it could be kept forever. In this way, he acknowledged both the Cherokee oral tradition and the English practice of writing.
Attakullakulla then gave the governor some earth and some corn and asked that they be sent to the king as a symbol of Cherokee recognition of English authority. Then he raised the bow and quiver over his head and told the governor that this is all the Cherokee have for their defense. He then asked for guns and powder so that they could fight those who were enemies of the English.
Following the meeting, Attakullakulla became the most powerful Cherokee leader of the time and through his influence he held the Cherokee to their ties with England. To demonstrate Cherokee loyalty to England, Attakullakulla with Cherokee war leader Oconostota led a series of raids against the French and their Indian allies on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.
In 1759, Attakullakulla, Oconostota, and other Cherokee leaders met with the Governor of North Carolina. While they were originally met with peace, the leaders were soon imprisoned and forced to sign a new treaty under duress.
In 1760, Old Hop, the Cherokee Beloved Man (supreme chief) died. Instead of Attakullakulla, Standing Turkey was named as the new Beloved Man. Attakullakulla’s support of the English had eroded his support among the Cherokee. The Cherokee then went to war against the English traders and colonists.
The following year, the Cherokee sought peace with the English. Attakullakulla served as one of the primary negotiators for the new treaty.
During the next 20 years, Attakullakulla helped negotiate numerous treaties and agreements with the English. As a result of these treaties, the land controlled by the Cherokee shrank as the English hunger for land seemed to be endless.
Attakullakulla died around 1780 (he was about 80 years old) and the leadership of the Cherokee passed to a younger generation including Dragging Canoe (Attakullakulla’s son) and Bloody Fellow.
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from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. Unrefined or incompletely refined sugar that still retains some molasses, which gives it a brownish color.
- n. A commercial product made by the addition of molasses to white sugar.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. Sugar which has been only partially refined and still contains molasses.
- n. Refined sugar to which molasses has been added.
- n. Street name for heroin.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. unrefined or only partly refined sugar
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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There are several thousand known minerals in nature (with estimates ranging from 2,000 to 7,000), but fewer than a hundred are considered gem minerals. Of these, only about a dozen or so are actually valuable enough to be important gemstones on the world market. In order to be considered a gemstone, a mineral must first of all be beautiful. In addition, it must be hard and durable. Its value increases if it is also rare.
The beauty of a gem is measured in terms of its clarity, brilliance, and color. Its natural beauty can be enhanced by the way it is cut. There are two basic kinds of gem cuts: faceted and cabochon. The faceted cut has many flat cut surfaces (facets) with an overall shape that might be round, oval, square, rectangular, or pear-shaped. Faceted cuts are preferred for brilliant transparent stones such as diamond. The cabochon cut has a smooth rounded top, usually with a flat base, and it is mainly used for opaque or translucent stones.
Hardness is measured using the Mohs' scale, on which 10 is hardest. (Diamond has a hardness of 10.) Gemstones should have a Mohs' hardness of 6 or more. A really durable gem should have a hardness of at least 7, which is the hardness of quartz. Table 1 shows the hardness of some familiar minerals on the Mohs' scale.
The value of a gemstone depends on its beauty and its rarity, but also the size of the stone. Size is measured in terms of weight using the carat as a unit. A carat is 0.2 grams (0.007 ounces). (A 10-carat diamond weighs 2 grams, or 0.07 ounces.) There are 100 points in a carat, so a 30-point diamond weighs 0.3 carat, or 0.06 grams (0.002 ounces). Since gemstones vary in density (weight per unit volume), several different 1-carat stones may vary in size, the stones with the greatest density being smaller than the others.
Some Important Gemstones
Diamond is the hardest substance known to occur in nature, measuring 10 on the Mohs' scale. It is pure carbon in a tightly packed cubic structure. Diamonds are usually graded on the basis of four Cs: carat, cut, clarity, and color. Carat refers to the stone's weight and degree of flawlessness. As for color, diamonds are usually colorless, but sometimes they do exhibit color. The famous Hope diamond, for example, is blue. Most diamonds come from mines in Africa, especially southern Africa, although Russia and Australia also have diamond mines. Industrial-grade diamonds have even been made synthetically at very high pressures and temperatures. A number of other softer colorless stones are often sold as imitation diamonds.
Ruby is a variety of corundum (Al 2 O 3 ) with a Mohs' hardness of 9. Its red color results when chromic ions (Cr 3+ ) replace some of the aluminum ions in the crystal. The finest rubies come from Myanmar (formerly Burma) or Kenya. Star rubies are stones with a special starlike appearance. They usually have a cabochon cut and appear to show a 6-pointed star due to microscopic inclusions. Rubies of very high quality are sometimes made synthetically.
Sapphire, like ruby, is made of corundum (Al 2 O 3 ) and has a hardness of 9. However, instead of Cr impurities, the crystal contains iron and titanium
|Mohs' HARDNESS SCALE|
|Talc||Mg 3 Si 4 O 10 (OH) 2||1|
|Apatite||3 Ca 3 (PO 4 ) 2 •CaF 2||5|
|Feldspar||K 2 Al 2 Si 6 O 16||6|
|Topaz||Al 2 SiO 4 F 2||8|
|Corundum||Al 2 O 3||9|
ions, which produce a blue color, ranging from very pale to very dark blue. Sapphires are found in Cambodia and other places in Southeast Asia and Australia, as well as Montana in the United States. Also, as in the case of rubies, there are star sapphires, which exhibit a 6-pointed star. Pure corundum (white sapphire) was the first gem to be produced synthetically. It was a poor substitute for diamond, however, because of its low refractive index. Adding about 0.1 percent chromium, however, produces rubies of excellent quality; and the addition of iron and titanium yields beautiful blue sapphires. Even star sapphires and rubies that rival natural stones can be made synthetically.
Emerald is a variety of beryl, a beryllium silicate, with a hardness of 7.5 to 8. It has a beautiful deep green color, and it is one of the most expensive gems, sometimes outranking diamond in value. The green color results from small amounts of chromic oxide (Cr 2 O 3 ). The oldest emerald mines were in Egypt near the Red Sea, but the best emerald mines today are in Colombia. There are others in Brazil, Pakistan, and Africa; synthetic emeralds of excellent quality have also been manufactured.
Aquamarine, like emerald, is a transparent variety of beryl, or beryllium silicate. Its light blue to blue-green color results from small amounts of iron in the crystal. Like most beryl stones, it measures 7.5 to 8 on the Mohs' hardness scale. Most aquamarine gemstones come from Brazil.
Topaz is a rather rare silicate mineral with a Mohs' hardness of 8. It comes in many colors from yellow to pink to purple to blue, depending on what ions are present in the crystal. It can even be colorless. However, the favorite variety is orange to brown in color and called "imperial topaz." Much of the best topaz comes from Brazil. The gem called London blue topaz can be made from the colorless variety by treatment with heat and radiation.
Cubic zirconia (ZrO 2 ), with a Mohs' hardness of 8, is a beautiful, usually colorless, stone that is made synthetically. Although not as hard as diamond, cubic zirconia has much fire and brilliance, and it is popular as an imitation diamond. Zirconia normally has a monoclinic crystalline structure at room temperature, but when heated to about 2,300°C (4,172°F), it takes on a cubic structure. Ordinarily, it would revert to the monoclinic structure on cooling, but the addition of yttrium oxide (Y 2 O 3 ) or calcium oxide (CaO)
can stabilize the zirconia so that it retains the cubic structure at room temperature. Cubic zirconia has optical properties very close to those of diamond, and it is clearly the best of all the various diamond imitations.
Zircon is native zirconium silicate (ZrSiO 4 ) that exhibits beautiful transparent crystals and a Mohs' hardness of 7.5. The tetragonal crystals are usually brownish yellow in color. Also known as jargon or jargoon, zircon is a stable and durable silicate crystal. Small crystals of zircon are among the oldest mineral grains ever found on Earth.
Opal is a hydrous silica (SiO 2 ), sometimes thought of as an amorphous silica gel. It is a fairly soft gem, measuring only 5 to 6 on the Mohs' scale. It is relatively common in nature except in its "precious" form, which comes mainly from Australia. In Switzerland, since 1970, opal of precious quality has been made synthetically. Usually cut in the cabochon shape to permit its rainbowlike display of color, opals come in white, black, and fire varieties. "Black" opals are dark gray to blue, and fire opals, which are more transparent than other opals, are usually orange-red in color.
Amethyst is a variety of quartz (SiO 2 ) that is violet to purple in color, probably because of iron and manganese impurities. It measures 7 on the Mohs' hardness scale and is obtained from many places, but mainly from India and Brazil. It should not be confused with oriental amethyst, which is a purple native variety of alumina (Al 2 O 3 ).
Spinel is a colorless magnesium aluminate (MgAl 2 O 4 ) of cubic structure. It is hard and durable, but, like white sapphire, it is not a good diamond substitute because it has a low refractive index and lacks brilliance. However, it is readily doped to produce other gems of various colors. Artificial ruby, for example, is often natural red spinel, and most synthetic blue sapphires on the market are actually blue spinel.
Peridot is the gem variety of olivine, a magnesium silicate containing iron (about 9 Mg atoms for every Fe atom). Peridot is usually transparent,
with a color ranging from greenish yellow to brownish green. Much peridot comes from an island in the Red Sea, but it is also found in Myanmar and an Apache reservation in Arizona.
Garnet is actually a group of related silicates containing various amounts of magnesium, calcium, aluminum, iron, manganese, and chromium. Garnets have a hardness of 6.5 to 7.5, depending on their composition, and their color also varies along with their composition. The popular dark red garnets are found in many gem sites in the Czech Republic, but garnets of many colors are also found in other parts of the world, such as India, Tanzania, Russia, and Brazil.
Tourmaline is a highly complicated silicate, with a wide range of compositions and colors. It probably exhibits more colors than any other kind of gemstone. Sometimes there are several different colors in the same crystal. "Watermelon" tourmaline, for example, is green on the outside but red in the middle.
Lapis lazuli is a deep blue gemstone that is a complex copper silicate mineral varying widely in composition. It often contains sparkles of iron pyrite or calcite. The best source is probably Afghanistan. A pale blue variety is found in Chile. Some material sold as lapis lazuli is actually artificially colored jasper from Germany.
Onyx is a striped variety of the common silicate mineral called agate, with alternating black and white bands. It comes mainly from India and South America. Sardonyx is a variety of onyx with brown and white bands.
The aforementioned gemstones, unless they are synthetic, usually occur in underground deposits from which they are mined. However, there are some gems that come from once living material.
Pearls are little spheres of calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) that form in mollusks ( invertebrate shellfish) such as oysters, usually because of some sort of irritation. They are normally white or off-white in color, but they can have bluish or pink tints, and sometimes they are dark gray. Although many pearls form naturally, pearl production has been greatly increased by the "cultured" pearl industry, which raises beds of oysters into which irritants are routinely introduced. The irritants are usually bits of mother-of-pearl, the lining that forms inside oyster shells.
Amber is fossilized tree resin that hardened over millions of years and now is valued as a gem. Baltic amber is thought to be hardened sap from pine trees. It is normally yellow-brown in color, but the shades vary from almost white to almost black. Although sometimes completely clear, amber often contains inclusions of insects or other matter, often considered desirable. Much amber is obtained along the shores of the Baltic Sea, but it is also found along the coasts of Sicily, Romania, and Myanmar.
Coral, like pearls, is calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) derived from living matter. It is the outer shells of small marine animals. It occurs in many colors, from white to deep pink and red. The greatest demand is for red coral. The best coral comes from the Mediterranean Sea, along the coasts of Algeria and Tunisia.
Ivory is a bonelike material that comes from the tusks of animals (elephant, walrus, hippopotamus). It has become such a highly prized material that there are unscrupulous poachers who kill these animals in order to steal their tusks. The pale cream color of new ivory becomes darker with age and turns yellow. Ivory is brittle, but it does not peel as do its plastic substitutes.
Jet is actually just a very hard and dense kind of lignite coal. It was probably plant material millions of years ago that has become fossilized and blackened over time. It often comes from northeast England, where it is derived from fossil driftwood buried under the sea. Its primary drawback as a gemstone is that it will burn (since it is basically just highly polished coal).
AMBER AND ELECTRICITY
Ancient Greeks called amber elektron. When they rubbed it with a cloth, it became charged and attracted bits of paper. The word "electricity" derives from the Greek word elektron.
Delinsky, Barbara (2001) Gemstone. New York: Harper Torch.
Hall, Cally (1994). Gemstones. New York: Dorling Kindersley.
Kraus, Edward Henry (1931). Gems and Minerals. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Matlins, Antoinette L., and Bonanno, A. C. (1997). Gem Identification Made Easy, 2nd edition. Woodstock, VT: Gemstone Press.
Pellant, Chris, and Russell, Henry (2001). Encyclopedia of Rocks, Minerals, and Gemstones. San Diego, CA: Thunder Bay Press.
Schumann, Walter (1997). Gemstones of the World, revised edition. New York: Sterling.
Smith, Richard Thomas (1958). Gemstones. New York: Pitman.
Spencer, Leonard James (1959). A Key to Precious Stones. New York: Emerson.
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|Soviet Anti-Tank Bunker - Sestroretsk|
|Maxim, Unknown, Natalya, Katya & Phil|
We travelled north from Rzhevka following the route of the main railway track from Leningrad up to Helsinki. On 25th June 1941 the Finns attacked the Soviet Union with a particularly heavy concentration of effort in the Karelian Isthmus north of Leningrad and a complimentary attack to the east of Lake Ladoga. Co-ordinating their efforts with the Axis Heeresgruppe Nord the Finns succeeded in retaking all of the ground ceded after the signing of the post Winter War Moscow Peace Treaty.
|Plan of Sestroretsk Bunker|
As is well known, the city of Leningrad subsequently endured a nine hundred day siege with the German Army on the West, South and East and the Finns to the North. Whether the Finnish war aims were more ambitious than the simple repatriation of land lost in the Winter War is the subject of some debate. What is beyond dispute however, is that despite German protestations to the contrary, the Finns did not attempt to break into the city.
The Soviet defenders and their Finnish enemy did engage sporadically throughout the period of the siege. Finnish artillery commanded the northern approaches to the Baltic port of Krondstadt and a major proportion of Lake Ladoga's waters - in the latter case, assisted at one point - rather incongruously - by a flotilla of Italian motor torpedo boats. The opposing lines across the Karelian Isthmus were manned on both sides by heavily armed infantry occupying strongly fortified trenches, gun-pits and bunkers amongst the pine trees which were (and are) a major feature of the landscape.
|Water Cooled Heavy Machine Gun|
|Anti-Tank Gun - Shell Hoist Below|
The bunker we visited is effectively a time-capsule from the period. After hammering on the iron door to wake up the custodian who seems to live inside we eventually stepped into a world seemingly untouched since the last shots were fired in anger in 1944. The three guns shown on the plan above are all in place complete with all of their their accoutrements - two anti-tank guns and one heavy machine gun to deal with attacking infantry. In addition there is a Maxim gun positioned in an aperture adjacent to the door of the bunker at the rear.
The bunker is intact and has all of it's original fittings. In addition, every available space is stacked with weapons, artefacts, documents and photographs dating back to the time when this facility was operational.
Notwithstanding the declining fortunes of the Axis forces in the East, the German political establishment were well aware of the importance of the Leningrad Front to the Finns. Indeed a plan to finally take Leningrad was scheduled for the late summer of 1943. Operation Parkplatz was predicated on the success of Operation Zitadelle further south around Kursk. With the failure of the Kursk offensive the continuation of offensive moves in the Leningrad sector was a non-starter.
In June 1944 the Soviet storm broke. Two Finnish corps (six divisions and two brigades) faced the Red Army in the Karelian Isthmus they were deployed in three defensive lines which were roughly situated on the old 1939 border (i.e. pre Winter War). On June 9th 1944 1,000 Soviet aircraft carried out saturation bombing of the Finnish positions. The following morning 300 Soviet guns fired 220,000 shells on a 17km front. By the end of the day the Soviet 21st Army had broken the Finnish lines and were battling there way towards the strategically important city of Vyborg, further north (which will be the subject of my next post).
|Machine Gun Aperture - Anti-Personnel|
By the end of August the Finns had reached the point of exhaustion. The settlement reached in Moscow on the 7th September 1944 restored the 1940 - post Winter War borders and deprived Finland of the entire Pechenga region in the far north of the country. The Soviet bunkers of the Leningrad northern defence line were locked up only to be re-opened many years later - so as to accommodate curious locals and visitors such as us!
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I came across two related stories recently that instigate a debate more than academic, regarding environmental conservation.
First, a 6-month-old BBC News article that I’d missed, discussed an economics report suggesting that deforestation worldwide “dwarfs the global banking crisis”. The study, on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (or TEEB), is accessible here, but the BBC article here says more plainly:
It puts the annual cost of forest loss at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion.
The figure comes from adding the value of the various services that forests perform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide.
The study, headed by a Deutsche Bank economist, parallels the Stern Review into the economics of climate change.
The article elaborates on this TEEB Review:
Key to understanding his conclusions is that as forests decline, nature stops providing services which it used to provide essentially for free.
So the human economy either has to provide them instead, perhaps through building reservoirs, building facilities to sequester carbon dioxide, or farming foods that were once naturally available.
Or we have to do without them; either way, there is a financial cost.
The Teeb calculations show that the cost falls disproportionately on the poor, because a greater part of their livelihood depends directly on the forest, especially in tropical regions.
The greatest cost to western nations would initially come through losing a natural absorber of the most important greenhouse gas.
Just as the Stern Review brought the economics of climate change into the political arena and helped politicians see the consequences of their policy choices, many in the conservation community believe the Teeb review will lay open the economic consequences of halting or not halting the slide in biodiversity.
That’s easy enough to understand. But what is the Stern Review? For consistency, I’m citing the BBC News story for that as well. While the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change is accessible here, the BBC summarized its results as:
- Extreme weather could reduce global gross domestic product (GDP) by up to 1%
- A two to three degrees Celsius rise in temperatures could reduce global economic output by 3%
- If temperatures rise by five degrees Celsius, up to 10% of global output could be lost. The poorest countries would lose more than 10% of their output
- In the worst case scenario global consumption per head would fall 20%
- To stabilise at manageable levels, emissions would need to stabilise in the next 20 years and fall between 1% and 3% after that. This would cost 1% of GDP
Compare the stats from those two reviews. First, they overlap – deforestation exacerbates global warming and climate change. Second, they’re comparable – that is, whether one is slightly higher than the other, they are well within an order of magnitude from one another. And third, I’m not sure, but they seem marginally more serious than the global banking crisis, but not by an order of magnitude either.
Now, those are studies coming at the problem from the economics side. But with those in mind, I find it interesting to see Carl Zimmer get into a discussion with Brenden Borrell re: Global warming and habitat destruction. It becomes a detailed discussion, with valid points on both sides. And as Brenden notes, mental exercises like this are important:
Battling climate change and saving biodiversity may not always be achieved via the same means and I think it is quite clear that they are often in conflict with one another. No doubt the conflicts will become more serious in the future and folks who care about biodiversity must think carefully about how they want to craft their policies and spend their dollars.
I stand behind the central point of the Slate essay, but I’ll add a bit of nuance to the discussion here. We can all agree that in terms of extinctions, the effects climate change and habitat loss are of the same order of magnitude (i.e. factor of 10).
They’re not always in conflict with each other. Preserving plant biodiversity is one such way – by serving as a carbon sink while at the same time serving as the basis for diverse ecosystems. But the general point is taken – we do indeed need a multi-faceted response to a variety of challenges here.
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The city of Athens was one of the major populated center of ancient Greece and the Mediterranean area in ancient times, leaving a profound trace in the cultural and political history of Europe and the Western world.
Athens was a city-state, the first in the history of humanity to adopt a democratic political system. It is also considered the cradle of the theatre, philosophy, historiography, pedagogy and politics, understood as the
active participation of citizens. It was born in Attica, a territory rich in agricultural and mineral resources, already at the time of the Mycenaean there was a fortified citadel there; but Athens proper was born in the eighth century BC with the Egyptian king Cecrops and among his sovereigns he could number Aegeus and Theseus. In modern times Athens is the name of the capital of Greece. The city in its largest metropolitan area has close to 5,000,000 inhabitants (almost 50% of the Greek population). Today’s Athens overlooks the Argosaronic Gulf with a very long coastline and occupies a large basin limited to the east by Mount Imetto, to the north by Mount Pendeli and to the west by a series of low hills (Mount Aigaleo). To the North West stands the imposing bulk of Mount Parnitha, an alpine-looking mountain on whose summit there is a large hotel with a casino attached.
The first place you should visit in Athens is of course the Acropolis. From the top of the sacred rock, as the Greeks call it, you can practically breathe the magnificence of ancient Greece. Do not think, however, that you will be alone up there. Other archaeological sites are the agora, the market with the temple dedicated to Hephaestus, in good condition, the temple dedicated to Zeus and the arch of Hadrian. The interesting museums are, among others, the Acropolis Museum, the National Archaeological Museum, the Folklore Museum, the Ceramics Museum (Keramikos), the Byzantine Museum, the Music Museum, the War
Museum, the Museum of Benaki etc. In all there are about 50 museums in Athens. A popular area for shopping, eating or drinking is Plaka, just below the acropolis. It is considered a fairly touristy area, here you can get an idea of old Athens, with low buildings and narrow streets. In Monastiraki there is and incredible bazaar, between Hephaestou street and around the small square.
In Sintagma you can visit the tomb of the unknown soldier. Here you can see the guards in their uniform features, the Euzones, and if you are lucky you will witness the slow and complicated ceremony of changing the guard. You can also feed the pigeons here. Interestingly, there was a monument
to the unknown soldier also in ancient Athens. The work, Megaron Mousikis, offers wonderful shows, but even more beautiful is the Theater of Herod Atticus, just below the Acropolis. Athens is one of the main tourist
destinations in Greece, and thousands of visitors come here every year for at least a couple of days before embarking on the journey to the islands or other tourist resorts in the country.
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Date of this version: April 1, 2004
A: (For rigorous definitions and theory, which are beyond the scope of this document, the interested reader is referred to the many LP textbooks in print, a few of which are listed in the references section.)
A Linear Program (LP) is a problem that can be expressed as follows (the so-called Standard Form):
minimize cx subject to Ax = b x >= 0where x is the vector of variables to be solved for, A is a matrix of known coefficients, and c and b are vectors of known coefficients. The expression "cx" is called the objective function, and the equations "Ax=b" are called the constraints. All these entities must have consistent dimensions, of course, and you can add "transpose" symbols to taste. The matrix A is generally not square, hence you don't solve an LP by just inverting A. Usually A has more columns than rows, and Ax=b is therefore quite likely to be under-determined, leaving great latitude in the choice of x with which to minimize cx.
The word "Programming" is used here in the sense of "planning"; the necessary relationship to computer programming was incidental to the choice of name. Hence the phrase "LP program" to refer to a piece of software is not a redundancy, although I tend to use the term "code" instead of "program" to avoid the possible ambiguity.
Although all linear programs can be put into the Standard Form, in practice it may not be necessary to do so. For example, although the Standard Form requires all variables to be non-negative, most good LP software allows general bounds l <= x <= u, where l and u are vectors of known lower and upper bounds. Individual elements of these bounds vectors can even be infinity and/or minus-infinity. This allows a variable to be without an explicit upper or lower bound, although of course the constraints in the A-matrix will need to put implied limits on the variable or else the problem may have no finite solution. Similarly, good software allows b1 <= Ax <= b2 for arbitrary b1, b2; the user need not hide inequality constraints by the inclusion of explicit "slack" variables, nor write Ax >= b1 and Ax <= b2 as two separate constraints. Also, LP software can handle maximization problems just as easily as minimization (in effect, the vector c is just multiplied by -1).
The importance of linear programming derives in part from its many applications (see further below) and in part from the existence of good general-purpose techniques for finding optimal solutions. These techniques take as input only an LP in the above Standard Form, and determine a solution without reference to any information concerning the LP's origins or special structure. They are fast and reliable over a substantial range of problem sizes and applications.
Two families of solution techniques are in wide use today. Both visit a progressively improving series of trial solutions, until a solution is reached that satisfies the conditions for an optimum. Simplex methods, introduced by Dantzig about 50 years ago, visit "basic" solutions computed by fixing enough of the variables at their bounds to reduce the constraints Ax = b to a square system, which can be solved for unique values of the remaining variables. Basic solutions represent extreme boundary points of the feasible region defined by Ax = b, x >= 0, and the simplex method can be viewed as moving from one such point to another along the edges of the boundary. Barrier or interior-point methods, by contrast, visit points within the interior of the feasible region. These methods derive from techniques for nonlinear programming that were developed and popularized in the 1960s by Fiacco and McCormick, but their application to linear programming dates back only to Karmarkar's innovative analysis in 1984.
The related problem of integer programming (or integer linear programming, strictly speaking) requires some or all of the variables to take integer (whole number) values. Integer programs (IPs) often have the advantage of being more realistic than LPs, but the disadvantage of being much harder to solve. The most widely used general-purpose techniques for solving IPs use the solutions to a series of LPs to manage the search for integer solutions and to prove optimality. Thus most IP software is built upon LP software, and this FAQ applies to problems of both kinds.
Linear and integer programming have proved valuable for modeling many and diverse types of problems in planning, routing, scheduling, assignment, and design. Industries that make use of LP and its extensions include transportation, energy, telecommunications, and manufacturing of many kinds. A sampling of applications can be found in many LP textbooks, in books on LP modeling systems, and among the application cases in the journal Interfaces.
A: Thanks to the advances in computing of the past decade, linear programs in a few thousand variables and constraints are nowadays viewed as "small". Problems having tens or hundreds of thousands of continuous variables are regularly solved; tractable integer programs are necessarily smaller, but are still commonly in the hundreds or thousands of variables and constraints. The computers of choice for linear and integer programming applications are Pentium-based PCs and the several varieties of Unix workstations.
There is more to linear programming than optimal solutions and number-crunching, however. This can be appreciated by observing that modern LP software comes in two related but very different kinds of packages:
Most modeling systems support a variety of algorithmic codes, while the more popular codes can be used with many different modeling systems. Because packages of the two kinds are often bundled for convenience of marketing or operation, the distinction between them is sometimes obscured, but it is important to keep in mind when attempting to sort through the many alternatives available.
Large-scale LP algorithmic codes rely on general-structure sparse matrix techniques and numerous other refinements developed through years of experience. The fastest and most reliable codes thus represent considerable development effort, and tend to be expensive except in very limited demonstration or "student" versions. Those codes that are free -- to all, or at least for research and teaching -- tend to be somewhat less robust, though they are still useful for many problems. The ability of a code to solve any particular class of problems cannot easily be predicted from problem size alone; some experimentation is usually necessary to establish difficulty.
Large-scale LP modeling systems are commercial products virtually without exception, and tend to be as expensive as the commercial algorithmic codes (again with the exception of small demo versions). They vary so greatly in design and capability that a description in words is adequate only to make a preliminary decision among them; your ultimate choice is best guided by using each candidate to formulate a model of interest.
Listed below are summary descriptions of available free codes, and a tabulation of many commercial codes and modeling systems for linear (and integer) programming. A list of free demos of commercial software appears at the end of this section.
Another useful source of information is the Optimization Software Guide by Jorge More' and Stephen Wright. It contains references to about 75 available software packages (not all of them just LP), and goes into more detail than is possible in this FAQ; see in particular the sections on "linear programming" and on "modeling languages and optimization systems." An updated Web version of this book is available on the NEOS Guide. Another good soruce of feature summaries and contact information is the Linear Programming Software Survey compiled by OR/MS Today (which also has the largest selection of advertisements for optimization software). Much information can also be obtained through the websites of optimization software developers, many of which are identified in the writeup and tables below.
To provide some idea of the relative performance of LP codes, a collection of benchmark results for optimization software is being compiled by Hans Mittelmann of Arizona State University. It includes tests of numerous simplex and interior-point codes for linear programming as well as branch-and-bound codes for linear integer programming; both commercial packages and downloadable free implementations are included. (Many nonlinear programming benchmarks are also available at this site.)
When evaluating any performance comparison, whether performed by a customer, vendor, or disinterested third party, keep in mind that all high-quality codes provide options that offer superior performance on certain difficult kinds of LP or IP problems. Benchmark studies of the "default settings" of codes will fail to reflect the power of any optional settings that are applicable.
These codes are not as fast or robust on average as the commercial products, but they're a a reasonable first try if you're not sure what level of power you need.
Based on the simplex method:
lp_solve is a downloadable code for linear and mixed-integer programming, currently maintained by Peter Notebaert ([email protected]). Version 4.0 is now available, under the Lesser GNU Public License, along with converters between MPS format and lp_solve's own input format.
GLPK (GNU Linear Programming Kit) is a C package that includes simplex (and also primal-dual interior point) methods for linear programming, a branch-and-bound implementation for integer programming, and a translator for the GNU MathProg language (a subset of AMPL). It is made available as open source under the GNU General Program License; Andrew Makhorin ([email protected]) is the developer and maintainter.
LP-Optimizer is a simplex-based code for linear and integer programs, written by Markus Weidenauer ([email protected]). Free Borland Pascal 7.0 and Borland Delphi 4 source is available for downloading, as are executables for DOS and for Windows (95 or later).
SoPlex is an object-oriented implementation of the primal and dual simplex algorithms, developed by Roland Wunderling. Source code is available free for research uses at noncommercial and academic institutions.
Among the SLATEC library routines is a Fortran sparse implementation of the simplex method, SPLP. Its documentation states that it can solve LP models of "at most a few thousand constraints and variables".
Based on interior-point methods:
The Optimization Technology Center at Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University has developed PCx, an interior-point code that is freely available for downloading. PCx is available in Fortran or C source or a variety of Windows and Unix executables, with an optional Java-based GUI interface. Input can be specified in MPS form or by use of the AMPL modeling language.
Csaba Meszaros ([email protected]) has written BPMPD, an interior-point code for linear and convex quadratic programs. A demonstration version, which solves problems of any size but does not report optimal values of the variables for problems larger than about 500 x 500, is available as a Windows95/NT executable or DLL. Separately, a large variety of Unix binaries for Linux and four workstation platforms are available for downloading.
Jacek Gondzio ([email protected]) has developed the interior-point LP (and convex QP) solver HOPDM. Several papers (also available at the HOPDM website) detail the features of this solver, which include automatic selection of multiple centrality correctors and factorization method, and a "warm start" feature for taking advantage of known solutions. A public-domain Fortran version (2.13, LP only) can be downloaded, and a newer C version (2.30) is available on request to the developer.
If you want to solve an LP without downloading a code to your own machine, you can execute many of these interior-point codes (as well as varied commercial LP codes) through the NEOS Server.
LPL is a mathematical modeling language for formulating and maintaining linear and mixed-integer programs. It is particularly notable for its ability to also handle a variety of logical constraints, which are translated symbolically into algebraic constraints using 0-1 variables. You can download the software and documentation free of charge.
The open source "scenario scripting language" IPAT-S includes support for linear programming problems, using the lp_solve library.
Other software of interest:
COIN, a Common Optimization INterface for Operations Research, is an "open source" repository established with support from IBM Corporation. Source code initially available includes a parallel branch-cut-price framework, a cut generation library, an implementation of the Volume Algorithm for fast approximate solutions to combinatorial problems, and an open solver interface layer.
ABACUS is a C++ class library that "provides a framework for the implementation of branch-and-bound algorithms using linear programming relaxations that can be complemented with the dynamic generation of cutting planes or columns" (branch-and-cut and/or branch-and-price). It relies on CPLEX, SoPlex, or Xpress-MP to solve linear programs. Further information is available from Stefan Thienel, [email protected].
Various small-scale implementations are mainly intended for instructional purposes.
The Operations Research Laboratory at Seoul National University, Korea offers C source for large-scale Linear Programming software (both Simplex and Barrier) and for numerous more specialized optimization problems.
Will Naylor has a collection of software he calls WNLIB. Routines of interest include a dense-matrix simplex method for linear programming (with anti-cycling and numerical stability "hacks") and a sparse-matrix transportation/assignment problem routine. (WNLIB also contains routines pertaining to nonlinear optimization.)
A code known as lp is Mike Hohmeyer's C implementation of Raimund Seidel's O(d! n) time linear programming algorithm. It's reputed to be extremely fast in low dimensions (say, d < 10), so that it's appropriate for a variety of geometric problems, especially with very large numbers of constraints.
The next several suggestions are for codes that are severely limited by the dense vector and matrix algebra employed in their implementations; they may be OK for models with (on the order of) 100 variables and constraints, but it's unlikely they will be satisfactory for larger models. In the words of Matt Saltzman ([email protected]):
For Macintosh users there is relatively little available, but here are a few possibilities:
Stephen F. Gale ([email protected]) writes:
The following suggestions may represent low-cost ways of solving LPs if you already have certain software available to you.
If your models prove to be too difficult for free or add-on software to handle, then you may have to consider acquiring a commercial LP code. Dozens of such codes are on the market. There are many considerations in selecting an LP code. Speed is important, but LP is complex enough that different codes go faster on different models; you won't find a "Consumer Reports" article to say with certainty which code is THE fastest. I usually suggest getting benchmark results for your particular type of model if speed is paramount to you. Benchmarking can also help determine whether a given code has sufficient numerical stability for your kind of models.
Other questions you should answer: Can you use a stand-alone code, or do you need a code that can be used as a callable library, or do you require source code? Do you want the flexibility of a code that runs on many platforms and/or operating systems, or do you want code that's tuned to your particular hardware architecture (in which case your hardware vendor may have suggestions)? Is the choice of algorithm (Simplex, Interior-Point) important to you? Do you need an interface to a spreadsheet code? Is the purchase price an overriding concern? If you are at a university, is the software offered at an academic discount? How much hotline support do you think you'll need? There is usually a large difference in LP codes, in performance (speed, numerical stability, adaptability to computer architectures) and in features, as you climb the price scale.
Information on commercial systems is provided in two tables below. The first lists packages that are primarily algorithmic codes, and the second lists modeling systems. For a more extensive summary, take a look at the Linear Programming Software Survey in the August 1999 issue of OR/MS Today.
In the tables below, product names are linked to product or developer websites where known. Under "Platform" is an indication of common environments in which the code runs, with the choices being Microsoft Windows (PC), Macintosh OS (M), and Unix/Linux (U). The codes under "Features" are as follows:
S=Simplex Q=Quadratic B=Barrier G=General Nonlinear N=Network I=Integer/CombinatorialAll product information is subject to change, and some delay may occur before changes are reflected in this table. Consult the products' developers or vendors for definitive information.
|Features||Platform||Phone (+1)||E-mail address|
|CPLEX||SBINQ||PC U||800-367-4564 |
|FortMP||SBIQ||PC U||+44 [email protected]|
|HI-PLEX||S||PC U||+44 [email protected]|
|ILOG Opt Suite||SBINQ||PC U||800-367-4564 |
|LAMPS||SI||PC U||+44 [email protected]|
|LINDO API||SBI||PC [email protected]|
|MOSEK||SBQG||PC U||+45 [email protected]|
|MPSIII||SIN||PC U||703-412-3201 |
|SAS/OR||SINQG||PC M U||919-677-8000|
|SCICONIC||SI||PC U||+44 [email protected]|
|Solver DLL Platform||SIQG||PC||888-831-0333 |
|SOPT||SBIQG||PC U||732-264-4700 |
|XA||SI||PC M [email protected]|
|Xpress-MP||SBIQ||PC U||201-567-9445 |
|Platform||Phone (+1)||E-mail address|
|AMPL||PC U||see [email protected]|
|LP-TOOLKIT||PC U||+33 [email protected]|
|OPL Studio||PC U||800-367-4564 |
|Premium Solver Platform||PC||888-831-0333 |
|TOMLAB||PC U M||+46 21-804760 |
|What's Best!||PC U [email protected]|
|Xpress-Mosel||PC U||201-567-9445 |
In a number of cases, the developers have also written books about these modeling systems. Demo software with a corresponding book can provide a convenient and inexpensive package for use in teaching or self-study.
Many developers are also willing to arrange for you to "borrow" copies of their full-featured versions for purposes of evaluation. Details vary, however, so you'll have to check with each vendor whose product you're interested in.
A: Integer LP models are ones whose variables are constrained to take integer or whole number (as opposed to fractional) values. It may not be obvious that integer programming is a very much harder problem than ordinary linear programming, but that is nonetheless the case, in both theory and practice.
Integer models are known by a variety of names and abbreviations, according to the generality of the restrictions on their variables. Mixed integer (MILP or MIP) problems require only some of the variables to take integer values, whereas pure integer (ILP or IP) problems require all variables to be integer. Zero-one (or 0-1 or binary) MIPs or IPs restrict their integer variables to the values zero and one. (The latter are more common than you might expect, because many kinds of combinatorial and logical restrictions can be modeled through the use of zero-one variables.)
For the sake of generality, the following disucssion uses the term MIP to refer to any kind of integer LP problem; the other kinds can be viewed as special cases. MIP, in turn, is a particular member of the class of combinatorial or discrete optimization problems. In fact the problem of determining whether a MIP has an objective value less than a given target is a member of the class of "NP-complete" problems, all of which are very hard to solve (at least as far as anyone has been able to tell). Since any NP-complete problem is reducible to any other, virtually any combinatorial problem of interest can be attacked in principle by solving some equivalent MIP. This approach sometimes works well in practice, though it is by no means infallible.
People are sometimes surprised to learn that MIP problems are solved using floating point arithmetic. Most available general-purpose large-scale MIP codes use a procedure called "branch-and-bound" to search for an optimal integer solution by solving a sequence of related LP "relaxations" that allow some fractional values. Good codes for MIP distinguish themselves primarily by solving shorter sequences of LPs, and secondarily by solving the individual LPs faster. (The similarities between successive LPs in the "search tree" can be exploited to speed things up considerably.) Even more so than with regular LP, a costly commercial code may prove its value if your MIP model is difficult.
Another solution approach known generally as constraint logic programming or constraint programming (CP) has drawn increasing interest of late. Having their roots in studies of logical inference in artificial intelligence, CP codes typically do not proceed by solving any LPs. As a result, compared to branch-and-bound they search "harder" but faster through the tree of potential solutions. Their greatest advantage, however, lies in their ability to tailor the search to many constraint forms that can be converted only with difficulty to the form of an integer program; their greatest success tends to be with "highly combinatorial" optimization problems such as scheduling, sequencing, and assignment, where the construction of an equivalent IP would require the definition of large numbers of zero-one variables. Notable constraint programming codes include CHIP, ECLiPSe, GNU Prolog, IF/Prolog, ILOG Solver, Koalog Constraint Solver, MOzart, and SICStus Prolog. Much more information can be found in the Constraints Archive, which contains the the comp.constraints newsgroup FAQ, pages of constraint-related pointers, source code for various systems, benchmarks, a directory of people interested in constraints, constraint bibliographies, and a collection of on-line papers.
The IP and CP approaches are not so far apart as they may seem, particularly now that each is being adapted to incorporate some of the strengths of the other. Some fundamental connections are described in [Chandru and Hooker] and [Hooker].
Whatever your solution technique, you should be prepared to devote far more computer time and memory to solving a MIP problem than to solving the corresponding LP relaxation. (Or equivalently, you should be prepared to solve much smaller MIP problems than LP problems using a given amount of computer resources.) To further complicate matters, the difficulty of any particular MIP problem is hard to predict (in advance, at least!). Problems in no more than a hundred variables can be challenging, while others in tens of thousands of variables solve readily. The best explanations of why a particular MIP is difficult often rely on some insight into the system you are modeling, and even then tend to appear only after a lot of computational tests have been run. A related observation is that the way you formulate your model can be as important as the actual choice of solver.
Thus a MIP problem with hundreds of variables (or more) should be approached with a certain degree of caution and patience. A willingness to experiment with alternative formulations and with a MIP code's many search options often pays off in greatly improved performance. In the hardest cases, you may wish to abandon the goal of a provable optimum; by terminating a MIP code prematurely, you can often obtain a high-quality solution along with a provable upper bound on its distance from optimality. A solution whole objective value is within some fraction of 1% of optimal may be all that is required for your purposes. (Indeed, it may be an optimal solution. In contrast to methods for ordinary LP, procedures for MIP may not be able to prove a solution to be optimal until long after they have found it.)
Once one accepts that large MIP models are not typically solved to a proved optimal solution, that opens up a broad area of approximate methods, probabilistic methods and heuristics, as well as modifications to B&B. See [Balas] which contains a useful heuristic for 0-1 MIP models. See also the brief discussion of Genetic Algorithms and Simulated Annealing in the Nonlinear Programming FAQ.
A major exception to this somewhat gloomy outlook is that there are certain models whose LP solution always turns out to be integer, assuming the input data is integer to start with. In general these models have a "unimodular" constraint matrix of some sort, but by far the best-known and most widely used models of this kind are the so-called pure network flow models. It turns out that such problems are best solved by specialized routines, usually based on the simplex method, that are much faster than any general-purpose LP methods. See the section on Network models for further information.
Commercial MIP codes are listed with the commercial LP codes and modeling systems above. The following are notes on some publicly available codes for MIP problems.
A: If you want to try out your code on some real-world linear programs, there is a very nice collection of small-to-medium-size ones, with a few that are rather large, popularly known as the Netlib collection (although Netlib consists of much more than just LP). Also on netlib is a collection of infeasible LP models. See the readme file for a listing and further information. The test problem files (after you uncompress them) are in a format called MPS, which is described in another section of this document. Note that, when you receive a model, it may be compressed both with the Unix compression utility (use uncompress if the file name ends in .Z) and with an LP-specific program (grab either emps.f or emps.c at the same time you download the model, then compile/run the program to undo the compression).
There is a collection of mixed integer (linear) programming (or MIP) models, called MIPLIB, housed at Rice University.
TSPLIB is a library of traveling salesman and related problems, including vehicle routing problems.
For network flow problems, there are some generators and instances collected at DIMACS. The NETGEN and GNETGEN generator can be downloaded from netlib. Generators and instances for multicommodity network flow problems are maintained by the Operations Research group in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Pisa.
The commercial modeling language GAMS comes with about 160 test models, which you might be able to test your code with. There are also pages containing pointers to numerous examples in AMPL, MPL, and OPL.
There is a collection called MP-TESTDATA available at Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum fuer Informations-technik Berlin (ZIB). This directory contains various subdirectories, each of which has a file named "index" containing further information. Indexed at this writing are: assign, cluster, lp, ip, matching, maxflow, mincost, set-parti, steiner-tree, tsp, vehicle-rout, and generators.
John Beasley of the Imperial College Management School maintains the OR-Library, which lists linear programming and over 3 dozen other categories of optimization test problems.
Finally, Martin Chlond's pages on Integer Programming in Recreational Mathematics provide a variety of challenges for both modelers and software.
A: MPS format was named after an early IBM LP product and has emerged as a de facto standard ASCII medium among most of the commercial LP codes. Essentially all commercial LP codes accept this format, but if you are using public domain software and have MPS files, you may need to write your own reader routine for this. It's not too hard. See also the comment regarding the lp_solve code, in another section of this document, for the availability of an MPS reader.
The main things to know about MPS format are that it is column oriented (as opposed to entering the model as equations), and everything (variables, rows, etc.) gets a name. The MIPLIB site provides a concise summary of MPS format, and a more detailed description is given in [Murtagh].
MPS is a very old format, so it is set up as though you were using punch cards, and is not free format. Fields start in column 1, 5, 15, 25, 40 and 50. Sections of an MPS file are marked by so-called header cards, which are distinguished by their starting in column 1. Although it is typical to use upper-case throughout the file (like I said, MPS has long historical roots), many MPS-readers will accept mixed-case for anything except the header cards, and some allow mixed-case anywhere. The names that you choose for the individual entities (constraints or variables) are not important to the solver; you should pick names that are meaningful to you, or will be easy for a post-processing code to read.
Here is a little sample model written in MPS format (explained in more detail below):
NAME TESTPROB ROWS N COST L LIM1 G LIM2 E MYEQN COLUMNS XONE COST 1 LIM1 1 XONE LIM2 1 YTWO COST 4 LIM1 1 YTWO MYEQN -1 ZTHREE COST 9 LIM2 1 ZTHREE MYEQN 1 RHS RHS1 LIM1 5 LIM2 10 RHS1 MYEQN 7 BOUNDS UP BND1 XONE 4 LO BND1 YTWO -1 UP BND1 YTWO 1 ENDATA
For comparison, here is the same model written out in an equation-oriented format:
Optimize COST: XONE + 4 YTWO + 9 ZTHREE Subject To LIM1: XONE + YTWO < = 5 LIM2: XONE + ZTHREE > = 10 MYEQN: - YTWO + ZTHREE = 7 Bounds 0 < = XONE < = 4 -1 < = YTWO < = 1 End
Strangely, there is nothing in MPS format that specifies the direction of optimization. And there really is no standard "default" direction; some LP codes will maximize if you don't specify otherwise, others will minimize, and still others put safety first and have no default and require you to specify it somewhere in a control program or by a calling parameter. If you have a model formulated for minimization and the code you are using insists on maximization (or vice versa), it may be easy to convert: just multiply all the coefficients in your objective function by (-1). The optimal value of the objective function will then be the negative of the true value, but the values of the variables themselves will be correct.
The NAME card can have anything you want, starting in column 15. The ROWS section defines the names of all the constraints; entries in column 2 or 3 are E for equality rows, L for less-than ( <= ) rows, G for greater-than ( >= ) rows, and N for non-constraining rows (the first of which would be interpreted as the objective function). The order of the rows named in this section is unimportant.
The largest part of the file is in the COLUMNS section, which is the place where the entries of the A-matrix are put. All entries for a given column must be placed consecutively, although within a column the order of the entries (rows) is irrelevant. Rows not mentioned for a column are implied to have a coefficient of zero.
The RHS section allows one or more right-hand-side vectors to be defined; most people don't bother having more than one. In the above example, the name of the RHS vector is RHS1, and has non-zero values in all 3 of the constraint rows of the problem. Rows not mentioned in an RHS vector would be assumed to have a right-hand-side of zero.
The optional BOUNDS section lets you put lower and upper bounds on individual variables (no * wild cards, unfortunately), instead of having to define extra rows in the matrix. All the bounds that have a given name in column 5 are taken together as a set. Variables not mentioned in a given BOUNDS set are taken to be non-negative (lower bound zero, no upper bound). A bound of type UP means an upper bound is applied to the variable. A bound of type LO means a lower bound is applied. A bound type of FX ("fixed") means that the variable has upper and lower bounds equal to a single value. A bound type of FR ("free") means the variable has neither lower nor upper bounds.
There is another optional section called RANGES that I won't go into here. The final card must be ENDATA, and yes, it is spelled funny.
Most modeling systems support a variety of algorithmic codes, while the more popular codes can be used with many different modeling systems. Because packages of the two kinds are often bundled for convenience of marketing or operation, the distinction between them is sometimes obscured, but it is important to keep in mind when sorting through the many possibilities. See under Commercial Codes and Modeling Systems elsewhere in this FAQ for a list of modeling systems available. There are no free ones of note, but many do offer free demo versions.
Common alternatives to modeling languages and systems include spreadsheet front ends to optimization, and custom optimization applications written in general-purpose programming languages. You can find a discussion of the pros and cons of these approaches in What Modeling Tool Should I Use? on the Frontline Systems website.
The source of infeasibility is often difficult to track down. It may stem from an error in specifying some of the constraints in your model, or from some wrong numbers in your data. It can be the result of a combination of factors, such as the demands at some customers being too high relative to the supplies at some warehouses.
Upon detecting infeasibility, LP codes typically show you the most recent infeasible solution that they have encountered. Sometimes this solution provides a good clue as to the source of infeasibility. If it fails to satisfy certain capacity constraints, for example, then you would do well to check whether the capacity is sufficient to meet the demand; perhaps a demand number has been mistyped, or an incorrect expression for the capacity has been used in the capacity constraint, or or the model simply lacks any provision for coping with increasing demands. More often, unfortunately, LP codes respond to an infeasible problem by returning a meaninglessly infeasible solution, such as one that violates material balances.
A more useful approach is to forestall meaningless infeasibilities by explicitly modeling those sources of infeasibility that you view as realistic. As a simple example, you could add a new "slack" variable on each capacity constraint, having a very high penalty cost. Then infeasibilities in your capacities would be signalled by positive values for these slacks at the optimal solution, rather than by a mysterious lack of feasibility in the linear program as a whole. Many modelers recommend the use of "soft constraints" of this kind in all models, since in reality many so-called constraints can be violated for a sufficiently high price. Modeling approaches that use such constraints have a number of names, most notably "goal programming" and "elastic programming".
Several codes include methods for finding an "irreducible infeasible subset" (IIS) of constraints that has no feasible solution, but that becomes feasible if any one constraint is removed. John Chinneck has developed MINOS(IIS), an extended version of the MINOS package that finds an IIS when the constraints have no feasible solution; a demonstration copy is available for downloading. There are also IIS finders in CPLEX, LINDO, OSL, and Xpress-MP, as well as Premium Solver Platform for Excel.
Methods also exist for finding an "IIS cover" that has at least one constraint in every IIS. A minimal IIS cover is the smallest subset of constraints whose removal makes the linear program feasible. Further details and references for a variety of IIS topics are available in papers by John Chinneck.
The software system ANALYZE carries out various other analyses to detect structures typically associated with infeasibility. (A bibliography on optimization modeling systems collected by Harvey Greenberg of the University of Colorado at Denver contains cross-references to over 100 papers on the subject of model analysis.)
There are a few free software packages specifically for multiple objective linear programming, including:
The folklore is that generally decomposition schemes take a long time to converge, so that they're slower than just solving the model as a whole -- although research continues. For now my advice, unless you are using OSL or your model is so huge that you can't buy enough memory to hold it, is to not bother decomposing it. It's probably more cost effective to upgrade your solver than to invest more time in programming (a good piece of advice in many situations).
Ken Clarkson has written Hull, an ANSI C program that computes the convex hull of a point set in general dimension. The input is a list of points, and the output is a list of facets of the convex hull of the points, each facet presented as a list of its vertices.
Qhull computes convex hulls as well as Delaunay triangulations, halfspace intersections about a point, Voronoi diagrams, and related objects. It uses the "Beneath Beyond" method, described in [Edelsbrunner].
Komei Fukuda's cdd solves both the convex hull and vertex enumeration problems, using the Double Description Method of Motzkin et al. There are also a C++ version (cdd+) and a C-library version (cddlib) that can be compiled to run with both floating-point and GMP exact rational arithmetics.
David Avis's lrslib is a self-contained ANSI C implementation of the reverse search algorithm for vertex enumeration/convex hull problems, implemented as a callable library with a choice of three arithmetic packages. VE041, another implementation of this approach by Fukuda and Mizukoshi, is available in a Mathematica implementation.
See also the directory of computational geometry software compiled by Nina Amenta; and the archive of the former University of Minnesota Geometry Center website, which includes links to downloadable software.
Other algorithms for such problems are described in [Swart], [Seidel], and [Avis]. Such topics are said to be discussed in [Schrijver] (page 224), [Chvatal] (chapter 18), [Balinski], and [Mattheis] as well.
The network linear programming problem is to minimize the (linear) total cost of flows along all arcs of a network, subject to conservation of flow at each node, and upper and/or lower bounds on the flow along each arc. This is a special case of the general linear programming problem. The transportation problem is an even more special case in which the network is bipartite: all arcs run from nodes in one subset to the nodes in a disjoint subset. A variety of other well-known network problems, including shortest path problems, maximum flow problems, and certain assignment problems, can also be modeled and solved as network linear programs. Details are presented in many books on linear programming and operations research.
Network linear programs can be solved 10 to 100 times faster than general linear programs of the same size, by use of specialized optimization algorithms. Some commercial LP solvers include a version of the network simplex method for this purpose. That method has the nice property that, if it is given integer flow data, it will return optimal flows that are integral. Integer network LPs can thus be solved efficiently without resort to complex integer programming software.
Unfortunately, many different network problems of practical interest do not have a formulation as a network LP. These include network LPs with additional linear "side constraints" (such as multicommodity flow problems) as well as problems of network routing and design that have completely different kinds of constraints. In principle, nearly all of these network problems can be modeled as integer programs. Some "easy" cases can be solved much more efficiently by specialized network algorithms, however, while other "hard" ones are so difficult that they require specialized methods that may or may not involve some integer programming. Contrary to many people's intuition, the statement of a hard problem may be only marginally more complicated than the statement of some easy problem.
A canonical example of a hard network problem is the "traveling salesman" problem of finding a shortest tour through a network that visits each node once. A canonical easy problem not obviously equivalent to a linear program is the "minimum spanning tree" problem to find a least-cost collection of arcs that connect all the nodes. But if instead you want to connect only some given subset of nodes (the "Steiner tree" problem) then you are faced with a hard problem. These and many other network problems are described in some of the references below.
Software for network optimization is thus in a much more fragmented state than is general-purpose software for linear programming. The following are some of the implementations that are available for downloading. Most are freely available for many purposes, but check their web pages or "readme" files for details.
The TSP has attracted many of the best minds in the optimization field, and serves as a kind of test-bed for methods subsequently applied to more complex and practical problems. Methods have been explored both to give proved optimal solutions, and to give approximate but "good" solutions, with a number of codes being developed as a result:
For practical purposes, the traveling salesman problem is only the simplest case of what are generally known as vehicle-routing problems. Thus commercial software packages for vehicle routing -- or more generally for "supply chain management" or "logistics" -- may have TSP routines buried somewhere within them. OR/MS Today published a detailed vehicle routing software survey in their August 2000 issue.
The packing problem can be regarded as a kind of cutting in reverse, where the goal is to fill large spaces with specified smaller pieces in the most economical (or profitable) way. As with cutting, there are one-dimensional problems (also called knapsack problems) and two-dimensional problems, but there are also many three-dimensional cases such as arise in filling trucks or shipping containers. The size measure is not always length or width; it may be weight, for example.
Except for some very special cases, cutting and packing problems are hard (NP-complete) like integer programming or the TSP. The simpler one-dimensional instances are often not hard to solve in practice, however:
There has been a great deal written on cutting and packing topics, but it tends to be scattered. You might want to start by looking at the web page of the Special Interest Group on Cutting and Packing and the "application-oriented research bibliography" in [Sweeney]. A search through some of the INFORMS databases will also turn up a lot of references. In fact, even an ordinary web search engine can find you a lot on this topic; try searching on "cutting stock".
Among the commercial systems are CutRite, act/cut and act/square of Alma, Cutting Optimizer of Ardis, Cutter of Escape, Cube-IQ and PlanIQ of MagicLogic, PLUS1D and PLUS2D of Nirvana Technologies, Cut Planner of Pattern Systems, and SmartTRIM of Strategic Systems. Particular application areas, from paper to carpeting, have also given rise to their own specialized cutting-stock tools, which can often be found by a web search on the area of interest.
[Thanks to Derek Holmes for the following text.] Your success solving a stochastic program depends greatly on the characteristics of your problem. The two broad classes of stochastic programming problems are recourse problems and chance-constrained (or probabilistically constrained) problems.
Recourse Problems are staged problems wherein one alteranates decisions with realizations of stochastic data. The objective is to minimize total expected costs of all decisions. The main sources of code (not necessarily public domain) depend on how the data is distributed and how many stages (decision points) are in the problem.
Chance-Constrained Programming (CCP) problems are not usually staged, and have a constraint of the form Pr( Ax <= b ) >= alpha. The solvability of CCP problems depends on the distribution of the data (A &/v b). I don't know of any public domain codes for CCP probs., but you can get an idea of how to approach the problem by reading Chapter 5 by Prof. A. Prekopa ([email protected]) Y. Ermoliev, and R. J-B. Wets, eds., Numerical Techniques for Stochastic Optimization (Series in Comp. Math. 10, Springer-Verlag, 1988).
Both Springer Verlag texts mentioned above are good introductory references to Stochastic Programming. The Stochastic Programming E-Print Series collects many recent papers in the field.
For a MIP model with both integer and continuous variables, you could get a limited amount of information by fixing the integer variables at their optimal values, re-solving the model as an LP, and doing standard post-optimal analyses on the remaining continuous variables; but this tells you nothing about the integer variables, which presumably are the ones of interest. Another MIP approach would be to choose the coefficients of your model that are of the most interest, and generate "scenarios" using values within a stated range created by a random number generator. Perhaps five or ten scenarios would be sufficient; you would solve each of them, and by some means compare, contrast, or average the answers that are obtained. Noting patterns in the solutions, for instance, may give you an idea of what solutions might be most stable. A third approach would be to consider a goal-programming formulation; perhaps your desire to see post-optimal analysis is an indication that some important aspect is missing from your model.
Interior-point methods for LP have entirely different requirements for a good starting point. Any reasonable interior-point-based LP code has its own routines for picking a starting point that is "well-centered" away from the constraints, in an appropriate sense. There is not much advantage to supplying your own starting point of any kind -- at least, not at the current state of the art -- and some codes do not even provide an option for giving a starting point.
The simplest answer to the problem of degeneracy/cycling is often to "get a better optimizer", i.e. one with stronger pricing algorithms, and a better selection of features. However, obviously that is not always an option (money!), and even the best LP codes can run into degeneracy on certain models. Besides, they say it's a poor workman who blames his tools.
So, when one cannot change the optimizer, it's expedient to change the model. Not drastically, of course, but a little "noise" can usually help to break the ties that occur during the Simplex method. A procedure that can work nicely is to add, to the values in the RHS, random values roughly six orders of magnitude smaller. Depending on your model's formulation, such a perturbation may not even seriously affect the quality of the solution values. However, if you want to switch back to the original formulation, the final solution basis for the perturbed model should be a useful starting point for a "cleanup" optimization phase. (Depending on the code you are using, this may take some ingenuity to do, however.)
Another helpful tactic: if your optimization code has more than one solution algorithm, you can alternate among them. When one algorithm gets stuck, begin again with another algorithm, using the most recent basis as a starting point. For instance, alternating between a primal and a dual method can move the solution away from a nasty point of degeneracy. Using partial pricing can be a useful tactic against true cycling, as it tends to reorder the columns. And of course Interior Point algorithms are much less affected by (though not totally immune to) degeneracy. Unfortunately, the optimizers richest in alternate algorithms and features also tend to be least prone to problems with degeneracy in the first place.
A: What follows is an idiosyncratic list, based on my own preferences, various people's recommendations on the net, and recent announcements of new publications. It is divided into the following categories:
Regarding the common question of the choice of textbook for a college LP course, it's difficult to give a blanket answer because of the variety of topics that can be emphasized: brief overview of algorithms, deeper study of algorithms, theorems and proofs, complexity theory, efficient linear algebra, modeling techniques, solution analysis, and so on. A small and unscientific poll of ORCS-L mailing list readers in 1993 uncovered a consensus that [Chvatal] was in most ways pretty good, at least for an algorithmically oriented class; of course, some new candidate texts have been published in the meantime. For a class in modeling, a book about a commercial code would be useful (LINDO, AMPL, GAMS were suggested), especially if the students are going to use such a code; and many are fond of [Williams], which presents a considerable variety of modeling examples.
Many optimization packages are distributed from their own Web sites. Numerous links to these sites are provided elsewhere in this FAQ, especially under the Where is there good software? question.
This article is Copyright © 2000 by Robert Fourer. It may be freely redistributed in its entirety provided that this copyright notice is not removed. It may not be sold for profit or incorporated in commercial documents without the written permission of the copyright holder. Permission is expressly granted for this document to be made available for file transfer from installations offering unrestricted anonymous file transfer on the Internet.
The material in this document does not reflect any official position taken by any organization. While all information in this article is believed to be correct at the time of writing, it is provided "as is" with no warranty implied.
If you wish to cite this FAQ formally -- this may seem strange, but it does come up -- you may use:
Robert Fourer ([email protected]), "Linear Programming Frequently Asked Questions," Optimization Technology Center of Northwestern University and Argonne National Laboratory, http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/otc/Guide/faq/ LinearProgrammingFAQ.htm (2000).Suggestions, corrections, topics you'd like to see covered, and additional material are all solicited. Send them to [email protected].
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For thousands of years, herbs have been enjoyed for their benefits -- as medicines, food, dyes, and insect repellents.
Thyme is a Mediterranean herb that thrives in poor soil. Here, five types, including the variegated lemon thyme, are growing together. Using pebbles as mulch keeps the crown from rotting.
Calendula is also known as pot marigold or poor man's saffron. The flower petals, when chopped and added to rice or potatoes, add a bright yellow color and a flavor reminiscent of costly saffron.
Sage, long believed to imbue wisdom, is essential seasoning for turkey stuffing. It is semievergreen with gray-green leaves. Yellow 'Icterina' is pictured here.
Window boxes are perfect for growing a variety of culinary herbs close to the kitchen. Plant herbs with similar soil preferences together in one box.
When planning a garden, it is helpful to know which herbs are perennial and which are annual.
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- Development & Aid
- Economy & Trade
- Human Rights
- Global Governance
- Civil Society
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Mario Osava* - Tierramérica
- Herculano Porto de Oliveira, of Brazil, said he felt forced “to live in hiding on my own land, though I never fought with anyone or stole anything,” just for making a living from the biodiversity of the Amazon’s Xingú River Basin, where he was born 66 years ago. A dozen soldiers sent by the government protected Oliveira and his colleagues for 10 months after they were threatened by gunmen from a company that wanted to expel them and take over the area settled a century ago by these families of “seringueiros” (rubber tappers), who arrived here in the eastern Amazon from the Northeast seeking prosperity in extracting natural latex from the trees.
Oliveira and his friends endured two years of “warnings” — aggression, bribery of local officials, attempted murder — until 2004. At that time, these families isolated in what is known as Terra do Meio (Middle Lands) were able to turn it into the Riozinho do Anfrísio Extractivist Reserve through a decree from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, which ensured them possession of the land and protected their way of life.
The Riozinho do Anfrísio stream flows into the Iriri River, the largest tributary of the Xingú, in the northern Brazilian state of Pará.
“(President) Lula encouraged us by creating the reserve, but now we are discouraged by the Belo Monte,” Oliveira told Tierramérica, referring to the hydroelectric dam that the government approved for construction on the Xingú, making use of an 85-meter drop in the curve of the river known as the Volta Grande (Big Bend).
One of the two reservoirs planned for the project would flood the low-lying areas of Altamira, including the little house that Oliveira acquired two years ago to take in people from the extractive reserve when they need medical attention or other services in this river town of 100,000 people.
The Belo Monte Environmental Impact Study recognises that the reservoir will flood the homes of 16,420 inhabitants of Altamira and another 2,822 living outside the city.
There will be at least 50,000 people forced from their homes, with 30,000 in Altamira alone, says Antonia Melo, coordinator of the Living Xingú Movement, an umbrella of 100 organisations in staunch opposition to hydroelectric dams on this river, which is renowned for its vast social and biological diversity.
In addition to the many plant and animal species that are unique to this area, there are 30 indigenous lands that are home to more than 13,000 people of 24 different ethnicities, and 12 conservation areas, including four extractivist reserves.
A map produced by the non-governmental Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA) shows how the “mosaic” of protected areas serves as a barrier against deforestation of the Amazon advancing from the east and south.
But those defences are threatened, this time from the north, by the Belo Monte dam project and paving of the Trans-Amazonian Highway, and from the south, in the Upper Xingú, where logging has accelerated as ranching, farming and timber interests push back the forest frontier.
Belo Monte represents “the beginning of a new cycle of extinction,” said sociologist André Villas-Bôas, ISA’s Xingú programme coordinator. “Now it is a matter of eating up the river, as well as the forests.”
The hydroelectric dam is “an accomplished fact,” despite the lawsuits attempting to prevent the construction planned over the next five years. But it will also require other dams in the same watershed, due to matters of economic and energy viability, predict Villas-Bôas and other critics.
The Belo Monte will have the capacity to produce 11,233 megawatts of power, but will average just 40 percent of that because the dry season in the Amazon drops the Xingú’s flow to just 1,000 cubic meters per second, compared to 20,000 during the rainy season.
The construction of dams upriver, included in the plans drawn up in the 1980s, would standardise the flow and expand the effective electrical production of Belo Monte.
There is no legal promise limiting the government to this one hydroelectric dam on the Xingú, said Hermes Medeiros, professor of ecology at the Federal University of Pará, in Altamira.
Belo Monte already poses a serious threat to the Xingú’s biodiversity, said the biologist, who participated in a panel discussion of 40 experts who criticised the shortfalls and errors in the Environmental Impact Study that served as the basis for the government’s approval of the project.
The series of two reservoirs and a diversion of the course of the river will not only dramatically reduce the flow along a 100-kilometer stretch of the Volta Grande, with the likely extinction of several species of fish and the decline of others, but will also change the ecology of the entire Xingú River, said Medeiros.
The long curve of the Volta Grande, with its cascades and rapids, serves as a natural barrier to the migration of aquatic fauna because it divides the Xingú into two ecologically distinct parts, he said. That important function will be lost once the locks and floodgates are built.
As a result there will be exchange between the Lower and Middle Xingú. The introduction of foreign species is the cause of a broader process of extinction in aquatic environments, said the expert.
Biodiversity loss is also an economic and social problem because it harms the source of food and income for millions of people in the Amazon, said Juarez Pezzuti, another biologist from the University of Pará, and turtle expert.
The people of Riozinho do Anfrísio and other extractivist reserves make their living from fishing and collecting nuts — andiroba (Carapa guianensis Aublet) and copaiba (Copaifera officinalis) — whose oils are in high demand by the cosmetics industry. Hunting of turtles and other animals is generally for local consumption, according to local resident Oliveira.
Pezzuti stressed that the turtles will also suffer downriver, in the Tabuleiro do Embaubal area, which is known for its high concentration of Amazonian turtle species. Their reproduction will be affected by the changes in water quality and the reduction of riverbank beaches, as sediments will be held back by the reservoirs.
(*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.)
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Freshwater stingray discovered by Alfred Wallace over 160 years ago is described
June 29, 2016
By Peter Moon | Agência FAPESP – Nature’s riches in Brazil’s Rio Negro basin, one of the world’s top biodiversity hotspots, have just become even greater as far as officially recognized aquatic species are concerned. A team of Brazilian researchers has described a new species of freshwater stingray, named Potamotrygon wallacei, in homage to the English naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), co-discoverer with Charles Darwin of the mechanism of natural selection. Wallace collected and drew a specimen more than 160 years ago while exploring the Negro, a tributary of the Amazon.
The species, now scientifically described and catalogued, is very well known locally. Its vernacular name is raia cururu, cururu being a common name for the cane toad Rhinella marina, to which the dorsum of P. wallacei bears some resemblance, according to the researchers.
It is also familiar to ornamental fish lovers worldwide who buy these little creatures exported by Brazil. Despite having been mentioned and illustrated countless times since the nineteenth century in both the scientific and aquarium literature, it is always either misidentified or not identified scientifically.
“The first time I saw a specimen was in 1990, when I was an undergraduate. I thought then that it was a new species because of the adult male’s small size and its unique coloration. But I only began studying it more closely in 1997,” said Marcelo Carvalho, an ichthyologist affiliated with the University of São Paulo’s Bioscience Institute (IB-USP) and first author of the paper published by Zootaxa.
The research was supported by FAPESP through a Young Investigator Grant and three Regular Grants for the projects “Molecular evolution of regulatory regions of HOX genes associated with the morphology of fish fins, with special emphasis on Chondrichthyes”, “Comparative analysis of the morphology of the feeding apparatus in Myliobatiform rays (Chondrichthyes: Batoidea)”, and “Taxonomic review of the family Gymnuridae (Chondrichthyes: Myliobatoidei)”.
P. wallacei inhabits the blackwaters of the Middle Negro in the vicinity of Barcelos, Amazonas State, preferring flooded forest areas (igapós) and inlets (igarapés).
“It’s perfectly camouflaged by the leaves that fall from the trees in these areas,” said Maria Lúcia Góes de Araújo, an oceanographer at the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), co-author of the paper and the researcher responsible for analyzing the biology of the new species.
“It’s very small,” Carvalho said. “As far as we know, it’s the smallest species of the genus Potamotrygon. The largest specimen we’ve found to date has a disc width of 30 cm. Some freshwater stingrays are huge. We once captured one that was bigger than a pickup’s hood.”
Exports of the species were outlawed between 1990 and 1997. The law changed to permit exports in 1998. “Traders need a scientific name for export purposes,” Carvalho said. “That’s why they’ve always used erroneous names until now.” P. wallacei typically ships out of Brazil misnamed as the porcupine river stingray or raia porco-espinho (P. histrix), a species found in the Paraná and Paraguay basins.
Araújo is currently in Recife, Pernambuco, but worked in Manaus for 18 years at the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM) and Amazonas State University (UEA). She was a member of the annual stingray collection team in Barcelos until 2011. Her focus was researching the animal’s biology, but she also wanted to educate local fishers on the right time of year to catch it and the best type of specimens to collect.
The animals are captured between February and July. Fishing is illegal for them during the mating season, between August and January. Collection is sustainable only because capturing females and adult males is banned. Stingrays, like all rays, are oviviparous: their eggs develop and hatch inside the mother, who gives birth to live young. Gestation periods range from three to six months depending on the species. They do not lay eggs in the water, as most fish do, and some species provide parental care.
Legal and illegal trading
Annual stingray export quotas were introduced in 2003 by IBAMA, the national environmental protection agency. The quotas are based on reproductive potential and demographic studies conducted by specialists like Araújo. The latest revision of the export quota dates from 2009 and corresponds to 5,000 individuals of the species popularly known as raia cururu, valid only for Amazonas and Pará.
According to statistics available from CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora & Fauna), Brazil legally exported 17,000 freshwater stingrays in 2006, while illegal exports are thought to have reached 25,000-30,000. In the same year, Peru exported 15,000 specimens. Colombia’s market share has risen strongly since then, but there are no official statistics on its exports.
“The market for ornamental fish is modish,” Araújo said. “Today, the most exported species are the black diamond, P. leopoldi, and the black stingray, P. henlei, both from the Xingu in Pará. They’re larger and more handsome.”
Nevertheless, P. wallacei remains the freshwater ray with the largest export quota. “It’s not the most brightly colored species or the prettiest, but it’s easier to transport because of its small size and resilience,” Araújo explained.
Fishers try to find younger specimens with a disc width of only 6 cm. They are transported in plastic boxes containing up to six individuals. During the 30-hour boat journey to Manaus, their water has to be renewed and the temperature must be kept constant. From there, they will be flown to Europe or Asia – this leg can last 12-24 hours.
“Not all the Manaus and Belém firms that export ornamental fish have the necessary structure, so mortality during transportation varies considerably,” Araújo said. “It’s very high for some species, with half of the individuals dying during the journey. That’s fatal for business, as the importer pays only for animals delivered alive. P. wallacei is highly resilient, with only 2%-5% mortality. That’s low indeed.”
That P. wallacei is exported while very young and is highly resilient can be a problem. It continues to grow in aquaria worldwide, living about ten years and reaching 25 cm on average, although there are reports of individuals with a disc width of 31 cm. “When a specimen becomes too large for the aquarium, there’s always a risk that the owner will throw it out into a stream or pond,” Carvalho said.
In 2009, peacock-eye stingrays (P. motoro), a species that occurs throughout the Amazon basin, were found to be living and reproducing freely in a reservoir in Singapore. “This kind of thing is a threat to local fauna because stingrays are predators. So much so that importing rays is banned in Australia and several US states.”
Freshwater rays are found only in South America. They evolved from a marine ancestor that penetrated inland with marine invasions that occurred during the Eocene, some 50 million years ago, and possibly the Miocene, approximately 20 million years ago. When the sea arm that had penetrated Amazonia retreated, saltwater species had to adapt to a freshwater environment to survive. This is what the rays did, as did the Amazon pink river dolphin and the manatee.
Wallace 160 years on
In 2015, scientists described another fish species first collected and drawn by Wallace (Crenicichla monicae, a pike cichlid – read more at agencia.fapesp.br/22564). The great naturalist’s 1850-52 expedition to the Upper Rio Negro in the Brazilian Amazon continues to produce surprises more than 160 years later.
Wallace set out to assemble a large collection of local flora and fauna, both for his own research on organic evolution and to sell as a way of paying for more scientific voyages. However, his expedition ended in tragedy. Having become seriously ill, he decided to return to England. On July 12, 1852, he boarded the brig Helen with his collection of living and preserved specimens. After 26 days, a fire in the mid-Atlantic forced passengers and crew to abandon ship. Wallace was only able to save part of his diaries and sketches of fish collected on the Negro. They drifted in an open boat for ten days before being rescued by a passing ship from Cuba.
Wallace eventually made it to London, where he gave his fish drawings to the Natural History Museum. In 2002, zoologist Mônica de Toledo-Piza Ragazzo from the University of São Paulo’s Bioscience Institute (IB-USP) edited a book containing reproductions of all 221 drawings and translated Wallace’s descriptions (Peixes do Rio Negro, EDUSP). The drawing of P. wallacei is plate no. 4 on page 71. His description reads as follows: “Color brown pale edges reddish. Eyes yellowish pupil blackish. Black markings rather pale (…) Tail spine single rather long serrated (...) Younger specimens have the markings much finer and fainter”.
The article “A new species of Neotropical freshwater stingray (Chondrichthyes: Potamotrygonidae) from the Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil: the smallest species of Potamotrygon” by Marcelo R. de Carvalho et al., published in Zootaxa, can be read at biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.4107.4.5.
Agência FAPESP licenses news reports under Creative Commons license CC-BY-NC-ND so that they can be republished free of charge and in a straightforward manner by other digital media or by print media. The name of the author or reporter (when applied) must be cited, as must the source (Agência FAPESP). Using the button HTML below ensures compliance with the rules described in Agência FAPESP’s Digital Content Republication Policy.
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While playing tennis requires patience, physical strength and endurance, it also requires a key piece of equipment: the tennis racket. Early tennis rackets were made of wood. Over time, tennis racket technology has radically changed. Today, tennis rackets are made from a wide range of materials that are designed to maximize performance and durability. If you're in the market for a new tennis racket, it's important to understand what choices are available.
Different types and grades of graphite, which is a lightweight material derived from carbon, are used in the design of a tennis racket. Racket frames can be made of 100 percent graphite or a composite of graphite and other materials such as Kevlar, fiberglass, copper, titanium and tungsten. Pure graphite frames tend to have a stiffer feel, making them more suitable for players who hit with power. Composite graphite frames tend to be more flexible and transmit fewer vibrations, making them ideal for beginning players who tend to mishit.
Aluminum is a less expensive alternative to graphite frames. The frame of an aluminum racket can be tubular or bi-hollow. The shape determines flexibility and durability. Aluminum is more commonly found in less expensive rackets and offers a moderate amount of power and feel. Beginning players might consider a bi-hollow aluminum frame, which is more flexible and forgiving. Tubular aluminum tends to benefit more experienced players who hit with power.
Boron and Kevlar are similar to graphite, with some slight differences. Both boron and Kevlar are lighter and stiffer than graphite and transmit vibrations more readily. Frames made from boron and Kevlar are extremely durable but also less forgiving than graphite or aluminum. Beginning players who have not mastered their swing might find that boron or Kevlar frames are too difficult to control and harder on the arm.
Tennis racket grips can come in a variety of materials. The type of grip material you choose can depend on your skill level, style of play and the type of feel you're looking for. Common grip materials include rubber, leather or synthetic polymer materials such as neoprene. Synthetic grips can have a textured or patterned surface, which helps improve friction.
Nylon is one of the most common materials used to make tennis racket strings. Depending on their chemical composition, nylon strings can be soft or firm. Strings made with a nylon-core offer a good level of performance and durability and are less expensive than other types of materials. Another string material option is polyester. A polyester string offers less power but more spin and tends to have a stiffer feel than nylon. Polyester strings can be combined with nylon-core strings to create a durable string bed with a softer feel. The most playable string is natural gut, which is made from animal intestines. Natural gut, however, is expensive and lack's durable.
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China reports remarkable increase in grain production every year. Besides concerns over the reliability of its statistics, China’s “miraculous” grain production growth may not be sustainable.
By Zhang Hongzhou
ACCORDING TO China’s official statistics the country’s grain production last year amounted to nearly 590 million tonnes, the ninth consecutive year of increase in its grain production. Against the backdrop of the global food crisis, China’s grain ‘miracle’ certainly contributes to global food security.
However, there are domestic and international concerns over the reliability of the official grain production statistics and the sustainability of China’s grain production growth.
Reliability of China’s statistics
Official statistics on China’s agricultural sector are known to be unreliable. Over-reporting of grain production statistics during the Great Leap Forward period led to catastrophic famine and China’s over-reporting of its fisheries production in the late 1990s caused wide international concerns. Hence, it is not surprising that China’s current “Grain Miracle” is doubted. For several reasons, concerns over China’s recent grain production statistics are not unfounded.
Firstly, China’s phenomenal grain production growth has been achieved in the period of notable decline of arable land, both in quantity and quality; rapid outflow of rural labour force as well as severe environmental pollution. Coincidentally, while China is celebrating the “grain miracle”, the country’s grain imports also reached a new historical high. In 2012, China’s grain imports reached 80 million tonnes, representing 14% of the domestic grain production in 2012. In the meantime, China imported nearly 14 million tonnes of staple grains (rice wheat and corn), a 156% increase over imports in the previous year.
This dramatic increase in grain imports, including of rice, wheat and corn, soybeans and tuber crops, inevitably invites questions on the reliability of China’s grain statistics. Lastly, the Chinese authority’s reluctance to release its grain reserve data further contributes to doubts over its grain production statistics. Western media reports suggested that China had massively over-reported its grain production.
To be fair, given China’s huge size and the fragmented nature of its agricultural sector, collecting agricultural statistics is inherently an extremely challenging task. And as grain issues are highly politicised in China, local government officials are inclined to exaggerate their grain production, which could lead to over-reporting of grain production at the national level.
Sustainability of China’s grain production
Notwithstanding concerns over the reliability of China’s statistics, it is undeniable that the country’s grain sector has made remarkable achievement in recent years for the simple reason that China has been almost unscathed by the global food crisis in 2008 and the dramatic rise of global food prices in the last two years. Still, an important question is the sustainability of China’s grain production capability. Towards this end, it is crucial to understand the contributing factors to China’s grain production miracle in recent years.
China’s grain production increase is partially attributed to the expansion of grain production areas. From 2004 to 2012, China’s grain production area has increased by 12%, contributing to 32% of the country’s grain production increase. Since 2004, China has introduced a variety of policies such as the Direct Grain Subsidy to stimulate the country’s grain production. These policies together with dramatic rise of the rural labour cost have resulted in a significant shift in China’s agriculture production structure.
Farmers respond to the government’s stimulus policies by allocating more resources, quite often diverting them from other agricultural products to the production of grains. This leads to the structural shift in agriculture from non-grain crops to grains. The share of grain production area has increased from 99.4 million hectares in 2003 to 110 million hectares in 2011. This structural change, which causes fluctuations in the production of non-grain agricultural products, is contributing to demand and supply imbalances of non-grain agricultural products, leading to rapid rises and falls of the prices of those non-grain agricultural products.
The remaining two-thirds of grain production, the authorities claimed, was contributed by average grain yield growth – China’s average grain yield increased by 22% in the same period. Yet, a careful analysis of the data tends to suggest that China’s average yield increase is credited to the expansion of the country’s staple-grains (rice, wheat and maize) production.
However while grain in the Chinese context includes not only staple-grains but also soybeans and root tubers, China’s grain support policies only focus on production of staple-grains. This has resulted in significant difference in profitability among different grain crops, in particular, between soybean and root tubers and staple-grains, which is leading to a structural shift within China’s grain production, particularly from soybean to maize.
In the past nine years, China’s maize production area increased by 45%, accounting for 92% of the country’s total grain production areas increase. In the meantime, maize production increased by nearly 80%, making up close to 60% of the country’s total grain production increase.
As soybean is included in China’s grain production, this dramatic shift from soybean to maize production has major statistical implications. Given China’s soybean yield is only one-third of the yield of maize, the structural shift results in a significant increase in the country’s average grain yield. However, this yield increase has only statistical meanings; it is highly unrealistic for China’s grain production growth to be sustained through expansion of staple-grain production area given severe land shortage and limited space for further reduction in China’s domestic soybean production areas.
Faced with severe food and water shortages, over-emphasising grain self-sufficiency not only brings huge economic and social costs, but also jeopardises long term sustainability of China’s agricultural sector. China will have to revise its food security strategy by further integrating itself into the global food system, and actively utilising both domestic and international resources to safeguard its food security.
Zhang Hongzhou is a Senior Analyst with the China Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.
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This measurement, which looks at some 17 categories, to rank countries on a four quarter scale of low income, lower middle income, upper middle income and high income pretends to measure the stage of development a country finds itself at a certain time, in this case, it would be 2017. The categories are listed below for your information. They have been extracted from the document, hopefully with the good will of the WB.
|“World Bank. 2017. Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2017 : From World Development Indicators. World Bank Atlas;. Washington, DC: World Bank. © World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/26306 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”|
If you want specific information on a country, I suggest you go directly to the WB's data site. To get information on a specific country through the report is a bit difficult. You will have to read the whole report. If you have time, by all means, do it.
My own impression on Bolivia is the country has been accumulating a positive record on many of the SDGs goals. This is most notably in the areas of poverty, hunger, health, well-being, education, gender equality, clean water, and sanitation as well as clean energy. The critic on this positive development has been the marginality of the improvement versus the available resources ($$$).
In other areas, especially on institutions (justice, government, civil society), sustainability of cities and of economic development, as well as action on climate issues, the country's development has been more than questionable, measured with the SDGs tools.
Overall, an interesting read. Enjoy.
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U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology
Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations
|This fact sheet is an archived publication and may contain dated technical, contact, and link information|
Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-07-060
Date: December 2007
Structures Laboratory Fact Sheet
PDF version of Fact Sheet (1.51 MB)
Research that is Essential, Indispensable, and Connected to our Customers
The approximately 600,000 bridges, including bridges on the National Highway System, as well as bridges maintained and operated by various state and local entities are essential of our Nation's mobility. The Structures Laboratory (Lab) at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center is a unique facility of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) that specializes in developing and testing innovative bridge designs, materials, and construction processes that promise more efficient and structures in the Nation's highway system.
The purpose of the Structures Lab is to support FHWA's strategic focus on improving mobility through analytical and experimental studies to determine the behavior of bridge systems under typical and extreme loading conditions. These experimental studies may also include tests of bridge systems developed to enhance bridge durability and constructability over time. Data from these studies help upgrade national bridge design specifications and improve the safety, reliability, and cost effectiveness of bridge construction in the United States. The Structures Lab also provides bridge failure forensic investigation services to State Departments of Transportation, FHWA Division Offices, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and others. Through this forensic service, the lab determines the causes of bridge structural failures and develops practices and procedures to help avoid similar failures from occurring in the future.
The Structures Lab has the capability to perform a broad range of tests to characterize the performance of bridge structures and structural systems. This capability resides in five individual laboratories: the main structures lab, the annex structures lab, the outdoor testing facilities, the computer modeling and simulation lab, and the metallic material testing lab.
The main structures lab is a state-of-the-art facility for indoor testing of full-scale bridge structures and large components. This lab, built in 1984, consists of a strong floor with a universal loading frame whose configuration can be customized to erect and test full-scale bridges. This strong floor measures 55.2 by 15.5 m (181 by 51 ft) and includes a grid of 573 tie-down holes. Two 178-kN (20-ton) overhead cranes service the entire floor area and can operate separately or together to unload trucks, erect structures, and set up experiments.
The annex structures lab—the original Structures Lab—was built in the 1960s, and it is still operating to provide additional testing capability. The annex structures lab has a strong floor area measuring 3.7 by 12 m (12 by 40 ft) and one 89-kN (10-ton) overhead crane.
The Structures Lab's outdoor testing facilities, consisting of permanent geosynthetic reinforced soil abutments and an outdoor strong floor, were constructed during the late 1990s to provide additional capacity for testing largescale components subjected to environmental loading. The permanent test abutments cover a single 21.35-m-long (70-ft-long) span with a width of 3.95 m (13 ft), and the outdoor strong floor measures 7.6 by 9.2 m (25 by 30 ft).
The computer modeling and simulation lab allows researchers to build and analyze detailed models that are capable of simulating experimental test results with very high accuracy.
The metallic material testing lab is used to evaluate a wide variety of material properties of small test specimens, including fracture toughness, fatigue resistance, and strength. The laboratory also allows researchers to microscopically examine fracture surfaces and the microstructures of metallic materials and welds.
These five individual laboratories continue to be used for:
Researchers in the Structures Lab will continue working to understand the detailed benefits and effects of the new generation of structural materials applied to bridges. The primary focus of the structures research program will be to define and evaluate candidates for the Bridge of the Future—a bridge that is much more durable and more easily fabricated and constructed than current bridges. These efforts will concentrate on bridge systems—from the foundations to the parapets—rather than individual bridge components. The Structures Lab is uniquely suited to perform this work because of the staff's broad expertise and the facility's design, which accommodates full-scale structural testing in a controlled environment.
Partners and Customers
The Structures Lab continually collaborates with other research institutions, AASHTO, individual States, and industry organizations to reduce cost and promote the implementation of research results:
Past partners include industry organizations (American Concrete Institute, AISI, American Institute for Steel Bridge Construction, and the NSBA), research institutions (Catholic University, California State University-Long Beach, George Washington University, Georgia Tech, Lehigh University, University of Maryland, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the Virginia Transportation Research Council), and State departments of transportation (Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin).
Publication No. FHWA-HRT-07-060
PDF files can be viewed with the Acrobat® Reader®
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