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An Outline of American Football – American football is one of the sports that competes in the biggest sports competition in America, which is the Super Bowl. There are four kinds of sport which compete in the Super Bowl. There are basketball, American football, ice hockey, and baseball. American football is the original sport in America. People often had mistaken this sport with rugby. However American football is different from rugby. Here is an outline of American football.
About American Football
American football is a kind of sport played by 11 players in a team. In an American football match, there are two teams compete with one another. In a team of American football, there are three main units. There are defensive units, offensive units, and special teams. As its name, the defensive unit’s responsibility is to defend when the opponents attack the team.
The offensive unit has a job to offend the opponent to make scores. The special unit has a responsibility for the kicking and punting plays. Some people said that this sport look likes rugby. It is particularly true since American football is developed from rugby games. Other than this fact, American football is a popular sport in online betting that site like SBOBET is flooded with online bettors in every match.
American football is even considered the most popular sport in America. This sport was first played on 6 November 1869. Walter Camp is known for the father of American football because he is the one who conceived the rule used in this ball game. The first competition was played by two teams. They are Princeton and Rutgers.
The game will be started with the team attack its opponents by bringing the ball as far as 10 yards from the starting point. The team can bring the ball by running or passing the ball to other players who running onward. The game will start with the snap and the center player will throw the ball through his leg gap to the quarterback. The offensive team will get 4 opportunities that are called down.
The game will last for 60 minutes and divided into 4 quarters. Each quarter will last for 15 minutes. After the half, the game will be stopped and the players will get half time. At the end of the quarter, the defensive and offensive teams will change their positions in the field.
American football is considered the most popular sport in America. It is played by 11 players in a team. There are 3 main units in American football. There are defensive units, offensive units, and special teams. The game will last for 60 minutes and divided into 4 quarters. Each quarter will last for 15 minutes. After the half, the game will be stopped and the players will get half time.
Tim Tebow has a great Christian faith which is hereditated from his parents who were missionaries in Phillipines. He has learnt so much about the importance of God’s word and the responsible that we should give back to others. And, Christian faith drives him to build Tim Tebow Foundation. Tim Tebow Foundation aims to make a difference in people’s lives. So, what does this foundation do for others? Let’s take a below!
Loving Jesus and loving people are the main goal of this foundationa and all its outreaches. This foundation is also dedicated to encaurage childern with a life-threatening illness through a W15H, helding the prom fro kings and queens with special needs, helping a family adopt child from other continents with specil needs in order to show God’s love that they with are worthy.
Furthermore, Tim Tebow Foundation have several ministries. First, the Night to Shine is a prom for crowing kings and queens with special needs centered on God’s love. This event is for those who are ages 14 and older. Until February, 2018, more than 500 churches worldwide hosted Night to Shine for 90,000 honored kings and queens. Partnership with CURE International, this foundation establishes The Tebow CURE Hospital which provide spiritual and physical healing to every deserved childern of the Philippines in Davao City, Phillipines.
Another program is W15H program which provides an opportunity for childern with life-threatening illness whose wish to meet with Tim Tebow. Moreover, Orphan Care also helps to give life’s essentials to homeless orphans in four countries. Adoption Aid misistry provides financial aid for those who are making to adopt a child around the world. Timmy’s Playroom can be found in every hospital to take every suffered childern off medical treatment and let they be kids again. Last, if you want to participate with Tim Tebow Foundation, you can join Team Tebow to encourage and serve the local community.
As a big fan of the NFL, you have been familiar with Tim Tebow who is the NFL’s quaterback. According to last issue about Tim Tebow, you may wonder why he failed in the NFL, right? You come to the right place! Here, we would like to provide sufficient information related to the issue. Actually, there are several reasons why Tim Tebow failed in the NFL, so let’s find out below!
Let we start from the very beginning. Passing mechanics can be one of most reasons why Tebow could not make in the NFL. As you know that he was never been a great passer in the team. Unconventional release and mechanics do not seem to work in the big leagues. Born as a player in the spread offense, Tebow could not play in all kind of offense.
So, he needed to be in a team surrounded with the right talent, for example, he would not play successfully on a team like Green Bay where they are excellent in exceptiononal reception and a shaky offense. Meanwhile, Seattle Seahawks could be the best team for him. Another reason is that he need to develop his skill in passing mechanics with the right quaterback coach as seen with the Denver Broncos where he gained his sudden success a run-first passer.
Additionally from it might be McDaniel’s mistake, while he was spending his 14 games of the rookie yearon the bench, it sounds an end for him. In fact, Tebow did not selected in the third round. In the next regime of McDaniel, he was left behinde. What if he had been gotten up from the bench and taken in the later rounds. It would have been a great opportunity to develops and had an actual shot at his successful career.
For people who love American football, the name of Tim Tebow might be something that does not seem strange at all. That is because Tim used to be the national champions of NFL for two years. However, there are not many people who realized about the past of this amazing quarterback. Many of them will only look at the outside part of this player that shows that he is an amazing quarterback in Florida. For your information, even though he is playing American football in Florida, he was not born in Florida, not in US after all. That is because he was born in Philippine when his parents used to be the missionaries there. His parents were the Christian Baptist missionaries in Philippine when Tim was born and that means he actually a Pilipino. However, some years after that, they moved back to US and he finally got his American citizenship.
His past experience with his parents that used to be the missionaries in Philippine turned out to give a great impact to his future life. That is because when he was in Florida University, he went back to Philippine to spread the word of the God. That was quite similar with the things that his parents used to do when he was born in Philippine. As an addition to that, he was also quite active in some churches and some other activities to help people around the world. Many people believed that the champion crown and the other titles are something that God give to him because of his great dedication to the people who are in need.
As the result of the great income that he earned from all of those titles, he finally started a foundation called Tim Tebow Foundation few years ago. The main purpose of this foundation is to help all of the unfortunate kids all over the world, but he prefers to start from the American and Pilipino. That is because America is the place where he lives at the time and Philippine is one country with a great memory for him. For your information, from his own official website, you can also find that he is marketing himself as a speaker for many purposes so that if you need a speaker in an event, you might want to call him. That is because the income will mostly be donated to the foundation that he has.
Many people who love football will surely have known the name of Tim Tebow. He is one great football players that many American people have known, though he is not the greatest one that earns the spot to be on the hall of fame or something like that. Despite of that thing mentioned above, Tim Tebow is still considered as one great football player that many other players have to think about, especially because of the fact that he is one of the best quarterbacks in the game of football. Unfortunately, there are not many people who have known in detail with this quarterback. That is because there are still quite a lot of facts about Tim Tebow that many people might have missed these whole times. If you do not believe, you can check these facts about Tim Tebow below.
The first one is the truth about his parents. Many of you will surely have known that this great quarterback was born in Philippine, but there are not many of you who know the main reason why he was born there. For your information, his parents used to live in Philippine as the missionaries. That is the main reason why at that time, Tim Tebow was born in Philippine, even though his parents are the native Americans. The next one is the big heart of Tim Tebow. Many people from who realized that Tim Tebow is a good man, but none of them knows exactly how good the heart of this man is. For your information, he built a foundation called Tim Tebow Foundation and that foundation is helping many children in America and Philippine, his real hometown. As an addition to that, he also goes to Philippine often just to do some charities and work related with this foundation. That is not something that you can find from many people nowadays.
The last one is the fact that Tim Tebow is a virgin. Yes, many people do not believe this, he personally stated that he has dedicated his life to God and virginity is something that needs to be taken after the marriage. That is something totally rare for the people in the modern times, considering the fact that Tim Tebow has many things that can simply drive him to get some action out there. Those are some of the facts that many of you might have missed this whole time.
Many people are doing their best to help many other people who are not as fortunate as they are, but the things that they do are different between one with the other. One of those men who are helping a lot of people is Tim Tebow, the two times champions of national football completion. For those who love to watch the football games will surely have known his name. That is because Tim Tebow is quite famous as a quarterback. As an addition to that, he also had some records that are still considerably unbeatable when he was at senior high school.
Tim Tebow is player, but he is also the founder of the Tim Tebow Foundation. This is the foundation that he built few years ago to help all of the people who are in need in America and Philippine. The foundation was started with his own idea with the help of some friends that he has. The main target of this foundation is making sure that all of the terminal children in America and Philippine are able to get their last wish. That is because only the slightest number of children who are able to survive from the condition as a terminal. That is not something that many children experience in the world. Because of that reason, Tim Tebow wants to help all of those children to understand that they are still loved despite of the conditions that they are dealing at that time.
If you are asking why, this Tim Tebow Foundation is helping the children in America and Philippine, the answer is quite logic. The reason is because Tim is living in United States and he wanted to make sure that he could do something on his own country. Meanwhile, for the Philippine, the main reason is because he sued to spend his childhood in Philippine. In fact, he was born in Philippine because his parents used to be the missionaries there. As an addition to that, he also realized that there are quite a lot of problems that many of those children have to deal with in Philippine. Because of that reason, Philippine is another country that is targeted by this Tim Tebow Foundation. Even though this foundation is meant to help those terminal kids, this foundation has helped many other kids in providing the needed facilities on the area where the facilities are in need.
You may know Tim Tebow as a former football player or a professional baseball player, he is also popular as a book writer. Tebow has successfully released several books in only few years. Mostly, his books tell about his faith, Christian, and also personal life that public does not really know. And, this September, 2018, Tebow is going to launch his newest book entitled This Is The Day telling about the ups and downs of his career and his father Parkinson disease.
This following article will tell you things that you can learn from Tim Tebow. First, in his Bible study Shaken, Tebow teach us that it is okay to fail. It reflects from his life, as you know that Tebow has faced stumbling blocks in his path. Tebow does not let failure stop him from being a success person. Getting back up is really important to keep being ambitious. Do not sweat your haters is another lesson we can get from Tebows life. We should ignore what haters say about us, the thing what we absolutely right to do is to trust in Gods purposes. From all Tebows books invite us to be a tough person and do not let any condition and people define us. Only you can define yourself.
Love is the power of our lives. In his books, he repeatedly talks that love and relationship is everything. Love will highly push and motivate you to do a thing. And, let love dominate over our disappointments, selfish desires, peer pressure, etc. So, let do anything with love, and let the happiness come to your life. Tebow also invites us to live bigger, bigger that we can do. Each person has his unique assets and talents, embrace it and it is how we have a full life. Last, if you want to know more and learn from his life story, grab the books soon! | <urn:uuid:00542ecc-fcfc-45d5-8a07-ece2c024d6ab> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | http://www.timteblog.com/?blog_post_page=3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510528.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20230929190403-20230929220403-00021.warc.gz | en | 0.986906 | 3,036 | 2.734375 | 3 | {
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Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
Throughout The Joy Luck Club, the various narrators meditate on their inability to translate concepts and sentiments from one culture to another. The incomplete cultural understanding of both the mothers and the daughters owes to their incomplete knowledge of language. Additionally, the barriers that exist between the mothers and the daughters are often due to their inability to communicate with one another. Although the daughters know some Chinese words and the mothers speak some English, communication often becomes a matter of translation, of words whose intended meaning and accepted meaning are in fact quite separate, leading to subtle misunderstandings.
The first mention of this difficulty with translation occurs when Jing-mei relates the story of her mother’s founding of the Joy Luck Club. After attempting to explain the significance of the club’s name, Jing-mei recognizes that the concept is not something that can be translated. She points out that the daughters think their mothers are stupid because of their fractured English, while the mothers are impatient with their daughters who don’t understand the cultural nuances of their language and who do not intend to pass along their Chinese heritage to their own children. Throughout the book, characters bring up one Chinese concept after another, only to accept the frustrating fact that an understanding of Chinese culture is a prerequisite to understanding its meaning.
Because the barriers between the Chinese and the American cultures are exacerbated by imperfect translation of language, the mothers use storytelling to circumvent these barriers and communicate with their daughters. The stories they tell are often educational, warning against certain mistakes or giving advice based on past successes. For instance, Ying-ying’s decision to tell Lena about her past is motivated by her desire to warn Lena against the passivity and fatalism that Ying-ying suffered. Storytelling is also employed to communicate messages of love and pride, and to illumine one’s inner self for others.
Another use of storytelling concerns historical legacy. By telling their daughters about their family histories, the mothers ensure that their lives are remembered and understood by subsequent generations, so that the characters who acted in the story never die away completely. In telling their stories to their daughters, the mothers try to instill them with respect for their Chinese ancestors and their Chinese pasts. Suyuan hopes that by finding her long-lost daughters and telling them her story, she can assure them of her love, despite her apparent abandonment of them. When Jing-mei sets out to tell her half-sisters Suyuan’s story, she also has this goal in mind, as well as her own goal of letting the twins know who their mother was and what she was like.
Storytelling is also used as a way of controlling one’s own fate. In many ways, the original purpose of the Joy Luck Club was to create a place to exchange stories. Faced with pain and hardship, Suyuan decided to take control of the plot of her life. The Joy Luck Club did not simply serve as a distraction; it also enabled transformation—of community, of love and support, of circumstance. Stories work to encourage a certain sense of independence. They are a way of forging one’s own identity and gaining autonomy. Waverly understands this: while Lindo believes that her daughter’s crooked nose means that she is ill-fated, Waverly dismisses this passive interpretation and changes her identity and her fate by reinventing the story that is told about a crooked nose.
At some point in the novel, each of the major characters expresses anxiety over her inability to reconcile her Chinese heritage with her American surroundings. Indeed, this reconciliation is the very aim of Jing-mei’s journey to China. While the daughters in the novel are genetically Chinese (except for Lena, who is half Chinese) and have been raised in mostly Chinese households, they also identify with and feel at home in modern American culture. Waverly, Rose, and Lena all have white boyfriends or husbands, and they regard many of their mothers’ customs and tastes as old-fashioned or even ridiculous. Most of them have spent their childhoods trying to escape their Chinese identities: Lena would walk around the house with her eyes opened as far as possible so as to make them look European. Jing-mei denied during adolescence that she had any internal Chinese aspects, insisting that her Chinese identity was limited only to her external features. Lindo meditates that Waverly would have clapped her hands for joy during her teen years if her mother had told her that she did not look Chinese.
As they mature, the daughters begin to sense that their identities are incomplete and become interested in their Chinese heritage. Waverly speaks wishfully about blending in too well in China and becomes angry when Lindo notes that she will be recognized instantly as a tourist. One of Jing-mei’s greatest fears about her trip to China is not that others will recognize her as American, but that she herself will fail to recognize any Chinese elements within herself.
Of the four mothers, Lindo expresses the most anxiety over her cultural identity. Having been spotted as a tourist during her recent trip to China, she wonders how America has changed her. She has always believed in her ability to shift between her true self and her public self, but she begins to wonder whether her “true” self is not, in fact, her American one. Even while a young girl in China, Lindo showed that she did not completely agree with Chinese custom. She agonized over how to extricate herself from a miserable marriage without dishonoring her parents’ promise to her husband’s family. While her concern for her parents shows that Lindo did not wish to openly rebel against her tradition, Lindo made a secret promise to herself to remain true to her own desires. This promise shows the value she places on autonomy and personal happiness—two qualities that Lindo associates with American culture.
Jing-mei’s experience in China at the end of the book certainly seems to support the possibility of a richly mixed identity rather than an identity of warring opposites. She comes to see that China itself contains American aspects, just as the part of America she grew up in—San Francisco’s Chinatown—contained Chinese elements. Thus, her first meal in China consists of hamburgers and apple pie, per the request of her fully “Chinese” relatives. Perhaps, then, there is no such thing as a pure state of being Chinese, a pure state of being American; all individuals are amalgams of their unique tastes, habits, hopes, and memories. For immigrants and their families, the contrasts within this amalgam can bring particular pain as well as particular richness.
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
The Joy Luck Club contains an ongoing discussion about the extent to which characters have power over their own destinies. Elements from the Chinese belief system—the twelve animals of the zodiac, the five elements—reappear in the characters’ explanations of their personalities. For example, Ying-ying St. Clair speaks about how she and her daughter, Lena, are both Tigers, according to the years in which they were born. The “black” side of her Tiger personality is that she waits, like a predator, for the right moment for the “gold” side to act—the right moment to snatch what she wants. Yet Ying-ying’s behavior contradicts this symbolic explanation of her character. Ironically, her belief in “fate” ends up negating her understanding of her “fated” nature. She believes she is destined to marry a certain vulgar older man in China, does so, and then ends up feeling bereft after she learns of his infidelity. She shows she can take matters into her own hands when she aborts the fetus of the unborn child from her first marriage, but then falls back into the same trap when she “allows” Lena’s father, Clifford, to marry her because she thinks it is her destiny. She lives in constant anxiety and fear from tragedies that she believes she is powerless to prevent.
Jing-mei and her mother also clash because of their opposing concepts of destiny. Suyuan believes that Jing-mei will manifest an inner prodigy if only she and her daughter work hard enough to discover and cultivate Jing-mei’s talent. Jing-mei, on the other hand, believes that there are ultimately things about her that cannot be forced; she is who she is.
An-mei Hsu seems to possess a notion of a balance between fate and will. She believes strongly in the will, and yet she also sees this will as somehow “fated.” While her faith in her ability to will her own desires becomes less explicitly reli gious after the loss of her son Bing, An-mei never resigned herself, as Ying-ying does, to thinking that human beings have no control over what happens to them. Thus, when Rose asks why she should try to save her marriage, saying there is no hope, no reason to try, An-mei responds that she should try simply because she “must.” “This is your fate,” she says, “what you must do.” Rose comes to realize that for her mother, the powers of “fate” and “faith” are co-dependent rather than mutually exclusive.
Sexism is a problem common to both Chinese and American cultures, and as such they are encountered by most of the characters in the novel. In China, for example, Lindo is forced to live almost as a servant to her mother-in-law and husband, conforming to idealized roles of feminine submission and duty. Because An-mei’s mother is raped by her future husband, she must marry him to preserve her honor; whereas he, as a man, may marry any number of concubines without being judged harshly. Indeed, it is considered shameful for An-mei’s mother to marry at all after her first husband’s death, to say nothing of her becoming a concubine, and An-mei’s mother is disowned by her mother (Popo) because of the rigid notions of purity and virtue held by the patriarchal Chinese society. Ying-ying’s nursemaid tells her that girls should never ask but only listen, thus conveying her society’s sexist standards for women and instilling in Ying-ying a tragic passivity.
In America, the daughters also encounter sexism as they grow up. Waverly experiences resistance when she asks to play chess with the older men in the park in Chinatown: they tell her they do not want to play with dolls and express surprise at her skill in a game at which men excel. Rose’s passivity with Ted is based on the stereotypical gender roles of a proactive, heroic male and a submissive, victimized female. Lena’s agreement to serve as a mere associate in the architecture firm that she helped her husband to found, as well as her agreement to make a fraction of his salary, may also be based on sexist assumptions that she has absorbed. Tan seems to make the distinction between a respect for tradition and a disrespect for oneself as an individual. Submission to sexist modes of thought and behavior, regardless of cultural tradition, seems to be unacceptable as it encompasses a passive destruction of one’s autonomy.
Many of the characters make great sacrifices for the love of their children or parents. The selflessness of their devotion speaks to the force of the bond between parent and child. An-mei’s mother slices off a piece of her own flesh to put in her mother’s soup, hoping superstitiously to cure her. An-mei’s mother’s later suicide could also be seen not as an act of selfish desperation but as one of selfless sacrifice to her daughter’s future happiness: because Wu-Tsing is afraid of ghosts, An-mei’s mother knows that in death she can ensure her daughter’s continued status and comfort in the household with more certainty than she could in life. Later, An-mei throws her one memento of her mother, her sapphire ring, into the waves in hopes of placating the evil spirits that have taken her son Bing. So, too, does Suyuan take an extra job cleaning the house of a family with a piano, in order to earn Jing-mei the opportunity to practice the instrument. These acts of sacrifice speak to the power of the mother-daughter bond. Despite being repeatedly weakened—or at least tested—by cultural, linguistic, and generational gulfs, the sacrifices the characters make prove that this bond is not in danger of being destroyed.
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
In Jing-mei’s story “Best Quality,” she discusses the jade pendant her mother, Suyuan, gave her, which she called her “life’s importance.” Over the course of the story, the symbolic meaning of the pendant changes. At first, Jing-mei found the pendant garish and unstylish; to her it represented the cultural differences between herself and her mother. After Suyuan’s death, however, Jing-mei comes to see it as a symbol of her mother’s love and concern. It is particularly interesting to note that, in its very ability to change meanings, the pendant gains an additional symbolism: it symbolizes the human power to assign new meanings to the phenomena around us. The development that Jing-mei undergoes in understanding the gift of the pendant symbolizes her development in understanding her mother’s gestures in general. While Jing-mei used to interpret many of her mother’s words as expressions of superstition or criticism, she now sees them as manifesting a deep maternal wisdom and love.
In the story “Rice Husband,” a vase in Lena’s home comes to symbolize her marriage. Lena had placed the vase upon a wobbly table; she knew the placement of the vase there was dangerous, but she did nothing to protect the vase from breaking. Like the vase, Lena’s marriage is in danger of falling and shattering. According to the text, it was Lena’s husband, Harold, who built the wobbly table when he was first studying architecture and design. If one takes this information as similarly symbolic, one might say that the precariousness of the marriage may result from Harold’s failure to be “supportive” enough, “solid” enough in his commitment. In any case, Lena, too, is to blame: as with the vase, Lena realizes that her marriage is in danger of shattering, but she refuses to take action. When Ying-ying “accidentally” causes the vase to break on the floor, she lets Lena know that she should prevent disasters before they happen, rather than stand by passively as Ying-ying herself has done throughout her life.
When Lindo Jong is married, she and her husband light a red candle with a wick at each end. The name of the bride is marked at one end of the candle, and the name of the groom at the other. If the candle burns all night without either end extinguishing prematurely, custom says that the marriage will be successful and happy. The candle has a symbolic meaning—the success of the marriage—within the Chinese culture, but within the story it also functions as a symbol of traditional Chinese culture itself: it embodies the ancient beliefs and customs surrounding marriage.
Lindo feels conflicted about her marriage: she desperately does not want to enter into the subservience she knows the wedding will bring, yet she cannot go against the promises her parents made to her husband’s family. In order to free herself from the dilemma, she secretly blows out her husband’s side of the candle. A servant relights it, but Lindo later reveals to her mother-in-law that the flame went out, implying that it did so without human intervention. By blowing out the flame, Lindo takes control of her own fate, eventually extricating herself from an unhappy marriage. Thus, the candle also symbolizes her self-assertion and control over her own life.
It is important to consider the candle’s original symbolism as a sign of tradition and culture, for it is by playing upon the traditional beliefs and superstitions that Lindo convinces her mother-in-law to annul the marriage. Her act of blowing out the candle would have been meaningless without an underlying, pre-established network of belief. Thus the candle, first a symbol of tradition, then of self-assertion, ultimately comes to symbolize the use of tradition in claiming one’s own identity and power.
Is there any symbolism in this short story? I was assigned to analyze it like a "professor" and I am not sure if there is any symbolism. All I know is that when Jing-mei's mother offered her to keep to piano it was like a peace offering or forgiveness.
26 out of 31 people found this helpful
You could always do it yourself. I mean, we sometimes get books in our lives that Sparknotes doesn't always offer to summarize and give us straightforward answers to.
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The ability of students to understand concepts is the most important factor in exam preparation. While some candidates take their time understanding subjects, others finish them quickly. Because of this, every student hopes to learn everything swiftly while getting ready for the SSC Exams. Although quickly going over things is beneficial, going over them thoroughly and productively is much better.
Do you have any advice for understanding things quickly while studying for the SSC exam? Of sure, I say! Let’s look at some advice that will assist you as you study for your exams. However, the Search India web will be useful for you if you are looking for a place where instructors can provide you with the best guidance possible for the SSC exam preparation.
Here are some great suggestions you can use when you study for the SSC Exams to comprehend everything quickly:
It has been noted that those who write more are more readily able to understand the topics. Not every idea is simple enough to be retained after just one reading. Therefore, after reading and reviewing topics, concentrate on writing them. You might be wondering how you can study rapidly because it is a lengthy procedure. You should know that while some things take a while to absorb if you write them down, you can understand them in half the time. Writing often can help you get ready for the SSC exam swiftly in this way.
Link subjects to Personal Experiences
The things you have personally experienced can last a lifetime in your memory. So, to fully understand and recall the principles, relate them to your own experiences. The main benefit of using this style of study is that you won’t feel bored when preparing for exams. If you don’t have any relevant experience to tie the ideas to, you can use examples from everyday life.
Take it Apart
It is preferable to divide a large topic into manageable sections if it cannot be covered in one sitting. If not, you will have to study nonstop for long periods of time, which will sap your energy and make you feel unproductive. You’ll be less effective and unable to understand anything. Therefore, it is usually preferable to create reasonable goals that you can accomplish fast and simply.
You will soon be able to enhance concepts by answering practice questions. So, overcome your indifference and establish a daily practice of practicing questions. It won’t take more than two to three hours to practice several questions from various parts. You may master every section of the SSC exam by practicing. However, for the best exam preparation, practicing alone is insufficient; frequent adjustments are required for flawless performance. If you are unsure about which questions to practice and which to leave alone, you can check mock tests and complete them every day.
Children typically imitate their teachers as they develop during their formative years. You may remember the times when you would play a teacher-student game while instructing your buddies. Do you realize that playing this game while studying for the SSC exam can help you swiftly understand everything? Yes, this is accurate. You can assemble your friends and siblings and impart diverse ideas to them. This will aid in both your rapid understanding of the concepts as well as your long-term retention of them. So relive your childhood by playing your favorite game to achieve fantastic outcomes.
Read out Loud
There is a good probability that you will lose focus when you read or learn everything in your head. As a result, even simple topics will require a lot of effort to understand. So be sure to read aloud as you study for the SSC exam in order to keep your focus. This is the quickest approach to grasp everything while studying for the test. Are you seeking a simple strategy to get ready for the SSC exam as well? If so, enrolling at Roy Education is the finest option to get top-notch test coaching.
your ability to pick up concepts rapidly can speed up your SSC Exams preparation. Therefore, use these wonderful suggestions to learn everything quickly and appropriately. | <urn:uuid:27e10dbe-cf37-4cb9-a173-3c60143e387e> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://www.iktix.com/how-to-study-for-the-ssc-exams-rapidly/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100762.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20231208144732-20231208174732-00136.warc.gz | en | 0.961008 | 813 | 2.625 | 3 | {
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Quality Education in the Benedictine Tradition
Students reflect on their participation in service projects.
Kelly KingPhone: [email protected] Jessica AdamsPhone: [email protected]
RS 119 Exploring Religious Meaning The objective of the course is to explore the meaning of the Judeo-Christian tradition primarily through the study of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, with an appreciation of the various critical methods necessary for further study.
Students serve 12 hours with a marginalized community and make correlations to course material through graded coursework. Community partners include Clelian Heights, Union Mission, Green Meadows, and Latrobe Regional Health and Rehabilitation.
PL 215 Ethics Ethics is a practical philosophy indicating, in general, what humans ought to do in light of appropriate rules of conduct and suitable ends. Some fundamental views of right and good are considered in their classical formulations by such thinkers as Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hume, Kant and Mill. Problems and examples are used to illustrate these views and to provoke judgments regarding critical issues.
Students prepare and eat a meal with the residents at the Union Mission of Latrobe. They also participate in a scripture reflection with the residents. This experience is followed by an assignment on how the writings of Aristotle and St. Benedict answer the question: "Why should we perform such acts of service?"
TH 265 God, Work, and Money An exploration of the Catholic Church’s social teaching on and contemporary theological study of, poverty, work and economics. It focuses on the theological foundations on economics, the Church's thought on current economic issues, and various moral analyses of current economic issues.
Students harvest crops at a local farm, which designates a portion of its land to growing fresh produce for the poor. Students also perform community-based research. This initiative was possible through new partnerships with Catholic Charities, the Food Bank and Palmers Sweet Corn.
SP 203 Intermediate Spanish I This course is a systematic grammar review and vocabulary building, with stress on nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and the common tenses of regular and irregular verbs. Introduction to reading techniques is suitable to college level study.
Students prepared and gave presentations conducive to their course material and provided fellowship with the residents of Green Meadows Assisted Living.
AR 225 & 325 Painting I and II This intermediate level course is for students who want to learn the methods and materials of painting with oils and acrylics. Its purpose is to provide the students with solid foundation skills and an opportunity to explore a variety of approaches in the creation of paintings including layering, glazing, mixing paint medium and proper studio maintenance.
For the final project, students paint portraits of exceptional individuals with developmental disabilities from Clelian Heights.
EL 102 Language and Rhetoric This freshman-level writing course develops students' ability to think clearly and logically and to apply principles of organization, purpose, coherence, support clarity and insight into their writing.
Student-designed activities with Green Meadows Assisted Living and Mountain View Nursing Care are the centerpiece of the service component for this course. Possible activities include; planting flowers, art projects, board games, and watching movies together. | <urn:uuid:a0bc39af-52d5-4878-aed1-8a0404f5e3a0> | CC-MAIN-2016-36 | http://www.stvincent.edu/Majors_and_Programs/Beyond_Classrooms/Service_Learning_and_Outreach/Course_Listing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-36/segments/1471982937576.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20160823200857-00077-ip-10-153-172-175.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935695 | 659 | 2.546875 | 3 | {
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- Point of Divergence
**This alternate history has its point of divergence in 1917, so reference historical sources for any and all information before that point.
In March 1917 (February by the old Russian calendar in use at the time) one of the worlds oldest and most redoubtable monarchies collapses in revolution. The Romanov dynasty, headed by Tsar Nicholas II, abdicates the throne. A provisional government is established in Saint Petersburg under the control of Alexander Kerensky, a republican.
Opposition is swift. A rival government under communist control arises throughout Russia’s cities where the ideology has become increasingly popular with the poor workers. These “soviets” seek to bring an end to the bourgeois revolution of the republicans and bring about a true people’s revolution led by factory workers and peasants. Their chance would never come.
The provisional government, fearing this “people’s revolution,” sues for peace with the Central Powers. Russian negotiators are told to give Germany everything they ask for as long as the war ends. And end the war did.
On 1 April 1917, the fighting ceases on the Eastern Front and Russia begins the long process of recovery. Still wary of the communist presence the government of the new Russian Republic embarks on a series of drastic and progressive reforms designed to bring Russia into the 20th century. Massive land reforms and centralization bring the all-too-common famines to an end and appease the peasants, many of whom are veterans of the the war with Germany. Finally, the imminent threat of a communist revolution is over, the leaders of the soviets are jailed or exiled, and the Russian Republic is stable.
II. Der Kaiserschlacht - 1917-1918
The German Empire’s peace treaty with the Russians, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, allows Germany to send a million soldiers, freshly rested and reequipped from weeks of truce during the treaty negotiations, to the Western Front. A core force of German troops is left in each occupied territory surrendered by the Russians in the treaty. These forces cooperate with local authorities to establish provisional authority until the end of the war, when a fully-functioning government can be maintained.
On the Western Front, the German General Staff is planning a massive final offensive to bring the war to an end once and for all. This offensive, known as the “Kaiserschlacht,” or Kaiser’s Battle, will involve an initial breakthrough accomplished by the elite and highly trained storm troops. The strong points will be taken with traditional infantry and artillery, supported by air power and tanks. This method will be repeated until the German forces reach Paris.
The offensive begins on 1 May 1917 with a breakthrough along the front Vimy - La Fere. This is followed by an attack and breakthrough on the front La Fere - Reims, immediately to the south of the original breakthrough, thus widening the salient and protecting the flanks of the German army. These attacks were supported by masses of light tanks built for the purpose of exploiting breakthroughs by the infantry. By August 1, the German front was firmly established along the line Continy - Compiegne - Châteux Thierry, at its closest point, only 53 miles from Paris.
Before the next drive of the main offensive could begin, the General Staff, to ensure that the French armies in the center of the Allied line are not reinforced, order smaller offensives to the north and south of the main drive. In the north, an attack is made in the general direction of Calais and Dunkirk against the British Expeditionary Force and what is left of the Belgian Army in Flanders. In the south, two attacks are made. One to close the French salient around Verdun and Troyon and a second in the direction of the heavily defended line of the Moselle River, from Toul to Épinal. These attacks make modest progress. They do not reach their stated goals, but accomplish the task of preventing any substantial reinforcement of the central front.
On 1 September, the main German drive, reinforced and resupplied, resumes with a two pronged offensive. The Nordgruppe attacks northwest along the River Somme, pounding the flank of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), with the ultimate goal of reaching the coast at Dieppe and cutting off the BEF from their French allies. The Südgruppe attacks southwest along the Rivers Oise and Ourcq with the ultimate goal of surrounding Paris and severing the link between the French armies defending Paris, and those defending the Moselle.
The French and British are somewhat better prepared for this renewed attack, but morale is extremely low. The Allies are able to slow, but not stop, the German offensive. After a month of steady and relentless attacks by the Germans, the French Army in the center of the front is spread thin and desperately in need of reinforcements. However, the French populace is exhausted and the industrial northeast of the country, along with its priceless coal supply, is completely in German hands.
By 1 November, the Germans look unstoppable. The Südgruppe has in its possession, the towns of Chantilly on the Oise and Meaux on the Ourcq. The Nordgruppe has taken Amiens on the Somme and is approaching Abbéville. The BEF, under General Haig, are faced with the decision of slipping south of the Somme to protect the French left flank, thus forfeiting any realistic chance of evacuation, or abandoning their allies and trying to escape north of the Somme to Calais and Dunkirk, where they may be able to hold the Germans long enough to evacuate the Continent.
General Haig postpones the decision for as long as possible hoping against hope that his demoralized and depleted forces can make a stand and stop the German northern offensive. But, on 12 November, with the Germans threatening Abbéville and beginning their drive to take Dieppe and encircle the BEF, Haig gives the order for a full retreat to defensive positions around Boulogne, Calais, and Dunkirk. The Royal Navy begins organizing its resources for the massive evacuation effort that must now take place.
Refusing the British offer to be evacuated after the BEF, the Belgian forces, under King Albert, resolve to fight the Germans on the last corner of Belgian soil they possess. After being surrounded and battered by the Germans for a week, the Belgians surrender on 20 November 1917.
The British populace, exhausted from the war, loses all faith in the government following the announcement of the withdrawal of the BEF. Massive protests flood the streets of every major city, strikes completely halt the production of war matériel, and Ireland is in open revolt. Fearing colonial uprisings, the last act of the government of Prime Minister David Lloyd George is to request for peace with the Central Powers. The following day, the House of Commons takes a vote of no confidence and Lloyd George resigns.
The French are furious when they hear of the British plans to evacuate. They have no choice but to order a full retreat to the Seine. Even the French forces in the east, defending the Moselle, are forced to pull back to the Seine in order not to allow a gap to develop between the French western and eastern forces.
The rest of the month of November is spent preparing the final French defense along the Seine and crushing mutinies in the ranks. Not enough men can be spared to anchor the French line against the English Channel, so the extreme left, formed by the Reserve Army of General Fayolle, prepares to defend Rouen, with orders to pull back south and west, tightening in a circle south of Paris as the Germans pressure the flank. The center of the line is formed by the remnants of General Franchet d’Espèrey’s North Army, shattered by months of retreat and pursuit by the Germans, and the somewhat fresher Center Army, under General Maistre. Together, these forces form the French line from the confluence of the Seine and the Oise in the west, to Nogent in the east. The French right is formed by the East Army, under General de Castelnau. His forces are spread thin along a wide front from Nogent to Troyes to Châtillon. De Castelnau has the same orders as Fayolle: if pressed by the Germans, pull back to defend Paris. The four French armies are opposed by four German armies.
With an armistice in place between Germany and Britain, pending formal peace negotiations, Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria’s army allows the British to safely evacuate the Continent and moves southwest to begin the assault on General Fayolle’s Reserve Army. He forms the German right flank from just north of Rouen to Chantilly. The center is formed by the armies of Crown Prince Wilhelm and General von Gallwitz. Their line is densely packed from Chantilly to Arcis Sur Aube. The German left is formed by General von Albrecht. He is spread from Arcis Sur Aube to Longres, but is mainly concentrated between Arcis Sur Aube and Bar Sur Aube.
After a period of positioning, the German armies are prepared for the final phase of the offensive on 2 January 1918. According to plan, the German assault begins with attacks all along the French line to prevent reinforcements from being transferred from one section of the front to another. The main attack, however, is directed against the French center. As the French left and right wings begin to retreat to prevent an encirclement of Paris, disaster strikes.
Unable to hold, the exhausted remnants of Franchet d’Espèrey’s army crumbles at Melun and Fontainebleau, two strong points of the Seine defensive line south east of Paris. The immediate center of the French defenses, anchored on the left against the River Oise at Pontoise and on the right against the River Ourcq at its confluence with the Seine, holds fast. This is the part of the line responsible for the immediate defense of Paris. However, the line the southeast cannot follow suit. The initial German breakthroughs at Melun and Fontainebleau, accomplished by storm troop elements of Crown Prince Wilhelm’s and von Gallwitz’s armies, are widened and exploited by regular infantry.
By 20 January, hundreds of thousands of German troops have poured through the widening gap in the French line southeast of Paris. These troops split to the northwest and southeast of the breakthrough to cut off and surround the French Reserve and East Armies. By now, these armies, making up the French left and right flanks, respectively, are nearly perpendicular to the Seine due to stronger than expected German attacks by Prince Rupprecht’s and von Albrecht’s armies. The troops that have broken through attack the French left and right from the rear while Rupprecht’s and von Albrecht’s armies continue their previous frontal attacks on the French forces. The two French armies naturally form circles which are surrounded by the German attackers. On 12 February the Reserve Army under General Fayolle surrenders. On 19 February the East Army under General de Castelnau follows suit. These victories are met with elation in the streets in Germany. The German press nicknames these battles, “the Twin Sédans,” after the decisive German victory in the Franco-Prussian War.
The remaining French forces under Franchet d’Espèrey and Maistre form a circle around Paris and await the final German push while Paris comes under an intense bombardment by the approaching Germans. Before the German attack can begin and the French capital, along with its historical treasures, are irreparably destroyed, the French government requests an armistice. For the first time in four years, on 1 March 1918, at 10 AM, all is quiet on the Western Front. | <urn:uuid:53dc8371-63a1-4922-ad7e-15da734ac9a8> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://tsd715.deviantart.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128323842.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20170629015021-20170629035021-00517.warc.gz | en | 0.942398 | 2,497 | 3.453125 | 3 | {
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What Are Pistachios?
Pistachio is a dry fruit from the pistachio tree; a small tree with origins in the Middle East and Central Asia. The pistachio tree belongs to the cashew family. Their fruit is a drupe that contains an elongated seed; it is this seed that people eat. The seed is a culinary nut, rather than a botanical nut, and has a distinct flavour.
Pistachios are a very popular food, especially in China, which is the top consumer of pistachios in the world, followed by the United States. A member of the cashew family, pistachio kernels are eaten whole, fresh or roasted. Other uses of the pistachio include in pistachio ice cream, in spumoni, in kulfi, in pistachio butter, in pistachio chocolate, in pistachio pudding, among a myriad of other creative uses. A highly nutritious food, pistachios have 562 calories per serving and are rich in protein, dietary fibre, Vitamin B, among other nutrients.
Where Do Pistachios Grow?
With its high tolerance of saline soil, the pistachio grows in the desert and flourishes when irrigated with water containing 3,000 to 4,000 ppm of soluble salts. The hardy trees can survive in a temperature range of between -10oC during winter and 48oC during the summer. Pistachio trees require plenty of sun and soil that is well drained. They do not do well in highly humid environments. Their roots rot when water is excess, and the soil is not well-drained. Pistachio fruit needs long, hot summers for ripening. Pistachio growing countries include Greece, the US, Turkey, Iran, China, and Syria.
Pistachio trees, which are customarily grown in orchards, reach significant production levels after seven to ten years, and peak production after a 20 year period. Pruning of the trees makes the harvesting process easier. A male pistachio tree carries enough pollen for 12 drupe-bearing females, and farmers in the US and Greece have to use equipment to shake the drupes off the tree at harvest time (another name for drupes is stone fruits). The pistachios are hulled, dried in the sun, and then sorted into two groups, the open-mouth and closed-mouth shells. Afterward they are roasted; alternatively, special machines are used to produce pistachio kernels. Pistachio trees are prone to diseases such as infection by Bostryospaheria fungus, which causes the death of the young shoots and the flowers and can affect the entire orchard.
Top Producers Of Pistachios
The top producers of pistachios in the world are Iran at 478,600 metric tons, the United States at 196, 930 metric tons, Turkey at 88,600 metric tons, China at 74,000 metric tons, and Syria producing 54,516 metric tons. At an annual rate of 80,000 tons, China is the highest consumer of pistachios worldwide, with the United States following at 450,000 tons. Iran, the US, and Turkey account for more than 80% of production of pistachios worldwide.
Pistachios are a nutritious, delicious, and popular food, and different cultures have found different ways of eating them. For instance, Americans love pistachio salad, which comprises fresh pistachios, whipped cream, and canned fruit. In recent years, there has been a spike in popularity of pistachios, and more farmers are growing them.
Where Do Pistachios Come From?
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There are two main types of electronic components. These are active and passive. Active components are necessary for a device to function properly. They operate within an electrical circuit. Passive components, on the other hand, are used to ensure that an electronic device functions correctly. In this article, we will examine the two primary types of electronics components and how they can affect the performance of your device. Understanding the differences between the two types is essential to your success.
An active electronic component requires an external power source, while a passive one does not. There are also active and passive components. Passive components work by limiting the amount of current that passes through them. The former is used to control the amount of electricity that flows through them, while the latter is used to enhance the amount of electricity flowing through them. An active component can also deliver a higher voltage or more current than a passive one. However, it's important to check the lead times of electronic components if you plan to use them for your project.
An active electronic component is designed to manipulate electrons or electric current. It amplifies the power of an electro-magnetic signal. These devices need a source of external energy or voltage to operate. When this is provided, the components will begin to function. Different active components include diodes, transistors, and integrated circuits. To understand how each type works, it is important to learn about its uses. When it comes to the basics of electronic devices, understanding these components is critical. If you're interested in the basics of electronics, check out our guide on electronic components.
When you're preparing to make an electrical circuit, you need to consider the active and passive electronic components. These components have a unique purpose in electronic systems. As mentioned earlier, active components are those that require power and passive components are passive. This article explores the different types of passive electronic components and how they work in an electronic circuit. If you're an enthusiast of electronic design, knowing the difference between active and inactive components is essential.
Transistors are active and passive electronic components. They work as amplifiers and switches and have many applications in modern electronics. Examples of active components include batteries, speakers, light bulbs, and light-emitting diodes. A typical example of a transistor is an LED. This is an LED that emits a specific light and emits a certain color. It is a semiconductor that functions as a switch. Its primary function is to sense a change in environment.
A variety of active electronic components are used in electronic devices. These components are the heart of modern electronics and are commonly used in various areas. They can be found in everything from lighting bulbs to phones. In addition to these, active components can be used in many different electronic devices. Typical examples of active electronic components include integrated circuits, built-in displays, and light-emitting diodes. You can also identify different types of active electronic components by their symbols.
The active components are essentially electrical components. They include a current source, a battery, and different types of diodes. An active component is a part that is not a part that contains an electric current. A passive component is the opposite. It is a passive component. It is used for absorbing energy from an external power source. An inactive electronic component is an inactive electronic component. The passive component is the active one.
An active electronic component is a piece of hardware that controls the flow of electrically charged particles. An active electronic component can be either passive or active. The active version has a terminal, while the passive one has one. A passive component does not have a terminal, but it can be a capacitor. A passive electronic component is the polar opposite of an active component. The passive type is a semiconductor. This means that an electronic component can have different voltage levels than an active one. A capacitor is an example of a basic type of a conductive material.
An electronic component is a semiconductor that is made up of small parts. An individual component is a single component that contains all the same materials as a chip. A purely mechanical electronic unit is made of two types of components. The first type is a single semiconductor, and the latter is a device that includes the two types of electronic components. The latter type is a semiconductor that contains a large number of transistors. This component is also a circuit. | <urn:uuid:dc8cbbc1-d001-4d62-948d-7c70a03456b2> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://icshopelec.com/info-detail/understanding-electronic-connectors | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296943471.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20230320083513-20230320113513-00728.warc.gz | en | 0.942685 | 885 | 3.96875 | 4 | {
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The main raw material for the product is cashew bagasse, discarded by juice and mashed fruit industries, which is sold or simply donated to animal feed factories.
The hamburger is still in its testing phase and should reach the market in the month of December. It is turned to the vegetarian market – the idea is to compete with the soy hamburger, although it should cost much less.
A group of students at the Animal Husbandry and Food Engineering College at the University of São Paulo (USP), in the city of Pirassununga, in the interior of the state of São Paulo, developed the cashew hamburger.
According to Rubem Fernando dos Anjos, who participated in the project, the hamburger is rich in fibre and has a high nutritive value. "The flavor still needs improving, but it brings to mind the taste of shrimp," he explained.
The students started working on the product six months ago, for their end of course project in the Project Planning discipline. The challenge was to establish a company and develop a new product.
"We wanted to work with industrial waste," explained Fernando dos Anjos. After some research, the students arrived at cashew processing industries. "Cashew nuts are exported, the pulp is used for juice and the fiber is discarded, generally used by the animal feed industry," he said.
But as Brazil has its peculiarities, the students discovered that in the northeastern Brazilian state of Ceará, which has over 50% of the Brazilian cashew nut production, families used the fiber discarded by local industries to make sweets.
That was when they elected cashew for the development of an alternative hamburger recipe. As the project forecasted the establishment of a company that would make possible future partnerships and guarantee the continuation of research, they established Cajubrás and the cashew hamburger.
The production process, according to Fernando dos Anjos, is similar to that of normal hamburgers. "The fibres, after being discarded, are cooled and then undergo a whitening process, in which the bagasse is cooked in water to eliminate the strong smell and possible micro-organisms that may be found in the fruit," he explained. The objective is to stop the action of cashew enzymes, which cause oxidation and the darkening of the fibres.
After the whole of the preparation of the fibres, comes the recipe. The hamburger is made with at least 60% cashew fibre, plus cheese, isolated soy protein, condiments and water. According to Fernando dos Anjos, although the taste is similar to that of shrimp, there is still an aftertaste that must be lightened.
"It must be improved, I am testing other formulas, more additives, but those who tasted the product, liked it," explained the researcher. Another of the group’s challenges was the consistency. "When placed in a frying pan, the cashew hamburger lost a little of its shape, not being totally faithful, but that should not be hard to solve," explained Fernando dos Anjos.
One of the advantages of the product is that it will go on the market at a cheap price. "It will compete with the soy hamburgers that are called light, as it is natural, but it will cost what cattle beef or chicken hamburgers cost, around 5 reais (US$ 2,33 at current exchange rates) per box with 12 units," stated Fernando dos Anjos.
Soy hamburgers cost around 10 reais (US$ 4,66). One of the reasons is the low production cost. "The raw material is a residue, industrial waste, so, even if companies decide to sell the input, to price it, the value will not be the same as that of soy, for example, and production will not be so expensive," believes the researcher.
Production in Brazil
According to Fernando dos Anjos, the ideal site for production of the hamburger, for a Cajubrás factory, is the Northeast of the country, due to large cashew production.
In Ceará, for example, according to figures disclosed by the Sincaju (Cashew Producers Union of the State of Ceará), there are 330,000 hectares of land on which common cashew is grown.
In the first seven months of this year, exports of nuts brought to the state US$ 77.52 million in revenues. The state of Ceará answers to 85% of Brazilian foreign sales of the product. The main buyers are the United States, Canada, Italy, Lebanon and the United Kingdom.
Cattle beef hamburgers are an invention of tartar knights, in the 13th century. To feed themselves during their travels, they took pieces of raw meat under the saddles of their horses. After four hours galloping or trotting, the meat was ground, made into a paste that was easily chewed. It was the beef tartar, eaten raw.
Five centuries later, the food arrived in the port of Hamburg, Germany, where it was incorporated into the feeding habits of the local population. With immigration to America, in the 19th Century, the custom was taken to the United States.
At that point in history, the recipe had already been altered: the pressed Hamburg beef cake was grilled and served with onions. The Americans liked the idea and spread it all around the world through fast food chains. It has become a universal custom.
Anba – www.anba.com.br
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The psychedelic state is unquestionably one of the most interesting psychological experiences humans can have. Hallucinogenic drugs that have been used by humans for as long as we can determine to provide novel insights into the mind and enhance social bonding. For moral reasons, hidden behind spurious concerns about health harms, modern society has attempted to deny the value and importance of the use of these drugs and the study of this altered state of consciousness. This article explains why this scientific censorship has occurred and outlines the lost opportunities for neuroscience research and medicinal treatments that have resulted.
Psychedelics, used responsibly and with proper caution, would be for psychiatry what the microscope is for biology or the telescope is for astronomy. These tools make it possible to study important processes that under normal circumstances are not available for direct observation.
Stanislav Grof (1975)
Last year I had the pleasure of visiting Chile and spending a few days in the Atacama Desert, in the high Andes. To deal with the altitude-induced headaches I used the local remedy of chewing coca-leaves and drinking mate (coca-leaf tea). Following the Spanish conquest these local remedies were banned by the Catholic Church as being heathen, though the ban was rapidly overturned by the Spanish overlords as
it resulted in work productivity of the ‘natives’ declining! In 1961 the coca-leaf was again banned, despite there being no evidence of its being addictive or harmful, as part of the absurd 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. For most Andean coca-leaf chewers the ban has had little impact, although in some places the coca-farmers have had their crops and livelihoods destroyed as part of the US-driven ‘war on drugs’.
However, the original Andean inhabitants used drugs other than cocaine, as I discovered in a visit to the museum of the Atacama Desert. Of the many artefacts from the pre-Columbian period well over half were related to the use of hallucinogenic extracts of the peyote cactus. These comprised pestles and mortars for grinding the flowers, pots for storing the flower buds, belt pouches for carrying the powder and ceramic straws for snorting it. Many were beautifully decorated, showing that they had symbolic as well as practical uses. Moreover, much of the art of the period seemed influenced by the visions produced under peyote.
There is extensive evidence that many, possibly all, earlier cultures used hallucinogens such as mescaline, ayahuasca and ibogaine – see Ben Sessa’s book The Psychedelic Renaissance. They appeared to be used to gain personal insights and promote social bonding, and may also have had mood-promoting and resilience-inducing actions. The latter I suspect is why they were so widely used in the Andes, which is a particularly inhospitable and difficult environment in which to survive. Use of hallucinogens has survived to the present day in indigenous cultures and some churches, such as the Santo Daime church in Brazil (and now beyond) that uses ayahuasca in its church ceremonies, even in children. The use of ibogaine for self-enlightenment in West Africa has now developed worldwide and has become popular as an aid to overcoming addiction. Psilocybin as ‘magic mushrooms’ have been used in many cultures across much of the world, and are still taken by many young people in the UK despite attempts to ban them by making their possession illegal. The reasons for – and benefits of – this widespread social use of hallucinogens throughout human society is an important question for social psychology.
In contrast, ‘Western’ society has promoted other drugs, particularly alcohol, for social engagement, worship and pleasure. When hallucinogens, particularly the new longer-acting synthetic one LSD, began to enter popular culture in the early 1960s (the ‘flower-power’ movement) it was seen as a major threat to the current political order and so LSD plus all other hallucinogenic chemicals such as psilocybin and dimethyltryptamine (DMT) were rapidly banned in the USA and then under the UN drug conventions.
To me – and I speak here as a former Chair of the UK government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs – the justification for the banning was a concoction of lies about their health impacts coupled with a denial of their potential as research tools and treatments. Indeed their banning demonstrates the chilling power of drug regulators and enforcers to control the drug agenda, for the ban was enacted in the face of opposition from leading and open-minded politicians such as Bobby Kennedy (whose wife Ethel had undergone or was undergoing LSD therapy at the time at Hollywood Hospital). The discussion between him and them shows the challenge of getting to the truth. Why if [clinical LSD projects] were worthwhile six months ago, why aren’t they worthwhile now? We keep going around and around…If I could get a flat answer about that I would be happy. Is there a misunderstanding about my question? I think perhaps we have lost sight of the fact that LSD can be very, very helpful in our society if used properly.(Kennedy, quoted in Lee & Shlain, 1985, p.93)
As is the case with almost all international drug-related legislation, the UK government slavishly followed the US lead and psychedelics were banned here in 1964. The reason for this strict control is to prevent the recreational use of these drugs, particularly by young people. The controls are supposedly designed to reduce their harms, although in the case of hallucinogens these harms are clearly less than those from most other drugs, including legal ones such as alcohol (Nutt et al., 2010). This decision has efficiently stopped research into these drugs to the detriment of researchers; worse still, many thousands of patients have been denied potential new medicines.
Almost all nations in the world are signatories to the UN conventions, so the ban on use is almost totally worldwide, with the only exceptions being made for plants growing wild which contain psychotropic substances from among those in Schedule I and which are traditionally used by certain small, clearly determined groups in magical or religious rites (1971 Convention Commentary Article 32:4).
Before these UN regulations were brought in, LSD had been widely studied with about 1000 studies involving 40,000 subjects (Masters & Houston, 1971). The pharmaceutical company that invented LSD, Sandoz, saw its huge potential for understanding the brain and as a possible avenue to new treatments, so they made it widely available to the worldwide scientific community. In the 50 years since its ban, there has been almost no new research despite remarkable advances in neuroscience technologies such as PET and fMRI that could allow a much greater understanding of its actions than were possible in the 1950s. The limited research now developing in this field has already revealed remarkable and unexpected insights into how these drugs produce hallucinations (see Carhart-Harris et al., in this issue). They also offer a possible new human model of psychosis against which to test new antipsychotic agents.
The clinical potential of hallucinogens was always seen as one of the most important advances. The founder of Alcoholics Anonymous reportedly became abstinent after an LSD experience in which he saw he could escape from the control alcohol had over him, and many others tried the same approach. A recent meta-analysis of the old clinical trials in which LSD was used to treat alcoholism (Krebs & Johansen, 2012) found that the effect size of LSD was as great as that of any other treatment for alcoholism developed since. This apparent clinical utility of LSD has been denied to millions of patients, and alcoholism is now the leading cause of disability for men in Europe (Wittchen et al., 2011).
Another of the original benefits of LSD, as a way to come to terms with dying, could offer a more humane and positive alternative to sedatives and opioids. The value of this approach has just resurfaced with the first LSD study in 50 years (Gasser et al., 2014) where it again was shown to reduce anxiety in those with terminal illness. This complements the approach of Charles Grob in this issue, using psilocybin for cancer anxiety.
Other Schedule 1 psychedelic drugs have similar potential for treatment uses. Ibogaine is licensed for the treatment of addiction in New Zealand. Psilocybin, obtained from ‘magic mushrooms’, is
a shorter-acting version of LSD that has been shown to be a possible treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (Moreno et al., 2006) and cluster headaches (Sewell et al., 2006). Roland Griffiths’ group in Johns Hopkins has shown that psilocybin given in a psychotherapy setting can produce very long-lived and profound improvements in mood and well-being (Griffiths et al., 2008).
That this small handful of studies represents all the clinical work in the last 50 years proves how destructive the banning of hallucinogens has been on treatment research. Regulators say that the UN conventions do not ban research – they just ensure that the drugs are subject to a level of control commensurate with their harmfulness and lack of clinical utility. Yet this Schedule 1 control is the highest level of security, meaning that hallucinogens are controlled to a level more extreme than that for heroin or cocaine, so belying the harm argument. The lack of clinical utility is self-fulfilling, since with virtually no research in this field clinical findings are not going to develop. Complying with the current regulations is very time-consuming and expensive. A Schedule 1 license in the UK costs about £6000 in fees and other costs and takes a year to obtain. Obtaining the drugs is also difficult and expensive. We have been quoted more than £3000 per 2mg dose of psilocybin for an MRC-funded clinical trial on depression. Comparable compounds that are not controlled can be obtained for 1/100th of that price. Much of the expense is because there are almost no production facilities in the world that have the necessary licenses for holding and dispensing Schedule 1 drugs. I suspect that this ongoing dearth of research is tacitly encouraged by governments as it might challenge the status quo. Lack of new evidence also perpetuates the justification for severe controls on the grounds of the precautionary principle. Politicians have tried to stop our work on psilocybin on the grounds that it uses ‘illegal drugs’. They have also attempted to disrupt our psilocybin depression trial by using Freedom of Information requests to our universities and the MRC.
An exploration of the mind
One of the founding fathers of American psychology, William James, used hallucinogens as part of his exploration of the mind. From his experiences he concluded: Our normal waking consciousness is but one special type of consciousness. Whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. No account of the universe in its totality can be final that leaves these disregarded. How to regard them is the question – for they are so discontinuous with ordinary consciousness.
Despite the massive influence of William James on the development of the discipline of psychology his interest in studying consciousness using drugs (in his case nitrous oxide) to produce alterations in it has been largely ignored, probably because of social pressure and the complexity of doing such work. I would argue that these drugs are central to key areas of psychology research such as consciousness and mood regulation. How can one explore consciousness without perturbing it? What mediates the positive mood effects of psychedelics and how can we use them to assist in treatments? Psychedelics offer a remarkable and safe way of producing fast and profound changes in key psychological processes. I would support James’s desire to explore other forms of consciousness and assert that hallucinogenic drugs provide one way of mediating this research. One could in fact argue that understanding the psychedelic state is one of the great challenges for human psychology research.
The other great insight into the value of these drugs comes from the author/scientist Aldous Huxley. His self-experimentation with various hallucinogens is well documented in his books, such as the Doors of Perception, its title reflecting the writings of the visionary artist William Blake:
If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’ narrow chinks of his cavern. (William Blake, 1993)
The article by Carhart-Harris, Mendel Kaelen and myself in this issue outlines just how hallucinogens open up the chinks in the cavern of the brain. We provide direct support for the idea that the brain dictates what is perceived not what is there; the human brain can and does truly close itself up to many things, and psychedelics can open it again.
A way forward
The failure of the scientific community, particularly neuroscientists, to protest the denial of research on hallucinogens is one of the most disturbing failures of science leadership in the past century, and it must be rectified. Psychologists and other neuroscientists must demand the right to study these drugs. Our professional organizations should demand the overturn of the UN Schedule 1 status for hallucinogens and in the meantime push for hospital and university research groups to be given exemption from the need to hold these licenses. The need for this field to be opened up to psychologists is beautifully put by Aldous Huxley himself: Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. By simply not mentioning certain subjects… totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have by the most eloquent denunciations.
We should value his insights not only because they derive from a broad knowledge of science and a deep understanding of his personal experience with hallucinogens, but also because he followed his beliefs to the end using LSD to ease his own death. | <urn:uuid:8f6cd0f3-7b72-4412-88ab-b6fe42b67471> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://entheomedicine.org/2022/02/a-brave-new-world-for-psychiatry/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652663021405.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20220528220030-20220529010030-00030.warc.gz | en | 0.96822 | 2,885 | 2.78125 | 3 | {
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HOLLYWOOD — On Sept. 1, newly hatched African spurred tortoise “Oakley” was found crawling around in the tortoise habitat at the Seminole Okalee Indian Village located in Seminole Paradise.
After the only female tortoise laid her eggs six months ago, wildlife staff believed that the eggs were infertile. By chance, wildlife assistant Justin Igualada happened to pass by the habitat and see the 2-inch African spurred tortoise.
“If I had walked by any later, he probably wouldn’t have survived,” Igualada said.
That’s because hatchling tortoises have many predators – especially birds. The parents don’t protect their offspring after being hatched, which gives other animals an opportunity to feed on the tortoise. Luckily, Oakley – named by wildlife manager John Jones after the sunglasses, not the village – was found in time to be put in a safer place until he can better protect himself.
The African spurred tortoise is the largest tortoise in the African desert and is the third-largest of the species. A misconception is that all members of the species are turtles. The main difference between tortoises and turtles is that tortoises live on land, while turtles live in water.
Oakley has the possibility to grow to be more than 100 pounds and will continue to grow the remainder of his life – up to 100 years. Although the tortoise drinks water, it is mainly hydrated through the vegetation it eats. The five adult tortoises at Okalee Village are fed up to a total of 50 pounds of lettuce and other vegetation a day. In the wild, many African spurred tortoises survive off of eating cactus.
Today Okalee Village is the home of 60 wildlife animals, including, snakes, birds, otters, alligators and other reptiles. Okalee Village is also fortunate to house two endangered species: the gopher tortoise and black bear.
Currently, Okalee Village is in the beginning stages of moving to a larger location in the foreseeable future. In order to receive more visitors, the facility will move to the open lot across from the Seminole Trading Post in Hollywood.
“We don’t get a lot of walk ins; we get a lot of school groups,” wildlife manager John Jones said. “We had 100 kids here this morning.”
The new Okalee Village will have 8 acres for the wildlife, including Oakley and parents, and for visitors to enjoy.
With the discovery of Oakley, the wildlife staff decided to closely watch the remaining eggs and incubate them at the village. That means Oakley the tortoise may receive a new brother or sister soon. | <urn:uuid:b3a7a794-883f-49fa-8661-16563f40bb77> | CC-MAIN-2018-05 | http://seminoletribune.org/first-baby-tortoise-hatched-at-seminole-okalee-indian-village/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-05/segments/1516084890314.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20180121060717-20180121080717-00595.warc.gz | en | 0.961451 | 570 | 2.828125 | 3 | {
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NAIDOC Week is a time to celebrate many things as blackfellas and as the First Peoples of Australia. This is also a week of reflection. It is a week to reflect on our collective resilience; a time to be who we are as First Peoples and as Australians.
Prime minister Tony Abbott’s recent remark that before colonisation our nations were “unsettled” stands as a testament to the very resilience NAIDOC Week seeks to celebrate. The rejection of the doctrine of terra nullius by the High Court in the Mabo decision declared that prior to 1788 the continent was indeed inhabited and therefore recognised our laws, customs and nations.
That is settled. It is unsettling that our prime minister is unaware of the impacts of his words on other Australians who believe in the supremacy of whiteness in our colonisation process and that life in Australia began in 1788.
Long before 1788, our nations have been connected to our places since time immemorial: that is settled. Since 1788 our nations remain connected to our places in the face of previous attempts by settlers to deny who we are and our connection to our places: that is settled. Our identities as cultural collectives and as individual blackfellas is solid: that is settled.
Non-Indigenous Australians deciding who we are is long gone: that is settled. What is “unsettling” about Abbott’s comments is his unwillingness to accept that our nations, our histories, our cultures, our stories and our families and communities are no longer interested in his particular view of Australia’s narrative. We know who we are and where we are from.
Blackfellas know who they are
The interesting thing for us about discussions about identity of blackfellas by blackfellas is that it is now a time of reconnecting to each other and to our places. It is accepted that every blackfella, irrespective of skin colour, place of residence or cultural identity, has their own unique voice and unique story. Each story is told openly and passionately in the hope and expectation that our stories do not require legitimisation but will be embraced rather than disparaged.
We do not need to prove anything to anyone outside of our families and communities about who we are. We are obligated as blackfellas to connect us back together. We have the collective knowledge to work out who we are and where we are from by living it, listening and knowing and connecting those of us that, through no fault of their own, do not currently possess the knowledge to find their place.
As a western-trained lawyer, I (Mark McMillan) know that there is a legal test for “Aboriginality” developed by non-Indigenous people to classify and label me and every other blackfella. I have fulfilled those requirements at law because the Federal Court of Australia has said so. So I am a court-ruled Aborigine.
Identity is a source of strength
That does not make me “black”. Nor does that “legal” test make anyone a blackfella. What makes me black and gives me that identity as a Wiradjuri man is my family, my community and the Wiradjuri nation.
I am comfortable being labelled by settler law (as an Aborigine) as it matters not one iota to my family or community that non-Indigenous people can recognise me as the other, the Aborigine. What matters to my family and nation is that I am “them” and I live their values and aspirations and that I take my Wiradjuriness seriously and responsibly.
That is the identity worth celebrating. We cannot for the life of us see the problem with Indigenous identity.
Indigenous identity is a positive way of strengthening our nations and their structures. We hold those rights to strengthen our nations because we are blackfellas, not because non-Indigenous people say we can. They are our rights as Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples clearly states this is so. This is a time of rebuilding and affirmation.
Dr Mark McMillan joined a guest panel to discuss what it means to be Aboriginal in Australia in front of a studio audience at the Sydney Opera House. NITV screens the event as a NAIDOC Awaken Identity Special at 8.30 tonight (Channel 34 free to air and Channel 144 Foxtel). | <urn:uuid:62902be2-6d7e-4166-88f1-08311f157ba8> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://theconversation.com/indigenous-identity-is-settled-and-must-be-seen-as-a-positive-28886 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886105341.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20170819105009-20170819125009-00306.warc.gz | en | 0.969741 | 917 | 3 | 3 | {
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The Raw Food diet has been in existence for centuries and a 19th-century doctor by the name Maximilian Bircher-Benner is credited as its pioneer. The diet is based on a number of questionable and debunked theories including that cooking destroys natural enzymes found in food and lowers nutrient content while destroying the food’s “life force” which are at odds with conventional science.
The Raw Food diet plan is almost entirely plant-based and avoids any processed and refined foods, sugars and additives and generally any meal prepared in heat exceeding 115 Fahrenheit. Regardless of the scientific accuracy of its foundations, the Raw Food diet plan has seen a resurgence in recent times with advocates claiming it can help in weight loss, improved vitality, increased energy, improvement to chronic diseases and improved general health.
The Process of the Raw Food Diet
Participants of the diet avoid any meal cooked in high heat, instead preferring drying, juicing and soaking as the acceptable preparation methods. The Raw Food menu is based on vegetables and fruits which are eaten raw or after being cooked on low heat. Nuts and seeds with cold-pressed olive oil are the fat sources and unprocessed dairy, eggs, dried meats and raw meat like sushi and sashimi can provide the protein. Grains and legumes are also consumed after being soaked or sprouted to make them edible.
The Raw Food menu avoids all roasted, baked and conventionally cooked foods. It also prohibits refined and processed food products and additives including sugar and salt and also discourages alcohol and coffee. Exercise is not part of the plan but is encouraged.
- It is one way to maintain a healthy weight.
- It is difficult to follow and inconvenient taking up time and resources.
- It can be expensive as some foods are rare and may need special equipment.
- It may lead to deficiencies of important nutrients.
Who Should Do It
The Raw Food diet is almost guaranteed to help in weight loss as it is low in calories. It can be problematic in the long term as there is a clear risk of nutrient deficiency.
Meal Plan Ideas
- Breakfast: Overnight oatmeal with chopped fruit and nuts
- Snack: Broccoli and raw hummus
- Snack: Raw sweet potato chips and fruit
- Dinner: Stuffed portobello mushrooms
- Breakfast: Green smoothie
- Snack: Carrots and raw hummus
- Lunch: Raw squash noodle pasta with pesto
- Snack: Strawberries and almonds
- Dinner: Raw vegetable pizza
- Breakfast: Soaked oats with berries
- Lunch: Salad with avocado and fruit
- Snack: Sliced bell pepper and sunflower seeds
- Dinner: Raw veggie sushi and chopped veggies | <urn:uuid:d7049644-e44b-46e7-b2f3-f88e38d2a897> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://dietsglobe.com/the-raw-food-diet-plan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370529375.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20200405053120-20200405083120-00461.warc.gz | en | 0.945668 | 562 | 3.140625 | 3 | {
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The geology underlying the devastating Haiti earthquake
The same earthquake fault that lies under Haiti also runs through the Dominican Republic. Geologists warn that the Haiti quake – at the Enriquilla-Plantain Garden Fault – may have added strain elsewhere and more quakes are possible.
Eduardo Munoz / Reuters
The magnitude 7 earthquake that leveled much of Haiti's capital Tuesday – the strongest temblor to hit the country in some 200 years -- may have increased strain on a segment of the same fault that lies across the border in the Dominican Republic.
That concern, based on calculations made during the first 24 hours after the quake hit, may ease with additional on-the-ground data, cautions Purdue University geophysicist Eric Calais, who has spent years studying faults on Hispaniola, the island both countries share.
But since the mid-1980s and the advent of precision satellite measurements of ground movement, plus other high-tech advances, earth scientists have developed an increasing respect for the ability of the slip of one fault to increase the strain on other, nearby faults, or on a different segment of the original fault.
In any effort to track changes in strain, "I would focus on the eastern termination of the fault towards the Dominican Republic, pending more information," he says. The reason: The rupture slid to the east. While strain would build at both ends of the ruptured segment, another rupture farther to the west would occur in a sparsely populated, hard to reach portion of Haiti. To the east, however, the fault traces a path through the mountains separating Haiti from the Dominican Republic and into the more-heavily populated southwestern portion of Haiti's neighbor.
Already, teams of researchers are planning to visit the stricken area to take the full measure of the quake before erosion or rebuilding efforts erase key pieces of evidence.
Accurate measurements of ground movement -- seen in offset stream beds or displaced roads, for instance -- help establish the amount of strain released. Careful monitoring of the strongest aftershocks, which can die off fairly quickly after a quake, help establish how deep in the crust the quake's break-point was. Tracking the quake's aftermath over the long term will help researchers better understand the slow rebound that occurs along the fault after the initial snap.
Why Haiti's fault got less attention
The tragic event has struck a broad patch of the globe -- the Caribbean -- well known for earthquakes and volcanic activity. But while islands such as Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and the Antilles chains are fairly well studied, Haiti hasn't received the same attention, since working in a country that is no stranger to poverty and hardship can be downright unsafe.
Still, scientists have pulled together an increasingly clear picture of the broad geophysical context in which Monday's event took place. Hispaniola sits squarely atop a boundary between two plates in Earth's crust: the North American Plate and the Caribbean Plate. The Caribbean Plate is trying to slide past a particularly tough block of crust underlying the Bahamas. The two are grinding past each other, much like the motion along another plate boundary -- California's San Andreas Fault.
Tuesday's quake occurred along the Enriquilla-Plantain Garden Fault, an east-west crack in the Earth that also runs west through Jamaica and out to the Cayman Islands. But Hispaniola also is home to another major fault, which cuts across its northern interior and heads toward Cuba.
These two fault systems trace their origins to a broader interaction between the North American plate and the Caribbean Plate. The North American plate is plunging under the Caribbean plate north of Hispanola and Puerto Rico. But one portion of the North America plate dubbed the Bahamas Platform is too bouyant to make the plunge easily, reseachers say. The result: The giant collision is deforming Hispanola.
Over millions of years, Hispaniola's northern fault, the Septentrional, has been the major pathway for building and releasing strain from the sideways motion of the two plates. But some researchers now argue that activity may be shifting; the Enriquilla-Plantain Garden Fault may slowly be taking over as the main strain-relief valve for the plate boundary, explains Uri ten Brink, a geophysicist with the US Geological Survey's office in Woods Hole, Mass.
In effect, the region has two parallel plate boundaries. "That's quite unusual," he says. Indeed, given the number of people who live on the island, as well as the number who visit, "this was really a wake-up call to me to try and understand this system." | <urn:uuid:b3c5fa86-646d-4dae-bf5f-395ea4fe682d> | CC-MAIN-2018-34 | https://m.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2010/0113/The-geology-underlying-the-devastating-Haiti-earthquake | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-34/segments/1534221213264.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20180818021014-20180818041014-00101.warc.gz | en | 0.946344 | 936 | 3.671875 | 4 | {
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Secret to loony lunar soils revealed
Lunar secrets Glass bubbles in lunar soil are the source of nanoparticles that explain the alien behaviour of the Moon's topsoil, say researchers.
Dr Marek Zbik from the Queensland University of Technology and colleagues report their findings in the International Scholarly Research Network Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Lunar soil particles are very sticky and abrasive, says Zbik, a surface chemist and geologist, whose work was sponsored by the Australian Synchrotron.
The particles are also electrically charged which means they hover above the surface of the Moon.
"Usually it's just a few centimetres up, but they can also be present 100 kilometres up," says Zbik.
Not only can these particles coat surfaces of equipment, windows and electrical components, they can also present a potential human health hazard.
In addition, lunar soil particles are very good insulators, says Zbik. Even though it can be 160°C above the Moon's surface, 2 metres below the surface it can be just -40°C.
Scientists believe these weird properties of the Moon's soil can be explained by the numerous nanoparticles contained within it.
"Nanoparticles are ruled by quantum physics, which is poorly understood," says Zbik.
But to date it has been a mystery about where these tiny particles - just 100 nanometres in size - came from.
"If you grind rock you cannot obtain particles less than 2 microns in diameter," says Zbik.
In earlier studies Zbik had used scanning electron microscopy to study samples of lunar soil from a Soviet robotic space mission.
In particular he studied fragments of glass formed from the melting of lunar soil after meteorite impacts, and found evidence of broken bubbles containing nanoparticles.
"I was surprised when I saw the nanoparticles in the bubbles and wondered where they had originally from," says Zbik.
In the most recent study, Zbik and colleagues used transmission x-ray microscopy to study intact bubbles in the glass, and found they contained a sponge-like network of nanoparticles.
Zbik says the study confirms the bubbles are indeed the source of the nanoparticles, which would have been released by subsequent meteorite bombardment which broke open the bubbles.
"The nanoparticles were then liberated and incorporated into the lunar soil," says Zbik.
Zbik says the next step is to understand how the nanoparticles were formed inside the bubbles in the hope of finding commercially-relevant techniques for making nanoparticles. | <urn:uuid:5c28bc84-fd6a-44cd-bea5-9f532207c73d> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/06/14/3524405.htm?site=science&topic=latest | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131297587.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172137-00036-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954409 | 533 | 3.5 | 4 | {
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} | Science & Tech. |
When October 31st arrives each
year most of us are excited to
dress in a great Halloween costume
and set out to "trick-or-treat" or
go to a party. It is the costume
that thrills us the most. However,
this is a relatively recent practice.
In fact, so is going door to door
expecting to get candy treats.
Homemade Halloween costumes at
right from the 1890's.
History and Origins of Wearing Costumes
Historical records indicate the practice of wearing costumes was practiced by
early Christians in Western Europe during the 15th century. Called “guising,”
people living in English cities during the 1700’s would dress in homemade
costumes to parade and party for “All Saints” on November 1st and “All Souls
Day” on November 2nd, whereas no costumes were worn for Halloween on the
traditional day of October 31st.
The Celtic practice of celebrating Samhain on October 31st, the day when the
ghosts of the dead are believed to return to earth, has influenced the
development of Halloween. Heavily dependent on the success of their crops, they
had many rituals to improve fertility and stave off evil spirits. The Celtic
priests, also called Druids, would commemorate Samhain to ensure good crops
with massive bonfires and animals sacrificed to honor their gods. They
traditionally wore animal heads and skins as they danced around the fire to
beseech the Gods for protection from the cold winter and prosperity for the
In Ireland, Samhain was the day livestock would be herded from their summer
pastures to be butchered and stored to feed families during the long, cold
winter. It was also a day that people and livestock were ritually cleansed as they
walked between bonfires. The bones of butchered animals would be given back to
Wearing Costumes to Disguise Oneself
The practice of wearing costumes is believed to have evolved from the desire to
disguise oneself as protection from harmful spirits as the “door” to the
Otherworld opened to allow the souls of the dead to return to earth on October
The first recorded practice of wearing costumes on Halloween began in Scotland.
Poor Scottish adults and children in the 1890’s dressed in disguises while going
door to door in wealthier communities to beg for cakes, nuts, fruit and money. To
light their way, they carried lanterns made from turnips and wore improvised
costumes and masks, such as the one pictured below.
Handmade Halloween mask from 1900 Ireland.
The wearing of costumes for Halloween came to England and Ireland by 1900.
In the wealthy English towns of Thorntonhill and South Lanarkshire boys from
poor families began to dress in homemade costumes and begged for handouts on
Interestingly, the threat of a “trick” if a treat is not given did not begin until
Halloween came to North America. Children in Scotland, Ireland and England
often memorized a humorous poem or song before donning a homemade costume
and setting out to ask for treats in wealthier neighborhoods. Children tell a poem, dance, sing or play a card trick in exchange for the “treat.”
The earliest Halloween costume
styles reflected its Gothic pagan
origins of honoring the dead and
helping the souls of sinners rise
to heaven. They were made with
items found around the home.
Make-up was frequently used to
disguise the individual as well as
create unique guises.
Above: Kids Wear Costumes in 1920's America.
In 1900, as shown below, American kids made costumes from things they found
around their home.
Halloween Costumes Come To America
Dressing in costumes for Halloween was not recorded in North America until
1911, when a newspaper reported children going door-to-door while wearing
Halloween costumes in Kingston, Ontario.
Today, celebrating the Halloween in America has come full circle. It is common
for adults to dress in Halloween costumes that reflect death and the dying and
parade around cemetery graves stones on Halloween night. Cemetery owners
charge fees for this privilege.
Below, people wear costumes as they parade through cemeteries on Halloween.
As the custom of celebrating Halloween in the United States became popular
enterprising companies began making costumes. Mass production of various
Halloween costume designs became big business 1930. It became popular to wear
scary Halloween costumes such as witches, vampires, werewolves, zombies and
Today, the trend is moving back to the ghouls and
Gothic witches of an earlier time.
Gothic Witch Costume
(We sell these in our
Origin of Halloween
Halloween was not always a day of costumes, fearless fun and candy galore.
Centuries ago Halloween, formerly called All Hallows' Eve, comes from the Celtic
feast of Samhain, which marked the end of summer.
In Northern Europe, the arrival of November meant the arrival of dreary, dark,
barren, cold, wet days. With dark times ahead, fire and protection were needed
on October 31st. With this in mind the rural folks lit huge bonfires on hilltops to
frighten away evil spirits and held rites and sacrifices to please the gods and
demons and all the things beyond their control. Natives hung Cherokee jewelry from trees for decoration and protection.
For months to come they had nothing but time and fear on their hands, and soon
lots of sinister Halloween ceremonies sprung up, such as mock funerals, mask
wearing, Halloween costumes, games, and sacrifices.
Somewhere along the line, October 31, or Halloween, became the only day of the
year in which it was believed the devil could be invoked for help in finding out
about future marriages, health, deaths, crops, and what was to happen in the new
Halloween in England and Ireland
Throughout ancient Britain and Ireland there were Halloween costumes worn,
games played and rituals performed, mostly to find out who would marry whom.
On Halloween, one could hear young women chanting formulas as they went out and plowed the earth at midnight and sewed seed for the Spring crop.
Uneducated and superstitious, they believed if the woman looked over her
shoulder while planting the crop by the light of the moon, she might catch a
glimpse of the figure of her future husband.
Meanwhile back in people's houses Halloween activities were in full force. Coins
and apples were put in tubs of water and party goers dressed in costumes dunked
their heads into tubs to try to capture the objects with their teeth and of
course, they would wear scary hand sewn witch costumes.
Snatching a coin or an apple meant a happy New Year was in store. Out of all
these Halloween activities emerged "Mischief Night."
Halloween in America
In the last century, immigrants, especially the Irish, brought their
mischief-making customs to the United States. On Halloween boys and young men
wearing dark Halloween costumes broke windows and overturned outhouses.
Then, perhaps to control the damage, someone started the Halloween custome of
"trick or treat" for the little kids. However, if a trick was to be played, the boy
was told to beware of the jack-o'-lanterns or hollowed out pumpkins with sharp
teeth and an eerie glow. They were watching you.
The day after Halloween, All Saints' Day, went to the other extreme in its
activities and rituals. It was time to repent for the mischief and trickery one
caused and to remember the holy people who came before you.
Halloween has become a symbol of fun, lots of candy and the wearing of zombie,
vampire, dracula, pirate, princess and witch costumes. By far the biggest change in contemporary American entertainment habits is that people now spend more on Halloween costumes than they do on other "holidays," apart from Christmas. People buy tubes of fake blood, plastic pumpkins, and ghoulish Halloween costumes, such as zombie costumes, witch costumes, skeleton costumes, vampire costumes and monster costumes. Of coarse, lots of Halloween decorations are displayed in front yards.
Last Halloween I saw a child say, "Mommy, look! A circle of witches are just
standing in front of Amy's house!"
The children are straining against their seatbelts in excitement as they drive
past the most fancy Halloween decorated homes in the neighborhood. Ten years
ago, all you would see was a pumpkin sitting on the porch. Now we see scary
critters in Halloween costumes dangling from ropes tied to a roof and dummies in
Halloween witch costumes sitting on lawns with a lighted cauldron next to her.
"Over there! A giant spider web! Wow!" Children yell out.
Or they say, "Look, they've got a graveyard in their yard!"
What is interesting about the Halloween phenomenon is that today its celebration is not about death, or life, or fall. It is a completely content-free, dark-caped day that kids and adults can put on whatever Halloween costume they want and pretend they are someone or something else.
Historically, Halloween had been a low-grade thrill experienced chiefly by the very young. Halloween costumes were handmade from the contents of our dress-up trunks and children marched out into the dusk to petition the neighbors for candy apples and sweets.
Today, Halloween is celebrated by more adults than children. Young adults wear Halloween costumes and rush out to a friend’s Halloween party. They are dressed in the most sought after Halloween costume. When they arrive, they are greeted by the scariest of beings. The house is dark and has Halloween decorations to make it look like you are entering a dark cave. There are Frankenstein windsocks, decorative skulls and many dummies dressed in Halloween costumes. The invited guests receive spider rings, witch hats and lots of Halloween candy. They play games and dance and have a great escape from the rigors and demands of our new society.
Instead of just the children wearing Halloween costumes adults of all ages can
feel comfortable wearing a funny or scary Halloween costume to disguise or transform themselves into something else for a day.
One of the Most Important Aspects of Halloween is Wearing
a Costume to Become Someone or Something Else
By The 1930's Kids Begin
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Item description for The Travels of Marco Polo (Modern Library Classics) by Marco Polo, Jason Goodwin & Manuel Komroff...
Overview The thirteenth-century Italian merchant and explorer recounts his adventures in China and tells how he served as an emissary for Kublai Khan.
Publishers Description Marco Polo's account of his journey throughout the East in the thirteenth century was one of the earliest European travel narratives, and it remains the most important. The merchant-traveler from Venice, the first to cross the entire continent of Asia, provided us with accurate descriptions of life in China, Tibet, India, and a hundred other lands, and recorded customs, natural history, strange sights, historical legends, and much more. From the dazzling courts of Kublai Khan to the perilous deserts of Persia, no book contains a richer magazine of marvels than the Travels.
This edition, selected and edited by the great scholar Manuel Komroff, also features the classic and stylistically brilliant Marsden translation, revised and corrected, as well as Komroff's Introduction to the 1926 edition.
Jason Goodwin's books include A Time for Tea: Travels Through China and India in Search of Tea; On Foot to the Golden Horn: A Walk to Istanbul; and Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire.
1. Though many of his contemporaries doubted the veracity of his story, Marco Polo's account of his travels was widely read and discussed in medieval times, and went on to become the most influential and popular travel narrative ever written. What do you think accounts for its popularity and historical importance?
2. Why did Marco Polo, his father, and his uncle embark upon their journey? What did they hope to accomplish? What did they actually accomplish?
3. What qualities made Marco Polo an ideal traveler and narrator?
4. What do you think accounted for Marco Polo's success as an advisor, administrator, and diplomat in the government of Kublai Khan? What can you discern about Marco Polo the man from his writings?
5. What sort of impression did Kublai Khan make on Marco Polo? How does Marco Polo describe him?
6. Some of the marvels Marco Polo encountered in his travels through the East were completely unknown in the Europe of his time. These include paper money, the Imperial postal system, crocodiles, and coconuts. What other interesting and peculiar phenomena did Marco Polo discover during his travels?
7. Discuss the general features of Chinese society and culture as described by Marco Polo. How did this culture compare to the Europe of Marco Polo's day? To other cultures and civilizations that you are familiar with?
Ye Emperors, Kings, Dukes, Marquises, Earls, and Knights, and all other people desirous of knowing the diversities of the races of mankind, as well as the diversities of kingdoms, provinces, and regions of all parts of the East, read through this book, and ye will find in it the greatest and most marvellous characteristics of the peoples especially of Armenia, Persia, India, and Tartary, as they are severally related in the present work by Marco Polo, a wise and learned citizen of Venice, who states distinctly what things he saw and what things he heard from others. For this book will be a truthful one.
It must be known, then, that from the creation of Adam to the present day, no man, whether Pagan, or Saracen, or Christian, or other, of whatever progeny or generation he may have been, ever saw or inquired into so many and such great things as Marco Polo above mentioned. Who, wishing in his secret thoughts that the things he had seen and heard should be made public by the present work, for the benefit of those who could not see them with their own eyes, he himself being in the year of our Lord 1298 in prison at Genoa, caused the things which are contained in the present work to be written by master Rustigielo, a citizen of Pisa, who was with him in the same prison at Genoa;* and he divided it into three parts.
How the Two Brothers Polo Set Forth from Constantinople to Traverse the World
It should be known to the reader that, at the time when Baldwin II. was emperor of Constantinople† where a magistrate representing the doge of Venice then resided, and in the year of our Lord 1260, Nicolo Polo, the father of the said Marco, and Maffeo, the brother of Nicolo, respectable and well-informed men, embarked in a ship of their own, with a rich and varied cargo of merchandise, and reached Constantinople in safety. After mature deliberation on the subject of their proceedings, it was determined, as the measure most likely to improve their trading capital, that they should prosecute their voyage into the Euxine or Black Sea. With this view they made purchases of many fine and costly jewels, and taking their departure from Constantinople, navigated that sea to a port named Soldaia, from whence they travelled on horseback many days until they reached the court of a powerful chief of the Western Tartars, named Barka, who dwelt in the cities of Bolgara and Sarra, and had the reputation of being one of the most liberal and civilized princes hitherto known amongst the tribes of Tartary. He expressed much satisfaction at the arrival of these travellers, and received them with marks of distinction. In return for which courtesy, when they had laid before him the jewels they brought with them, and perceived that their beauty pleased him, they presented them for his acceptance. The liberality of this conduct on the part of the two brothers struck him with admiration; and being unwilling that they should surpass him in generosity, he not only directed double the value of
*A truce between Genoa and Venice, signed in July 1299, undoubtedly released both Marco Polo and his scribe Rustigielo. (See Sir Henry Yule's introduction to his great scholarly work Ser Marco Polo.) † Baldwin II. reigned from 1237 to 1261.
the jewels to be paid to them, but made them in addition several rich presents.
The brothers having resided a year in the dominions of this prince, they became desirous of revisiting their native country, but were impeded by the sudden breaking out of a war between him and another chief, named Alaù, who ruled over the Eastern Tartars. In a fierce and very sanguinary battle that ensued between their respective armies, Alaù was victorious, in consequence of which, the roads being rendered unsafe for travellers, the brothers could not attempt to return by the way they came; and it was recommended to them, as the only practicable mode of reaching Constantinople, to proceed in an easterly direction, by an unfrequented route, so as to skirt the limits of Barka's territories. Accordingly they made their way to a town named Oukaka, situated on the confines of the kingdom of the Western Tartars. Leaving that place, and advancing still further, they crossed the Tigris [Volga], one of the four rivers of Paradise, and came to a desert, the extent of which was seventeen days' journey, wherein they found neither town, castle, nor any substantial building, but only Tartars with their herds, dwelling in tents on the plain. Having passed this tract they arrived at length at a well-built city called Bokhara, in a province of that name, belonging to the dominions of Persia, and the noblest city of that kingdom, but governed by a prince whose name was Barak. Here, from inability to proceed further, they remained three years.
It happened while these brothers were in Bokhara, that a person of consequence and gifted with eminent talents made his appearance there. He was proceeding as ambassador from Alaù before mentioned, to the Great Khan,* supreme chief of all the Tartars, named Kublai, whose residence was at the extremity of the continent, in a direction between north-east and east. Not having ever before had an opportunity, although he wished it, of seeing any na- tives of Italy, he was gratified in a high degree at meeting and con-
* Khan 5 Lord. Kublai was also called the Great Kaan. Kaan 5 Supreme Sovereign (Lord of Lords). Polo always referred to Kublai in writing as the Great Khan and to lesser princes as Khan.
versing with these brothers, who had now become proficients in the Tartar language; and after associating with them for several days, and finding their manners agreeable to him, he proposed to them that they should accompany him to the presence of the Great Khan, who would be pleased by their appearance at his court, which had not hitherto been visited by any person from their country; adding assurances that they would be honourably received, and recompensed with many gifts. Convinced as they were that their endeavours to return homeward would expose them to the most imminent risks, they agreed to this proposal, and recommending themselves to the protection of the Almighty, they set out on their journey in the suite of the ambassador, attended by several Christian servants whom they had brought with them from Venice.
The course they took at first was between the north-east and north, and an entire year was consumed before they were enabled to reach the imperial residence, in consequence of the extraordinary delays occasioned by the snows and the swelling of the rivers, which obliged them to halt until the former had melted and the floods had subsided. Many things worthy of admiration were observed by them in the progress of their journey, but which are here omitted, as they will be described by Marco Polo, in the sequel of the book.
CHAPTER 2 How the Great Khan Sent the Two Brothers as His Envoys to the Pope
Being introduced to the presence of the Great Khan, Kublai, the travellers were received by him with the condescension and affability that belonged to his character, and as they were the first Latins who had made their appearance in that country, they were entertained with feasts and honoured with other marks of distinction. Entering graciously into conversation with them, he made earnest inquiries on the subject of the western parts of the world, of the Emperor of the Romans, and of other Christian kings and princes. He wished to be informed of their relative consequence, the extent of their possessions, the manner in which justice was administered in their several kingdoms and principalities, how they conducted themselves in warfare, and above all he questioned them particularly respecting the Pope, the affairs of the Church, and the religious worship and doctrine of the Christians. Being well instructed and discreet men, they gave appropriate answers upon all these points, and as they were perfectly acquainted with the Tartar language, they expressed themselves always in becoming terms; insomuch that the Great Khan, holding them in high estimation, frequently commanded their attendance.
When he had obtained all the information that the two brothers communicated with so much good sense, he expressed himself well satisfied, and having formed in his mind the design of employing them as his ambassadors to the Pope, after consulting with his ministers on the subject, he proposed to them, with many kind entreaties, that they should accompany one of his Barons, named Khogatal, on a mission to the See of Rome.
His object, he told them, was to make a request to his Holiness that he would send to him a hundred men of learning, thoroughly acquainted with the principles of the Christian religion, as well as with the seven arts,* and qualified to prove to the learned of his dominions by just and fair argument, that the faith professed by Christians is superior to, and founded upon more evident truth than, any other; that the gods of the Tartars and the idols worshipped in their houses were only evil spirits, and that they and the people of the East in general were under an error in reverenc- ing them as divinities.† He, moreover, signified his pleasure that upon their return they should bring with them, from Jerusalem, some of the Holy Oil from the lamp which is kept burning over the Sepulchre of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom he professed to hold in veneration and to consider as the true God. Having heard these
* The seven arts of the time were: Rhetoric, Logic, Grammar, Arithmetic, Astronomy, Music, and Geometry. † “. . . and that if they would prove this, he and all under him would become Christians and the Church's liegemen” (from Yule's translation).
commands addressed to them by the Great Khan they humbly prostrated themselves before him, declaring their willingness and instant readiness to perform, to the utmost of their ability, whatever might be the royal will. Upon which he caused letters, in the Tartarian language, to be written in his name to the Pope of Rome, and these he delivered into their hands.
He likewise gave orders that they should be furnished with a golden tablet displaying the imperial cipher, according to the usage established by his majesty; in virtue of which the person bearing it, together with his whole suite, are safely conveyed and escorted from station to station by the governors of all places within the imperial dominions, and are entitled, during the time of their residing in any city, castle, town, or village, to a supply of provisions and everything necessary for their accommodation.
Being thus honourably commissioned they took their leave of the Great Khan, and set out on their journey, but had not proceeded more than twenty days when the officer, named Khogatal, their companion, fell dangerously ill, and unable to proceed further, he halted at a certain city. In this dilemma it was determined, upon consulting all who were present, and with the approbation of the man himself, that they should leave him behind. In the prosecution of their journey they derived essential benefit from being provided with the royal tablet, which procured them attention in every place through which they passed. Their expenses were defrayed, and escorts were furnished. But notwithstanding these advantages, so great were the natural difficulties they had to encounter, from the extreme cold, the snow, the ice, and the flooding of the rivers, that their progress was unavoidably tedious, and three years elapsed before they were enabled to reach a sea-port town in the lesser Armenia, named Laiassus.
Citations And Professional Reviews The Travels of Marco Polo (Modern Library Classics) by Marco Polo, Jason Goodwin & Manuel Komroff has been reviewed by professional book reviewers and journalists at the following establishments -
Wilson Senior High Core Col - 01/01/2011 page 645
Wilson Senior High Core Col - 01/01/2007 page 531
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Release Date Dec 4, 2001
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More About Marco Polo, Jason Goodwin & Manuel Komroff
Marco Polo (1254 1324) was the son of a Venetian merchant and traveler. In 1271, Marco, with his father and uncle, began a journey that four years later led to their being accepted at the court of Kublai Khan. During these years, they traveled extensively in Persia and China, through regions almost totally unknown to the Western world. In service to the Khan, Marco explored Tibet and Burma and many of the remote provinces of China; it is possible that he went to the southern parts of India as well. Participating in a military conflict between Genoa and Venice, he was taken prisoner in 1298. While in captivity, he dictated the Travels of Marco Polo to a fellow prisoner. Milton Rugoff was a longtime editor for several publishing houses. He is the author of a number of books, including A Harvest of World Folk Tales, Marco Polo s Adventures in China, The Great Travelers, and The Beechers: An American Family in the Nineteenth Century, which was nominated for an American Book Award in 1982. Howard Mittelmark is an editor, book critic, and coauthor of How Not to Write a Novel. He lives in New York City."
Marco Polo was born in 1254 and died in 1323.
Marco Polo has published or released items in the following series...
Reviews - What do customers think about The Travels of Marco Polo (Modern Library Classics)?
Marco's journey Jan 21, 2008
Marco Polo purportedly spent 17 years travelling to the courts of Kublai Khan and, as an emissary for Kublai Khan, then throughout the Far East. Whether it actually happened or not is up for debate. I went into this text with an open mindset and have accepted that Marco Polo did indeed go on this trip with his father and uncle, but not to the extent as surmised. Instead he travelled and added stories he collected from traders and others to fill in gaps or points of interest to him. The book is broken into four sections now. Part One is his trip to the Great Khan's courts in Cathay (China). Part Two is his travels throughout the provinces of Cathay. Part Three concerns going to Japan, Southern India, and the Islands of the Indian Sea (Java, etc). Part Four is travelling into the 'northern countries' (Russia, etc).
In general, Polo gives very brief descriptions of most regions, accounting for their religious beliefs, money used, fealty to the Great Khan Kublai. There's some intriguing customs (visitors will be taken into a home and the man of the house leaves until they are gone but the visitor has full access to the household including the wives, daughters, sisters, nieces), talks of cannibalism, dress, unfamiliar animals they encountered, and contributes to the whole messy history of Prestor John. It does get repetitive and dry after a while. Polo's talk of Kublai Khan is almost obsessive and he was obviously completely enamoured of this new culture. Overall, it was fascinating to read although I had to push myself through some parts due to repetitive descriptions. Any history buff should read this story about one of the purported most well-travelled explorers ever, not to mention he was possibly the biggest best-selling authors before the printing press was invented.
The Size of the World Sep 12, 2007
It has been a pleasure to revisit the travels of Marco Polo. I was transfixed by these stories of travel and adventure when I was a child, and never questioned the veracity of the narrative. I know today that the narrative has been corrupted over the centuries, that "The Travels" can scarcely be used as an historical reference, and that a more tantalizing and complete manuscript has probably been lost to the ages. Still, there are glimpses and insights within the narrative that could only have come from first-hand experience, and these describe an enormous, exotic world that titillates even today, while readers in the 13th and 14th centuries must have been enthralled.
I was most keen this time around to Polo's descriptions of the cultures and wildlife he encountered, of the whales and lions and leopards and bears--he even describes a white bear, and the people who hunted it were surely of the group often called Eskimos. He describes dog-sledding in the far north and the cannibalistic practices of the people of Java far to the south, both of which are extant in our current era. There are also the fascinating observations of the Mongol Empire, of that group of nomadic people who somehow rose up, like an event in an Isaac Asimov novel, to conquer much of the known world.
Somewhat depressingly, though, are Polo's observations of the tensions that existed between the Islamic and Christian worlds, tensions rooted in the competition for hegemony over trade in the Far East. Seven hundred years later, these tensions are still acting themselves out.
This translation by Ronald Latham from 1958 includes an introduction that puts Marco Polo's life in context with events and includes footnotes to help the reader make sense of the myriad manuscripts that make up the travels of Marco Polo. This is a somewhat dry read; even Latham comments on the paucity of skill employed by Polo's chronicler. Once I put my mind in context with the narrative, however, I was able to roll with the repetition and sycophancy and enjoy the text.
Dry, but interesting Jul 27, 2007
Imagine a very boring person went through something fascinating. This person came up to you, started to talk about this incredible journey of theirs, but talking in this monotonous voice without changing pitch or showing excitement at any moment.
That's essentially what "Travels of Marco Polo" is. It's an INCREDIBLY interesting book and a fascinating tale, but can it possible be said in a more dry and flat way? There is no energetic spark that makes this adventure jump off the page. Perhaps this is due to the times, but I suspect the translation is a bit literal and bland as well. The writing never changes tone, even in parts that are clearly exciting and amazing. All the facts are there, but the reader is forced to put too much energy just to make it interesting.
Marco Polo had a most fascinating journey. Any history buff should snatch this book off the shelves (unless they decide to read the even longer, more annoying records that I'm sure can be found floating around), and anyone interesting in Marco Polo should as well. It may be dull at times, but it's still incredible, fascinating, and a riveting tale.
Recommended to heavier, more able readers.
straight & plain narration Jul 26, 2007
This is just a straight & plain narration on what Marco Polo came across. At times it's quite boring. But I mean no disrespect for Polo as he would still be a remarkable explorer & adventurer even today, not to say in the 13th century where transportation was in primitive modes. Contrasting Polo's map & the modern one is interesting though, as well as guessing the modern places corresponding to Polo's description.
We are all Marco Polos now Jan 15, 2007
In the late 13th century, three Venetian merchants, two brothers and the son of one of them, visited China, which was then ruled by the Mongols. The Mongols distrusted the native Chinese and hired foreigners such as the young man as minor officials. The Venetian merchant-turned-official traveled extensively through North and South China, South-East Asia and India. After he returned to Venice, he took part in a war between Venice and Genoa, was taken prisoner, and in prison met a professional writer who wrote a book based on his memoirs and embellished it with the stock devices of late medieval romances. Among various Asiatic curiosities Messer Polo describes asbestos, coal, tigers, musk deer, sago and coconuts. He tells the story of the Buddha, describes the Mongol postal system (I was surprised that yamb, which is obviously the root of the Russian word yamshchik, a postal courier, is a Mongol word), Chinese paper money and the life of Indian yogis. For him, the Shinto "idols" of Japan are offensive for a Christian to read about, but the virginity test administered to prospective daughters-in-law in South China isn't. Marco Polo is no Jonathan Spence; he is not trying to get the reader inside the heads of people belonging to an alien culture; he is a merchant, and cares much more about the crops that grow in a certain kingdom or a region, and the crafts its inhabitants practice. Anyway, it is an enjoyable read if you liked Herodotus or the Russian Primary Chronicle. When I read it on the bus, the white man in the seat to the left of me was reading a textbook of Mandarin, and the white man to the right was practicing his Kanji - we are all Marco Polos now. | <urn:uuid:9776bd22-00e7-4f56-9ebe-c4c12df4f746> | CC-MAIN-2017-13 | http://www.promiseangels.com/jason-goodwin/the-travels-of-marco-polo-modern-library-classics/SKU/158454 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-13/segments/1490218195419.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20170322212955-00403-ip-10-233-31-227.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978225 | 5,084 | 3.109375 | 3 | {
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While vacationing in a resort at Lauderdale-By-The-Sea on the Fourth of July, I learned that one of the turtle nests in front of our building was that of a leatherback.
Each of the world's seven species of sea turtles are classified as either threatened or endangered, but the leatherbacks are "critically endangered." Three species make nests in Broward — loggerheads ("threatened"), green sea turtles ("endangered"), and leatherbacks. Ninety percent are loggerheads, so a leatherback nest is rare. The good news is that their numbers are on the uptick this year, with 30 nests in Broward. However, since an adult can lay five nests in one season, potentially there are only six leatherbacks laying eggs on our shores.
Development has been a major threat to the world's turtles, as babies frequently get disoriented when they hatch and confuse manmade lights with the light of the moon. Following their instincts, they go toward the light — but in many cases unfortunately, towards traffic instead of the water. To combat this, the nests on Broward beaches are patrolled by a variety of agencies who share information and responsibilities, including the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Nova University, Audubon, and STOP, the Sea Turtle Oversight Protection.
STOP volunteers are the bad-ass vigilantes who roam the beach at during the midnight hours, and remain elusive, like a secret society, not wanting to give out too much information on what they do. Volunteers need to put in 40 hours of training under a zone supervisor, and witness a few hatchouts of baby turtles before they are permitted by the FWC and deemed competent to handle responsibility on their own. There are 16 zones spread across Broward County — a total of about 22 miles of shoreline. (Broward in total has 24 miles of beach.)
"Individuals that work with us have to go through pretty rigorous training and supervision and be listed on our wildlife permit," says Richard Whitecloud, the co-founder of STOP. For a nonpermitted individual to touch or interfere with the turtles is a violation of federal law.
STOP was formed after Richard's wife, Siouxzen Whitecloud, crossed A1A early one morning to teach a yoga class on the beach and encountered a group of run-over sea turtles. The couple had been scheduled to move across the country two days later with their young daughter, but scrapped their plans to begin advocating for the turtles. Richard, who has a background in environmental engineering, says he puts in 60 hours per week on his turtle work, and does environmental consulting part-time.
The STOP posse consists of diehard loyalists who are totally unpaid, with their only reward being unsung hours of solitude with nature and occasionally witnessing a sea turtle momma coming ashore, or a nest hatching. To date,125,000 sea turtles have been rescued in Broward County by STOP since its inception in 2007. Their mission is to rescue the one-in-three sea turtles who are disoriented by city lights.
I myself witnessed many turtle babies turn around this week due to light pollution, even after their flippers hit the wet sand. A light went on, and around they turned, trekking across the sand to what would have been a certain death, had it not been for a kind human intervening.
The Fourth of July is a dangerous time for many animals, but most notably the beach wildlife. Tourists at my resort had been holding a vigil for many nights by the leatherback nest, drinking and smoking (sadly, some were using the beach as an ashtray) under the moonlight, ready to guard and protect the babies. STOP volunteers are not so crazy about the uninvited, untrained spectators, but there’s not much they can do about it, other than educate them.
For weeks, the ocean has been throwing up carpets of Sargasso seaweed. During the day on the Fourth, my son and I went out and moved some of the hills of seaweed to clear a path from the nest to the water, in case the baby turtles hatched. It was apparent that other people had been doing the same thing throughout the week in anticipation. I had conflicting emotions about moving the seaweed. It felt like trying to help a butterfly out of its cocoon. “Just trying to be helpful” can be a curse. But we did it anyway, and later in the evening, I was glad we did.
After the fireworks of July 4th, I went out to visit the leatherback nest and see how it was doing. I was pleasantly surprised to see a volunteer known as Turtle John at the helm, and spent the next few hours listening to parts of his life story. Turtle John — a.k.a. John Harbit - has been homeless at some points, and his story of struggle and sadness kept me thinking “I’ve heard this before.” Using his sobriety in positive ways, Turtle John went through STOP certification and spends a few nights per week on the beach guarding and protecting the silent sea turtles. By the way, not once, but twice, Turtle John has made news headlines after he found thousands of dollars and made sure it got returned to the owner via the police. In these stories he is called the "good Samaritan." Never once has he received a monetary reward in return for his acts of good character. I looked to the open sky and said some prayers for him while listening to the long saga.
After midnight, and after about two hours of Turtle John’s stories, a black spot erupted on the mound, and it was our lucky day! We had the rare opportunity to see baby leatherback turtles welcomed to the earth. About 50 hatched. Following protocol, I had to scramble to the safe distance of 50 feet from the nest, as John began flattening the sand with a Cuban broom so volunteers could better count the turtle tracks that would be made.
Only permitted individuals are allowed to shine special LED lightsources on these endangered animals; anything else is considered harassment and punishable by law. Many folks wrongfully think merely switching their cellphone flashlight to an orange color is good enough, but it is not the proper lightwave and prohibited from being used near hatchlings. The leatherback turtles are very slow in making their way across the sand and into the water. I decided to stand in the shoreline and watch how many made it into the ocean. After I counted only 10, I grew concerned. So I went and looked in the seaweed clumps to the left & right of the path we had cleared and sure enough, babies were flipped on their backs in the entanglement, and struggling to survive.
A part of me felt this was nature's plan: “Well, that’s why turtles have so many eggs, because only a few survive”. But the interfering part of me said “Save those rare leatherbacks!” Thankfully, trained STOP volunteers were there to help. In the morning, the final count revealed that 15 had made it into the ocean without assistance, thanks to the superhighway we had dug out of the seaweed wall. Forty distracted or disoriented turtles had to be picked up and carried to the water in buckets by STOP volunteers.
After being counted and cleared, the turtles were released into the ocean. A few days later, more hatchlings came out and were disoriented by the bright lights of the condos. Some babies were distressed enough that they needed to be taken to Gumbo Limbo Rescue Center in Boca Raton. Richard WhiteCloud, leader of STOP, reports that as of July, the peak of season, approximately 3,700 sea turtles have made it into the water unassisted on Broward beaches, while 3,300 have been disoriented and needed help. The numbers are expected to rise by the thousands as the season continues.
Broward County and city officials continue to be lame about enforcing lighting laws. While I witnessed a baby turning toward artificial lights, a tourist said, “Where I just came from, that would be a $1,000 fine, no questions asked”.
Says Richard Whitecloud: "The law is pretty simple : all the lighting ordinances [in Broward cities] have the same language: there should be no light visible to the nesting beach - no direct light, no reflection." But he says "no municipality is 100 percent enforcing that ordinance." He says Deerfield, Hillsboro and Pompano are better, but none "punitively enforce the ordinance." Municipal code enforcement departments, he says, are supposed to "enforce all codes without bias" refer violators to a special magistrate. In most cases, he says, all codes are enforced, except for this one — a concession to the beachfront businesses like hotels and bars. He'd love to see more action from elected officials, though he is discouraged by the current state policies: "There's a war on nature in Florida."
He says tourists won't go away if the cities begin slapping fines on violators. Quite the opposite: "people come from all over the world to see sea turtles." In fact, he says, a recent guest who did a turtle walk with STOP came all the way from Seatlle — and lamented that the city had spent millions on a fireworks display — to hurt, rather than help, its environment.
Whitecloud would love to see an exchange of the tourism "business model, from consumption-minded to conservation-minded." A current challenge, he says, is for hotels to inform their guests to draw the drapes at night. He says STOP has tried working with hotels to increase guest education but "some have declined because it doesn't fit their corporate branding."
Although sea turtles nests were on the rise the past few years, Whitecloud says each year brings a new threat. This year has been hot and dry so turtles are "dying in the sand column as they try to emerge... the sand is dry and hot — not suitable for nesting."
I’m thrilled to have been “chosen by the Universe” to be a part of this act of nature to watch the leatherback births, but still confused over the moral dilemmas of interference. Looking to the skies and asking for a little supernatural intervention into Turtle John’s life, I also found that perhaps we were called on to help clear a pathway of life for some grateful turtle babies who otherwise would have been entangled in the crud that the world can bring.
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If you feel moved to say Thank You to Turtle John and the other volunteers, I urge you to mail a five or ten dollar Publix gift card (or something similar) to STOP and say “Here, this is for the incredible volunteers! Have a snack on me!” Their address is: STOP, 3104 NE 9th St, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304.
You can also sign up to join a nighttime turtle walk for a donation of $25 per person for ages 6 and up. Visit www.seaturtleop.com. And urge your community to enact better precautions for our endangered beach wildlife.
Here is video of the leatherbacks hatching. (If you get a password prompt, enter "new times") | <urn:uuid:4978c746-1e26-41ba-9795-662d47c80e48> | CC-MAIN-2019-13 | https://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/rare-leatherback-turtles-hatch-in-lauderdale-by-the-sea-video-7104361 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912202723.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20190323040640-20190323062640-00202.warc.gz | en | 0.974521 | 2,371 | 2.75 | 3 | {
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Tiberius Gracchus was elected tribune in 133BC on a platform of distributing land to the urban poor and limiting the land that each individual could hold. This was hugely popular with the poor but – in spite of significant concessions to the wealthy landowners ‑ it provoked the anger of the patrician reactionaries who blocked his proposed reforms. This sharpened the class conflict, giving it a revolutionary character.
The Sempronian Law
The support that Gracchus got at first from the most powerful of Rome’s politicians may indicate that at least a section of the ruling class understood that land reform was both necessary and overdue. His original proposals were not very radical. Many of these latifundia were actually situated on public land, which they rented for ridiculously small leases from the state, if they paid anything at all. Tiberius devised a plan to distribute land to the urban poor.
The Licinian laws were easily circumvented and they had been turned into a dead letter, but they had never been revoked. Tiberius Gracchus therefore could argue that his proposed reforms were based upon law. The Sempronian Law reaffirmed the provisions of the Licinian Laws and added to the maximum allowance an extra amount for each son. The occupants were to be reduced to the legal maximum and the surplus given to the poor. This idea guaranteed popular support for Gracchus, who was duly elected tribune for the year 133 BC. But his movement for reform was continually blocked by the patrician reactionaries and therefore acquired a revolutionary character.
He proposed to limit the amount of land a man could own to no more than 500 iugera (300 acres). To conciliate the big landowners, he offered to allow the current holders of public land to keep 300 acres as their undisputed property, including another 150 acres for every child. Any wealthy man with four children would therefore be allowed to keep 1000 acres. The remaining public land was to be redistributed in plots of 30 acres to family smallholders. The intention was to create thousands of new landowners, from whom Rome would recruit for her armies. The plots, once granted, were supposed to be inalienable. They could not be sold or transferred to new owners, other than by inheritance from father to son.
In compensation for their losses, the occupants of public land were to receive full title to the land they retained. This was a huge concession to the rich, who would be allowed to keep a large amount of public land, in addition to any other lands they already outright owned, which would have remained untouched. In effect, the old Licinian Law would have been superseded, and the big landowners would have their vast estates legitimized. This was intended to make the reforms palatable to the rich landowners. By this measure Tiberius Gracchus hoped to reduce the opposition of the wealthy landowners to his reform. But this was a vain hope.
Despite the moderate nature of his proposals, the wealthy classes were bitterly opposed to everything Tiberius Gracchus stood for. Plutarch describes their rabid hostility:
“But though this reformation was managed with so much tenderness that, all the former transactions being passed over, the people were only thankful to prevent abuses of the like nature for the future, yet, on the other hand, the moneyed men, and those of great estates, were exasperated, through their covetous feelings against the law itself, and against the lawgiver, through anger and party-spirit. They therefore endeavoured to seduce the people, declaring that Tiberius was designing a general redivision of lands, to overthrow the government, and throw all things into confusion.” (Plutarch, ibid, p. 161)
How familiar these lines sound today! Nowadays, the ruling class would use the mass media to launch a campaign against the “threat to democracy” posed by socialism. We see this now in the hysterical campaign in the media in the USA, which tries to present a very timid attempt to reform the health system more or less as an attempt to push through a socialist revolution and “sovietize American medicine.” This fact shows how little has changed in over 2,000 years of class struggle. The names and circumstances have changed, but the psychology of the ruling class has not.
For the conservative aristocrats who sat in the senate even minor political differences seemed to be matters of fundamental principle. They saw any attempt to restrict their powers as an attack on the republic. It was particularly intolerable that those who were agitating for reform were men from their own class. Tiberius Gracchus knew he would have to face a stiff a fight. Similar land reform had been proposed some ten years earlier by C. Laelius (ca. 145 BC), but these proposals were shipwrecked on the rock of senatorial opposition.
Naturally, the most strenuous opposition came from those who held large quantities of public land. They faced losing the lion’s share of their public lands, and some of them had no great private estates to fall back on. Many senators were themselves large landowners holding vast tracts of public land. They furiously opposed the reform as a radical attack on the principle of private property. They also understood that a land redistribution that would involve settling 70,000 families on public land would create a mass base of clients loyal to Tiberius. For such men Gracchus’ law could represent a serious threat. Among these opponents, the most implacable was Scipio Nasica, ex consul of 138 BC, who held vast tracts of public land.
The new land reform bill was carefully drafted. But Gracchus took a revolutionary step when he presented the bill directly to the people’s assembly (concilium plebis). He did not submit the law for review to the senate. This was not strictly required by law but it was the usual practice. Why did Tiberius Gracchus proceed in this way? The reason is unclear. Did he want to take his revenge on the senate, treating them with contempt for having betrayed him over the Numantia affair? It seems more likely that he sought to by-pass the senate where he would meet stiff opposition, and appeal directly to the people.
Whatever his reasons were, the senators were outraged. They did everything in their power to block the bill’s progress. When voting day arrived, the party of the rich prevented a vote by the simple expedient of seizing the voting urns. The masses confronted them and were preparing for a fight. Rome now seemed on the brink of revolution. But once again the situation was saved by the cunning of the ruling class and the vacillations of the leaders of the Popular Party. Two distinguished men of consular rank, Manilius and Flavius, threw themselves to their knees before Tiberius and implored him to stop the proceedings and instead take the matter to the senate.
Tiberius agreed “out of respect for their rank”. This shows the limitations of his outlook. Despite his undoubted sincerity, he had not yet given up all hope of convincing the senate of the correctness of his proposals. Tiberius appealed to the senate. What was the result? There was no result because the oligarchs dominated the proceedings. The masses were demobilized and the initiative, at least for now, was lost.
Intervention of the masses
We can only explain the conduct of Tiberius Gracchus by the fact that he was not proposing a revolution against the senate, but a reform that was calculated to prevent revolution and save the Republic through an agrarian reform that would save the small peasantry. But for the wealthy and powerful such proposals sounded like a call to subvert all property, undermine the State and provoke a general revolution (“to confound everything”). Feeling themselves threatened, the aristocrats armed a large number of their followers and slaves. They were preparing for a showdown.
A commission was set up to execute the law, but the senate organized a campaign of obstruction to undermine the law and render it ineffective. They circulated the rumour that Tiberius wanted to crown himself king. The senators staged a protest in the streets, dressing themselves in mourning clothes and walking about the Forum as if to announce the imminent death of the Republic. It was part of the preparation for counterrevolutionary violence.
Stirred up by the prospect of land, large numbers of country people flocked to Rome to vote for the bill, which was easily passed in the popular assembly. The senate struck back. They bribed another Tribune, Marcus Octavius, to veto the bill. This was a scandalous move, because this man was using his position to frustrate the will of the people he was supposed to represent. The tribunate had never been intended for this purpose. But the office of tribune was being corrupted and turned into the tool of the senatorial order. The tribune’s veto seemed to spell the end of the reform.
One might have expected Tiberius Gracchus either to retreat or seek to do some kind of deal with the senate. But this time he did no such thing. Instead he passed onto the offensive. First he offered Octavius (who, it seems, was himself the owner of public land) to compensate him out of his own pocket for any losses he incurred, on condition that he would drop his veto on the bill. Octavius refused. Then Gracchus proposed that unless he withdrew his veto, Octavius should be removed from office. What he was demanding was the right of recall.
In a desperate attempt to avoid a head-on confrontation, Tiberius tried to appeal to Octavius before the popular assembly. Plutarch describes the scene very vividly:
“When the people were met together again, Tiberius placed himself in the rostra, and endeavoured a second time to persuade Octavius. But all being to no purpose, he referred the whole matter to the people, calling on them to vote at once, whether Octavius should be deposed or not; and when seventeen of the thirty-five tribes had already voted against him, and there wanted only the votes of one tribe more for his final deprivation, Tiberius put a short stop to the proceedings, and once more renewed his importunities; he embraced and kissed him before all the assembly, begging with all the earnestness imaginable, that he would neither suffer himself to incur the dishonour, nor him to be reputed the author and promoter of so odious a measure.
“Octavius, we are told, did seem a little softened and moved with these entreaties; his eyes filled with tears, and he continued silent for a considerable time. But presently looking towards the rich men and proprietors of estates, who stood gathered in a body together, partly for shame, and partly for fear of disgracing himself with them, he boldly bade Tiberius use any severity he pleased. The law for his deprivation being thus voted, Tiberius ordered one of his servants, whom he had made a freeman, to remove Octavius from the rostra, employing his own domestic freed servants in the stead of the public officers. And it made the action seem all the sadder, that Octavius was dragged out in such an ignominious manner.
“The people immediately assaulted him, whilst the rich men ran in to his assistance. Octavius, with some difficulty, was snatched away and safely conveyed out of the crowd; though a trusty servant of his, who had placed himself in front of his master that he might assist his escape, in keeping off the multitude, had his eyes struck out, much to the displeasure of Tiberius, who ran with all haste, when he perceived the disturbance, to appease the rioters.” (Plutarch, op. cit. p. 165)
In these lines we can clearly see the class forces at work. The two opposing forces, the oligarchy and the masses, are pulling in opposite directions. It is a clash of mutually incompatible interests. In the middle we have the social reformer, Tiberius Gracchus, who has set in motion forces beyond his control. He begins to fear that the situation is slipping out of his hands and pleads with the other side to see reason. But the other side is obdurate and will not budge an inch. The masses, enraged, intervene and force the issue. For the time being, the other side is forced to retreat.
After Octavius refused for the second time, and was promptly voted out of office and dragged from the speaker’s podium he was replaced with another candidate. Another Roman historian, Appian, describes the euphoria of the people in this moment: “[Tiberius] Gracchus, immensely popular, was escorted home by the multitude as though he were the founder, not of a single city or people, but of all the nations of Italy [his opponents said that] as soon as Gracchus should become a private citizen he would be sorry that he had done outrage to the sacred and inviolable office of tribune, and had sown in Italy so many seeds of future strife.” (Appian, p. 89)
Sabotage by the senate
When Tiberius persuaded the popular assembly to impeach the tribune, he committed an unconstitutional act that was absolutely without precedent. Cicero later used this disagreement between two tribunes as an example of the wonderful flexibility of the Roman constitution:
“The tribunes have too much power you say. Yes, that is undeniable, but the power of the popular assembly has a much more cruel and violent potential. Yet, in practice, that potential sometimes makes for greater mildness when there is a leader to keep the assembly under control [....] For no board of tribunes, surely, would ever be so outrageously constituted that not a single one of its members remained sane! Indeed, what caused the downfall of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was the fact the he had an opponent on his own board, that, indeed, is what brought about his downfall: his removal of one of his own colleagues from office, because he had exercised his right of veto against Tiberius Gracchus.” (Cicero, On Government, P. 205)
The senate had suffered a setback, but was by no means prepared to concede defeat. Tiberius’ agrarian law was finally passed without opposition and a new tribune was elected to replace the deposed Octavius. But it still held a strong card in its hand: its control over finances. A commission was set up to supervise the distribution of land to the people. However, the senate sabotaged the measure by withholding the funds that were necessary to help stock the new smallholdings. Without money to provide the basic necessities, the plots distributed under the reform would not be viable farms.
Tiberius Gracchus now took a drastic step, which brought the struggle between the two factions to a head. Attalus, king of Pergamum, who had died childless, bequeathed his treasury to the Roman state. Tiberius Gracchus proposed that this wealth be divided up between the citizens of Rome in order to fund the land commission and help set up farms for new settlers. In effect, he confiscated a large amount of money in order to finance the work of the agrarian commission.
Thanks to this measure, the commission could begin distributing land. But such an action was in complete disregard for tradition, which gave the senate control of all overseas affairs. Although nowhere was this explicitly stated by Roman law, Tiberius’ action was a direct challenge to the senate. And that was not all. He also proposed to reduce the length of military service, and to introduce the right of appeal against the verdicts of juries (up to then composed exclusively of senators). In short, he was trying to reduce the powers of the Senate by every means possible.
The reactionaries in the senate were alarmed by the passage of the bill, the deposition of the tribune and the confiscation of Attilus’ legacy. They were even more alarmed by the mass following Tiberius was acquiring among the poor. The senate was forced to accept the situation, but only playing for time. The reactionaries had no intention of limiting themselves to peaceful and legal means.
The seizure of the Pergamene treasury in defiance of the senate was a turning point. Tiberius Gracchus had made powerful enemies. Many of his former allies now broke away, once they saw he was serious about his intentions. He was now in a dangerous position. There were plenty of people out to destroy him. The fundamental issue at this point was no longer the land reform. The question was: who rules Rome? There was now an open clash between the senate and the popular assembly.
The situation was completely polarized: on one side were Tiberius Gracchus and his supporters, the poor peasants and proletarians, on the other, the senators, the patricians, and the big landowners. There were two rival centres of power in society, a situation resembling what Lenin called Dual Power: on the one hand, the senate, which was in the hands of the slave-holding oligarchy, on the other, the popular assembly. This contradiction could not be settled by laws and constitutions, by speeches and votes. It could only be settled by violence.
The reactionaries now saw their opportunity. Tiberius’ term as tribune was nearing its end. Once he no longer had immunity from prosecution as a tribune, he would be a dead man. The only way to prevent this was to stand for a new term of tribune. But for him to run for a second term as tribune was yet another unconstitutional action. He decided upon this desperate recourse. As a matter of fact, his chances of winning the election for the tribunate in 134 BC were very poor. His main base was in the rural areas, where the peasants were busy with the harvest. His powerful political allies had abandoned him and he had lost the support of his fellow tribunes. But the senators did not want to take any chances.
These tactics used by counterrevolutionaries of every period are well known. The reactionaries accuse their enemies of wishing to install a “tyranny” (“dictatorship”). They agitate around this false accusation in order to incite violence, while at the same time publicly adopting a “defensive” stance: “we will not be the ones who cast the first stone. We are only trying to defend the existing order and institutions of society, and protect the rights of the citizens.” While posing as the injured party that is trying to “defend” themselves, the aristocrats were in fact preparing a violent aggression against the Popular Party.
The Roman ruling elite decided that their only hope was to behead the mass movement: to kill Tiberius Gracchus. But since Tiberius was too powerful to attack directly, his opponents decided to play a waiting game. The reactionary forces began to prepare the ground carefully. They gathered around Cornelius Scipio Nasica, the Pontifex Maximus, who was in charge of religious observances and, by chance, Tiberius' cousin. They began by provoking a riot in the senate:
“They [the aristocrats] created uproar in the Senate, and Nasica demanded that the consul must act now to protect the state and put down the tyrant. The consul answered in conciliatory manner that he would not be the first to use violence, and would put no citizen to death without a regular trial.” (Plutarch, The Life of Tiberius Gracchus, in The Makers of Rome, p. 171)
There was violence also in the popular assembly, where the reactionaries were attempting to gain support by bribery or other means. The masses attempted to make use of their existing rights, such as the popular assembly, to express their grievances, and this led to open fights in the assembly, with the supporters of Gracchus attempting to physically expel the aristocrats and their supporters.
The murder of Tiberius Gracchus
The Gracchus faction held the Capitol where the popular assembly met. According to Appian, Cornelius Scipio Nasica led a mob of nobles and senators armed with clubs to the Capitol where Tiberius Gracchus was addressing an electoral meeting. As a supreme irony, the unsuspecting supporters of Gracchus gave way as a sign of respect for the senatorial rank. This polite gesture was answered by a show of naked force. The frenzied reactionaries attacked the meeting and battered Tiberius Gracchus’ brains out on the steps of the Temple of Fidelity. The scene is described by Plutarch:
“The senators’ followers were armed with clubs and staves, which they had brought from their houses. The senators themselves snatched up the legs and fragments of the benches which the crowd had broken in their hurry to escape, and made straight for Tiberius, lashing out at those who were drawn up in front of him. His protectors were quickly scattered or clubbed down, and as Tiberius turned to run, someone caught hold of his clothing. He threw off his toga and fled in his tunic, but then stumbled over some of the prostrate bodies in front of him. As he struggled to his feet, one of his fellow tribunes, Publius Satyreius, as everybody agrees, dealt the first blow, striking him on the head with the leg of a bench. Lucius Rufus claimed to have given him the second, and prided himself upon this as if it were some noble exploit. More than three hundred men were killed by blows from sticks and stones, but none by the sword.” (Plutarch, op. cit., p. 172)
For the first time in almost four centuries, there was open violence and bloodshed in Rome among members of the ruling elite. “All former quarrels,” wrote Plutarch, “which were neither small nor about trivial matters, were always amicably disposed, by mutual concessions on either side, the senate yielding for fear of the people, and the people out of respect for the senate.” (ibid.)
The terror that followed was similar to all other such episodes in history. The ruling class took its revenge on the defeated party with the utmost cruelty and ruthlessness. In the proscriptions that followed, the supporters of Tiberius were hunted down and killed like animals. The vengeful spite of the aristocratic party was vented even on the dead bodies of its enemies. Plutarch comments:
“They refused his brother’s request for permission to take up the body and bury it at night. Instead they threw it into the Tiber together with the rest of the dead. And this was not all. Some of Tiberius’ supporters were banished without a trial, while others were arrested and executed, Diophanes the rhetorician among them. A certain Gaius Villius was shut up in a vessel with vipers and other poisonous snakes and put to death in this way.” (Plutarch, The Life of Tiberius Gracchus, in The Makers of Rome, p. 172)
The death of Tiberius Gracchus was followed by a White Terror. The senate organized a witch hunt in which many of his supporters were sentenced to death. The bitterness at all levels of society is indicated by the rumour that the war hero Scipio Aemilianus had been murdered by his wife, Sempronia, who was the sister of Tiberius Gracchus, because of Scipio’s refusal to condemn the murder of Tiberius Gracchus. | <urn:uuid:9ed6ea5d-228c-4464-9eb2-849a9e8271db> | CC-MAIN-2021-49 | https://www.marxist.com/class-struggles-roman-republic-one/part-seven.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-49/segments/1637964359976.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20211201083001-20211201113001-00305.warc.gz | en | 0.984897 | 4,984 | 4.25 | 4 | {
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Cancer: “Timely treatment can save lives”
As the world observes world Cancer Day 2013, which is celebrated in February of every year, this year will focus on Target 5 of the World Cancer Declaration: Dispel damaging myths and misconceptions about cancer, under the tagline “Cancer – Did you know?” World Cancer Day is a chance to raise our collective voices in the name of improving general knowledge around cancer and dismissing misconceptions about the disease.
However, to reduce patients’ burden, the minister of health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, has said that plans are on the way to include cancer screening and treatment, as part of the services offered by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and make the scheme mandatory.
For the purpose of this discussion, we shall address the nitty gritty of cancer, and how it can be prevented.
Cancer is a group of more than 100 different diseases that can begin almost anywhere in the body. It happens when normal cells in the body change and grow uncontrollably. These cells may form a mass called a tumor. A tumor can be benign (noncancerous) or malignant (cancerous, meaning it can spread to other parts of the body). However, some cancers do not form solid tumors. These include leukemias, most types of lymphoma , and myeloma (cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow, the spongy tissue inside of bones).
Causes of cancer
There are many things that can cause cancer – and many things that people wrongly believe cause the disease. And for many cancers, we simply do not know the cause.
The fundamental cause of cancer is damaged or faulty genes – the instructions that tell our cells what to do. Genes are encoded within DNA, so anything that damages DNA can increase the risk of cancer. But a number of genes in the same cell need to be damaged before it becomes cancerous.
Most cancers are caused by DNA damage that accumulates over a person’s lifetime. Cancers that are directly caused by specific genetic faults inherited from a parent are rare. But we all have subtle variations in our genes that may increase or decrease our risk of cancer by a small amount.
So cancer risk isn’t “all in the genes”, and it’s not all down to lifestyle – it’s a combination of the two. We can’t change our genetic makeup, but we can all take steps to reduce our risk of cancer by following healthy lifestyle advice based on scientific research.
However, the factors below can make some people more prone to cancer than others.
Age is the single biggest risk factor for cancer – the older you are, the more likely you are to develop cancer. Nearly two-thirds of all cases of cancer diagnosed in the UK occur in people over 65 years old. This is because the longer we live, the more cancer-causing faults we accumulate in our DNA.
It also explains why more people are getting cancer nowadays. Thanks to advances in public health and the prevention of infectious diseases, we live much longer, increasing our chances of picking up cancer-causing DNA faults.
Up to half of all cancers could be prevented by changes to lifestyle, and there are many things we can do to try to reduce the risk of the disease.
These include giving up smoking, enjoying the sun safely, eating a healthy balanced diet, limiting alcohol, keeping physically active and sticking to a healthy bodyweight.
There is much more detailed information about lifestyle and cancer risk in our Healthy Living pages.
DNA damage is extremely common – some studies suggest that the DNA in a single human cell gets damaged over 10,000 times every day.
For a start, the life-sustaining chemical reactions that occur naturally in our cells generate harmful by-products, and these can cause DNA damage. So, merely being alive leads to DNA damage, and this can potentially cause cancer.
Also, our everyday surroundings are full of things that constantly damage the DNA in our cells, known as carcinogens.
Although our cells are very good at repairing this damage, errors can accumulate over the years. This explains why cancer usually affects older people.
‘Carcinogen’ literally means ‘something that causes cancer’. Carcinogens damage DNA, causing faults in important genes that can lead to cancer. Examples include:
- Car exhaust fumes and air pollution
- The sun
- Natural and man-made radiation, such as radon gas or X-rays
But it is a mistake to believe that exposure to carcinogens is the only cause of cancer. In almost all cases, carcinogens are contributing factors, but there is a whole host of other factors at work, including a person’s lifestyle and genetic makeup.
Inherited gene faults
Some people are born with a fault in one of their genes. This does not mean that they will ever actually develop cancer, but it does mean that fewer other things need to go wrong with the rest of their DNA for the disease to develop.
For example, women born with a mutation in one of their BRCA genes have a much greater chance of developing breast and ovarian cancer than women who do not. Faults in a BRCA gene can also increase a man’s risk of prostate cancer.
People with a strong family history of these cancers can go for genetic testing, to find out whether they carry the faulty gene. Those at risk may be offered | <urn:uuid:8aefd27c-857f-4db8-8122-afa561d4e0a7> | CC-MAIN-2016-44 | http://www.pharmanewsonline.com/disease-of-the-month-cancer-timely-treatment-can-save-lives/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-44/segments/1476988719784.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20161020183839-00290-ip-10-171-6-4.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954276 | 1,137 | 3.515625 | 4 | {
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The Thrilling Chase for a Ghostly Particle to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Copyright © 2013 Ray JayawardhanaISBN: 978-0-374-22063-1
All rights reserved.
There he stood, wearing a red parka, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, on blindingly white snow against a clear blue sky, 9,000 feet above sea level, with the temperature hovering at minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit. “We are here today to celebrate one of the most outstanding achievements of mankind,” he bellowed out, as the sounds of flags flapping in the wind and snow crushing under a walker’s boots threatened to muffle his voice. His brief remarks over, with a couple of hundred workers, guests, and tourists watching, Stoltenberg unveiled a bust carved in ice, placed atop a waist-high column: “That’s the man!”
The ice sculpture bore the likeness of Stoltenberg’s legendary countryman Roald Amundsen. The low-key ceremony at the bottom of the world marked the centenary of Amundsen and four mates arriving at the South Pole on December 14, 1911, delivering historic glory to the young nation of Norway, which had become independent from Sweden a mere six years earlier. Fueled by relentless determination and aided by dogsleds, Amundsen’s team famously beat the ill-fated expedition led by the British naval officer Robert Falcon Scott by nearly five weeks, scoring what was undoubtedly a remarkable feat of terrestrial exploration.
Today the frozen wasteland where the fierce competition between Amundsen and Scott played out, with the pride of nations and the lives of heroes at stake, is a hotbed of activity for a different breed of explorers with more ethereal goals. Intrepid bands of scientists racing to unravel mysteries of life, our planet, and the universe are the ones laying claim to Antarctica now. In fact, the continent crawls with well over a thousand scientists and support personnel during the summer months. Geologists dig up ice cores and track the movements of glaciers for clues about climate change. Atmospheric scientists fly helium-filled balloons to measure stratospheric ozone, to complement the observations of satellites staring down from space. Paleontologists forage for fossils of creatures that were wiped out by the deadliest of known extinctions 250 million years ago. Biologists scour the dry valleys of Antarctica in search of organisms that thrive in extreme habitats. In early 2012, after many years of drilling, Russian researchers pierced through two miles of ice to reach Lake Vostok, a pristine subglacial reservoir shielded from sunlight and the wind for some 20 million years; they had hopes of encountering hitherto unknown life-forms.
Two years earlier, I got to experience what it was like to live and work on the ice when I went to Antarctica as a member of a meteorite-collecting expedition. We reached McMurdo Station, the American research center on the coast located near Scott’s 1902 landing site, by military transport plane from New Zealand. After a week of preparations, packing, and training, we then flew to a seasonal base camp, where, two by two, we boarded a Twin Otter plane on skis for the final leg of our journey. The small aircraft, operated by Canadian bush pilots, dropped us off on a remote ice field just five degrees from the Pole. That’s where eight of us—two women and six men—camped out in yellow, pyramid-shaped “Scott tents” for the next five bone-chilling weeks, cut off from the rest of the world except for a satellite telephone and the occasional drop-off of mail and supplies. This being the Antarctic summer, the Sun was always up, tracing a counterclockwise circle in the sky every twenty-four hours. There was no sign of life—human, animal, or plant—to be seen anywhere.
Day after day, if the winds were bearable, we went out on snowmobiles or on foot to search the nearby vast ice field and the moraines next to the hills for rocks that had fallen from space. Wrapped in big red parkas as well as thermal layers, bunny boots, neck warmers, gloves, goggles, balaclavas, and hats, we took care to avoid frostbite and crevasses during our excursions. It was easy to slip and fall on the rock-hard ice and hurt yourself badly. I slid off the Ski-Doo once, but thankfully the thick parka cushioned my fall. Others on the team also had minor mishaps, but we survived the cold, the tedium, and the isolation without any serious problems. In fact, we enjoyed the stark beauty of the landscape—the views from the tops of rocky peaks were especially magnificent—and found ways to entertain ourselves. By the expedition’s end, our team had collected a total of 900 meteorites, which are now available to researchers from around the world for a variety of studies. Our own reward was the remarkable experience itself—and the delightful Adélie and emperor penguins we encountered near McMurdo at the end of the season. My one regret is that I didn’t get to visit the South Pole, despite being so close to it.
The focus of activity at the Pole itself is decidedly extraterrestrial. These scientists seem to have taken to heart Marcel Proust’s adage that “the only true voyage of discovery … would not be to travel to new lands, but to possess other eyes.” The most striking part of their apparatus near the Pole is a 10-meter (33-foot) radio dish turned skyward, to map the feeble afterglow of the big bang. One of my Toronto colleagues, Keith Vanderlinde, spent most of the year 2008 taking care of this telescope; he survived the polar “night” that lasted for six months, temperatures that dipped to minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and the overwhelming sense of isolation, not to mention the short showers and the severe boredom. But the most ambitious, and unconventional, of the scientific instruments near the South Pole is buried permanently deep under the ice, and it looks down, not up. Its construction—or burial, to be more accurate—was completed just a year before the Amundsen centennial celebration. All that the visiting dignitaries could see aboveground was a rectangular office trailer on stilts, filled with cables and computers. There was little sign of what lay beneath but for the small flags that scientists had planted helpfully on the ice to mark its mammoth footprint.
IceCube is an observatory like no other. The glacial ice itself, transparent and cleared of air bubbles by extreme pressure at depths greater than a mile, serves the same purpose as the smooth primary mirror of a conventional astronomical telescope. Buried in it are 86 long steel cables standing vertically, with 60 basketball-size globes hanging on each at regular intervals. Every one of the 5,160 globes contains optical sensors and electronics. The sensors, called phototubes, act like lightbulbs in reverse: they collect light and generate electric signals. In the case of IceCube, these sensors scrutinize the subterranean ice for faint blue flashes that occasionally shimmer in the dark stillness. Whenever a sensor detects a flash, it sends a signal to computers on the surface.
The blue flickers mark the passage of elementary particles known as muons, which belong to the same family as electrons but are about two hundred times more massive. By combining signals from the different nodes of this deeply buried sensor network, physicists can trace a muon’s path in 3-D. But the researchers are not after the muons themselves. They are hunting for neutrinos, by far the most elusive and the weirdest of all known denizens of the subatomic world. These ghostly particles interact every once in a while with protons within ice molecules to release muons, thus betraying their presence as the muons in turn light up the ice. Since a newly created muon travels through ice along the same path as the incoming neutrino did, researchers can tell which direction the neutrino came from by examining the muon’s trail.
Neutrinos are elementary particles, just like electrons that buzz about atomic nuclei or quarks that combine to make protons and neutrons. They are fundamental building blocks of matter, but they don’t remain trapped inside atoms. Also unlike their subatomic cousins, neutrinos carry no electric charge, have a tiny mass, and hardly ever interact with other particles. A typical neutrino can travel through a light-year’s worth of lead without interacting with any atoms. Therein lies the snag: neutrinos are pathologically shy. Their severe reluctance to mingle makes these particles hard to pin down, so neutrino hunting is a tricky business. But every so often, a neutrino does collide with something, such as a proton inside a water molecule, essentially by accident. It is to raise the odds of accidental collisions, and thus to increase our chances of observing neutrinos, that scientists build extremely large detectors like IceCube.
You still can’t see neutrinos directly, but you can get a whiff of their presence from the clues they leave behind. On the rare occasions that neutrinos do interact with matter, they produce charged particles such as muons that physicists can detect with their instruments. But distinguishing neutrino signals from unrelated “noise” poses a challenge: cosmic rays, fast-moving particles that arrive from deep space, also produce muons, which might be confused with muons produced by neutrino interactions. Neutrino hunters place their equipment deep underground, or under a thick layer of ice, so that cosmic ray muons cannot get through. As Janet Conrad of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology explains, “If you’re trying to listen to a whisper, you don’t want a lot of noise around.”
Neutrinos are hard to catch, but they are also among the “most wanted” of all cosmic messengers for the secrets they hold about the nature of matter, the pyrotechnics of exploding stars, and the structure of the universe itself. Besides, in the words of theorist Boris Kayser of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) near Chicago, which is home to several neutrino experiments, “If neutrinos didn’t exist, we wouldn’t be here.” He explains that “the Sun produces energy through nuclear reactions on which life on Earth depends, and those reactions could not occur without neutrinos.” Moreover, the nuclear burning in previous generations of stars, which produced the heavy elements necessary for life, would not have been possible without neutrinos, either. Therefore, he argues that “to make sense of the universe we need to understand neutrinos well.”
Thankfully, neutrinos are as ubiquitous as they are cagey. In fact, neutrinos are the most abundant matter particles in the universe. According to Hitoshi Murayama of the University of Tokyo and the University of California, Berkeley, there are a billion neutrinos for every atom in the universe. He contends that “their sheer number means they have an important role. The contribution of neutrinos to the cosmic energy budget is comparable to that of all the stars.” In fact, about a hundred trillion neutrinos produced in the nuclear furnace at the Sun’s core pass through your body every second of the day and night, yet they do no harm and leave no trace. During your entire lifetime, perhaps one single neutrino would interact with an atom in your body. Neutrinos travel right through the Earth unhindered, like bullets cutting through fog. Besides, the Earth’s bowels generate neutrinos, as radioactive elements decay, and so do collisions of energetic particles from space in the upper levels of the atmosphere. Cataclysmic deaths of massive stars set off tremendous bursts of neutrinos, which escape these sites of mayhem unscathed and bring us news of awesome celestial events millions of light-years away. Moreover, our planet is immersed in a sea of cosmic neutrinos, which sprang forth when the infant universe was barely two seconds old.
The bizarre traits of neutrinos have turned them into pop culture icons of sorts. As far back as 1960, John Updike celebrated them in a delightful poem published in The New Yorker. Titled “Cosmic Gall,” it described how neutrinos traverse the Earth as easily as dust bunnies travel down a drafty hall or light passes through a sheet of glass. Klaatu, a Canadian progressive rock band perhaps best remembered for false rumors that they were the Beatles recording under a pseudonym, described the same phantom behavior, of neutrinos passing right through our bodies without alerting us, in the lyrics of a 1976 song. Neutrinos have even starred as hipster characters in the animated television series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Not surprisingly, references to neutrinos have also popped up on the popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory, in which two of the main characters are physicists. The show’s science consultant, David Saltzberg of the University of California, Los Angeles, is himself a physicist who works on neutrino telescopes, among other topics. In one scene, the co-lead Sheldon Cooper is fiddling with equations on a whiteboard in his office when his fellow physicist and roommate Leonard Hofstadter enters along with their engineer friend Howard Wolowitz. Sheldon exclaims, “Oh, there’s my missing neutrino. You were hiding from me as an unbalanced charge, weren’t you, you little subatomic Dickens?” Instead of acknowledging his friend’s greeting, he continues, “Here, look, look, I found my missing neutrino.” Howard responds drily, “Oh, good, we can take it off the milk cartons.”
Neutrinos have made numerous appearances in science fiction, of course, typically as the culprits behind strange or catastrophic events. In Robert J. Sawyer’s novel Flashforward, a burst of neutrinos from a dying star is responsible for making everyone lose consciousness briefly and see themselves as they would be some twenty-one years in the future. In Greg Bear’s Foundation and Chaos, a freak neutrino storm wipes out the rules that robots are programmed to follow (à la Isaac Asimov’s original Foundation series), resulting in complete mayhem. More recently, neutrinos were blamed for heating the Earth’s core, triggering ferocious earthquakes and floods, in the Hollywood disaster flick 2012 directed by Roland Emmerich.
Despite neutrinos’ quirky appeal as cultural icons, few people outside the physics community paid much attention to the science of real-life neutrinos until they made headlines recently for possibly breaking the cosmic speed limit set by Albert Einstein back in 1905. A large international collaboration of physicists known as OPERA (acronym for the unwieldy title Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus) made the startling announcement in a research paper posted online and at a press conference in late September of 2011. The particles appeared to travel faster than light between CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research and its Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva, Switzerland, and an underground detector 454 miles away in Gran Sasso, Italy, arriving 60 nanoseconds sooner than expected.
Despite the OPERA spokesman’s cautionary words, and skepticism from the vast majority of neutrino researchers, the news reverberated around the globe. Perhaps the commotion was not surprising given the astounding implications. If true, the finding would violate Einstein’s theory of special relativity, a cornerstone of modern physics. As Time magazine put it, “If the Europeans are right, Einstein was not just wrong but almost clueless.” Most physicists and journalists emphasized that the extraordinary claim required further investigation and independent verification. “If true, it is a result that would change the world. But that ‘if’ is enormous,” said The New York Times.
But all that hedging failed to rein in rampant speculations about superluminal voyages and grandiose visions of new physics. Suddenly jokes about neutrino time travel were everywhere. Some quipped that neutrinos had obeyed the law in Switzerland but broken the speed limit once they crossed over to Italy. On the sitcom The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper tried to foster dinnertime conversation by asking, “Faster-than-light particles at CERN: paradigm-shifting discovery or another Swiss export as full of holes as their cheese?” The Irish folk band Corrigan Brothers, which had performed at President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, posted a song they performed with Pete Creighton on YouTube, questioning whether E = mc2 still held true now that neutrinos appeared to travel faster than light. Toward the end, however, the song lyrics cautioned against rushing to conclusions and suggested that Einstein might still be right about the cosmic speed limit.
As a way of accommodating the new result without breaking the light barrier, some theorists proposed that the Swiss neutrinos might have tunneled through a hidden extra dimension, Star Trek–style, on their way to Italy, reducing the distance they needed to travel. Others suggested a different shortcut due to a crumpling of space-time near the Earth. Many critics pointed to possible experimental errors. Andrew Cohen and Sheldon Glashow of Boston University raised a serious theoretical gripe: a beam of superluminal neutrinos would rapidly lose energy by emitting other particles, so the beam should be depleted of high-energy neutrinos by the time it reached Gran Sasso, something that was not observed. Meanwhile, a second, more precise speed test done by the same OPERA collaboration, announced in mid-November, bolstered the surprising result.
Three months later CERN released a brief but crucial update. It read, in part: “The OPERA collaboration has informed its funding agencies and host laboratories that it has identified two possible effects that could have an influence on its neutrino timing measurement … If confirmed, one would increase the size of the measured effect, the other would diminish it.” The first effect, a possible problem with time stamps of GPS units used to synchronize the clocks at the two sites, would actually make the neutrino speed even faster than previously reported. The other effect, a bad cable connection between a GPS unit and a computer, would mean that the neutrinos had in fact traveled slower than light. Most media reports and commentators focused on the latter possibility. The Wall Street Journal described it as “a potentially embarrassing outcome” for the researchers involved. Then, on March 16, 2012, a different team of physicists, whose ICARUS detector is also located at Gran Sasso, reported a new measurement of flight time for neutrinos from CERN: their speed did not exceed that of light. “The evidence is beginning to point towards the OPERA result being an artifact of the measurement,” said CERN’s research director, Sergio Bertolucci.
Even though neutrinos turned out not to be superluminal in the end, they have taught us a great deal already about the shenanigans of the subatomic realm and allowed us to peer deep into the Sun’s scorching heart. Besides, without neutrinos, nuclear power generators and nuclear bombs would not be possible. Neutrinos were the first harbingers of the dramatic demise of a massive, bloated star that exploded 160,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way that appears as a fuzzy patch in the southern sky. Three underground detectors in Japan, Russia, and the United States recorded a total of two dozen neutrinos from the explosion, out of the billions upon billions that swept through the Earth, in a short burst on February 23, 1987. It was only a few hours later that astronomers scanning the skies from a far-flung mountaintop observatory in Chile saw the supernova in visible light.
Over the years, neutrinos have drawn the attention of some of the most brilliant minds and colorful personalities in the history of physics. The cast of historical characters associated with neutrinos included the sharp-witted Wolfgang Pauli, who invoked these particles in the first place to dodge a crisis in physics; the troubled genius Ettore Majorana, who theorized about neutrinos’ mirror twins before disappearing without a trace at the age of thirty-two; and the committed socialist Bruno Pontecorvo, who realized that neutrinos might morph between different types and caused a Cold War ruckus by defecting to the Soviet Union. Some neutrino hunters built experiments deep underground to peer into the heart of the Sun, while others set up traps next to powerful nuclear reactors to catch neutrinos changing form. During the past two decades, many more scientists have caught the neutrino bug and joined the quest.
That’s because, for neutrino hunters, the best is yet to come. These shadowy particles promise to unlock some of the greatest secrets of the universe. They could tell us about the birth sites of enigmatic cosmic rays that bombard the Earth around the clock. For astronomers, who have had to rely almost exclusively on electromagnetic radiation in the form of visible light, radio waves, and X-rays from distant celestial bodies, neutrinos offer an exciting new window on the most violent phenomena in nature. In fact, neutrinos may have a lot to do with triggering spectacular stellar explosions in the first place. Some scientists have proposed that a sterile variety of neutrinos could account for so-called dark matter, which makes up nearly a quarter of the universe but remains undetected except through its gravitational tug on galaxies. The imprints left by primordial neutrinos on the faint afterglow of the big bang, which is still measurable with microwave telescopes, could reveal the conditions very soon after the universe was born.
What’s more, we may have neutrinos to thank for the simple fact that the universe is not empty of matter, and thus for our very existence. Just after the big bang, there was lots of energy to give rise to particle and antiparticle pairs. The cosmic density was so high back then that these pairs should have come together and annihilated each other quickly, leaving only a sea of radiation. To avoid the catastrophe, there must have been a tiny preponderance of normal matter over antimatter. Physicists struggle to understand how such an asymmetry came about. One popular explanation is that super-heavy cousins of neutrinos in the early universe decayed in such a way as to make one extra particle of matter for every billion particle-antiparticle pairs. Measuring subtle properties of today’s light neutrinos could tell us whether such a scenario was indeed responsible for tipping the balance ever so slightly in favor of matter. As Boris Kayser points out, “Again, if not for neutrinos, we may not be here.”
Most exciting, if not unsettling, is the prospect of physics beyond the so-called standard model. Formulated in the early 1970s, the standard model incorporates two dozen elementary particles of matter and their antimatter twins, three types of interactions among them, and the symmetries that govern those interactions. It is the best description of the subatomic world that we have, and countless experiments over three decades have verified its predictions with exquisite precision. The fabled Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the most powerful and expensive atom smasher ever, was constructed at a jaw-dropping price tag of roughly $9 billion in large part to nail down the final missing piece of the theory. The LHC confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson, a particle hypothesized to be responsible for endowing other elementary particles with mass. The standard model, however, presumed that neutrinos have no mass, come in three flavors, and cannot change form. So the discovery that neutrinos do have a very small but nonzero mass, and a chameleonlike tendency to morph among the three types, has exposed a crack in the model’s elegant edifice. If it turns out that there are more than three neutrino flavors, as some data hint, such a revelation could shatter the very foundations of physics. As physicist Kate Scholberg of Duke University puts it, “We’re right on the verge of exploring a new regime in physics. Several unknowns out there are teasing us.” She points out that “neutrinos provide us with a whole new sector of phenomena that we can measure to investigate the nature of the universe.”
The starring role of neutrinos in a great many sagas unfolding across physics, cosmology, and astronomy explains why scientists make considerable efforts to trap these minuscule particles. Over the past two decades, they have built ever more sophisticated neutrino experiments dotting the globe. From a deep nickel mine in Ontario to a freeway tunnel crossing a mountain in central Italy, and from a nuclear waste site in New Mexico to a bay on the South China Sea, neutrino hunters are chasing their quarry.
The most impressive of their traps remains IceCube, the world’s biggest neutrino telescope, built at a cost of over $270 million. Its completion is a long-held dream come true for its visionary director, Francis Halzen. Growing up in Belgium, Halzen hoped to become a schoolteacher, but at university he got interested in physics, and he never looked back. After working at CERN for a few years, he moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he has been a professor for four decades. As a theoretical physicist, he worked on some aspects of quantum mechanics before he turned his attention to neutrino hunting in the mid-1980s. Halzen first heard about attempts to detect neutrinos in Antarctica from colleagues at the University of Kansas, while he was visiting there to deliver a lecture. They told him that Russian scientists had been using radio antennas at their Antarctic research station to search for electric sparks resulting from cosmic neutrinos colliding with the ice. Halzen found the experiment intriguing, and together with two colleagues, he set out to calculate how strong such signals would be. They were disappointed to find that radio emissions produced by most neutrino interactions would be far too weak to register. They concluded that the Russian experiment was doomed to fail. Instead, they realized, it would make more sense to look for bursts of blue light in the ice, which would also indicate the arrival of neutrinos. Halzen was convinced that sinking an array of light sensors deep into the Antarctic ice was a great way to catch neutrinos coming from the far reaches of space.
Excited about the prospect of developing a novel neutrino telescope in Antarctica, Halzen e-mailed several other physicists to ask what they thought about his idea. John Learned at the University of Hawaii was among them. Born to an old New England family whose ancestors included a general who fought in the American Revolutionary War, Learned grew up on Staten Island and spent his childhood summers with his grandparents in upstate New York. He enjoyed acting like an outsider in both places: “In the country I was a city kid and in the city I was a country kid,” he says. In middle school, he worked on the school newspaper and ran a weather station on the school roof. He also remembers volunteering to take a traveling science exhibit around the school “because it was a great excuse to get out of the classroom.” Later, at Brooklyn Technical High School, he took many shop classes, which have served him well as an experimental physicist. As a graduate student at the University of Washington, Learned investigated the prospects for measuring cosmic ray particles underwater. He built a barge, anchored it in the middle of Lake Chelan, and lowered particle detectors into the clear, deep water. After completing his doctorate, he took a job at a research station at Echo Lake in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, where he lived in a log cabin with his wife and two small children. It was during that period that Learned got seriously interested in neutrinos, and he later moved to Hawaii in the hope of deploying a giant array of underwater neutrino detectors in deep waters of the Pacific Ocean surrounding the volcanic islands. Given Learned’s interests and expertise, it was no surprise that Halzen reached out to him for his opinion about burying neutrino detectors in Antarctica.
The two physicists discussed the attractions of Halzen’s scheme. “Learned immediately appreciated the advantages of an Antarctic neutrino telescope,” according to Halzen. For starters, polar ice is clear, dark, stable, and sterile, and free of background light from bioluminescent organisms and emissions from radioactive decay of sea salt, which could confuse detection of the neutrino signals. Equally important was the fact that the National Science Foundation (NSF) was already operating a research base at the South Pole, and therefore was in a position to provide vital logistical support. Encouraged by Learned’s enthusiasm and input on detector design, Halzen presented their concept at a conference in Poland, and wrote it up in a paper in 1987, but left it at that, perhaps because as a theorist he didn’t have experience building experiments and hesitated to take on such an ambitious task himself.
Halzen recalls a phone call he received from an irate official at the NSF about a year later. The official complained that two young physicists from the University of California, Berkeley, had tried to sneak a string of phototubes into Antarctica to place inside a drill hole, without proper authorization. He asked whether Halzen was responsible for putting “this crazy idea” into their heads. Halzen assured the official that he had never heard of the two Berkeley physicists, who had apparently gotten the notion from attending a conference where Halzen and Learned had discussed their scheme.
Later, Halzen teamed up with the Berkeley group to pursue the idea in earnest. First they tested its feasibility by sinking a 200-meter-long (656-foot) strand with three phototubes into a hole drilled by glaciologists in Greenland. Then they began work on a pilot experiment called AMANDA (for Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array), with funding and support from the NSF, in the austral summer of 1992. They borrowed a technology that glaciologists had developed to bore holes in the ice: a drill that shot out hot water, as if from a high-pressure showerhead, which melted its way down. The cavity did not refreeze for several days, giving them enough time to deploy the sensors attached to a cable.
As the team lowered the first string of phototubes into the ice on Christmas Eve of 1993, Halzen was at his family’s house in Belgium. Being a theorist, he wasn’t needed at the work site. He had a lot at stake, though, and glanced often at a computer on his lap during the meal, hoping for e-mail updates from the South Pole. As he wrote later, “To have your career on the line half a world away is hard enough. But to know that you have embroiled so many others in the same improbable adventure, that your funders and colleagues expect results, and that you are totally powerless to affect the outcome, is a form of exquisite torture.” Just as dessert was being served, Halzen was relieved to receive a message confirming that the deployment was a success.
The team’s delight didn’t last long, because they encountered unexpected challenges. One problem was that the phototubes registered lots of blue flashes from muons created by cosmic rays. The researchers had expected the cosmic ray muons to peter out by the time they reached half a mile beneath the ice, making it easy to identify the few muons generated by neutrinos arriving from below, from the other side of the Earth. That wasn’t the case: what they saw was “a nearly meaningless blur,” as Halzen put it. But their biggest problem had to do with air bubbles in the ice, which scattered the blue flashes generated by neutrino events, making them harder to pinpoint. They found lots of bubbles at this depth, and the bubbles were fifty times bigger than they had anticipated. So the project was delayed while the team figured out what improvements to make. The solution, they found, was to dig deeper holes and sink the sensors down to a mile below the surface. At these greater depths, the researchers would have a clearer view of the blue flashes associated with neutrino arrivals, because higher pressures would squeeze out the bubbles in the ice.
The AMANDA experiment, from the first drilling to the final shutdown, lasted for a decade. (Meanwhile, Learned and his collaborators had abandoned their project off the coast of Hawaii after many years of effort, because of technical problems.) Over that time, Halzen and his colleagues learned a lot about Antarctic ice as well as neutrino detection. Drawing on their experience, the team started construction of IceCube, designed to be a hundred times bigger than its predecessor, in 2005.
IceCube is truly a marvel of extreme engineering. Just as with AMANDA, not only its components, drilling equipment, and personnel, but also food and fuel, had to be transported to Antarctica from various parts of the world. Ski-equipped C-130 Hercules cargo planes, operated by U.S. Air Force crews, hauled them for the last leg of the journey, from McMurdo Station on the Antarctic coast to the South Pole, a distance of 800 air miles. Engineers used a custom-built high-pressure drill, with hot water shooting out of a nozzle at its end, to puncture the ice sheet to a depth of a mile and a half. It took two days of nonstop drilling, and 4,800 gallons of gasoline, to bore one hole, melting 200,000 gallons of ice in the process. Once the shaft was clear, they gently lowered the steel cable with the sensors. Hole by hole, IceCube was “built” over six austral summers, taking advantage of continuous sunlight and relatively balmy working conditions from November to February.
For Halzen, the project’s completion in December 2010 was “a great relief.” “Now that IceCube is built, people forget how incredibly risky and challenging this undertaking was. I’ve made a list of all the points when I thought the project had failed,” he added. There was little room for error, with the biting cold, high altitude (of over 9,000 feet above sea level), and dreadful isolation exacerbating the risks. Once during construction a worker mistakenly grabbed a hose hanging from a drill tower, and was thrown on his back on the rock-hard ice when the hose pulled up. The victim had to be flown to New Zealand for treatment, and it took a few weeks for him to recover completely.
Yet the gamble that Halzen and his colleagues took in building IceCube has begun to pay off already. In the first couple of years of its operation, the observatory has recorded two unusual neutrino signals, with energies far greater than any seen before. At a conference in Kyoto in the summer of 2012, team member Aya Ishihara of Chiba University in Japan showed these “PeV events,” so dubbed because their energies are in the “peta-electron volt” (or quadrillion electron volt) range, corresponding to about a million times the mass-energy of a proton. The extreme energies surprised many astrophysicists. As Spencer Klein of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California points out, “These neutrinos have energies more than a thousand times higher than any neutrinos that we have produced in particle accelerators.”
At first, the researchers wondered whether collisions between highly energetic cosmic rays and oxygen or nitrogen atoms in the Earth’s atmosphere were responsible for producing these PeV neutrinos. After further monitoring and analysis, they’re now convinced that’s probably not the case. As Halzen puts it, “It is unlikely that they are atmospheric, and that is the exciting part.” In other words, we may have to look to distant celestial sources to uncover the violent origins of these neutrinos. In fact, researchers think the particles may come from powerful jets shot out by monstrous black holes at the hearts of galaxies, or from incredible explosions known as gamma ray bursts (GRBs), which appear to be even more potent than supernovae.
Over the past two decades, astronomers have confirmed that many galaxies, including our own Milky Way, harbor gigantic black holes at their centers, and have observed high-speed jets coming off their poles. They think these jets form because black holes drag matter in from their surroundings and launch some of that material back into space with the help of magnetic fields. The particles in the jets, accelerated to speeds close to that of light, could produce energetic neutrinos, such as those that IceCube has detected. Researchers have speculated that GRBs, which might herald the death of very massive stars, could be another source of high-energy neutrinos. Discovered by chance in the late 1960s by satellites designed to look for gamma rays from secret nuclear tests in space, GRBs have confounded scientists for decades. Recent findings suggest that most GRBs consist of narrow beams of fast-moving particles ejected during the collapse of hefty stars into black holes or neutron stars. In either case, IceCube may have captured messengers coming straight from the scene of the action, so it could help us better understand some of the most ferocious phenomena in the universe.
IceCube is just the most exotic of a new generation of neutrino facilities with unprecedented sensitivity. Some, like IceCube itself and an even bigger network to be deployed on the Mediterranean seafloor, are, as we’ve seen, designed to catch neutrinos coming from outer space or produced when cosmic rays hit the Earth’s atmosphere. Others, such as the cathedral-scale detector under Mount Kamioka in Japan and another, weighing nearly as much as 5,000 automobiles, tucked away in a Minnesota mine, measure neutrino beams generated by giant particle accelerators hundreds of miles away. Experiments of yet another type, located at the village of Chooz in France and at Daya Bay in China, harness neutrinos produced in commercial nuclear power plants.
Together, these facilities make up the formidable arsenal of today’s neutrino hunters. Their advent signals that neutrino chasing, once an esoteric sideline, is now ready for prime time. In the coming chapters, we will follow that thrilling chase, along with its bewildering twists, just as we enter a brave new era that promises to unravel cardinal mysteries of the universe, from its puniest scale to its grandest, and quite possibly upend our most cherished theories about the nature of things. Along the way, we will meet the men and women who have made it their business to track down this most elusive of particles—from the early theorists who laid the groundwork for teasing out the neutrino’s existence to the modern experimentalists who try to make sense of its quirky character—and we will catch glimpses of their heroic endeavors and fascinating lives.
Copyright © 2013 by Ray Jayawardhana | <urn:uuid:68edf7cb-4410-42a9-9419-c10a7e50b8b1> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://www.npr.org/books/titles/262390195/neutrino-hunters-the-thrilling-chase-for-a-ghostly-particle-to-unlock-the-secret | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1419447547257.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20141224185907-00023-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958545 | 8,281 | 2.703125 | 3 | {
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AMPHIBIOUS HOUSES FOR RISING WATER LEVELS
Posted By Kate Andrews On August 29, 2007 @ 4:13 pm In Architecture,Design,Disaster-proof design | 13 Comments
The Dutch have fought their marshy surroundings with clever engineering since the country’s inception, and we’ve seen some impressive “floating architecture” from DuraVermeer and WaterStudio . Now that global warming is fanning the flame: melting ice-caps and raising sea levels, more and more Dutch designers are getting into amphibious architecture. Builder Hans van de Beek’s amphibious houses are an obvious yet genius solution to rising water levels. He explains; “They are pretty much just regular houses, the only difference is that when the water rises, they rise.”
Unlike the houseboats that line many Dutch canals or the floating villages of Asia, these homes are being built on solid ground — but they also are designed to float on flood water. Each house is made of lightweight wood, and the concrete base is hollow, giving it ship-like buoyancy. With no foundations anchored in the earth, the structure rests on the ground and is fastened to 15-foot-long mooring posts with sliding rings, allowing it to float upwards in times of flood. All the electrical cables, water and sewage flow through flexible pipes inside the mooring piles.
What a great example of turning architectural lemons into lemonade, and being responsive and accepting of environmental contexts.
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Copyright © 2011 Inhabitat Local - New York. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:ab59c844-dbdf-49b2-9b2b-2aaaa7e8b947> | CC-MAIN-2015-48 | http://inhabitat.com/amphibian-houses-rising-water/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-48/segments/1448398461132.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20151124205421-00170-ip-10-71-132-137.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901112 | 586 | 2.609375 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.436150550842285,
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"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Art & Design |
|Gerald and Buff Corsi © California Academy of Sciences|
Jeffrey pine hybridizes with ponderosa pine
(P. ponderosa) and Coulter pine (P. coulteri) where distributions overlap [43,48,112,214].
Pinus ponderosa subsp. jeffreyi (Grev. & Balf.) E. Murr.
FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS:
No special status
Information on state-level protected status of plants in the United States is available at Plants Database.
General, western United States:
Jeffrey pine forests, cover type 247 of the Society of American Foresters
Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)-Jeffrey pine forest type in the North Umpqua and Tiller Ranger Districts
Jeffrey pine/huckleberry oak/red fescue (Quercus vaccinifolia/Festuca rubra) above 3,500 feet (1,100 m) and Jeffrey pine/red fescue below 3,500 feet (1,100 m) in the upper Illinois River drainage of the Siskiyou Mountains
General southwestern Oregon forest typings
Jeffrey pine/hoary manzanita/Idaho fescue (Arctostaphylos canescens/F. idahoensis)
Jeffrey pine/wedgeleaf ceanothus (Ceanothus cuneatus)/Idaho fescue
Jeffrey pine/Idaho fescue
Jeffrey pine/incense-cedar (Calocedrus decurrens)/huckleberry oak
Jeffrey pine/huckleberry oak-pinemat manzanita (A. nevadensis)
Jeffrey pine/huckleberry oak-pinemat manzanita-dwarf silktassel (Garrya buxifolia)
Jeffrey pine-incense-cedar/whiteleaf manzanita (A. viscida)
Jeffrey pine-incense-cedar-Douglas-fir
incense-cedar-Jeffrey pine cover type in Humboldt Redwoods State Park
The following eastside pine associations are recognized in northeastern California:
Jeffrey pine/mountain big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata subsp. vaseyana)/Idaho fescue
Jeffrey pine/antelope bitterbrush-curlleaf mountain-mahogany/western needlegrass (Purshia tridentata-Cercocarpus ledifolius/Achnatherum occidentale subsp. occidentale)
Jeffrey pine/antelope bitterbrush-Utah snowberry/bluegrass (Symphoricarpos oreophilus var. utahensis/Poa spp.)
Jeffrey pine/antelope bitterbrush/woolly mule-ears (Wyethia mollis)
Jeffrey pine/curlleaf mountain-mahogany
Jeffrey pine-California black oak/skunkbush sumac (Quercus kelloggii/Rhus trilobata var. quinata)
yellow pine (Jeffrey pine and ponderosa pine)/antelope bitterbrush/Idaho fescue/granite
yellow pine/curlleaf mountain-mahogany/arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata)
yellow pine-California black oak/bluegrass on granite
Jeffrey pine-white fir/bluegrass on granite
Jeffrey pine-white fir/Utah snowberry/Wheeler bluegrass (P. nervosa)
yellow pine (Jeffrey pine and ponderosa pine)-white fir/western needlegrass on ash from recent pyroclastic flow
yellow pine (Jeffrey pine and ponderosa pine)-white fir/Utah snowberry/woolly mule-ears
yellow pine (Jeffrey pine and ponderosa pine)-white fir/pale serviceberry-Oregon-grape (Amelanchier pallida-Berberis repens)
Jeffrey pine phase of the white fir/tailcup lupine (Lupinus caudatus) habitat type on low southwest slopes of the South Warner Mountains in Modoc County
Jeffrey pine-white fir forests below 6,200 feet (1,900 m) in Lassen Volcanic National Park
antelope bitterbrush/Jeffrey pine association on eastern slopes in the Nevadense province (Lassen County and southward)
Jeffrey pine upper montane forests at 4,990 to 6,000 feet (1,520-1,830 m) in the northern Sierra Nevada and at higher elevations 6,990 to 8,990 feet (2,130-2,740 m) in the southern Sierra Nevada
Jeffrey pine phase in midmontane coniferous and lower montane eastside Sierran forests
upper transition forest type in the Lake Tahoe region
The following vegetation types are recognized in Yosemite National Park:
western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis)-Jeffrey pine woodlands on granitic domes above 6,600 feet (2,000 m)
California red fir-pine (Abies magnifica-Pinus spp.) forests
Jeffrey pine forest in the Glass Mountain Region of east-central California
The following old-growth mixed-conifer forest associations occur on the Teakettle Experimental Forest:
Jeffrey pine/pinemat manzanita-greenleaf manzanita (Arctostaphylos patula)
Jeffrey pine/greenleaf manzanita-whitethorn ceanothus (Ceanothus cordulatus)
Jeffrey pine/greenleaf manzanita
The following vegetation types occur in the upper montane region of central and/or southern Sierra Nevada:
Jeffrey pine/huckleberry oak
Jeffrey pine/greenleaf manzanita-snowbush ceanothus (C. velutinus)
Jeffrey pine/whitethorn ceanothus-big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata)
California red fir-white fir-Jeffrey pine
Jeffrey pine-California red fir
Jeffrey pine and Jeffrey pine-white fir types of southern California forest formations
yellow pine forests on dry transmontane slopes in southern California
Jeffrey pine forests in lower montane coniferous forest zones of the Transverse and Peninsular ranges
The following vegetation associations are found in the San Bernardino Mountains:
pine forest type at elevations above 6,000 feet (1,800 m)
mixed Jeffrey pine forests (may include white fir, sugar pine (P. lambertiana), incense-cedar, and/or western juniper)
Jeffrey pine-canyon live oak (Q. chrysolepis)
Jeffrey pine/timber chaparral (whitethorn ceanothus and deer brush (C. integerrimus) common)
Jeffrey pine-birchleaf mountain-mahogany (Cercocarpus montanus var. glaber)
western coniferous forest type, Jeffrey pine is most abundant on south slopes
General California forest typings
Jeffrey pine forests throughout California on dry, cold, well-drained slopes, ridges, and basins
Jeffrey pine-fir (Abies spp.) forests on moister sites than Jeffrey pine forest type listed above
ponderosa pine-Jeffrey pine sparse vegetation community
mixed-conifer forests at high elevations in the Peninsular Ranges
Jeffrey pine/mountain snowberry (S. oreophilus) in Sierra San Pedro Mártir
GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
This description provides characteristics that may be relevant to fire ecology, and is not meant for identification. Keys for identification are available (e.g., [54,69]).
Aboveground description: Jeffrey pine is a large, slow-growing, long-lived conifer [63,133]. Trees often live 400 or 500 years. In Jeffrey pine/huckleberry oak vegetation in central Sierra Nevada, the oldest Jeffrey pine tree was an estimated 631 years old . Jeffrey pine may reach 200 feet (60 m) tall [69,112], and diameters of up to 8.2 feet (2.5 m) are reported . Crowns are rounded or long and symmetrical .
|Tree maturity and site conditions affect form and size. Rounded crowns are
typical for mature trees, and young trees often have pyramidal
crowns. Lower branches are large and somewhat droopy, and upper
branches are smaller and ascending . At high-elevation sites, Jeffrey pine
can be deformed by high winds .
The Jeffrey pine trunk is normally straight with thick, large plates of bark separated by deep furrows [32,54,130,198]. Jeffrey pine saplings and adults averaging 2 inches (5 cm) and 48.8 inches (124 cm) in diameter had estimated bark thicknesses of 0.2 inch (0.5 cm) and 2.6 inches (6.5 cm), respectively . Fifty Jeffrey pine trees from the south slope of Mt Pinos in southern California with an average DBH of 21 inches (53 cm) had an average bark thickness of 2.1 inches (5.3 cm) .
|Charles Webber © California Academy of Sciences|
Needles are 3 to 11 inches (8-28 cm) long and most often in bundles of 3, but bundles of 2 are possible [69,112]. Needles are retained for 2 to 10 years [32,69]. Needle thickness varies with location on the tree and elevation. Needles in the sun are thicker than those in the shade, and needles on trees at high-elevation sites are thicker than those on trees at low-elevation sites . Pollen cones are small, 0.8 to 1.4 inches (20-35 mm) long, and female cones are large, 4.7 to 12 inches (12-30 cm) long [69,112]. Cone size can vary between years and sites. The largest Jeffrey pine cones are produced in the Reno-Tahoe area, according to Haller . Female cones mature 2 summers after being pollinated . Jeffrey pine produces winged seeds. Seeds are between 10 and 13 mm long, and wings are up to 1.2 inches (3 cm) long [112,130]. Seed weight averages 123 mg (Forest Service, US Department of Agriculture, cited in ).
Belowground description: The Jeffrey pine taproot penetrates deeply, and lateral roots are considered "strong" and "extensive". In an open stand, on shallow ultramafic soils in the northern Sierra Nevada, Jeffrey pine roots up to 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter were found in a soil pit 100 feet (30 m) from the nearest tree .
Hybrids: Jeffrey pine hybrids are not especially common. They are described in Haller and Zobel .RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM:
Pollination: Cones are wind pollinated.
Breeding system: Jeffrey pines are monoecious. A study of endemic and near-endemic California conifers revealed that Jeffrey pine was the most genetically diverse . Outcrossing rates were high in 3 Klamath Mountain and 2 Sierra Nevada populations. Density of Jeffrey pine did not affect outcrossing rates, and evidence of severe inbreeding depression was lacking . Jeffrey pine populations from serpentine soils in the Klamath Mountains and ultramafic soils in the southern Sierra Nevada were genetically similar, suggesting that directional selection likely has occurred on these sites. Klamath Mountain populations had lower heterozygosity levels than those in the southern Sierra Nevada, suggesting stronger directional selection or a past population bottleneck in the Klamath Mountain populations .
Seed production: Jeffrey pine has a "strong masting habit". Numerous seeds are shed within a few weeks every several years. Large cone crops occur at 2- to 4-year intervals [77,84]. Trees as young as 8 years old have produced cones, according to Krugman , but Rundel reports that Jeffrey pine cones are not common until trees are at least 20 years old. In open Jeffrey pine/antelope bitterbrush forests in western Nevada's Whittell Forest and Wildlife Management Area, cone crop production ranged from 175 to less than 25 cones/tree over a 3-year period . From cones produced on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada in Mono and Madera counties, the number of fertile seeds/cone before seed dispersal averaged 222 and ranged from 160 to 338. From fallen cones collected at the end of April, the number of seeds/cone averaged 11 and ranged from 0 to 55. Of the available seeds, 14.8% were sound, 15.9% were aborted, and 69.2% had insect damage .
On eastern Sierra Nevada slopes in Lassen County, seed size and number were positively related to cone size, and seed size varied with position on the cone. Cones came from young, "thriftily growing" trees. Seed number and seed weight were greatest for large- and least for small-sized cones. For large cones, the largest number of developed seeds were concentrated in the middle cone region. For small cones, the largest number of developed seeds occurred in the upper cone region .
Seed survival is largely augmented by seed caching and seed feeding by small mammals and birds. The following studies conducted in western Nevada showed that, while seed removal rates may vary by seed availability and environment, removal is nearly complete regardless. In the Whittell Forest and Wildlife Management Area, the removal rate of radioactively-labeled Jeffrey pine seed from an open Jeffrey pine/antelope bitterbrush stand was 8.1 times faster in a mast than in a nonmast year (P<0.0001), but in any year, 98% to 99% of seeds were harvested. Of the removed seeds, a little more than 63% were found in rodent caches. The rest were either consumed or cached outside the study area. Yellow-pine chipmunk caches were most common, but a small percentage of caches were likely made by golden-mantled ground squirrels . Seed removal rates did not consistently vary by elevation. Over a 2-year period, removal rates ranged from a low of 10.3%/day to a high of 71.7%/day at low-elevation sites. At midelevation sites, rates were not different between years, and at high-elevation sites rates ranged from 16.5% to 58.2%/day . Along a transect through antelope bitterbrush shrublands with scattered Jeffrey pine into closed-canopy Jeffrey pine forests with thick litter, removal of Jeffrey pine seed was significantly faster in shrublands than in Jeffrey pine forests (P<0.005). Seed obscured by litter were removed at significantly slower rates than seed on the soil surface (P<0.001). Regardless of seed location, the researcher predicted that most (≥99%) seed would be removed before snowfall . The movement and fate of seed cached in western Nevada is discussed below in the Seed dispersal, Seed banking, Germination, and Seedling establishment sections.
Seed dispersal: Jeffrey pine seeds are often moved through a combination of methods including gravity, wind, and small animals. A single seed may be dispersed through all 3 methods and relocated up to 6 times by animals. Observed and calculated dispersal distances through gravity and wind alone range from 3.48 feet (1.06 m) to 89 feet (27 m) . Dispersal distances reported from seed caching studies range from 8.5 feet (2.6 m) to 206 feet (62.9 m) .
Gravity and wind: Of the North American conifers that produce winged seeds, Jeffrey pine seeds are typically heaviest. Without strong winds, the majority of seeds fall within 90 feet (27 m) of the parent tree . However, observations in the field suggest much shorter dispersal distances . If winds are gusty, Jenkinson suggests that Jeffrey pine seed may be dispersed a distance 15 times the height of seed fall. Based on ballistics calculations, Jeffrey pine seeds falling from a height of 30 feet (10 m) in winds of 5 m/s would be deposited 55.4 feet (16.9 m) from the source .
In the Whittell Forest and Wildlife Management Area, wind rarely moved seeds already on the ground more than 8 inches (20 cm) from their original positions. The study was conducted in Jeffrey pine/antelope bitterbrush vegetation on nearly flat to slightly inclined terrain with sandy soils with small rocks and patches of plant litter. The maximum dispersal distance was 150 inches (380 cm) from the initial position. Most movement occurred within the first 8 of 37 monitoring days. Under natural conditions, wings often detach after a seed is wet or moved; permanent wings in this study may have increased the dispersal distance beyond what would have occurred under natural conditions .
Animal: Yellow-pine chipmunks rapidly dispersed and cached Jeffrey pine seeds from Jeffrey pine/antelope bitterbrush vegetation in western Nevada. From a bait station seed source, 0.5% of radioactively-labeled seeds were eaten and 98.1% were cached. The average number of seeds in cheek pouches ranged from 18.5 to 29.9 based on 4 yellow-pine chipmunks. There were 36 to 91 caches made with 3 to 9.9 seeds. Caches were separated by distances of 4.6 to 16 feet (1.4-4.9 m). Transport distance ranged from 8.5 to 195 feet (2.6-59.3 m) and averaged 82 feet (25 m). Yellow-pine chipmunks typically cached seeds more than 16 to 33 feet (5-10 m) from the source and only "sparingly" cached in areas with thick pine needle litter . In the same study area using similar methods, Vander Wall found that seeds were moved farther in a mast (x=87.9 feet (26.8 m)) than in a nonmast (x=68.2 feet (20.8 m)) year. Often seeds were moved from primary caches to secondary or up to sixth-order caches. Recaching was 3 times more common in a nonmast than in a mast year. In a mast year, the highest order cache was 3, and in a nonmast year was 6 .
Dispersal of Jeffrey pine seed was affected by habitat in the Whittell Forest and Wildlife Management Area. Radioactively labeled Jeffrey pine seed was scattered to simulate seed dispersed by wind from 2 source trees. Source tree 1 occurred in a forest clearing with deep soils and low herbaceous and litter cover. Source tree 2 was in a sparsely forested site with thin soils, boulders, and rock outcrops. There were 1,064 seeds/source tree, and 95% or more were removed within 43 hours. Three percent or less were consumed. Most caches were small, with 1 to 4 seeds, but caches with up to 35 seeds were found. The distance between caches and source tree 1 ranged from 4.3 to 178 feet (1.3-54.2 m), and from source tree 2 the distance ranged from 20 to 206 feet (6.2-62.9 m). Yellow-pine chipmunks were the most common harvesters . Yellow-pine chipmunk caching was twice as probable in antelope bitterbrush habitats and 1/6th as likely in Jeffrey pine forests than expected based on the proportion of these habitats available (P<0.001). In antelope bitterbrush habitats, over 50% of caches were in the open (>4 inches (10 cm) from shrub), 12% to 16% were under shrub canopy, and 28% to 35% were at the canopy edge. Most caches (66-73%) were in mineral soil, 24% to 27% were in light litter (<5 mm thick), and 3% to 7% were in thick litter (>5 mm). In the Jeffrey pine forests, a high proportion of caches (63-100%) were under mature tree canopies of 75% to 86% closure and in thick (2-4 inches (5-10 cm)) plant litter .
Clark's nutcrackers disperse and bury Jeffrey pine seeds, and unrecovered caches are important to successful seedling germination and establishment. On the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada in Mono and Madera counties, Jeffrey pine seed harvesting began in early to mid-September, and seed was stored from mid-September through mid-October. Clark's nutcrackers assessed seed quality from the sound made when shaken against their mandibles, ensuring that sound seeds were cached. They used their bills to dig shallow trenches a few centimeters long, where 1 to 15 seeds were cached. Caches were often made at tree bases, near rocks, and in other sites where snow melt was early. Open pumice substrates were preferred over pine needle litter as cache sites. Caches were 4 to 120 inches (10-300 cm) apart . For additional information on the utilization of Jeffrey pine by Clark's nutcracker, see Birds.
Seed banking: Jeffrey pine seed banks are predominantly unrecovered animal caches. Substrate and environmental conditions affect cache recovery. Field experiments conducted in the Whittell Forest and Wildlife Management Area showed that increased moisture levels increased the success of yellow-pine chipmunks and deer mice in finding caches made by other individuals. When conditions were dry, animal subjects were much less likely to recover caches other than their own . However, dry conditions that may hamper cache recovery would not likely be conducive to seed germination.
In a laboratory study, yellow-pine and long-eared chipmunks trapped from the Carson Range in Washoe County, Nevada, found just 2.3% of caches made in ash, while they found 98% of caches in sand. When chipmunks were allowed to cache seed themselves, the average number of caches made in ash was significantly more than caches made in sand (P=0.02). Researchers suggested that seeds were likely located by smell with more ease in sand than in ash, and that caching in ash may have been an attempt to decrease pilfering .
Germination: Jeffrey pine seed germinates readily in the spring , and while stratification may not be necessary [77,168] it can decrease the time required for successful germination . The best germination is said to occur in mineral soils in full sun conditions . Seed burial and cache site selection by small mammals and Clark's nutcracker can improve the emergence success of Jeffrey pine seed.
Temperature and stratification: Stratification of Jeffrey pine seed from northeastern California decreased germination time. Seed was air dried and stored at 30 °F (1 °C) for 2 to 3 years before being stratified for 3 months at 40 °F (5 °C). At a temperature of 77 °F (25 °C), stratified seeds reached 50% germination after 3 days and unstratified seeds after 23 days. As germination temperatures decreased, the differences in germination rates of stratified and unstratified seeds increased. At 59 °F (15 °C), 50% germination was reached after 6 days for stratified and after 115 days for unstratified seed. At 40 °F (5 °C), 50% germination was reached after 50 days for stratified and after 175 days for unstratified seed . Long-term storage of Jeffrey pine seed collected from Lassen National Forest did not affect germination rates. Germination of fresh seed averaged 65% after 3 months of stratification at 40 °F (5 °C), and seed stored for 8.5 years averaged 67% when stratified at same temperature .
Seed/cone size: Percent germination decreased with seed size, which related to cone size (see Seed Production), on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada in Lassen County. Germination was most rapid for the largest seeds from the largest cones and slowest for the smallest seeds from the smallest cones. Germination period differed by 2 weeks for large and small seeds .
Emergence is typically more successful when seeds are buried in caches
than when unburied. A multitude of experiments have investigated the fate of
seeds from caches in western Nevada. When seeds were buried to mimic
yellow-pine chipmunks caches and protected from small mammals, 55.2% of
buried seed emerged. Just 1 of 100 seeds left on the soil surface produced
seedlings. Burial by ant activity likely aided germination of the seed on
the soil surface .
Germination and seedling emergence were affected by cache site environment and substrate in western Nevada. Emergence from rodent caches was greatest at mid- and low-elevation sites, but seedling survival was best at mid- and high-elevation sites. Emergence of seeds planted in an exclosure did not differ between shade and full sun conditions (P≥0.1) at any elevation . For a discussion of climate differences at these low-, mid-, and high-elevation sites, see Climate.
|Charles Webber © California Academy of Sciences|
While canopy cover did not affect seeds in exclosures, it affected emergence from scatter-hoard caches in open Jeffrey pine/antelope bitterbrush plots. About 50% of seedlings emerged in open sites over 4 inches (10 cm) from the nearest shrub, 20% emerged beneath shrub canopies, and 29% emerged at shrub canopy edges. More seedlings emerged at the canopy edges than in the open based on the proportion of the habitats available (P<0.001). There were 48 to 528 emergence sites/100 m². Seedlings emerged singly, in clumps of 2 to 7, and less commonly in large clusters of up to 54. Excavations of random emergence sites revealed that nearly 9% of cached seeds failed to emerge. Emergence sites were concentrated on mineral soil (75%), but litter was low in the general study area . Seedling survival is discussed in Seedling establishment/growth below.
Jeffrey pine seedling establishment may be greatest on burned sites with exposed mineral soil. Seedling emergence from artificial caches of depths of 0.2 and 1 inch (5 mm, 25 mm) was significantly greater on burned than unburned plots (P=0.002) in pine forests near Lake Tahoe. Seeds planted in ash 1 month after fire produced 14.8 times more seedlings than seeds planted on unburned plots. Caches made in soil produced 3.5 to 8.5 times more seedlings than caches in pine needle litter on the soil surface. Seed removal rates were lower on burned than unburned sites for 1 to 5 months after fire, and seedlings on burned sites survived 1.9 times longer than on unburned sites . For additional information on seedling establishment on burned sites, see Seed caches on burned sites.
Seedling establishment/growth: Jeffrey pine seedling survival may be affected by canopy cover, weather patterns, associated species, and/or pest infections. Jeffrey pine regeneration is not considered rapid or reliable . Likely a combination of these factors limits and/or encourages recruitment in any year.
Canopy cover: In mixed-conifer forests on the Teakettle Experimental Forest, Jeffrey pine seedlings (≤19 inches (49 cm)) and saplings (≥20 inches (50 cm)) were under open canopies. In the study area, Jeffrey pine seedling density averaged 10/ha and was 0.4% of the total conifer seedling composition. There were 4 saplings/ha, which was 0.9% of the total conifer sapling composition. Jeffrey pine seedling and sapling densities in whitethorn ceanothus-dominated patches were slightly greater than 10/ha, and in closed-canopy forests were less than 10/ha. Most Jeffrey pine seedlings and saplings occurred in dry, open areas with high light levels. Most seedlings (>50%) grew in forest floor litter, but a little more than 20% grew in mineral soil [42,120].
Weather: Jeffrey pine seedling establishment was associated with precipitation on the Teakettle Experimental Forest and Lassen National Forest. However, annual precipitation analyses were used in the Experimental Forest study, and seasonal precipitation was used in the National Forest study, making comparisons difficult. In the 3,200-acre (1,300 ha) Experimental Forest study area, Jeffrey pine recruitment was associated with wet years (Palmer Drought Severity Index was 2.36). Nearly all Jeffrey pine established before 1865 in wet years during or shortly before an El Niño year . In Lassen National Forest meadows, establishment of Jeffrey pine was most likely when spring temperatures were cool and summer precipitation was below normal. Establishment was least likely when spring temperatures were normal. On 4 meadows, there were 1.8 to 204.5 Jeffrey pine seedlings, 1.8 to 47.3 saplings, and 18 to 166 trees. Seedlings, saplings, and trees were counted along downslope transects ranging from 140 to 960 feet (43-290 m) from forest to meadow .
Associated species: Antelope bitterbrush was a nurse plant to Jeffrey pine seedlings in western Nevada, and woolly mule-ears interfered with Jeffrey pine seedling establishment in eastern California.
Nurse plants: Antelope bitterbrush was important to Jeffrey pine seedling survival in Nevada's Whittell Forest and Wildlife Management Area. Mortality of seedlings established in the spring of 1989 was 85% by the fall of 1990. Single seedlings became increasingly common with each successive sampling season due to deaths within seedling clumps. Single seedlings survived at a significantly higher rate than clumped seedlings (P<0.05), and herbivore browsing was more common on clumped than single seedlings (P<0.05). Most mortality (62%) was due to summer desiccation. Mortality rates were greatest on plots with the greatest forb and cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) densities. Single seedlings under antelope bitterbrush canopies survived significantly better than seedlings in the open (P<0.001), and seedling clumps under shrub canopies had significantly greater potential of producing at least 1 survivor than did clumps in the open (P<0.001). Increased seedling survival under antelope bitterbrush was likely due to decreased temperature, lower moisture stress, and herbivory protection. It is unknown if canopy cover benefits seedlings over 2 years old .
Interference/allelopathy: Jeffrey pine seedling survival and growth were greater on montane chaparral than woolly mule-ears-dominated sites on the east slope of Boca Hill near Truckee, California. One-year-old seedlings grown from locally collected seed were planted in the spring of 1978 and evaluated 5 and 8 years later. Survival was significantly greater 5 and 8 years later (P<0.005 and P<0.02, respectively) in montane chaparral than in woolly mule-ears vegetation. Seedling height was also significantly greater 5 and 8 years later (P<0.005 and P<0.001, respectively) in montane chaparral than in woolly mule-ears vegetation .
Other studies have investigated possible reasons for decreased survival and growth of Jeffrey pine in woolly mule-ears vegetation. In the laboratory, seeds watered with woolly mule-ears root and leaf extracts had significantly less radicle growth (P<0.01 and P<0.05, respectively) than seeds watered with distilled water. Jeffrey pine seeds stratified in woolly mule-ears vegetation in the Sagehen Basin had significantly less radicle growth (P<0.01) than seeds stratified in areas free of woolly mule-ears litter. Germination was also lower for seeds stratified on sites with woolly mule-ears litter than on sites without litter and for seeds watered with root and leaf extracts than for seeds watered with distilled water. Jeffrey pine roots in areas with woolly mule-ears had less mycorrhizal infection than did roots grown without woolly mule-ears, which may have affected regeneration success . Other researchers suggested that neither allelopathy nor soil nutrients affected Jeffrey pine seedling growth in woolly mule-ears sites in the northern Sierra Nevada of Plumas County. Jeffrey pine seed germination and seedling growth were compared in soils collected from early-seral, woolly mule-ears-dominated sites, midseral, shrub-dominated sites, and late-seral Jeffrey pine-dominated sites. Germination was not significantly different by soil type and averaged about 95%, although early-seral soils had the lowest organic horizon depths and lowest levels of carbon, calcium, and magnesium. After 417 days, seedlings in early- and midseral soils had more mass than those in late-seral soils .
Dwarf mistletoe: In California, dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium spp.) can cause heavy mortality in Jeffrey pine seedlings and saplings. Twenty percent fewer seeds germinated from infected than uninfected Jeffrey pine trees, and seedlings produced from infected tree seed were deemed less "vigorous" than those from uninfected tree seed .
Growth: Growth of Jeffrey pine seedlings, saplings, and trees is reported from a variety of studies and sites. Growth and survival can be affected by canopy cover and stand density. In a greenhouse study, the relative growth rate of Jeffrey pine seedlings between 2 and 10 weeks old averaged 26.6 mg/g/day. A maximum growth rate of 38.5 mg/g/day was reported . In old-growth mixed-conifer forests of the Lake Tahoe Basin, importance of Jeffrey pine saplings over 5.9 inches (15 cm) tall, but under breast height was positively correlated with Jeffrey pine canopy cover (P<0.0005). There was no negative correlation with other canopy tree species .
Radial stem growth of Jeffrey pine averaged 20 μm/day at elevations of 7,900 to 8,900 feet (2,400-2,700 m) on the Kern Plateau of the southern Sierra Nevada. Growth was averaged over size class, site, and year. Total annual radial growth averaged 1.4 mm/year. Jeffrey pine had measurable radial stem growth for an average of 66 days. The growing season increased significantly on south slopes (P<0.001). Sapling growth was proportional to daily maximum and average daily temperatures (P<0.005), but this was not true for large Jeffrey pines . Small Jeffrey pines (<16 inches (40 cm)) were most common at low elevations (5,090 to 5,710 feet (1,550-1,740 m)) on the Carson Range of western Nevada. Most large trees occurred at mid- (6,560-6,730 feet (2,000-2,050 m)) or high elevations (7,495-8,020 feet (2285-2445 m)). Tree density was usually greatest at midelevation sites. The number of dead trees was highest (19/ha) at low-elevation sites. At mid- and high-elevation sites the number of dead Jeffrey pine averaged 2.8/ha and 2.6/ha, respectively. Average radial growth rates of trees older than 30 years was positively correlated with elevation and negatively correlated with tree density (R²=0.420, P<0.001). Mid- and high-elevation Jeffrey pine growth rates were 54% and 62% greater, respectively, than low-elevation growth rates .
Vegetative regeneration: Jeffrey pine does not sprout from adventitious buds or spread through vegetative means. However, regrowth of needles from surviving terminal buds can occur following crown scorch . For more on this, see Terminal bud regrowth.SITE CHARACTERISTICS:
Climate: Short growing seasons, drought, and cold are tolerated by Jeffrey pine . Throughout the Jeffrey pine range, average January temperatures range from 9 to 36 °F (-13 to 2 °C). Day and nighttime temperatures in July may differ by 47 °F (26 °C) in the Klamath Mountains and on eastern slopes of the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada. Winter precipitation contributes most to the average annual precipitation in Jeffrey pine habitats. Annual precipitation levels are lowest on eastern slopes of the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada and range from 15 to 17 inches (380-430 mm). Annual precipitation averages are much greater at elevations of 4,170 to 4,990 feet (1,270-1,520 m)) in the Klamath Mountains and on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada. Average snow fall can be less than 30 inches (760 mm) on low-elevation sites in the Klamath Mountains and greater than 200 inches (520 cm) in high-elevation Sierra Nevada habitats .
Climate and growing conditions in Jeffrey pine habitats can vary considerably with elevation. In the Carson Range of western Nevada, annual precipitation levels based on 25 years of records averaged 23.3 inches (591.8 mm) at low, 29.3 inches (744.2 mm) at mid-, and 44 inches (1,118 mm) at high elevations. During a 2-year period, the average maximum temperature was about 16 °F (9 °C) higher at low- than high-elevation sites. Average daily maximum soil temperatures varied only about 5 °F (3 °C) between low- and high-elevation sites . For a short discussion of germination and seedling emergence at these sites, see Cached seed. In Jeffrey pine habitats in Baja California Norte, low-elevation sites averaged 12 to 20 inches (300-500 mm) of annual rainfall, and high-elevation sites averaged about 24 inches (600 mm). Snow was possible from December to February at high elevations. June through August were hottest and driest .
Cold tolerance: Jeffrey pine is considered more drought and cold tolerant than ponderosa pine based on site occupancy differences . However, Wagener observed no mortality differences in young or old ponderosa pine and Jeffrey pine after extremely cold weather in California. In sympatric populations, mortality of ponderosa pine was less than Jeffrey pine. The researcher suggested that if cold tolerance differences exist between the species, they occur in the seedling stage or that cold causes damage other than mortality. For more on differences and similarities between Jeffrey pine and ponderosa pine, see Haller .
Jeffrey pine buds and leaves from 1-year-old twigs on 10- to 40-year-old trees collected in midwinter from California resisted injury at temperatures as low as -22 °F (-30 °C). Twig tissue resisted damage at -58 °F (-50 °C) .
Elevation: Throughout its range, Jeffrey pine primarily occupies sites from 490 to 9,500 feet (150-2,900 m) . Jeffrey pine is most common above the ponderosa pine zone .
|Jeffrey pine elevational range by state and region|
|California||1,500-10,600 [54,112] most common at 6,000-9,000 |
|Baja California Norte||1,500-9,500 [104,130,211]|
|North Coast and Klamath Ranges
(on serpentine outcrops)
|as low as 200 |
|Slate Creek Valley of the Inyo National Forest||found trees at 10,000-11,000 |
|Sierra Nevada||5,000-9,000 |
|northern Sierra Nevada||4,990-6,000 |
|southern Sierra Nevada||6,990-8,990 |
|southern California||3,600-6,600 |
|San Bernardino Mountains||5,400-9,800 |
|Traverse and Peninsular ranges||4,500-9,800 |
Soils: Jeffrey pine typically grows on shallow, rocky, infertile soils and survives on dry pumice and bare granite substrates . About 20% of Jeffrey pine's distribution occurs on ultramafic soils; the rest occurs on volcanic and granitic parent materials . In southwestern Oregon and northwestern California, Jeffrey pine is most typical of ultramafic soils, including serpentine [2,5,22]. Kruckeberg considers Jeffrey pine a "faithful" indicator of serpentine soils at low to moderate elevations in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon. Kruckeberg also suggests that the main Jeffrey pine range is on nonserpentine soils, but that outlier populations are often restricted to serpentine soils .
The following paragraph provides more descriptive reports of the soils common in Jeffrey pine habitats throughout its range. Douglas-fir-Jeffrey pine forest types in the North Umpqua and Tiller Ranger Districts of southern Oregon occupy sites with shallow (x=15.7 inches (40 cm)), coarse-textured soils . On eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada, Jeffrey pine is most common on decomposed granites . Jeffrey pine vegetation associations in upper montane habitats of central and southern Sierra Nevada occupy moderately deep to deep (x=32-39 inches (81-99 cm)) sandy to loamy soils with granitic or volcanic origins . The incense-cedar-Jeffrey pine cover type in Humboldt Redwoods State Park occurs on shallow serpentine soils . In Lassen Volcanic National Park, Jeffrey pine-white fir forests occurred on sites with higher pH (x=5.9) and greater basic cation (K, Ca, Mg) exchange capacity than other forest types . In the western Great Basin of Nevada, Jeffrey pine is restricted to soils derived from hydrothermally altered andesite. Altered soils have lower pH, calcium, and phosphorus than unaltered soils, which are dominated by big sagebrush. A lack of competing vegetation on these soils likely allows Jeffrey pine to tolerate the average annual precipitation of 262 mm/year, normally considered outside its tolerance range [26,27]. For a detailed description of soil composition and chemistry of Jeffrey pine stands in the Little Valley of Nevada, see Johnson . Soils in Jeffrey pine-mixed conifer forests in the Sierra San Pedro Mártir are shallow, well to excessively drained, and strongly acidic (pH x=5.3). Organic matter averaged 2.3% in surface soils, and coarse-textured fragments averaged 26.5%. For more on soil nutrient composition, see Stephens and Gill .SUCCESSIONAL STATUS:
Climax: Jeffrey pine forests restricted to ultramafic soils in the upper Illinois River drainage of Siskiyou Mountains in southwestern Oregon were considered an edaphic climax type . In the Sierra San Pedro Mártir, Jeffrey pine/mountain snowberry vegetation is characterized as a "supramediterranean climax forest" .
Primary succession: In Lassen Volcanic National Park, a single Jeffrey pine occurred on a 10-year-old volcanic mudflow, highlighting its tolerance of early-seral conditions. Findings suggested that Jeffrey pine was more tolerant of early-seral, disturbed sites than of white fir competition and late-seral conditions. Jeffrey pine frequency and density were greater on 300-, 750-, and 1,500-year avalanche flows than in nearby white fir-dominated climax forests. On most flows, Jeffrey pine density was greatest on those plots closest to a seed source . In another study of debris flows created by the 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak, Jeffrey pine colonization of mud flows was continuous from at least 1940 to the date of the study (1987) .
Succession without fire: Numerous studies have investigated stand changes that occur in Jeffrey pine habitats in the absence of fire. Decreased Jeffrey pine recruitment, decreased Jeffrey pine importance, increased Jeffrey pine mortality, increased stand density, increased shade-tolerant conifer importance, and increased canopy closure are commonly described as succession proceeds without fire in mixed-conifer and/or Jeffrey pine-dominated stands.
Using historic photos, journals, and other sources, researchers found that decreased fire frequency together with timber harvests and intense grazing changed the composition and structure of northeastern California's eastside pine forests. Jeffrey pine and ponderosa pine forests studied in the late 1980s had greater small tree density, increased canopy closure, greater shrub density, more dead and downed material, more litter and duff, decreased stand age, reduced tree spacing, lower stand height, and less herbaceous vegetation than in presettlement time (~1850). The forest stand structure and fuel availability of forests in the late 1980s would likely support more severe fires than occurred in presettlement time .
Before fires were excluded in Lassen Volcanic National Park and the adjacent Caribou Wilderness, fires burned an average of every 11 years in Jeffrey pine habitats (Swanson 1980, cited in ). Frequent fires maintained disclimax Jeffrey pine and ponderosa pine forests by preventing the establishment of climax fir (Abies spp.) species. An abundance of fire-scarred Jeffrey pine and ponderosa pine in the area suggested that past fires burned quickly and with low intensity. Frequent low-severity fires maintained an open structure and uneven age distributions. Without fire, shrubs and white fir increase in the understory, providing ladder fuels that support crown fires .
In the Warner Mountains of extreme northeastern California, a lack of Jeffrey pine and ponderosa pine recruitment was attributed to thick litter and decreased sunlight due to increased white fir density. Changes in stand structure that were considered barriers to Jeffery pine and ponderosa pine recruitment were thought to be a result of fire exclusion and heavy grazing .
Contemporary Jeffrey pine-white fir forests had significantly greater Jeffrey pine density and basal area (P<0.05) and significantly smaller diameters (P<0.05) than presettlement (pre-1850) forests on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe. Contemporary forests reflect postlogging succession during a long fire-free period (>120 years). Presettlement forests were reconstructed from stumps cut in early 19th century, and contemporary forest characteristics came from current stand measurements. White fir density in contemporary forests was about 3 times that of presettlement forests, and the diameter of white fir trees was significantly smaller in contemporary than presettlement forests .
In the San Bernardino Mountains, tree density increased in mixed Jeffrey pine, mixed white fir, and monotypic Jeffrey pine forests after 60 or more years of fire exclusion. Small-diameter tree importance increased and large-diameter tree importance decreased without fire. In mixed Jeffrey pine forests, average tree density was 93 stems/ha in 1929, and stands had heterogeneous diameter structure. Sixty-three years later, tree density was 167 stems/ha, dominance of juvenile trees increased, and the density of large trees (>26-inch (67 cm) DBH) decreased. In mixed white fir stands, there were 174 trees/ha in 1929 and 246/ha in 1992. Over this period, trees with DBH of 4.7 to 13 inches (12-33 cm) nearly tripled, and the number of large trees decreased by half. White fir was the overwhelming dominant, which was not the case in 1929. Jeffrey pine forests in 1929 were open and had heterogeneous diameter distributions. After fire exclusion, density of white fir and incense-cedar increased, and overall tree density increased by 114%. Stems with DBH measurements less than 26 inches (67 cm) increased, and stems with DBH over 39 inches (100 cm) decreased. Tree density increases were less dramatic in Jeffrey pine forests occupying dry, high-elevation sites. The fire-return interval during the fire exclusion period was estimated at 700 years .
When Jeffrey pine-white fir forests with different fire management were compared in the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California and in La Corona Arriba in Baja California Norte, forests subject to fire exclusion in the San Bernardino Mountains had more Jeffrey pine mortality, nearly double the adult tree density, and more live and dead tree basal area than those in La Corona Arriba. Forests in the San Bernardino Mountains did not burn for about 90 years, while there was no policy of fire exclusion in La Corona Arriba. There were significantly more standing dead Jeffrey pine in southern California than in Baja California (P<0.05), and mortality was primarily a result of severe drought conditions and bark beetle attacks in southern California. Weather data from Big Bear Dam indicated that the lowest precipitation levels on record were for 2 years in the late 1990s. Researchers suggested that the density and basal area differences between the 2 sites were due to decreased fire frequency in the San Bernardino Mountains, and that increases in tree density and basal area increased the forest's susceptibility to drought and insects . When Jeffrey pine forests in the San Bernardino Mountain sites were compared to those in Sierra San Pedro Mártir in Baja California Norte, findings were similar. Adult tree density and basal area in the San Bernardino Mountains were nearly double that of the Sierra San Pedro Mártir. Most sites in the San Bernardino Mountains had not burned since 1905. There were 3 times as many standing dead Jeffrey pine and white fir in southern California as in Baja California. Most trees in southern California established in the last 100 years; the maximum age of Jeffrey pine was around 285 years in southern California, whereas the oldest Jeffrey pine tree in the Sierra San Pedro was 448 years old .
Succession after logging: Jeffrey pine cover increased with time since clearcut logging in red fir forests of the central Sierra Nevada, and Jeffrey pine growth increased on thinned, mixed ponderosa pine-Jeffrey pine stands in northeastern California's Black Mountain Experimental Forest. Cover of Jeffrey pine was significantly higher in 11- to 32-year-old than in 4- to 10-year-old clearcuts (P<0.05) in red fir forests. Cover averaged 0.04%, 1.6%, and 1.9% in 4- to 10-year-old, 11- to 25-year-old, and 26- to 32-year old clearcuts, respectively . After 55-year-old ponderosa pine-Jeffery pine stands in northeastern California were thinned from about 11,000 trees/acre to around 700 trees/acre, pine tree height on thinned stands was 62% and DBH was 167% of unthinned stands 5 years after treatment. Twelve years after treatment, tree height was 38% and DBH was 43% greater on thinned than unthinned stands. Thirty years after treatment, tree height was 39% and DBH was 91% greater on thinned than unthinned stands .SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT:
Bark thickness: Jeffrey pine bark is often described as thick; however, bark thickness measurements are rarely reported. Using regression analyses, bark thickness of saplings with a 2-inch (5 cm) DBH was estimated at 0.18 inch (0.46 cm). Jeffrey pine adults with a 48.8-inch (124 cm) DBH had an estimated bark thickness of 2.6 inches (6.5 cm) . From 50 Jeffrey pine trees with an average DBH of 21 inches (53 cm) on Mt Pinos in southern California, bark thickness averaged 2.1 inches (5.3 cm) [197,198].
Terminal bud survival: Terminal buds that survive fire can produce new needles in the first postfire year. On several burned sites in the Sierra Nevada, researchers monitored 44 trees that had complete crown scorch and foliage consumed on more than 50% of the tree height. Half of these trees produced new needles in the first postfire year .
Seedling establishment: Jeffrey pine seedling establishment is improved in canopy gaps created by fire, where mineral soil is exposed and light levels are high . Seedlings on burned sites come from seed from surviving or nearby unburned mature Jeffrey pine trees , fire-scorched trees [199,201], and/or seed-caching animals [16,17]. Wagener [199,201] reported that "exceedingly good stands of seedlings" came from fire-scorched trees on burned sites in California.
Fire regimes: Jeffrey pine occurs in many habitats and with a variety of other species throughout its range. While low-severity surface fires are common in open-canopy forests with limited understory fuels, increased forest densities and an increased presence of ladder fuels in the understory fuel higher-severity fires. On a landscape scale, a mixed-severity fire regime occurs in Jeffery pine habitats.
Fuels: Fuel types and arrangements as they relate to fire behavior in Jeffrey pine forest types have been described in many areas. Both small and large fires are possible, but low- to moderate-severity surface fires were historically common in Jeffrey pine vegetation. However, in many areas fire exclusion has increased fuel loads and produced ladder fuels that may support larger, more severe fires than was common under historic fire regimes. Western dry pine and mixed-conifer forests were "shaped by stand-maintenance fire". Before around 1850, low-severity, frequent surface fires fueled by grasses, shrubs, small trees, needles, and fallen braches rarely killed thick-barked species like Jeffrey pine. Even in times of increased temperatures and decreased moisture, fires could be large but were not necessarily severe .
In open old-growth Jeffrey pine stands in the Lassen Fire Management Area, fuels were primarily loose needles, grasses, cones, scattered fallen branches, and bark pieces. Fuel accumulations were often heavier in dwarf mistletoe-infested areas because of fallen witches' broom and dead trees . On the southern slope of Mt Pinos, widely spaced Jeffrey pine and a discontinuous understory fueled small fires that produced a mosaic of small, even-aged tree groups. Lightning-ignited fires on Mt Pinos averaged less than 4 acres (2 ha) in size. Researchers noted that fire exclusion has led to increased densities of "spindly, sapling-size Jeffrey pine" [197,198]. The Jeffrey pine/curlleaf mountain-mahogany vegetation type on top of rocky volcanic substrates in northeastern California was "nearly fire proof" due to landscape position and a lack of fuels . For more specific details regarding fuels, fuel types, and fuel loadings, see Fire Management Considerations.
Ignitions: Lightning is a common ignition source in many Jeffrey pine forests, and southern California sheepherders referred to Jeffrey pines as "lightning trees". Seventeen years of modern lightning records in north-central Baja California suggest that anthropogenic ignitions were likely before 1950. The large number of spring fires and low levels of spring lightning suggested that lightning was not likely the sole ignition source .
On Mt Pinos, pine forests may experience 600 lightning strikes/summer, and single storms have produced over 100 lightning strikes. Lightning strikes can create "sleeper" trees that burn internally until the fire is extinguished, creeps out into dry fuels, or the tree ignites. Wiggins (personal communication in ) reported that sheepherders working in southern California advised against camping under Jeffrey pines or "lightning trees", and later that day a Jeffrey pine tree in his camp was struck by lightning . From a random sample of 277 Jeffrey pine trees on the upper southern slope of Mt Pinos, 32.5% had lightning damage .
In Lassen Volcanic National Park there were 302 lightning-ignited fires in the summers from 1931 to 1981. There were an average of 7 lightning fires/year. Occasionally, a single dry lightning storm started 6 or 7 fires. Most fires were small (<0.25 acres (0.1 ha)), but larger fires (≥300 acres (120 ha)) occurred at 8- to 10-year intervals . Between 1913 and 1989, there were more than 5,000 lightning ignitions recorded in the Modoc National Forest (Cavasso, personal communication in ). For an in-depth discussion on lightning: types of lightning strikes that are most likely to cause ignition, typical delay of fire activity following lightning strikes, most commonly struck features within western forests, tree damage or mortality from lightning strikes, and indirect mortality from forest pests attracted to lightning-damaged trees, see Taylor .
Fire severity: Low-severity fires are described in most qualitative Jeffrey pine fire literature, but Jeffrey pine forests have experienced fire severities ranging from low-severity surface fires to severe, stand-replacing surface and crown fires. In the northern Sierra Nevada, stand-replacing fires occurred even before the practice of fire exclusion, but crown fires were less common than moderate- and low-severity fires . The 2002 Biscuit Fire in southwestern Oregon burned 14.4% of Jeffrey pine forests in the area: 5.3% burned severely, 7.6% burned at moderate severity, and 1.5% burned with low severity. Low-severity fires lightly scorched the vegetation, killed only a few large trees that were present on the burned site, and consumed very small diameter fuels. Moderate-severity fires killed 40% to 80% of trees, consumed most litter and fine ground fuels. High-severity fires killed nearly 100% of trees .
The McNally Fire burned about 97,214 acres (39,341 ha) of Jeffrey pine forests in the Sequoia National Forest in the summer of 2002. About 6% of the area was unburned, 24.5% burned at low severity, 49% was moderately burned, and 21.6% burned severely. Unburned patches had less than 10% canopy cover change. On low-severity burned sites, crown scorch affected less than 40% of the canopy, and mortality occurred in seedling and sapling size classes. Moderately burned sites had 40% to 89% canopy crown scorch, but most overstory trees survived. Severely burned sites had more than 89% canopy scorch, and understory mortality was complete. The Manter Fire in the southern Sierra Nevada burned approximately 13,610 acres (5,508 ha) of Jeffrey pine forest in the summer of 2000. Low-severity, moderate-severity, and high-severity fires burned 24.5%, 43.6%, and 31.9% of the Jeffrey pine forests, respectively. The northern Sierra Nevada Storrie Fire burned 41.7% of a 316-acre (128 ha) Jeffrey pine forest at low severity in the summer of 2000. Moderate- and high-severity fires burned 52.8% and 5.6% of Jeffrey pine forests, respectively. All burned sites had not burned for an extended period, as long as 125 to 150 years on some sites .
The majority of Jeffrey pine and mixed Jeffrey pine forests burned at low severity in 1989 summer fires in the Sierra San Pedro Mártir of Baja California Norte; however, stand-replacing fires occurred as well. Whether stand-replacing fires were a result of crown fire, severe surface fire, or a combination was not determined from the aerial photographs and vegetation maps used to assess fire damage. In the northern portion of the study area, the total area burned in Jeffrey pine forests was 770.7 acres (311.9 ha): 39% burned in low-severity surface fires, 26.8% in high-severity surface fires, and 34.2% in stand-replacing fires. Stand-replacing fires occurred primarily in areas surrounded by chaparral vegetation and at elevations below 5,200 feet (1,600 m). In northern mixed Jeffrey pine forests, 861.4 acres (348.6 ha) burned, 51.3% in low-severity surface fires, 27.9% in high-severity surface fires, and 20.8% in stand-replacing fires. In southern Jeffrey pine forests, 1,800 acres (729 ha) burned, 70.2% in low-severity surface fires, 23.1% in high-severity surface fires, and 6.7% in stand-replacing fires. Fire severity ratings were based on percentage of canopy cover remaining after fire: low-severity surface fires produced <10% canopy mortality, high-severity surface fires produced over 10% canopy mortality, and stand-replacing fires killed more than 90% of the canopy .
Fire-return intervals: Once scarred by a fire, Jeffrey pine trees easily develop scars from subsequent fires, making them excellent fire recorders and extremely valuable in fire history studies . Fire history studies from Jeffrey pine habitats span the entire range of the species. Most of these studies are summarized in the table below. Average fire-return intervals were typically lower in ponderosa pine- or Jeffrey pine-dominated forest types than in mixed-conifer- or white fir-dominated forest types. In a review of fire history studies in Jeffrey pine forests, Skinner and Chang found fire-return intervals were more variable in upper montane than in low-elevation, pine-dominated forests, and that fire-return intervals in Jeffrey pine forests were more variable than those in ponderosa pine forests, although site conditions and fire frequency were similar. Reviewers suggested that fire frequency variability in Jeffrey pine forests may have been due to a limited fire season, slow fuel accumulations, and occupation of landscapes broken up by rocky outcrops .
|Historic and contemporary fire-return intervals in Jeffrey pine habitats by study area. Superscripts indicate data collected and used in analyses: see legend below.|
|Vegetation type||Time period (approximate)||Fire-return interval(s) (FRI); calculation method, if provided||Notes|
|Klamath Province, southwestern Oregon2 |
|Jeffrey pine/huckleberry oak-pinemat manzanita||1840-1950||x=7.3 years||fire frequency decreased after 1950 with fire exclusion |
|Jeffrey pine/huckleberry oak-pinemat manzanita-dwarf silktassel||1529-1950||x=24.8 years|
|Jeffrey pine-incense-cedar/huckleberry oak||1422-1950||x=10.6 years|
|Jeffrey pine-incense-cedar/whiteleaf manzanita||1620-1950||x=11.2 years|
|Upper montane and subalpine basins in Scott Mountains of Klamath Range1 |
|mixed conifer||1376-1941||x=54.5 years, range=5.8-276 years||no fires from 1950 to 1995 in any basin; fires frequent, mostly small sized, likely low to moderate severity |
|Southern Cascades, northeastern California1,3 [117,118]|
|open ponderosa pine-Jeffrey pine||1700-1849||7-49 years for widespread fires (≥7 units in 700 km² study area); 2-22 years for moderate-sized fires (≥4 units); a fire ≥1 unit in 93 of 150 years||conditions wetter/cooler than average 3 years before most widespread fires (P<0.05); most widespread fires in El Niño years; conditions wetter/cooler than average (P<0.05) before nonfire years ; fire frequency significantly (P<0.001) lower from 1906-1996 than 1750-1905; 1 fire after 1910 |
|Prospect Peak in Lassen Volcanic National Park1,3 (2,630-ha study area) |
|Jeffrey pine (1,855 to 2,100 m)||1656-1849a||x=4.9 years (composite)||66.9% of fires in dormant season; fire size from 1627-1904: x=241 ha, range=39-742 ha; x FRI significantly different (P<0.05) between 1656-1904 and 1905-1994; x FRI on east < south < west slopes|
|Jeffrey pine-white fir (1,840-2,220 m)||1656-1849||x=7.5 years||82.5% of fires in dormant season; fire size from 1627-1904 x=195 ha, range 6-666 ha; x FRI on east < south < west slopes ; comparisons of presettlement and contemporary forests available in Succession without fire|
|Prospect Peak, Lassen Volcanic National Park1,2,3 [173,174]|
|Jeffrey pine||pre-1900||x=16 years, range=9.5-32 years||30% of fires in growing season; x FRI on east < west ≈ south slopes|
|white fir-Jeffrey pine||x=29.8 years, range=15.5-38 years||x FRI on east <west ≈ south slopes|
|Caribou Wilderness at southern tip of Cascade Range1,2,3 (950-ha study area)|
|white fir-Jeffrey pine (density and basal area of white and red fir >Jeffrey pine) (2,060-2,360 m)||1735-1874||x=70 years (point)||29% low- (>75 stems/ha remaining), 46% moderate- (25-75 stems/ha), 25% high- (<24 stems/ha) severity fires|
|Thousand Lakes Wilderness¹,²,³|
|white fir-Jeffrey pine||pre-1900||x=14 years, range=7-25 years||4% low-, 44% moderate-, 52% high-severity fires [173,174]|
|Thousand Lakes Wilderness1,2,3 (2,042-ha study area) |
|white fir-Jeffrey pine||1710-1995||x=4 years, range=1-20 years (composite); x=14 years, range=7-25 years (point)||4% low-, 44% moderate-, 52% high-severity fires; x fire size 145.7 ha, range 34-388 ha|
|1905-1995||too few intervals to compare|
|white fir-sugar pine (Jeffrey pine common)||1658-1995||x=9 years, range=2-35 years (composite); x=15 years, range=7-43 years (point)||2% low-, 35% moderate-, 63% high-severity fires; x fire size 103 ha, range 12-335 ha |
|1905-1995||too few intervals to compare|
|west-slope Carson Range, east-slope Lake Tahoe1 (6,000-ha study area) |
|Jeffrey pine-white fir (1910-2300 m)||1650-1850||x=3.4-9.4 years (for 8 watersheds), range=1-36 years; range for widespread fire (≥6 watersheds)=3-31 years||90% dormant-season fires; no fires after 1871; from 1775-1850 widespread fires in driest years (P<0.01), fires in ≥2 to ≥6 watersheds preceded by 2-4 years wet weather (P<0.01); high moisture associated with nonfire years |
|Little Frying Pan drainage in Sweetwater Mountains of eastern CA1 (<40-ha study area) |
|Colorado pinyon-western juniper (Pinus edulis-Juniperus occidentalis)||1687-1895||x=8 years||"low-intensity" fire likely; from 1960-1996 fire size <0.1 ha; woody fuel buildup with lack of fire has increased crown fire potential in extreme weather |
|Yosemite National Park (prescribed fire natural areas) |
|Jeffrey pine||1972-1993||x=158 years||0.06% of Jeffrey pine forests burned in prescribed natural fires from 1972-1993, fire size 4-400 ha |
|Valentine Camp Natural Reserve¹ |
|Jeffrey pine||1745-1889||x=9 years, range=4-17 years||last fire before 1900, but remains fairly open Jeffrey pine-dominated canopy; fires more frequent in Jeffrey pine than in red fir only 100 m away (P<0.05) |
|Dinkey Creek Watershed in southern Sierra Nevada1 (>2,070-ha study area, six 1.4-ha plots) |
|mixed conifer||1771-1873||x=3.2-5.4 years (by plot), range=1-12 years||high incidence of lightning, from 1911-1964 were 39 lightning-ignited fires (1/1.4 years), no fire >2.5 ha from 1911-1964 |
|Kings Canyon National Park1 (160-ha study area) |
|yellow pine (Jeffrey pine and ponderosa pine)||1775-1909||x=3.5 years, x=11.4 years/individual tree||no fire after 1909 |
|Teakettle Experimental Forest1 (1,300-ha study area) .|
|old-growth mixed conifer (white fir dominant, but Jeffrey pine largest and tallest)||1614-1917||x=17.4 years (point), range=3-115 years||10 widespread fires from 1795-1865, after 1865 only 2 localized fires; greater number of fires in La Niña years (P<0.001) but proportion burned not different in La Niña years (P=0.77) .|
|1692-1865||x=11.4 years (composite, minimum 3 scars)|
|San Bernardino Mountains1 |
|Jeffrey pine||pre-1860||x=14 years||FRI significantly (P<0.05) longer from 1905-1974 than earlier time periods, ignitions primarily lightning |
|San Bernardino Mountains (68 plots) |
|Jeffrey pine and Jeffrey pine-white fir||pre-fire exclusion||x=15-30 years||stand structure and composition changes without fire discussed in Succession without fire |
|San Bernardino Mountains (45 plots of 10 × 30 m) |
|Jeffrey pine and Jeffrey pine-white fir||pre-1905||x=16 years|||
|San Bernardino Mountains |
|Jeffrey pine||1760-1904||x=12 yearsa||different subscripts, significantly different (P<0.05); annual area burned from 1940-1950 was 2,385 ha, from 1960-1970 was 1,528 ha |
|Sierra San Pedro Mártir, Baja California Norte1 (~0.8 km²/forest type) |
|Jeffrey pine-mixed conifer||1700-1799||x=5.8-9.6 years (composite mean range from 1 fire scar to 3 fire scars and ≥25% of recording trees)||1% dormant-season, 42% early earlywood, 32% middle earlywood, 16% late earlywood, and 9.4% latewood scars|
|Jeffrey pine||1700-1799||x=3.9-10.1 years||52% early earlywood, 30% middle earlywood, 11% late earlywood,
and 8% latewood scars
Overall, fires scarring >10% of trees occurred when precipitation was low (P<0.01) and 2 previous years were wet (P<0.01, 1st year; P<0.05, 2nd year); possible causes of increased FRI after 1800s: livestock grazers reducing fine fuels and limiting fire spread and size, reduced size of native populations that burned landscape, and/or climate changes
|Sierra San Pedro Martir2,4,5 (40,655 ha) |
|Jeffrey pine||1925-1990||x=45 years||436 fires < 16 ha, 41 fires > 800 ha and 2 fires>6,400 ha in size; long FRI attributed to slow fuel buildup and litter accumulation |
|Jeffrey pine-white fir||x=62 years|
|1Fire scars, 2age class distributions, 3radial growth, 4aerial photos, and 5vegetation and fire maps.|
Jeffrey pine occurs in a variety of habitats, many of which may not be listed in the above table. For additional information on fire regimes that may be relevant to Jeffrey pine, consult the table below:
|Fire regime information on vegetation communities in which Jeffrey pine may occur. For each community, fire regime characteristics are taken from the LANDFIRE Rapid Assessment Vegetation Models . These vegetation models were developed by local experts using available literature, local data, and/or expert opinion as documented in the PDF file linked from the name of each Potential Natural Vegetation Group listed below. Cells are blank where information is not available in the Rapid Assessment Vegetation Model.|
|Vegetation Community (Potential Natural Vegetation Group)||Fire severity*||Fire regime characteristics|
|Percent of fires||Mean interval
|Pine savannah (ultramafic)||Replacement||7%||200||100||300|
|Surface or low||93%||15||10||20|
|Surface or low||78%||13|
|Mixed conifer (southwestern Oregon)||Replacement||4%||400|
|Surface or low||67%||22|
|California mixed evergreen (northern California)||Replacement||6%||150||100||200|
|Surface or low||64%||15||5||30|
|Vegetation Community (Potential Natural Vegetation Group)||Fire severity*||Fire regime characteristics|
|Percent of fires||Mean interval
|Surface or low||78%||13|
|Mixed conifer (North Slopes)||Replacement||5%||250|
|Surface or low||88%||15||10||40|
|Mixed conifer (South Slopes)||Replacement||4%||200|
|Surface or low||80%||10|
|Surface or low||74%||30|
|Interior white fir (northeastern California)||Replacement||47%||145|
|Surface or low||21%||325|
|Red fir-white fir||Replacement||13%||200||125||500|
|Surface or low||51%||50||15||50|
|Sierra Nevada lodgepole pine (dry subalpine)||Replacement||11%||250||31||500|
|Surface or low||45%||60||9||350|
|Vegetation Community (Potential Natural Vegetation Group)||Fire severity*||Fire regime characteristics|
|Percent of fires||Mean interval
|Great Basin Shrubland|
|Wyoming big sagebrush semidesert with trees||Replacement||84%||137||30||200|
|Surface or low||5%||>1,000||20||>1,000|
|Mountain big sagebrush with conifers||Replacement||100%||49||15||100|
|Mountain shrubland with trees||Replacement||22%||105||100||200|
|Surface or low||31%||250||50|
|Great Basin Woodland|
|Juniper and pinyon-juniper steppe woodland||Replacement||20%||333||100||>1,000|
|Surface or low||49%||135||100|
|Surface or low||78%||13|
|Great Basin Forested|
|Aspen with conifer (low to midelevation)||Replacement||53%||61||20|
|Surface or low||23%||143||10|
|Aspen with conifer (high elevation)||Replacement||47%||76||40|
|Surface or low||35%||100||10|
Replacement=Any fire that causes greater than 75% top removal of a vegetation-fuel type,
resulting in general replacement of existing vegetation; may or may not cause a lethal effect on the plants.
Surface or low=Any fire that causes less than 25% upper layer replacement and/or removal in a vegetation-fuel class but burns 5% or more of the area.
Mixed=Any fire burning more than 5% of an area that does not qualify as a replacement, surface, or low-severity fire; includes mosaic and other fires that are intermediate in effects [50,78].
|© Br. Alfred Brousseau, Saint Mary's College of California|
IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT:
Adult Jeffrey pine often survives low-severity surface fires. However, mature Jeffrey pine mortality has been observed after prescribed fire in areas with accumulated litter or duff and/or woody ladder fuels . Severe surface and crown fires can kill Jeffrey pine.
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT:
Jeffrey pine survival can be affected by tree size and fire timing. Survival likelihood is increased if Jeffrey pine is burned while dormant; trees are more vulnerable when actively growing [199,201]. Jeffrey pine is considered fire resistant as a 2- to 4-inch (5-10 cm) DBH sapling and highly resistant as an adult .
Wagener [199,201] observed Jeffrey pine trees on 29 burned sites in California and reported on burned tree and postfire characteristics that affected survival. Survival was more likely when trees were "young", "vigorous", and occupied "good" sites. Trees with heavy cone crops were sometimes more susceptible to mortality than equally damaged trees without cone crops. Trees with extensive crown scorch did not necessarily sustain severe bud damage, and often postfire crown growth 1 year after fire was much greater than 1 month following fire. Wagener noted that in most cases, more than 50% bud survival was necessary for tree survival. Live crown percentages were useful in predicting survival of fire-scorched Jeffrey pine, and postfire weather and insect conditions also affected survival [199,201]. The table below summarizes the levels of cambium, crown, and foliage injury that Jeffrey pine can sustain and yet likely survive.
|Percentage of cambium, crown, and foliage injury that "vigorous" Jeffrey pine trees on "above-average" sites burned by late-season (after 1 August) fires can sustain and still be expected to survive |
|Modifications to tree "vigor", site quality, and fire season||Cambium injury||
|Increased cambium injury||moderate (cambium kill <25% of circumference not >stump height, may be some narrow strip kill)||≥50||≥20|
|Below-average site condition||none-light||≥50||≥15|
|Midseason fire||none-light||≥50||15-25 or more|
|Low prefire "vigor", small crowns||none-light||≥60||≥15|
original crown in which twigs and buds are still alive after fire (includes
parts bearing green or partially green foliage).
²Proportion of green or partially green needles present regardless of crown location.
Terminal bud regrowth: Severely scorched trees sometimes produce new green growth from surviving terminal buds protected by scales [121,199,201]. On burned sites in the Sierra Nevada, half of 44 trees with 100% crown scorch and incinerated foliage on less than 50% of the tree produced new foliage in the first postfire year .
Seedling establishment: Jeffrey pine seedling establishment is improved in canopy gaps created by fire, where mineral soil is exposed and light levels are high . Survival of seed in fallen cones is not reported on burned sites. Jeffrey pine seeds in a test tube were killed after exposure to 210 °F (100 °C) temperatures for 0.5 hour . Seedlings on burned sites come from seed from surviving or nearby unburned mature Jeffrey pine trees , fire-scorched trees [199,201], and/or seed-caching animals [16,17]. Wagener [199,201] reported that "exceedingly good stands of seedlings" came from fire-scorched trees on burned sites in California. Additional information on Jeffrey pine seed dispersal and seedling establishment on burned sites is presented below.DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE:
Seed caches on burned sites: Researchers found that chipmunks preferred to cache seeds in ash and that seedlings from caches on burned sites survived longer than those on unburned sites. In the laboratory, long-eared and yellow-pine chipmunks from the Carson Range in Washoe County, Nevada, located 98% of artificial caches made in the sand but just 2.3% of caches made in ash. When chipmunks were provided seed to cache themselves, the average number of caches made in ash was significantly greater than the number made in sand (P=0.02). Researchers suggested seeds in sand were easier to locate by smell than seeds in ash, and ash caching may have reduced stealing or pilfering by others . Seeds from artificial caches on pine-dominated burned sites near Lake Tahoe, Nevada, produced 14.8 times more seedlings than those on unburned plots (P=0.002). The rate of seed removed by animals on burned sites was lower than on unburned sites for 1 to 5 months after fire. Caches in soil produced 3.5 to 8.5 times as many seedlings as caches made in pine needle litter on the soil surface .
Postfire seedling establishment: Often Jeffrey pine seedling abundance is greater on burned than unburned sites. Fire severity and/or season can affect Jeffrey pine seedling establishment , and seedling recruitment on burned sites can continue for many years after fire . Not all studies reported Jeffrey pine increases following fire [71,95,119], and successful seedling establishment on burned sites may be gradual. Likely postfire growing conditions, fire severity, and seed source availability affect the rate and success of Jeffrey pine seedling establishment.
Jeffrey pine seedling densities were greater 2 years after than before spring prescribed fires but reduced from prefire densities 2 years after fall prescribed fires in mixed-conifer forests on the Quincy Ranger District of the Plumas National Forest. Spring fires produced greater fireline intensities than did fall fires, suggesting that increased fireline intensity produced better sites for seedling establishment. However, Jeffrey pine seedling density also increased between the prefire and second postfire sampling seasons on unburned plots. Likely differences in fire intensity and spring and fall growing conditions affected seedling establishment . For more information on this study, consult the Research Project Summary Plant response to prescribed burning with varying season, weather, and fuel moisture in mixed-conifer forests of California.
The number of Jeffrey pine seedlings on 5-year-old burned sites was substantially greater than on unburned mixed-conifer sites in northern California. The 1960 Donner Ridge Fire was an escaped slash pile fire that burned in mid-August. Fire severity was not described. In 1965, there were 496 Jeffrey pine seedlings (<0.8 inch (2 cm) DBH) on the 20-acre (8 ha) burned site and just 1 on the unburned site . Burned and unburned sites compared 7 and 14 years after this fire showed a much higher density of Jeffrey pine seedlings and saplings on the burned than on the unburned site. Mature trees were much more abundant on unburned than burned sites, suggesting that the fire was severe enough to produce mortality in Jeffrey pine trees .
|Density of mature, immature, and seedling Jeffrey pine on 7- and 14-year old burned and unburned plots (each 20 acres) |
|Mature (>20 cm DBH)||0.5||0.6||10.1|
|Immature (>5 years old and <20 cm DBH)||5.4||36.6||38.1|
|Seedling (≤5 years)||28.6||3.3||0.1|
Jeffrey pine recruitment was associated with moisture availability but not recent fire in old-growth, mixed-conifer stands on the Teakettle Experimental Forest. Jeffrey pine recruitment was associated with wetter years (Palmer Drought Severity Index was 2.36). Just 17% of Jeffrey pine recruitment occurred 1 to 4 years after fire. Almost all Jeffrey pine established before 1865 in wet years during or shortly before an El Niño year. Researchers suggested that low-severity fires on the dry, shallow soils occupied by Jeffrey pine may not have produced favorable seedbed conditions .
Fire severity effects: In the studies summarized below, postfire Jeffrey pine recruitment was most abundant on sites burned in stand-replacing fires; however, the sites burned in stand-replacing fires were evaluated 10 and 19 years after fire. Sites burned in "light intensity" fires did not have abundant Jeffrey pine recruitment 2 years after fire. A lack of multiple postfire studies with similar postfire sampling dates makes assessing recruitment and mortality differences between fire severities and seasons difficult.
Density of Jeffrey pine seedlings (<2 inch (5 cm) DBH)) and saplings (2-8 inch (5-20 cm DBH)) was typically much lower on burned than unburned sites 2 years after "light intensity" prescribed fires in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. Mature Jeffrey pine mortality was limited. Fires occurred in mixed-conifer-Jeffrey pine-California black oak woodlands with chaparral-dominated understories. The Paso Picacho site burned in April, and the Granite Springs and Oakzanita sites burned in December. On the Paso Picacho site, the density of large Jeffrey pine trees on burned sites was more than 3 times that of unburned plots. Jeffrey pine saplings were absent from burned plots, and the seedling density on burned plots was nearly half that of unburned plots. On the Granite Springs site, there were more large Jeffrey pine trees on burned than unburned plots. It is unlikely, however, that large trees were produced on burned sites, and likely differences between burned and unburned sites existed before the fires. Sapling and seedling densities on burned plots were significantly lower than on unburned plots (P<0.01 and P<0.02, respectively). On the Oakzanita site, Jeffrey pine tree, sapling, and seedling densities were greater on unburned than burned sites . For additional information on this study, see the Research Project Summary Response of vegetation to prescribed burning in a Jeffrey pine-California black oak woodland and a deergrass meadow at Cuyamaca State Park, California.
A fall prescribed fire in the Tharp Creek Watershed of Sequoia National Park produced 16.7% and 21.7% average annual Jeffrey pine mortality on 2 white fir-mixed conifer sites monitored for 5 years after fire. Mortality was concentrated in the subcanopy. The fire burned from 23 to 26 October 1990. Relative humidity during the day was 21% to 30% and at night was 30% to 40%. Fuel moisture levels in the litter and duff averaged 28%. For 100-hour and 1,000-hour fuels, moisture levels were 14% and 64%, respectively. At the time of ignition, air temperatures were 50 to 61 °F (10-16 °C) and winds were calm. The fire was a combination of backing and strip head fires with flame lengths of 0.16 to 7.9 feet (0.05-2.4 m). One-hour, 10-hour, and 100-hour fuels were reduced by 96%, 77%, and 60%, respectively. Tree (≥4.6 feet (1.4 m)) mortality was evaluated before and after fire as well as from an unburned reference site. On unburned sites, there was no Jeffrey pine mortality. Between 1 and 5 years after the fire, most tagged Jeffrey pine in the subcanopy (below main canopy) and nearly half in the codominant canopy (part of main overstory canopy) were dead. None of the tagged Jeffrey pine trees in the dominant canopy (above codominant canopy) was killed. Researchers indicated that drought conditions 3 years before and 2 years after the fire may have contributed to mortality in the larger size classes. Basal area changes were also monitored before and after the fire. Compared to the unburned control site, Jeffrey pine basal area increased by an average of 0.27% and 0.42% on the 2 burned sites before the fire. From 1989 to 1994 (includes 1 year of prefire data), Jeffrey pine basal area was reduced by 6.5% and 10% on the 2 burned sites compared to the unburned site . For more information, see the entire Research Paper by Mutch and Parsons .
The relative densities of Jeffrey pine saplings and seedlings were much greater and mature tree relative densities much lower on sites burned 10 to 19 years ago than on sites burned between 60 and 100 years ago in stand-replacing fires. Burned areas were upper montane white fir-Jeffrey pine-mixed-conifer forests in the Lake Tahoe Basin. In aerial photos of the Angora Ridge dated to 1917 and 1940, shrubs dominated. A forest canopy was developing in 1976, although there were still shrub-dominated patches. Domestic sheep grazing in the area may have affected vegetation recovery on Angora Ridge that burned 100 years before this study .
|Relative density of Jeffrey pine trees, saplings, and seedlings on sites burned in stand-replacing fires between 10 and 100 years ago |
|Angora Ridge||Cathedral Creek||Cascade Lake||Luther|
|Approximate time since fire (years)||100||60||19||10|
|Saplings (<61 cm tall)||4.7||16||91||14|
|Seedlings (<10 cm in diameter)||0||1||100||17|
Delayed mortality: Mortality of Jeffrey pine trees may continue for several years on burned sites, and often postfire insect attacks further weaken damaged trees causing additional delayed Jeffrey pine mortality. After a small June prescribed fire in ponderosa pine-Jeffrey pine forests in Lassen Volcanic National Park, all 14 ponderosa and Jeffrey pine trees (>18 inches (46 cm) in diameter)) died. The first tree died 2 years after the fire, while most others died 3 years after the fire. Fire burned on a relatively steep slope. Other plots burned in September did not kill all Jeffrey pine trees. Potential causes of delayed mortality were not discussed . On the north shore of Lake Tahoe, the presence of bark beetles on Jeffrey pine was compared on sites burned in prescription fires and unburned mixed-conifer forest plots. The fire produced variable effects on individual trees. Of 389 Jeffrey pine trees evaluated, crown scorch averaged 33%, and bole char height averaged 2.6 feet (0.79 m). A year after the fire, bark beetle attacks were more numerous on burned than unburned Jeffrey pine trees. Burned Jeffrey pine trees had a 24.8 times greater chance of bark beetle attack. Crown scorch and bole char height both had positive relationships (P=0.0001) with bark beetle attack probability. Small trees were preferred by red turpentine and Ips beetles but were not consistently chosen by Jeffrey pine beetles . After a small lightning-ignited fire in a mixed pine forest in Shasta County, California, adult Arhopalus asperatus were observed on the most severely scorched Jeffrey pine trees. Jeffrey pine trunks were scorched up to 20 feet (6 m). Insect activity decreased with time since fire .FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS:
The timing and severity of prescription fires in Jeffrey pine habitats depend on management goals and site conditions. Increased fire severity typically increases seedling establishment but can kill adult trees. Stand density is closely related to fire severity. Dense forests will likely fuel more severe fires than open-canopy forests. Fire may also be used to manipulate species composition in Jeffrey pine habitats. Fir trees are less likely to survive fire than Jeffrey pine, and cover of small-diameter firs can be reduced by low-severity fires. Clearly defined management goals, an understanding of site and stand conditions, and a well-designed prescription fire will produce the best results in the fire management of Jeffrey pine.
Fuels: Characteristics of fuels typical of Jeffrey pine habitats including needles, cones, litter, duff, small- and large-diameter stems, and snags are described from a large portion of Jeffrey pine's range.
Needles and cones: Jeffrey pine needles dry rapidly, ignite easily, and support fire spread . A fuelbed (35×35 cm, <2 inches (5 cm) tall), created from Jeffrey pine needles collected near Lake Tahoe, Nevada, produced a maximum flame height of 34 inches (87 cm) after being dried to 1.5% to 2.7% moisture. Average flame time was 64.7 seconds, and burn time averaged 391.4 seconds. Average combustion was 90.1%, and average rate of weight loss was 35.3 μg/s. Mean flame height produced by the Jeffrey pine fuelbed was the highest of all 13 western conifer species tested. Flame time was lowest of all species tested, and percent combusted was second to ponderosa pine. Based on the reported values, surface fires could be supported by Jeffrey pine needle litter, and rapidly and nearly complete combustion of surface fuels would be likely . Findings were similar for other Jeffrey pine needle fuel beds tested . The maximum flame length produced after 10 Jeffrey pine cones with 2.3% fuel moisture collected from the Tahoe Basin were burned in a fire chamber was 31 inches (80 cm). Flame and smolder times averaged 262 seconds and 4,412 seconds, respectively. Cone burn time averaged 4,674 seconds, and combustion averaged 89%. Cones burned almost completely to white ash. Flame length, smoldering time, and burn time produced by burning Jeffrey pine cones were the longest of the 9 pine species tested .
Surface and aboveground fuels: Fuel bed characteristics were averaged in 4 Jeffrey pine stands from the central Sierra Nevada. Stands were monocultures of Jeffrey pine saplings (1-4 inch (2.5-10 cm) DBH), pole-size (4-24 inch (10-60 cm) DBH), mature (24-47 inch (60-120 cm) DBH), or old (>47 inch (120 cm) DBH) Jeffrey pines. Litter and duff depths averaged 0.4 inch (1.1 cm) and 2 inches (5.4 cm), respectively. Litter and duff weight averaged 8.965 kg/m². Woody fuel weight averaged 0.025 kg/m² for the 0- to 0.25-inch (0.64 cm) size class; 0.196 kg/m² for 0.25- to 1-inch (0.64-2.54 cm) size class; and 0.073 kg/m² for the 1- to 3-inch (2.54-7.62 cm) size class. There were no woody fuels in the over 3-inch (7.62 cm) size class .
Litter and duff fuel loads were much greater and 1,000-hour fuel loads much less in Jeffrey pine forests from the southern California Valentine Camp Natural Reserve than Jeffrey pine forests in the Sierra San Pedro Mártir National Park. The 2 areas differed in fire management. Fires have not been excluded from the Sierra San Pedro Mártir like they have in southern California. A summary of the fuel loadings and canopy cover differences in the 2 sites is given below [161,162]. For additional information on these sites and their differences in stand structure and fire management, see Fire-return intervals and Succession without fire.
|Average fuel loads (SE) of Jeffrey pine forests in the Valentine Camp Natural Reserve and Sierra San Pedro Mártir National Forest|
|1-hour fuels||10-hour fuels||100-hour fuels||1,000-hour fuels||litter and duff layer||canopy closure|
%, measured with densiometer
|Sierra San Pedro Mártir National Forest, Baja California Norte ||0.11 (0.03)||0.85 (0.16)||1.20 (0.27)||13.64 (3.84)||8.69 (no duff)||40.1|
|Valentine Camp Natural Reserve, southern California ||3.13 (1.05)||1.78 (1.22)||28.38 (7.48)||44.4 |
In Jeffrey pine-mixed conifer forests of the Sierra San Pedro Mártir, almost 50% of plots had no coarse woody debris. Coarse woody debris was defined as wood on the forest floor, at least 3 feet (1 m) long, with a large-end diameter of at least 5.9 inches (15 cm). Average coarse woody debris load was 15.7 t/ha but ranged from 0 to 154.5 t/ha. Rotten coarse woody debris was more abundant than sound coarse woody debris. Large-end diameters ranged from 5.9 to 38 inches (15-96 cm), and most were less than 18 inches (45 cm). The very patchy coarse woody debris distribution may have been a chance occurrence or more likely was because debris was concentrated in unburned microsites protected from fire by topography or rocks . See Snags and decay ecology for addition information on snags in Jeffrey pine habitats.
Fire behavior affected by fuel load: In the Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest, wildfire effects were studied in thinned, thinned and prescribed burned, and untreated ponderosa pine forests where Jeffrey pine was common. Before the treatments and the wildfire, there had been few fires in the area more than several acres in size since the early 1900s. Some thinned stands were burned in prescribed fires before the Cone wildfire in late September. Wildfire severity and postfire mortality (>90%) were greatest in untreated stands. Severe surface fires with some torching were common in the thinned stands and produced 40% to 60% mortality. Low-severity surface fire occurred in thinned and burned stands, with little mortality unless trees were adjacent to untreated stands . Differences in early fall, late fall, early spring, and late spring prescribed understory fires in open, mixed Jeffrey pine, Douglas-fir, and incense-cedar forests on the Quincy Ranger District of the Plumas National Forest are described by Kauffman and Martin . Prefire and postfire characteristics are provided. Fuel conditions, weather, fire behavior (heat combustion, spread rate, and flame length), fuel consumption, and postfire changes in litter, bare ground, and duff are described.
Burned and unburned soils: Many studies provide information on burned and unburned soils in Jeffrey pine forests. Blank and others evaluate effects of a severe wildfire in Jeffrey pine forests that produced white ash on the soil surface are evaluated in comparisons of burned and unburned soils in Nevada's Toiyabe National Forest. Burned and unburned soils in the Little Valley area of the eastern Sierra Nevada were compared 20 years after a stand-replacing fire in a 100-year-old Jeffrey pine forest by Johnson and others . In the Tahoe National Forest, forest floor nutrient contents and soil chemical properties were compared on prescribed burned, logged and slash burned, and unburned Jeffrey pine-dominated sites. See Murphy and others for details. Soil nutrients and chemistry were described 2 months before and 1 year after the July Gondola wildfire in a mixed-conifer forest in the southeastern part of Nevada's Lake Tahoe Basin. For results of this study, see Murphy and others . On the Teakettle Experimental Forest, soil temperatures, moistures, and respiration rates were evaluated on undisturbed, burned, thinned, burned and thinned mixed-conifer stands 2 years after disturbances by Concilio and others and Ma and others [23,93]. After a severe crown fire in Jeffrey pine-oak (California black oak and canyon live oak) woodlands, Goforth and others compared the physical and chemical properties of ash and soils on burned and unburned sites. Soils from burned Jeffrey pine-oak woodlands were also compared to soils from burned mixed-conifer forests where tree densities averaged 5 times that of the woodlands.Defensible space: Instructions for creating defensible space and for constructing a defensible house in wildfire prone mixed-conifer forests of the Incline Village/Crystal Bay area of Lake Tahoe are available from Smith and Adams . Although instructions were designed for Incline Village/Crystal Bay, many provided suggestions are applicable to other wildland urban interface areas.
American black bears: There are observations of American black bears feeding on Jeffrey pine seeds and seedlings. Lanner reports that when Jeffrey pine seeds are available, American black bears "lick up" large quantities. In Little Valley, American black bears fed on the tops of Jeffrey pine seedlings (Goodrich, personal communication in ).
Small mammals: Small mammals often cache and feed on Jeffrey pine seed. On the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada in Mono and Madera counties, golden-mantled ground squirrels, chipmunks (Tamius spp.), and Douglas's squirrels fed on Jeffrey pine seeds . In the northern Sierra Nevada, 10% of Townsend's chipmunks stomachs had small amounts of Jeffrey pine seed, and 6% of cheek pouches contained Jeffrey pine seed, although woody plant seed was scarce . Jeffrey pine seedlings in south-central Oregon suffered 74.2% mortality over a 3-year period; mortality was primarily from winter feeding by pocket gophers .
Birds: Jeffrey pine provides food and habitat for birds. Cavity-nesting birds often utilize Jeffrey pine. In 3 years of study in eastside forests of Modoc, Lassen, and Shasta counties, 110 active nests were located, and all but 4 were in Jeffrey pine or ponderosa pine. Seventeen nests belonged to hairy woodpeckers, 16 to pygmy nuthatches, 12 to mountain chickadees, and 11 to red-breasted nuthatches. Researchers located Jeffrey pine snags with more than 8 nest holes, although trees with 8 or more nest holes were generally uncommon. Nesting was most common in dead trees with DBH of 16 inches (40 cm) or more, and nests were typically built 3 feet (10 m) or more above ground . Researchers found 561 active cavity nests occupied by 18 species in the Sagehen Creek Field Station. Burned Jeffrey pine-white fir habitats were selected for nesting in significantly greater proportion than by chance based on habitat availability (P<0.05). Most nests were in snags (72%); 19% of nests were in dead tops of live trees; just 2% of nests were in live trees with intact tops. Sixteen of the 18 cavity-nesting species used Jeffrey pine for nesting. All western bluebird, 43% of Lewis's woodpecker, 38% of house wren, and 31% of American kestrel nests were in Jeffrey pine. Cavity-nesting birds foraged more in Jeffrey pine than expected based on availability . There is additional information on Jeffrey pine snags in Snags and decay ecology.
Near the Cuyamaca Reservoir in San Diego County, acorn woodpeckers used many Jeffrey pine trees to store California black oak acorns. Acorns were stashed in cracks or in holes drilled in the bark. The researcher estimated that 13,200 acorns were stored in a single extensively used tree . On the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada in Mono and Madera counties, the following bird species fed on Jeffrey pine seeds: Williamson's sapsucker, hairy woodpecker, white-headed woodpecker, mountain chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch, Cassin's finch, red crossbill, and pine grosbeak .
Owls: Flammulated and California spotted owls utilize Jeffrey pine habitats. Flammulated owls in California are often found in ponderosa pine and/or Jeffrey pine forests. The flammulated owl breeding range is associated with the presence of Jeffrey pine and/or ponderosa pine . In the Lassen National Forest, California spotted owls utilized mixed red fir, white fir, and Jeffrey pine forests for foraging. In the San Bernardino Mountains, Jeffrey pine trees used by nesting California spotted owls averaged 40 inches (100 cm) DBH, 116 feet (35 m) tall, and 233 years old. Averages came from 8 Jeffrey pine trees .
Clark's nutcracker: Jeffrey pine is an important food source for Clark's nutcracker in the Sierra Nevada. On the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada in Mono and Madera counties, whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) and Jeffrey pine were the Clark's nutcracker's most important and productive food sources. Clark's nutcracker ate seed fresh and from recovered caches. Harvests of Jeffrey pine seed began in early- to mid-September in most years, but started by 1 August in one observation year. Stores of Jeffrey pine seed were made from mid-September through mid-October. Clark's nutcrackers quality-tested seed by rattling the seed against their mandibles to assess seed weight. Seeds were cached in shallow trenches dug and covered by the bill. Seeds from cones that remained on Jeffrey pine trees in the winter and midspring were also utilized by Clark's nutcracker . On the Inyo National Forest, Clark's nutcrackers retrieved more of their caches in the spring and summer than would be expected by trial-and-error seaching. Caches were comprised primarily of Jeffrey pine seeds. Small mammal pilfering may have affected success rates . For more on caches, see Clark's nutcracker dispersal.
Amphibians/reptiles: Pine, mixed-conifer, and conifer-oak forests that often include Jeffrey pine are important habitat for sensitive or threatened snakes and salamanders of southern California including the southern rubber boa, San Diego kingsnake, San Gabriel Mountain salamander, and the yellow-blotched salamander .
Insects: In mixed-conifer old-growth forests on the Teakettle Experimental Forest, cave crickets and pseudoscorpions were found most often or exclusively on Jeffrey pine trees. Jeffrey pine trees had high Simpson diversity, indicating an even distribution of small numbers of insect functional groups. Total abundance of arthropods on Jeffrey pine averaged 98 arthropods/kg of plant material .
Palatability/nutritional value: There was little information available on the palatability and nutrition of Jeffrey pine trees. Jeffrey pine seeds from Washoe County Nevada were 31.5% crude protein, 47.8% crude fat, 8% soluble carbohydrates, and 0.6% crude fiber .
Cover value: Jeffrey pine provides important habitat and likely important cover to several bird and mammal species. Information on use of Jeffrey pine as cover was integrated into Importance to Livestock and Wildlife.VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES:
Wood Products: Jeffrey pine is utilized for lumber. The wood is hard and strong .OTHER MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS:
There are numerous potential Jeffrey pine root diseases. For the signs and symptoms of Jeffrey pine root diseases, possible management strategies, and impacts of fuel treatments, see Rippy and others . Jeffrey pine is also a potential host to several dwarf mistletoe species, although western dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium campylopodum) is most common. Dwarf mistletoe is capable of causing "considerable damage" to Jeffrey pine . In California, dwarf mistletoe may cause high levels of mortality in Jeffrey pine seedlings and saplings. Seeds from infected trees can have lower germination rates than seeds from uninfected Jeffrey pine trees, and seedlings from infected tree seed can be less "vigorous" than seedlings from uninfected tree seed . For more on the identification and host preferences of mistletoes, see Hawksworth and others . Dwarf mistletoe management options are described by Kimmey and Scharpf and others . Scharpf and others indicate that tree mortality is often a result of 2 or more pests, and all agents should be recognized and managed. For more on the insects and pathogens of Jeffrey pine forests, consult Jenkinson and Parker and others .
Many researchers suggest that prior injury and/or stressful growing conditions increase the likelihood of subsequent Jeffrey pine infections and/or mortality [73,148], but not all researchers agree . Pine engravers utilize Jeffrey pine as a host in some areas, but extensive mortality is rare. Researchers suggest that previously damaged trees, trees in dense stands, and trees suffering drought effects are often targeted by the pine engraver . In South Lake Tahoe, California, Jeffrey pine mortality was greater with both Elytroderma fungal disease and Jeffrey pine beetle attacks than when trees were infected with either pest alone . On the Susan River Watershed in Lassen National Forest, western and Jeffrey pine beetles did not preferentially attack weakened Jeffrey pine trees. More "apparently healthy" than weakened Jeffrey pine trees were attacked. The researcher noted that these results occurred in other areas as well .
Pollution: Jeffrey pine is susceptible to ozone damage. Greenhouse studies revealed damage and decreased growth in 2- to 3-year-old Jeffrey pine seedlings exposed to ozone [100,176]. Of 13 western conifer species exposed to ozone, Jeffrey pine × Coulter pine hybrids were most sensitive, and Jeffrey pine was third . In Jeffrey pine stands in the Giant Forest region of Sequoia National Park, 90% of Jeffrey pine showed visible injury from ozone. Monthly averages of ozone were 30 to 70 ppb-hour over a year, and were highest during the growing season. Jeffrey pine recruitment was still occurring in all stands .
Climate change: Simulation modeling was used to predict changes in forest structure, composition, and fire regimes with projected future temperature and precipitation changes in the Sierra Nevada. Modeling indicated that species composition, forest biomass, fire frequency, and fire size changes were site specific. A general pattern was not described. For more information, see Miller .
Tree parameter estimations: Regression equations to estimate Jeffrey pine diameter, bark thickness, height, and crown width of Jeffrey pine are available. From Dolph , equations for estimating inside Jeffrey pine bark diameter and bark thickness are available for trees less than 81 years old on Sierra Nevada western slopes. Equations for estimating the height of Jeffrey pine from the Klamath Mountains using DBH are available from Garman and others . Estimation equations to compute maximum crown width from DBH for Jeffrey pine in southwestern Oregon are provided by Paine and Hann .
Snags and decay ecology: Snag creation, breakage, fall, and decay rates have been studied in several Jeffrey pine forests from northern California to Baja California Norte. Jeffrey pine snags did stand for long periods when populations were monitored from 1975 to 1983 in second-growth Jeffrey pine- and white fir-dominated forests on the Sagehen Creek drainage. Jeffrey pine snags typically fell sooner than white fir snags, and small-diameter trees fell sooner than large-diameter trees. Researchers indicated that 75% of the Jeffrey pine snags (excluding the smallest size class) in the study area would fall after 11 years. Jeffrey pine snags decayed rapidly from 1978 to 1983. Of 224 Jeffrey pine snags that still had needles, twigs, and more than 20 limbs in 1978, 41% had no needles, twigs, and fewer than 20 limbs by 1983, and 40% had fallen. Of the new snags that formed during the same time period, 68% were Jeffrey pine, and 38% of the Jeffrey pine snags were less than 6 inches (15 cm) in DBH. Jeffrey pine beetles were the primary cause of mortality [134,135]. For 9 years snags were studied in Modoc and Lassen National Forests, Lassen Volcanic National Park, and Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest. The Jeffrey pine snag creation rate ranged from 17 to 216 new snags/year. Most Jeffrey pine snags (96%) did not decrease in height over the study period. The average annual fall rate was 6.8% for Jeffrey pine snags. Small-diameter snags were more likely to fall than larger snags, and Jeffrey pine trees were more likely to fall than break. A prescribed fire on 1 site increased the Jeffrey pine snag fall rate .In Jeffrey pine-mixed-conifer forests of the Sierra San Pedro Mártir, 52.6% and 23% of snags were Jeffrey pine and white fir, respectively. Snag DBH averaged 22.8 inches (57.9 cm) for all species and ranged from 1 to 43.8 inches (2.6-111.3 cm). Snag height averaged 43 feet (13 m) and ranged from 6.2 to 95.5 feet (1.9-29.1 m). A majority (85%) of snags were large (>12 inch (30 cm) DBH). Snag density averaged 3.95/ha, but snag distribution was patchy. Thirty-five percent of plots had no snags, 65% had less than the average density, and 18% had over 10 snags/ha. Snag abundance increased following severe drought conditions between 1999 and 2003. The highly variable snag attributes caused researchers to question management guidelines with uniform snag targets . For additional information on decomposition and nutrient cycling in Jeffrey pine forests, see the in-depth study of burned and unburned Jeffrey pine forests in Little Valley, Nevada, by Stark .
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FEIS Home Page | <urn:uuid:e18ca42c-0273-4135-a2fc-e924e0c13ebb> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/pinjef/all.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1413507444657.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20141017005724-00024-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.878164 | 37,433 | 2.53125 | 3 | {
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Pythagorean Theorem Calculator (a² + b² = c²)
Area : 3
Perimeter : 8.60555
Pythagorean Theorem Calculator | Digicommerce.in
The pythagorean theorem is used to calculate sides of a right angle triangle. Pythagoras, a 6th century BC mathematician is credited with its development but it may be older and in use by Babylonians and Indians much before that time. The theorem is used to calculate dimensions of the right angled triangle and its formula is a² + b² = c² where c is the hypotenuse. It can be done manually or with the help of Digicommerce pythagorean theorem calculator shown here.
Apart from classroom studies where it is used to know the dimensions of the sides of a right angled triangle, it has other uses such as:
- Calculation of height of a building and then know the length of a ladder required to be placed against it and the right angle for safety purpose.
- One can triangulate to know distances.
- Area of the triangle can be calculated with a simple extension.
- The theorem is also used for social media metrics, in computer science
How to use pythagorean theorem calculator
It is easy to use the online pythagorean theorem calculator shown here to know the hypotenuse of the right angle triangle and its area.
- Input values of the two sides, a and b and click on calculate. You get a value for C, the hypotenuse side.
- You also know the area of that triangle.
- You also see hog long the perimeter is.
By extension, if you know the length of the hypotenuse and that of one side or the angle you can find dimension of the other side.
Use in ecommerce
As a retailer you may wonder what possible use is pythagorean theorem in your ecommerce business. Your items go out in boxes. You can calculate sides and dimensions of the boxes if you have one value or two values and do it with ease. This way you can use the theorem to optimize dimensions of packaging or to buy packaging that suits your items and thus save on freight costs. It can be particularly useful when you have many small boxes that need to go into one larger box, for example.
The pythagorean theorem calculator shown here is free to use. Find out innovative ways to use it or to avoid having to do manual calculations. | <urn:uuid:cd34962a-065d-465e-ba58-b8ae35080bea> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | https://www.digicommerce.in/pythagorean-theorem-calculator/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578596571.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20190423094921-20190423120921-00438.warc.gz | en | 0.902037 | 512 | 3.796875 | 4 | {
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} | Science & Tech. |
New mothers aren’t the only ones who put on extra pounds after the birth of a baby. New dads do, too.
In a study that is one of the first-of-its-kind, researchers found that fathers who live with their child or children gain over four pounds. Those who don't live with their kids gain over three pounds. That’s an increase of 2 to 2.6 percent in their body mass index (BMI) for the average man. The same size man who is not a father lost 1.4 pounds over the same period of time.
Other research has found that marriage leads to weight gain in men, but the “fatherhood effect” is in addition to that weight gain. The reason behind the weight gain varies, but certainly changes in lifestyle, less time to exercise, and an increase in the amount of kid-friendly snack foods in the house all contribute to the problem. The food left on kids' plates doesn't help either.
The medical field needs to think about how we can help these men of child-rearing age who often don't come to the doctor's office for themselves.
Over a period of 20 years, researchers at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine followed the BMI (body mass index) of more than 10,000 men from adolescence into their early 30s. They categorized the men according to their fatherhood status and compared the BMIs of fathers and non-fathers.
New dads often think they are too young and healthy to watch what they eat, so Garfield recommends that pediatricians take the opportunity to address dad’s health as well as the child’s health and offer nutritional counseling, if needed. The extra weight and the increase in BMI can set men up for developing heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
“We now realize the transition to fatherhood is an important developmental life stage for men's health,” Garfield said. “It's a magical moment where so many things change in a man's life. Now the medical field needs to think about how can we help these men of child-rearing age who often don't come to the doctor's office for themselves.”
The best thing that can come out of this new knowledge is the importance of fathers acting as role models for their children by placing healthy eating and physical activity on their priority list. Children do what they see, not as they’re told. | <urn:uuid:49321616-723c-418c-b1ca-1d4ac8320770> | CC-MAIN-2019-43 | http://www.thedoctorwillseeyounow.com/content/men/art4730.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-43/segments/1570987751039.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20191021020335-20191021043835-00337.warc.gz | en | 0.970674 | 505 | 2.78125 | 3 | {
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PG Diploma in Rural/Urban Management IN THANE MUMBAIINTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT & ENGINEERING
- Post Graduate Diploma
- Support service
Frequent Asked Questions
· What are the objectives of this course?
Urban planning is a technical and political process concerned with the use of land, protection and use of the environment, public welfare, and the design of the urban environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas such as transportation, communications, and distribution networks. Urban Planning is also referred to as urban and regional, regional, town, city, rural planning or some combination in various areas worldwide. Urban planning takes many forms and it can share perspectives and practices with urban design. Urban planning guides and ensures the orderly development of settlements and satellite communities which commute into and out of urban areas or share resources with it. Urban planners in the field are concerned with research and analysis, strategic thinking, architecture, urban design, public consultation, policy recommendations, implementation and management. Urban Planners work with the cognate fields of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Public Administration to achieve strategic, policy and sustainability goals. Early urban planners were often members of the these cognate fields. Today urban planning is a separate, independent professional discipline. The discipline is the broader category that includes many different sub-fields such as land-use planning, zoning, environmental planning, transportation planning, and Parks and Recreation.
· Who is it intended for?
GRADUATES ANY STREAM
GRADUATES ANY STREAM
· What marks this course apart?
SELF LEARNING ONLINE STUDIES
· What happens after requesting information?
ADMISSION & REGISTRATION
What you'll learn on the course
Teachers and trainers (1)
Theories of urban sociology: Classical: The classical sociological theorists grappled with the arrival of modern urbanism.They attempted to understand the very nature of the new industrial society that was transforming the European cities.
Contemporary: The contemporary sociological theories look at cities from the point of view of production, distribution and consumption of space. These theoretical approaches have been influenced largely by the ecological, cultural and political-economic perspective
Technology and urban life: It has been observed by historians that technological and urban developments are closely related processes. The use and impact of technology varies between urban and rural areas. This chapter will discuss, through case-studies, how technology moulds urban landscape as urban social life-as centres of education, as sources for capital and political power-impacts on technology
Poetics and politics of urban spaces: Sociologists have looked at different dimensions of urban spaces such as neighbourhood, ghetto, suburbs and the edge city. This chapter will explore, drawing on crosscultural case-studies, how urban spaces are the products of a number of social processes
Urban planning and design: City planning reflects the social structures and processes in any society. Modern urban planning had its origins in the reaction to the rapid and disorderly growth that characterized the latter part of the 19th century. This chapter will sensitize the student to appraise urban planning from a sociological perspective. The chapter will look at pre-imperial, colonial and post-independence Indian cities and show how city planning and larger social processes reinforce one another.
Rural, urban, 'rururban' and suburban: the future of urban sociology: In India the dichotomy between rural and urban has often been questioned by sociologists. It has been pointed out that the neologism 'rururban' captures the dynamics of Indian urbanism. This chapter will address such conceptual questions and review contemporary sociological studies on urbanization in India. It will also comment on possible areas of further research. | <urn:uuid:75577a63-e53d-4cc7-8ded-930fdeeb3b7a> | CC-MAIN-2016-50 | http://www.emagister.in/pg_diploma_rural_urban_management_thane_mumbai_courses-ec2781171.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-50/segments/1480698542244.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20161202170902-00464-ip-10-31-129-80.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924334 | 777 | 2.890625 | 3 | {
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For more than 150 years, The Doe Run Co. has tapped the fertile mineral resources of southeast Missouri to mine the lead, copper and zinc that remain staples of products ranging from car batteries to X-ray equipment and military satellites.
While these Missouri mines represent some of the world’s largest lead deposits, the mines will eventually close once their resources are fully extracted, and Doe Run will remediate the sites as required.
Thanks to the work of a Missouri S&T doctoral student in civil and environmental engineering and her faculty mentors, mine remediation of former mine tailings impoundments could receive an organic boost from a product most communities are eager to get rid of — sewage sludge from a municipal wastewater treatment plant. Mine tailings are the ground-up rock byproducts created when separating mineral from waste rock as part of the milling process.
The research by Ph.D. student Mariam Al-Lami and Joel Burken, Curators’ Distinguished Professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering and the department’s newly named chair, is the outgrowth of a 2012 research agreement between the university and Doe Run. Now their work is attracting national attention.
A study initiated in 2012, in conjunction with MFA Oil Co., examined the use of Miscanthus grass to help transform mine tailing sites into potential biofuel sources.
“Miscanthus is proven to be one of few plants that can thrive in challenging conditions, such as tailings,” says Eva Gonzales, a Saint Louis University plant biologist and a member of Al-Lami’s dissertation committee.
The new work builds on that earlier effort by broadening the revegetation sources to include poplar and willow trees to assess their utility in promoting growth atop the tailings impoundments.
“Those tailings impoundments have little vegetation cover,” explains Al-Lami.
Working in the rooftop Baker Greenhouse at Butler-Carlton Civil Engineering Hall, the research team compared the effect of adding nutrient-rich biosolids to the plants grown in tailings in combination with several different types of commercially available soil additives, such as biochar, a charcoal-based product.
They conclude that the tailings treated with biosolids “dramatically improved plant growth” compared to untreated tailings while promoting microbial activity essential to plant health.
The team hopes to translate the greenhouse findings to field trials on parts of a 300-acre tailings impoundment at Doe Run’s old Mine 28 in Viburnum. The tailings are initially added to impoundments that fill up with tailings over the life of the mine.
The encouraging lab results earned Al-Lami the top student paper at the American Society of Mining and Reclamation’s annual meeting, which was held in early June in Spokane, Washington. The Iraq native also received an ASMR scholarship to attend the conference, including a $2,000 award.
“In this research, Mariam is really doing great work that is solid scientifically and impactful for our society,” Burken says. Al-Lami is also presenting her research findings at the Ecological Society of America conference in August in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
“This work has been very rewarding on many levels,” says Burken. “Working collaboratively with Doe Run, we are looking at long-term solutions.
“Balancing development and societal gains with ecological restoration and protecting human health is really the core of our field.”
“It’s very timely work,” adds Doe Run asset development director Chris Neaville, an S&T graduate with a bachelor’s degree in geological engineering. ” It’s been a very useful piece of research that will have some practical applications.”
The ASMR presentation by Burken and Al-Lami is titled, “The potential of biosolids and other amendments for revegetation of lead/zinc mine tailings with three biomass crops: greenhouse study.” | <urn:uuid:420a21d2-6298-419b-abee-92a5a10b16f0> | CC-MAIN-2021-17 | https://news.mst.edu/2016/08/greening-mines/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-17/segments/1618038060927.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20210411030031-20210411060031-00094.warc.gz | en | 0.95134 | 845 | 2.78125 | 3 | {
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Bee nutrition is a complex subject, but it can produce excellent results if you get it right. Protein feed, which remains little-known and seldom practiced in some countries, can give your colonies a real boost, ensuring a better spring build-up, with potential improvements in honey production and brood rearing, and most importantly, eliminating deficiencies that can occur during the season.
In practical terms, why do colonies need protein?
Pollen contains, on average (all pollens are different!), between 18 and 30 % protein. One colony will need between 10 and 26 kg of pollen per year (Wille et al., 1985). This represents a need per bee of 3.4 to 4.3 mg of protein per day, and per larvae between 25 to 37.5 mg (i.e. 125 to 187.5 mg of pollen per day) (Hrassnigg and Crailsheim, 2005).
Protein deficiency in bees can lead to poor development of the hypopharyngeal glands. These somewhat outlandishly named glandes are fundamental to the production of royal jelly, which is vital to the colony’s development. Royal jelly is used to feed the larvae during their first three days of life and also to feed the queen, for her lifetime. These glandes are therefore responsible for the queen’s activity, her egg production proficiency, and the development of maturing brood. If these glands do not develop properly, the resulting poor-quality royal jelly can lead to malformations, low weight, and a reduction in the life expectancy of bees.
Protein also plays a key role in the production of vitellogenin, which primarily affects the bodily reserves of bees. Found in high concentrations in nurse bees, who use it to produce royal jelly, which they then distribute to the brood. Vitellogenin is made from protein provided by pollen and is metabolized in the hypopharyngeal glands that we were just discussing. It is then stored in the bee’s fat reserves, but also circulates in the haemolymph (which transports nutriments) and in the brain. In short, vitellogenin is involved in storage and immunity, resistance to oxidative stress, life expectancy, secretion and colony nutrition, reserves, control behaviour, etc. It therefore plays a crucial role in the balance of the colony.
So, what is the common denominator between proper development of the hypopharyngeal gland and normal levels of vitellogenin? Protein, through pollen consumption. So now you have a better understanding of its importance for the development of the brood and bees in general, throughout the year.
Vicious circle of protein deficiency
Where can they find the necessary protein?
The protein consumed by bees comes from pollen they collect in their environment. Not all pollens are the same, and it is variety of pollens that enables them to meet all the needs of the bees and larvae.
Fresh pollen can be consumed directly, but it is made more easily digestible when transformed into bee bread. Bee bread is made from pollen to which bees add nectar, glandular secretions and lactic bacteria, resulting in fermentation. The composition of bee bread is very similar to fresh pollen, but with more enzymes and valuable compounds. Its higher biological value ensures bees receive a balanced diet, preventing any possible deficiencies. Bee bread starts to deteriorate significantly after two months, and may be removed from the hive by the bees, unless no fresh pollen supply can be found.
Sources: Sommerville 2005, Vasquez 2009
In adverse environmental conditions (lack of pollen, lack of pollen variety or poor-quality pollen), resulting from a lack of variety in the surrounding crops and/or bad weather, bees cannot find the necessary pollen for proper colony development throughout the year. This leads to deficiencies in the bees and larvae. The choice of location for your hives therefore plays a strategic role and should not be taken lightly. You also need to think about adapting your feed according to the season and the weather. This should not be limited to providing sugar (carbohydrate) alone.
Protein for the spring build-up
Now let us get back to main subject of this article: protein feed for the colony’s spring awakening.
Providing protein in spring (prior to the appearance of the first flowers) creates a virtuous circle for the entire colony. Relatively recent studies have shown that protein supplements provided to colonies in spring can ensure colony development even in bad weather conditions and a better honey harvest (Mattila and Otis, 2006a). These supplements can also reduce the negative effects linked to the varroa mite (Janmaat and Winston, 2000) and Nosema (Mattila and Otis, 2006b). Providing protein aids the development of the bees’ hypopharyngeal glands and increases vitellogenin reserves. This results in the queen producing more eggs (mainly worker brood) and much higher quality royal jelly. The colony grows stronger more quickly and is better operationally for the first nectar flows. It increases productivity and therefore honey and pollen stores, leading to better winter reserves… and therefore better health for the new generations of bees the following spring (colony strength in spring is dependent on winter pollen reserves or supplemental protein feeding).
Virtuous circle of providing protein
However, pay attention to your protein supplement at the start of the following season, prior to the first nectar flows (especially if rapeseed nectar flows): monitor swarm risk and, if necessary, divide the colony to prevent this.
The question you now need to ask yourself is “in practical terms, how can I provide protein for my colonies?” There are protein supplements that can help eliminate deficiencies. Nothing can equal the nutritional quality of pollen, but some high-quality supplements come quite close.
Choosing the right protein feed
1. For the spring build-up, we recommend choosing a feed that contain between 23 % and 35 % protein for brood development and continued colony development (Herbert et al, 1977). Why not less, or more? It is believed that protein concentrations below 10 % and above 50 % can inhibit brood development.
The graph below (Effects of dietary protein levels, Zheng et al, 2014) illustrates a study carried out on various protein concentrations. Four groups of 5 hives were set up with each group receiving protein for 48 days at various concentrations (25 %, 29.5 %, 34 % and 38.5 %). The researchers behind this study were then able to identify the protein percentage resulting in the best worker egg production: 31.7 %. This graph clearly shows an increase in worker production thanks to provision of protein, which eventually declines at higher concentrations (at 38.5 % protein content, fewer workers were reared than at 25 % protein content).
2. We also recommend selecting a protein feed that contains the 10 amino acids essential to bees, which they cannot synthesise themselves (i.e. which they must find in nature or obtain through supplements). Please find a list of these 10 amino acids in the table below.
3. The particles contained in the feed should be as small as possible, in order to be properly digested. It would be a shame to invest in a feed that the bees cannot consume, and which would be released in the form of excrement. In general, we recommend a particle size below 200 μg. Some high-quality protein feeds even offer a particle size below 100 μg. Make sure you choose the right one!
4. Palatability! We are sometimes asked about the palatability of feed formulations. If it does not attract bees, it will not be consumed and will therefore be useless. If you make “homemade” protein mixes, we recommend you test several recipes and choose the one your colonies consume most.
Preparing your protein feed
The best way to provide protein for your bees is to prepare “protein patties”. These patties very often contain syrup, icing sugar, a bit of vegetable oil (for palatability and consistency) and protein powders. Protein powders are generally a mix of at least two existing proteins (for example, brewer’s yeast + soy protein). We recommend mixing several protein sources to offer a sufficient variety of nutrients. For example, brewer’s yeast, in addition to providing protein, is an excellent source of B vitamins, which is not the case for all protein. A synergy is often found between the various protein sources.
“Ready-made” powder mixes are commercially available, but some beekeepers prefer to make their own homemade mixes to adjust the desired protein percentage.
Ready-made protein patties are also commercially available, which means less work for you, However, these do tend to be a bit more expensive than a powder mix.
We hope this article has given you a bit more information on the benefits of protein for your bees and brood and has provided some practical guidelines on its use. We will come back to the subject in future articles, nutrition being a very (very!) broad topic. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to send your questions to [email protected] if you need more specific information. Thank you and until next time! | <urn:uuid:1bb72195-ee10-47d1-94e4-c50a0e4f09aa> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://www.blog-veto-pharma.com/gb/spring-build-up-give-your-colonies-proteins-for-a-boost-all-season-long/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320306181.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20220129122405-20220129152405-00332.warc.gz | en | 0.933483 | 1,915 | 3.75 | 4 | {
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Over 53 million metric tons of electronics waste were generated in 2019. More than 50 million dollars worth of vital raw materials such as gold ended up as trash as a result. With electronics recycling, this all could have been avoided.
Electronic waste recycling is the process of reclaiming, reusing, or repurposing old discarded electronics. A lot of the time, the raw materials from wasted electronics are their most useful asset. The recycling market grows each year.
Business recycling is one of the most crucial sectors in the market. If you own a business, you can make a big difference for the environment. Read on to learn five reasons why your business needs to recycle its electronics.
1. Electronics Recycling Saves You Money
Battery recycling for businesses is expensive, especially if you have to recycle vast quantities of them. By implementing an electronics recycling program, your business can save money on services such as these.
Instead of paying expensive fees to an electronic recycling center, you can find someone that will buy your old electronic equipment. Check out Cjdecycling.com for more details about this.
2. Electronics Recycling Is Eco Friendly
A thorough electronics recycling program can help your business establish its green footprint. The more electronics your business recycles, the less e-waste ends up in landfills. The end result is a less polluted planet.
When electronics are recycled, fewer raw materials are needed for the new devices. Electronics recycling is a win-win for the environment and your business.
3. A Program Streamlines Disposal
Without an electronics recycling program in place, you will have to facilitate the disposal logistics required to get rid of your old devices. Doing so wastes valuable time and resources. Set up a program now to streamline everything.
4. Your Data Will Be Secure
Dropping your old computers off at the dump or leaving them in storage compromises the data they store. Setting up a reliable electronics recycling program ensures that your data is dealt with securely.
Data accountability is important. Before recycling your old devices, ensure that you wipe their hard drives clean and extract any vital content. Then, pass them off to your disposal specialist. They will handle the rest.
5. Recycling Electronics Is Good for Society
You need an electronics recycling program if you want your business to have a reputation for humanitarianism. E-waste leaches toxic wastes into the environment and can compromise human health.
Also, working conditions for the miners of raw materials are often brutal in many parts of the world. By recycling your business’s electronics, you will be doing what’s right for society.
Make Your Business Greener
Establishing an electronics recycling program will make your business greener. A program will also help your business stay on target for your budget and avoid wasted manpower hours. You have lots of reasons to start a program.
Use the information in this guide to get your business electronics recycling program off the ground. For more information like this article, check out other content on our page. | <urn:uuid:0e70b121-8d45-4d7c-9b50-5f343991a21b> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://vyoon.com/5-reason-your-business-needs-to-implement-a-electronics-recycling-program/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500250.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20230205063441-20230205093441-00451.warc.gz | en | 0.925182 | 623 | 2.734375 | 3 | {
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Our Past as Prologue: Building a More Inclusive and Equitable World
On the morning of November 9th, 2016 classes resumed but our campus was quiet. It was the morning after the 2016 Presidential Election and in the Atlanta University Center (AUC)—the nation’s oldest and largest collegiate consortium of historically black institutions—people were beginning to process what had happened the night before. Well into the early morning hours, students were glued to their phones and TVs during what was supposed to be a celebratory watch party. Spelman College has been the site of historic firsts over the years and on that night, we were preparing for another: the nation’s first female president. But that’s not what happened that night. Instead, the news of the election results was quite sobering. We were not prepared to imagine the impact of the 2016 election.
Historically black colleges and universities challenge the racialized politics of progress. By that, I mean that the legacies of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy are multilayered and transgenerational. Colonization, slavery, and racial cleansing are the processes by which the current post-industrial global economy was built. The world today—and the lens through which we are taught to see it—would not exist without centuries of free labor or subsequent systems that deprived communities of color of the resources required for the self-determination we were supposed to promise by citizenship.
Despite American notions of post-racialism, there still remain remnants of a pathological, deliberate history of racism in the United States that has played a large part in the way the country is formulated. It is a legacy and a way of thinking that has resulted in the ways societal structures and communities are formulated, what resources they have, and the hegemonic way in which they are perceived in the public sphere. Students are taught about the existence of this reality upon their matriculation to historically black colleges and universities across the nation. Courses on colonial legacies, racial formation, and hegemonic patriarchy teach us precisely how something like the night of November 8th, 2016 could happen in the supposed land of the free—and the more we know about our history, the less we can be surprised by our present.
So, despite our hope for a different outcome, many of my peers at Spelman understood what the nation chose that night. And it was a choice that it has been made time and time again over generations, usually at the expense of people like us. Despite the many strides made toward greater racial equity over the course of our young lives, there is clearly so much more work to be done. Personally, I think Election Night was a disappointing albeit necessary reminder of this reality. The question on most minds the next morning was, “where do we go from here?”
It is a year later and the original shock of that moment seems to have mostly worn off, even if the pain has not. The work for social justice which predated the election has continued, but there seems to be a palpable sense of preparation—so that the next time we exercise our right to vote, we turn the tide towards a more equitable world. The conversation I am most excited to be a part of on campus now is about updating our methodologies in activist practicums. Whether the focus is on public health, voter rights, or education, these groups see the importance of interdisciplinary solutions to interdisciplinary problems. They are learning how to be even more inclusive and even more considerate of the ways that economic/class inequality impacts our causes.
The addition of Vote Everywhere to our campus has strengthened pre-existing initiatives at Spelman College and Social Justice programs such as Women in the Halls, a weekly event that teaches students how to lobby Georgia state legislators in the General Assembly. While providing valuable instruction on civic engagement, students simultaneously teach each other how to develop their social justice agendas. This program has been a part of a larger mission of coalition-building between the many different organizations that comprise the Spelman Social Justice Fellowship, a program founded by Spelman Vote Everywhere Campus Champion and sociology scholar, Dr. Cynthia Neal Spence. The fellowship unites Spelman students of varied academic disciplines to research and implement activism, drawing on the teachings of critical race, class, and gender theorists.
I hope that by finding new ways to engage and collaborate with young voters on campus, we can eliminate institutionalized racial inequality once and for all and reclaim our country. We must use our privilege to help serve vulnerable communities who are disenfranchised and largely forgotten by our commander-in-chief and make sure that November 8, 2016, will never happen again.
About the Author
Skylar Mitchell is a Vote Everywhere Ambassador at Spelman College. She is a Comparative Women’s Studies major and Writing minor. Skylar has volunteered with her county’s Board of Elections since the 2008 Presidential Election and served as an election judge for the 2014 Gubernatorial race. At this same time, Skylar has been developing her critical framework as an activist, focusing mainly on women’s rights and minority student achievement. She continues this work through Spelman’s Social Justice Fellows Program. | <urn:uuid:67a6ede1-a74b-4b4b-8c69-40708b676452> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://andrewgoodman.org/news-list/past-prologue-building-inclusive-equitable-world/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338213.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007143842-20221007173842-00635.warc.gz | en | 0.969284 | 1,053 | 2.671875 | 3 | {
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} | Politics |
The objective of this post is to identify harmonic signals present in the 162 year series of global temperature data, and then to make a fit to the data in order to quantify their amplitudes and relative phases. Then we make an overall comparison to the full dataset, assuming a logarithmic dependence of temperature on CO2 levels and natural decadal scale oscillations, and finally use the fitted formula to predict future warming based on two different CO2 emission scenarios used by the IPCC. This work has been influenced by a previous study which I recommend reading .
The data is HadCrut3 temperature anomaly data from 1850 to 2011. In a previous post it was argued that a simple energy balance argument for the greenhouse effect of increasing CO2 levels leads to a logarithmic temperature rise on CO2 . The overall trend is well fitted by the formula DT = -0.34 +2.5ln(C/C0). However a clear ~60 year oscillation is evident over and above this slow trend.
To study this oscillation further I subtracted the logarithmic term from the data to leave the residue data which can be seen in Figure 2. To identify harmonics in the data I did a fourier analysis of this residue which is shown below. The upper X-axis is the frequency times time period and the power spectrum in shown in black.The first three peaks correspond to frequencies of 60 years, 11years and 9.3years. The magenta peaks are simulations of sine waves with these frequencies over the 162 year period. The dashed peak is that for a 9 year period showing that the data better fit a 9.3years period.
Next I did a least squares fit to the residue data including all the 3 frequencies with 5 parameters. The phase for the 60 year oscillation was fixed as in the previous post. The fitted formula was :
DT = A*sin(0.105(x-1865)) + B*sin(0.57(x-C)) +D*sin(0.68(x-E))
The best fit is shown below as the blue curve below with A=0.14, B=-0.003, C=1943.5, D=-0.02, E=1879.5. The fit is not perfect before 1860 but many of the main features evident are reproduced rather well. The overall goodness of fit is examined next.
By comparing the UAH data from satellite measurements of the lower atmosphere temperatures with the HadCrut data overlapping the same time period we can estimate the individual errors on a single yearly measurement. This works out at about +- 0.05C for the period 1979-2011. We will assume that the error on each measurement is 0.05C over the full 162 year timespan for Hadcrut, although we might expect the error to be higher in early years. So taking the logarithmic temperature increase assumed to be due to AGW and the oscillations fitted above, we compare the full time series to the fits as shown in figure 3.
How good is this fit ? Calculating the reduced Chisquared between the curve and the datapoints gives 4.0 for errors of 0.05C and about 2.0 for errors of 0.07C which shows that the fit is a reasonably good, especially since other natural effects are also likely present.
The 11 year cycle lines up with the solar cycle of sunspot activity and corresponding variation of around 0.1% in energy output. The 9.3 year oscillation lines up with the twice per period crossing of the Earth-Sun ecliptic plane with the lunar orbit plane precession every 18.6 years. The major 60 year global cycle is still not understood but appears to be linked to the Pacific Decadel oscillation (PDO) and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). What actually causes this and whether there is also here an astronomical origin for this clear effect is still not clear. However reference identifies a 60 year cycle for the relative position of the sun with respect to the overall centre of mass caused by the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn.
The fit to global temperature data over the last 160 years can be used to predict temperature responses to future increases in CO2 emissions. The IPCC use CEISIN scenarios for emissions based on different socio-economic models. The scenario A1B assumes an increasing reliance on fossil fuels with a growing world economiy leading to levels of around 700ppm by the end of the century. It is quite likely however that other sources of energy will be developed over the next 90 years due to environmental concerns and for economic reasons as fossil fuels become more expensive. Scenario B1 assumes a levelling off of emissions leading to CO2 levels of around 550 ppm by 2100. Figure 4. uses these two different CO2 scenarios to predict future temperature increases this century based on the fit described above.
Note that in both cases little or no temperature rise is expected between now and 2025, followed afterwards by a sharper rise until 2060 and another levelling off, all caused by the oscillations contained in the fit. For the lower scenario the overall temperature rise from today is just 0.6 degrees, whereas in the “business as usual” A1B scenario the overall rise is still a “modest” 1.2 degrees. These are smaller than IPCC predictions of 1.7 to 4.4 for scenario A1B and 1.1 to 3.0C for scenario B1.
Hadcrut Data http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/
Logarithmic dependence of global temperature data on CO2 levels : http://clivebest.com/blog/?p=2241 | <urn:uuid:5edeb4e8-47df-46b1-9381-0531a4d07f95> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | http://clivebest.com/blog/?p=2353 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232256778.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20190522083227-20190522105227-00552.warc.gz | en | 0.917423 | 1,192 | 2.765625 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.905869245529175,
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} | Science & Tech. |
is a cystic dilatation of the fourth ventricle or a cyst in communication
with the 4th ventricle, with a varying degree of vermian agenesis, often
associated with hydrocephalus.
The Dandy walker
malformation was initially described in 1914 by Dandy and Blackfan, who
described a case of an enlarged fourth ventricle which was presumed to
result from a fourth ventricle outlet obstruction.
In 1954, the term Dandy Walker malformation was introduced by
The exact pathogenesis of
Dandy walker syndrome has since been the subject of continuous debate.
The syndrome probably represents a nonspecific central nervous system
malformation, which may occur alone or with other malformations and which
may occur in single gene disorders, in chromosomal aberrations, or as a
consequence of an environmental insult. The cause of Dandy-Walker syndrome
is unknown. Despite the common association of other congenital anomalies
with this syndrome (including other central nervous system, cardiac,
gastrointestinal, urogenital, facial, and skeletal anomalies), this
condition has been only occasionally described in families, most often as
part of a syndrome inherited in an autosomal recessive manner.
This syndrome may also occur in the
context of chromosomal aberrations. Other associated nervous system
abnormalities may include agenesis of the corpus callosum, aqueductal
stenosis, cerebral heterotopias, holoprosencephaly, neural tube defects,
and rachischisis. Before 1984, with 300 reported cases of Dandy-Walker
syndrome in the literature, only 16 had been described in families,
suggesting that a genetic predisposition to this syndrome probably is
The syndrome probably
represents a nonspecific central nervous system malformation, which may
occur alone or with other malformations and which may occur in single gene
disorders, in chromosomal aberrations, or as a consequence of an
environmental insult. Four theories have been proposed for this
Dandy and Blackfan and
later Taggart and Walker f were of the opinion that congenital occlusion
of the foramina of Luschka and Magendie was the principal factor
responsible for the dilatation of the 4th ventricle and the secondary
maldevelopment of the cerebellar vermis. The reasons proposed for the
absence or presence of hydrocephalus included an abnormally small choroid
plexus producing less quantities of fourth ventricular fluid, the cyst
wall acting as a semipermeable barrier resulting in the escape of fluid
from the cyst into the subarachnoid spaces, and absorption of the cyst
fluid by vessels lying in the cyst wall. Gibson13 however
showed that the outlet foramina of the fourth ventricle could be patent.
Benda believed that the
malformation was principally a failure of fusion of the corpus cerebelli.
Others believed that a
neuroschistic cleft and bleb at the region of the corpus cerebelli,
without rupture of the ectoderm, resulted in adhesions with the inner
dural layer and inhibited the development of the vermis. This meant that
imperforation of the roof of the fourth ventricle was not the cause of the
anomaly but only a part of it.
delayed permeability of the fourth ventricle roof causes a foetal
hydrocephalus. This, together with an earlier developed posterior choroid
plexus causes excessive distending forces in the posterior fossa leading
to a dilated fourth ventrticle, a large posterior fossa, and a high
placed tentorium. Gardner also described a variant of the malformation,
'the Dandy-Walker cyst' In this anomaly ventricular fluid
accumulates between two layers of the ependyma to form a true cyst.
The cystic fourth
ventricle has a wall separate from the dura of the posterior fossa. The
outer layer of this wall is arachnoid and the inner layer ependyma. A
layer of tissue derived from the-cerebellum lies between the two layers.
This middle layer becomes more apparent laterally and superiorly. The
outlet foramina of the fourth ventricle are patent in 43-82 per cent of
the cases reported in the literature.
The choroid plexus of the
fourth ventricle is hypoplastic and is displaced caudally and lies near
the brainstemornearthedilated lateral recesses. The degree of involvement
of the inferior vermis is variable. Even when it seems that the vermis is
entirely replaced by the cyst wall, hypoplastic vermian tissue may be seen
on microscopy. The superior vermis is often displaced
superiorly, The cerebellar hemispheres are displaced laterally and
dorsally and show the effects of hypoplasia and secondary atrophy due to
chronic pressure. The brainstem is flattened antero-posteriorly.
Hydrocephalus is usually present with dilatation of the lateral and third
ventricles. The cause of the hydrocephalus may be aqueduct stenosdis,
fourth ventricular outlet obstruction to the CSF path ways.
accounts for about four per cent of all cases of hydrocephalus10.
The clinical features
depend on the effects produced by the cyst, the presence or absence of
hydrocephalus and associated anomalies.
62 per cent of patients
with the malformation present during the first year of life, 17 per cent
between the first ana fifth years and 11 per cent during the second decade
Infants present with
symptoms and signs of raised intracranial pressure, including vomiting, a
bulging fontanelle and sixth nerve paresis. The occipital region is
usually prominent, the shape of the skull tending towards dolichocephaly.
Transillumination of the posteriorfossa in infants is positive and will
also allow differentiation between the malformation and a posterior fossa
extra-axial arachnoid cyst.
Children over two years
of age present with headache and papiiloedema. Ataxia is present in
more than 50% of the patients
and delayed milestones and mental retardation is seen in upto 40 per cent
of these children.
motor deficits, cerebellar signs other than ataxiaand brainstem signs may
also occur. Often there may be only a macrocephaiy. Sutural diastasis is
commonly found. The lambdoid suture may be found split mere than the
others, occasionally to such an extent that the occipital bone is found
Dandy-Walker malformation develops at approximately 4 weeks gestation.
After the first trimester, ultrasound is useful in identifying the cyst
and other brain anomalies.
MRI is the
choice of imaging. Principal features on MRI include partial or complete
agenesis of vermian, dilatation of the 4th ventricle, enlarged posterior
fossa with elevation of the tentorium, and cerebellar hypoplasia. In mega
cisterna magna, the 4th ventricle is normal with no vermian hypoplasia.
The 4th ventricle is displaced in arachnoid cysts.
a detailed anatomic study of the structures in the posterior fossa and
also of all the associated anomalies present.
Barkovich et a
have, on the basis of MR studies of posterior fossa cysts and cyst-like
malformations, proposed a new classification in which the Dandy-Walker
malformation, the variant and the mega cisterna, magna, form part of a
continuum of a single developmental anomaly which they called the
''Dandy-Walker complex". The Dandy Walker variant is a less severe
malformation. the vermis is hypoplastic, but not absent, and the posterior
fossa is not enlarged.
syndrome is characterized clinically by ataxia, mental retardation,
episodic hyperpnoea, and abnormal eye movements, and is due to total
aplasia of the cerebellar vermis. On CT or MR1 where, in addition to
absence of the vermis. the fourth ventricle appears large and triangular
with the apex pointing backward at its mid portion. and large and 'bat's
wing' at a higher level.
of the vallecula suggests a Dandy-Walker malformation while a normal
vallecula and a compressed fourth ventricle suggest an arachnoid cyst. The
"key-hole sign" is seen with a cyst which is isolated from the ventricular
posterior fossa include,
malformation, and mega cisterna magna.
Post. fossa arch. cyst- MRI
Mega cisterna magna-MRI
An arachnoid cyst results in anterior displacement of the fourth
ventricle, but normal cerebellar development.
malformation is a cystic dilatation of the fourth ventricle or a cyst
in communication with 4th ventricle.
Mega cisterna magna is an anatomic variant with normal fourth
ventricle and small cerebellum.
using water soluble contrast material is perhaps the best for preoperative
assessment of the ventricular system and the CSF pathways. This not only
provides information on the patency of the aqueduct but will also clearly
rule out a posterior fossa arachnoid cyst.
cysts are asymptomatic and require no intervention. Treatment is
fourth ventriculostomy, as advocated by Dandy, was the treatment followed
till the advent of shunting devices. Shunting procedures are the treatment
of choice for the Dandy-Walker malformation. In the presence of
hydrocephalus, there is no question that a ventricular shunt has to be
inserted. What is under debate, however, is the need for shunting the
posterior fossa fluid collection. Ventriculoperitoneal shunt may allow
the cyst grow larger and herniated upward. Excising the cyst has been
tried virtually with no success. Combined shunting of the supra and infra
tentorial compartments is probably the optimal treatment.
many others feel that this double shunting is not necessary as a primary
procedure. Ventriculo peritoneal shunt may allow the cyst grow larger and
herniated upward. Excising the cyst has been tried virtually with no
success. Combined shunting of the supra and infra tentorial compartments
is probably the optimal treatment. The double shunt may be inserted, if
necessary, in two stages. In the absence of hydrocephalus, a cysto-peritoneal
shunt may be performed.
of the shunting procedures have been uniformly satisfactory. Adults and
older children have a better prognosis as they tend to have fewer
associated abnormalities than infants. The presence of associated
anomalies did not correlate with low IQ scores except in those pateints
with agenesis of the corpus callosum. The control of hydrocephalus is one
of the more important factors in determining the intellectual development
of these patients. Approximately, 50% of long term survivors have an IQ of
80 or more and approximately 30% have normal intelligence. | <urn:uuid:15c802e6-a4e3-4438-9591-914572569d5b> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | http://thamburaj.com/dandy_walker_brain.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247503249.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20190221071502-20190221093502-00510.warc.gz | en | 0.883933 | 2,483 | 2.75 | 3 | {
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Swedish Bumblebees to Repopulate England
Addressing worldwide decline integral to pollinating crops
GOTHENBURG, Sweden—Some Swedes have been really protective of their bumblebees.
“I don’t think there will be any death threats this time,” said entomologist Bjorn Cederberg, who received death threats last spring when he announced he had allowed 100 short-haired bumblebees to be collected in southernmost Sweden and shipped to England.
British scientist Nikki Gammans, who worked with Cederberg, also received threats. Nonetheless, this spring she and her colleagues are back to collect 100 more young queen bumblebees as part of a project to reintroduce the species in England where it became extinct in 1988.
The short-haired bumblebee used to be a protected species in Sweden, which was the reason for the furor that led to death threats against the scientists. It was not commonly known, however, that the species was no longer threatened or protected in Sweden, so 100 queens would have very little effect on the total bumblebee population.
Once this was communicated to the public, things calmed down for Cederberg and Gammans.
“This is the first example of anyone re-establishing a previously existing bumblebee species, as well as trying to understand how to go about it in the best way,” Cederberg said. He used to work for the Swedish Species Information Center at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and has experience working with endangered species.
The short-haired bumblebee may be doing fine in Sweden, but there is cause for concern worldwide, as bumblebees and bees are in decline all over the world. In China, farmers have had to resort to manual pollination, Cederberg said.
Among the pollinating insects, bees perform 80 percent of pollination worldwide, which makes them critically important to global food production. For this reason, the European Commission announced on April 29 that it will ban three pesticides that are said to be killing European bees.
“I pledge to do my utmost to ensure that our bees, which are so vital to our ecosystem and contribute over 22 billion euros [$28.8 billion] annually to European agriculture, are protected,” European Union Health Commissioner Tonio Borg said after the vote, according to EUBusiness.com.
In Sweden, the work of bees was valued at $123 million (800 million Swedish kronor) in 2008, according to Cederberg. This does not include the berries and fruit found in private gardens or out in the wild. These would likely die out if the bees disappeared, along with many beloved flowers.
The pesticides are not solely to blame, however. Some years ago, Swedish farmers started harvesting hay before the red clover had bloomed. This was disastrous for bumblebees, which are dependent on red clover.
Cederberg suggests leaving some clover for the bumblebees during harvest, as the corners of the fields are difficult to reach anyway. It would save time as well as bumblebees, he indicated. Another way is simply leaving strips of unharvested clover and harvesting it later.
It is hard to say as yet whether the short-haired bumblebees that were shipped to England enjoy their new home. They arrived in Dungeness, Kent, to marvelous weather. Then came the rain, which is bad for the bumblebees, so they have been underground.
“Unfortunately, south England experienced the rainiest summer in 100 years last year,” Cederberg said.
Establishing a new species is not without complications, he said. It is not simply a matter of moving a few individuals. Permits are needed, as well as a three-week quarantine. The queen bumblebees may not survive the quarantine, and may thus not establish new hives.
Last year, 50 bumblebees survived the transport and quarantine. They are about to have company. | <urn:uuid:9ec9a7c3-ddce-4459-abad-46835567690a> | CC-MAIN-2015-14 | http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/44695-swedish-bumblebees-to-repopulate-england/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-14/segments/1427131309986.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20150323172149-00270-ip-10-168-14-71.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972401 | 831 | 3.03125 | 3 | {
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"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
Pregnancy and Vaccines
Some vaccinations are recommended to women trying to get pregnant and those who are already pregnant. The antibodies introduced into the mother’s immune system via these vaccines can cross the placenta and also give their babies a level of immunity from serious illnesses.
However, while certain vaccinations are beneficial and recommended for pregnant women, others are not suitable and are advised against as a precaution.
Pregnant Woman getting a Vaccine. Image Credit: Marina Demidiuk/Shutterstock.com
Here we discuss which vaccinations are recommended for pregnant women and which are to be avoided. In addition, we discuss the safety of getting the COVID-19 vaccination while pregnant.
Which vaccines are recommended for pregnant women?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that women who are pregnant during flu season should get the flu vaccine. It is most beneficial for women to receive their vaccine at the beginning of flu season, although there are still benefits to getting the vaccination at any point during flu season.
There is a wide body of scientific evidence to support that flu vaccinations are safe for pregnant women to take. In addition, women vaccinated during pregnancy may pass on immunity to their baby, protecting them from flu-related complications shortly after birth.
The CDC also recommends that pregnant women receive the Tdap vaccine (to protect against whooping cough) at any point during their pregnancy, although research suggests it is most beneficial to get the Tdap vaccine between weeks 27 and 36 of pregnancy.
Women who get the Tdap vaccine can protect both themselves and their baby from whooping cough, which can be fatal. The CDC recommends that even if women have already received a whooping cough vaccine they should get it again during pregnancy.
Which vaccines should pregnant women not get?
Several vaccines are not recommended during pregnancy, mostly because they are live attenuated vaccines that pose a greater risk of side effects. The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, measles mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, live influenza vaccine (nasal flu vaccine), varicella (chickenpox) vaccine advised against.
MMR vaccines are live attenuated vaccines and are advised against as a precautionary measure, although there is no evidence that the MMR vaccine can cause harm to the fetus. There is some concern that the HPV vaccine can cause harm to the fetus, with it being suggested that it may increase the risk of spontaneous miscarriage. However, recent research has not found evidence to support this link. As a precaution, the HPV virus is not recommended for pregnant women.
Some travel vaccines, such as yellow fever, typhoid fever, and Japanese encephalitis are also advised against unless the healthcare professional deems that the benefits of receiving the vaccination outweigh the risks.
Is it safe for pregnant women to be vaccinated against COVID-19?
Many questions are surrounding the safety of the COVID-19 vaccinations, particularly for pregnant women. Data has shown that pregnant women are at an elevated risk of suffering severe illness from COVID-19 in comparison to those who are not pregnant. Data suggests that pregnant women are at a greater risk of being admitted into intensive care, requiring ventilation, and dying from COVID-19 than the general population. COVID-19 infection has also been linked with adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as preterm birth.
Due to the elevated risk to mother and baby that COVID-19 causes, vaccination is important to ensuring the health and survival of both parent and child. Therefore, vaccinations must be suitable for pregnant women. Currently, all authorized COVID-19 claim that they can be administered to pregnant and breastfeeding women.
However, collecting vital clinical trial data to prove a vaccine’s safety in specific populations takes time to collect and analyze, especially in terms of assessing potential long-term effects. While experts believe that severe adverse effects for the mother or baby are unlikely, clinical trials are currently underway to support their safety.
Numerous clinical trials are currently in progress to investigate how COVID-19 vaccines work in pregnant women. The results of these trials will hopefully give greater confidence in the safety of the vaccines in this population. Also, vaccine manufacturers are collecting data from clinical trials involving those who received the vaccine and became pregnant after.
At the moment, data from animal studies is available that demonstrates the safety of administering the Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and J&J/Janssen vaccine in animals before and during pregnancy. However, animal models are not always effective predictors of how a vaccine will behave in humans.
Due to the increased risk that COVID-19 presents to pregnant women, it can be argued that the benefits of getting the vaccine outweigh potential adverse effects given that the current data is promising regarding the safety of the vaccine in pregnant women. However, getting a vaccine is always an individual choice.
- Allotey, J., Stallings, E., Bonet, M., Yap, M., Chatterjee, S., Kew, T., Debenham, L., Llavall, A., Dixit, A., Zhou, D., Balaji, R., Lee, S., Qiu, X., Yuan, M., Coomar, D., Sheikh, J., Lawson, H., Ansari, K., van Wely, M., van Leeuwen, E., Kostova, E., Kunst, H., Khalil, A., Tiberi, S., Brizuela, V., Broutet, N., Kara, E., Kim, C., Thorson, A., Escuriet, R., Oladapo, O., Mofenson, L., Zamora, J. and Thangaratinam, S., 2020. Clinical manifestations, risk factors, and maternal and perinatal outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 in pregnancy: living systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ, p.m3320. https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3320
- BMJ, 2021. Update to living systematic review on covid-19 in pregnancy. p.n615. https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n615
- Information about COVID-19 Vaccines for People who Are Pregnant or Breastfeeding. CDC. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations/pregnancy.html
- Vaccines During and After Pregnancy. CDC. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pregnancy/vacc-during-after.html
- Vaccines During Pregnancy FAQs. CDC. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/vaccines-during-pregnancy.html
- All Pregnancy Content
- Early Signs of Pregnancy
- Is it Safe to Exercise During Pregnancy?
- Pregnancy: 0-8 weeks
- Pregnancy: 9 – 12 weeks
Last Updated: Apr 27, 2021
After studying Psychology and then Neuroscience, Sarah quickly found her enjoyment for researching and writing research papers; turning to a passion to connect ideas with people through writing.
Source: Read Full Article | <urn:uuid:bb88e130-32a8-49d6-9170-92f52bcdd058> | CC-MAIN-2021-25 | https://wmedicinereport.com/health-problems/pregnancy-and-vaccines/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-25/segments/1623487623596.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20210616093937-20210616123937-00202.warc.gz | en | 0.933458 | 1,506 | 2.9375 | 3 | {
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Sex-selective abortion is the targeted abortion of a fetus based upon its sex. This is done after a determination is made (usually by ultrasound but also rarely by amniocentesis or another procedure) that the fetus is of an undesired sex. Sex selective infanticide is the practice of selective infanticide against infants of an undesired sex. One common method is child abandonment.
These practices are especially common in some places where cultural norms value male children over female children. Societies that practice sex selection in favor of males (sometimes called son preference or female deselection) are quite common, especially in The People's Republic of China, Korea, Taiwan, India, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, New Guinea, and many other developing countries in East Asia and North Africa; sex selection in favor of females appears to be rare or non-existent, although some legends of Amazons say that they practiced male infanticide. In 2005, 90 million women were estimated to be missing in seven Asian countries alone due, apparently, to prenatal sex selective abortion. However, other reasons for the sex ratio imbalance in certain countries have been proposed (see below). The existence of the practice appears to be determined by culture, rather than by economic conditions, because such deviations in sex ratios do not exist in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Sex-selective abortion was rare before the late 20th century because of the difficulty of determining the sex of the fetus before birth, but ultrasound has made such selection easier. However, prior to this, parents would alter family sex compositions through infanticide. It is believed to be responsible for at least part of the skewed birth statistics in favor of males in mainland China, India, Taiwan, and South Korea.
Female deselection is common in China: Chinese tradition says that most parents want their first child to be born a male. Female deselection is also due to deeply rooted Confucian traditions, and Chinese parents desire sons in order to make familial propagation, security for the elderly, labor provision, and performance of ancestral rites. China calls the female deselection situation the "missing girl" problem.
Parents may wish for a male child because in many cultures only a male will carry on the family name (traditionally when a bride gets married she effectively becomes a member of the groom's family), because they believe that a male is needed for work, or because they wish a male to earn an income needed to support the parents in their old age. In response to sex-selective abortions, Mainland China has made it illegal for a physician to reveal the sex of a fetus.
Research indicates that women infected with the hepatitis B virus are 1.5 times more likely to give birth to a male. The researcher, Emily Oster, says that the higher rates of hepatitis B in China could account for 75% of the "missing girls. However, new demographic research casts doubt on the hepatitis B theory. Das Gupta found that data from a huge sample of births in China show that the only women with elevated probabilities of bearing a son are those who have already borne daughters.
Studies in India have indicated three factors of female deselection in India, which are economic utility, sociocultural utility, and religious functions. The factor as to economic utility is that studies indicate that sons are more likely than daughters to provide family farm labor or provide in or for a family business, earn wages, and give old-age support for parents. Upon marriage, a son makes a daughter-in-law an addition and asset to the family providing additional assistance in household work and brings an economic reward through dowry payments, while daughters get married off and merit an economic penalty through dowry charges. The sociocultural utility factor of female deselection is that, as in China, in India's patrilineal and patriarchal system of families is that having at least one son is mandatory in order to continue the familial line, and many sons constitute additional status to families. The final factor of female deselection is the religious functions that only sons are allowed to provide, based on Hindu tradition, which mandate that sons are mandatory in order to kindle the funeral pyre of their late parents and to assist in the soul salvation.
In some countries, including India, it is currently illegal to determine the sex of a child during pregnancy using ultra-sound scans. Laboratories are prohibited to reveal the fetus's sex during such scans. While most established labs comply with the law, determined persons can find a cheaper lab that would tell them. Like the Chinese, the Indians also use the postnatal alternative, which is sex-selective infanticide. Some turn to people called dais, traditional midwives, historically female, who offer female deselection, letting the baby boys live but killing the newborn girls by giving them a sharp jerk, that is, turning them upside-down and snapping their spinal cords, and then declaring them stillborn.
The British medical journal The Lancet reported in early 2006 that there may have been close to 10 million female fetuses aborted in India over the past 20 years. This is extrapolated partly on the basis of reduction of female-to-male sex ratio from 945 per 1000 in 1991 to 927 per 1000 in 2001. The female-to-male sex ratio is even lower in cases where a couple has had a previous daughter, but no sons, dropping to 759 to 1000 for the second child if the first was a daughter, and 719 to 1000 for a third child if the first two were both daughters. However, the Indian Medical Association disputed the findings, saying gender selection had dropped since a court ruling outlawed the practice in 2001. However, some say that the laws have not been effectively upheld, and successful prosecutions remain non-existent. The study also reported that sex selective abortion is more common among the wealthy and among educated women than among the poor and the uneducated. Part of this may be due to their being able to afford the associated expense. In addition, it is what would be expected by evolutionary theory, as a poor male is much less likely to reproduce than a poor female, while the reverse is true for wealthier people, as they have a high probability of attracting multiple females. This can still pose a problem for those wealthier Indians who insist upon having a mate from within their own caste and must sometimes travel hundreds of miles to find a suitable partner.
Sex-selective abortion has become an issue in Southern and Eastern Asian countries, where sex-selective abortions have caused an increase in the imbalances between sex ratios of various Asian countries. Studies have estimated that sex-selective abortions have increased the ratio of males to females from the natural average of 105-106 males per 100 females to 113 males per 100 females in both South Korea and China, 110 males per 100 females in Taiwan, and 107 males per 100 females among Chinese populations living in Singapore and parts of Malaysia. However, a similar trend does not exist in North Korea, possibly due to limited access to prenatal sex-testing technologies.
During the 1994 United Nations International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt, policy objectives intended to eliminate sex-selective abortion and infanticide, along with discrimination against female children, were stated in Article 4.15 of the Programme of Action: "...to eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl child and the root causes of son preference, which results in harmful and unethical practices regarding female infanticide and prenatal sex selection".
Sex-selective abortion has been seen as worsening the sex ratio in India, and thus affecting gender issues related to sex compositions of Indian households. According to the 2001 census, the sex-ratio in India is 107.8 males per 100 females, up from 105.8 males per 100 females in 1991. The ratio is significantly higher in certain states such as Punjab (126.1) and Haryana (122.0).
It has been argued that by having a one-child policy, China has increased the rate of abortion of female fetuses, thereby accelerating a demographic decline. As Chinese families are allowed only one child, and would often prefer at least one son, there are fewer daughters, thus preventing the formation of a greater number of families in the next generation.
Since 2005, test kits such as the Baby Gender Mentor have become available over the internet. These tests have been criticized for making it easier to perform a sex-selective abortion earlier in a pregnancy. Concerns have also been raised about their accuracy. | <urn:uuid:cf214d42-f4c7-4689-a1d9-6181d9566004> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://www.reference.com/browse/Sex-selective+abortion+and+infanticide | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802773201.145/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075253-00053-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967187 | 1,735 | 3.109375 | 3 | {
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The term, “home remodeling”, has come to refer to a wide array of different things, but the basic idea of home remodeling, or home improvement is really the process of making changes to one’s house. Remodeling a house is simply a way to make a house better looking than it was previously, by either adding to its current features, by adding new features to an existing feature, or by completely changing the style of a house. Home remodeling can include many projects, from adding on to the interior of a house to making changes to an old house.
As a general trend, home remodeling projects have been a part of our lives for a long time.
In fact, there are archaeological discoveries that show that ancient people actually used home remodeling as a way to add on to the beauty of their homes, as well as a way to use the materials that they had available at the time. These projects are usually done by adding new features to a house, changing the overall look of a house, or adding on to the functionality of a house.
Remodeling a house is usually done when a house is built and then is put on the market. For instance, if a house is being built in New England, and then put on the market, it may need to be redone, so that it fits with today’s more modern style. In addition, a house may need to be updated with new appliances, like a fridge, a stove, etc. If a new kitchen is being constructed, it may also be necessary to remodel a house to accommodate a new kitchen. Also, some old houses may need to be torn down and rebuilt, which would include adding new floors, adding on new rooms to the house, remodeling the roof, and adding on to the interior and exterior of the house.
A remodeling project can be very expensive, however it can also be very rewarding. Many homes are sold with no money down, because of the excitement of having new features added to a home. This excitement, along with the fact that many people are always buying new houses, keeps a home on the market for a longer period of time, and this is what drives the price of the home up, making it even more valuable. When a house is bought, it may need to be re-sold as soon as possible, because of the amount of demand that there is for a home in a certain area.
Home remodeling can also involve the addition of new rooms to a home. This is done to add on to the comfort of a home, to add on to the comfort of the family or friends that live there, to add on to the home’s look, or to change the look and feel of a home to suit the tastes of the owner of the house. Adding on to a home can be a great way to change a home’s appeal. There are plenty of ways to change a house and add new features, such as changing the flooring, installing a new kitchen, adding on doors, changing the color of the walls, adding on to the plumbing, and many other things.
Some of the major ways that one can add on to a home are painting,
adding on a basement, adding on a storage space, and adding on to a patio or landscaping a home. There are plenty of other ways to add new features to a house, but this list will give you an idea of some of the more popular ways that a house can be made to look better, and to improve the look and feel of the home. There are many companies that will do home remodeling and home improvement work and will work together with you to decide how you want your home to look and be. These companies can help with the whole design and construction of a house and give you an estimate of the cost of the whole process before they begin working with you.
- When you decide that you want to go ahead with remodeling your home,
- There are many options out there,
- One of the most common ways to remodel a house is to hire a company to do the work for you.
Most remodeling companies will give you an estimate of the costs that they will charge you and will discuss your options with you and let you choose from among the many options available to you. You can get estimates from companies who can perform both exterior and interior work, from companies that specialize in only certain areas, and styles of home, from companies that work only on a home’s exterior, and on the flooring, from companies that specialize in only certain styles of doors, and windows, from companies that specialize in only certain styles of roofs, and so many other types of remodeling companies exist. To make it easier for you to find the right company for you.
Remodeling can be a very exciting and rewarding experience, and can be something that you will enjoy for many years to come. When you want to start the process of remodeling your house, it’s a good idea to start this project with the right company. You can find a remodeling company in your local area that offers home-improvement jobs, and who offers a variety of different types of remodeling services, such as a general contractor or a home renovation and construction company, a general contractor that can offer different remodeling services to include painting, interior work, remodeling, and finishing, and many other remodeling services, such as adding on to the basement and other parts of the home, and a general contractor who works only on the exterior of the home. They can make it much easier for you to remodel your home, to find the right company for the job. | <urn:uuid:5a1cdb11-1f00-4520-bcaf-69f8d2c94319> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.louboutinhome.com/2020/09/17/home-remodeling-and-improvement/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947474617.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20240225135334-20240225165334-00551.warc.gz | en | 0.970352 | 1,168 | 2.546875 | 3 | {
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Italian Mannerist Painter, 1503-1572
Agnolo di Cosimo (November 17, 1503 ?C November 23,1572), usually known as Il Bronzino, or Agnolo Bronzino (mistaken attempts also have been made in the past to assert his name was Agnolo Tori and even Angelo (Agnolo) Allori), was an Italian Mannerist painter from Florence. The origin of his nickname, Bronzino is unknown, but could derive from his dark complexion, or from that he gave many of his portrait subjects. It has been claimed by some that he had dark skin as a symptom of Addison disease, a condition which affects the adrenal glands and often causes excessive pigmentation of the skin. Related Paintings of Agnolo Bronzino :. | St John the Baptist | Maria | Portrat des Ugolino Martelli | Portrait of Lucrezia Pucci Panciatichi | Bartolomeo Panciatichi |
Related Artists:Johann Wilhelm Preyer
painted A Still Life with Peaches and Grapes on a Marble Ledge in 1803-1889Ranney William Tylee
German-born American Painter, 1813-1857
American painter. He spent six formative years in the hill country of North Carolina. By 1834 he was working and studying drawing in New York, but two years later he went to Texas to join in the war for independence. Although he returned to New York a year later, it was not until 1846, with the outbreak of the Mexican War, that Ranney began to use his Western experience as the basis for his painting. With the encouragement of the American Art Union, he executed three types of Western subject: the Western trapper or hunter, pursuing a dangerous life on the prairies, as in Trapper's Last Shot (1850; untraced; engraved and lithographed by T. Dwight Booth); the pioneer family, heading across the plains with children, dogs and goods, as in Advice on the Prairie (1853; Malvern, PA, Claude J. Ranney priv. col.); and the dangers of emigration, for example Prairie Fire.Maria Quiteria
(1792-1853) was a Brazilian Lieutenant and national heroine. She served in the Brazilian war of independence in 1822-23 dressed as a man. She was promoted to cadet and Lieutenant and decorated with the Imperial order. She has been called "Brazilian Joan of Arc". | <urn:uuid:3f2c400b-6353-411c-85fd-ee445c6d167d> | CC-MAIN-2018-13 | http://agnolobronzino.org/painting-Agnolo%20Bronzino-Cosimo%20I%20de'%20Medici-00221.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-13/segments/1521257651820.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20180325044627-20180325064627-00529.warc.gz | en | 0.974031 | 522 | 3.0625 | 3 | {
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"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Art & Design |
WATCH NOW: Bearded Dragons Are Awesome Reptiles!
Reptile lovers call them beardies. These docile lizards make popular pet reptiles. They're entertaining to watch and are pretty smart, so if you're looking for a new pet, it makes sense to consider a bearded dragon.
But before you bring a beardie into its new home, it's important to learn about the specific care that these reptiles need. You'll need to be set up to provide proper bearded dragon care, and that means you'll need everything from a heat source to a basking area to quality bearded dragon food. If you're thinking of getting a new pet, here's what to know to tell if the bearded dragon is right for you.
Bearded Dragon Characteristics
The official genus of the bearded dragon is Pogona which includes eight different lizard species; the most common domestic species is Pogona Vitticeps. While they do live in the wild, specifically in Australia, bearded dragons are also one of the most common reptiles kept as pets.
They are generally calm and docile lizards. When they do get agitated or scared, their "beards," or area under their mouths, will turn black, giving them their names. Beardies are a popular exotic pet since they are relatively smart and have certain behaviors like arm waving that make them more endearing.
Beardies have a life span of between 6 and 10 years. Adult bearded dragons are large, measuring up to two feet long, so be prepared to provide your adult dragons with a cage that's large enough to accommodate them.
Beardies have specific care requirements, similar to other reptiles, like UVB lighting and a heating source to ensure the temperature never gets below 65 degrees Fahrenheit. The tank needs a basking spot under direct heat, up to 100 degrees F, but also need a cooler side for them to thermoregulate. There are various heat emitters that you can buy, like ceramic heat emitters, basking lights, UVB lights and full spectrum lights. The best option will depend on your cage setup.
Bearded dragons also need a substrate in their tank. Sand is a controversial substrate as it can cause blockage if ingested. Newspaper or reptile carpet can work for the tank lining.
This particular reptile eats vegetables, insects, and even mice. You can usually get feeder insects or pinkies from your local pet store. Because they are desert creatures, they don't need much water nor humidity. You can use a spray bottle to mist your beardie or put a shallow dish of water for him to sip out of when he is thirsty.
With proper care, your bearded dragon can become a friend for years.
Hover over the image for more information:
Do you have a beardie? Show us in the comments below!
WATCH NOW: Why Pets Are the Best!
Love reading about pets?
Don't miss a story! Sign up for daily stories delivered to your inbox. | <urn:uuid:9c34aeb4-676f-4e40-a2d2-092143c597a7> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.wideopenpets.com/everything-need-know-bearded-dragons/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948951.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20230329054547-20230329084547-00782.warc.gz | en | 0.954759 | 614 | 2.5625 | 3 | {
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State abbreviation/Postal code: Idaho/ID
Nickname: Gem State
Origin of name: Idaho is a coined or invented word, and is not a derivation of an Indian phrase "E Dah Hoe (How)" supposedly meaning "gem of the mountains.
Briefs on Idaho:
Spreading in 216,632 square kilometers and inhabiting a population of 1,293,953, Idaho is a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The territory of Idaho had its foremost human settlements around 14,500 years ago. The excavations at Wilson Butte close to the Twin Falls in 1959 depicted human activity. During this time the prominent tribes were Nez Perce and the Northern and Western Shoshone in the north and south respectively.
On 12th august 1805 the Lewis and Clark expedition made its way to Idaho. It is deemed that a group led by the Wilson Prince Hunt was the first expedition to enter the southern Idaho. This expedition navigated the Snake River in 1811 and 1812.
The initial settlers in the Idaho region showed keen interest in fur trading and the missionary work. This led to the foundation of the Kullyspell House in 1809. This house was the first white-owned house establishment and fir-trading post in Idaho. In 1836 Henry H Spalding established a mission close to Lapwai, published his first book there and developed first irrigation system. Between 1848 and 1853 the Catholic missionaries and Coeur d?Alene tribe led to the construction of the oldest standing building in Idaho, the Cataldo.
In these years Idaho region formed a part of an unorganized territory called the Oregon Country. Though this country was claimed by both the United States and the Great Britain, the United States had a certain jurisdiction over it due to the Oregon Treaty of 1846.
In 1848 the Oregon region incorporated the present day Pacific Northwest states and the Continental Divide. In 1846 the present territory of Idaho was divided into two. In 1859 the state was reunited after Oregon became a state and the boundaries of the Washington Territory were founded again.
In 1849 during the California gold rush there were many settlements in Idaho. In 1860 the Mormon pioneers founded the first organized town in Idaho. By the end of 1860 Idaho witnessed several gold rushes and the profession of mining experienced an unprecedented surge.
On 4th March 1863 president Abraham Lincoln signed an act creating Idaho Territory from parts of Washington territory and Dakota Territory with its capital at Lewiston. Originally within the Idaho boundaries were the present day states of Montana and Wyoming. It was in 1868 that Idaho got its existing boundaries.
In 1865 Boise replaced Lewiston as the territorial capital. This gave birth to feelings of sectionalism in the people of the state. In 1887 Idaho territory was almost legislated out of existence but president Grover Cleveland denied to sign the bill to split the Idaho region between Washington in north and Nevada in south.
On 3rd July 1980, president Benjamin Harrison accepted Idaho as a state belonging to United States of America.
At present Idaho has progressed to a great extent and is doing well in all areas. It is an ideal vacation destination. As the name suggests, Idaho meaning the gem of mountains, Idaho is covered with huge mountain ranges, white- water rivers, steep gorges and highland lakes. Idaho is a hub of rock climbers, river runners, skiers and backpackers.More links about Idaho | <urn:uuid:bc2b00b4-a1a6-4f41-aaf0-b1cd6c8092cb> | CC-MAIN-2019-04 | https://search.ezilon.com/about-idaho.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-04/segments/1547583660877.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20190118233719-20190119015719-00379.warc.gz | en | 0.962656 | 707 | 3.0625 | 3 | {
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} | History |
- Sherlock Holmes
colour = #DEDEE2
name = Sherlock Holmes
caption = A portrait of Sherlock Holmes by
Sidney Pagetfrom the " Strand Magazine", 1891
creator = Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle
episode = Four
novelsFifty-six short stories
gender = Male
occupation = Consulting detective
family = Brother
nationality = English
imdb_id = 0026631
Sherlock Holmes is a famous fictional detective of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who first appeared in
publicationin 1887. He is the creation of Scottish-born author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A brilliant London-based consulting detective, Holmes is famous for his intellectual prowess, and is renowned for his skillful use of " deductive reasoning" while using abductive reasoning( inferenceto the best explanation) and astute observationto solve difficult cases.
Conan Doyle wrote four
novels and fifty-six short stories that featured Holmes. All but four stories are narrated by Holmes's friend and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson; two are narrated by Sherlock Holmes himself, and two others are written in the third person. The first two stories, short novels, appeared in "Beeton's Christmas Annual" for 1887 and " Lippincott's Monthly Magazine" in 1890, respectively. The character grew tremendously in popularity with the beginning of the first series of short stories in "The Strand Magazine" in 1891; further series of short stories and two serialised novels appeared until 1927. The stories cover a period from around 1878 up to 1907, with a final case in 1914.
Conan Doyle, when asked if there was a real Sherlock Holmes, always maintained that Holmes was inspired by Dr. Joseph Bell, for whom Doyle had worked as a clerk at the
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Like Sherlock Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing large conclusions from the smallest observations. Dr. Bell was also interested in crime and assisted the police in solving a few cases. [1992 Reader's Digest (Australia) PTY LTD (A.C.N. 000565471)]
Family and biography
An estimate of Holmes's age in the short story "
His Last Bow" places his year of birth around 1854, although there is no authoritative biography. Not much is said of Holmes' parents, yet he had an older brother, Mycroft Holmes, a government official, who appears in three stories: "The Greek Interpreter," "The Final Problem," and "The Bruce-Partington Plans." He is also mentioned in a number of others, including " The Empty House." Mycroft had a unique civil service position as a kind of memory-man for all aspects of government policy — a kind of walking database. Mycroft was even more gifted than Sherlock in matters of observation and deduction but he was not a man of action, preferring to spend his time at the Diogenes Club, described as a club for the most un-clubbable men in London. In "The Greek Interpreter," Holmes also claims that his grandmother was the sister of Vernet, the French artist. Cases such as " The Adventure of the Gloria Scott" and " The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual" offer a glimpse into Holmes' early years. Holmes first began developing his methods of deduction as a university student, before being inspired by an encounter with the father of one of his classmates to take them up as a profession. According to Holmes, his first cases came from fellow university students such as Reginald Musgrave, before he gained a professional reputation. He would spend the next six years working as a consulting detective, before financial difficulties led him to take Watson as a roommate to help with the rent.
At the beginning of "
The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger," Watson states that Holmes "was in active practice for twenty-three years"; during seventeen of these years, Watson "was allowed to cooperate with him and to keep notes of his doings." Historically, Holmes lived from the year 1881 at 221B Baker Street, London(in early notes it was described as being situated at Upper Baker Street), a flat up seventeen steps, where he shared many of his professional years with his good friend Dr. Watsonfor some time before Watson's marriage in 1887 and after Mrs. Watson's death. The residence was maintained by his landlady, Mrs. Hudson. In almost all of the stories, Holmes is assisted by the practical Watson, who is not only a friend but also his chronicler (his "Boswell"). Most of Holmes's stories are told as narratives, by Watson, of the detective's solutions to crimes brought to his attention by clients. Holmes sometimes criticises Watson for his writings, usually because he relates them as exciting stories rather than as objective and detailed reports focusing on what Holmes regards as the pure "science" of his craft. In three stories (" The Sign of the Four", " A Study in Scarlet", and " The Adventure of the Crooked Man"), Holmes is assisted by a group of street children he calls the Baker Street Irregulars.
Personality and habits
Holmes describes himself and his habits as "Bohemian." In his personal habits, he is very disorganised, as Watson notes in "
The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual," leaving everything from notes of past cases to remains of chemical experiments scattered around their rooms and his tobaccoinside a Persian slipper. Dr. Watson also states in " The Adventure of the Speckled Band" that Holmes is generally late to rise. In "A Study In Scarlet", however, Watson states that Holmes would undoubtedly have eaten breakfast and left their apartment before he woke up every morning.
Holmes often went without food during his more intense cases:
His "biographer" Watson did not consider as a vice Holmes' habit of smoking
cigars, cigarettes, and pipes, nor his willingness to bend the truth and break the law (e.g., lie to the police, conceal evidence, burgle, and housebreak) when it suited his purposes. Holmes and Watson considered such actions justified as done for noble purposes, such as preserving a woman's honouror a family's reputation(this argument is discussed by Holmes and Watson in " The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton").
In the first Holmes story, "
A Study in Scarlet", Holmes' hands are discoloured with acid stains and occasionally Holmes uses drops of blood from his fingers for chemical research—such as an experiment to detect dried blood spots months after a crime. Despite this, he is described in the "Hound of the Baskervilles" as having a "cat-like" love of personal cleanliness. This story also describes Holmes as working at a "chemical laboratory" at a hospital and that being a private "consulting detective" was only a part-time occupation. In later stories Holmes does his chemical experiments at 221 B Baker Street.
Holmes is also proud of being British, as demonstrated by the patriotic "VR" ("Victoria Regina"—i.e.,
Queen Victoria) made in bullet pocks in the wall by his gun. He has also carried out counterintelligence work for his government in several cases, most conspicuously in " His Last Bow", set at the beginning of the "First World War".
Holmes does have an
egothat sometimes seems to border on arrogance; however, his arrogance is justified. He seems to enjoy baffling police inspectors with his superior deductions. However, he is often quite content to allow the police to take the credit for his work, with Watson being the only one to broadcast his own role in the case (in " The Adventure of the Naval Treaty," he remarks that of his last fifty-three cases, the police have had all the credit in forty-nine), although he enjoys receiving praise from personal friends and those who take a serious interest in his work.
Holmes used drugs including
morphine. He often used cocaine—sometimes habitually—especially when he lacked stimulating cases, despite his disapproval of the use of opium. The philosophy of the time made drug usage legal. Watson disapproved and described this as the detective's "only vice," saying later he "weaned" Holmes off drug use, citing its destructive qualities. Even so, Watson viewed Holmes' drug habit "dormant" and "not dead, but merely sleeping." [In " The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter" it is twice mentioned that Holmes had used drugs in the past.] At one point Watson actually assumed that Holmes had taken the drug after staying up much of the night. [cite journal |author= Dalby, J.T. |title= Sherlock Holmes' Cocaine Habit | journal = Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine |year = 1991 |volume = 8 |pages = 73–74 |url=http://bakerstreetdozen.com/coca.html]
Although he initially needed Watson to share the rent of his comfortable residence at 221B Baker Street, Watson reveals in "
The Adventure of the Dying Detective," when Holmes was living alone, that "I have no doubt that the house might have been purchased at the price which Holmes paid for his rooms," suggesting he had developed a good income from his practice, although it is never revealed exactly how much he charges for his services. He does say, in " The Problem of Thor Bridge" that "My professional charges are upon a fixed scale. I do not vary them, save when I remit them altogether..."
This is said in a context where a client is offering to double his fees; however, it is likely that rich clients provided a remuneration greatly in excess of Holmes's standard fee: in "
The Adventure of the Final Problem," Holmes states that his services to the government of Franceand the royal house of Scandinaviahad left him with enough money to retire comfortably, while in " The Adventure of Black Peter," Watson notes that Holmes would refuse to help the wealthy and powerful if their cases did not interest him, while he could devote weeks at a time to the cases of the most humble clients. Holmes also tells Watson, in " A Case of Identity," of a golden snuff box received from the King of Bohemia after " A Scandal in Bohemia" and a fabulous ring from the Dutch royal family; in " The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans," Holmes receives an emerald tie-pin from Queen Victoria. Other mementos of Holmes' cases are a gold sovereign from Irene Adler("A Scandal in Bohemia") and an autograph letter of thanks from the French President and a Legion of Honorfor tracking down an assassin named Huret (" The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez"). In " The Adventure of the Priory School," Holmes "rubs his hands with glee" when the Duke of Holdernesse notes the sum, which surprises even Watson, and then pats the cheque, saying "I am a poor man," an incident that could be dismissed as Holmes's tendency toward ironic humour. Certainly, in the course of his career Holmes had worked for both the most powerful monarchs and governments of Europe(including his own) and various wealthy aristocrats and industrialists, and had also been consulted by impoverished pawnbrokers and humble governesses on the lower rungs of society.
The Victorian class system was much more complex than today's—it would have been degrading to offer a bill to a royal figure, but such a figure might well provide recompense of the equivalent of millions in modern currency. On the other hand, Holmes has been known to charge clients for his expenses, and to claim any reward that might be offered for the solution's problem: he says in "
The Adventure of the Speckled Band" that Miss Stoner may pay any expenses he may be put to, and requests that the bank in " The Red-Headed League" remunerate him for the money he spent solving the case. Holmes has his wealthy banker client in " The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet" pay him both for the costs of recovering the stolen gems, and also claims the reward the banker had put for their recovery.
Friendships and relationships
The Adventure of the Norwood Builder," we see an example of Holmes's affection for Dr. Watson when it is revealed that Watson has sold his practice as a doctor to a man named Verner, who, "... [gave] with astonishing little demur the highest price that I ventured to ask — an incident which only explained itself later, when I found that Verner was a distant relation of Holmes, and it was my friend who had really found the money." In " The Adventure of the Three Garridebs," Watson is wounded by a forger he and Holmes are pursuing; while the bullet wound proves to be "quite superficial," Watson is moved by Holmes' reaction:
Holmes shows kindness and fondness for the
Baker Street Irregulars. The Irregulars' initial meetings with Holmes are not covered in any great detail, but he seems to have known them for at least a short period of time before meeting Watson. Exactly when they came into his service is unknown, but the boys show great respect for Holmes and he treats them with a surprising kindness, as he has shown little interest in children at all outside of cases involving them. He also speaks of them with a certain respect, due to the fact that, in the stories in which they appear, they are quite literally capable of going anywhere and seeing and hearing virtually anything, thus giving him increased ability to solve cases by taking in their reports. He pays the boys for their services, offering bonuses to any boy (or boys) who found a vital clue in the case. The boys themselves reciprocate Holmes' respect and are always quick to answer his calls, and are depicted as eager to tackle any job he may have for them. A sign of Holmes' respect for the Irregulars is the fact that he is more than willing to call upon them when he requires people to be his eyes and ears in the city of London, and he always speaks of them as being very talented in this field and has never slighted their abilities or spoken ill of them. Coming from Holmes, this is probably the highest compliment one can receive from him, as the only other people whom he holds in such high regard are Watson and his own older brother Mycroft.
Over time, Holmes's relations with the official
Scotland Yarddetectives goes from cold disdain to a strong respect. Law enforcement officers with whom Holmes has worked include Inspector Lestrade, Tobias Gregson, Stanley Hopkins, Alec MacDonald, and Athelney (or Peter) Jones, Inspector Gregory, and Inspector Bradstreet, all seven of Scotland Yard, and Francois Le Villardof the French police. Holmes usually baffles the police with his far more efficient and effective methods, showing himself to be a vastly superior detective, a fact that the police seem to have learned to take with good grace — witness Lestrade at the end of " The Six Napoleons." Similarly, Holmes comes to recognise the different merits of individual detectives, such as Inspector Gregory's efficiency in investigation or Lestrade's tenacity and courage.
archenemyand popularly-supposed nemesis was Professor James Moriarty ("the Napoleon of Crime"), who fell, struggling with Holmes, over the Reichenbach Falls. Conan Doyle intended "The Final Problem," the story in which this occurred, to be the last that he wrote about Holmes. However, the outpouring of protests and letters demanding that he bring back his creation convinced him to continue. He did so with "The Hound of The Baskervilles", although this was a case Holmes was involved in before his supposed death. His return in "The Adventure of the Empty House" had Conan Doyle explaining that only Moriarty fell over the cliff, but Holmes had allowed the world to believe that he too had perished while he dodged the retribution of Moriarty's underlings. Professor Moriarty also has a presence in "The Valley of Fear".
Holmes and women
The only woman in whom Holmes ever showed any interest that verged on the romantic was
Irene Adler. According to Watson, she was always referred to by Holmes as "The" Woman." Holmes himself is never directly quoted as using this term — though he does mention her actual name several times in other cases. She is also one of the few women who are mentioned in multiple Holmes stories, though she actually appears in person only in one, " A Scandal in Bohemia." She is often thought to be the only woman who broke through Holmes's reserve. She is possibly the only woman who has ever "beaten" Holmes in a mystery. However, it is important to note that Watson explicitly states, "It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler."
In one story, "
The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton," Holmes is engaged to be married, but only with the motivation of gaining information for his case. He clearly demonstrates particular interest in several of the more charming female clients that come his way; however, Holmes inevitably "manifested no further interest in the client when once she had ceased to be the centre of one of his problems." Holmes found their youth, beauty, and energy (and the cases they bring to him) invigorating, as opposed to an actual romantic interest. These episodes show that Holmes possesses a degree of charm, yet, apart from the case of Adler, there is no indication of a serious or long-term interest. Watson states that Holmes has an "aversion to women" but "a peculiarly ingratiating way with [them] ." Holmes states, "I am not a whole-souled admirer of womankind"; in fact he finds "the motives of women... so inscrutable... How can you build on such quicksand? Their most trivial actions may mean volumes... their most extraordinary conduct may depend upon a hairpin."
Another point of interest in Holmes's relationships with women is that the only joy he gets from their company is the problems they bring to him to solve. In "
The Sign of Four", Watson quotes Holmes as being "an automaton, a calculating machine." This references Holmes's lack of interest in relationships with women in general, and clients in particular, as Watson states that "there is something positively inhuman in you at times." At the end of " The Adventure of the Devil's Foot", Holmes states: "I have never loved, Watson, but if I did and if the woman I loved had met such an end, I might act as our lawless lion-hunter had done." In the story, the explorer Dr. Sterndale had killed the man who murdered his beloved, Brenda Tregennis, to exact a revenge which the law could not provide. Watson writes in " The Adventure of the Dying Detective" that Mrs. Hudson is fond of Holmes in her own way, despite his bothersome eccentricities as a lodger, owing to his "remarkable gentleness and courtesy in his dealings with women." Watson notes that while he dislikes and distrusts them, he is nonetheless a "chivalrous opponent." However, Holmes cannot be said to be misogynistic, given the number of women he helps in his work.
Holmes can often be quite dispassionate and cold; however, when hot on the trail of a mystery, Holmes can display a remarkable passion despite his usual languor. He has a flair for showmanship and often prepares dramatic traps to capture the culprit of a crime which are staged to impress Watson or one of the
Scotland Yardinspectors (e.g., Inspector Lestrade at the end of "The Norwood Builder" or the capture of Jonathan Small in " The Sign of Four"). He also holds back his chain of reasoning, not revealing it or giving only cryptic hints and surprising results, until the very end, when he can explain all of his deductions at once. His deductive reasoning allows Holmes to figure out a stranger's former/present occupation such as a Retired Sergeant of Marines (" A Study in Scarlet"); a former ship's carpenter turned pawnbroker (" The Red-Headed League"); and a billiard-marker and a retired artillery NCO (" The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter"). Inanimate objects present a challenge to Holmes: Watson pocket Watch (" The Sign of the Four"); Henry Baker's hat (" The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle"); Grant Munroe's pipe (" The Adventure of the Yellow Face"); Dr. Mortimer's walking stick (" The Hound of the Baskervilles") two cut ears pointing to murder (" The Adventure of the Cardboard Box").
He is also quite an actor, in several of his adventures he has feigned being wounded or ill to give effect to his case, or to incriminate the people involved, as in "
The Adventure of the Dying Detective". In the case of Irene Adler, Holmes staged a brawl, and a fire to get her to give away the hiding place of her picture. This worked at first, but after his departure she realised what had occurred and immediately left the country but leaving a different picture behind with a note to Holmes explaining her actions. Among persons Holmes impersonates are a drunken groom; a simple minded minister; an Italian priest; an opium addict; an eccentric bookseller; a seaman; a common loafer; a plumber.
Holmes is generally quite fearless. He dispassionately surveys horrific, brutal crime scenes; he does not allow
superstition(as in " The Hound of the Baskervilles") or grotesque situations to make him afraid; and he intrepidly confronts violent murderers. He is generally unfazed by threats from his criminal enemies, and indeed Holmes himself remarks that it is the danger of his profession that has attracted him to it. The only thing that truly bothers Holmes is boredom, and he can become very agitated and upset when there is no case set before him. Although Holmes at times acts like a disembodied brain; there are times when he admits to personal feelings-as when he scolds the banker ( The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet); and sternly reproves the Duke of Holdernesse in ( The Adventure of the Priory School) or when he lets the killer go in ( The Adventure of the Devil's Foot) or shows concern for Watson ( The Adventure of the Empty House, The Adventure of the Three Garridebs).
Use of weapons and martial arts
On occasion Holmes and Watson carry
pistols with them; however, these weapons are only used on seven occasions.
# In "
The Sign of the Four", they both fire at the Andaman Islander;
# In "
The Hound of the Baskervilles", both Holmes and Watson fire at the hound;
# In "
The Adventure of the Copper Beeches," Watson fires at the mastiff;
# In "
The Adventure of the Empty House," Watson pistol-whips Colonel Sebastian Moran;
# In "
The Adventure of the Three Garridebs," Holmes pistol-whips Killer Evansafter Watson is shot;
# In "
The Musgrave Ritual," it is revealed that Holmes decorated the wall of their flat with a patriotic "V.R." ("Victoria Regina") done in bullet marks;
# In "
The Problem of Thor Bridge," Holmes uses Watson's revolver in a reconstruction of the crime
In four stories Holmes has a pistol but does not fire it: "
The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet," " The Adventure of the Final Problem," " The Adventure of the Dancing Men," " The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist."
Besides a pistol, Holmes twice uses a riding crop/cane as a weapon. In "
The Red-Headed League," he knocks the pistol from John Clay's hand, and in " The Adventure of the Speckled Band"" to lash out at the snake. In " A Case of Identity," Holmes comes close to thrashing Windibank the swindler with a riding crop. In " A Study in Scarlet", Watson remarks on how Holmes is a expert in fighting with a singlestickand a sword-yet in none of the Doyle literature on Holmes, does Holmes use either weapon. [In the Granada TV version of Holmes adventures, Holmes does such a singlestick (" The Adventure of the Illustrious Client") and a sword cane(" The Adventure of the Naval Treaty").]
Holmes is also reckoned a formidable fist-fighter, though his prowess is only reported second-hand. In "The Sign of the Four", Holmes introduces himself to the prize-fighter McMurdo as "the amateur who fought three rounds with you at Alison's rooms on the night of your benefit four years back." McMurdo responds by saying, "Ah, you're one that has wasted your gifts, you have! You might have aimed high, if you had joined the fancy." In "
The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist", Holmes gets the better of Woodley with a straight left; in " The Adventure of the Empty House", Holmes remarks how a criminal named Matthews had knocked out Holmes's left canine tooth at Charing Cross Station.
The Adventure of the Empty House", Holmes recounts to Watson how he used martial arts to overcome Moriartyand fling his adversary to his death at the Reichenbach Falls. He states: "I have some knowledge, however, of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more than once been very useful to me."
"Baritsu" was a drafting error on the author's part who meant to refer to the real martial art of
Bartitsu. Despite this, for a while at least, it still acquired some notoriety all of its own.
Knowledge and skills
In the very first story, "
A Study in Scarlet", something of Holmes's background is given. In early 1881, he is presented as an independent student of chemistrywith a variety of very curious side interests, almost all of which turn out to be single-mindedly bent towards making him superior at solving crimes. An early story, "The Adventure of the "Gloria Scott"", presents more background on what caused Holmes to become a detective: a college friend's father complimented him very highly on his deductiveskills. Holmes always uses scientific (or supposedly scientific) methods and focuses on logic and the powers of observation and deduction.
A Study in Scarlet", Dr. Watson assesses Holmes's abilities thus:
# Knowledge of
# Knowledge of
# Knowledge of
# Knowledge of
# Knowledge of
Botany.—Variable. Well up in belladonna, opiumand poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening.
# Knowledge of
Geology.—Practical, but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks, has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.
# Knowledge of
# Knowledge of
Anatomy.—Accurate, but unsystematic.
# Knowledge of Sensational Literature.—Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.
# Plays the
# Is an expert
singlestickplayer, boxer and swordsman.
# Has a good practical knowledge of
However, even at the very end of "
A Study in Scarlet" itself, it is shown that Holmes knows Latinand needs no translation of Roman epigrams in the original—though that knowledge is not mentioned in the above list, and the language would be of doubtful direct utility for detective work.
Later stories also contradict the list. Despite Holmes's supposed ignorance of politics, in "
A Scandal in Bohemia" he immediately recognises the true identity of the supposed "Count von Kramm". Regarding non-sensational literature, his speech is replete with references to the Bible, Shakespeare, and even Goethe.
Moreover, in "
The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" Watson reports that in November 1895, "Holmes lost himself in a monograph which he had undertaken upon the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus"—a most esoteric field of knowledge, for which Holmes would have had to "clutter his memory" with an enormous amount of information which had absolutely nothing to do with crime-fighting—knowledge so extensive that his monograph was taken as "the last word" on the subject. [ [http://webpages.charter.net/lklinger/lassus.htm LASSUS ] ] The later stories abandon the notion that Holmes did not want to know anything unless it had immediate relevance for his profession; in the second chapter of " The Valley of Fear", Holmes instead declares that "all knowledge comes useful to the detective", and near the end of " The Adventure of the Lion's Mane", he describes himself as "an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles".
Holmes is also a competent
cryptanalyst. He relates to Watson, "I am fairly familiar with all forms of secret writing, and am myself the author of a trifling monographupon the subject, in which I analyse one hundred and sixty separate ciphers." One such scheme is solved using frequency analysisin " The Adventure of the Dancing Men", which uses a series of stick figures, for example:
Holmes's analysis of physical evidence is both scientific and precise. His methods include the use of latent prints such as footprints, hoof prints and bicycle tracks to identify actions at a crime scene ("
A Study in Scarlet", " The Adventure of Silver Blaze", "The Adventure of the Priory School", "The Hound of the Baskervilles", " The Boscombe Valley Mystery"), the use of tobacco ashes and cigarette butts to identify criminals (" The Adventure of the Resident Patient", "The Hound of the Baskervilles"), the comparison of typewritten letters to expose a fraud (" A Case of Identity"), the use of gunpowder residue to expose two murderers (" The Adventure of the Reigate Squire"), bullet comparison from two crime scenes (" The Adventure of the Empty House") and even an early use of fingerprints (" The Norwood Builder"). Holmes also demonstrates knowledge of psychology in " A Scandal in Bohemia", luring Irene Adler into betraying where she had hidden a photograph based on the “premise” that an unmarried woman will seek her most valuable possession in case of fire, whereas a married woman will grab her baby instead.
Despite the excitement of his life (or perhaps seeking to leave it behind) Holmes retired to the
Sussex Downsto take up beekeeping (" The Second Stain"), and wrote a book on the subject. His search for relaxation can also be seen in his love for music, notably in " The Red-Headed League", where Holmes takes an evening off from a case to listen to Pablo de Sarasateplay violin.
"From a drop of water," Holmes wrote in an essay described in "A Study in Scarlet", "a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other." Holmes stories often begin with a bravura display of his talent for "deduction". It is of some interest to logicians and those interested in
logicto try to analyse just what Holmes is doing when he performs his deduction. Holmesian deduction appears to consist primarily of drawing inferences based on either straightforward practical principles — which are the result of careful inductive study, such as Holmes's study of different kinds of cigar ashes — or inference to the best explanation. In many cases, the deduction can be modelled either way. In 2002, Holmes was inducted as an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry— the only fictional characterso honoured — in appreciation of his contributions to forensic investigation. [ [http://www.rsc.org/ScienceAndTechnology/Parliament/ScotParliament/enews28.asp This news article] mentions Holmes's honour at the bottom of the page.]
Holmes's straightforward practical principles are generally of the form, "If 'p', then 'q'," where 'p' is observed evidence and 'q' is what the evidence indicates. But there are also, as one may observe in the following example, often some intermediate principles. In "A Scandal in Bohemia" Holmes deduces that Watson had got very wet lately and that he had "a most clumsy and careless servant girl." When Watson, in amazement, asks how Holmes knows this, Holmes answers:
In this case, we might say Holmes employed several connected principles such as these:
* If leather on the side of a shoe is scored by several parallel cuts, it was caused by someone who scraped around the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud.
* If a 19th-century London doctor's shoes are scraped to remove crusted mud, the person who so scraped them is the doctor's servant girl.
* If someone cuts a shoe while scraping it to remove encrusted mud, that person is clumsy and careless.
* If someone's shoes had encrusted mud on them, that person has been very wet lately and has been out in vile weather.
By applying such principles in an obvious way (using repeated applications of "
modus ponens"), Holmes is able to infer that:
"The sides of Watson's shoes are scored by several parallel cuts"; to "Watson's servant girl is clumsy and careless"; and "Watson has been very wet lately and has been out in vile weather."
But perhaps Holmes is not giving a proper explanation — after all, Holmes may be well aware of Watson's servant girl. As Watson is a doctor and it has been raining, it is likely he has been out in the rain.
Of course, Holmes's deductive reasonings are a common tool by which certain characters (particularly his astonished clients) are introduced by Holmes himself into the story. For example, in Conan Doyle's story "
The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist", Holmes's observations allow him to deduce that the client, Violet Smith, enjoys bicycling, due to slight roughenings of the sides of her shoe's soles from friction with the pedals. He also notes that the lady has spatulated finger-ends, which he initially assumes had been acquired from typewriting. However, he then openly corrects himself by commenting on Ms. Smith having a certain spirituality about the face (which he commented would not come from working with a typewriter), and remarks how such fingers can also develop from playing musical instruments; thus, he identified Ms. Smith as being a musician (a music teacher, to be precise).
In other instances of Holmesian deduction, it is more difficult to model his inference as deduction using general principles, and logicians and scientists will readily recognise the method used, instead, as an "inductive" one — in particular, "
argument to the best explanation", or, in Charles S. Peirce's terminology, "abduction". However, that Holmes should have called this "deduction" is entirely plausible.
The instances in which Holmes uses deduction tend to be those where he has amassed a large body of evidence, produced a number of possible explanations of that evidence, and then proceeds to find one explanation that is clearly the best at explaining the evidence. For example, in "The Sign of the Four", a man is found dead in his room, with a ghastly smile on his face, and with no immediately visible cause of death. From a whole body of background information as well as evidence gathered at and around the scene of the crime, Holmes is able to infer that the murderer is not one of the various people that
Scotland Yardhas in custody (each of them being an alternative explanation), but rather another person entirely. As Holmes says in the story, "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?" This phrase has entered Western popular culture as a catchphrase. As of 2007, the MI5and MI6are training their agents in Sherlockian Deduction. [ [http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23392707-details/Can+Sherlock+Holmes+restore+the+reputation+of+our+bungling+spies/article.do "Can Sherlock Holmes restore the reputation of our bungling spies?"] accessed 26th June 2007 at 21:07.]
Role in the history of the detective story
A popular misconception is that the Sherlock Holmes stories gave rise to the entire genre of detective fiction. In fact, the Holmes character and his "modus operandi" were inspired by two predecessors,
Edgar Allan Poe's C. Auguste Dupinand Emile Gaboriau's Monsieur Lecoqand their technique for solving crime. Already in " A Study in Scarlet", Conan Doyle compares his sleuth with these two earlier and more established fictional detectives. The former had first appeared in " The Murders in the Rue Morgue", first published in 1841, and the latter in "L'Affaire Lerouge" ("The Lerouge Affair") in 1866. The brief discussion between Watson and Holmes about the two characters begins with a comment by Watson:
cquote|"You remind me of Edgar Allan Poe's Dupin. I had no idea that such individuals did exist outside of stories."
Sherlock Holmes rose and lit his pipe. "No doubt you think that you are complimenting me in comparing me to Dupin," he observed. "Now, in my opinion, Dupin was a very inferior fellow. That trick of his of breaking in on his friends' thoughts with an apropos remark after a quarter of an hour's silence is really very showy and superficial. He had some analytical genius, no doubt; but he was by no means such a phenomenon as Poe appeared to imagine."
"Have you read Gaboriau's works?" I asked. "Does Lecoq come up to your idea of a detective?"
Sherlock Holmes sniffed sardonically. "Lecoq was a miserable bungler," he said, in an angry voice; "he had only one thing to recommend him, and that was his energy. That book made me positively ill. The question was how to identify an unknown prisoner. I could have done it in twenty-four hours. Lecoq took six months or so. It might be made a textbook for detectives to teach them what to avoid."
Holmes seems convinced that he is superior to both of them, while Watson expresses his admiration of the two characters. It has been suggested that this was a way for Conan Doyle to pay his respects to characters imagined by writers who had influenced him, while insisting that his creation was an improvement on theirs. (Doyle did in fact express his own admiration for Holmes's two predecessors.) However, Holmes pulls a very Dupin-esque mind reading trick on Watson in "
The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" (transplanted word for word to "The Resident Patient" when "The Cardboard Box" was removed from the "Memoirs"), and, to a lesser extent, in " The Adventure of the Dancing Men".
As an inspiration for scientists
Sherlock Holmes has occasionally been used in the scientific literature. Radford (1999) [cite book |last=Radford |first=John |title=The Intelligence of Sherlock Holmes and Other Three-pipe Problems |publisher=Sigma Forlag |year=1999 |isbn=8279160043] speculates on his intelligence. Using Conan Doyle’s stories as data, Radford applies three different methods to estimate Sherlock Holmes’s IQ, and concludes that his intelligences were very high indeed. Snyder (2004) [cite journal |author= Snyder LJ|title= Sherlock Holmes: Scientific detective | journal = Endeavour |year = 2004 |volume = 28 |pages = 104–108|doi= 10.1016/j.endeavour.2004.07.007] examines Holmes’ methods in the light of the science and the criminology of the mid- to late-19th century. Kempster (2006) [cite journal |author= Kempster PA |title= Looking for clues | journal = Journal of Clinical Neuroscience |year = 2006 |volume = 13 |pages = 178–180|doi= 10.1016/j.jocn.2005.03.021 ] compares neurologists’ skills with those displayed by Holmes. Finally, Didierjean and Gobet (2008) [cite journal |author= Didierjean, A & Gobet, F |title= Sherlock Holmes – An expert’s view of expertise | journal = British Journal of Psychology |year = 2008 |volume = 99 |pages = 109–125|url= http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/854 |doi= 10.1348/000712607X224469] review the literature on the psychology of expertise by taking as model a fictional expert: Sherlock Holmes. They highlight aspects of Doyle’s books that are in line with what is currently known about expertise, aspects that are implausible, and aspects that suggest further research.
The fifty-six short stories and four novels written by Conan Doyle are termed the "canon" by Sherlockians. A popular pastime among fans of Sherlock Holmes is to treat Holmes and Watson as real people, and attempt to elucidate facts about them from clues in the stories or by combining the stories with historical fact. Early scholars of the canon included
Ronald Knoxin Britain and Christopher Morleyin New York.
Writers have produced many
pop culture references to Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle, or characters from the stories in homage, to a greater or lesser degree. Such allusions can form a plot development, raise the intellectual level of the piece or act as Easter eggs for an observant audience.
Some have been overt, introducing Holmes as a character in a new setting, or a more subtle allusion, such as making a logical character live in an apartment at number 221b. Often the simplest reference is to dress anybody who does some kind of detective work in a deerstalker and cloak (as seen right). Another rich field of pop culture references is Holmes' ancestry and descendants, but really the only limit is the writer's imagination. A third major reference is the quote, "Elementary, my dear Watson," (which was never actually said by Holmes). [In the stories by Conan Doyle, Holmes often remarked that his logical conclusions were "elementary," in that he considered them to be simple and obvious. He also, on occasion, referred to his friend as "my dear Watson." However, the complete phrase, "Elementary, my dear Watson," does not appear in any of the sixty Holmes stories written by Conan Doyle. One of the closest examples to this phrase appears in the "
The Adventure of the Crooked Man". Upon Holmes's explanation of a deduction:
cquote|"Excellent!" I cried."Elementary." said he.
It does appear at the very end of the 1929 film, "The Return of Sherlock Holmes", the first Sherlock Holmes sound film, and may owe its familiarity to its use in
Edith Meiser's scripts for " The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" radio series. The phrase was first used by American actor William Gillettethough.] Another common misattribution is that Holmes, throughout the entire novel series, is never described as wearing the " deerstalkerhat," although Sidney Paget had drawn Holmes donning it on two occasions.
The Great Hiatus
Holmes fans refer to the period from 1891 to 1894—the time between Holmes' disappearance and presumed death in "The Adventure of the Final Problem" and his reappearance in "The Adventure of the Empty House"—as "the Great Hiatus." [ [http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-king-laurie.asp Bookreporter.com - Author Profile: Laurie R. King ] ] It is notable, though, that one later story ("The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge") is described as taking place in 1892.
Conan Doyle wrote the first set of stories over the course of a decade. Wanting to devote more time to his historical novels, he killed off Holmes in "The Final Problem," which appeared in print in 1893. After resisting public pressure for eight years, the author wrote "The Hound of the Baskervilles", which appeared in 1901, implicitly setting it before Holmes' "death" (some theorise that it actually took place after "The Return" but with Watson planting clues to an earlier date). [cite book|author=Dakin, D. Martin|title=A Sherlock Holmes Commentary|publisher=David & Charles, Newton Abbot|year=1972 ISBN 0-7153-5493-0] [cite book|author=McQueen, Ian|title=Sherlock Holmes Detected|publisher=David & Charles, Newton Abbot|year=1974 ISBN 0-7153-6453-7] The public, while pleased with the story, was not satisfied with a posthumous Holmes, and so Conan Doyle resuscitated Holmes two years later. Many have speculated on his motives for bringing Holmes back to life, notably writer-director
Nicholas Meyer, who wrote an essay on the subject in the 1970sFact|date=December 2007, but the actual reasons are not known, other than the obvious: publishers offered to pay generously. For whatever reason, Conan Doyle continued to write Holmes stories for a quarter-century longer.
Some writers have come up with alternate explanations for the hiatus. In Meyer's novel "
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution", the Hiatus is depicted as a secret sabbatical following Holmes' treatment for cocaine addictionat the hands of Sigmund Freud, and presents Holmes making the light-hearted suggestion that Watson write a fictitious account claiming he'd been killed by Moriarty, saying of the public, "They'll never believe you in any case."
In his memoirs, Conan Doyle quotes a reader, who judged the later stories inferior to the earlier ones, to the effect that when Holmes went over the Reichenbach Falls, he may not have been killed, but he was never quite the same man after. The differences in the pre- and post-Hiatus Holmes have in fact created speculation among those who play "The Great Game" (making believe Sherlock Holmes was a historical person). One theoryFact|date=August 2007 holds that the later Holmes was in fact an impostor (perhaps even Professor Moriarty), the later stories were fictions created to fill other writers' pockets (this is often used to deal with the stories which supposedly are written by Holmes himself), and Holmes and Professor Moriarty were in fact a variation of
Robert Louis Stevenson's " Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde". Among the more fanciful theories, the story "The Case of the Detective's Smile" by Mark Bourne, published in the anthology "Sherlock Holmes in Orbit", posits that one of the places Holmes visited during his hiatus was Alice's Wonderland. While there, he solved the case of the stolen tarts, and his experiences there contributed to his kicking the cocaine addiction.
In 1934 were founded the [http://www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk/ Sherlock Holmes Society] , in London, and the
Baker Street Irregulars, in New York. Both are still active today (though the Sherlock Holmes Society was dissolved in 1937 to be resuscitated only in 1951). The two initial societies founded in 1934 were followed by many more Holmesians circles, first of all in America (where they are called "scion societies"—offshoots—of the Baker Street Irregulars), then in England and Denmark. Nowadays, there are Sherlockian societies in many countries like India and Japan being the more prominent countries which have a history of such activity.
The Sherlock Holmes Society of London maintains a moderately up-to-date [http://www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk/the_rest.php links page] , pointing at other Sherlockian sites in a range of countries and languages. It is also one of many societies worldwide who arrange visits to the scenes of the Sherlock Holmes adventures (Holmesian topography), such as the
Reichenbach Fallsin the Swiss Alps.
During the 1951
Festival of Britain, Sherlock Holmes' sitting-room was reconstructed as the masterpiece of a Sherlock Holmes Exhibition, displaying a unique collection of original material.After the 1951 exhibition closed, items were transferred to the Sherlock Holmes Pub, in London, and to the Conan Doyle Collection in Lucens (Switzerland). Both exhibitions, each including its own very good Baker Street Sitting-Room reconstruction, are still to be seen today.In 1990 The Sherlock Holmes Museumwas opened in Baker Street London and the following year in Meiringen Switzerland another Museum was also opened, but naturally they include less historical material about Conan Doyle than about Sherlock Holmes himself. The Sherlock Holmes Museum in Baker Street, London was the first Museum in the world to be dedicated to a fictional character.
As Sherlock Holmes is such a popular character, there have been many theatrical stage and cinematic adaptations of Conan Doyle's work — much in the same way that "
Hamlet" or " Dracula" are often revised and adapted. The Guinness World Recordshas consistently listed him as the "most portrayed movie character" with over 70 actors playing the part in over 200 films. Basil Rathbonestarred as Sherlock Holmes, alongside Nigel Bruceas Dr. Watson, in fourteen films (two for 20th Century Foxand a dozen for Universal Pictures) from 1939-1946. Jeremy Brettis generally considered the definitive Holmes of recent times, having played the role in four series of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", created by John Hawkesworth for Britain's Granada Television, from 1984 though to 1994, as well as depicting Holmes on stage. Brett's Dr. Watson was played by David Burke and Edward Hardwickein the series.
Between 1979 and 1986, Soviet television produced a series of five films at the
Lenfilmmovie studio, split into eleven episodes, starring Vasily Livanovas Holmes and Vitaly Solominas Watson. Later, a cinematic adaptation was made based on the 1986 episodes. This film was called Sherlock Holmes in the 20th Century.
Related and derivative works (non-canonical)
In addition to the canonical Sherlock Holmes stories, Conan Doyle's [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/537 "The Lost Special"] (1898) features an unnamed "amateur reasoner" clearly intended to be identified as Holmes by his readers. His explanation for a baffling disappearance, argued in Holmes' characteristic style, turns out to be quite wrong — evidently Conan Doyle was not above poking fun at his own hero. A short story by Conan Doyle using the same idea is [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/537 "The Man with the Watches"] . Another example of Conan Doyle's humour is "
How Watson Learned the Trick" (1924), a parodyof the frequent Watson-Holmes breakfast table scenes. A further (and earlier) parody by Conan Doyle is "The Field Bazaar." He also wrote other material, especially plays, featuring Holmes. Many of these writings are collected in the books "Sherlock Holmes: The Published Apocrypha" edited by Jack Tracy, "The Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" edited by Peter Hainingand "The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes" compiled by Richard Lancelyn Green.
Sherlock Holmes' abilities as both a good fighter and as an excellent
logicianhave been a boon to other authors who have lifted his name, or details of his exploits, for their plots. These range from Holmes as a cocaineaddict, whose drug-fuelled fantasies lead him to cast an innocent Professor Moriarty as a super villain (" The Seven-Per-Cent Solution"), to science-fiction plots involving him being re-animated after death to fight crime in the future (" Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century").
Some authors have supplied stories to fit the tantalising references in the canon to unpublished cases (e.g. "
The giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared" in " The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire"), notably " The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes" by Conan Doyle's son Adrian Conan Doylewith John Dickson Carr, and The Lost Adventures of Sherlock Holmesby Ken Greenwald, based rather closely on episodes of the 1945 Sherlock Holmes radio show that starred Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce and for which scripts were written by Dennis Green and Anthony Boucher; others have used different characters from the stories as their own detective, e.g. Mycroft Holmes in "Enter the Lion" by Michael P. Hodeland Sean M. Wright (1979) or Dr. James Mortimer (from "The Hound of the Baskervilles") in books by Gerard Williams.
On the TV series "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Lt. Cmdr. Data is depicted as a fan of Holmes, and portrays him in a holodeck recreation in the episode "Elementary, My Dear Data." The estate of Arthur Conan Doyle objected, claiming a copyright on the character, but allowed the performance to be reprised in the episode "Ship In A Bottle," with attribution in the closing credits. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708704/trivia "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Elementary, Dear Data (1988) - Trivia ] ]
The main character in the TV series "House, M.D.", a medical doctor with a Holmesian approach to diagnosing diseases, is named as a pun on the near-homophone "Homes" for "Holmes" as
Dr. Gregory House. The show draws heavily upon Holmes' archetypes, including a drug addiction (in the show, Vicodininstead of cocaine), a quirky sense of humour and complete disregard for social mores, personal talents (piano and guitar, like Holmes' violin), as well as Holmes' characteristic ability to judge a situation correctly with almost no effort. House's apartment number is 221B. Dr. House's confidant and sounding board is Dr. James Wilson, whose initials coincide with Dr. John Watson. Edogawa Rampo(1894-1965), a Japanese mystery writer strongly influenced by Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe, wrote several stories featuring Kogoro Akechi, a detective patterned after Sherlock Holmes. The character is a fixture in Japanese popular culture and has appeared as a character in several Japanese films, including "Black Lizard" (1968) (aka "Kurotokage") and "The Mystery of Rampo" (1994).
In the mid-1980s, Japan's
Tokyo Movie Shinshaand the Italian TV station RAIco-produced an animated series inspired by the Sherlock Holmes series entitled " Sherlock Hound" (aka "Famous Detective Holmes" or "Detective Holmes"). All of the characters in the series are depicted as anthropomorphic animals, the majority dogs, though Holmes is a fox and his enemy Professor Moriarty is a wolf. Famed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazakidirected the first 6 episodes of the 26-episode series, but he left the project when production was suspended due to legal problems with Arthur Conan Doyle's estate (production resumed after these issues were resolved).
anime Death Notethe detective Lgreatly resembles Holmes in his deductive skills, eccentricities, and his somewhat questionable morals in pursuit of justice. He rarely sleeps and, rather than cocaine, seems to have an addiction to sugar. He is not above lying or posing elaborate, sometimes morbid, charades simply to see the reaction of his suspect. Also, though he would appear to be unskilled in hand-to-hand combat, he has shown himself to be quite an adept fighter, much like Holmes. L's caretaker and partner Wataricould be seen as his Dr. Watson, while his nemesis Light Yagami(also known as Kira) mirrors somewhat Moriarty, though the connections are not nearly as precise.
Prior to Death Note, the anime of
Detective Conanbetter know to American audiences as Case Closedwas also bassed off of Sherlock Holmes as well. During the course of the series, Jimmy Kudois a teen detective and does sleuthing in the style of Holmes. But when he gets turned into a kid, he takes on the name of Conan Edogawa, which was taken from the middle of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle(the creator of Sherlock Holmes) and Rampo Edogawa(another Mystery Writer). Also during the opening and closing credits (as well as the U.S. Logo) Conan (or should I say Jimmy) is seen dawning the outfit of the great detective himself. One can also claim that Dr. Agasais in fact the equivalent to Dr. Watson, but that is yet to be determined.
One obvious spoof of Sherlock Holmes is (briefly) seen in the name and nature of one "Shamrock Jolnes" (with Watson appearing as "Whatsup") in "Sixes and Sevens" by O. Henry. [cite web| title=Sixes and Sevens by O. Henry| url=http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2851| format=ebook| publisher=Project Gutenberg]
William S. Baring-Gould, who is cited in two of the major Holmesian references below, is also the author of the "definitive biography" of Rex Stout's great detective: "Nero Wolfe of West Thirty-Fifth Street" [cite book| title=Nero Wolfe of West Thirty-Fifth Street: The Life and Times of America's Largest Private Detective| author=Baring-Gould, William S.| date=1969| publisher=Viking Press| isbn=0-670-41372-0] In it are two references suggesting that Wolfe's paternity might be in the Holmesian line, with Irene Adler possibly involved. One reference in the acknowledgement section is to a "Baker Street Journal" issue citing Nero Wolfe's paternity and the other is a discussion in Chapter 11 of various genealogical ramifications connected with Holmes and Adler.Fact|date=August 2008 All this is explored more fully in the "Origins" section of the Wikipedia entry for Nero Wolfe. There may also be remarks extant about the strong similarities between Nero Wolfe and Mycroft Holmes, but this has not been verified.Who|date=August 2008
Canon of Sherlock Holmesconsists of the fifty-six short stories and four novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In this context, the term "canon" is an attempt to distinguish between Doyle's original works and subsequent works by other authors using the same characters.
A Study in Scarlet" (serialised 1887)
The Sign of the Four" (published 1890)
The Hound of the Baskervilles" (serialised 1901–1902 in "The Strand")
The Valley of Fear" (serialised 1914–1915)
"For more detail see
List of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes short stories".
The short stories were originally published in periodicals; they were later gathered into five anthologies:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (contains stories published 1891–1892 in "The Strand")
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" (contains stories published 1892–1893 in "The Strand" as further episodes of the "Adventures")
The Return of Sherlock Holmes" (contains stories published 1903–1904 in "The Strand")
His Last Bow" (contains stories published 1908–1913 and 1917)
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes" (contains stories published 1921–1927)
Lists of favourite stories
There are two famous lists of favourite stories: that of Conan Doyle himself, in "The Strand" in 1927, and that of the "Baker Street Journal" in 1959.
Conan Doyle's list:
The Adventure of the Speckled Band"
The Red-Headed League"
The Adventure of the Dancing Men"
The Adventure of the Final Problem"
A Scandal in Bohemia"
The Adventure of the Empty House"
The Five Orange Pips"
The Adventure of the Second Stain"
The Adventure of the Devil's Foot"
The Adventure of the Priory School"
The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual"
The Adventure of the Reigate Squire"The "Baker Street Journal"'s list:
The Adventure of the Speckled Band"
The Red-Headed League"
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle"
The Adventure of Silver Blaze"
A Scandal in Bohemia"
The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual"
The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans"
The Adventure of the Six Napoleons"
The Adventure of the Dancing Men"
The Adventure of the Empty House"
Holmes by other authors
Non-canonical works related and derived from Sherlock Holmes", " List of authors of new Sherlock Holmes stories", and " Sherlock Holmes speculation"
Dr. Gregory House
HOLMES2(police computer system)
List of people who have played Sherlock Holmes
Professor Challenger(another Conan Doyle character)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
* The Sleuth
* [http://publicliterature.org/books/sherlock_holmes/xaa.php "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"] , full text online and PDF.
* [http://yoak.com/sherlock/stories/ "Complete text of Sherlock Holmes Stories"]
* [http://www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk The Sherlock Holmes Museum] 221b Baker Street, London England.
* [http://www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk The Sherlock Holmes Society of London] London society founded in 1951. Sherlockian radio shows, videos, regular events and publications
* [http://www.bakerstreetdozen.com Baker Street Dozen] Sherlock Holmes in Books, Film and Media
* [http://188.8.131.52/221bcollection/canon/index.htm The Complete Sherlock Holmes] All 56 short stories and four novels, with original magazine illustrations
* [http://www.bertcoules.co.uk/sh-home.htm Bert Coules' website (BBC Radio 4 canonical and original stories, 1989–2004)]
* [http://sherlockholmes.stanford.edu Discovering Sherlock Holmes] at Stanford University
* [http://www.westminster.gov.uk/libraries/special/sherlock.cfm Sherlock Holmes Special Collections]
* [http://special.lib.umn.edu/rare/holmes.phtml The Sherlock Holmes Collections] at the
University of MinnesotaSpecial Collections and Rare Books
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/musicfeature/pip/i0bqx/ Sounds of the Baskervilles BBC Radio 4 programme on Holmes and music]
* [http://www.storiesnow.com Sherlock Holmes radio dramas. Public domain audio radio dramas adapted from the canonical texts]
* [http://www.holmesian.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=364 Sherlock Holmes Granada TV series 41 episodes] and [http://my.core.com/~jcnash/sherlock_graphic.html filming locations]
* [http://www.harpooners.org The Harpooners of the Sea Unicorn] A Scion Society of the Baker St. Irregulars based in St. Charles Missouri
* [http://www.angelfire.com/ks/landzastanza/publication.html Publication order of Sherlock Holmes stories by A. Conan Doyle]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. | <urn:uuid:22f3af7a-507e-499c-a77d-a1983ec929be> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/16634 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463607593.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20170523083809-20170523103809-00215.warc.gz | en | 0.963615 | 13,352 | 2.6875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.8916401863098145,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
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Proudhon's Biographical Information
- Born: January 15, 1809; Besançon, France
- 1825 enters college in Besançon
- 1828 becomes working compositor in town
- 1832 Back in Besançon by the Fall, Proudhon was offered a job as an editor of a Fouriériste newspaper.
- 1833, after receiving news of his brother's mysterious death during military training after having threatened to expose his captain for misuse of army funds, Proudhon became an implacable enemy of the existing order
- 1838 obtained pension Suard working as corrector of the press
- 1839 wrote treatise, 'Utilité de la célébration du dimanche, this year moved to paris
- 1840 published first work- Qu'est-ce que la propriété
- 1846 published greatest work Système des contradictions économiques ou Philosophie de la misère (system of economic contradictions or the philosophy of Poverty). He became connected as a kind of manager with commercial firm in Lyon, France.
- 1847 left Lyon and business and finally settled in Paris, joined freemasonry
- 1848 Proudhon failed to get elected to the constituent assembly in April 1848, though his name appeared on the ballots in Paris, Lyon, Besançon, and Lille.
- 1848 participated in February uprising
- (1848-1852) During the Second French Republic Proudhon was writing for Le Représentant du Peuple (February 1848 - August 1848); Le Peuple (September 1848 - June 1849); La Voix du Peuple (September 1849 - May 1850); Le Peuple de 1850 (June 1850 - October 1850) Proudhon stood for the constituent assembly in April 1848, but failed to get elected
- June 4 1848-, and served as a deputy during the debates over the National Workshops, created by the February 25, 1848 decree passed by Republican Louis Blanc
- 1849 he attempted to establish a popular bank (Banque du peuple)
- 1854 Proudhon contracted cholera. He survived but he never fully recovered his health
- 1858 published two more important books, Justice in the Revolution and in the Church
- 1863 published Principle of Federation
- Died: January 19, 1865; Passy, France | <urn:uuid:f3c37b3f-530c-40e0-b6d0-9917e8a9279a> | CC-MAIN-2014-42 | http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/proudhon/proudhonbio.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-42/segments/1414637904722.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20141030025824-00175-ip-10-16-133-185.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937195 | 500 | 2.859375 | 3 | {
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"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | History |
Montessori Prepared Environment
Maria Montessori’s idea of a “prepared environment” is realized in a milieu or setting in which everything a child comes in contact with facilitates and maximizes independent learning and exploration. Classrooms are prepared to meet the individual needs of all children, and to offer opportunities by encouraging them to make everyday choices. A prepared environment gives every child the freedom to fully develop their unique potential through developmentally appropriate sensorial materials. The materials range from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract, catering toward every child’s age and ability.
Key components of a Prepared Environment are:
The child has freedom to move from one cycle of work to the next in a constructive manner. A prepared environment allows the child to move freely and explore, following their natural impulses and work with the materials they choose – only after our Montessori trained teachers present it correctly the first time. In the event the child’s movement is disruptive to the class and/or other children, a redirection of behavior takes place through classroom management techniques.
Structure and Order
Maria Montessori believed there is a sensitive period for order that occurs between the ages of one and three years. During this time, the child is absorbing and structuring an internal world based on external environments. Therefore, it is crucial that an environment is prepared that aids the child in building a sense of structure, order, and self-control. A prepared environment provides structure and order in the classroom, which accurately reflects the sense of structure and order in the universe. This structure provides children the opportunity to work according to their age and ability, thus building concentration and a structure conducive to learning.
A prepared environment is a beautiful, uncluttered and well-maintained setting. The environment has colorful and attractive materials reflecting peace and tranquility. Every material has a place and purpose making the environment attractive. All of these qualities contribute in creativity and order in a child’s mind.
Nature and Reality
Children use child-size real objects that fit their hands and are appropriate for their age. This encourages proper use, makes work manageable, and allows the completion of work without frustration. Our child-size furniture in the classroom is appropriate for their height, so the child is not dependent on the adult for their freedom and movement.
This environment provides freedom to interact, inspiring children to learn and develop a sense of compassion, empathy for others, and respect. They become more socially aware and play in groups at the appropriate times. This social interaction is maintained throughout the environment and is encouraged with multi-age classroom settings. Our multi-age classrooms provide older children to develop leadership qualities while younger children mature at a faster pace due to the influence of their older peers.
Along with forming the child’s character, a prepared environment also develops them academically and intellectually. By guiding the child through the Montessori curriculum (practical life, sensorial, language, mathematics, and cultural subjects), the child has the structure which inspires them to become independent, responsible, and self-motivated learners. It is through the Intellectual Environment that groundwork is laid for a joy of life time learning from an early age.
Montessori teachers are a dynamic link between the environment and the needs of a child. They act as an interpreter for the child by observing, anticipating, and helping to guide the child through work cycles. This format helps the child to gain independence, and become a well-rounded abstract thinker. A Montessori teacher serves as the preparer and communicator of the environment to the child, and is responsible for maintaining the atmosphere and order of the prepared environment. | <urn:uuid:df49a187-0b10-4f41-af7d-f312116fcd8a> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://www.aspiringmindsmontessori.com/montessori/montessori-prepared-environment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178374686.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20210306100836-20210306130836-00634.warc.gz | en | 0.945101 | 750 | 3.90625 | 4 | {
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EVALUATION OF THE EFFICACY OF VARIOUS DEER EXCLUSION DEVICES AND DETERRENT TECHNIQUES FOR USE AT AIRPORTS
6. Deer Exclusion Techniques
a. Electric Fencing
Electric fences have been developed since the 1930s to contain livestock or exclude wildlife. Most designs of electric fences developed to control deer have evolved from livestock fence designs and have been improved over time. Electric fences are often promoted as economical alternatives to more expensive fences because they require fewer posts and use less wire than steel chain-link and high-tensile fencing. The electric fence does not function as a physical barrier fence, but rather is a psychological fence. One or more (up to 12) strands of wire are used to administer an electric shock to animals when they attempt to crawl under or through it. The wires can be baited with peanut butter to encourage deer to touch the fence with the sensitive nose and mouth area in order to train them to avoid it. Baiting is done when the fence is newly constructed and should be reapplied once per month to maintain the effectiveness of the training. The heights of electric fences (from 0.75 m to 1.5 m high) are generally lower than the height of conventional fences; they are designed with a spacing that encourages deer to attempt to crawl through the fence rather than jump over it. Electric fences use high voltage, low-impedance fence chargers to produce pulsed charges of 4,500 to 5,000 volts. The pulsing is intended to administer repeated shocks, which appear to be a better deterrent than a continuous charge (Fitzwater 1972) and to prevent death of animals by "freezing" animals on the wire, which often results with constant charges.
Chargers are powered either by main electric power supply (120 or 240 VAC models) or by 12 VDC rechargeable storage batteries that are each charged by a solar panel. Chargers are rated by joules of pulsed output energy and by the distance of wire that can be charged while overgrown with weeds. A wide variety of fence chargers, batteries and solar panels are available and they are described with each type of electric fence type below. Electric fences become ineffective if the current is intermittent or cut off. Common sources of problems are short-circuits caused by weed growth or snowdrifts contacting the fence (Porter 1983; Craven and Hygnstrom 1994) and lightning damage. Weed growth on the fence wires should be controlled by mowing the grass around and under the fence. For long perimeter fences at airports, monitoring of continuity using sophisticated electric controllers ensures that any portion of the fence that is damaged or short-circuited can be quickly repaired before a breach of the fence is made. When applicable, snowdrifts can be reduced by using snow fencing. Many electric fence operators choose to turn off the current to the snow-covered wires. This reduces the effectiveness of the fence, because deer can then crawl under the fence in areas where the snow is less deep. Lightning damage to charging equipment and insulators can be reduced, but not completely eliminated, by using fuses, surge protectors, lightning choke coils, and lightning arrestors that are recommended by electric fence suppliers, and by good electrical grounding with ground rods.
Another problem that occurs in regions with dry soil during summer months is that the soil becomes so dry that it cannot conduct the current from the negative pole of the charger to the feet of the deer and the shock becomes ineffective. Using fences designed for dry ground with bipolar wires and better grounding may reduce problems from dry soil. Therefore, proper design and installation according to manufacturer's specifications and a vigilant maintenance program are needed to ensure an effective electric fence.
Under some circumstances, such as during periods of local deer overpopulation and during the rutting season, some deer may have a very high motivation to cross electric fences. Some persistent male deer that were experienced with electric fences crawled back and forth under electric fences after learning to use their hair to insulate against shock (Lynwood Williamson, National Zoological Park, Washington, DC, pers. comm.). Most electric fences were originally designed to reduce deer depredation on high-value crops and orchards; the goal was to reduce deer damage to a tolerable level rather than to completely exclude deer. Therefore, some passage across the fence was tolerable. Gates in the fence are electrified to prevent them from becoming points of access. The amount of maintenance required to ensure effectiveness of the fences is high.
Description. — Livestock electric fences are designed to contain livestock and restrict movements of predators, particularly coyotes (Canis latrans). Howard (1991) compared the two common types of agricultural electric fence:
Biological Basis. — The livestock fence design relies on the electric shock to deter livestock and exclude their predators. This type of fence is not designed to restrict deer movements.
Literature. — An evaluation by Howard (1991) of two types of livestock electric fence designs to determine if mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) movements were affected by the fences found that both adult and immature mule deer were capable of crossing each design during a 4-year study. The study compared the number of deer crossing the fences to the number of adult deer encountering them. The net-wire fence with 2 electric outrigger wires permitted 214 deer crossings during 503 encounters (42.5%) and the 7-strand fence permitted 45 deer to cross during 346 encounters (13.0%). The findings also indicated that both designs were acceptable means of containing livestock and excluding coyotes. The 7-strand smooth wire electric fence was found to be a major barrier to mule deer migration. Howard (1991) indicated that the fence height was the factor restricting movement across it and that taller fences with 9, 10 and 12 strands would likely present a greater barrier to deer.
Recommendation. — The 1.2-m net-wire fence with 2 electric outrigger wires is not recommended for deer exclusion. The 7-strand smooth wire fence is recommended.
Literature Reviewed. — Howard 1991.
Many designs of electric fences have been developed to protect crops from depredation by deer. This diversity has developed from the degree of protection that is required and the value of the crop lost to depredation. Simple designs are intended to reduce depredation of crops by deer and to be assembled with simple skills for use during snow-free periods. More permanent designs have been developed to provide more protection (discussed in Permanent Electric Deer Fences), but at a higher cost than simple designs and generally require a fencing contractor for installation. Gates are generally made of the same material as the fence, and have gate handles. Temporary fences of simple design include the Peanut Butter Fence and the Polytape Fence.
Description. — The Peanut Butter Fence is a simple, temporary fence designed to reduce deer depredation of small gardens, nurseries, tree seedling plantations and orchards up to 1.6 ha in size. A single strand of 17-gauge (0.15-cm) smooth wire is attached at a height of 0.76 m above the ground using 22 kg of tension to 1.2-m tall wooden corner posts and supported at 14-m intervals with 1.2-m fibreglass rods (Figure 1). A mixture of peanut butter and vegetable oil with a consistency of very thick paint is applied with a roller. Aluminum foil flags (strips) are attached at 1-m intervals by wrapping them around the wire and securing them with cloth adhesive tape in areas of high deer traffic to increase the deer's curiosity of the fence. The wire is connected to the positive (+) post of a well-grounded livestock fence charger. This design is a low cost, temporary fence that requires simple construction skills to make. Craven and Hygnstrom (1994) describe the design and construction methods. Cost in 1994, excluding labour, was estimated to be $0.40 /m, excluding the fence charger. Fence chargers for this type of fence, including solar panel cost about $500 to charge 12 km of wire. A modified version of this type of fence that uses high-tensile steel wire was found to be effective in reducing deer depredation to young apple trees in orchards (Porter 1983). The effectiveness of this modification in areas of high deer densities is unknown.
Biological Basis. — Deer are attracted by the peanut butter and the foil strips, which encourage them to make nose-to-fence contact. After being shocked, deer learn to avoid fenced areas. The foil also aids in increasing the visibility of the fence to deer thereby providing some effect as a barrier to movement.
Literature. — In a comparison of various inexpensive electric deer fences, Hygnstrom and Craven (1988) found the peanut butter fence to be cost-effective in reducing crop depredation by deer during snow-free periods. Its effectiveness is limited by its low height, low durability and reduced effectiveness during some snow conditions. No long-term evaluation of this type of fence has been reported. The durability can be improved by using high-tensile wire, but at a higher cost. Effectiveness would likely be improved by using taller posts and adding one or more wires. The fence should be checked weekly for damage by deer and grounding by vegetation or snow. Craven and Hygnstrom (1994) describe the design and construction methods. This design was considered cost effective at reducing depredation of cornfields by Hygnstrom and Craven (1988), but it is of very limited use during periods of deep snow.
Recommendation. — Recommendation for deer exclusion at airports is limited due to lack of testing of effectiveness in winter conditions.
Literature Reviewed. — Porter 1983; Hygnstrom and Craven 1988; Craven and Hygnstrom 1994.
Description. — The Polytape Fence is similar to the peanut butter fence in design and use, but it uses a 1.0-cm wide, brightly-coloured polyethylene ribbon that is interwoven with fine stainless steel wires to carry the electric current. It may be constructed with one ribbon 0.6 m above the ground (Hygnstrom and Craven 1988) or with another ribbon strung along the top of the wooden posts (Figure 2). The ribbons are connected to the positive (+) post of a grounded fence charger. Peanut butter may also be applied to aid in training the deer. Craven and Hygnstrom (1994) describe the design and construction methods. Cost in 1994 was estimated to be $0.40 /m. excluding the fence charger. Fence chargers for this type of fence, including solar panel, cost about $500 to charge 12 km of wire.
Biological Basis. — Deer receive electric shocks through nose-to-fence contact. After being shocked, deer learn to avoid fenced areas. The bright ribbon improves the visibility of the fence to deer thereby providing some effect as a barrier to movement.
Literature. — In a comparison of various inexpensive electric deer fences, Hygnstrom and Craven (1988) found the single ribbon fence to be cost-effective in reducing crop depredation by deer during snow-free periods. Its effectiveness is limited by its low height, low durability and reduced effectiveness with snow. No long-term evaluation of this type of fence is known to be documented. The fence should be checked weekly for damage by deer and grounding by vegetation. This design was judged to be cost effective at reducing depredation of cornfields, but it was of very limited use when snow accumulations caused short-circuits by grounding the polytape (Hygnstrom and Craven 1988).
Recommendation. — Recommendation for deer exclusion at airports is limited due to lack of testing of effectiveness in winter conditions.
Literature Reviewed. — Hygnstrom and Craven 1988; Craven and Hygnstrom 1994.
Five permanent electric fence designs have been used to control deer. They include the Outrigger Fence, the ElectroBraid™ Fence and three high-tensile fence designs: the Offset or Double Fence, the Overhanging or Sloped Fence, and the Vertical Fence. The ElectroBraid™ Fence is an electric fence that uses polyester braided rope that has copper wire braided into the cord. It was developed in Canada for horse ranching purposes. High-tensile electric fencing has been developed from stock fences for controlling sheep, cattle and horses in New Zealand and Australia. It is claimed to provide year-round protection of crops and trees from deer depredation. On-going maintenance is required to prevent short-circuiting by herbaceous vegetation and deep snow. Extra care is required with installation of high-tension electric fences, as high-tension wires place much higher loads on posts than low-tension designs. Therefore, the end and corner posts must be properly constructed to manufacturers' specifications. High-tensile wires should be checked for tension during early summer and late fall to adjust for changes in tension due to seasonal temperature changes. A variety of electrified gates are available for use with high-tension fences. Most gates are made from galvanized steel pipe and electrified wires strung across with insulators (Figure 3). With regular maintenance, high-tensile electric fences and ElectroBraid™ fences are expected to last 20 to 30 years. Three types of high-tensile fences are described and evaluated below.
Description. — The Outrigger Fence is a dated design and has been replaced by high-tensile electric fences. An outrigger fence design described by Tierson (1969) consisted of 2.4-m long, flanged steel posts with five copper-clad steel wires, attached with wooden pole brackets with glass insulators. The bottom three wires were spaced 40.5 cm apart with the lowest one about 20 cm from the ground; the two upper wires were spaced 50.8 cm apart. The height of the top wire was 2 m above ground. The wires were electrified with an electric fence controller.
Biological Basis. — Deer receive electric shocks through nose-to-fence contact. After being shocked, deer learn to avoid fenced areas.
Literature. — Tierson (1969) reported difficulties with the outrigger fence. The fence was problematic due to high maintenance requirements and inconsistent deer responses. Running deer usually penetrated the fence. This type of fence was not considered to be worth the cost of the fence due to its poor performance. Scott and Townsend (1985) found from a survey of eight farmers that used the outrigger fence to protect fruit trees, Christmas trees or nursery crops that all farmers reported deer damage within the fenced areas. Other fence designs fared better. 46% (25) of farmers with other types of electric fences (not specified) reported crop damage and 59% (10) of farmers using high woven wire fences (2.4 to 3 m high) reported crop damage.
Recommendation. — Outrigger Fencing is not recommended for deer exclusion at airports due to ineffectiveness and poor durability.
Literature Reviewed. — Tierson 1969; Scott and Townsend 1985.
Figure 4. An ElectroBraid™ electric deer fence design.
Description. — The ElectroBraid™ Fence is a recent Canadian invention that was developed for use in horse ranching and for deer control. It uses polyester-braided rope that has copper wire braided into the cord. Seven to nine strands of this rope, 15 to 30 cm apart, are strung horizontally along fiberglass or wooden posts using up to 90 kg of tension (Figure 4). The strands are attached to the positive (+) post of a grounded fence charger producing 4,000 to 5,000 VDC. Some designs attach alternating wires to the positive post and attach the remaining wires to the ground to improve winter performance when snow reduces grounding of the animal's feet. Short-circuiting can be caused by interference by vegetation and snow cover. Regular cutting or use of herbicides should be sufficient to manage herbaceous plant growth along the fence.
Biological Basis. — The vertical high-tensile fence conditions deer to associate electric shocks with attempts to penetrate the fence through nose-to-fence contact with the wires. The high visibility of the ElectroBraid™ cord reduces accidental contact by deer. Taller designs provide more of a barrier to jumping deer. After being shocked, deer learn to avoid fenced areas.
Literature. — A six-month evaluation of an ElectroBraid™ electric fence installation at Little Rock AFB has been judged to be a success (Van Noord 2000). The 1.8-m high vertical electric fence design used nine strands of ElectroBraid™ cord spaced 22.8 cm apart (the bottom three cords were spaced 15.2 cm apart to deter small animals). The fence was installed in September of 1999 and has reduced deer sightings on the airfield from an average of 19 deer per night to one per night and 80% of nights have been deer-free. Most deer that were spotted on the field were traced to entering through an open gate. Deer that had jumped the fence were running from hunters. The fence 9,266-m perimeter installation cost of $82,200 was significantly lower than the cost of a conventional 2.44-m chain-link fence with three barbed wires on angle extensions ($400,000) with an equivalent effectiveness. Snow accumulation should be ploughed away from the fence to maintain winter effectiveness.
Recommendation. — Recommended for deer exclusion at airports due to effective exclusion of deer.
Literature Reviewed. — Van Noord 2000.
Figure 5. The offset or double electric deer fence (from Craven and Hygnstrom 1994).
Description. — The Offset or Double Fence is a variation of the New Hampshire Fence that was specified by the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department to protect gardens, nurseries and tree plantations from deer depredation. The design uses three high-tensile electric wires supported by two posts (Palmer et al. 1985; Hall 1996), or one post with cantilevered crosspieces (Fitzwater 1972; Craven and Hygnstrom 1994) so that the wires are arranged in an offset configuration (Figure 5). Two wires are positioned one above the other (one about 38 cm above the ground and the other about 100 cm above the ground). The third wire is positioned about 100-130 cm from the first two on the side excluded from deer and about 75 cm above the ground. The wires are attached to the positive (+) post of a grounded fence charger. Craven and Hygnstrom (1994) indicated that more wires could be added to maintain effectiveness in areas with high deer populations, but the results of this type of modification have not been evaluated. Cost of this type of fence is expected to be lower than vertical high-tensile fences due to the use of fewer wires and shorter posts. The cost for installations as large as airports was not available.
Biological Basis. — This type of electric fence uses a three-dimensional arrangement of wires to discourage deer from jumping the fence and an electric shock to repel the deer.
Literature. — A review of fence types by Fitzwater (1972) indicated that the Offset Fence costs less than a 2.4-m wire mesh fence, but requires more area to give the fence its three-dimensional shape. Palmer et al. (1985) judged this design to be effective at reducing depredation of crops. However, it was less effective in excluding deer during 30-day experimental periods than a 1.47 m high "Penn State Vertical Electric Deer Fence", which allowed no deer to cross. However, electric fences are of limited use during periods when snow accumulation is high enough to short circuit the lowest wire.
Recommendation. — Not recommended for deer exclusion at airports, as tall, vertical high-tensile fences are more effective.
Literature Reviewed. — Fitzwater 1972; Palmer et al. 1985; Hygnstrom and Craven, 1988; Craven and Hygnstrom 1994.
Figure 6. The slanted seven-wire electric deer fence (from Craven and Hygnstrom 1994).
Description. — A variety of Slanted or Overhanging Fence designs have been developed to exclude deer from moderate-to-large orchards, nurseries and fields with other high valued crops (Selders et al. 1981; Craven and Hygnstrom 1994). One common design uses seven high-tensile wires parallel to each other on a steep angle relative to the ground using support wires, boards and battens (Figure 6). The wires are positioned 30 cm apart, arranged with a slope toward the area confined by the fence. The bottom wire is positioned 25 cm from the ground. The top, third, fifth and bottom wires are connected to the positive (+) post of a grounded, low-impedance fence charger. The second, fourth and sixth wires are connected to ground. The area up to 4 m along the outside of the fence is cleared and maintained to ensure visibility of the fence. This type of fence covers 2.44 m of horizontal distance, but because of the angle of the fence it is only 1.2 m high. A 1.5-m high sloped fence design with seven strands of high-tensile wire (O'Dell 1997) was successful in obtaining "100% deer control" in a 4.8-ha strawberry farm in Virginia for 3 years. Bonwell (1983) indicated that this fence design produces a "good physical and psychological barrier". The fence should be checked weekly for damage by deer and grounding by vegetation. Cost of this type of fence is expected to be lower than vertical high-tensile fences due to the use of fewer wires and shorter posts. The cost for installations as large as airports was not available.
Biological Basis. — This type of electric fence uses the sloped arrangement of wires to discourage jumping and encourage deer to try to crawl underneath the fence whereupon the electric shock that repels the animal is received. The electric wires are initially baited to encourage conditioning of the deer to the fence.
Literature. — A comparison of various inexpensive electric deer fences (Hygnstrom and Craven 1988) found the electric sloped fence to be cost-effective in reducing crop depredation of high value crops and orchards by deer during snow-free periods. Its effectiveness is limited by its low height, and limited effectiveness with snow. The success of the 1.5-m high design at a Virginia strawberry farm (O'Dell 1997) for 3 years may partially be a result of mild winters found there. Snow accumulation may not have risen to the height of the lowest electric wire. Palmer et al. (1985) tested a 1.2-m high non-electric version of the Sloped Fence design; they found that deer were capable of jumping over the height and breadth of the fence.
Recommendation. — Recommendation for deer exclusion at airports is dependent upon successful long-term testing in winter conditions.
Literature Reviewed. — Selders et al. 1981; Bonwell 1983; Palmer et al. 1985; Hygnstrom and Craven 1988; Craven and Hygnstrom 1994.
Figure 7. The seven-wire vertical electric deer fence (from Craven and Hygnstrom 1994).
Figure 8. Electrical and grounding system for high-tensile fences, featuring wires with alternating polarity for improved effectiveness in winter (from Craven and Hygnstrom 1994).
Figure 9. The Penn State vertical electric deer fence (from Palmer et al. 1985).
Description. — Vertical high-tensile fence designs have been developed over the past 20 years to protect large truck gardens, nurseries, orchards, reforestation projects and airports (Bonwell 1983; Smith and Kearley 1984; Palmer et al. 1985; Scott and Townsend 1985; Craven and Hygnstrom 1994). Some zoos use electric fencing to deter hoofed-stock and large game, such as rhinoceros and tigers, from barrier fencing to reduce damage. The vertical high-tensile fence designs vary in height, from 1.2-m to 1.8-m and in the number of electric wires, from five to seven. The general design consists of solid wooden or steel posts spaced approximately 60 m apart and strung with vertically arranged high-tensile wire on plastic insulators. Tension of between 11 to 114 kg is applied to the wires with an in-line wire strainer on each wire and tension is maintained by an indicator spring (Figure 7). The wires are attached to the positive (+) post of a grounded fence charger producing 4,000 to 5,000 VDC. Some designs attach alternating wires to the positive post and attach the remaining wires to the ground to improve winter performance when snow reduces grounding of the animal's feet (Figure 8). Short-circuiting can be caused by interference from vegetation and snow cover. Regular cutting or use of herbicides should manage herbaceous plant growth along the fence. Costs for entire installations were difficult to obtain, but they are estimated to be about $7,700/km based on conversations with wildlife workers and manufacturer documentation.
Biological Basis. — The vertical high-tensile fence conditions deer to associate electric shocks with attempts to penetrate the fence through nose-to-fence contact with the wires. Contact is sometimes facilitated by the application of attractants, such as peanut butter. Taller designs provide more of a barrier to jumping deer. After being shocked, deer learn to avoid fenced areas.
Literature. — A comparative study by Palmer et al. (1985) found that deer were fully excluded by the 1.47-m high "Penn State Vertical Electric Deer Fence" design during 30-day experimental periods at Penn State University Experimental Forest. The design used five electric wires spaced 30.5 cm apart with the bottom wire located at 25.4 cm from the ground (Figure 9). The "Penn State Vertical Electric Deer Fence" design has been improved by increasing the height to 1.8 m and increasing the number of electric wires to seven. Craven and Hygnstrom (1994) indicated that although vertical electric fences take up less ground space than three-dimensional fences, they are less likely to inhibit deer from jumping over. Joe Harding (Director of Forest Lands, Pennsylvania State University, pers. comm.) indicated that this fence design is the best choice for forest protection, because the high-tensile wire resists breakage from falling tree branches and the wires will spring back to their original position after the trees are removed. Long-term use of this design by Penn State University has indicated that, with regular maintenance, this fence design works to reduce deer depredation to an acceptable level. However, during the rutting season, penetration of this type of fence by deer can be frequent. One fence supplier (Bonita Whalen, Kiwi Fence Systems, pers. comm.) admitted that the taller electric high-tensile fences provide only 70-80 percent protection even when fully electrified and maintained. Lynwood Williamson (National Zoological Park, Washington, DC, pers. comm.) and Joe Harding (Director of Forest Lands, Pennsylvania State University, pers. comm.) confirmed this fact. Even when fully operational some deer learned to crawl through the fence without contacting the wires with their nose or mouth and use their fur as a partial insulator to the shocks.
Many regional airports in the eastern United States are in the process of removing high-tensile electric fences and replacing them with 2.4-m high chain-link fencing, topped with 3 strands of barb wire (Richard Atkinson, Airport Director, Central West Virginia Regional Airport Authority, Charleston, WV, pers. comm.; Scott Byard, Assistant Operations Manager, Tri-State Airport, Huntington WV, pers. comm.). The most important reasons for switching were maintenance issues, which resulted in poor performance of the high-tensile fence. High-tensile electric fencing is well-suited for the exclusion of deer for forest or crop protection, but it may not be suitable for excluding deer at airports if maintenance is not consistent. Electric fences have reduced effectiveness during periods of snow accumulation above the lowest electric wire due to short-circuiting by snow.
Recommendation. — Recommendation for deer exclusion at airports is limited due to incomplete exclusion of deer, high maintenance requirements, and problems caused by snow in winter.
Literature Reviewed. — Bonwell 1983; Smith and Kearley 1984; Palmer et al. 1985; Scott and Townsend 1985; Craven and Hygnstrom 1994. | <urn:uuid:d37ed3c5-d509-481e-82a9-076420a5bffb> | CC-MAIN-2014-52 | http://www.all-creatures.org/hope/DOE/4%20-%20Transport%20Canada%20-%20Electric%20Fencing.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-52/segments/1418802769392.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20141217075249-00008-ip-10-231-17-201.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946058 | 5,964 | 3.15625 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 3.079782247543335,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
Specifies that an object can be initialized by using a non-default constructor syntax, and that a property of the specified name supplies construction information. This information is primarily for XAML serialization.
Assembly: System.Xaml (in System.Xaml.dll)
Thetype exposes the following members.
|Equals||Infrastructure. Returns a value that indicates whether this instance is equal to a specified object. (Inherited from Attribute.)|
|GetHashCode||Returns the hash code for this instance. (Inherited from Attribute.)|
|GetType||Gets the Type of the current instance. (Inherited from Object.)|
|IsDefaultAttribute||When overridden in a derived class, indicates whether the value of this instance is the default value for the derived class. (Inherited from Attribute.)|
|Match||When overridden in a derived class, returns a value that indicates whether this instance equals a specified object. (Inherited from Attribute.)|
|ToString||Returns a string that represents the current object. (Inherited from Object.)|
|_Attribute.GetIDsOfNames||Maps a set of names to a corresponding set of dispatch identifiers. (Inherited from Attribute.)|
|_Attribute.GetTypeInfo||Retrieves the type information for an object, which can be used to get the type information for an interface. (Inherited from Attribute.)|
|_Attribute.GetTypeInfoCount||Retrieves the number of type information interfaces that an object provides (either 0 or 1). (Inherited from Attribute.)|
|_Attribute.Invoke||Provides access to properties and methods exposed by an object. (Inherited from Attribute.)|
This attribute specifies that the associated property can be initialized by a constructor parameter and should be ignored for XAML serialization if the constructor is used to construct the instance. This provides better round trip representations for parameterized constructor syntax rather than default constructor instantiation plus specific attributes.
A framework can potentially support preserving markup extension usages and reconstituting them rather than relying on ProvideValue output in the object tree for serialization. In this case, the information is useful during serialization for producing an accurate representation of the typical markup extension usage. For more information about markup extensions, see Markup Extensions for XAML Overview.
In order to be valid for a attribution, a type's public non-default constructor must support exactly one parameter. The name of the parameter must correspond to a read/write property. The property must be otherwise serializable. You use this attribute to create the correspondence between the name of the parameter in the constructor, and the property. Specifically, you apply this attribute to the property-level definition of the connecting read/write property.
Consumers of may throw in cases where ArgumentName does not resolve to type backing, or when applied to a type that does not have the appropriate construction arguments and arity.
In previous versions of the .NET Framework, this class existed in the WPF-specific assembly WindowsBase. In .NET Framework 4, is in the System.Xaml assembly. For more information, see Types Migrated from WPF to System.Xaml.
WPF Usage Notes
For more information about markup extensions and WPF, see Markup Extensions and WPF XAML. | <urn:uuid:a8ecb3e0-5fba-4fdc-bfec-d44129568ff3> | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.markup.constructorargumentattribute(v=vs.110).aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042988650.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002308-00010-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.737552 | 710 | 3.15625 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.3106720447540283,
"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Software Dev. |
Near Caesarea Philippi, a city of Greek-Roman culture known for its worship of foreign gods, Jesus announced he would establish a church and gave authority over it to the apostle Simon — whom he renamed Peter.
When Christ asked, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” it was Simon Peter who was inspired to answer: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
In reply, Christ declared: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:13-20)
Situated 40km north of the Sea of Galilee, the region of Caesarea Philippi was the furthest north Jesus took his disciples.
Cult of Pan flourished
The city had been known as Banias, an Arabic pronunciation of Panias (there is no p in Arabic). This name honoured the Greek god Pan — a half-man, half-goat deity often depicted playing a flute — who was worshipped here.
When Jesus passed this way, the area was ruled by Herod the Great’s son Philip, who had renamed the city Caesarea. To distinguish it from the coastal Caesarea Maritima, it became known as Caesarea Philippi.
The city had been built near the Banias spring, which gushes from a massive rock face and flows into one of the streams that form the Jordan River.
Here the cult of Pan flourished. East of a large cave are the remains of shrines to Pan and inscriptions, from the 2nd century, bearing his name.
Now a nature reserve
Since Jesus liked to use local imagery for his metaphors and parables, it is easy to visualise him standing by the steep cliff of the Banias spring and telling Peter that he would become “this rock”.
Six days after this event, the Transfiguration took place on “a high mountain” (Matthew 17:1). Christian tradition places the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, near Nazareth, but some scholars believe Mount Hermon (16km north of Caesarea Philippi) to be a more likely site.
Banias, including the sanctuary of Pan and the remains of a Roman/Crusader town, is now a nature reserve.
The steep cliff of the cult area with the cave of Pan is located near the eastern entrance to the reserve, and is clearly visible from the parking area.
Peter calls Jesus the Messiah: Matthew 16:13-20
Jesus foretells his death: Mark 8:31—9:1
Administered by: Israel Nature and Parks Authority
Tel.: 972-4-6902577 (spring), 972-4-6950272 (waterfall)
Open: Apr-Sep 8am-5pm; Oct-Mar 8am-4pm (last entry one hour before closing)
Brownrigg, Ronald: Come, See the Place: A Pilgrim Guide to the Holy Land (Hodder and Stoughton, 1985)
Charlesworth, James H.: The Millennium Guide for Pilgrims to the Holy Land (BIBAL Press, 2000)
Gonen, Rivka: Biblical Holy Places: An illustrated guide (Collier Macmillan, 1987)
Murphy-O’Connor, Jerome: The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700 (Oxford University Press, 2005) | <urn:uuid:fd5d1b80-ecff-4940-bda8-a999bf0cf3dc> | CC-MAIN-2015-27 | http://www.seetheholyland.net/caesarea-philippi/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-27/segments/1435375095806.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20150627031815-00255-ip-10-179-60-89.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949655 | 777 | 3.421875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.827524185180664,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | History |
The destination of this trip was southern Tunisia, specifically the area around
the salt lake Chott Djerid, which some scholars think may be Lake Tritonis of antiquity, the famed
locale that ancient historians name in association with the North African Amazon tribes.
Then we went to the island Djerba where important Neolithic sites have been discovered.
Furthermore, we investigated the mountain region round Matmata and Tataouine to get to know
the original Berber culture. The Berbers are considered to be the aborigines in this region,
and up till now they have preserved structures which indicate that their society had once been
matriarchal, that means it was a society predominated by women. From the Middle Ages there are
accounts of Berber queens, so of the famous Kahina who had very successfully waged war
against the attacking Arabic tribes, and of Tin Hinan, who was the ancestress of the Tuareg.
In the mountains north of Tataouine we were able to investigate Stone Age rock paintings.
Sacred place of worship - the Belvedere in Tozeur
In Tozeur, the main place at the Chott Djerid, there exists a distinctive hill, named the Belvedere.
On top of the hill there is a platform with several outstanding hill formations, and a thermal spring.
It is obvious that it is a prehistoric place of worship.
The thermal spring perfectly fits into this picture - a Neolithic place of worship in connection with a sacred spring.
One of these striking rock formations shows a niche which obviously had been made artificially.
Here we were able to discover something exceptional. Mysterious human figures can be discerned
at the right side of the entry to this niche. They had been cut into the rock. The figures seem to
represent women with long gowns. A very similar rock engraving of a woman
I had discovered on the hill of Myrina castle on the Greek island Lemnos
which is also connected with the Amazons.
rock with artificial niche and rock engravings at the Belvedere in Tozeur
Neolithic site at Sedouikech on Djerba
In the southeastern part of the island Djerba at the village Sedouikech (also: Cedouikech)
we have discovered a Neolithic site.
There can be discerned two rows of monoliths which are arranged in a straight line.
Roughly in the center there is a rock with a presumably vulva-shaped hole which had been drilled
through the whole rock. A candle has recently been placed into the hole which makes it evident
that even today this rock is of ritual meaning.
sacred stone with candle at the Neolithic site in Sedouikech on Djerba | <urn:uuid:c8d684b3-4bb9-44a0-a501-f3aa176c7837> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | http://www.myrine.at/Amazons/Tun2005e.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243991557.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20210517023244-20210517053244-00596.warc.gz | en | 0.962157 | 582 | 2.59375 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.7912862300872803,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | History |
Hair toners are often used on coloured hair in order to create shades that may be difficult to achieve by using regular hair dye alone. Hair toners are less damaging to the hair than bleaches or lighteners and are used to lighten hair past the pale yellow stage. Pale yellow is the lightest shade that hair can be bleached to without sustaining significant damage.
Other People Are Reading
Toners are available in permanent, semi-permanent, and demi-permanent varieties. The most commonly used hair toners are the permanent type, which are often applied to bleached or lightened hair to create very pale shades of blonde or white. The only way to achieve white hair without significantly damaging the hair is through the use of a toner. Toners can also be used on darker shades of hair to remove unwanted red pigments.
Toners work by neutralising an unwanted pigment present in the hair. This is done by introducing a toner that is the opposite the offending pigment on the colour wheel. For example, an unwanted yellow pigment can be neutralised by a purple toner, while orange pigments can be removed with blue toner. By using toners, a hairdresser can fine-tune your hair colour in order to achieve the perfect shade without causing excessive damage.
Coloured hair needs to be rinsed thoroughly to remove dye before toner is applied. The hair should be towelled dry so that it is damp, not sopping wet, during application. Toner is mixed with developer in a 1:1 ratio and then applied to the hair starting at the roots in the same way hair colour is applied. Once the toner mixture has been applied, the colour should be checked every five minutes. Leaving the toner on too long could cause the hair to absorb the colour of the toner instead of just neutralising unwanted shades.
Toner can be applied occasionally to coloured hair in order to maintain the correct shade. White hair can sometimes become yellow over time and applying toner can remove the yellow tint and brighten the hair.
Before toner application, it is important to perform an allergy test. This is done by mixing a small amount of toner with developer and applying it to the inside of the elbow. Allow the toner to remain on the skin for 24 hours and then check for any signs of irritation or a rash. If the skin is irritated then the toner should not be applied to hair as it could cause a serious allergic reaction on the scalp.
- 20 of the funniest online reviews ever
- 14 Biggest lies people tell in online dating sites
- Hilarious things Google thinks you're trying to search for | <urn:uuid:4c13c0c2-6100-4e0f-bbda-e8f972a4278a> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://www.ehow.co.uk/facts_6889902_happens-put-toner-dark-hair_.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501170940.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104610-00463-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938002 | 551 | 2.515625 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 0.9027264714241028,
"reasoning_level": 1,
"interpretation": "Basic reasoning"
} | Fashion & Beauty |
The Government of Georgia is not entitled to restrict the freedom of movement and assembly, guaranteed under the Constitution of Georgia.
The Government of Georgia has made an amendment to its Ordinance #322 of May 23, 2020 and from November 9 of the current year restricted the movement from 22.00 pm to 05.00 am in Tbilisi and other cities of Georgia. There is a strong reasonable presumption that the government has taken such a measure to restrict and control the ongoing intense protests in the country related to the parliamentary elections.
The Government of Georgia did not have the authority to restrict the freedom of movement of citizens based on its subordinated normative act. Under the legislation of Georgia, the government is not entitled to restrict the rights guaranteed under the Constitution, including the freedom of movement and freedom of assembly of Georgian citizens. Therefore, the actions of the Georgian law enforcement bodies in terms of restricting/controlling the freedom of movement and freedom of assembly of citizens are also illegal and unconstitutional.
Such a conclusion is made based on the analysis of the provisions of the legislation of Georgia provided below.
Legislation of Georgia recognizes only one legal ground for restricting the rights guaranteed under the Constitution and such ground is declaring a state of emergency in the country. Even in a state of emergency, such rights can be restricted only by a presidential decree, which must be immediately submitted to the Parliament of Georgia for approval.1
In the case at hand, no state of emergency has been declared in the country. The Government of Georgia restricted the freedom of movement of citizens by amending Ordinance # 322 of the Government of Georgia. The title of the mentioned Ordinance is “On the Approval of Isolation and Quarantine Rules”. The government has the authority to establish such rules based on the Law of Georgia on Public Health.2 The Ordinance # 322 itself refers to the Law on Public Health as the basis for establishing such rules. There is no other legal basis for the aforesaid Ordinance.
It is noteworthy that before the law/legislator instructed the government to establish aforesaid rules, it itself defined what “isolation” and “quarantine measures” mean. Accordingly, when defining the rules of quarantine and isolation, we must refer to the rule of law and understand what is the legislative definition of these concepts. Identifying these concepts will allow us to find out what rules the law/legislator has instructed the government to establish.
“Isolation” – keeping a diseased or an infected person separately from others for the period of communicability of the disease by placing him/her in such a place and/or in such conditions that would restrict or prevent direct or indirect transmission of the disease from him/her to another person.3
“Quarantine Measures” – a set of measures applied to a person who is not diseased but has been exposed to a communicable disease case during the period of communicability.4
Therefore, according to the legislation, the government has the power to establish rules that apply only to the above provisions, i.e. the government can establish regulations that only apply to the behavior, care, etc. of infected or related persons, which means that the government in no case have the authority to impose regulations and restrictions on the general / non-infected members of society and to impose restrictions on freedom of movement and freedom of assembly which are guaranteed under the Constitution of Georgia.
Excess of power by the government, on the one hand, violates the constitutional rights of citizens and, on the other hand, creates a basis for illegal criminal and administrative liability, as the first violation of the “quarantine and isolation rules” causes the administrative liability and second such violation can even cause the criminal liability.5
A dangerous precedent has been set in the country for the unlawful restriction of human rights and freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution of Georgia.
1. Constitution of Georgia, Article 71, paragraph 4; Law of Georgia on the State of Emergency, Article 2, paragraph 4;
2. Law of Georgia on Public Health, Article 11;
3. Law of Georgia on Public Health, Article 3, paragraph “k”;
4. Law of Georgia on Public Health, Article 3, paragraph “l”;
5. Criminal Code of Georgia, Article 2481; Administrative Offences Code of Georgia, Article 4210
This document is prepared for general information purposes only and should not be used as legal or other professional advice.
If you need detailed advice or have any questions regarding administrative and/or criminal liability, please contact us. | <urn:uuid:9fe1627b-ffc3-4dde-b915-dbd029d4a6a6> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://blb.ge/partner-note-maya-mtsariashvili-3/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949694.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20230401001704-20230401031704-00629.warc.gz | en | 0.9486 | 947 | 2.515625 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.8348820209503174,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Crime & Law |
The Bible: songs and wise sayings
A great deal of the Old Testament is written in poetry. Like most of the Jewish Scriptures that Christians know as the Old Testament, it is written in Hebrew. It is typical of the poetry of the time. It does not rhyme, but has lines in pairs, which echo each other in meaning, imagery or rhythm. Occasionally there are technical devices that do not translate well into English, such as having the first letter of each line work its way through the Hebrew alphabet.
150 hymns make up the book of Psalms. They were a cycle of songs used by the Hebrew people (subsequently known as the Jews) in worship in the temple. Every imaginable sentiment that a human being might need to express honestly to God is found here. There is praise, pleading, fury, doubt, recollection of happy times, trust in secure times, and despair in times of suffering.
A large amount of the Bible’s poetry concerns whether it is possible to believe in a loving God when there is so much suffering in the world. It is the subject of the book of Job, which is presented as a play in verse. In it a faithful worshipper of God refuses to lose trust in him despite every misfortune that life throws at him.
There is an unexpectedly sympathetic hearing given in Ecclesiastes to the idea that food, drink, sex and sun are all you need on God’s good earth.
Song of Songs is an erotic poem. Christians have sometimes interpreted it as being about the love between God and his people, although this sits awkwardly with the sexier parts.
Proverbs is a collection of the sayings of Israel’s wise men and women. It gives advice on how to take a godly approach to friendship, work, health, shopping and family relationships. It does this using jokes, riddles and memorable sayings.
What the Bible says about it
An extract from the Bible:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry out by day,
but you do not answer,
by night, and am not silent.
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the praise of Israel.
In you our fathers put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
Where to find it:
About these words:
This is the beginning of a poem that attempts to hold together despair and hope in God. Jesus screamed it in the minutes before his death. It is one of many parts of the Bible that give voice to the uncertainty about God that is the experience of every human.
And they said...
Athanasius, 296-373, Bishop of Alexandria:
The Psalms are like a mirror, in which one can see oneself and the movements of one’s own heart.
Graham Kendrick, writer of songs for Christian worship:
I remember talking to a jeweller who was trying to justify the cost of a pair of diamond stud ear rings. He said that for every carrot of diamond you have to shift twenty-five metric tonnes of rock and dirt. We are in the same business. I sometimes feel that to mine a gem of a song you just have to dig a lot of dirt.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834, poet:
I have found in the Bible words for my inmost thoughts, songs for my joy, utterance for my hidden griefs, and pleadings for my shame and feebleness. | <urn:uuid:b009fc7d-dcb8-46bd-8f6b-cebaecf4107b> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | https://christianity.org.uk/index.php/a/the-bible-songs-and-wise-sayings.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806842.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20171123142513-20171123162513-00702.warc.gz | en | 0.968334 | 751 | 3.125 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.6975598335266113,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Religion |
Air Toxics Program
The Air Toxics Program is specifically dedicated to the collection and dissemination of data about air toxics in Maine. Air toxics refers to a very broad group of air pollutants that, in sufficient concentration, could cause serious health effects to people breathing air that contains them. In order to help protect the health of Maine residents and preserve our environment, the Department of Environmental Protection has developed this web site to help enlighten Maine's public as to the hazards associated with air toxics.
Air Toxics Information
Air Toxics: An Overview is designed to answer basic questions about the nature of air toxics, their sources in Maine, and programs used to mitigate their impact upon the people of Maine.
Air Toxics Monitoring explains the Department of Environmental Protection's air toxics monitoring program around the state. This site contains both current and historical monitoring data.
Drycleaners the use of perchloroethylene is subject to both State and EPA rules. In addition, they are required to report to the Department annually.
NESHAP and MACT are acronymns for National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) and Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) standards which are used to control air toxics. This site provides compliance information to facilities and explains the approach used to regulate air toxics.
Maine Air Toxics Initiative is a facilitated stakeholder process aimed at identifying which air toxics are most responsible for creating health risks, the source of those pollutants, and creation of cost effective solutions to reduce the risk. Documents related to the MATI process and subcommittee activities are posted on this site.
Maine Hazardous Air Pollutants include the federally-established list of 188 compounds and chemical groups and, in Maine, other toxic chemicals such as dioxin, furan and PCBs. This site provides information for facilities about reporting emissions of hazardous air pollutants.
Air Toxics Fees are charged to licensed facilities that emit hazardous air pollutants.
Mercury - Maine is a leader in protecting its citizens from the dangers of mercury in its air and water. This site contains information about airborne mercury and links to other mercury-related sites in Maine and nationally.
How do I find out about air toxics near my home? - This site is the starting point for citizens interested in learning more about air pollution and air toxics in their state and county.
Maine Air Toxics Initiative: Melanie Loyzim (287-6104)
Mercury: Daniel Thoma (287-8672)
MACT and NESHAP: Lisa Higgins (287-7023)
Hazardous Air Pollutants and PBTs: Richard Greves (287-7030)
Greenhouse Gases: Melanie Loyzim (287-6104)
Mobile Source Emissions: Melanie Loyzim (287-6104) and Tammy Gould (287-7036)
Annual Reporting: Daniel Thoma (287-8672) and Paula Ripley (287-2419)
i-STEPS Software: Tammy Gould (287-7036)
Air Toxics Fees: Richard Greves (287-7030)
Licensing Fees:Melanie Loyzim (287-6104) and Paula Ripley (287-2419)
Regulatory and Program Information: Melanie Loyzim (287-6104) and Lisa Higgins (287-7032) | <urn:uuid:1217f224-ff81-404d-a0bf-e6bf58d736d1> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://www.state.me.us/dep/air/toxics/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1405997888236.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20140722025808-00083-ip-10-33-131-23.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.886838 | 721 | 2.9375 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.688424587249756,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Science & Tech. |
The past ten years have seen the spread of large-scale investments in infrastructure, resources and land across pastoral areas of eastern Africa.
In the past, these areas were insignificant to states in the region and large capital from beyond – at least, compared to the region’s agrarian highlands and Indian Ocean coast. But the recent rush to construct pipelines, roads, airports, wind farms, and plantations (to give a few examples) is changing that. It signals a new spatial politics that binds the pastoral margins ever closer to state power and global capital.
These various designs on the range to develop infrastructure, resources, and towns as new industrial centres and markets are often seen benignly. Officials in government and donor agencies tend to view these as part of wider commercialisation and growth dynamics – a sign that the margins are catching up with the rest of the region.
Some even go so far as to see them as a precursor to peacebuilding of restive frontiers, ushering in stability through diversification and the creation of new livelihoods outside of livestock-keeping.
What is certain is that large-scale investments will have far-reaching consequences for the future of pastoralism in the region. Many powerful actors are involved, from international corporations and financiers to states and local elites, but many important questions are raised too. Who benefits and who loses out? Do such large-scale projects really deliver poverty-reducing development, as is often claimed?
These questions are explored through a stream of five panels and 17 papers organised by researchers from the PASTRES (pastoralism, uncertainty, resilience) project and the Agricultural Policy Research in Africa Programme (APRA) at the upcoming African Studies Association of the UK (ASA) conference.
Big plans: big delivery?
Early debates on large-scale investments in pastoral areas turned on headline grabbing figures of the size of proposed projects, such as the $23 billion price tag for the Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia Transport Corridor project (LAPSSET), or the scale of proposed land takes for commercial agriculture, such as the 300,000 hectare land lease (since cancelled) to Indian Karuturi Global in Ethiopia’s Gambella Region.
A decade on, the large-scale investments have advanced in a more piecemeal way, as the challenges of implementation have mounted.
LAPSSET’s grand modernist vision has not materialised in a sudden multi-billion dollar bang but rather emerged incrementally, such as through the completion of the Isiolo-Moyale highway and the recent opening of Isiolo’s airport. Mass expropriations to establish large-scale commercial farms have by-and-large not come to pass, as only a small part of an agreed area is actually farmed.
how developments lead to conflict
But the focus on ‘opening up’ the frontier through new infrastructure and investments in land and resources has had other consequences.
Proposed infrastructure and investments have ignited intense competition for and revaluation of land as local elites, and other domestic and foreign investors, jostle to claim tracts of land.
In and around Isiolo, which is being reimagined as an industrial centre and gateway to northern Kenya, proposed investments have set in motion an economy of anticipation as diverse actors rush to collectively and individually lay exclusive claims to land at the town’s edges. A similar dynamic plays out in Lokichar – the base of operations for nascent oil development in Kenya’s Turkana County – where fencing has multiplied around town as area residents race to claim plots to develop housing, shops and guest houses.
Development of oil, wind and geo-thermal reserves has fuelled other competitions around ‘local content’ – the industry term for procuring goods and services from local suppliers and workers. The footprint of these developments, and the arrival of workers and contractors from outside of local areas, sit uncomfortably with the reality of work opportunities that are thinly spread and temporary.
Protests by residents and political leaders in south Turkana halted Kenya’s Early Oil Pilot Scheme in June barely days after it was launched to great fanfare by President Uhuru Kenyatta. Operations only resumed in late August after political concessions to address local demands for greater opportunities for work, contracts and tenders.
How local elites benefit from big projects
In this and other instances of protest, local elites have advanced their own interests by playing on the legitimate concerns of residents living adjacent to development sites concerning inclusion, rights and compensation.
Various local interlocutors have positioned themselves as key liaisons between investors and communities in and around sites of operational activity, including political aspirants, ward and sub-county administrators, brokers, elders, seers, and young people.
Local capital has been the greatest benefactor of investments in oil in Turkana, or wind in Kenya’s Marsabit County. Wealthier local elites – many with connections in politics or who have worked for international relief or church organisations – have constructed rental housing, guesthouses, bars and restaurants – mostly to serve visitors from other parts of Kenya coming in search of work and business, as well as the staff of larger sub-contracting companies.
Early signs of the future of pastoralism
Thus, while the impacts and influences of large-scale investments on pastoralism still unfold, the early signs can be seen. New territorialisations, local contestations and struggles, and enrichment of local elites are all part of an emerging picture of how the pastoral margins are transforming.
These examples also show how large-scale investments enmesh with local political and social relations. Designs on the range by planners and investors are being redrawn and in some cases extraverted by various local interests.
The future of pastoralism in eastern Africa is being negotiated now. How it will look is something that involves relationships at all levels, from the headquarters of multi-national investors, to the ministerial corridors in Nairobi and Addis, and all the way down to the elder’s tree, bars and cafes in the region’s growing small towns.
The future of pastoralism in the context of uncertainties generated by new investment will be the central theme of our discussions at the ASA conference in Birmingham. If you are at the conference, following the full stream and attend the panels (starting on Wednesday 12 September at 3.30 pm in Aston Webb – WG12 – see here, here, here and here for timings and details of the other four panels on Thursday 13. Note these are correct timings of the panels, but not necessarily the papers). If you are unable to be with us, watch this space for reports on the discussions, and notices of publications emerging. | <urn:uuid:91012654-673a-4abf-97b1-39891fb9bf7b> | CC-MAIN-2019-39 | https://steps-centre.org/blog/who-benefits-and-loses-from-large-developments-in-eastern-africas-rangelands/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-39/segments/1568514575513.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20190922114839-20190922140839-00017.warc.gz | en | 0.947625 | 1,380 | 2.546875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 3.028496026992798,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Politics |
Urban Demolition Project Uses Atomized Mist to Comply With Dust Regulations
Published: 9/12, 2019
Colorado Cleanup Corporation (CCC) used two BossTek atomized misting cannons to control dust created by the takedown of the University of Colorado’s 8-story Biomedical Research building and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, both located in the middle of a well-populated Denver neighborhood with zero air quality complaints.
Out of the 2.5 million ft2 (232,000 m2) of land containing 13 structures, only one had steel construction, and the rest were poured-in-place concrete. Thus, CCC employed several different types of machinery, from standard excavators to high reach excavators with hydraulic attachments. The entire system required CCC to remain compliant with the strict regulations of allowable particulate emissions and control wastewater runoff as mandated by the State of Colorado and further restrictions specified by the municipal permit.
“The two areas in the process that create the most dust are where the concrete breaks and the point of impact with the ground,” explains CCC sr. project manager Chris Formanek. “Large and small chunks of debris would fall into the safety zone, which kicked up a lot of dust. Also, every time the processor uses hydraulic pressure to break the concrete, it creates a plume of dust. This usually happens high up, so the particles can travel pretty far. We needed a method that effectively controlled dust in both of these areas.”
Formanek cited the BossTek DB-60 misting cannons as a key to the project’s success. Either mounted on a roadworthy mobile carriage or a heavy-duty metal skid, the DB-60 has a specialized open-ended barrel design with a powerful 25-hp (18.6-kW) industrial fan on one side and a misting ring on the other. A 10-hp (7.5-kW) booster pump sends pressurized water through a circular manifold fitted with atomizing nozzles. The nozzles fracture the water into an engineered mist that throws millions of tiny droplets in a 200-ft long (60-m) cone.
The mist can be directed at a specific activity or fanned out over a large area using the 359º oscillator, which allows the machine to cover approximately 125,000 ft2 (11,613 m2) in calm conditions. Powered by a 44.7-hp (60-kW) diesel generator set, the machine’s functions are controlled either via digital touch screen display mounted on the unit, by remote hand-held device or by PLC. This makes it easy to be adjusted by workers on the ground or even by excavator operators.
The DB-60 uses as little as 12 gallons/min (45.4 liters/min), depending on the water source, however, CCC had access to municipal hydrants, which provided more volume and pressure. Using a 1.5-in (38.1-mm) cam-and-groove quick disconnect female coupling for the hose, the unit only needs 10 PSI (0.69 bar) delivered to the booster pump. The low PSI requirement allows the machine to be far away from the source, while still providing effective airborne dust control and surface suppression.
With multiple buildings being demolished at once, the two units were shared across the site and placed at critical areas using only a pickup truck or small ground vehicle to move them. During the demolition project, the company received no complaints about fugitive dust caused by standard demolition operations. No dust migration was observed outside of the site boundary, and readings from both the perimeter monitoring machines and the workers’ personal dust monitors registered below required thresholds throughout the project.
“We were impressed by how effectively the DustBoss worked, even high up,” Formanek said. “The versatility is key to our operation, so with a few minutes of set up and adjustment, we essentially just turn it on and walk away.” | <urn:uuid:4d105e2a-a433-48ae-a026-89a073ee7be2> | CC-MAIN-2022-05 | https://pdamericas.com/news/view/urban-demolition-project-uses-atomized-mist-to-comply-with-dust-regul | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-05/segments/1642320301670.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20220120005715-20220120035715-00388.warc.gz | en | 0.935481 | 844 | 2.546875 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.581047534942627,
"reasoning_level": 3,
"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | Industrial |
The various types of research papers have been categorized depending on various factors related to it. The main criterion of categorization has been the objective of the research paper. Since all researches have a central aim, that objective becomes, most obviously, the simplest method of classification. An Opinion research paper is classified so due to its main objective of presenting your opinion on the given topic.
Opinion research papers are comparatively easier than research papers of argumentative nature. Here, you are only asked to give your opinion on a particular topic and justify it with evidence. The deference between an opinion and argument is that an argument has to be proved but an opinion just needs to be justified. It is absolutely important to understand this difference between an argument and an opinion in order to write a good research paper in any of these categories.
The reason why your opinion need not be proved as a fact is that opinions are not always correct. People have different perspectives about different topics. This works on the principle of ‘no two people think alike’. But you will also find people who opine on matters without any base, only to be a part of the conversation or to feel important. It is okay to give baseless opinions while in a casual conversation. But while writing an opinion research paper, you can’t just give an opinion and get away with it.
For a research paper of this genre to be effective and impressive, you should make your opinion sound worthy of consideration. Your research paper will be judged on how good your opinion is. For the purpose of justifying your opinion you will have to explain how you formed that opinion. An opinion which is vaguely formed is never too useful. But one that has come out of a detailed and thorough study of a topic will always be worth considering.
An opinion research paper gives you the benefit of doubt. Your opinion need not be proved right as long as you can convince your readers that your opinion can be a possible conclusion. The difficulty of writing such a research paper is due to the fact that it is very difficult to convince someone else that your opinion could be better than his own. And, always keep it in mind that those who are judging your paper could easily be of a completely different opinion.
Credible and strongly supporting sources help considerably in justifying your opinion. Since you cannot always provide substantial evidence for an opinion, try to find the best possible sources for your opinion research paper. With the support of good sources it will not be very difficult to project the worthiness of your opinion.
Without studying the topic well you will not be able to provide a genuine opinion on it. And without a good opinion, your opinion research paper will not be impressive. If you do not know how to present your opinion in an impressive way, you can consider getting a custom research paper done on the topic. | <urn:uuid:9381635b-080b-4838-9805-8337aaeecea3> | CC-MAIN-2018-51 | http://researchpaperstar.com/blog/research_paper/opinion-research-paper | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-51/segments/1544376825363.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20181214044833-20181214070333-00073.warc.gz | en | 0.963769 | 573 | 2.84375 | 3 | {
"raw_score": 2.455603837966919,
"reasoning_level": 2,
"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Education & Jobs |
Growing evidence suggests that movement abnormalities are a core feature of psychosis. One marker of movement abnormality, dyskinesia, is a result of impaired neuromodulation of dopamine in fronto-striatal pathways. The traditional methods for identifying movement abnormalities include observer-based reports and force stability gauges. The drawbacks of these methods are long training times for raters, experimenter bias, large site differences in instrumental apparatus, and suboptimal reliability. Taking these drawbacks into account has guided the development of better standardized and more efficient procedures to examine movement abnormalities through handwriting analysis software and tablet. Individuals at risk for psychosis showed significantly more dysfluent pen movements (a proximal measure for dyskinesia) in a handwriting task. Handwriting kinematics offers a great advance over previous methods of assessing dyskinesia, which could clearly be beneficial for understanding the etiology of psychosis.
19 Related JoVE Articles!
Fundus Photography as a Convenient Tool to Study Microvascular Responses to Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Epidemiological Studies
Institutions: Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Hasselt University, Hasselt University, Leuven University.
The microcirculation consists of blood vessels with diameters less than 150 µm. It makes up a large part of the circulatory system and plays an important role in maintaining cardiovascular health. The retina is a tissue that lines the interior of the eye and it is the only tissue that allows for a non-invasive analysis of the microvasculature. Nowadays, high-quality fundus images can be acquired using digital cameras. Retinal images can be collected in 5 min or less, even without dilatation of the pupils. This unobtrusive and fast procedure for visualizing the microcirculation is attractive to apply in epidemiological studies and to monitor cardiovascular health from early age up to old age.
Systemic diseases that affect the circulation can result in progressive morphological changes in the retinal vasculature. For example, changes in the vessel calibers of retinal arteries and veins have been associated with hypertension, atherosclerosis, and increased risk of stroke and myocardial infarction. The vessel widths are derived using image analysis software and the width of the six largest arteries and veins are summarized in the Central Retinal Arteriolar Equivalent (CRAE) and the Central Retinal Venular Equivalent (CRVE). The latter features have been shown useful to study the impact of modifiable lifestyle and environmental cardiovascular disease risk factors.
The procedures to acquire fundus images and the analysis steps to obtain CRAE and CRVE are described. Coefficients of variation of repeated measures of CRAE and CRVE are less than 2% and within-rater reliability is very high. Using a panel study, the rapid response of the retinal vessel calibers to short-term changes in particulate air pollution, a known risk factor for cardiovascular mortality and morbidity, is reported. In conclusion, retinal imaging is proposed as a convenient and instrumental tool for epidemiological studies to study microvascular responses to cardiovascular disease risk factors.
Medicine, Issue 92, retina, microvasculature, image analysis, Central Retinal Arteriolar Equivalent, Central Retinal Venular Equivalent, air pollution, particulate matter, black carbon
Modeling Stroke in Mice: Permanent Coagulation of the Distal Middle Cerebral Artery
Institutions: University Hospital Munich, Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy), University Heidelberg, Charing Cross Hospital.
Stroke is the third most common cause of death and a main cause of acquired adult disability in developed countries. Only very limited therapeutical options are available for a small proportion of stroke patients in the acute phase. Current research is intensively searching for novel therapeutic strategies and is increasingly focusing on the sub-acute and chronic phase after stroke because more patients might be eligible for therapeutic interventions in a prolonged time window. These delayed mechanisms include important pathophysiological pathways such as post-stroke inflammation, angiogenesis, neuronal plasticity and regeneration. In order to analyze these mechanisms and to subsequently evaluate novel drug targets, experimental stroke models with clinical relevance, low mortality and high reproducibility are sought after. Moreover, mice are the smallest mammals in which a focal stroke lesion can be induced and for which a broad spectrum of transgenic models are available. Therefore, we describe here the mouse model of transcranial, permanent coagulation of the middle cerebral artery via electrocoagulation distal of the lenticulostriatal arteries, the so-called “coagulation model”. The resulting infarct in this model is located mainly in the cortex; the relative infarct volume in relation to brain size corresponds to the majority of human strokes. Moreover, the model fulfills the above-mentioned criteria of reproducibility and low mortality. In this video we demonstrate the surgical methods of stroke induction in the “coagulation model” and report histological and functional analysis tools.
Medicine, Issue 89, stroke, brain ischemia, animal model, middle cerebral artery, electrocoagulation
Driving Simulation in the Clinic: Testing Visual Exploratory Behavior in Daily Life Activities in Patients with Visual Field Defects
Institutions: Universitätsmedizin Charité, Universitätsmedizin Charité, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.
Patients suffering from homonymous hemianopia after infarction of the posterior cerebral artery (PCA) report different degrees of constraint in daily life, despite similar visual deficits. We assume this could be due to variable development of compensatory strategies such as altered visual scanning behavior. Scanning compensatory therapy (SCT) is studied as part of the visual training after infarction next to vision restoration therapy. SCT consists of learning to make larger eye movements into the blind field enlarging the visual field of search, which has been proven to be the most useful strategy1
, not only in natural search tasks but also in mastering daily life activities2
. Nevertheless, in clinical routine it is difficult to identify individual levels and training effects of compensatory behavior, since it requires measurement of eye movements in a head unrestrained condition. Studies demonstrated that unrestrained head movements alter the visual exploratory behavior compared to a head-restrained laboratory condition3
. Martin et al.4
and Hayhoe et al.5
showed that behavior demonstrated in a laboratory setting cannot be assigned easily to a natural condition. Hence, our goal was to develop a study set-up which uncovers different compensatory oculomotor strategies quickly in a realistic testing situation: Patients are tested in the clinical environment in a driving simulator. SILAB software (Wuerzburg Institute for Traffic Sciences GmbH (WIVW)
) was used to program driving scenarios of varying complexity and recording the driver's performance. The software was combined with a head mounted infrared video pupil tracker, recording head- and eye-movements (EyeSeeCam, University of Munich Hospital, Clinical Neurosciences).
The positioning of the patient in the driving simulator and the positioning, adjustment and calibration of the camera is demonstrated. Typical performances of a patient with and without compensatory strategy and a healthy control are illustrated in this pilot study. Different oculomotor behaviors (frequency and amplitude of eye- and head-movements) are evaluated very quickly during the drive itself by dynamic overlay pictures indicating where the subjects gaze is located on the screen, and by analyzing the data. Compensatory gaze behavior in a patient leads to a driving performance comparable to a healthy control, while the performance of a patient without compensatory behavior is significantly worse. The data of eye- and head-movement-behavior as well as driving performance are discussed with respect to different oculomotor strategies and in a broader context with respect to possible training effects throughout the testing session and implications on rehabilitation potential.
Medicine, Issue 67, Neuroscience, Physiology, Anatomy, Ophthalmology, compensatory oculomotor behavior, driving simulation, eye movements, homonymous hemianopia, stroke, visual field defects, visual field enlargement
Utilizing Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to Improve Language Function in Stroke Patients with Chronic Non-fluent Aphasia
Institutions: University of Pennsylvania , University of Pennsylvania , Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been shown to significantly improve language function in patients with non-fluent aphasia1
. In this experiment, we demonstrate the administration of low-frequency repetitive TMS (rTMS) to an optimal stimulation site in the right hemisphere in patients with chronic non-fluent aphasia. A battery of standardized language measures is administered in order to assess baseline performance. Patients are subsequently randomized to either receive real rTMS or initial sham stimulation. Patients in the real stimulation undergo a site-finding phase, comprised of a series of six rTMS sessions administered over five days; stimulation is delivered to a different site in the right frontal lobe during each of these sessions. Each site-finding session consists of 600 pulses of 1 Hz rTMS, preceded and followed by a picture-naming task. By comparing the degree of transient change in naming ability elicited by stimulation of candidate sites, we are able to locate the area of optimal response for each individual patient. We then administer rTMS to this site during the treatment phase. During treatment, patients undergo a total of ten days of stimulation over the span of two weeks; each session is comprised of 20 min of 1 Hz rTMS delivered at 90% resting motor threshold. Stimulation is paired with an fMRI-naming task on the first and last days of treatment. After the treatment phase is complete, the language battery obtained at baseline is repeated two and six months following stimulation in order to identify rTMS-induced changes in performance. The fMRI-naming task is also repeated two and six months following treatment. Patients who are randomized to the sham arm of the study undergo sham site-finding, sham treatment, fMRI-naming studies, and repeat language testing two months after completing sham treatment. Sham patients then cross over into the real stimulation arm, completing real site-finding, real treatment, fMRI, and two- and six-month post-stimulation language testing.
Medicine, Issue 77, Neurobiology, Neuroscience, Anatomy, Physiology, Biomedical Engineering, Molecular Biology, Neurology, Stroke, Aphasia, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, TMS, language, neurorehabilitation, optimal site-finding, functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI, brain, stimulation, imaging, clinical techniques, clinical applications
The Application Of Permanent Middle Cerebral Artery Ligation in the Mouse
Institutions: University of Rochester, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Rochester.
Focal cerebral ischemia is among the most common type of stroke seen in patients. Due to the clinical significance there has been a prolonged effort to develop suitable animal models to study the events that unfold during ischemic insult. These techniques include transient or permanent, focal or global ischemia models using many different animal models, with the most common being rodents.
The permanent MCA ligation method which is also referred as pMCAo in the literature is used extensively as a focal ischemia model in rodents 1-6
. This method was originally described for rats by Tamura et al. in 1981 7
. In this protocol a craniotomy was used to access the MCA and the proximal regions were occluded by electrocoagulation. The infarcts involve mostly cortical and sometimes striatal regions depending on the location of the occlusion. This technique is now well established and used in many laboratories 8-13
. Early use of this technique led to the definition and description of “infarct core” and “penumbra” 14-16
, and it is often used to evaluate potential neuroprotective compounds 10, 12, 13, 17
. Although the initial studies were performed in rats, permanent MCA ligation has been used successfully in mice with slight modifications 18-20
This model yields reproducible infarcts and increased post-survival rates. Approximately 80% of the ischemic strokes in humans happen in the MCA area 21
and thus this is a very relevant model for stroke studies. Currently, there is a paucity of effective treatments available to stroke patients, and thus there is a need for good models to test potential pharmacological compounds and evaluate physiological outcomes. This method can also be used for studying intracellular hypoxia response mechanisms in vivo
Here, we present the MCA ligation surgery in a C57/BL6 mouse. We describe the pre-surgical preparation, MCA ligation surgery and 2,3,5 Triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining for quantification of infarct volumes.
Medicine, Issue 53, brain, stroke, mouse, middle cerebral artery ligation
Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale
Institutions: Brown University, Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, University of Massachusetts, Boston.
There has been a long-standing interest in the assessment of the neurobehavioral integrity of the newborn infant. The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS) was developed as an assessment for the at-risk infant. These are infants who are at increased risk for poor developmental outcome because of insults during prenatal development, such as substance exposure or prematurity or factors such as poverty, poor nutrition or lack of prenatal care that can have adverse effects on the intrauterine environment and affect the developing fetus. The NNNS assesses the full range of infant neurobehavioral performance including neurological integrity, behavioral functioning, and signs of stress/abstinence. The NNNS is a noninvasive neonatal assessment tool with demonstrated validity as a predictor, not only of medical outcomes such as cerebral palsy diagnosis, neurological abnormalities, and diseases with risks to the brain, but also of developmental outcomes such as mental and motor functioning, behavior problems, school readiness, and IQ. The NNNS can identify infants at high risk for abnormal developmental outcome and is an important clinical tool that enables medical researchers and health practitioners to identify these infants and develop intervention programs to optimize the development of these infants as early as possible. The video shows the NNNS procedures, shows examples of normal and abnormal performance and the various clinical populations in which the exam can be used.
Behavior, Issue 90, NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale, NNNS, High risk infant, Assessment, Evaluation, Prediction, Long term outcome
A Research Method For Detecting Transient Myocardial Ischemia In Patients With Suspected Acute Coronary Syndrome Using Continuous ST-segment Analysis
Institutions: University of Nevada, Reno, St. Joseph's Medical Center, University of Rochester Medical Center .
Each year, an estimated 785,000 Americans will have a new coronary attack, or acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The pathophysiology of ACS involves rupture of an atherosclerotic plaque; hence, treatment is aimed at plaque stabilization in order to prevent cellular death. However, there is considerable debate among clinicians, about which treatment pathway is best: early invasive using percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI/stent) when indicated or a conservative approach (i.e.
, medication only with PCI/stent if recurrent symptoms occur).
There are three types of ACS: ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), non-ST elevation MI (NSTEMI), and unstable angina (UA). Among the three types, NSTEMI/UA is nearly four times as common as STEMI. Treatment decisions for NSTEMI/UA are based largely on symptoms and resting or exercise electrocardiograms (ECG). However, because of the dynamic and unpredictable nature of the atherosclerotic plaque, these methods often under detect myocardial ischemia because symptoms are unreliable, and/or continuous ECG monitoring was not utilized.
Continuous 12-lead ECG monitoring, which is both inexpensive and non-invasive, can identify transient episodes of myocardial ischemia, a precursor to MI, even when asymptomatic. However, continuous 12-lead ECG monitoring is not usual hospital practice; rather, only two leads are typically monitored. Information obtained with 12-lead ECG monitoring might provide useful information for deciding the best ACS treatment.
Therefore, using 12-lead ECG monitoring, the COMPARE Study (electroC
n of ischeM
sive to phaR
atment) was designed to assess the frequency and clinical consequences of transient myocardial ischemia, in patients with NSTEMI/UA treated with either early invasive PCI/stent or those managed conservatively (medications or PCI/stent following recurrent symptoms). The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the methodology used in the COMPARE Study.
Permission to proceed with this study was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of the hospital and the university. Research nurses identify hospitalized patients from the emergency department and telemetry unit with suspected ACS. Once consented, a 12-lead ECG Holter monitor is applied, and remains in place during the patient's entire hospital stay. Patients are also maintained on the routine bedside ECG monitoring system per hospital protocol. Off-line ECG analysis is done using sophisticated software and careful human oversight.
Medicine, Issue 70, Anatomy, Physiology, Cardiology, Myocardial Ischemia, Cardiovascular Diseases, Health Occupations, Health Care, transient myocardial ischemia, Acute Coronary Syndrome, electrocardiogram, ST-segment monitoring, Holter monitoring, research methodology
A Restriction Enzyme Based Cloning Method to Assess the In vitro Replication Capacity of HIV-1 Subtype C Gag-MJ4 Chimeric Viruses
Institutions: Emory University, Emory University.
The protective effect of many HLA class I alleles on HIV-1 pathogenesis and disease progression is, in part, attributed to their ability to target conserved portions of the HIV-1 genome that escape with difficulty. Sequence changes attributed to cellular immune pressure arise across the genome during infection, and if found within conserved regions of the genome such as Gag, can affect the ability of the virus to replicate in vitro
. Transmission of HLA-linked polymorphisms in Gag to HLA-mismatched recipients has been associated with reduced set point viral loads. We hypothesized this may be due to a reduced replication capacity of the virus. Here we present a novel method for assessing the in vitro
replication of HIV-1 as influenced by the gag
gene isolated from acute time points from subtype C infected Zambians. This method uses restriction enzyme based cloning to insert the gag
gene into a common subtype C HIV-1 proviral backbone, MJ4. This makes it more appropriate to the study of subtype C sequences than previous recombination based methods that have assessed the in vitro
replication of chronically derived gag-pro
sequences. Nevertheless, the protocol could be readily modified for studies of viruses from other subtypes. Moreover, this protocol details a robust and reproducible method for assessing the replication capacity of the Gag-MJ4 chimeric viruses on a CEM-based T cell line. This method was utilized for the study of Gag-MJ4 chimeric viruses derived from 149 subtype C acutely infected Zambians, and has allowed for the identification of residues in Gag that affect replication. More importantly, the implementation of this technique has facilitated a deeper understanding of how viral replication defines parameters of early HIV-1 pathogenesis such as set point viral load and longitudinal CD4+ T cell decline.
Infectious Diseases, Issue 90, HIV-1, Gag, viral replication, replication capacity, viral fitness, MJ4, CEM, GXR25
Clinical Assessment of Spatiotemporal Gait Parameters in Patients and Older Adults
Institutions: Schulthess Clinic.
Spatial and temporal characteristics of human walking are frequently evaluated to identify possible gait impairments, mainly in orthopedic and neurological patients1-4
, but also in healthy older adults5,6
. The quantitative gait analysis described in this protocol is performed with a recently-introduced photoelectric system (see Materials table) which has the potential to be used in the clinic because it is portable, easy to set up (no subject preparation is required before a test), and does not require maintenance and sensor calibration. The photoelectric system consists of series of high-density floor-based photoelectric cells with light-emitting and light-receiving diodes that are placed parallel to each other to create a corridor, and are oriented perpendicular to the line of progression7
. The system simply detects interruptions in light signal, for instance due to the presence of feet within the recording area. Temporal gait parameters and 1D spatial coordinates of consecutive steps are subsequently calculated to provide common gait parameters such as step length, single limb support and walking velocity8
, whose validity against a criterion instrument has recently been demonstrated7,9
. The measurement procedures are very straightforward; a single patient can be tested in less than 5 min and a comprehensive report can be generated in less than 1 min.
Medicine, Issue 93, gait analysis, walking, floor-based photocells, spatiotemporal, elderly, orthopedic patients, neurological patients
Development of a Virtual Reality Assessment of Everyday Living Skills
Institutions: NeuroCog Trials, Inc., Duke-NUS Graduate Medical Center, Duke University Medical Center, Fox Evaluation and Consulting, PLLC, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Cognitive impairments affect the majority of patients with schizophrenia and these impairments predict poor long term psychosocial outcomes. Treatment studies aimed at cognitive impairment in patients with schizophrenia not only require demonstration of improvements on cognitive tests, but also evidence that any cognitive changes lead to clinically meaningful improvements. Measures of “functional capacity” index the extent to which individuals have the potential to perform skills required for real world functioning. Current data do not support the recommendation of any single instrument for measurement of functional capacity. The Virtual Reality Functional Capacity Assessment Tool (VRFCAT) is a novel, interactive gaming based measure of functional capacity that uses a realistic simulated environment to recreate routine activities of daily living. Studies are currently underway to evaluate and establish the VRFCAT’s sensitivity, reliability, validity, and practicality. This new measure of functional capacity is practical, relevant, easy to use, and has several features that improve validity and sensitivity of measurement of function in clinical trials of patients with CNS disorders.
Behavior, Issue 86, Virtual Reality, Cognitive Assessment, Functional Capacity, Computer Based Assessment, Schizophrenia, Neuropsychology, Aging, Dementia
Permanent Cerebral Vessel Occlusion via Double Ligature and Transection
Institutions: University of California, Irvine, University of California, Irvine, University of California, Irvine, University of California, Irvine.
Stroke is a leading cause of death, disability, and socioeconomic loss worldwide. The majority of all strokes result from an interruption in blood flow (ischemia) 1
. Middle cerebral artery (MCA) delivers a great majority of blood to the lateral surface of the cortex 2
, is the most common site of human stroke 3
, and ischemia within its territory can result in extensive dysfunction or death 1,4,5
. Survivors of ischemic stroke often suffer loss or disruption of motor capabilities, sensory deficits, and infarct. In an effort to capture these key characteristics of stroke, and thereby develop effective treatment, a great deal of emphasis is placed upon animal models of ischemia in MCA.
Here we present a method of permanently occluding a cortical surface blood vessel. We will present this method using an example of a relevant vessel occlusion that models the most common type, location, and outcome of human stroke, permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (pMCAO). In this model, we surgically expose MCA in the adult rat and subsequently occlude via double ligature and transection of the vessel. This pMCAO blocks the proximal cortical branch of MCA, causing ischemia in all of MCA cortical territory, a large portion of the cortex. This method of occlusion can also be used to occlude more distal portions of cortical vessels in order to achieve more focal ischemia targeting a smaller region of cortex. The primary disadvantages of pMCAO are that the surgical procedure is somewhat invasive as a small craniotomy is required to access MCA, though this results in minimal tissue damage. The primary advantages of this model, however, are: the site of occlusion is well defined, the degree of blood flow reduction is consistent, functional and neurological impairment occurs rapidly, infarct size is consistent, and the high rate of survival allows for long-term chronic assessment.
Medicine, Issue 77, Biomedical Engineering, Anatomy, Physiology, Neurobiology, Neuroscience, Behavior, Surgery, Therapeutics, Surgical Procedures, Operative, Investigative Techniques, Life Sciences (General), Behavioral Sciences, Animal models, Stroke, ischemia, imaging, middle cerebral artery, vessel occlusion, rodent model, surgical techniques, animal model
Tumor Treating Field Therapy in Combination with Bevacizumab for the Treatment of Recurrent Glioblastoma
Institutions: Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.
A novel device that employs TTF therapy has recently been developed and is currently in use for the treatment of recurrent glioblastoma (rGBM). It was FDA approved in April 2011 for the treatment of patients 22 years or older with rGBM. The device delivers alternating electric fields and is programmed to ensure maximal tumor cell kill1
Glioblastoma is the most common type of glioma and has an estimated incidence of approximately 10,000 new cases per year in the United States alone2
. This tumor is particularly resistant to treatment and is uniformly fatal especially in the recurrent setting3-5
. Prior to the approval of the TTF System, the only FDA approved treatment for rGBM was bevacizumab6
. Bevacizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody targeted against the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) protein that drives tumor angiogenesis7
. By blocking the VEGF pathway, bevacizumab can result in a significant radiographic response (pseudoresponse), improve progression free survival and reduce corticosteroid requirements in rGBM patients8,9
. Bevacizumab however failed to prolong overall survival in a recent phase III trial26
. A pivotal phase III trial (EF-11) demonstrated comparable overall survival between physicians’ choice chemotherapy and TTF Therapy but better quality of life were observed in the TTF arm10
There is currently an unmet need to develop novel approaches designed to prolong overall survival and/or improve quality of life in this unfortunate patient population. One appealing approach would be to combine the two currently approved treatment modalities namely bevacizumab and TTF Therapy. These two treatments are currently approved as monotherapy11,12
, but their combination has never been evaluated in a clinical trial. We have developed an approach for combining those two treatment modalities and treated 2 rGBM patients. Here we describe a detailed methodology outlining this novel treatment protocol and present representative data from one of the treated patients.
Medicine, Issue 92, Tumor Treating Fields, TTF System, TTF Therapy, Recurrent Glioblastoma, Bevacizumab, Brain Tumor
Computerized Dynamic Posturography for Postural Control Assessment in Patients with Intermittent Claudication
Institutions: University of Sydney, University of Hull, Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals, Addenbrookes Hospital.
Computerized dynamic posturography with the EquiTest is an objective technique for measuring postural strategies under challenging static and dynamic conditions. As part of a diagnostic assessment, the early detection of postural deficits is important so that appropriate and targeted interventions can be prescribed. The Sensory Organization Test (SOT) on the EquiTest determines an individual's use of the sensory systems (somatosensory, visual, and vestibular) that are responsible for postural control. Somatosensory and visual input are altered by the calibrated sway-referenced support surface and visual surround, which move in the anterior-posterior direction in response to the individual's postural sway. This creates a conflicting sensory experience. The Motor Control Test (MCT) challenges postural control by creating unexpected postural disturbances in the form of backwards and forwards translations. The translations are graded in magnitude and the time to recover from the perturbation is computed.
Intermittent claudication, the most common symptom of peripheral arterial disease, is characterized by a cramping pain in the lower limbs and caused by muscle ischemia secondary to reduced blood flow to working muscles during physical exertion. Claudicants often display poor balance, making them susceptible to falls and activity avoidance. The Ankle Brachial Pressure Index (ABPI) is a noninvasive method for indicating the presence of peripheral arterial disease and intermittent claudication, a common symptom in the lower extremities. ABPI is measured as the highest systolic pressure from either the dorsalis pedis or posterior tibial artery divided by the highest brachial artery systolic pressure from either arm. This paper will focus on the use of computerized dynamic posturography in the assessment of balance in claudicants.
Medicine, Issue 82, Posture, Computerized dynamic posturography, Ankle brachial pressure index, Peripheral arterial disease, Intermittent claudication, Balance, Posture, EquiTest, Sensory Organization Test, Motor Control Test
Prehospital Thrombolysis: A Manual from Berlin
Institutions: Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg - Eppendorf, Berliner Feuerwehr, STEMO-Consortium.
In acute ischemic stroke, time from symptom onset to intervention is a decisive prognostic factor. In order to reduce this time, prehospital thrombolysis at the emergency site would be preferable. However, apart from neurological expertise and laboratory investigations a computed tomography (CT) scan is necessary to exclude hemorrhagic stroke prior to thrombolysis. Therefore, a specialized ambulance equipped with a CT scanner and point-of-care laboratory was designed and constructed. Further, a new stroke identifying interview algorithm was developed and implemented in the Berlin emergency medical services. Since February 2011 the identification of suspected stroke in the dispatch center of the Berlin Fire Brigade prompts the deployment of this ambulance, a stroke emergency mobile (STEMO). On arrival, a neurologist, experienced in stroke care and with additional training in emergency medicine, takes a neurological examination. If stroke is suspected a CT scan excludes intracranial hemorrhage. The CT-scans are telemetrically transmitted to the neuroradiologist on-call. If coagulation status of the patient is normal and patient's medical history reveals no contraindication, prehospital thrombolysis is applied according to current guidelines (intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator, iv rtPA, alteplase, Actilyse).
Thereafter patients are transported to the nearest hospital with a certified stroke unit for further treatment and assessment of strokeaetiology. After a pilot-phase, weeks were randomized into blocks either with or without STEMO care. Primary end-point of this study is time from alarm to the initiation of thrombolysis. We hypothesized that alarm-to-treatment time can be reduced by at least 20 min compared to regular care.
Medicine, Issue 81, Telemedicine, Emergency Medical Services, Stroke, Tomography, X-Ray Computed, Emergency Treatment,[stroke, thrombolysis, prehospital, emergency medical services, ambulance
The Use of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy as a Tool for the Measurement of Bi-hemispheric Transcranial Electric Stimulation Effects on Primary Motor Cortex Metabolism
Institutions: University of Montréal, McGill University, University of Minnesota.
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a neuromodulation technique that has been increasingly used over the past decade in the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders such as stroke and depression. Yet, the mechanisms underlying its ability to modulate brain excitability to improve clinical symptoms remains poorly understood 33
. To help improve this understanding, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1
H-MRS) can be used as it allows the in vivo
quantification of brain metabolites such as γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate in a region-specific manner 41
. In fact, a recent study demonstrated that 1
H-MRS is indeed a powerful means to better understand the effects of tDCS on neurotransmitter concentration 34
. This article aims to describe the complete protocol for combining tDCS (NeuroConn MR compatible stimulator) with 1
H-MRS at 3 T using a MEGA-PRESS sequence. We will describe the impact of a protocol that has shown great promise for the treatment of motor dysfunctions after stroke, which consists of bilateral stimulation of primary motor cortices 27,30,31
. Methodological factors to consider and possible modifications to the protocol are also discussed.
Neuroscience, Issue 93, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, transcranial direct current stimulation, primary motor cortex, GABA, glutamate, stroke
Lesion Explorer: A Video-guided, Standardized Protocol for Accurate and Reliable MRI-derived Volumetrics in Alzheimer's Disease and Normal Elderly
Institutions: Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto.
Obtaining in vivo
human brain tissue volumetrics from MRI is often complicated by various technical and biological issues. These challenges are exacerbated when significant brain atrophy and age-related white matter changes (e.g.
Leukoaraiosis) are present. Lesion Explorer (LE) is an accurate and reliable neuroimaging pipeline specifically developed to address such issues commonly observed on MRI of Alzheimer's disease and normal elderly. The pipeline is a complex set of semi-automatic procedures which has been previously validated in a series of internal and external reliability tests1,2
. However, LE's accuracy and reliability is highly dependent on properly trained manual operators to execute commands, identify distinct anatomical landmarks, and manually edit/verify various computer-generated segmentation outputs.
LE can be divided into 3 main components, each requiring a set of commands and manual operations: 1) Brain-Sizer, 2) SABRE, and 3) Lesion-Seg. Brain-Sizer's manual operations involve editing of the automatic skull-stripped total intracranial vault (TIV) extraction mask, designation of ventricular cerebrospinal fluid (vCSF), and removal of subtentorial structures. The SABRE component requires checking of image alignment along the anterior and posterior commissure (ACPC) plane, and identification of several anatomical landmarks required for regional parcellation. Finally, the Lesion-Seg component involves manual checking of the automatic lesion segmentation of subcortical hyperintensities (SH) for false positive errors.
While on-site training of the LE pipeline is preferable, readily available visual teaching tools with interactive training images are a viable alternative. Developed to ensure a high degree of accuracy and reliability, the following is a step-by-step, video-guided, standardized protocol for LE's manual procedures.
Medicine, Issue 86, Brain, Vascular Diseases, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Neuroimaging, Alzheimer Disease, Aging, Neuroanatomy, brain extraction, ventricles, white matter hyperintensities, cerebrovascular disease, Alzheimer disease
Measuring Frailty in HIV-infected Individuals. Identification of Frail Patients is the First Step to Amelioration and Reversal of Frailty
Institutions: University of Arizona, University of Arizona.
A simple, validated protocol consisting of a battery of tests is available to identify elderly patients with frailty syndrome. This syndrome of decreased reserve and resistance to stressors increases in incidence with increasing age. In the elderly, frailty may pursue a step-wise loss of function from non-frail to pre-frail to frail. We studied frailty in HIV-infected patients and found that ~20% are frail using the Fried phenotype using stringent criteria developed for the elderly1,2
. In HIV infection the syndrome occurs at a younger age.
HIV patients were checked for 1) unintentional weight loss; 2) slowness as determined by walking speed; 3) weakness as measured by a grip dynamometer; 4) exhaustion by responses to a depression scale; and 5) low physical activity was determined by assessing kilocalories expended in a week's time. Pre-frailty was present with any two of five criteria and frailty was present if any three of the five criteria were abnormal.
The tests take approximately 10-15 min to complete and they can be performed by medical assistants during routine clinic visits. Test results are scored by referring to standard tables. Understanding which of the five components contribute to frailty in an individual patient can allow the clinician to address relevant underlying problems, many of which are not evident in routine HIV clinic visits.
Medicine, Issue 77, Infection, Virology, Infectious Diseases, Anatomy, Physiology, Molecular Biology, Biomedical Engineering, Retroviridae Infections, Body Weight Changes, Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures, Physical Examination, Muscle Strength, Behavior, Virus Diseases, Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms, Diagnosis, Musculoskeletal and Neural Physiological Phenomena, HIV, HIV-1, AIDS, Frailty, Depression, Weight Loss, Weakness, Slowness, Exhaustion, Aging, clinical techniques
The Goeckerman Regimen for the Treatment of Moderate to Severe Psoriasis
Institutions: University of Southern California, University of California, San Francisco , University of California Irvine School of Medicine, University of Arizona College of Medicine, Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Psoriasis is a chronic, immune-mediated inflammatory skin disease affecting approximately 2-3% of the population. The Goeckerman regimen consists of exposure to ultraviolet B (UVB) light and application of crude coal tar (CCT). Goeckerman therapy is extremely effective and relatively safe for the treatment of psoriasis and for improving a patient's quality of life. In the following article, we present our protocol for the Goeckerman therapy that is utilized specifically at the University of California, San Francisco. This protocol details the preparation of supplies, administration of phototherapy and application of topical tar. This protocol also describes how to assess the patient daily, monitor for adverse effects (including pruritus and burning), and adjust the treatment based on the patient's response. Though it is one of the oldest therapies available for psoriasis, there is an absence of any published videos demonstrating the process in detail. The video is beneficial for healthcare providers who want to administer the therapy, for trainees who want to learn more about the process, and for prospective patients who want to undergo treatment for their cutaneous disease.
Medicine, Issue 77, Infection, Biomedical Engineering, Anatomy, Physiology, Immunology, Dermatology, Skin, Dermis, Epidermis, Skin Diseases, Skin Diseases, Eczematous, Goeckerman, Crude Coal Tar, phototherapy, psoriasis, Eczema, Goeckerman regimen, clinical techniques
Using Visual and Narrative Methods to Achieve Fair Process in Clinical Care
Institutions: Brandeis University, Brandeis University.
The Institute of Medicine has targeted patient-centeredness as an important area of quality improvement. A major dimension of patient-centeredness is respect for patient's values, preferences, and expressed needs. Yet specific approaches to gaining this understanding and translating it to quality care in the clinical setting are lacking. From a patient perspective quality is not a simple concept but is best understood in terms of five dimensions: technical outcomes; decision-making efficiency; amenities and convenience; information and emotional support; and overall patient satisfaction. Failure to consider quality from this five-pronged perspective results in a focus on medical outcomes, without considering the processes central to quality from the patient's perspective and vital to achieving good outcomes. In this paper, we argue for applying the concept of fair process in clinical settings. Fair process involves using a collaborative approach to exploring diagnostic issues and treatments with patients, explaining the rationale for decisions, setting expectations about roles and responsibilities, and implementing a core plan and ongoing evaluation. Fair process opens the door to bringing patient expertise into the clinical setting and the work of developing health care goals and strategies. This paper provides a step by step illustration of an innovative visual approach, called photovoice or photo-elicitation, to achieve fair process in clinical work with acquired brain injury survivors and others living with chronic health conditions. Applying this visual tool and methodology in the clinical setting will enhance patient-provider communication; engage patients as partners in identifying challenges, strengths, goals, and strategies; and support evaluation of progress over time. Asking patients to bring visuals of their lives into the clinical interaction can help to illuminate gaps in clinical knowledge, forge better therapeutic relationships with patients living with chronic conditions such as brain injury, and identify patient-centered goals and possibilities for healing. The process illustrated here can be used by clinicians, (primary care physicians, rehabilitation therapists, neurologists, neuropsychologists, psychologists, and others) working with people living with chronic conditions such as acquired brain injury, mental illness, physical disabilities, HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, or post-traumatic stress, and by leaders of support groups for the types of patients described above and their family members or caregivers.
Medicine, Issue 48, person-centered care, participatory visual methods, photovoice, photo-elicitation, narrative medicine, acquired brain injury, disability, rehabilitation, palliative care | <urn:uuid:b939489a-e388-4818-a74c-dc0a69b35fc5> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | https://www.jove.com/visualize/abstract/23626726/population-based-5-year-follow-up-study-taiwan-dementia-risk | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934806317.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20171121055145-20171121075145-00276.warc.gz | en | 0.906393 | 8,953 | 2.640625 | 3 | {
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} | Health |
A Sneak Peek at Some of Our Newest Humanities to Go Programs
If you haven’t yet seen our new Humanities to Go Catalog, here's a preview of some of the enticing new programs that will pique your curiosity! Watch for these and other new titles in our upcoming print and e-versions of the Calendar.
Forgotten Women of the First World War
One hundred years ago, a full generation before Rosie the Riveter, American women rolled up their sleeves and entered war industries where they had never been welcome before. They ran powerful machinery, learned new skills, and faced the sullen hostility of the men in the shops. In this illustrated lecture, historian Carrie Brown explores how these women helped shape the work that their more famous daughters would do in the next World War.
From Mickey to Magoo:
The Golden Age of American Animation
From the 1920s to the 1960s, theatergoers could anticipate a cartoon before each feature film. From Mickey Mouse to Donald Duck, Popeye, Betty Boop, Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry, Casper the Friendly Ghost, and Mr. Magoo, the beloved cartoon “stars” were every bit as memorable as the Hollywood actors who shared the marquee. Many of these cartoons were redistributed as Saturday morning shows for kids of the next generation. Margo Burns offers an introduction to the people and studios that made these films and the changing technology, aesthetics, music, politics, and economics behind them.
Television: The Art and Ethics of Manipulation
John Gfroerer explores the power of television as a communication medium and examines the artistic techniques used to persuade, induce, and entice us, Gfroerer considers the extent to which television teaches or simply tantalizes us. Are ethical boundaries crossed by the use of these techniques, and to what extent as media consumers should we care?
New Hampshire Roads Taken – Or Not
Following World War II, New Hampshire embarked on an extensive program of highway construction and improvements to accommodate explosive growth in passenger vehicles and commercial traffic. Hundreds of millions in federal, state, and local tax dollars would be expended on this initiative over the second half of the 20th century and road construction would become an enduring part of the state’s economy. In this program, Steve Taylor reviews some of our most significant highway choices in the 20th century, and discusses the economic, social, and cultural changes that followed decisions to build or not to build.
God, the Early Years: A Brief History of God in the Rise of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Do the three major monotheistic religions worship the same deity? Nicole Ruane traces the rise of the deity who comes to be known as The Lord, God the Father, and Allah from his earliest form as a young god in the area of Syria-Palestine, later merged with the father deity of the local pantheon known as El, and on across the Middle East and through the centuries. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam spread knowledge of this deity, in his various forms, throughout the world.
International Voices in Antebellum Banjo Music
Through the lens of early banjo music, the Hardtacks (Marek Bennett and Woody Pringle) deliver an overview of global politics prior to the American Civil War. Between 1820 and 1860, the banjo transformed from a slave instrument found only on Southern plantations to an international pop phenomenon: songs and playing techniques carried far and wide in the emerging global economy, from the streets of New York’s Five Points slum to the gold fields of California and the elite drawing rooms of London, from the battlegrounds of Nicaragua to official diplomatic receptions in Japan. How did this African-derived, slave-borne folk instrument come to symbolize all the best and worst of a young United States?
For details and dates for all Humanities to Go programs, please click HERE. | <urn:uuid:9ec97367-5f86-4d89-bff5-98dc84322ca1> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | https://www.nhhc.org/news/sneak-peek-some-our-newest-humanities-go-programs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232258058.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20190525124751-20190525150751-00493.warc.gz | en | 0.936061 | 799 | 2.625 | 3 | {
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According to American Mythology, Paul Revere jumped onto a horse on April 18, 1775 and rode into the night, shouting “The British are coming!” But did Paul Revere’s Ride actually happen?
The Story of Paul Revere’s Ride
According to American mythology, Paul Revere’s ride was a solo one. He and other colonists knew the British were preparing to attack. So, he waited in Charleston for a signal from signal lanterns. One lantern in the Old North Church’s steeple would indicate a land invasion, two would mean a sea-based attack. He saw two lanterns and then rode through Medford, Lexington, and Concord to warn everyone, “The British are Coming!”
It’s a good story. One that has become a significant part of American history. It’s also severely flawed and in some respects, completely incorrect.
Paul Revere’s Ride: American History or American Mythology?
Interestingly enough, Paul Revere was little known for almost a century after his now-famous ride. Then in 1860, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned a famous poem entitled Paul Revere’s Ride. Longfellow was an abolitionist and wanted to convince his fellow northerners to take military action to keep the Union intact. As such, he deliberately romanticized his work in order to create a legend out of Revere.
“Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.” ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Paul Revere’s Ride
The truth as you might expect, is a bit more messy. The British Army was in Massachusetts that evening. They planned to disarm the colonists by seizing a weapons cache in Concord. They also planned to arrest the leaders of the budding American rebellion, including John Hancock and Samuel Adams.
Joseph Warren, president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, learned of the plan. He sent two riders, Paul Revere and William Dawes, to Lexington to warn Adams and Hancock. They were to alert colonial militias along the way.
Revere and Dawes rode to Lexington, delivering warnings to every house they passed. Other riders, perhaps as many as 40 of them, raced into the night to spread the message. No one shouted, “The British are coming!” Indeed, most of the colonists considered themselves British. The entire rebellion was about the colonists standing up for what they considered to be true British values.
According to Revere, the exact message was, “The Regulars are coming out,” with the Regulars referring to the Regular Army. And since the operation was a secret, it’s unlikely anyone actually shouted out the message.
Guerrilla Explorer’s Analysis
Eventually, Revere and Dawes reached Lexington. They delivered the warning and picked up a third rider named Samuel Prescott. They proceeded to ride onto Concord. However, British troops spotted them in Lincoln. Revere was captured and questioned. Prescott jumped his horse over a wall and escaped. Dawes also escaped but later fell off his horse. Fortunately, Prescott reached Concord in time to warn the colonists. The next day, the British Army attacked. The Battles of Lexington and Concord raged. And out of that dust emerged the beginnings of a new country, the United States of America.
“‘Tis all very well for the children to hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere;
But why should my name be quite forgot,
Who rode as boldly and well, God wot?
Why should I ask? The reason is clear—
My name was Dawes and his Revere.” ~ Helen F. Moore, The Midnight Ride of William Dawes | <urn:uuid:3388357b-f8e0-41e5-8115-f9445c8bd51d> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://www.guerrillaexplorer.com/tag/revolutionary-war/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500550967030.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20170728123647-20170728143647-00080.warc.gz | en | 0.966203 | 813 | 3.390625 | 3 | {
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Once upon a time no one could count higher than 10 (that was the generally agreed upon number of toes most people had) and so no one had to worry about the number 13.
As I mentioned, there was a time when no one could count higher than 10.
Joe Neanderthal couldn’t even count that high because a) he didn’t care and b) he knew that Mrs. Joe Neanderthal was going to correct him anyway so why bother?
This was, in fact, one of the smarter decisions Joe Neanderthal ever made, because of course Mrs. J N always corrected him.
It turns out that Mrs. Joe Neanderthal was the first to count beyond 10. She was able to count all the way to 14, not because she figured out how to use her fingers and her toes, not because she figured out how to use her toes and Joe’s toes, and not even because she figured out how to turn on the calculator. Mrs. Joe Neanderthal figured out how to count to 14 because that’s how many children she had.
And so when it came time to find new furs for the little Neanderthals to wear on the first day of school (little known fact: the first day of school back then was also often the last day of school), Mrs. Joe knew just exactly how much fur she needed.
So Mrs. Joe did the sensible thing. She bopped Joe over the head and told him to go out and bring back 14 furry beasts, preferably dead (but she wasn’t all that picky).
Being a reasonably bright Neanderthal, Joe did as he was asked and trotted off to find some beasts willing to part with their fur (or at least unable to keep up their end of the ownership argument).
After a few days, Joe came home lugging 14 mostly-dead mammals. (Extra points if you get the mostly-dead reference.)
Mrs. Joe got to work.
First she made sure all the critters were dead-dead (it turned out she was pickier than she thought).
Then she counted them. Then she counted them again. She counted them from the other direction. Then she went back and recounted her children.
But no matter how many times Mrs. J counted the furs, there were still only 13. And no matter how many times she recounted her children, there were still 14.
Mrs. Joe Neanderthal did the only sensible thing and turned her attention to poor Joe.
You may be thinking that Joe usually found himself on the short end of the stick. Not this time, my friend. He found himself on the long end of the stick—the end which had a big rock tied to it. And at the other end of the steek (didn’t think I could work that in, did you?) was a Very Annoyed Mrs. Joe Neanderthal.
Because small children may one day read this account, I will not go into detail about what happened next.
However, you can be sure that from then on, Joe Neanderthal considered 13 a very unlucky number indeed.
And that is where the superstition about the number 13 began. Tune in another time when I explain the Friday bit.
Speaking of which, happy Friday 13th.
If you didn’t get the mostly-dead reference, I sentence you to watch The Princess Bride again.
And if you didn’t get the steek reference, then Jeff Dunham and I don’t quite know what to say. | <urn:uuid:1e2b4292-95b8-4d6f-85c3-27ffe82621ab> | CC-MAIN-2018-09 | http://dearkidlovemom.com/tag/friday-13/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-09/segments/1518891816083.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20180225011315-20180225031315-00474.warc.gz | en | 0.97835 | 732 | 2.6875 | 3 | {
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Frederic Chopin was born March 1, 1810 in the Duchy of Warsaw in Poland. He was not very old when his potential was recognized. In fact, he was regarded as a child prodigy pianist. As early as seven, Frederic Chopin was performing in front of an audience and composed two of his first pieces in the same year. When he was a young man, he left Poland and would never return. He eventually made his way to Paris where he worked as a piano teacher and a composer. He did not perform very often as most of his time was put into his teaching and personal work, though he did perform in a few concerts from time to time.
The first instrument that Frederic Chopin learned to play was the piano. He was creative from the start, making up his own tunes, and received his first piano lessons from his older sister. He was six years of age when he received his first professional lessons and it was not long before his skill and talent surpassed that of his teacher. The same year that he first began performing in public, he composed G minor and B flat major, two polonaises. In 1926, he went to the Warsaw conservatory, which was a part of the Warsaw University and studied with Jozef Elsner for a period of three years. It was after this that he left Poland and would eventually make his way to Paris. When he first arrived in Paris, he was uncertain about whether he would remain there or not; however, it would soon become his home. He would remain there for some time and travel around while he performed. He eventually married and had two children. Later, his health deteriorated and he eventually past away from tuberculosis.
From the start, Frederic Chopin was different from other composers and musicians, such as Mozart and Beethoven. He was more innovative, more creative and more experimental with music than the great ones before him. In fact, he created new forms of music that was beautiful and was more of an emotional expression of Chopin's. He made innovations in waltz, impromptu, prelude and many other existing forms of music. This particular musician and composer made an incredible impact on music. He introduced a change from the original forms that would greatly influence the future of music. He was the first composer to write ballads and pieces of music separately, and changed etudes, among other genres, into expressive and emotional pieces.
Much of his music was also thought to be influenced by his beloved homeland, Poland. Many of his pieces were an effort to celebrate the culture of his homeland. Even though he left Poland to grow in his musical career, his heart was always rooted there and much of his inspiration came from the home he loved so much. Even after Russia regained control of Poland, which was a main reason why he could never return home, he continued to show his love for Poland through his music in a number of compositions.
by Victor Epand | <urn:uuid:fe431db9-1b9b-4522-ba28-c91bff7c9f2d> | CC-MAIN-2016-40 | http://clavier-magnum-opus.blogspot.com/2009/03/wizard-of-keyboard-and-piano-music.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-40/segments/1474738661289.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20160924173741-00175-ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.997293 | 606 | 3.84375 | 4 | {
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Village trustees voted, on February 18, 2003, to halt fluoridation in Canton, New York. One hundred and thirty faculty and staff members of Canton's St. Lawrence University and 300 students petitioned the village trustees to ban fluoride from its water supply, reports the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation (NYSCOF).
In July 2001, fluoridation was discontinued to replace equipment. Residents decided fluoridation should end for good.
The decision caps months of public discussion and research about whether residents' best interests were served with fluoridation, the intentional addition of cavity-preventing fluoride into water supplies.
Trustee Stephen Putnam, who voted against fluoridation, said he spent much of December and January reading articles about fluoride and was concerned that fluoride accumulates in the bones, particularly for menopausal women who drink fluoridated water over many years, reported the Watertown Daily Times.
Paul Connett, PhD, who led the campaign to rid fluoride from Canton's tap water said, "An independent review of the literature finds that fluoridation is:
* unethical (medication without patient's informed consent)
* unnecessary (kids get too much fluoride from many sources)
* ineffective (at best, fluoridation saves less than one tooth surface out
of 128 in a child's mouth)
* unsafe (fluoride accumulation can make bones brittle and joints painful)
* inequitable (the poor cannot afford to avoid it, if desired)
* unscientifically defended (proponents cannot defend the practice in open
* wasteful, literally pouring taxpayer money down the drain."
Dr. Connett, Chemistry Professor, St. Lawrence University is also co-founder, Fluoride Action Network, an International Coalition to End Water Fluoridation.
Biochemist and fluoride expert, Hardy Limeback, PhD, DDS, Head of Preventive Dentistry, University of Toronto, drove four hours by car, at his own expense, to give testimony. Once an avid fluoridation promoter, Limeback turned fluoridation opponent when he discovered the:
a) incidence of children's dental fluorosis (fluoride discolored teeth)
has risen sharply,
b) benefits of fluoridation are topical, not systemic (swallowed fluoride
does not prevent tooth decay),
c) chemical most used in fluoridation schemes is not pharmaceutical
grade, but an industrial waste-product, hexafluorosilicic acid, which
the US Environmental Protection Agency admits has never been
"People, who had been previously pro-fluoridation, spoke out against it. At a public hearing, two months before the vote, a young local dentist, when asked about the issue, was lukewarm about fluoridation's benefits. He said words to the effect, 'If you don't continue, I don't think we will have a dental crisis; and, if we continue, I don't think we will see an end to tooth decay,'" says Connett.
"New York City has temporarily halted fluoridation. We hope City residents take the lead from the people of Canton, New York, and demand their water remain fluoride-free," says Paul Beeber, President, (NYSCOF). | <urn:uuid:7d209cb3-02b0-4dfa-af91-8f212f57d846> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.wwdmag.com/print/7204 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279169.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00216-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954681 | 664 | 2.84375 | 3 | {
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The United Nations held an informal interactive civil society hearing last month in preparation for the High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs), which will be held September 19 and 20 in New York. The hearing brought together UN officials, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, academia, and other civil society organizations, including the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), to offer input for the upcoming meeting. In line with the preparations for the UN meeting in September, IFPMA issued a Framework for Action, a 10-point plan that outlines the areas in which the research-based pharmaceutical industry can participate in tackling the growing problem of NCDs in the developing world.
The UN informal interactive hearing, which was held June 16 in New York, included participation by UN General Assembly President Joseph Deiss, UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, and the World Health Organization (WHO) Assistant Director-General Ala Alwan. In a media forum on June 20, Migiro outlined the importance of addressing NCDs in the developing world. “Cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, cancer, and diabetes are often mistakenly viewed as diseases of affluence,” said Migiro in a UN statement. “After all, the thinking goes, if someone has plenty of money, they will buy rich foods, alcoholic drinks, and tobacco products. And they will have plenty of leisure, not physical work. Certainly this describes some cases, but not the vast majority. Poor countries suffer 80% of the noncommunicable diseases’ death toll. Poor mothers who lack good nutrition in pregnancy are more likely to give birth to babies vulnerable to noncommunicable diseases later in life.”
Migiro noted that an estimated 8 million premature deaths (i.e., people aged below 60) due to NCDs occur in developing countries each year. “The economic costs of noncommunicable diseases are astronomical. But let us put aside those costs for a moment, even though they are catastrophic for too many families,” she said. “There is no cost-benefit analysis that can sufficiently describe the suffering of family and friends. There is no calculation to determine what someone might have contributed to our world if only they had never fallen ill.”
The upcoming UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs is an outgrowth of several global health initiatives. In February 2010, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan addressed more than 100 stakeholders at the first Global Forum of the Non-Communicable Disease Network (NCDnet) in Geneva, pointing to the problem of NCDs in developing countries. “Diseases once associated with abundance are now heavily concentrated in poor and disadvantaged groups. Developing countries have the greatest vulnerability and the least resilience,” she said.
NCDnet, a voluntary network of UN member states, donors, philanthropic foundations, UN agencies, NGOs, and the private sector, focuses on the prevention and control of NCDs in low- and middle-income countries by augmenting collective advocacy, increasing resources, and promoting effective global and regional action to strengthen national capacity. It evolved from the May 2008 meeting of the 61st World Health Assembly, at which health ministers endorsed the Action Plan for the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD Action Plan). The NCD Action Plan defined six objectives for implementation during a six-year period from 2008 to 2013. Under each objective, specific sets of action for UN member states, the secretariat, international groups, and other partners are detailed. Objective 5 of the NCD Action Plan specifically calls upon member states, WHO, international partners, and other stakeholders to promote partnerships for the prevention and control of NCDs. The creation of NCDnet is in direct support of this objective.
NCDs currently account for 35 million deaths annually worldwide, the majority of which happen in low and middle-income countries (28.1 million), according to an Apr.13, 2010, UN press release. WHO forecasts that globally, deaths from NCDs are likely to increase by 17% over the next 10 years, with the greatest increase projected in Africa (27%), followed by the Eastern Mediterranean region (25%).
At a press briefing at the UN on June 20, 2011, John Seffrin, president of the American Cancer Society, noted that on a worldwide basis, by 2030, NCDs are expected to cause about five times as many deaths as communicable ailments. David Bloom, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography at the Harvard School of Public Health, noted that the economic burden of NCDs on a global basis could evolve into costs of approximately $35 trillion from 2005 to 2030.
IFPMA’s NCD Framework for Action
The Framework for Action centers on four main areas: innovation and research, access and affordability, prevention and health education, and partnerships. “We want to step up to the plate where we can have an impact,” said Cinthya Ramirez, manager of global health policy at IFPMA, in an interview with Pharmaceutical Technology. “We are building on our existing approaches, partnerships, experience, and efforts in other global health initiatives to specifically address NCDs.”
In the area of innovation and research, the framework calls for continued investment in research and development (R&D) for new medicines for the prevention and treatment of NCDs overall and also in addressing the specific needs of developing-world populations. IFPMA estimates that there are more than 1500 drugs in development to address NCDs.
Actions on access and affordability for IFPMA and its member companies include working with governments and WHO to promote policy, regulatory, and supply- chain environments to enable and implement commercially sustainable access and pricing strategies for the supply of NCD vaccines and medicines in the developing world. IFPMA’s Ramirez offers as an example access to palliative care, which may be limited in certain developing countries due to trade or policy issues that limits access to painkillers and other palliative-care measures. Improving the infrastructure and supply-chain practices is another example. “Strategies to prevent stock outages of medicines are another way in which access to medicines can be improved,” says Ramirez, who points to certain innovative approaches using mobile-phone and telecommunication technology in monitoring supply in remote areas that the industry has used in supplying anti-malaria drugs to the developing world.
Also, with respect to access and affordability, IFPMA’s action plan also calls for advising and assisting WHO’s work on the appropriate use of medicines for preventing and treating NCDs on WHO’s Essential Medicines List and to work with WHO to remove administrative hurdles that currently limit access to essential medicines. WHO’s Essential Medicines List is a listing of more than 350 medicines that satisfy the priority healthcare needs of a population and are selected with regard to disease prevalence, evidence of efficacy, safety, and comparative cost-effectiveness. IFPMA also plans to work with other key stakeholders to eliminate import duties on medicines that prevent and treat NCDs and other charges, such as consumption or value-added taxes, throughout the supply chain that increase prices to patients.
Lifestyle choices play a major role in NCDs and part of the strategy to combat NCDs involves health education to consumers, patients, physicians, and healthcare professionals. At the UN press briefing in June, UN Deputy Secretary-General Migiro noted that two-thirds of all new cases of NCDs can be prevented by addressing four main risk factors: tobacco use, unhealthy diets, lack of exercise, and excessive alcohol consumption. The importance of health education in preventing NCDs also was a key finding of a recent study by IFPMA and the Association of International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (AIPM), the Russian national pharmaceutical industry association. The survey, Population Attitude to Personal Health: Perception of Health, Understanding of Risk Factors, Morbidity and Mortality, which was conducted in Russia from January 2011 to April 2011, was presented on the occasion of the first global Ministerial Conference on Healthy Lifestyles and Noncommunicable Disease Control in Moscow in April 2011. “The survey showed that although people recognize the negative impact of smoking, abuse of alcohol, obesity, and lack of physical exercise has on health, they still engage in at least one of those activities,” said Ramirez, underscoring the need for increasing knowledge on the link between lifestyle choices and NCDs.
The IFPMA Framework for Action addresses prevention and health education in several ways. First, the pharmaceutical industry will seek to promote innovative tools to increase health literacy, such as awareness of NCDs, their respective risk factors, and the need to adhere to treatment as well continue advocacy and support of screening initiatives. Ramirez points to IFPMA’s cooperation with the World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA), an association representing more than 26 million health professionals in 130 countries. WHPA has been a vocal voice on NCDs by advising its members of NCDs, the social determinants of NCDs, and the ways in which healthcare professionals can inform patients on NCDs, including with simple tools such as scorecards. Within the pharmaceutical industry itself, the member companies of IFPMA plan to actively promote best practices to advance a healthy workforce for the more than 1 million employees of IFPMA member companies.
As in other global health initiatives, a multi-stakeholder approach is an important component in tackling NCDs, and the IFPMA Framework for Action addresses the value of private, public, and public–private partnerships. Part of the focus is on developing innovative health delivery models in this multi-stakeholder approach, including public-private partnerships. Also, the member companies of IFPMA will continue to work with the UN, principally through WHO, governments, healthcare providers, health financing mechanisms, the wider business community, procurement bodies, NGOs, and other patient groups in prevention, access, financing, and capacity-building initiatives targeted at NCDs.
Ramirez emphasizes the importance of these collective efforts. “We recognize NCDs are a major global health problem in the developing world and that the pharmaceutical industry can play an important role with its partners,” she said. She adds that the pharmaceutical industry will continue to participate in developing and implementing specific programs in support of combating NCDs, including efforts of the UN and WHO.
IFPMA’s Pisani sums up the value of these partnerships. “This NCD Framework For Action represents a paradigm shift for the research-based pharmaceutical industry,” he said. “It puts our industry’s collective global health responsibilities firmly at the forefront of how we see our role in the new global health community…In order to tackle the rise of NCDs, and stay the course, we need to look at sustainable new approaches to global health which have prevention at the core.” | <urn:uuid:c72084e0-44ef-4d65-9ac1-ac42a284ed98> | CC-MAIN-2016-30 | http://www.pharmtech.com/pharma-industry-prepares-un-high-level-meeting-noncommunicable-diseases | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-30/segments/1469257824201.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160723071024-00322-ip-10-185-27-174.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949198 | 2,278 | 2.640625 | 3 | {
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domingo, 25 de noviembre de 2007
A character is a logical relation established between intrinsic attributes of two or more organisms that is rooted in observation (Rieppel, 1988). So, “a meaningful character is thus based upon a character description that can in itself be evaluated... and potentially rejected” (Riepperl & Kearney, 2002). In morphological data, there are some classical characteristics that a good character must have: topology, connectivity, and the establishment of a one-to-one relationship of the parts being compared (Rieppel & Kearney, 2002). Although, there are other attributes as function and “special similarity” that are relevant in character definition (Rieppel & Kearney, 2002; Agnarsson & Coddington, 2007). Sometimes, topology correspondence, function and special similarity could conflict and quantitative methods for choosing among different criteria are necessary (Agnarsson & Coddington, 2007).
Other problem that morphological data face is coding. When we compare features in different organisms in some way, we are assuming some correspondence (not necessary topological). So, a presence-absence coding (See Pleijel, 1999) is telling nothing about that feature correspondence, and nothing about the taxa relationship. Becasuse, what forms the evidence in a cladistic analysis is the change among the character states, not the existence of different states (Brower, 2000).
In molecular data, the problem of character definition and character coding is different. Because it is widely accepted that similarity is equivalent to homology, but as those data also have homoplasy, similarity could not be seen as homology. Therefore, a criterion for defining molecular character hypotheses is necessary (de Pinna, 1991). The characters definition with DNA (or other molecular data) could be seen as a previous step, aligning with an algorithm. Or could be seen as a direct search of the optimal trees via direct optimization of the data with which the character hypotheses change during the search (Wheeler, 1996). The second approach is preferable, while it is testing the topology directly and is exploring different possibilities of the data, not just an alignment.
Finally, congruence is the test that corroborates the character as synapomorphies. The tool that allow to asses hypotheses of relationship, and concomitantly of character evolution, is parsimony. Parsimony maximizes congruence between the characters, so it maximizes the propositions of homology (Farris, 1983; Kluge, 1997; Sober, 1998).
Agnarsson, I. & Coddington, J. A. 2007. Quantitative tests of primary homology. Cladistics.
Brower, A. 2000. Homology and the inference of systematic relationships: some historical and philosophical perspectives. In Homology and systematics, coding characters for phylogenetic analysis (eds. Scotland, R & Pennington, R. T.). Taylor & Francis.
de Pinna, M. C. C. 1991. Concepts and tests of homology in the cladistic paradigm. Cladistics.
Kluge, A. 1997. Testability and the refutation and corroboration of cladistic hypotheses. Cladistics.
Pleijel, F. 1995. On character coding for phylogenetic reconstruction. Cladistics.
Rieppel, O. & Kearney, M. 2002. Similarity. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society.
Wheeler, W. C. 1996. Optimization alignment: the end of multiple sequence alignment in phylogenetics? Cladistics.
Farris SJ. 1983. The logical basis of phylogenetic analysis. In: Platnick, NI, Funk, VA, eds. Advances in Cladistics, Vol. 2. New York: Columbia University Press.
Every proposition of homology involves two stages which are associated with is generation and testing: the primary homology statement is conjectural based on similarity. The secondary level of homology is the outcome of a patter detecting analysis, the congruence test, and represents a test of the expectation that the observable match of similarities is potentially part of a retrievable regularity indicative of a general pattern (de Pinna, 1991).
When dealing with molecular data similarity guides primary homology -as in morphological characters- but there have been a tendency to believe that higher the similarity, the more likely that the sequences are homologous (Salemi and Vandamme, 2003; Patterson, 1988) where the fundamental homology statements are made at the level of the individual nucleotide bases. Conversely, the fundamental homology statement can be consider at the level of the sequence itself because the contiguous sequences are the homologous units that transform at prescribed costs among various states (Wheeler, 1999). Therefore Sequences themselves are treated as the fundamental units of homology and homology assessment is not consider a matter of aligning sequences and counting matches between them. Following “Direct Optimization’’ we can vary dynamically the primary homology hypotheses during tree search consequently the resulting hypotheses of homology are tested in conjunction with character congruence through parsimony (Wheeler, 2006). The testing of all characters against one another simultaneously constitutes the most severe test of congruence; In a phylogenetic context, the best alignment is the one that generates the most parsimonious tree when analyzed in conjunction with all relevant data (Philips, 2006).
The homology assessment have been shown to be influenced by the way we coding and the different interpretations of the criteria used to asses those statements demonstrating that the organismal variation is often conceptualized as characters and characters states in different ways (Scotland and Pennington, 2000). Even so, it is possible to have greater explicitness in the delimitation of morphological characters by detailed observation and the topologic criterion used, used in conjunction with special quality, and intermediate conditions of form (Rieppel and Kearney, 2002). In general, better guidelines concerning character conceptualization are required to help solving this.
Similarity and conjunction have proposed as tests for homology but only congruence serves to this respect. Similarity, as mentioned above, guides the assessment of the homology conjecture. Conjunction is an indicator of non-homology, but it is not specific about the pair wise comparison where non-homology is present, and depends on a specific scheme of relationship in order to refute a hypothesis of homology (de Pinna, 1991).
The importance of homology has been discused by several authors (Patterson, 1988; Wagner, 1989; de Pinna, 1991; Rieppel & Kearney, 2002; Agnarsson & Coddington, 2007). So, homology is a crucial basis in the Systematics. The most simple meaning of homology is equivalence of parts (de Pinna, 1991). In 1982, Patterson states that homology is equal to synapomorphy. So, the synapomorphic characters must be homologous. Nevertheless, the symplesiomorphic characters could be homologous (homologies at a higher level).
There are two kinds of homologies; the primary homology - conjectures or hypothesis about common origin of characters -, and the secondary homology - the tested hypothesis – (de Pinna, 1991).
Pattern or process
A question about homology is the significance of evolutionary process in the identification of homologous characters. Implicitly, the evolutionary events are bounded to the analysis of characters (Lee, 2002). However, Brower (2000) stated that “the similarities - homologies - between taxa represent the only necessary ontological foundation for the construction of cladograms and hypotheses of taxonomic grouping”. So, the evolutionary asumptions are not necessary in the identification of homologies; but the homologous characters can be explained by evolutionary process (Rieppel & Kearney, 2002).
Equally, some authors claims that the phenomenon of circularity in homology (need of a priori topology) is undesirable because the recognition of homologous characters is conditionated to mapping of them in a initial topology. Nevertheless, the circularity is not a “big” problem, because the tested homologies (mapped hypothesis of homologies) are “tested hypothesis” attached to new set of analysis (new tests).
An inherent point in the identification of homologous characters is the character's coding. A inadequate definition of characters produces bias in the identification of homology. Some author claims that the real problem in homology is the character's coding. So, for example, there is the belief that the character's coding is linked to knowledge of researcher about taxon. So, the “eyes” of an experienced researcher would discriminate and describe “best” characters and character's states that an non-experienced researcher.
A approach used in the the character's coding was the morphometric analysis (biometry). However, the biometry is not useful in homology because the complexity of the biological estrucures and its incompatibility with the statistical multivariate analysis (Bookstein, 1994).
The three tests of homology (similarity, conjuction, and congruence) are secuencial in the identification of homology. Nevertheless, the similarity is not a test (in Popperian sense), similarity is a conjecture of homologous characters - primary homology – (de Pinna, 1991) . The conjuction and congruence (agreement in supporting the same phylogenetics relationships) are the “hard” tests of homology – the secondary homology from de Pinna - (Rieppel and Kearney, 2002). Although there is interdependece among them (tests), it not means that the three tests will be one only. So, the result is a hypothesis of homology corroborated, but they is not definitive (“true homology”).
The identification of homology in molecular characters (nucleotide sequences) presents problems not found in other kinds of character data. For example, although each base position presents one of four identical states (A, C, G or T), the number of these positions is likely to vary, that is homologous nucleotide sequences may differ in length (Wheeler, 1996). Further, Patterson (1988) claims that the tests of homology in molecular characters are equal to morphological characters. However, the significance of tests (similarity, conjuction, and congruence) is different because the similarity is the most crucial test, while in morphological characters is test of congruence.
A point of discussion in the identification of homologies in molecular sequences is the need of an alignment to determine sites or homologous fragment. However, this way is considered inadequate because alignment is generated using a priori costs and asumptions. Wheeler (2003) proposes a synapomorphic-based alignment methods - Implied alignment – (IA) that identifies homologies in the topology using Direct Optimization (DO). So, Implied alignment generating all posibles alignments and all posibles homologies are analized. This method may be efficient to identify homologies. Nevertheless, the a priori asumptions are inherent to alignments.
- Agnarsson, I., & Coddington, J. A. (2007). Quantitative tests of primary homology. Cladistics, 23, 1-11.
- Brower, A. V. Z. (2000). Evolution is not an assumption of cladistics. Cladistics, 16, 143–154.
- de Pinna, M. C. C. (1991) Concepts and tests of homology in the cladistic paradigm. Cladistics, 7, 367-394.
- Lee, M. S. Y. (2002). Divergent evolution, hierarchy, and cladistics. Zoologica Scripta, 31, 217–219.
- Patterson, C. (1988). Homology in classical and molecular biology. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 5, 603-625.
- Rieppel, O., & Kearney, M. (2002) Similarity. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 75, 59-82.
- Wagner, G. P. (1989) The biological homology concept. Annual Reviews of Ecology and Systematics. 20, 51-69.
- Wheeler, W. C. (1996). Optimization alignment: the end of multiple sequence alignment in phylogenetics?. Cladistics, 12, 1-9.
- Wheeler, W. C. (2003) Implied alignment: a synapomorphic-based multiple alignment method and its use in cladogram search. Cladistics, 19, 261-268. | <urn:uuid:64ea99f9-2386-4a3f-a636-cd6ad886cedf> | CC-MAIN-2017-22 | http://elecsist.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-22/segments/1495463608726.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20170527001952-20170527021952-00441.warc.gz | en | 0.885643 | 2,648 | 3.3125 | 3 | {
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Kateri Tekakwitha also known as Catherine Tekakwitha/Takwita, was born in 1656 in Gandahouhague, on the south bank of the Mohawk River, in a village called Ossernenon. The Mohawks were known as the fiercest of the "Five Nations" of the Iroquois. War was waged between the Mohawks and Algonquins. Kateri's mother, a christian Algonquin, was taken captive by a Mohawk warrior and soon they were married. They had a happy life together and eventually had a girl. They named her Tekakwitha, which means "she who moves forward". When she was four years old, a smallpox epidemic claimed the lives of her parents and baby brother. Their names are unknown. Kateri survived the disease but her eyesight was impaired. Her face was scarred and the disease left her weak the rest of her life. After five years of the sickness, the survivors of the village moved to the north bank of the river to begin a new life. Tekakwitha and her relatives moved into the Turtle Clan village called Gandaouague.
She was then raised by aunts and an uncle, the Chief of the Turtle Clan.
In 1667 the Jesuit missionaries Fremin, Bruyas, and Pierron spent three days in the lodge of Tekakwutga's uncle. They had accompanied the Mohawk delegation who had been to Quebec to conclude peace with the French. From the Blackrobes she received her first knowledge of Christianity.
In 1670 the Blackrobes established St. Peter's Mission in Caughnawaga now Fonda, NY.
In 1674, Fr. James de Lamberville arrived to take charge of the mission which included the Turtle Clan.
Tekakwitha met Father de Lamberville when he visited her home. She told him about her desire to become baptized. Despite opposition to Christianity from her tribe and particularly her uncle, she met with the Blackrobe in secret. She began to take religious instructions. On Easter Sunday, April 5, 1676, at the age of 20, she was baptized and given the name Kateri, Indian for Katherine. Her family wanted her to abandon her religion. She became the subject of increased contempt from the people of her village for her conversion, as well as her refusal to work on Sundays or to marry. She practice her religion unflinchingly in the face of almost unbearable opposition. Finally her uncle's lodge ceased to be a place of protection to her.
With the help of Christian Indians she fled her village. Two months later and about two hundred miles through woods, rivers and swamps, Kateri arrived at the Sault.
On Christmas Day, 1677, Kateri received her first Holy Communion. Here she lived in the cabin of a Christian Indian, Mary Teresa Tegaiaguenta. She and Kateri became friends. Both girls performed extraordinary penance. Kateri and her friend asked permission to start a religious community. The request was denied.
At Caughnawaga she contributed to the community's economy while engaging in great personal sacrifices. She also continued to keep her personal vow of chastity.
In 1678, Kateri was enrolled in the pious society called The Holy Family because of her extraordinary practices of all virtues.
Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha died on April 17, 1680, when she was 24 years of age. When she died, much to the amazement of those in attendance, all the disfiguring scars on her face miraculously disappeared.
Pope John Paul II beatified her in Rome on June 22, 1980, in the presence of hundreds of North American Indians. She is now known to us as Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha.
Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha died on April 17, 1680, when she was 24 years of age. In the past, we commemorated her Feast Day on the day of her death. April 17 often falls during the season of Lent or during Easter Week. When the Bishops of the United States gathered for their fall meeting in Washington, DC, in November 1982, they voted to change the day of observance of the Feast of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha to July 14th. The new feast day will enable the Church in the United States to celebrate and honor Blessed Kateri without the feast day overlapping with the season of Lent. We prayerfully await the day that our Holy Father proclaims her Saint Kateri.
Kateri Tekakwitha, our "Lily of the Mohawks."
~ ~PRAYER FOR CANONIZATION~ ~
"O God, who among the many marvels of Your Grace in the New World, did cause to blossom on the banks of the Mohawk and of the St. Lawrence, the pure and tender Lily, Kateri Tekakwitha, grant we beseech You, the favor we beg through her intercession - that this Young Lover of Jesus and of His Cross may soon be counted among her Saints by Holy Mother Church, and that our hearts may be enkindled with a stronger desire to imitate her innocence and faith. Through the same Christ Our Lord.
~ Amen ~
~ ~ NOVENA MEDITATION THOUGHTS ~ ~
Day I ~ Prayer ~ Union with God
"The Prayer" was the Mohawk name for religion; "praying Indian" the name for a Christian Indian. All was open in an Indian Village, and the priests had to pray publicly. Their converts assembled in the chapel for prayer. Prayer is union with God, and what else is religion?
When Tekakwitha saw the missionaries at prayer in her uncle's cabin, the sight irresistibly attracted her. It helped to unite her with God, until her life became an act of prayer, of union with God.
Day II ~ Grace ~ A Child of God
Grace is the thought that comes with mention of Tekakwitha. Unbaptized until her twentieth year, through no fault of her parents or her own, she still was a child of grace, which means that she grew up in God's favor. She did all the good she could to retain God's favor. Kateri was a child of grace. May we, like Our Lord, grow in wisdom, age and grace!
Day III ~ Holiness ~ Heroic Virtues
Holy are those whose faith, hope and charity are extraordinary, who cultivate the virtues: prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, and the good habits which grow out of these: prayer, humility, obedience, patience, resignation, penance. In all these Tekakwitha excelled.
Day IV ~ Names of Kateri
All her names inspire admiration and affection. Kateri, Iroquois form of Catherine, her baptismal name, means pure, and she was purity itself.
"Lily of the Mohawks." Lily is the emblem of purity. She is known as "The Good Catherine", because so many have received favors by invoking her.
St. Genevieve had saved Paris of Old France; Kateri was named Genevieve of New France after she had saved the mission and the missionaries.
Tekakwitha means "putting things in order", or "moving before her". She put order among her people, and moves all by answers to prayer.
This flower of our American wildwood is already Blessed; may she soon be named Saint!
Day V ~ Innocence
One who is innocent will harm nobody, nor see evil in others; will not shock, scandalize or grieve them, but give them edification, pleasure, and win their admiration and affection.She remained innocent: thought no evil, harbored no suspicion, entertained no ill-will, as if she were not of this world.
Day VI ~ The Blessed Sacrament
Out from her Caughnawaga cabin at dawn and straight-way to chapel to adore the Blessed Sacrament, hear every Mass; back again during the day to hear instruction, and at night for a last prayer or Benediction. Her neighbors sought to be near her when she received Holy Communion, as her manner excited devotion.
Day VII ~ The Cross
Tekakwitha loved the image of the Cross. During the hunt she made an oratory in the woods by cutting a cross in the bark of a tree. The first picture of her, the only portrait of an Indian of that long ago, represents her venerating a small cross. It moved her to do penance in order to imitate Our Lord in His Passion.
Day VIII ~ The Blessed Virgin
The faithful Indian convert women would tell her how affectionate her mother was. That would help her to know how affectionate the Mother of Christ was and still is in heaven. The rosary and the Litany were favorite prayers of hers. More than once she walked or canoed ten miles from her Mohawk village, Caughnawaga, to Tionontoguen, where the statue of Our Lady was venerated under the title, Virgin Most Faithful.
Day IX ~ Invocation
Although we are not yet permitted to express publicly the belief that Tekakwitha is among the Saints in Heaven, it is our private belief and we pray that the Church may soon declare it. While awaiting this, we invoke her aid. Wonderful are the favors attributed to her. While praying for our own needs, we should pray for her canonization.
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~~ Credits ~~Excerpts taken from writings of:
Sarah Hassenplug - Mohawk,
Evelyn M. Brown from the Vision books of Saints,
Blanche M. Kelly
Silverhawk made the two small bars especially for this pape.
Thank you Sam!
Last Updated on July 2, 2005 by Who Else....PurpleHawk | <urn:uuid:94a1a067-603e-4802-992a-1c8a1044fec7> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.impurplehawk.com/kateri.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246657041.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045737-00150-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973173 | 2,085 | 3.15625 | 3 | {
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Competition and Cooperation
The debate between individualism and collectivism lies at the heart of all modern political debates, but it is obvious that we could not live without both. If everyone acted individualistically, society—which hinges on cooperation—could not exist; there could be no common agreement on social laws that aim for the greater collective good over (sometimes) individual good. If on the other hand we prioritized the collective good over individual good, there would be no incentive in the individuals to act out of their own agency, resulting in the relinquishment of individual responsibilities. What is the right balance between individualism and collectivism? This question hinges on the problem that these two ideas seem to be fundamentally contradictory and this post hopes to show that they are not.
Table of Contents
The Replacement of Morality with Legal Laws
Morality is contextual, but the legal laws are universal. When morality is replaced with legal laws, many innocent people are unjustly punished, and many guilty people get off scot-free. To trap those guilty people, even more laws are enacted, which has the same result—even more innocent people are trapped by the laws while many guilty people find the loopholes in the laws and again get off scot-free.
To enforce the growing number of laws, catch the guilty and indict them into punishment, the government machinery has to grow concomitantly. This growing legal and policing machinery requires growing taxes on the citizens, and the price of a few guilty is paid by even the innocent. As the taxes increase, most of people’s earnings are lost in maintaining the government machinery, and the people struck by poverty now resort to crimes, which needs more laws, more regulatory machinery, more taxes, greater debt, followed by more crimes, and the cycle repeats endlessly.
Decline in morality therefore makes most people poor, debt-ridden, and overburdened by taxes, unable to control their destiny, and the gloomy outlook in their life makes them unhappy, depressed, and prone to crime, sloth, disillusionment, and frustration. Under these pressures, society collapses .
Left and Right Wing Politics
The right-wing politicians argue for lesser government intervention—meaning fewer laws and governmental control, letting the people decide what is best for them—but they don’t replace the laws with a higher moral standard. The left-wing politicians argue for greater governmental oversight with higher taxes, and hope that they can replace morality with man-made laws, but all they achieve is a higher level of debt, poverty, destruction of individual agency, and growing crime.
The cooperation promulgated by the left-wing politics makes hard-working people who make good choices pay for the lazy, inept, and morally decrepit; the argument is that the well-to-do people have to lift those without adequate means out of their miserable condition. However, without the moral education about the purpose of life, monetary benefits don’t truly change their conditions.
The competition promulgated by the right-wing politics makes the well-to-do morally decrepit people exploit the poor and miserable to further their power and riches, keeping them helpless, while they exploit lesser governmental oversight to commit greater crimes—using the common and shared resources toward their selfish ends and making everyone pay for their consumption.
Morality is a Natural Law
The thing that goes unsaid in both political ideologies is that you can escape the laws of the government, but you cannot escape the natural laws. Nature has its own laws of morality—which are contextual and not universal—which means that you are being judged according to the time, place, situation, and role you are in, and the consequences of your action create a subtle material reality called karma that lies dormant as possibility, and cannot be observed at the present until it becomes a reality later.
The laws of the government are meant to make you more moral—i.e. prevent you from creating bad karma—which means that the government has a moral duty to guide its citizens toward greater morality. This duty begins by educating the population in the moral laws of nature. If the ruler doesn’t educate the population about these laws, he or she is naturally implicated in the dereliction of duty.
But even more importantly, the moral laws of nature don’t apply equally to everyone. The crime of a hungry man stealing food to satisfy his hunger is not as big a crime as a kleptomaniac who steals out of his habitual compulsions. The judgment of right and wrong is relative to the duties, opportunities, abilities, and intentions of a person. Unintentional wrongdoing is therefore not as bad as intentional wrongdoing. Similarly, when the opportunity disallows the ideal action, then the non-ideal action is not a crime. If the person has no ability to pay taxes, then the non-payment cannot be a crime.
The natural laws of morality are contextual, but the legal laws are universal. Inducting the context into the process of decision making is the preliminary step to arriving at any moral judgment.
The Four Principles of Morality
Vedic texts describe four key principles of morality—truthfulness, kindness, austerity, and cleanliness. These are general principles with wide implications, but they don’t generally stand alone. For example, a truth that is unkind is immoral. Similarly, austerity meant to hurt others is immoral. Only a combination of the four principles—when all or most of the principles are upheld—constitutes morality.
The legitimate use of competition is the pursuit of greater morality—truthfulness, kindness, austerity, and cleanliness. The competitors can aim to exceed each other in pursuing the moral principles. And yet, this competitive stance also constitutes greater cooperation among the people because the very pursuit of these moral principles benefits the others, even as it profits the practitioner with better karma.
The competition to exceed one another in the practice of moral principles is an individualistic enterprise—the person wants to become a better person—and earns good karma in the process. And yet, the effort of becoming a better person sets the example for others to be better as well. It also benefits them materially, socially, economically, and culturally, improving their lives too.
Truthfulness builds trust, and prompts another person to be truthful. Kindness shown to other people helps them be kind to others. Austerity and renunciation sets the example for others to also renounce their narrow selfish interests. And systematic and organized living creates the example for others to emulate. You don’t always have to force others to be moral if you can set the moral example.
The Economic Benefits of Morality
This doesn’t mean the dissolution of the legal and governmental machinery, because there will always be some people who want to behave immorally. Laws, courts, and government must exist for regulating them. However, it does mean a significant reduction in the enforcement machinery, followed by the reduction in taxes, more money in people’s hands, and more individual responsibility.
When most people behave morally, the number of laws needed to control behavior reduces. The government machinery to enforce the laws, and taxes to maintain that machinery decline. The poverty and debt that follow from the taxes diminish. The individual agency and enterprise—coupled with responsibility—increases. Society is not only more moral, but also more prosperous.
The primary purpose of the government is not enacting laws, exerting taxes, and policing the people. The primary purpose is the dissemination of the understanding of the natural laws of morality such that even if a person escaped the government’s laws, he or she would not escape nature’s laws.
The hunger for power and position is not evil, if it is used toward greater morality, the uplift of society, and producing greater agency and accountability as a consequence of that. The glue that binds people in a social order is not society as a whole, nor is it the individual gain itself. The glue is the higher purpose—morality—that transcends individual and collective interest, and yet delivers both.
Religion and Morality
The principles of truthfulness, austerity, kindness, and cleanliness are not sectarian. Every religion prevailing today, or which may have prevailed in the past, upheld these principles to various extents. Indeed, religions became despicable when they rejected these principles for individual or collective well-being, treating the propagation of an ideology superior to the upholding of morality.
The real question we might be asking ourselves is this—why only these principles and not others? There are two answers to this question. First, you can take any other moral virtue—e.g. honesty, integrity, or respect—and you will find that it either reduces to the above four or follows from them. Second, it follows from the first that you can draw a ‘space’ that maps all moral values and you will find that the above four principles constitute the orthogonal dimensions of this space. This means that other values are produced through a combination of these dimensions. Respect, for instance, is a combination of truthfulness and kindness, and we have to grasp these principles in their essence; these are not just words but fundamental principles that embody the core essence of being moral.
These principles are also the leading lights for making choices. Every choice boils down to a decision between doing the right thing vs. doing the easy thing. But how do we define the right? Only something that is truthful, kind, sacrificing, and clean constitutes the right; we may be able to achieve these in a given context to varying degrees, and when they are not perfectly achievable, we have to prioritize between them—trading off some over the other. The science of morality is identifying that prioritization when all of them cannot be achieved simultaneously due to the constraints of the given situation.
The Prioritization of Moral Principles
There are often situations in the material world where the combination of all four principles is not practically possible. For instance, should we show kindness to the criminal, just because kindness is a moral virtue? How about renouncing your property for the selfish and greedy?
The conversation on morality suffers from the problem of universalization. The principles are universal but their application is contextual—if we understand the law of karma. For instance, being unkind to a criminal by punishing him is not actually unkind, because the criminal will eventually suffer the outcomes of his misdeeds. Similarly, renouncing for the selfish and greedy will further drag them toward greater selfishness, and create an even more miserable condition for them.
Therefore, being unkind or selfish with a criminal is not truly a violation of the moral principles of kindness and renunciation. It is rather a contextually just application of the morality. If we renounce the understanding of the natural principles of karma then we also create enormous confusion regarding the application of the moral principles. Therefore, in the practice of morality we have to keep both the principles, their contextual application, and above all the law of karma in mind. Only with this fuller understanding of morality can the universal and non-sectarian principles be applied correctly.
Free Will vs. Freedom
The goal of life is not to serve your fellow human being. The goal of life is also not to serve yourself. The goal of life is to serve a higher principle—the principles of morality—because by serving these principles both the self and the others are served adequately. The consciousness of the soul—called sat—connects us to others when we become aware of them, and it is sometimes called sambandha or relation. But this conscious connection creates a role for the individual in relation to the other roles.
The desires of the individual—called ananda or prayojana or purpose—are therefore bounded by their duties dictated by the role. Through the desires we are free. But through the dictates of the role in relation to others we are bound. Morality is therefore the constraint on our free will. We are not completely free, and we are not completely bound. We are rather contextually situated in roles which place restrictions on our desires, but they don’t eliminate the desires themselves.
We can call our desires free will and we can call the role in which we fulfill these desires freedom. The actions we perform using this free will within the limits of freedom are called abhidheya or give and take transactions, which correspond to the chit of the soul. Thus, the three aspects of the soul—sat, chit, and ananda—represent a complete understanding of how the soul has free will, bound by the restrictions of his relation to others, and performs his actions—ideally—within those bounds.
The spiritually enlightened person understands this model and adheres to it. The spiritually ignorant person abuses the model and gets implicated in its consequences called karma. Therefore, karma is not a permanent feature of reality; it exists only when we don’t understand the nature of the soul. Spiritual enlightenment thus frees the person from the outcomes of immoral actions. | <urn:uuid:68e13c68-06c7-444d-9f18-9d0097d036f4> | CC-MAIN-2021-10 | https://blog.shabda.co/2018/06/05/competition-and-cooperation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-10/segments/1614178385389.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20210308174330-20210308204330-00191.warc.gz | en | 0.950938 | 2,670 | 2.90625 | 3 | {
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Thermoregulation, which can be the skin’s main role, many very important functions are attributed to the skin, including protection from external physical, chemical and biological “aggressors” and prevention of excess water loss. Intrinsic skin aging is definitely an inevitable physiological process; skin cells are consistently shed after which renewed. Even so, aging impairs skin renewal and is linked using a loss of structural integrity . 2. Skin and Cell Regeneration The skin is composed of 3 layers of tissue: the hypodermis, the dermis as well as the epidermis. Epidermal cells and dermal fibroblasts play a essential part in defining the skin’s architecture and function. Their mutual interactions are closely connected to skin development, homeostasis and repair. Many epithelial stem cell (SC) populations also contribute to skin homeostasis. The human epidermis consists of four stratified layers mainly composed of keratinocytes (in several stages of progressive differentiation) and melanocytes. The epidermis is stratified, in ascending order, into basal, spinous, granular, and cornified layers. The dermis tends to make up the majority of the skin mass. The structure of the dermis is dense fibroelastic connective tissue that supports in depth vascularity, nerve networks,Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2020, 21, 2598; doi:10.3390/ijms21072598 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijmsInt. J. Mol. Sci. 2020, 21,2 ofand specialized sweat glands and hair appendages. The dermis is colonized by fibroblasts surrounded by the components of the dermal extracellular matrix (ECM). Collagen, elastic fibers, glycoproteins, and proteoglycans are present within this matrix. Many genetic and acquired illnesses are a outcome of impaired function of skin ECM or its elements . In the skin, integrins are cell surface receptors that mediate cell-to-ECM and cell-to-cell adhesion. These integrins also lead the ECM to physically link the intracellular actin cytoskeleton, therefore making a mechanical force. Integrin v6, that is exclusively expressed in epithelial cells, activates transforming development factor-1 (TGF-1), major towards the modulation of innate immune surveillance of the skin. Interestingly, upregulation of integrin v6 in wounds coincides with regeneration from the basement membrane zone . The basal layer consists of mitotically active cells that populate the outer epidermis, which is composed of a minimum of 80 keratinocytes. The basal layer is deemed the headquarters of cell regeneration. This regeneration is achieved in a hierarchic manner by SCs and transit-amplifying cells. SCs are in a position to self-renew and are maintained Compound 48/80 Data Sheet throughout a person’s lifetime. They contribute to epidermal renewal and repair by constantly producing pools of transit-amplifying progenitors . The precise nature of SC division has been studied. The functions of this population of cells have already been examined, principally in connection using the properties of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). MSCs are multipotent SCs which have proliferation potential, high self-renewal, and differentiation potential. MSCs are critical cells in the skin as they contribute to the ongoing regeneration from the epidermis . The skin is equipped with nerve fibers that convey sensory data for touch, Siglec Proteins custom synthesis temperature, and pain. These nerves are probably slowly conducting, unmyelinated C-fibers and thinly-myelinated A-fibers. Our sense of touch is controlled by a big program of nerve endings called the somatosensory technique . When the skin is inflamed, keratinocy. | <urn:uuid:c80d9137-7228-4b13-8091-947f4edd4d66> | CC-MAIN-2022-49 | https://adenosine-kinase.com/2022/11/21/6348/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-49/segments/1669446710690.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20221129064123-20221129094123-00232.warc.gz | en | 0.919268 | 818 | 2.90625 | 3 | {
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Are you curious about Castor Oil Uses and are you asking yourself, what is castor oil used for? YES!!!
The oil is found in the soaps you lather on your skin, the inks you use for printing and the plastic goods you use every day. Unlike other vegetable oils with limited applications, it plays a notable role in conventional medicine and in the industrial world, among many other areas.
Castor oil, which is derived from the castor bean plant, is valuable because of its myriad uses. To give you an idea, here’s a lowdown of the early and modern uses.
Castor Oil Uses during the Early Time
Castor oil has long been used throughout history. It was reportedly used for medicinal purposes in Ancient Egypt and in the early middle Ages in Europe. It was then regarded as a folk medicine.
Edgar Cayce, who authored the Encyclopedia of Healing, said that castor oil supported the healing of the small intestines, particularly the lymphatic tissue – this allowed for tissue growth and repair.
Modern Castor Oil Uses
In the recent centuries, however, natural castor oil was at first identified as a laxative and as a lubricant. Mothers used to feed it to their children as a relief for tummy aches. When taken orally, castor oil helped ease the pain of constipation and mild diarrhea. On the other hand, it was used to lubricate the wheels of wagons and carts. It was also used as an aircraft lubricant during the First World War.
Later into the 20th century, chemical studies have discovered castor oil’s multi-purpose potential. Castor oil and its derivatives are used extensively in:
- Medicine – Castor oil benefits the medical world. It is US FDA-approved for use in treating skin disorders. It is also a component of many modern drugs.
- Cosmetics – Lipsticks, shampoos and other cosmetic products contain this oil.
- Industrial Applications – Castor oil helps in the manufacturing of soaps, plastics, synthetic resins, fibers, paints, varnishes, lubricants, dyes, leather treatments, greases, hydraulic fluids, machining oils, rubbers, and sealants. Certain chemicals such as sebacic acid and undecylenic acid were produced from castor oil.
- Food – Food additives and flavorings make use of castor oil ingredients.
- Naturopathy – Naturopathic practitioners claim that castor oil helps strengthen the immune system.
Castor oil’s uses span far and wide. It has explored every field imaginable and has found a niche in each one. And with the steady chemical research that is being done, for sure, castor oil will still be applied in more items later on.
Funny, not a word of "Labor Inducer"?!?!?
Sounds like multi purpose stuff!!! Kinda like duck tape!!! | <urn:uuid:cc735af2-1c69-4a7d-bbb6-460cc90216fb> | CC-MAIN-2014-23 | http://community.babycenter.com/post/a27576221/the_history_of_castor_oil...._amusing. | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-23/segments/1406510264575.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20140728011744-00403-ip-10-146-231-18.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958169 | 604 | 2.734375 | 3 | {
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Communication Networks/OSI Reference Model
||A Wikibookian has nominated this page for cleanup.
You can help make it better. Please review any relevant discussion.
This page will discuss the OSI Reference Model
|Layer||What It Does|
|Application Layer||The application layer is what the user of the computer will see and interact with. This layer is the "Application" that the programmer develops.|
|Presentation Layer||The Presentation Layer is involved in formatting the data into a human-readable format, and translating different languages, etc...|
|Session Layer||The Session Layer will maintain different connections, in case a single application wants to connect to multiple remote sites (or form multiple connections with a single remote site).|
|Transport Layer||The Transport Layer will handle data transmissions, and will differentiate between Connection-Oriented transmissions (TCP) and connectionless transmissions (UDP)|
|Network Layer||The Network Layer allows different machines to address each other logically, and allows for reliable data transmission between computers (IP)|
|Data-Link Layer||The Data-Link Layer is the layer that determines how data is sent through the physical channel. Examples of Data-Link protocols are "Ethernet" and "PPP".|
|Physical Layer||The Physical Layer consists of the physical wires, or the antennas that comprise the physical hardware of the transmission system. Physical layer entities include WiFi transmissions, and 100BaseT cables.|
What It Does
The OSI model allows for different developers to make products and software to interface with other products, without having to worry about how the layers below are implemented. Each layer has a specified interface with layers above and below it, so everybody can work on different areas without worrying about compatibility.
Higher level layers handle the data first, so higher level protocols will touch packets in a descending order. Let's say we have a terminal system that uses TCP protocol in the transport layer, IP in the network layer, and Ethernet in the Data Link layer. This is how the packet would get created:
1. Our application creates a data packet
2. TCP creates a TCP Packet:
- |TCP Header|Data|
3. IP creates an IP packet:
- |IP Header|TCP Header|Data|CRC|
4. Ethernet Creates an Ethernet Frame:
- |Ethernet Header|IP Header|TCP Header|Data|CRC|
On the receiving end, the layers receive the data in the reverse order:
1. Ethernet Layer reads and removes Ethernet Header:
- |IP Header|TCP Header|Data|CRC|
2. IP layer reads the IP header and checks the CRC for errors
- |TCP Header|Data|
3. TCP Layer reads TCP header
4. Application reads data.
It is important to note that multiple TCP packets can be squeezed into a single IP packet, and multiple IP packets can be put together into an Ethernet Frame.
Network Layer is responsible for transmitting messages hop by hop. The major internet layer protocols exist in this layer. Internet Protocol (IP) plays as a major component among all others, but we will also discuss other protocols, such as Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Network Address Translation (NAT), and Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP). Network layer does not guarantee the reliable communication and delivery of data.
Network Layer Functionality
Network Layer is responsible for transmitting datagrams hop by hop, which sends from station to station until the messages reach their destination. Each computer should have a unique IP address assigned as an interface to identify itself from the network. When a message arrives from Transport Layer, IP looks for the message addresses, performs encapsulation and add a header end to become a datagram, and passes to the Data Link Layer. As for the same at the receive side, IP performs decapsulation and remove network layer header, and then sends to the Transport Layer. The network model illustrates below:
Figure 1 Network Layer in OSI Model
When a datagram sends from the source to the destination, here are simple steps on how IP works with a datagram travels:
- Upper-layer application sends a packet to the Network Layer.
- Data calculation by checksum.
- IP header and datagram constructs.
- Routing through gateways.
- Each gateways IP layer performs checksum. If checksum does not match, the datagram will be dropped and an error message will send back to the sending machine. Along the way, if TTL decrements to 0, the same result will occur. And, the destination address routing path will be determined on every stop as the datagram passes along the internetwork.
- Datagram gets to the Network Layer of destination.
- Checksum calculation performs.
- IP header takes out.
- Message passes to upper-layer application.
Figure 2 IP Characteristic in Network Layer
In Network Layer, there exist other protocols, such as Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) and Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), but, however, IP holds a big part among all.
Figure3 Internet Protocol in Network Layer
In addition, IP is a connectionless protocol, which means each packet acts as individual and passes through the Internet independently. There is sequence, but no sequence tracking on packets on the traveling, which no guarantee, in result of unreliable transmission. | <urn:uuid:91f82cfa-1781-401b-af86-a4fbcae2158c> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Communication_Networks/OSI_Reference_Model | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501171608.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104611-00557-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.828629 | 1,124 | 3.859375 | 4 | {
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Difference between revisions of "Bali"
Revision as of 23:02, 23 November 2012
Bali, the famed Island of the Gods, with its varied landscape of hills and mountains, rugged coastlines and sandy beaches, lush rice terraces and barren volcanic hillsides all providing a picturesque backdrop to its colourful, deeply spiritual and unique culture, stakes a serious claim to be paradise on earth.
Bali is one of more than 17,000 islands in the Indonesian archipelago and is located just over 2 kilometres (almost 1.5 miles) from the eastern tip of the island of Java and west of the island of Lombok. The island, home to about 4 million people, is approximately 144 kilometres (90 mi.) from east to west and 80 kilometres (50 mi.) north to south.
With world-class surfing and diving, a large number of cultural, historical and archaeological attractions, and an enormous range of accommodations, this is one of the world's most popular island destinations and one which consistently wins travel awards. Bali has something to offer a very broad market of visitors from young back-packers right through to the super-rich.
The word "paradise" is used a lot in Bali and not without reason. The combination of friendly, hospitable people, a magnificently visual culture infused with spirituality and (not least) spectacular beaches with great surfing and diving have made Bali Indonesia's unrivaled number one tourist attraction. Eighty percent of international visitors to Indonesia visit Bali and Bali alone.
The popularity is not without its flip sides—once paradisiacal Kuta has degenerated into a congested warren of concrete, touts and scammers extracting a living by overcharging tourists. The island's visibility has also drawn the unwanted attention of terrorists in 2002 and 2005; however Bali has managed to retain its magic. Bali is a wonderful destination with something for everyone, and though heavily travelled, it is still easy to find some peace and quiet, if you like.
A consideration is the tourist season and Bali can get very crowded in July and August and again at Christmas and New Year. Australians also visit during school holidays in early April, late June and late September, while domestic tourists from elsewhere in Indonesia visit during national holidays. Outside these peak seasons, Bali can be surprisingly quiet and good discounts on accommodation are often available.
The first Hindus arrived in Bali as early as 100 BC, but the unique culture which is so apparent to any current day visitor to Bali hails largely from neighbouring Java, with some influence from Bali's distant animist past. The Javanese Majapahit Empire's rule over Bali became complete in the 14th century when Gajah Mada, Prime Minister of the Javanese king, defeated the Balinese king at Bedulu.
The rule of the Majapahit Empire resulted in the initial influx of Javanese culture, most of all in architecture, dance, painting, sculpture and the wayang puppet theatre. All of this is still very apparent today. The very few Balinese who did not adopt this Javanese Hindu culture are known today as the Bali Aga ("original Balinese") and still live in the isolated villages of Tenganan near Candidasa and Trunyan on the remote eastern shore of Lake Batur at Kintamani.
With the rise of Islam in the Indonesian archipelago, the Majapahit Empire in Java fell and Bali became independent near the turn of the 16th century. The Javanese aristocracy found refuge in Bali, bringing an even stronger influx of Hindu arts, literature and religion.
Divided among a number of ruling rajas, occasionally battling off invaders from now Islamic Java to the west and making forays to conquer Lombok to the east, the north of the island was finally captured by the Dutch colonialists in a series of brutal wars from 1846 to 1849. Southern Bali was not conquered until 1906, and eastern Bali did not surrender until 1908. In both 1906 and 1908, many Balinese chose death over disgrace and fought en-masse until the bitter end, often walking straight into Dutch cannons and gunfire. This manner of suicidal fighting to the death is known as puputan. Victory was bittersweet, as the images of the puputan highly tarnished the Dutch in the international community. Perhaps to make up for this, the Dutch did not make the Balinese enter into a forced cultivation system, as had happened in Java, and instead tried to promote Balinese culture through their policy of Baliseering or the "Balinisation of Bali".
Bali became part of the newly independent Republic of Indonesia in 1945. In 1965, after the failed coup d'etat which was allegedly backed by the Communist Party (PKI), state-instigated, anti-communist violence spread across Indonesia. In Bali, it has been said that the rivers ran red with the reprisal killings of suspected communists—most estimates of the death toll say 80,000, or about five percent of the population of Bali at the time.
The current chapter in Bali's history began in the seventies when intrepid hippies and surfers discovered Bali's beaches and waves, and tourism soon became the biggest income earner. Despite the shocks of the terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2005, the magical island continues to draw crowds, and Bali's culture remains as spectacular as ever.
Unlike any other island in largely Muslim Indonesia, Bali is a pocket of Hindu religion and culture. Every aspect of Balinese life is suffused with religion, but the most visible signs are the tiny offerings (canang sari, or sesajen) found in every Balinese house, work place, restaurant, souvenir stall and airport check-in desk. These leaf trays are made daily and can contain an enormous range of offering items: flowers, glutinous rice, cookies, salt, and even cigarettes and coffee! They are set out with burning incense sticks and sprinkled with holy water no less than three times a day, before every meal. Don't worry if you step on one, as they are placed on the ground for this very purpose and will be swept away anyway (But you better not stepping one on purpose, because - as Balinese belive - it'll give you bad luck!).
Balinese Hinduism diverged from the mainstream well over 500 years ago and is quite radically different from what you would see in India. The primary deity is Sanghyang Widi Wasa (Acintya), the "all-in-one god" for which other gods like Vishnu (Wisnu) and Shiva (Civa) are merely manifestations, and instead of being shown directly, he is depicted by an empty throne wrapped in the distinctive poleng black-and-white chessboard pattern and protected by a ceremonial tedung umbrella.
The Balinese are master sculptors, and temples and courtyards are replete with statues of gods and goddesses like Dewi Sri, the goddess of rice and fertility, as well as guardians and protecting demons like toothy Rakasa, armed with a club. These days, though, entire villages like Batubulan have twigged onto the tourist potential and churn out everything imaginable from Buddhas to couples entwined in acrobatic poses for the export market.
Balinese dance and music are also justly famous and a major attraction for visitors to the island. As on neighbouring Java, the gamelan orchestra and wayang kulit shadow puppet theatre predominate. Dances are extremely visual and dramatic, and the most famous include:
There are an estimated 20,000 temples (pura) on the island, each of which holds festivals (odalan) at least twice yearly. With many other auspicious days throughout the year there are always festivities going on.
The large island-wide festivals are determined by two local calendars. The 210 day wuku or Pawukon calendar is completely out of sync with the western calendar, meaning that it rotates wildly throughout the year. The lunar saka (caka) calendar roughly follows the western year.
All national public holidays in Indonesia apply in Bali, although Ramadan is naturally a much smaller event here than in the country's Muslim regions.
With its truly unique culture, Bali has inevitably been the subject of much attention from anthropologists, both amateur and professional. At a more informal level, much has been written about the island by interested visitors and artists in particular, some of whom made Bali their home. The following is a short list of such reading that would benefit any visitor before and during their visit to the island.
Daytime temperatures are pleasant, varying between 20-33⁰ C (68-93⁰ F) year-round. From December to March, the west monsoon can bring heavy showers and high humidity, but days are still often sunny with the rains starting in the late afternoon or evening and passing quickly. From June to September, the humidity is low and it can be quite cool in the evenings. At this time of the year there is hardly any rain in the lowland coastal areas.
Electricity is supplied at 220V 50Hz. Outlets are the European standard CEE-7/7 "Schukostecker" or "Schuko" or the compatible, but non-grounded, CEE-7/16 "Europlug" types. American and Canadian travellers should pack a voltage-changing adapter for these outlets if they plan to use North American electrical equipment (although a lot of electronics with power adapters will work on 220 volts, check your equipment first).
Tourism information centres
Some major destinations in Bali have their own tourism offices; contact details are given in the relevant destination articles.
Balinese is linguistically very different from Bahasa Indonesia, although the latter is the lingua franca in Indonesia and is spoken by practically everyone in Bali. In tourist regions, English and some other foreign languages are widely spoken. Balinese is a difficult language, and any visitor who makes an effort to speak a few words will be especially warmly received by the local people.
Most visitors will arrive at Ngurah Rai International Airport (IATA: DPS) , also known as Denpasar International Airport. Despite this misleading name, the airport is actually located in Tuban between Kuta and Jimbaran, roughly 30 mins away from Denpasar.
A number of domestic airlines operate as LCC - low cost or budget carriers. It is a difficult distinction for some operators as they may be using a low cost model but not promoting or identifying themselves as doing this. Wings Air is a LCC of Lion Air, Citilink is a LCC of Garuda Airlines. Some are smaller regional operators REG or feeder airlines.
A number of International airlines serve this airport including several LCC - low cost or budget carriers
International arrivals procedures
All passports must be valid for a minimum of 6 months from the date of entry into Indonesia and have at least 2 blank pages available for stamps.
There are three ways of entering Indonesia:
For details on visa requirements please see the main article on Indonesia
Visitors arriving in Bali by air from a point of origin outside Indonesia will be clearing customs and immigration at Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport may require the purchase of a visa on arrival (VOA). As of January 2010, the only type of visa on arrival available is US$25.00 for 30 days. This may be extended later at the local Immigration office for a further once only period of up to 30 days. (The previous 7 day visa on arrival is no longer available). Exact change in dollars is recommended, although a selection of other major currencies including rupiah are accepted, and any change will usually be given in rupiah. Credit cards are accepted in Bali (but don't count on the service working). See the main Indonesia article for more details.
Arriving passengers are passed through VOA (visa on arrival) issuance if applicable, then subsequently processed through immigration clearance channels for VOA, Non VOA (if the visa has been obtained prior to the time of departure), Visa waiver (for eligible nationalities) and a separate channel for Indonesian passport holders. Baggage retrieval is followed by customs and quarantine examinations including baggage X-ray checkpoints.
Tourism visit visas can be issued in advance at some Indonesian embassies prior to departure. Check well in advance of your proposed departure date at the Indonesian embassy or consulate in your home country.
Citizens holding passports from Brunei, Chile, Ecuador, Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region), Macau SAR (Special Administrative Region), Malaysia, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam are eligible for the Visa waiver program and do not require visas to enter and remain for 30 days within Indonesia. These visas cannot be extended or converted to another type of visa.
The airport will not win any awards for style, but it is functional enough and has the usual complement of overpriced restaurants, duty-free shops and other services. ATMs which accept Cirrus and Plus cards for withdrawals are available in airport departure and arrival areas and a range money changing kiosks including some operated by Indonesian banks such as BNI, BCA and Mandiri are available at the airport.
Security protocols including passenger and baggage screening are similar to other large international airports in the region. Limitations similar to those in the EU and US are placed upon the carrying of fluids and other so- called security items in hand luggage. International passengers should be prepared for scrutiny of their baggage, including all carry-on items. When departing, you will likely pass through a total of three security checkpoints, and possibly a further one at the boarding gate, so be patient, particularly when things are busy.
Security protocols at the domestic terminal are similar to those applied at other Indonesian domestic hub airports, with baggage and carry-on screening, x-ray, metal detection, hand inspections and other security measures in place for departing passengers.
Be mindful of airport porters who may attempt to take control of your luggage either adjacent to or immediately adjacent to the baggage claim or in other sections of the airport. These porters may look quite similar to actual airport officials and may carry a name badge. If you do not wish to engage the services of a porter, then a firm but polite "no" should suffice. If you do accept their services then a payment is required with Rp 5,000 being the standard charge. Many of the porters demand money if they have been successful in picking up your bag, even if you tell them not to do so. Most certainly do not pay them if they do this and completely ignore any demands they make for payment or any other 'services' they may claim to be able to provide.
When departing from Bali, you are subject to the airport departure tax which can be paid in cash in Indonesian Rupiah only, so save some bills for the trip out. The airport departure tax is Rp 150,000 for international departures and Rp 40,000 for domestic departures. Infants under 2 years of age are exempted from departure tax (but not Visa On Arrival).
Departing Bali to overseas destinations can be a fraught experience. Corruption is rife (the most corrupt airport in Indonesia by far) and immigration, customs and airport officials operate a large number of scams aimed at relieving departing passengers of as much of their remaining cash as possible. The most common scam is to claim that souvenirs require export licenses (you can choose to fill out the supposedly necessary paperwork but there's so much of it you would miss your flight were you to complete it all. Fortunately the happy scammers have an easy solution - hand over lots of money [a few hundred thousand rupiah might be enough if that's all you've got in your wallet but amounts asked can range up to millions of rupiah/hundreds of dollars] and the license problem can be miraculously sorted out.) No license is required for anything other than antiques. Or it could be that you will be told of an excise duty that is payable. Other scams include removing alcohol from luggage, individuals charging departure tax (its payable at a booth and a receipt is stuck to the boarding pass), refusal to accept unwrapped checked luggage (meaning you have to pay to have your luggage wrapped in plastic shrink-wrap), and, on the way in, demanding cash deposits for expensive goods to ensure that they won't be sold (but, of course, there's no way to reclaim your deposit when you leave).
The adjacent island of Lombok also has a new international airport and in the near future it is likely to be able to assist in balancing the incoming traffic load by reducing some of the onward destination traffic currently arriving in Bali. The new airport in Lombok also provides a nearby safe alternative landing site for wide-bodied aircraft in case of any emergency.
Get from the airport
In terms of transportation from the airport, Ngurah Rai is not too bad, but is far from being perfect too. Some hotels organise free transfers from the airport, but plenty of public taxis are also available: go to the ticketing booth, on the right side just after the exit, buy a fixed-fare ticket and a driver will be assigned to you trouble-free. However, the ticketing booth closes after the last flight arrival for the day and re-opens at 8 am, so anyone wanting an airport taxi during this period should be prepared to haggle or seek the alternatives described below.
If you are travelling on a restricted budget, you can flag down a Blue Bird Taxi from outside the airport gate (3-5 minutes walk from both terminals). Blue Bird Taxis are safe and reliable, and their metered fares are somewhat cheaper than the prepaid taxi fares. Depending on how much baggage you have and how bulky it is, you might want to evaluate whether all that extra effort is worth it to save a few dollars. Metered ride to Kuta, for example, would generally cost Rp 20,000 to 30,000.
If you do make the effort to walk outside the airport to the street, you can also flag down a bemo (local minivan). Most of the bemos in this area will be heading to Kuta (road to Kuta heads to the left if looking out from the airport gate), but don't absolutely bank on it, and be prepared for a hot, crowded journey. It should cost no more than a few thousand rupiah per person (ask the driver beforehand).
Ferries cross from Ketapang on the island of Java to Gilimanuk in western Bali every 15 min, 24 hr every day. These are very cheap, and the crossing takes just 30 min (plus sometimes considerable waiting around for loading and unloading).
A number of speedboats and catamarans operate into Benoa Harbour near Kuta (~2 hr) and Padangbai (80 min) from the Gili Islands of Lombok. These are convenient for some travellers but are frequently priced much higher than the equivalent air crossing. Crossing times are subject to weather and other operational conditions and trip times can longer than those publicised.
Caution should be used in selecting a suitable operator and craft for a fast boat crossing to Lombok. Some of the operators on these routes use inappropriate equipment and have inadequate levels of crew training, personnel and safety equipment. The Lombok Strait fast boat crossing can be subject to inclement weather and equipment breakdowns. Boarding an overloaded craft or departing in adverse weather conditions may lead to serious disappointment. Currently there are no operators offering craft suitable for open water all-weather crossings. Rather they are operating light duty hulled craft of fibreglass or aluminium construction powered by outboard petrol engines. One of the current operators plans to introduce a more suitably specified and equipped craft sometime in the 1st or 2nd quarter of 2011. The new boat will be powered by diesel inboard engines and have a more robust hull construction appropriate to open water use. A previous craft of similar specification was withdrawn from this route as operations could not be sustained in competition with the lower cost base alternatives. Two of the light duty craft have already sunk whilst carrying passengers, fortunately they had not yet entered open waters at the time, fortunately nearby assistance was available and there were no fatalities.
There are also public ferries from Lembar, Lombok, to Padang Bai every few hours, with the trip taking around 3 to 4 hours. This service has a notable safety, operational and equipment standards issues, some ferries are better than others, or worse depending upon your perspective. Delays are commonplace due to loading and unloading issues and services may be cancelled or postponed during periods of inclement weather. It may be prudent to avoid sea crossings during the monsoonal period when sea conditions may lead to deteriorated comfort levels or a dangerous crossing.
Cruise ships occasionally stop so that passengers can tour or shop. Some ships still anchor off-shore toward the southeast side of the island and tender guests to shore. Modest-sized ships can choose to dock at the port of Benoa not far from Denpasar, Kuta and Sanur. The dock area is basically industrial, with few amenities and no ATMs, but masses of taxis are usually ready to whisk you to nearby destinations at a moderate cost.
Bali is a fairly large island and you will need a method to get around if you plan on exploring more than the hotel pool. Rapid, seemingly uncontrolled development and an aging infrastructure, mean that the roads struggle to cope. In major tourist areas the traffic is chaotic, and there are daily jams. Particular blackspots are Ubud, Kuta, Seminyak and Denpasar.
For different excursions around the island, it is common to join a tour via your hotel or at one of the many street agencies which are found everywhere in booths normally marked "Tourist Information".
Once you arrive at your destination you may encounter difficult walking conditions as sidewalks in most parts of Bali are simply the covered tops of storm-water drains and in many places only 60cm (2 ft) wide. This makes for uncomfortable single-file walking next to traffic. Often sidewalks are blocked by a motorbike or a caved-in section, necessitating dangerous darting into traffic. Many of the island's conventional streets are simply not pedestrian-friendly. Beach areas and major tourist areas are easier to walk around and Sanur in particular has a wide beachfront pathway with many cafes and bars. But although the walking conditions are difficult, they are by no means impossible. Lots of tourists and locals travel the roads by foot and even the traffic is generally very accommodating to pedestrians if it is given time to react.
The Perama bus company serves the budget traveller well in Bali and beyond, and they have offices in several major tourist destinations on the island.
There are other scheduled shuttle buses between many of Bali's most popular destinations, and these are cheap and reliable. Check locally advertised services (you cannot miss them) and book one day in advance.
A new Trans Sarbagita government bus service operates on Bali since August 2011 . The buses are comfortable, air-conditioned (similar to Transjakarta Busway but even more spacious), and the fare is only Rp 3,500. These buses stop only at permanent elevated bus stops built on the road curb. As of June 2012, only Route 2 was operating (Route 1 and Route 3 are planned to be open soon).
The buses serving Route 2 start from Batubulan bemo terminal, go via Jalan Bypass Ngurah Rai (stopping in Sanur on the way) and Hanuman statue roundabout to Central Parkir Kuta (near Giant supermarket on Jalan Raya Kuta, a kilometer or so inland from the main tourist areas of Kuta), make a loop via Sunset Road back to Hanuman statue, and go south all the way to Nusa Dua, then go back. For visitors, the main advantage is there's no need now to change bemos and to deal with 2-3 bemo drivers to get to Batubulan terminal (from where direct bemos to Ubud, Kintamani and other north and north-eastern destinations are available) or to Sanur. Those going to Nusa Dua or Benoa may find the southern part of the route useful. The bus stop nearest to the airport is Central Parkir Kuta, a Blue Bird taxi caught outside of the airport gate will cost you around Rp 25,000. If boarding at Central Parkir Kuta, beware that both southbound (Nusa Dua) and northbound (Batubulan) buses seem to use the same stop - if no signs on the bus, ask the conductor or other people waiting for the bus.
Metered taxis are very common in southern Bali as far north as Denpasar but few and far between elsewhere. The starting flagfall charge is Rp 5,000 for the first two kilometres and the meter ticks up Rp 5,000 per km after that. Waiting time is charged at Rp 30,000 per hour. Trips outside southern Bali will incur an extra charge of 30%, as the driver has to go back empty.
By far the largest and most reliable taxi company is Bali Taksi/Blue Bird; they have a telephone call service ☎ +62 361 701111 for both instant taxis and for advance bookings. If you are hailing a taxi on the street, Bali Taksi cars are sky blue with a white top light. The cars are modern and the drivers well-informed with a decent level of English-language ability. There are several other reliable taxi companies but these are not always easy to identify. If entering a taxi with no working meter, you can negotiate a price if you know how to bargain. Alternatively, always insist on the meter being turned on, and leave the taxi if that request is not met.
If day-tripping, it is often cheaper and more convenient to arrange for your taxi to wait and take you back.
Bemos are minivans which serve as a flexible bus service and are Bali's "traditional" form of transportation. However they have largely given way to metered taxis in the south. Fares on shared bemos can be very cheap, but drivers will often insist that foreign tourists charter the entire vehicle, in which case they will usually ask for a price equivalent to a taxi or even more.
By self-drive car or motorbike
Driving in Bali is on the left-hand side. Car and motorbike rentals are widely available but you should think very carefully about your ability to handle driving in Bali with its lack of formal traffic rules. Consider hiring a car and driver as you can relax, be safe and not get lost. If you rent a car to drive yourself, a modern four door Toyota Avanza or Daihatsu Xenia should cost Rp 200,000-250,000 per day. If on a tighter budget, you should be able to get an old, rough Suzuki Jimny from about Rp 90,000 to 110,000 per day.
Renting motorcycles or scooters can be a frightening yet fascinating experience. They are typically 125cc, some with automatic transmissions, and rent for between Rp 40,000 and 100,000 per day (for a week or more, cheaper price can be bargained). In areas outside of the tourist enclaves of south Bali, a motorbike is a wonderful way to see the island, but in south Bali, with its crush of traffic, the chances of an accident are greatly increased. Bali is no place to learn to ride a motorbike.
A word of warning when renting motorbikes. A sizeable number of travellers seem to leave their brains at home when visiting Bali and think it is acceptable to ride a motorbike through extremely busy streets in a foreign land without wearing a helmet. Obviously, it is not. You are both showing a great deal of arrogance as a guest in foreign country by thinking you are above the law of that country, and putting yourself at risk. When you rent a motorbike you will be given a helmet, so wear it.
An International Driving Permit (IDP) is required for vehicle rental, with a motorcycle endorsement if renting a motorbike. The IDP is seldom requested by the person renting you the vehicle but will be required (along with the vehicle's registration papers) if stopped by the police (typically a Rp 50,000 "fine" will allow you to keep driving). An IDP is easily available from motoring clubs in your home country (e.g., AAA and the American Automobile Touring Alliance in the United States provides them for around US$15) and it is valid for one year.
By rental car with a driver
Rental car services owned by individuals or companies are easy to find in Bali and this is the best option for first time visitors. Using a rental car with a driver is certainly cheaper than taxis and far more efficient than using other public transportation. The drivers are usually English-speaking and they can also act as informal tourist guides recommending good destinations and restaurants. Choosing to rent from a large car company is naturally more expensive than sourcing from a private individual. Ask hotel staff to recommend a good individually owned rental car with a knowledgeable driver.
Price varies between Rp 300,000 to 600,000 per day (usually defined as 10 hr) depending on your negotiation skills and the class/age of the car. Make sure the price includes petrol and driver for the day. Petrol costs, after the removal of some government subsidies in recent years, have escalated dramatically (although still very cheap by international standards) and the distance travelled is a factor if you have not fixed a daily price. Entrance tickets to tourist destinations and any parking fees will be charged to you and it is good form to buy lunch for your driver. For those on a tight schedule, visiting most of the major tourist destinations in Bali will need about 3 days with a rental car and driver.
Travel by bicycle is quite possible and provides a very different experience than other means of transport. You should bring your own touring bike, or buy locally—there is at least one well stocked bike shop in Denpasar, but with a racing/mountain bike focus. Bicycles are also widely available for rent and some of the better hotels will even provide them free of charge. While traffic conditions may appear challenging at first, you will acclimatise after a few days, especially once you escape the chaotic heavy traffic of southern Bali.
Bali's best-known attractions are its countless Hindu temples. Each village is required by adat (customary law) to construct and maintain at least three temples: the pura puseh (temple of origin) located at the kaja (pure) side of the village, the pura desa (village temple) at the centre for everyday community activities and the pura dalem (temple of the dead) at the kelod (unclean) end. Wealthy villages may well have more than these three obligatory temples, and additionally all family compounds have a temple of some nature.
The nine directional temples (kayangan jagat) are the largest and most prominent. These are located at strategic points across Bali and are designed to protect the island and its inhabitants from dark forces. Pura Luhur Uluwatu (Uluwatu Temple), at the southern tip of Bali, is easily accessed and hence very popular, as is Tanah Lot. For the Balinese, the "mother temple" of Besakih on the slopes of Mount Agung is the most important of all and sits above the nine. The other seven directional temples are Pura Ulun Danu Bratan, Pura Ulun Danu Batur, Pura Pasar Agung, Pura Lempuyang Luhur, Goa Lawah, Pura Masceti and Pura Luhur Batukaru. All of these are located on either rugged high ground or at the water's edge, and this is a clear indication of the likely source of dark forces as far as the Balinese are concerned.
Balinese temple design is an involved subject and one which baffles many visitors. Local geography has a fundamental effect on design, and two temples are rarely the same. Everything you see, be it decorative or structural, has a specific, well-considered function which may be of an earthly or spiritual nature. There are, though, general elements which are common to the vast majority of temples, which are always split into three courtyards: jaba (outer courtyard) , jaba tengah (middle courtyard) and jeroan (inner courtyard). Each of these courtyards contains various structures and/or shrines of differing levels of importance.
The tiered, black-thatched roofs that you see on temples are made from a palm fibre, and this material is not permitted to be used for any roof other than those on temples. The elegant, pagoda-like tiered structure is itself called a meru (named after sacred Mount Meru (Mahameru), the home of the gods), and the most dramatic of them can consist of as many as 11 tiers. The number of tiers, though, is always an odd number.
The temple entrance is always on the kelod axis point (facing away from Mount Agung) of the compound and is usually a gateway of some nature. This leads into the jaba which is the domain of humans and all things earthly. The jaba contains only minor shrines, is where some celebratory dance performances take place, and during special ceremonies is where the foods stalls are set up. Non-Hindu tourists are nearly always allowed to visit this part of a temple.
A gateway called a candi bentar leads into the central courtyard which is called the jaba tengah. This is the intermediary point between our earthly domain and the realm of the Gods, and this is where daily offerings are prepared in an open pavilion called a paon. The jaba tengah also usually contains a large pavilion called a wantilan, which is used for special dance performances.
The kori agung gate leads into the jeroan—the inner sacred area. This houses the most important shrines to different Hindu gods and deities and is where serious rituals and prayers take place. Shrines are many and varied but usually include a padmasana, the throne of the supreme deity Sanghyang Widi Wasa. The large pavilion in this section is called a gedong pariman, which is always left completely empty to allow the gods to visit during ceremonies. Sometimes properly dressed visitors will be allowed into the jeroan and at other times not; it depends on the individual temple and the ceremonies that have been, or are about to be, performed.
The most common and practical architectural features to be found in virtually all temples are gazebo pavilions called bales. Each has a raised seating section and either an alang-alang (grass-thatched) or tali duk (black palm fibre-thatched) roof and has a myriad of social functions. Bales can serve as a place for the gamelan orchestra to sit, as a village meeting point, host dance performances or simply be a place of rest for worshipers. This part of traditional Balinese temple architecture has been copied by hotels all over the island and in the wider world. The open grass-roofed pavilions you see everywhere in Bali are all derived from this original piece of temple design.
To enter any temple you must be appropriately dressed with a sarong and sash. These are always available for rental at the large temples which attract a lot of tourists (usually included if you're paying to enter, else a few thousand rupiah per set), but it's better to buy one of each when you arrive and use them throughout your visit.
Most of the coastline of Bali is fringed by beaches of some type, with the exceptions being some important areas of mangrove forest in the southeast, and certain parts of the Bukit Peninsula where high cliffs drop straight to the crashing waves of the Indian Ocean.
Unsurprisingly, given the volcanic nature of the island, black sand is the norm, but there are also some beaches in the south which have fine-grained white sand. Beaches that are especially safe for swimming include Jimbaran Bay and virtually all of the north coast. At all times though, visitors should be aware of and obey local swimming safety markers—far too many visitors to Bali drown each year after ignoring these. Bali's popular southern beaches are sometimes not the cleanest you will find. This is particularly true during the height of the wet season (December to January), when the heavy rains cause extensive agricultural run-off and garbage to be washed onto the beaches.
Away from the coast, Bali is largely lush, green and fertile, and rice paddies are the dominant agricultural feature of the island. In some areas, paddies take the form of dramatic sculpted terraces which efficiently utilise every available acre of land for cultivation. Especially beautiful examples of terraced paddies can be found in the centre of the island north of Ubud and in east Bali around Tirta Gangga. Elsewhere, gently rolling rice fields make for very pleasing rural scenery.
All of Bali's mountains are volcanoes, some long dormant and some still active. At 3,142 metres, magnificent Mount Agung dominates the landscape of East Bali and has not erupted since 1963. Much more active is Mount Batur, which permanently smoulders and periodically produces a large bang and plumes of ashy smoke as pressure is released from within. Taking only 2 hr to climb, Batur is one of the most accessible active volcanoes in the whole of Indonesia.
Art, both traditional and modern, is everywhere in Bali and impossible to miss. Ubud is the artistic capital of the island with several museums and a variety of informal workshops and retail outlets. Ubud's museums showcase the works of local artists, both living and dead, as well as works by many foreign artists, who either have a strong affinity to Bali or have made the island their permanent home.
A sad reminder of the modern world is the Bali Bomb Memorial on Jalan Legian in Kuta, which commemorates the 202 victims of the first Bali Bomb attack in October 2002. The site of the former Sari Club, obliterated in one of the blasts, lies adjacent to the monument and has not been redeveloped.
There are several monuments commemorating the puputan (suicidal fight to the death) of the Balinese against the Dutch colonialists in the early 20th century. The two most famous are in the town centre of Klungkung in East Bali and in Puputan Park, Denpasar.
Bali's Hindu culture and history is both extraordinary and unique. Many visitors get so wrapped up in shopping, partying and beach life to miss the opportunity to understand and absorb at least some of this. You cannot fail to see temples, come across ceremonies and witness daily offerings, and those who take the time and effort to understand what is going on around them will find their visit very rewarding.
There are several hot springs to be discovered in Bali. One of them, on the north coast of the island near Lovina, is Air Banjar, where stone mouth carvings allow hot water to pass between the pools, which are set in lush gardens. Another good choice is at Toya Bungkah on the shores of Lake Batur, high in the north eastern mountains.
Bali is a paradise for spa lovers, and all sorts of treatments are widely available. The Balinese lulur body scrub with herbs and spices—traditionally performed before a wedding ceremony—is particularly popular. Balinese massage is usually done with oil and involves long, Swedish-style strokes. In steep contrast to exorbitant western massage fees, Balinese massage is incredible value, and visitors should definitely avail themselves of this luxury. In local salons, a one-hour full body massage will cost between Rp 70,000 and 100,000, and the 2 hr mandi lulur, which incorporates a body scrub and hydrating yogurt body mask in addition to the massage, will cost about Rp 150,000. The curiously named creambath is a relaxing scalp and shoulder massage, usually lasting 45 min, in which a thick conditioning cream is worked through the hair and into the scalp. A creambath typically costs about Rp 60,000. Note that these same services in an upscale hotel will cost many times more.
Bali is host to some of the finest yoga and well-being centres and retreats in the world. You can find an abundance of amazing yoga classes to suit all levels in most of the tourist areas. Look for the best yoga centres in Ubud and Seminyak. Bali is also now home to a number of renowned yoga teacher training centres. Good local resources for finding the best include "Bali spirit and "SBC Yoga Teacher Trainings" and
Weddings in Bali have become very popular in recent years. Many couples who are already legally married choose Bali as the place to renew their vows. Full wedding-organising services are widely available: ceremony arrangements, photography, videography, flowers, musicians, dancers and catering. There are several wedding chapels available that are usually attached to luxury hotels, and the number is growing all the time. There are many professional organisers to handle your wedding in Bali, and these are easily found through the Internet. Destination weddings, featuring all types of religious and presentation arrangements, are becoming increasingly popular, with large private villas being one of the island's many offerings for venues.
An excellent way to get to know and understand more of the country is to do some volunteer work. There are organisations that arrange work for international volunteers in Bali and other places in the region.
There are many interesting scuba diving sites around Bali. Particularly popular are the wreck of USAT Liberty at Tulamben in the east, the chilled out coral bommies in Padang Bai, the serene reefs around Menjangan Island in the northwest, and dramatic drift diving off Nusa Penida in the south. Bali is a major teaching centre, and there are numerous reputable dive centres around the island affiliated with PADI and SSI.
Warm waters, crowds of young backpackers, cheap living and reliable waves keep Bali near the top of world surfing destinations. The southern coast at Kuta, Legian and Canggu, the Bukit Peninsula and Nusa Lembongan are the primary draws. Expert surfers usually head for the big breaks off the Bukit Peninsula, whilst beginners will find the gentler, sandy areas between Kuta and Legian to be ideal for learning. All Bali's surf beaches are described in the "Indo Surf and Lingo" surfing guidebook . There are formal surf schools on Legian beach and Kuta beach. The more adventurous might like to to try informal lessons from one of the many local self-styled surf teachers to be found hanging on any beach in South Bali. Regular surf reports are provided by Baliwaves .
There are a number of reputable white-water rafting operators in the Ubud area, and the rafting is of good quality, especially in the wet season.
Sport fishing is an increasingly popular activity with visitors to the island. Trolling, jigging and bottom fishing can all be very rewarding, with large game far from unusual. Charters are available from many coastal areas but the most popular points with a competitive range of options are Benoa Harbour and nearby Serangan close to Kuta, just to the north in Sanur and Padang Bai on the east coast.
Bali Sightseeing Tours Bali, Indonesia is an unique island with a rich of Hinduism cultural and friendly people. It is probably the best island in Indonesia when you come as a tourist. Bali has beautiful varied of landscape of hills and mountains, rugged coastlines and sandy beaches, lush rice terraces and barren volcanic hillsides all providing the best and colorful cultural, in deep spiritual that visitors claim as island of paradise. Bali is paradise for surfing and diving lovers, family travelers, honeymooners including back-packers.
Other sports, adventure and family activities
Bali has become a famous destination for golfers and there are 5 Golf Courses: "Bali Handara Kosaido Country Club" in the mountains near Bedugul, the "Bali Golf & Country Club" in Nusa Dua, a 9-hole course at the Grand Bali Beach Hotel in Sanur, the "Nirwana Bali Golf Club" near Tanah Lot, and the New Kuta Golf Course at Pecatu on the Bukit Peninsula.
Many companies also provide adventure activities such as Paragliding at Nusa Dua, Mountain Cycling in the hills of Ubud or downhill cycling from Bedugul and Kintamani, Jungle Trekking, Bungy Jumping on the beach in Seminyak, Horse Riding in Seminyak and Umalas, and Hikiing in the rice fields near Ubud and many other places in the hills.
Nature can be observed while trekking in West Bali National Park, at the Butterfly Park (Taman Kupu Kupu) in Wanasari, or at the Bali Botanical Gardens in Bedugul. Inside the Botanical Gardens, visitors can also get a bird's-eye view of nature from the Bali Treetop Adventure Park .
Whether it is simple trinkets, a nice statue or high fashion boutiques that turn you on, Bali is a shopper's paradise. A huge range of very affordable products are offered to the point where shopping can overwhelm a visit if you allow it to!
Clothing is a real draw. Popular sportswear brands are available in a multitude of stores in Kuta and Legian for prices approximately thirty to fifty per cent lower than you would pay at home. If the mass market is not your thing, try the ever-increasing number of chic boutiques in Seminyak and support young local designers. Jalan Laksmana is a good starting point.
Bali is an island of artisans, so arts and crafts are always popular. Try to head to the source if you can rather than buying from identikit shops in Kuta or Sanur. You will gain more satisfaction from buying an article direct from the maker and seeing the craftsman in action. Bali has a huge range of locally produced paintings, basketware, stone and wood carvings, silver and shell jewellery, ceramics, natural paper gifts, glassware and much, much more.
Dried spices and coffee are very popular items to take home. Most supermarkets have specially designed gift packages aimed at tourists, or, if you are visiting Bedugul, buy at the Bukit Mungsu traditional market.
Whatever you are buying, make sure you are in your best bargaining mode, as these skills will be required except in the higher-end stores that specifically state that their prices are fixed. And of course, bargaining is a lot of fun.
For more general shopping, Bali is home to a myriad of small stores and supermarkets and you will not be short of options. In recent years, 24-hour convenience stores have mushroomed in South Bali with the CircleK franchise chain being especially prominent. The staff at these always speak English and the product lines they stock are very much aimed at visitors; everything from beer and magazines to western foodstuffs and sun lotion are available around the clock.
Bali has a huge variety of cafes and restaurants, serving both Indonesian and international food (see Indonesia for a menu reader). For better or worse, some American chains have established a presence here, although almost exclusively confined to the southern tourist areas. You will see KFC, McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Starbucks. Interestingly, the menus are often highly adapted to the local tastes. The menu at Pizza Hut looks nothing like one you find in western countries.
Try the smaller local restaurants rather than touristy ones; the food is better and cheaper. Be sure to try the ubiquitous Indonesian dishes nasi goreng (fried rice), nasi campur (pronounced nasi champur, steamed rice with various vegetables and meats), and mie goreng (fried noodles). These dishes should rarely cost more than Rp 25,000 and are often considerably cheaper.
Some of the most authentic food can be found from roving vendors called kaki lima, which literally means "five legs". This comprises the three legs of the food cart and the vendor's own two legs. Go to the beaches of Kuta, Legian and Seminyak at sunset and find steaming hot bakso(pronounced ba-so), a delightful meatball and noodle soup, served up fresh for a very inexpensive Rp 5,000. You can season it yourself but be forewarned: Indonesian spices can be ferociously hot. Go easy until you find your heat tolerance level!
Padang restaurants are a good choice for both the budget-conscious and those visitors wishing to experience authentic Indonesian (but not Balinese) cuisine. These are usually marked with a prominent masakan padang sign and serve food from Padang, Sumatra. The options are usually stacked on plates in the window, you choose what you want and it is served with steamed rice. The most famous Padang speciality is rendang sapi (spicy beef coconut curry) but there are always a number of chicken, fish, egg and vegetable options. Padang food is always halal and you will eat well for Rp 15,000-20,000.
Actual Balinese food is common on the island but it has made few inroads in the rest of the country due to its emphasis on pork, which is anathema to the largely Muslim population in the rest of the country. Notable dishes include:
Other local Balinese specialities include:
Unlike Indian Hindus, virtually all Balinese eat meat, and vegetarianism has traditionally been limited to part-time fasts for some priests. It's thus best to assume that all local food is non-vegetarian unless assurances are given to the contrary. In particular, the Indonesian spice paste sambal is a hot paste of ground red chillies, spices and usually shrimp paste. Always check to see if the sambal being served to you contains shrimp paste—you can find it without at a few places. Additionally, kerupuk crackers with a spongy appearance contain shrimp or fish. Instead, ask for emping which is a delicious cracker made from a bean paste and is totally meat free—it resembles a fried potato chip in appearance. However, restaurants catering to tourists do nearly always provide some vegetarian options, and in places like Seminyak and Ubud there are even dedicated vegetarian restaurants.
Halal eateries catering to the Muslim minority exist, but may require a little searching for and tend to be downmarket. Padang restaurants (mentioned above) are a good option. Kosher food is virtually unknown.
A meal in a basic tourist-oriented restaurant will be around Rp 20,000-50,000/person. In a local restoran or warung the same meal might be about Rp 15,000 or less. Simple warungs sell nasi bungkus (a pyramid shaped paper-wrapped parcel of about 400 g of rice with several tasty extras-to take away) for as little as Rp 3,000-5,000. One very reliable option is nasi campur (rice with several options, chosen by the purchaser) for about Rp 10,000-15,000. Note that rice is often served at ambient temperature with the accompanying food much hotter, this is common practice in Indonesia.
At the other end of the scale, Bali is home to number of truly world-class fine-dining restaurants. Seminyak is home to many of the trendy independent options, and elsewhere on the island, the better five-star resorts have their own very high quality in-house restaurants with prices to match.
At all but the cheapest local restaurants, it is normal for 10% government sales tax and 5% service charge to be added to your bill. Some restaurants include this in the price, but most expressly state these plus plus terms.
The Balinese have nothing against a drink, and alcohol is widely available.
Indonesia's most popular beer is the ubiquitous Bintang, but the cheaper Bali Hai is nearly as widespread. Bintang is a fairly highly regarded classic light Asian beer, but Bali Hai is a rather bland lager, and despite the name it's actually brewed in a suburb of Jakarta. The Bali-based microbrew Storm is available in several different flavors, and the pale ale is especially good. The other local beer is Anker, and both Carlsberg and San Miguel are brewed locally under license. A wide range of more expensive imported beers are available. Beer is relatively expensive in local terms, though still cheap by western standards; at Rp 10,000 and up a small bottle costs the same as a full meal in a local eatery. In tourist centres, happy hours are widely publicised before and after sunset, with regular bottles of beer going for Rp 7,000 to 15,000 and the large bottles for Rp 12,000 to 30,000.
Bali produces its own wines, with Hatten being the oldest and most popular brand, available in white, red, rose (most popular) and sparkling varieties. Quality is inconsistent, but the rose is usually OK and massively cheaper than imported wines, which can easily top Rp 300,000 per bottle. Wine aficionados are better off bringing their own bottle in with them. Most restaurants will let you bring your own bottle and some will charge a modest corkage fee. Smaller establishments likely will not have a corkscrew, so bring your own!
Bali also produces its own liqueurs and spirits, with Bali Moon being the most popular. They offer a wide range of flavoured liqueurs: banana, blackcurrant, butterscotch, coconut, hazelnut, lychee, melon, peppermint, orange, blue curacao, pineapple and coffee. Vodka and other spirits are also produced locally, with Mansion House being the most popular brand. Be aware, though, that many of these local spirits are little more than flavoured rice liquor. Cocktails in Bali range from Rp 30,000 in small bars to Rp 100,000 in high end establishments. Bali Moon cocktails are available in almost every bar, restaurant and hotel in Bali. Liqueurs are available in many retail outlets; just enquire within if you wish to have fun making your own cocktails!
Bali's traditional hooches are arak, a clear distilled spirit that packs a 40° punch; brem, a fermented rice wine sold in gift shops in attractive clay bottles that are much nicer than the taste of the stuff inside; and tuak, a palm 'wine' which is often served at traditional festivities. Visitors should be extremely careful about where they purchase arak, as there have been a number of serious poisoning cases and even some deaths involving tainted arak.
Tap water in Bali is not drinkable, but bottled water is universally available and extremely inexpensive (Rp 3,000 or so for a 1.5 litre bottle); restaurants usually use commercially purified water for cooking. The most popular brand is Aqua and that name is often used generically for bottled water. Filtered water shops are also common, providing on-site treatment of the mains water to a potable standard. This is known as air putih (literally "white water"). These shops are much cheaper than retail outlets, selling water for about Rp 5,000 per 11-litre reusable container, and they avoid the waste created by plastic bottles.
Very cheap (about Rp 10,000) are fresh fruit juices and their mixes (it can be watermelon, melon, papaya, orange, lime, banana or almost any other fruit you can think of). In Bali, avocado (alpukat) is used as a dessert fruit. Blended with sugar, a little water and ice—and sometimes chocolate syrup—this is a beverage you will rarely find elsewhere! If you do not drink alcohol, Bali's fresh juices in various creative combinations will please you no end. Almost all restaurant menus have a section devoted to various non-alcoholic fruit-based drinks.
Bali has, without a doubt, the best range of accommodation in Indonesia, from US$5-per-night losmens to US$4,000-per-night super-homes.
Backpackers tend to head for Kuta, which has the cheapest (and dingiest) digs on the island, while many five-star resorts are clustered in Nusa Dua, Seminyak and Ubud. Sanur and Jimbaran offer a fairly happy compromise if you want beaches and some quiet. Ubud's hotels and resorts cater to those who prefer spas and cultural pursuits over surfing and booze. Legian is situated between Kuta and Seminyak and offers a good range of accommodation. The newest area to start offering a wide range of accommodation is Uluwatu which now boasts everything from surfer bungalows to the opulent Bulgari Hotel. Further north on the west coast is the district of Canggu, which offers many traditional villages set among undulating ricefields and a good range of accommodation. For rest and revitalisation, visit Amed, an area of peaceful fishing villages on the east coast with some good hotels and restaurants, or head for the sparsely populated areas of West Bali.
Thanks to Bali's balmy climate, many hotels, bungalows and villas offer open-air bathrooms, often set in a lush garden. They look amazing and are definitely a very Balinese experience, but they may also shelter little uninvited guests and are best avoided if you have a low tolerance for critters.
Bali hotel prices may be given in three different currencies. Prices in U.S. dollars are most common, particularly away from the budget sector. Euros are sometimes used, particularly at hotels owned by European nationals. Lower-end places usually (but not always) price in Indonesian Rupiah. If you pay your bill by credit card, then the amount in the currency you agreed to when making the booking is converted to Indonesian Rupiah on the day you pay and your account is charged with that amount of Rupiah. This is because Indonesian banking law does not permit credit card transactions in any other currency. If you pay by cash, you can settle with the currency in which you were quoted the room rate.
It is important to understand the tax and service charge that hotels are obliged to levy by Indonesian law. All high-end and mid-range (and a fair proportion of budget) hotels will levy a 21% tax and service charge on the room rate (the so-called "plus plus"). When you make a booking, you should always ask whether the rate quoted includes or excludes this. Simple budget homestays/losmen and informal accommodation are not obliged to levy these charges. The 21% consists of 11% sales tax which goes to the government and a 10% service charge which goes into a pool shared between the staff.
Bali has become famous for its large collection of private villas for rent, complete with staff and top-class levels of service. Low labour costs result in single villas boasting staff teams of up to 30 people at the really high end. A private villa rental can be a great option for a visit to Bali, but it pays to be aware of the potential pitfalls.
Not every place sold as a villa actually fits the bill. Prices vary widely and some operators claim to go as low as US$30 per night (which usually means a standalone bungalow on hotel grounds with little actual privacy). Realistically, you will be looking at upwards of US$200 per night for anything with a decent location and a private pool. At the top of the range, nightly rents can easily go north of US$1,000. The general rule of you get what you pay for applies here. There are, of course, exceptions, but a 4 bedroom villa offered for US$400 and one for US$800 per night will be different in many ways—the standard of maintenance, the number of staff and their English ability, and the overall quality of furnishings and fittings in the property.
Look carefully as to who is running the villa. Is it run by the owner, a local company, a western company or by local staff who answer to an absent overseas owner? And who you are renting through—directly from the owner, a management company, an established villa agent or one who just opened a month ago after his friend Nyoman told him how easy it was? Each path has its pros and cons. If it is an agency, see if there are press reviews. Ask how long the villa has been taking commercial guests, as villas normally take a year or so to get to best service levels. In the first six to 12 months of operation, great villas may offer introductory rates that are well below market value to gain awareness. In all circumstances thoroughly examine and query the security arrangements, especially if dealing with an apparently inexperienced or opportunistic operator to ensure you are not exposing yourself or your belongings to any unnecessary risks.
Private villas are found mostly in the greater Seminyak area (Seminyak, Umalas, Canggu), in the south around Jimbaran and Uluwatu, in Sanur and around the hill town of Ubud as well as Lovina in north Bali . They are rare in heavily built-up areas like Kuta, Legian and Denpasar.
For an extended stay, it is worth considering a long-term rental , which can be as low as US$4,000 per year. Restaurants, shops and bars frequented by Bali's sizable expatriate community, particularly in Seminyak, Sanur and Ubud, are good places to find information about long-term rentals. Look for a bulletin board with property advertisements tacked up or pick up a copy of the local expat biweekly publication, The Bali Advertiser . Remember that with a year-round tourism trade, villas that have everything right are usually available for more lucrative short-term rental only. Long-term rental houses tend to be older and not as well maintained. If you are willing to be flexible, though, you can find nice house options over a wide range of budgets.
Bali is, in general, a safe destination, and few visitors encounter any real problems.
Bali was the scene of lethal terrorist bombings in 2002 and 2005, with both waves of attacks targeting nightclubs and restaurants popular among foreign visitors. Security is consequently tight at obvious targets, but it is of course impossible to protect oneself fully against terrorism. If it is any reassurance, the Balinese themselves—who depend on tourism for their livelihood—deplored the bombings and the terrorists behind them for the terrible suffering they have caused on this peaceful island. As a visitor, it is important to put the risk in perspective: the sad fact is that Bali's roads are, statistically, far more dangerous than even the deadliest bomb. It may still be prudent to avoid high-profile western hang-outs, especially those without security measures. The paranoid or just security-conscious may wish to head out of the tourist enclaves of South Bali to elsewhere on the island.
Bali is increasingly enforcing Indonesia's harsh penalties against the import, export, trafficking and possession of illegal drugs, including marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and heroin. Several high profile arrests of foreigners have taken place in Bali since 2004, and a number have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms or (very rarely) execution. Even the possession of a small amount of drugs for personal use puts you at risk of a trial and prison sentence. Watch out for seemingly harmless street boys looking to sell you drugs (marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine, etc.). More often than not, they are working with undercover police and will try to sell you drugs so that they can then get uniformed officers onto you. The police officers will (if you are lucky) demand a bribe for your release, or, more likely, look for a far larger payday by taking you into custody. Just avoid Bali's drug scene at all costs.
The unfortunate people who are caught and processed will find there is little distinction between personal use and dealing in the eyes of the Indonesian legal system. 'Expedition fees', monies paid to shorten jail or prison time, can easily run to US$20,000 and are often a lot more.
There is a fair chance that you will be offered magic mushrooms, especially if you are young and find yourself in Kuta. Indonesian law is a little unclear in this area but with the whole country in the midst of a drug crackdown since 2004, it is not worth taking the risk.
If you see a red flag planted in the sand, do not swim there, as they are a warning of dangerous rip currents. These currents can pull you out to sea with alarming speed and even the strongest swimmers cannot swim against them. The thing to do is to stay calm and swim sideways (along the shore) until out of the rip and only then head for the shore. The ocean is not to be trifled with in Bali, and dozens of people, some experienced some not, die by drowning every year.
Petty scams are not uncommon, although they can usually be avoided with a modicum of common sense. If approached on the street by anybody offering a deal on souvenirs, transport, etc., you can rest assured that you will pay more if you follow your new found friend. Guard your bags, especially at transport terminals and ferry terminals. In addition to the risk of them being stolen, self-appointed porters like to grab them without warning and then insist on ridiculous prices for their "services".
Timeshare scams are common in Bali with several high profile, apparently legitimate operators. If you are approached by a very friendly street canvasser asking you to complete a survey and then attend a holiday resort presentation to claim your 'prize' (this is inevitably a 'free' holiday which you end up paying for anyway), politely refuse and walk away. You may also be cold-called at your hotel to be told you have 'won a holiday' - the caller may even know your name and nationality thanks to a tip-off from someone who has already seen your data. If you fall for this scam, you will be subjected to a very long, high-pressure sales presentation and if you actually buy the 'holiday club' product, you will certainly regret it. Timeshare is a completely unregulated industry in Indonesia, and you have no recourse.
When leaving Bali, if you have anything glass in your baggage (such as duty-free alcohol) the security guards may put some pressure on you to have it wrapped to keep it safe, and it can seem like its a requirement rather than a suggestion (it is Rp 60,000 a bag). Similarly, when arriving in Bali, some airport officials may offer to take your bags for you and walk you through customs, be generally friendly and helpful, and then demand a tip.
The money changing rule is simple: use only authorised money changers with proper offices and always ask for a receipt. The largest is called PT Central Kuta and they have several outlets. If you are especially nervous, then use a formal bank. You may get a better rate at an authorised money changer though.
Avoid changing money in smaller currency exchange offices located within shops, as they more often than not will try to steal money by using very creative and "magician"-like methods. Often the rate advertised on the street is nowhere near the rate that they will give you in the end. Many times the rate is set higher to lure you in so that they can con you out of a banknote or two, and when this is not possible, they will give you a shoddy rate and state that the difference is due to commission. This even applies to the places which clearly state that there is no commission.
For many, the largest irritant will be the hawkers and peddlers who linger around temples, malls, beaches, and anywhere tourists congregate. It may feel difficult or rude to ignore the constant come-ons to buy souvenirs, food, and assorted junk, but it can be necessary in order to enjoy your holiday in semi-peace.
Last but not least be wary around the monkeys that occupy many temples (most notably Uluwatu and Ubud's Monkey Forest). They are experts at stealing possessions like glasses, cameras and even handbags, and have been known to attack people carrying food. Feeding them is just asking for trouble.
Rabies is present in Bali and several deaths arising from rabies infections have been recorded in early 2011. Visitors to the island should avoid contact with dogs, cats, monkeys and other animals that carry the disease. If bitten seek medical attention.
Although the standards of healthcare and emergency facilities have improved greatly in recent years, they remain below what most visitors would be accustomed to in their home country. Whilst minor illness and injury can be adequately treated in the ubiquitous local clinics most overseas visitors would not be comfortable having serious problems dealt with in a local hospital, and insurance coverage for emergency medical evacuation is therefore a wise precaution. If a medical evacuation is required then patients are normally moved to Singapore or Perth in Australia. Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, does however have some high standard medical care facilities if seeking medical attention at a closer location.
Be aware that the purchase of travel insurance still means that most clinics and hospitals may require payment in advance, or sometimes by incremental payment as various services are rendered. This may require access to a quite significant amount of cash to keep things moving. Any claim is then made to the insurance company upon your return home. This is almost always the case if the problem is one that can be dealt with on an outpatient basis. Make sure that your insurance company has an agreement with the provider or immediately establishes one, otherwise you will also be landed with a bill for an inpatient stay. Bali International Medical Centre (BIMC) has agreements with many insurance companies and is a well serviced hospital. This is however a relatively expensive option and even they ask for payment for outpatient treatments.
The major travel insurance companies may be slow to respond with appropriate assistance and equally slow to refer a claimant to a suitable medical service. Delays may also be experienced if the insurer is slow or indecisive in authorising treatment. Difficulties may arise from an insurer not authorising a payment guarantee to the local medical services provider. Delays in rendering appropriate treatment are a common outcome. Try to gain an understanding of the policy terms and limitations of your travel insurance cover prior to departing your home country. Trying to gain an understanding of the limitations of cover whilst amidst a crisis is not recommended. Some insurance companies and their emergency response centres may not live up to your own expectations of regional knowledge, appropriate case management and speedy response. Your best insurance is always common-sense, some basic pre-departure research on your destination and the application of good situational awareness whilst travelling. Try to have your own plan in place to deal with any crisis you may encounter when travelling rather than relying solely upon a possibly inadequately skilled and under-qualified person sitting in a distant call centre who may have their own role complicated by problems with language, communication and access to the insurers decision makers. You may wish to consider carrying the names and contact numbers of one or two of the major local medical and evacuation providers in your wallet or purse so that you know how to quickly obtain medical assistance should an emergency arise. Always ensure that you contact your insurer as soon as possible should an emergency arise otherwise you may find they are later unwilling to accept liability for payment for any expenses that arise. Always keep a thorough record of all expenditures and communications with your insurer and obtain full and detailed invoices and receipts for all services provided and any incidental costs. If you do not understand the detail of anything that you are billed for ask for an explanation; if information is not forthcoming withhold payment or authorisation until such time as an acceptable explanation is given.
International SOS Indonesia (AEA SOS Medika) was founded in Indonesia in 1984 and has grown into an international organisation handling a round 9 million cases per year. It has a professionally staffed and operated clinic in Bali. They offer clinic services, hospital referral and emergency medical evacuation services. They have agreements or associations in place with many of the major travel insurers and are a principal medical service supplier in the SE Asian region, including Indonesia.
The midday sun in Bali will fry the unwary traveller to a crisp, so slap on plenty of high-factor sun-protection and drink lots of fluids. However there is no need to carry litres of water as you can buy a bottle virtually anywhere. The locals tend to stay away from the beaches until about two hours before sunset, when most of the ferocity has gone out of the sun.
Travelling to Bali may expose you to some risks in contracting one of many tropical diseases that are present in the region. Bali is officially a malaria-free zone but dengue fever is a problem and all sensible precautions should be taken against being bitten by mosquitoes.
Take care in restaurants and bars; although it is very rare nowadays, some may use untreated/unsafe tap water to make ice for drinks otherwise made with clean ingredients. Tap water in hotels should not be used for drinking or brushing teeth unless explicitly labelled as safe.
Both drink adulteration with methyl alcohol (methanol) and drink spiking in bars and clubs is not uncommon in Bali. Sensible precautions should be taken when buying and consuming beverages. From 2009 until now (2012) a number of Indonesians and visiting tourists in Java, Bali and Lombok/Gilli Islands have been poisoned by consuming drinks containing methyl alcohol resulting in fatalities. Methyl alcohol (wood alcohol) and other contaminants are highly dangerous and have been found in some locally produced alcoholic drinks including locally made Arak although precautions must also be taken when buying any mixed drink. The initial symptoms of methyl alcohol/methanol intoxication include central nervous system depression, headache, dizziness, nausea, lack of co-ordination and confusion. If methyl alcohol poisoning is suspected seek medical assistance immediately.
The HIV infection rate in Bali is increasing, mainly amongst sex workers of both genders and intravenous drug users. If you engage in any risky activity, always protect yourself.
Unfortunately, it is very unlikely you will find a working public telephone on the street, which can be very frustrating in emergency situations. Depending on your circumstances, you may have to rely on mobile phones (local SIM cards may be used in unlocked phones with economical local and international calling rates) or phone/internet shops. Budget accommodation options are unlikely to offer telephone services to guests.
International phone operators: ☎ 101. International Direct Dialling prefix: 001, 007, or 008.
Bali has six area codes.
Hospitals with 24 hours emergency room (ER):
Selected medical clinics with English language abilities:
Initial one month tourist visas can be extended by a further one month. There are many visa / travel agencies that can do this for you and it takes about a week or 5 working days. Costs vary but surprisingly they seem more expensive in south Bali than it is in more rural locations further away from the immigration passport office. In south Bali expect to pay between Rp 600,000 to 750,000 or even more. Elsewhere it can be as low as Rp 500,000 such as in Amed. A good place to find cheaper visa agents is at scuba diving centres. They often have divers wishing to stay longer and therefore know where to get visa extensions done cheaply for their customers.
It seems that one month visa extensions can be repeatedly applied for up to a maximum of a 6 month stay.
Embassies and Consulates
Some countries have set up consulates in Bali and these are their contact details, the nations capital Jakarta has a number of embassies representing a wide range of nationalities. | <urn:uuid:06ef08e2-fc81-4321-a1ba-926db393a9a8> | CC-MAIN-2015-06 | http://wikitravel.org/wiki/en/index.php?title=Bali&diff=1958162&oldid=1918031 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-06/segments/1422115855094.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20150124161055-00002-ip-10-180-212-252.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953813 | 15,919 | 2.5625 | 3 | {
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Many studies have been conducted as to defining a proper diet to deter the growth of cancer. Though Lynch syndrome is hereditary, environmental factorsdo play into the propensity to contract cancer. A diet to deter cancer is simply eating good nutritional foods. It isn’t all that different from eating a normal, healthy diet. It’s simply balance.
The reason diet is so significant and plays into creating a predisposition toward cancer is historical. Accumulating data in respect to cancer is fairly new, as good statistics on cancer incidence have only occurred since 1950, although the oldest cancer registry was established in 1932. Data on mortality, which goes back much earlier in the developed world indicates stomach cancer has decreased, taking second seat to lung cancer worldwide. However the rise of other cancers have increased, including breast cancer and colon cancers.
Cancer diagnostic technology vastly improved and became more sophisticated, progressing at higher and higher levels through the years. Today, mortality rates have decreased as a result of improved diagnostic knowledge, skill and technology, resulting in earlier diagnoses. The benefit we have seen from this is the improvement of survival.
Within the United States and the western world, general technology improved during the 1900s, as well, and the world became involved in mass industrialization which put emphasis over quantity of product and created an adverse effect upon the quality of environment, creating problems such as unclean air, mass fuel emissions, polluted waters, polluted soils, etc.
As the age of affluence approached, so developed the age of convenience. Vehicles became more readily available and less costly. Many families owned several and the family horses were put out to pasture. As a result, today, many people have stopped walking. Its not unusual to see them hop into the car and young moms and dads drive five or six blocks to the nearby elementary school several times a day in order to deliver or retrieve their children. As a result of technology, instead of an everyday necessary activity, as walking once was, exercise has become a “recreational activity” and a luxury only when it can be afforded or….desired.
As the consumer society developed, individuals purchased items that were convenient in nature, including processed foods, foods with chemical additives, non-stick coatings on cooking utensils, cooking with items made of plastics, etc. This love and desire for convenience extended to quick and different food preparation methods including use of the microwave, the outdoor gas barbecue and the creation of chemically improved wood chips to enhance food flavor. Meats became a staple in homes, used in large quantities, whereas in the past, it was only eaten in small amounts on occasion. The world developed a sweet tooth for items with sugar–sodas were no longer savored “treats” but an everyday drink, rich foods became part of the everyday diet as did artificial sweeteners. The people of the world took to excesses as competition and products became more and more available and more and more affordable.
We began to become a “feel good” nation which focused on the desires of the individual and not the needs of the person. The “me society” became one of entitlement and one that was prone to excess…anything, as long as it felt good. That is where we currently are today, destroying ourselves, our environment, our communities and our families unless we find a balance.
During the 1900s, food production became more enhanced to meet the demand of the new consumer society which had developed. Methods were developed including genetic modification of food, the injection of hormone, arsenic including in animal feed, and controlled artifical and unnatural feeding of animals instead of grazing in fields. Pesticides, meat additives, artificial preservatives, soil additives, chemically enhanced flavors, water fluoridation and a host of other items were developed to feed into the gluttony of the world.
As a result, we humans began eating differently. Instead of coming in from the fields or going home for lunch and eating fresh, wholesome foods, we began commuting further distances to work and grabbing quick, convenience items–a bag of chips, a quick cheeseburger and fries, processed marshmallow filled cupcakes and a can of soda for lunch, or munching on a processed donut while drinking a cup of coffee on our way to work.
Not only did food have to taste good but it had to look good. Dyes were used. Flours became processed and bleached, as did rice, to create a pleasing aesthetic appearance. Refined sugars were developed with a pretty, sparkling, crystal white appearance, rather than its natural state. The result was individuals were losing a considerable amount of nutrition required to stay healthy and had lost the natural balance of eating.
The world and the human being, in its ever constant pursuit to perfect itself had been poisoning itself. The result was a flurry of studies by medical researchers to find out why people were getting ill and contracting cancers. Study after study has determined outside influences, such as environment, diet, lifestyle and technology imposes a big effect upon whether or not one will get cancer and the more predisposed we are, the easier it will be to contract.
This becomes obvious with those of us who have Lynch syndrome. How is it that twenty percent of those who have the mutated gene don’t get Lynch cancers while many acquire a myriad of cancers during their lifetimes? What is the difference between those who have survived a cancer or two and live to old age while others succumb while young? Clearly something occurs which increases the odds of survival for some and decreases the odds for others.
It appears cancers, including those of Lynch syndrome, may have possibly evolved as a result of the above mentioned factors.
Prior to 1913, a University of Ann Arbor, Michigan professor and pathologist, Dr. Aldred Scott Warthin noted and identified a family that had a “familial cancer.” During treatment of a young woman within the family, he gleaned the members medical histories and in 1913 documented his findings of this fascinating German family.
Within that family, which had been researched back to before the Civil War, it was noted there had been a history of stomach cancer, colon cancer and uterine cancer. At the age of sixty (60) the first diagnosed died of colon cancer at the age of 56, leaving behind ten children. Three of his five sons and two of his five daughters died of a possible Lynch cancer, the men developing stomach cancers and the women, uterine cancers.
Warthin died by 1936 and had documented 17 individuals from the first two generations of that family had sustained cancers, with an introduction to intestinal cancer in the third generation. Upon his death, his associates Carl Weller and Jerome Hauser, continued his work, finding far more individuals within the family contracting similar cancers. There was little note of colon cancer.
The third generation, which consisted of seventy individuals indicated only two of those individuals died of stomach cancer, fifteen died of uterine/ endometrial cancer, seven died of colon cancer, three died of rectum cancer and one died of cancer of the intestines. It appeared the family had evolved during the 20th century and the incidence of stomach cancer had decreased and cancer of the colon had increased. Finally, in the last generation, Dr. Henry T. Lynch, who had followed this family, following Weller and Hauser, noted the incidence of stomach cancers had dramatically decreased and was almost nonexistent with many of the cancers sustained being replaced by cancers of the colon and the rectum.
We have to ask ourselves why and how the cancers evolved and changed. Dr. John Potter, MD, PhD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center studied this and published an opinion piece in 2001, entitled “At the interfaces of epidemiology genetics and genomics.”
He determined based upon his experiences with Lynch syndrome and study of the family documented above, “High risk variant alleles, (forms of gene ordinarily arising as a result of mutation and causing hereditary variance ) such as MSH2 mutant alleles in HNPCC families, with pleiotropic (multiple) effects across generations of the same family, probably, as a result of changes in environmental exposures.”
What environmental factors? Certainly smoking and diet has played a major role in the evolution of the cancers. In fact, individuals with Lynch syndrome may be at an increased risk for colorectal cancers. As a result of environmental factors, in the U.S., we have noted an increase in cancer. Interesting to note is this trend is being followed globally as the same sort of evolution of cancers which has occurred here is beginning to occur more widely in some European countries and elsewhere in the world.
It is important we ask ourselves why the risk of contracting cancer for the average male in India is one fifth of that for the average American male? Why has the rate of colon cancer in Japan become the highest in the world and much higher than within the United States? Why do the Chinese have lower rates of colorectal, breast and prostate cancers than we sustain in the U.S., and why are there rising occurrences of these cancers now being observed in their urban areas? Finally, why do those who consume a Mediterranean diet (lots of fruits, nuts and vegetables and very little red meat) have far less cancer than their American brothers and sisters?
So, what do we do to survive? We eat an anti-cancer diet, which is basically a balanced diet. We exercise and protect ourselves by using less chemicals around our homes and yards, engaging in healthy activities and avoiding unhealthy environments.
It has become clear to us that diet, exercise and attitude is a big factor for deterring cancer and perhaps growing and providing our own food sources are far more reliable than those commercially available to us. Gardening our own food is certainly healthy in it allows fresh air and activity for us.
What is also clear to us is, whether or not we have a predisposition to cancer or whether we get cancer, a big factor in contracting cancer and/or a specific cancer is likely a result of lifestyle, cultural and environmental impacts. The big question is whether or not we will recognize many cancers are a result of our love and desire for technology, self gratification and convenience and what choices we are going to make in the future in order to protect ourselves and our families. | <urn:uuid:a1068806-1629-44f5-b0c3-d3e9d8cdc2ac> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | https://lynchcancers.com/lynch-syndrome/diet/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267863100.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20180619154023-20180619174023-00163.warc.gz | en | 0.979433 | 2,114 | 3.09375 | 3 | {
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Climate Change Impact on Duration of Vegetative Period of Five Deciduous Tree Species
Keywords:bud swelling phenophase, leave fall phenophase, vegetative period, climatic parameters
AbstractThe air temperature is directly linked to the plant growth season, affecting the timing of the start and the end of the vegetative period and its duration. The aim of this study was to analyse the impact of changing climatic parameters on the duration of the vegetation period in 1956-2008 of five deciduous tree species (oak - Quercus robur L., maple - Acer platanoides L., lime - Tilia x vulgaris Hayne, birch - Betula pendula Roth. and ash - Fraxinus excelsior L.) growing in Kaunas Botanical Garden of Vytautas Magnus University. The duration of the vegetative period (number of days) was calculated between the dates of the beginning of bud swell and the end of leaf fall phenophases. Mean length of the vegetative period in 1956-2008 of observed tree species varied from 186 for ash to 214 days for birch. The beginning of the bud swelling phenophase advanced on average from 1 (oak) to 14 days (ash) in 1956-2008. The beginning of the bud swelling phenophase was significantly related to the temperature of February (for lime, birch and ash) and March (for all species). The end of the leave fall phenophase was delayed on average from 3 (birch) to 25 days (maple) in 1956-2008. In most cases, the end of a leave fall phenophase was not significantly related to climatic parameters, however the temperature of September had a significant positive impact (higher temperature determining later leave fall date) on maple, lime and ash. The duration of the vegetative period of deciduous tree species depended mostly on the warming late winter - early spring temperature (February-April) and for some species - on the warming late summer temperature (in August), while changes in the amount of precipitation had little effect. Among the observed species the duration of the maple vegetative period was the most and that of oak was the least sensitive to climate warming.
The copyright for the articles in EREM is retained by the author(s) with the first publication right granted to the journal. The authors agree to the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 agreement under which the paper in the Journal is licensed. | <urn:uuid:b80fc33b-46ea-4069-a19d-466a3132c765> | CC-MAIN-2022-21 | https://erem.ktu.lt/index.php/erem/article/view/29 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-21/segments/1652662520936.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20220517225809-20220518015809-00749.warc.gz | en | 0.924143 | 513 | 2.59375 | 3 | {
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} | Science & Tech. |
Biologists have estimated that almost 3.8 million juvenile winter-run Chinook salmon headed down the Sacramento River toward the ocean this year. This is the most offspring in a decade for the highly endangered population.
Typically about 80 percent of the outgoing juveniles have headed for the ocean by this time of year. This year’s total thus far is the most since 2009, when about 5 million juveniles traveled downriver.
The rebounding numbers of winter-run Chinook salmon reflect the critical help of a conservation fish hatchery and balanced water management. More favorable ocean conditions also benefited the parents of this year’s surging crop of juveniles, biologists say. About 8,000 adult fish returned to the Sacramento River to spawn earlier this year, the most since 2006.
“These fish continue to impress us with their resilience and their ability to survive if given the opportunity,” said Maria Rea, Assistant Regional Administrator for NOAA Fisheries’ California Central Valley Office. “By working cooperatively, we can make the best use of our suite of tools to protect and recover these endangered fish.”
Other Year-Classes of Natural Production Lost to Drought
This year’s generation of juvenile winter-run Chinook salmon is considered especially critical. Two years’ worth of naturally produced winter-run Chinook salmon offspring were almost entirely lost in 2014 and 2015 during California’s severe drought. That left few juvenile fish to migrate to the ocean in those years and return as adults to spawn.
Biologists took the emergency action of supplementing the critically low numbers by releasing about 600,000 juvenile winter-run Chinook salmon in 2014 and 400,000 in 2015. They were released from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery. It was an extraordinary measure that biologists had to balance against the risk of the population becoming dependent on hatcheries for its survival. In this case, it turned out to be a lifeline for the endangered species, boosting the numbers of returning fish enough to outlast the drought.
The parents of this year’s juveniles went to sea in 2016 and early 2017 as the drought was waning and conditions were improving.
The Livingston Stone hatchery also revived its captive broodstock program, raising some winter-run Chinook salmon to adulthood and then transferring their offspring to Coleman National Fish Hatchery. Biologists have used the additional juveniles to jumpstart the reintroduction of winter-run Chinook salmon to their historic habitat in Battle Creek. Almost 100 of those fish released as juveniles returned to Battle Creek as adults this year, underscoring reintroduction as an effective recovery strategy.
While the results are promising, an overdependence on hatchery fish could undermine the population’s genetic heritage and fitness. Biologists are tracking the proportion of hatchery fish among the returning adults to address the potential risk to the winter-run population.
“We were fortunate to have the hatchery to help us save this species, and two years of wet weather winter flow conditions made an important difference too,” Rea said. “We now need to stay focused on our priority conservation measures, such as habitat, to stabilize and recover the population in the long run.”
The strong returns and reproduction of California’s winter-run Chinook salmon this year stand out against low salmon and steelhead returns to other major West Coast rivers such as the Columbia. Fishermen also reported one of their biggest catches of Sacramento fall-run Chinook salmon off the California Coast in years.
Using Cold Water to Promote Survival
Winter-run Chinook salmon historically returned to spawn in the cold mountain rivers of Northern California. Completion of Shasta Dam in 1945 cut off that long-distance migration. The fish were then forced to spawn in the exposed main channel of the Sacramento River below the dam, far from their historic cold-water habitat. They spawn in the summer where they are vulnerable to high temperatures that can stress and kill their eggs.
Biologists and water managers coordinate the storage and release of cold water behind Shasta Dam to cool the river downstream. This helps the fish and their eggs survive the hot summer months. After the losses in 2014 and 2015, they took additional measures in 2016 to conserve the cold water for use later in the summer.
The single remaining population of Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon has persisted in large part due to managed seasonal cold water releases from Shasta Reservoir. They protect sensitive salmon eggs from the summer heat. Their survival is supported by the release of juvenile winter-run Chinook salmon from Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery.
“It is encouraging to see an increase in the number of winter-run juveniles moving down the Sacramento River this year,” said Dan Castleberry, Assistant Regional Director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Sacramento. “Combined with efforts to establish an additional population of winter-run in Battle Creek, we are making positive steps towards recovering this iconic fish.” | <urn:uuid:ab1c4539-5f27-4f5d-841d-7bbca03d81ce> | CC-MAIN-2020-50 | https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/endangered-winter-run-chinook-salmon-increase-millions-offspring-headed-sea | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-50/segments/1606141711306.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20201202144450-20201202174450-00636.warc.gz | en | 0.944101 | 1,031 | 3.296875 | 3 | {
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Domestic violence been an ongoing problem that the family faces it has only been within the last decade or two however, that much attention has been paid to it by. The family has been stressed, time and again, as the basic unit of society what happens therefore inside the family, particularly during the growing up years of an. Violence in the family essay juan villoro (b posted january 5, 2017 by ccmw & filed under publications. | <urn:uuid:52ce5731-bfa8-41df-9ffb-46d9d46d8b5d> | CC-MAIN-2018-43 | http://mutermpaperryjz.weblogparkeren.info/violence-in-the-family-essay.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-43/segments/1539583512161.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20181018235424-20181019020924-00320.warc.gz | en | 0.96071 | 551 | 2.6875 | 3 | {
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Solar roof in winter
Keeping the Lights on during Hurricanes
How RMI’s Best Practices Are Creating Hurricane-Resilient PV Systems
As Hurricane Grace and Tropical Storm Henri cause destruction up and down the Atlantic, people living on islands and coastal territories must prepare for an above average hurricane season. In fact, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted that we could see up to ten hurricanes in the Atlantic in 2021, three to five of which could have winds of 111 miles per hour or greater. These hurricanes wreak havoc on people’s lives, both emotionally and physically. They destroy critical infrastructure, leaving many people without basic services such as electricity and water for prolonged periods of time.
Fortunately, many islands are installing solar photovoltaic (PV) systems—often including batteries—to decrease dependence on volatile fuel imports and provide more reliable power to their residents. However, even PV systems aren’t invulnerable to hurricanes. Over the years, we have found that some PV systems suffer major damage during hurricanes, while others survive and continue producing power. We set out to find out why.
In 2018, we analyzed solar PV systems in the Caribbean after Hurricanes Irma and Maria. We then wrote a report, titled Solar Under Storm, detailing how to build hurricane-resistant ground-mounted PV systems. We followed that with two reports in 2020: a similar report geared toward roof-mounted PV systems and one detailing best practices for policymakers. These reports describe how to build resilient PV systems are making a huge difference in keeping the lights on for people on islands around the world.
RMI’s reports describing how to build resilient PV systems are making a huge difference in keeping the lights on for people on islands around the world.Tweet
Resilience in The Bahamas
Hurricane Dorian devastated The Bahamas in 2019. Since then, the government and utilities have been working hard to deploy reliable and resilient power. And that includes employing the best practices learned from our Solar Under Storm analysis. RMI worked with Bahamas Power and Light to design, develop, and install a solar microgrid on Ragged Island. The 390 kilowatt (kW) microgrid is built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane (with winds of 180 mph) and provides 93 percent of the island’s energy needs. The project was highlighted on CBS’ 60 Minutes.
Another system in The Bahamas built using recommendations from the reports is the 1.1 megawatt (MW) solar-plus-battery microgrid on Highbourne Cay. The microgrid, also built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, will provide power to up to 100 residents and guests at the island’s resort. It will also save more than 1,650 tons of CO2 emissions annually and pay for itself through diesel savings in just five to six years.
The recommendations are even being used in the largest solar project in The Bahamas to date. The 4 MW solar-plus-battery microgrid on Chub Cay is expected to be complete by mid-September. Chub Cay is a privately owned island that had been powered with diesel generators. However, the Texan owner of the island, who ironically made his money from oil and gas, realized it made financial sense to switch to solar energy to supply 90 percent of the island’s energy. Applying resilience best practices from the reports only increased costs by 5 to 7 percent. This was also a cost-effective investment to ensure that the system survives hurricane-force winds.
“Fortunately, most of these systems have not had to endure a category 5 hurricane after installation. We wouldn’t wish that on anyone,” says Chris Burgess, project director for RMI’s Global South Program. “But we have a lot of data from the surviving systems of Irma and Maria that have already allowed us to conclude that these best practices do work and that these new resilient PV systems will survive severe storms.”
Beyond The Bahamas
Other islands across the Caribbean are also using the best practices described in the reports. For example, Montserrat recently completed a 750 kW microgrid. In the event that the grid goes down, the microgrid will help provide power to a hospital, airport, assisted living apartment complex, and a number of homes in the area.
A 100 kW solar microgrid on the Grenadine island of Mayreau, deployed in 2019 by St. Vincent Electricity Services Limited with help from RMI, serves 28 percent of the island’s electricity demand. It is greatly reducing the island’s energy costs and will ensure electricity is available to critical facilities during storms.
“The Mayreau project was initially specified to withstand Category 4 winds,” says Fidel Neverson, senior project manager for RMI’s Global South Program. “That was before we saw the utter destruction caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria to ground-mount solar arrays that were built to Category 4 specifications.”
Using best practices from the first Solar Under Storm publication, RMI and the project team completely reengineered the Mayreau solar array to a Category 5 design. “We want to give the Mayreau microgrid the best possible chance of surviving the types of devastating hurricanes that have impacted the region recently so that the island’s residents can enjoy its benefits for years to come,” Neverson adds.
And in Puerto Rico, after Hurricanes Maria and Irma caused the largest blackout in US history, RMI helped the island install solar and battery microgrids on 10 public schools. “All of our procurements require installers to adhere to Solar Under Storm principles,” says Roy Torbert, a principal with RMI’s Global South Program. “The systems on these schools were built to withstand Category 5 hurricane winds. But we’ve also seen many of them continue to provide power after the grid went down due to the earthquakes that ravaged the island in early 2020.”
Helping Develop New Policies and Codes
The third report that RMI produced, Solar Under Storm for Policymakers, emphasized that it is not only installers that have to act on the recommendations. There are many things that governments, regulators, and developers can do to improve the survivability of solar PV systems in the face of severe storms. And many policymakers throughout the Caribbean are taking that to heart. The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States adopted the best practices from the Solar Under Storm reports into its building code. And the Caribbean Development Bank uses the recommendations as part of its underwriting process for the financing of solar projects.
Three years after we published our first Solar Under Storm report, we are happy to see all of the solar projects that have employed our recommendations. “We discovered that design, workmanship, quality materials, and quality checks were the difference between survival and failure,” said Burgess. “We realized we didn’t need a technical or manufacturing revolution, we just needed to have an eye for detail.”
Fortunately, islands throughout the Caribbean are using those details to prepare their solar systems for the ever-increasing hurricanes. In this way, we can ensure reliable, life-saving power for those who need it most. | <urn:uuid:1d67bd12-d2cc-4d8f-a162-253222ac1eb5> | CC-MAIN-2022-27 | https://rmi.org/solar-under-storm-three-years-on/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-27/segments/1656104375714.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20220704111005-20220704141005-00170.warc.gz | en | 0.946024 | 1,473 | 3.21875 | 3 | {
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Be A Scout
What is Scouting?
For more than 100 years, Scouting has provided adventure, learning, challenge, and character development while helping youth grow to their full potential by instilling the values found in the Scout Oath and Scout Law. As a Scout, you won’t just have fun and learn your way around the outdoors; you’ll also develop academic skills, self-confidence, ethics, leadership skills, and citizenship skills that you’ll benefit from your whole life.
Today’s Scouting comprises a variety of programs for boys and young men from 7 to 20 and girls and young women from 9 to 20.
Scroll To Find A Scouting Program
Boys 7-10 Years Old / Grades 1-5
When you’re a kid, fun comes first. Final exams, driver’s ed and summer jobs will arrive soon enough. Cub Scouts lets kids have fun while teaching them skills that will help them later on. From the thrill of shooting an arrow to learning how to transform a block of wood into a race car, Cub Scouts is one thrill after another. With a program expertly tailored to match each age in a young boy’s life, Cub Scouts learn that even when fun isn’t easy, it’s always an adventure. In Scouting, everything has a purpose. And it shows kids that doing their best is the most fun of all.
With more than 130 Merit Badges – from Archery and Art to Welding and Wilderness Survival – Scouting is the ultimate form of learning by doing. Boy Scouts explore their interests and improve their skills while working toward Scouting’s highest rank: Eagle. By first imagining, planning then doing their own service projects, Boy Scouts learn the value of hard work, and experience the thrill of seeing it pay off. Add in outdoor adventures, hiking and camping, and Scouting gives boys all the experience they need to become men.
All teens have one – a moment that opens their eyes to a world that’s bigger than they ever imagined. It might happen while paddling a quiet lake, bonding with new friends around a beach bonfire, or rising to the challenge of leading an exhausted crew to the edges of adventure. Venturing gives young men and women access to a range of programs and empowers them to create their own experiences. It brings Scouting values to life through both high adventure outdoor activities and challenging real-world projects.
Exploring is a unique career exploration program for young men and women ages 14-20. It provides students with an opportunity to learn about a wide variety of career fields and network with professionals already working in those fields. You get hands-on experience to determine whether or not a particular career field is right for you. You develop valuable networking contacts with professionals working in your selected career fields, and you get to know other teenagers and young adults sharing your same interests and aspirations.
CO-ED GRADES 3-12
Why read about science when you can just do it? STEM Scouts re-imagines creative ways to learn about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Interact with professionals in weekly hands-on lab sessions and discover new things in a fast-paced, thought-provoking, and fun way. It’s your world now. | <urn:uuid:864cb67b-c03d-43c2-a3c5-fd03b6bba6b6> | CC-MAIN-2017-47 | http://www.easttnscouts.org/be-a-scout/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-47/segments/1510934805894.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20171120013853-20171120033853-00258.warc.gz | en | 0.937683 | 675 | 3.109375 | 3 | {
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Need some boiling water for a beverage or culinary project? Small amounts of water can be conveniently boiled in the microwave in minutes, without the trouble of heating water on the stove or turning on the electric kettle. However, this isn't without its own difficulties. For instance there is a small (but real) risk of super-heating, in which the hot water erupts suddenly, possibly causing burns. While this is unlikely, there are easy precautions to ensure boiling water in the microwave safely.
- Prep time: 1 minute
- Cook time: 1-3 minutes
- Total time: 2-4 minutes
Choose a Microwave-Safe Container
The first step to boiling water safely in the microwave is to use a proper container. This easy-to-read chart will help you determine if your container is up to the task.
|Most metals (including aluminum foil and silverware)||No||Microwaving metal can produce sparks which can damage the microwave or even start fires.|
|Brown paper bags||No||Can catch fire of emit toxic fumes in the microwave.|
|Sealed/airtight containers||No||Can burst from a buildup of hot steam.|
|Containers designed for one use (yogurt cups, margarine cups, etc.)||No||Can melt, burn or emit toxic fumes.|
|Plastic (wraps, Tupperware-esque containers, etc.)||Not usually||Hazardous chemicals in plastic can leach into food. However, plastic containers that are FDA certified as "microwave safe" are fine to use.|
|Styrofoam||Not usually||See plastic; some Styrofoam containers marked as "microwave safe" may be used.|
Boiling Water Safely
1Pour the water into a microwave-safe cup or bowl. Boiling water with a microwave is remarkably easy. To start, pour the water into a container made of the microwave-safe materials listed above.
- Make sure the container is not sealed shut. A buildup of hot steam can cause a harmful explosion.
2Place a clean, microwave-safe object in the water. Next, put a non-metallic object such as a wooden spoon, a chopstick, or a popsicle stick in the water. This prevents a dangerous problem called "super-heating" by giving the water something to form bubbles on.
- Super-heating occurs when water in the microwave heats water past its boiling point and the water is unable to form bubbles because there are no nucleation sites (essentially rough spots for the bubbles to form on). As soon as the water is disturbed or a nucleation site is introduced, the built-up superheated water forms steam very quickly, causing a small explosion of boiling water.
- If you don't have any non-metallic objects to put in your water, use a container that has a scratch or chip on the interior surface. This will act as a nucleation site to help the water bubble.
3Put the water in the microwave. Heat in short (e.g., no more than one and a half minute) intervals, stirring regularly until the water is steaming. Even if these steps are followed, bubbling may not be obvious as it would be on the stove. The most accurate way to ensure the water is boiling is to use a thermometer. At sea level, water boils at (212° F; 100° C); this temperature decreases at higher altitudes.
- If you're using a container that holds heat well (like a glass or ceramic one), be careful when you take the water out of the microwave to stir it. Use a towel or potholder to protect yourself from burns as you handle it.
4To sterilize water, keep it boiling. If you're boiling water to purify it, heat it in the microwave long enough to kill the microorganisms. The Centers for Disease Control and the Environmental Protection Agency recommend boiling the water for at least one minute, or 3 minutes at altitudes above 6,562 feet (>2000 m).
Avoiding Superheating Hazards (More Tips)
1Don't heat the water for excessively long stretches. If, after reading the advice in the section above, you're worried about a superheating accident when you try to boil water, don't worry — there's more you can do to keep yourself safe. For instance, perhaps the single biggest thing you can do to avoid the risk of superheated water is to not heat it for long periods of time. If your water isn't heated past its boiling point, it can't become superheated.
- The exact amount of time you'll want to limit your heating sessions to can vary based on the strength of your microwave. To be safe, try limiting your heating to a single one-minute segment at first. Based on how hot the water gets from this first heating attempt, you can adjust your next one accordingly.
2Avoid extremely smooth containers. For the same reason that it it's a good idea to add something non-metallic to your water or to use a container with scratches in it, it's a bad idea to use perfectly smooth containers. Examples of these can often include new, pristine glass and ceramic bowls, though a variety of other materials can also be smooth enough to cause problems.
- Instead, use an older, more worn container or one with visible scratches at the bottom — these will create nucleation sites for bubbles to form.
3Carefully tap the side of the container when it finishes heating. Once you believe you've heated your water long enough to get it hot, check for superheating by firmly tapping on the side of the container before you take it out of the microwave. Ideally, this should be done with a long tool to protect your hands.
- If the water is superheated, tapping the container can cause it to suddenly "burst" over the top. This may spill water into the microwave, but since you haven't removed it yet, you should avoid any burns.
4Stir the hot water with a long object while it is in the microwave. Still not sure whether the water is superheated or not? Stir it with a long rod or stirring stick to know for sure. Introducing an object and disturbing the water gives it nucleation sites to form bubbles — if it is superheated, it will rapidly burst or boil over. If it doesn't, congratulations! Your water is safe.
5Keep your face away from the container until you are sure it is safe. This may seem like it goes without saying, but it's important not to put your face anywhere near water that you think may have even a tiny risk of being superheated. Most injuries from superheated water result when a person removes the water from the microwave and looks into the container — a sudden burst of superheated water at this point can cause serious burns on the face and even permanent vision damage in the worst of cases.
- A mug of water without something in it, like a chopstick, has a much higher risk of superheating because the bubbles have nowhere to gather. Putting something in with the water is a small but really important step.
- Do not put a sealed container of water in the microwave. The expanding water vapor can cause the container to burst open, creating a huge mess!
Sources and Citations
- ↑ http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave.asp
- ↑ http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/tools-products/cookware-bakeware/food-containers-safe-for-microwave
- ↑ http://www.iflscience.com/technology/what-happens-when-you-put-metal-microwave
- ↑ http://lifehacker.com/what-should-and-shouldnt-i-microwave-1532532172
- ↑ http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/updates/update0706a.shtml
- ↑ http://www.snopes.com/science/microwave.asp
- ↑ http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/yellowbook/2010/chapter-2/water-disinfection.aspx
Show more... (4)
In other languages:
Español: hervir agua en el microondas, Deutsch: Wasser in der Mikrowelle kochen, Português: Ferver Água no Microondas, Italiano: Bollire l'Acqua con il Microonde, Français: faire bouillir de l'eau au micro ondes, Русский: вскипятить воду в микроволновке
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 598,205 times. | <urn:uuid:dd5b5c13-f8b4-4c2e-bf7c-7b7a0a134dd4> | CC-MAIN-2016-18 | http://www.wikihow.com/Boil-Water-in-the-Microwave | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-18/segments/1461860114649.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20160428161514-00178-ip-10-239-7-51.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894619 | 1,886 | 2.8125 | 3 | {
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} | Food & Dining |
Rochester, NY (PRWEB) March 11, 2014
polyDNA has learned that “Hispanic/Latino individuals, and other ethnic minorities bear a strikingly disproportionate burden of diabetes mellitus in the United States.” (See the journal Circulation, from December 18, 2013) (2). In fact, “According to national examination surveys, Mexican Americans are almost twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites to be diagnosed with diabetes by a physician. They have higher rates of end-stage renal disease, caused by diabetes, and they are 50% more likely to die from diabetes as non-Hispanic whites.” (See http://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/, last modified on March 12, 2013) (3). Researchers point to two reasons why diabetes is on the rise in the Hispanic American community. The first is being overweight. “Hispanic and African-American women were more likely to consider their weight normal when in fact they were overweight (1).” The second is the Epstein Barr Virus. Research shows that the EBV might trigger the onset of diabetes. (See dlife.com, from May 2013) (4). polyDNA recommends Gene-Eden-VIR to Hispanic Americans. This natural antiviral was proven to reduce symptoms associated with EBV infections in a post-marketing clinical study that followed FDA guidelines.
Doctors usually recommend exercise, eating fiber, eating whole grains, losing extra weight, and making healthy food choices, when it comes to preventing diabetes. (See Advances in Virology, from January 13, 2012) (5). Most Hispanic Americans with diabetes are urged to exercise and lose weight. However, being overweight is considered a sign of beauty by members of the Hispanic community. As Elma Dieppa, a Hispanic blogger, wrote “This is the problem within the Hispanic community. We love our curves, but the line between beautiful and deadly curves is blurred (1).”
The problem of diabetes in the Hispanic population is further clarified by the CDC. “Lifetime risk estimates for developing diabetes are higher for both Hispanic men and women than for other ethnic groups. Hispanic women born in 2000 have a 52.5 percent risk of developing diabetes in their lifetime while Hispanic men have a 45.4 percent risk. That compares to a 31.2 percent risk for non-Hispanic white females and 26.7 percent risk among non-Hispanic white males and a 49.0 percent and a 40.2 percent risk among African American women and men, respectively.” (See the CDC’s fact sheet on diabetes) (6).
Since new research links the Epstein Barr Virus to diabetes, polyDNA recommends Gene-Eden-VIR to Hispanic Americans. In fact, several common viruses are now linked to diabetes. An article reviewed by Dr. Jason C. Baker M.D. noted that, “Viruses that have been associated with type 1 diabetes as environmental triggers include coxsackie B, enteroviruses, adenovirus, rubella, cytomegalovirus, and Epstein-Barr virus (4).”
“With so many different viruses linked to diabetes, Hispanic Americans need a broad range antiviral product. We recommend Gene-Eden-VIR. We also recommend speaking to the doctor about the product.” – Mike Evans, polyDNA
A study published on August 12, 2013 in the peer reviewed, medical journal Pharmacology & Pharmacy, in a special edition on Advances in Antiviral Drugs, showed that Gene-Eden-VIR reduced viral symptoms. Study authors wrote that, “We observed a statistically significant decrease in the severity, duration, and frequency of symptoms (7).”
To learn more about Gene-Eden-VIR, visit http://gene-eden-kill-virus.com/.
All orders of Gene-Eden-VIR are completely confidential, and no information is shared or sold to any third party. Privacy is assured.
(1) Beautiful but deadly: Latinos' curves put them at risk. Published on October 17, 2013.
(2) Circulation - AHA Statistical Update - Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2013 Update - December 12, 2012.
(3) U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services - The Office of Minority Health - Diabetes and Hispanic Americans. Last modified on March 3, 2013.
(4) dlife.com - Type 1 Causes. Last reviewed on May 2013.
(5) Epstein-barr virus as a trigger of autoimmune liver diseases. Published in 2012.
(6) CDC - Fact Sheet - Prevalence of Diabetes among Hispanics In Six U.S. Geographic Locations.
(7) Gene-Eden-VIR Is Antiviral: Results of a Post Marketing Clinical Study. Published on August 12, 2013.
polyDNA is a biotechnology company that develops dietary supplements using the unique scientific method developed by Dr. Hanan Polansky, which is based on Computer Intuition.
In addition to his unique scientific method, Dr. Polansky published the highly acclaimed scientific discovery, called Microcompetition with Foreign DNA. The discovery explains how foreign DNA fragments, and specifically, DNA of latent viruses, cause most major diseases.
polyDNA developed Gene-Eden-VIR, an antiviral natural remedy that helps the immune system kill latent viruses. | <urn:uuid:ac866b04-2baf-428d-873c-27af86e02df1> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/03/prweb11636842.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246648209.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045728-00304-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918677 | 1,119 | 2.703125 | 3 | {
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There are different forms
of government practised all over the world. Some of them include federal, confederal, and parliamentary systems to mention just a few. Taking a close look at Nigeria, one is confused about the system of government we are currently practicing. Is it federalism or unitary system?
There are so many factors that necessitate people to choose federalism as a form of government such as landmass, ethnic diversity, language heterogeneity, natural endowment and population. With due respect to the principle of federalism, Nigeria meets all the above requirements. But the question is; why is Nigeria federalism not a success?
Compared to some other countries of the world that practise federalism, which include Brazil, Australia, Germany and United States of America, Nigeria has not recorded a success story in its practice of federalism.
Well, some people say we are operating on a political spectrum of federalism in which we are now at a point of aspiring to get to our destination. I totally disagree with them. Federalism is not developmental, it is not like economy, politics or perhaps a living thing. It is not a product of gradual growth. It is a form of government, a system or ideology.
Federalism as K. C. Wheare authoritatively puts it, is a situation where the central and constituents units constitutionally “are not subordinate to one another, but coordinate with one another”. Therefore, in a typical federal state, there is no master-servant relationship. Since both the central and constituent units derive their powers to exist or operate directly from the constitution, no government in such a union arrogates undue powers to itself or act as leader.
However, in Nigeria, the reverse is the case. Nigeria is a federation of an excessively strong central government, accompanied by a ridiculously weak 36 states and 774 local governments. In Nigeria, Abuja calls the shots and dictates the pace for the “servants” to follow.
Furthermore, in a true federal state, the constituent units do not surrender ‘all’. They retain some degree of independence economically and politically. This will make the federating units viable and develop at their own pace. In Nigeria, since the central government is superior to other governments, it distributes national resources to others at its own whims and caprices.
Again, the states are over-dependent on the federal government for their resources, even when some of them contribute nothing to the national treasury. It is heart-breaking that the situation has degenerated to an extent where some states depend on the centre for about 95% of their monthly revenue. The Federal Government had to give bail-out to about 27 states before they could pay their workers, recently. In truth, fiscal policy of Nigeria federalism does not regard the principle of fairness, equity, justice and obligation.
Moreso, federalism is a framework for the coexistence of unity in diversity. It bridges the differences in ethnicity, economy, religion, education and other factors. Again, the story is not the same in Nigeria. The concept of unity in diversity is a mirage to our federalism.
In other federalism, it is “united we stand, divided we fall”. But in Nigeria, it is the other way round, “united we fall, divided we stand”. Nigeria is the most divided federalism I have ever seen, where regionalism, statism, ethnicity and religious sentiments are exalted at the expense of national interest and consciousness.
True federalism does not over-emphasise diversities but strives to identify, accommodate and manage them. Indeed, a state is federal to the extent that it is managing its diversities. A federal formular is therefore geared toward translating diversity into unity. But in Nigeria, we have failed woefully to harness the potentials of our pluralism as a nation.
Another peculiar issue with Nigerian federalism is the inequality of the federating units or states. A true federalism should be predicated upon some degree of equality among the federating states. For example, right from when Nigeria was divided into regions, the northern region is made to feel superior. Any federalism that is predicated on dichotomy of superiority and inferiority or whose factor of inequality is irrationally over-pronounced can not endure.
Though Nigeria meets the necessary conditions to operate as a federal state, the manner with which Nigeria was amalgamated by the British remains questionable. It forms the basis for the argument that “Nigeria is not a nation, but a mere geographical expression”. Consequently, the very foundation on which Nigeria’s federalism is built on, is shaky.
In conclusion, the experiment with the Nigeria state and the lip service to federalism, must stop. This is because the experiment has made it impossible for Nigeria to harness the political, economic and other numerous benefits attached to federalism.
Benjamin is of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. | <urn:uuid:193be1bb-6fff-4085-bdf9-c405ef8e9d9a> | CC-MAIN-2018-47 | http://www.thetidenewsonline.com/2016/04/29/is-nigeria-truly-a-federal-state/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-47/segments/1542039745522.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20181119084944-20181119110944-00432.warc.gz | en | 0.952985 | 1,019 | 2.625 | 3 | {
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Black diamonds have taken quite the center stage in the jewelry business. Its unique and stunning beauty has increased its popularity, even vying for position as the center stone in engagement rings. before designing jewelry must be required to identify a black diamond.
However, if you are unfamiliar with how to identify a black diamond's features, structure, and components, one might deceive you or lead you astray. People can trick you into thinking that a lower-quality stone or a gemstone is a diamond when it is an entirely different jewel. To reduce the possibility of buying black diamond jewelry that loses its shine and turns grey after six months or a year. It is fundamental to know the difference between a natural black diamond and loose moissanite. For this reason, it's essential to understand how to identify black diamonds.
The first test you can do is observe the surface of the diamond. No matter how shiny the black diamond look, it always comes with a few nicks and scratches on its surface.
If it doesn't have any minor ports or cuts, it is not a genuine black diamond. A true black diamond never has a smooth surface. You can use a 10x loupe to examine the surface of the diamond. A loupe is a type of magnifying glass used by jewelers and watchmakers that allows you to investigate the diamond on a microscopic level. You can find loupes on Amazon or any other shops at reasonable prices.
Moissanite has high clarity and is nearly flawless, whereas most diamonds have imperfections. When inspecting the stone, one should look for tiny signs of imperfection to signal a genuine black diamond. The window effect of diamonds can also give insight into their validity. Natural diamonds never have even surfaces, unlike moissanite.
Alternatively, you can use a carbide scriber blade to test the diamond's surface. When an authentic diamond is scratched, nothing happens to the diamond's surface. The reason is that diamonds are one of the hardest naturally occurring minerals.
If the stone in question is not an authentic diamond or is loose moissanite, the experiment will damage the stone. The reason is that the carbide scriber possesses a hardness of 9.5 while the hardness of the moissanite is 9.25. This kind of moissanite often fools many, including the Chinese testers whose carbide scribers have even grades and readings only. If the hardness is more than nine, it shows the diamond is authentic. Therefore, using testers like the Diamond knight and Presidium multi tester3 is highly preferable.
To definitively know if your black diamond is real or fake, always buy black diamonds from reputable jewelers dealing in black diamonds. Make sure you trust the shop and the source of the jewelry. Finally, you can also visit Gemone Diamonds shop for more help and guidance on buying black diamonds. You can learn about the different prices of black Diamond through the price chart of black diamond.
How to Identify a Raw Black Diamond
Black diamond has taken the center stage in the diamond industry for the past few years. Black diamond has inclusions or small imperfections in its structure.
Raw Black Diamonds: This type is inherently emerging black diamonds or carbonado diamonds that own more clusters of graphite as compared to white diamonds. That is why it possesses its black color. A black diamond is heat-treated: you will need a magnifying glass and a light source.
The black diamonds are treated and properly cut-shaped into the preferred style to get quality black diamonds. Although most black diamonds on the market today are either superheated or irradiated to almost black color.
How to tell if Black Diamonds are Real
Understand the dissimilarity of treated black diamond vs natural black diamond and determine if a black diamond is a real diamond or moissanite.
During the last 10 years, I find numerous cases, where people think they buy a huge stone that is marked as a natural black diamond. They come to me saying they have 10 ct to almost 200 Carat black diamond, and they approach me as if what they have hit is the jackpot. And every time, I raise the two basic questions. So this is a kind of two-filter test that they must pass through. The questions are mentioned below,
Is it really A diamond?
If it is really a black diamond, Is it a 100% natural black diamond or a Heated one?
You will be amazed to know that 100% of such people who approached me with such a request are in the day end highly disappointed. Just by looking at the surface of such a stone, we can identify it was not a black diamond at all. It just looks like fake black moissanite. Many times it is not even black moissanite but a Hematite. In a couple of cases, we need to tell them to use the carbide scriber, and the result is the same, the carbide puts a big scratch on the stone surface.
Although diamond testers identify colorless moissanite, they don't take precise readings of any colored moissanite. Because of neither natural colored nor heated black diamond nor Black Moissanite's test as diamond on the electronic testers. So you must check a few things.
- What the supplier deals in as the main product
- Check the certification of the reputed lab
- You can use a diamond scriber to check one of the facets and last
- Anyone can use a high-quality diamond tester like Presidium-III.
If you have come across any such stone or occasion, I request you to follow the Descriptive Diamond Shopping guide.
How to Test Black Diamonds
As we all know diamonds are an internal part of everyone's life, diamonds are a beautiful thing that deserves all the money we can manage to throw at them. How can you figure out whether it's a natural diamond or an artificial diamond?
There are many tests through which you can figure out the diamond, the goal is to determine if it’s a real diamond or not.
Here are several tests mentioned,
Water Drop Test
Diamonds are of high density, through this test diamond is real or fake can be known. You can test this at home,
just take the glass of water and drop the diamond in the water if it sinks the diamond is real and if the diamond floats the diamond is not real and it's just a fake diamond.
Diamonds are incredibly tough and can resist extremely high heat. Another test to determine if a black diamond is genuine is the Heat Test.
To do this, use a lighter to heat the black diamond for a few moments, then drop the hot diamond immediately into a glass of water, If it breaks, then it is a fake diamond.
Check this video for more information on how to test Black Diamond | <urn:uuid:f744b0a3-aaca-499b-9057-3e919de7538c> | CC-MAIN-2023-40 | https://gemonediamond.com/blogs/diamond/identify-black-diamonds | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-40/segments/1695233510528.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20230929190403-20230929220403-00698.warc.gz | en | 0.934849 | 1,409 | 3.046875 | 3 | {
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Or, at least, I can.
It helps that you’ve built an adirondack chair and a quartet of tables first, of course.
The construction is pretty simple: I looked at a bunch of plans on the internet, and found most of them overly complicated. It’s not that they would be hard to build, although with the hinges for folding and the angled cut to make the legs level and so on, they might be a little tricky. It’s that they would be difficult for students to recreate.
And as I noted in my post about the second pair of tables, I want everything in the lab to be replicable. I want a kid to come into the room and say, “Could I build that?” And I want the answer to be “yes!” The little ones might say “maybe,” but the big kids should be able to say “Yes, definitely!” by the end of their time with me.
That should be normal.
But that means that I also have to be confident that I can do it. So, today, I printed out one of those pictures/diagrams with the sawhorse measurements on it, and I built one. All of the skills that I learned in building the Adirondack chair at Eli Whitney Museum came to the fore:
- How to cut lumber square
- How to square lumber before attaching it
- How to square elements of a larger construction before attaching them
- How to level elements
- How to measure (three different ways, at least twice)
- Using a tape measure
- Using a bevel square or speed square
- Using an exemplar already cut correctly
- driving screws
- working with a level
- working with a power sander.
The tool-set is not complicated. The patience and care are… not exactly easy to learn, but come with practice. The sense of transformation and accomplishment that result? Well worth the time. Plus, it’s amortization of the circular saw, which cost around $100… At eleven cuts per sawhorse, and sixteen per table… let’s see… one sawhorse, that’s 12, four tables that’s 64 and 12 is 76. It’s cost us around $1.36 a cut for the use of the circular saw. Given that we’re making three more tables (48 cuts), three hutches (estimated 22 cuts each or 66), a storage cabinet (30 cuts), and another sawhorse (12)… 76 cuts + 156 more cuts… $100/232 cuts is forty-three cents per cut.
More than that, though… I’m beginning to feel that if we were told, “you have to be in the new design lab by Friday of next week,” we could do that. We’d move our stuff in, abandon what we’re going to abandon, and finish construction of our remaining equipment in the new space.
And that’s empowering to me. I feel like I can pack up and move rooms, and not fall behind in my program. I feel like I have power to get this done. I feel like another couple of days of construction and we’ll be ready to go in a new space and new place. | <urn:uuid:f9b8fdb7-a7db-49a7-9fd6-67098d23eeeb> | CC-MAIN-2018-26 | https://andrewbwatt.com/2015/02/26/design-lab-sawhorse/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2018-26/segments/1529267864191.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20180621153153-20180621173153-00202.warc.gz | en | 0.955213 | 705 | 2.5625 | 3 | {
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From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.
We should all let the sunshine in as much as possible – and not just because it makes us feel good. Exposure to sunlight produces vitamin D in our skin. This is why we call vitamin D the “sunshine vitamin.”
Vitamin D is good for everybody. In fact, research shows this “sunshine vitamin” could help women with breast cancer live longer.
Breast cancer patients who have high blood levels of Vitamin D have a better a prognosis than women who don't. A prognosis is how quickly a doctor expects a patient to recover or how long a doctor expects a patient to live.
Researchers found that these women had less aggressive cancers. They were also 30 percent less likely to die from the cancer or to get it again.
Researcher Song Yao led the study for the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. He said the study showed that high Vitamin D levels improved the patients’ prognosis no matter what type or how advanced their cancer was.
Other benefits of vitamin D
Besides fighting breast cancer, Vitamin D helps the body in other ways.
Most importantly, Vitamin D controls how the body absorbs calcium. It also makes sure the body’s immune system works normally.
Getting enough Vitamin D is important for normal growth of bones. If you don’t get enough, you are at risk of developing osteoporosis, a disease that makes your bones fragile, brittle, or easy to break.
Several studies show that Vitamin D also strengthens the immune system and helps the body fight disease.
Vitamin D may help reduce your risk of developing heart disease, according to a 2008 study published in the journal Circulation. And, it may also help protect you against getting the flu.
Other studies have shown that vitamin D might help people suffering from depression.
But how do we get enough vitamin D?
Factors in the environment may limit our exposure to sunlight and, therefore, Vitamin D. These factors include pollution, using too much sunscreen, spending too much time inside and living in areas with little sunlight.
So, if you can’t get enough sunshine, eat foods that are rich in Vitamin D: egg yolks, cheese and fatty fish such as salmon, sardines, tuna or mackerel.
Some foods such as orange juice, yogurt and cereals are fortified with Vitamin D. They are also good sources.
How much Vitamin D you need is a debated topic. The best way to know if you need more Vitamin D is to get tested by a doctor.
And that’s the Health & Lifestyle report.
I’m Anna Matteo.
Words in This Story
prognosis – n. medical prediction of the future course of a disease and the chance for recovery.
osteoporosis – n. medical a medical condition in which the bones become brittle and fragile from loss of tissue, typically as a result of hormonal changes, or deficiency of calcium or vitamin D.
fragile – adj. easily broken or destroyed
brittle – adj. easily broken, cracked, or snapped <brittle clay> <brittle glass> <brittle bones>
fortify – v. to add material to (something) to strengthen or improve it <The cereal was fortified with vitamins.> | <urn:uuid:530fb93c-a74a-4801-af0b-f31b9ceeb768> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/health-and-lifestyle-report-sunshine-improves-cancer-odds/3639045.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247504790.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190221132217-20190221154217-00200.warc.gz | en | 0.923916 | 695 | 3.4375 | 3 | {
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"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Health |
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- Properties of steel
- Types of steel
- Primary steelmaking
- Secondary steelmaking
- Ladle metallurgy
- Casting of steel
- Continuous casting
- Special solidification processes
- Forming of steel
- Treating of steel
- Primary steelmaking
- World steel production
About 55 percent of the world’s liquid steel production is solidified in continuous casting processes, the most widely used of which feeds liquid steel continuously into a short, water-cooled vertical copper mold and, at the same time, continuously withdraws the frozen shell, including the liquid steel it contains.
Tundish, mold, and secondary zone
The key control parameter of continuous casting is matching the flow of liquid steel into the mold with the withdrawal speed of the strand out of the mold. The control of flow rates is accomplished by the tundish, a small, refractory-lined distributer that is placed over the mold and that receives steel from the furnace ladle (see ). Withdrawal speed is controlled by driven rolls, which contact the strand at a point where it has already developed a thick, solidified shell.
Feeding of the caster mold from the tundish is controlled by a stopper rod or a sliding gate similar to the equipment used in ladles (see above Secondary steelmaking: The ladle: Tapping). The liquid steel in the tundish must be within a specific temperature “window”—a range just above its liquidus that is determined by the steel’s grade; in addition, measures are always taken to keep air away from the steel in order to minimize reoxidation. Shielding can be accomplished by pouring steel through refractory tubes that are immersed in the steel or through wide sleeves that are pressurized with argon. The tundish itself is covered with a lid and is often also topped with argon. Both ladle and tundish sit on a turret or transfer car to permit a quick exchange.
The mold is made of copper because of the high heat conductivity of that metal. It is heavily water-cooled and oscillates up and down to avoid sticking of the solidified shell to its walls. In addition, the mold wall is lubricated by oil or slag, which is maintained on the steel meniscus and flows down into the gap between mold and strand. The slag layer, when used, is formed by the continuous addition of casting powder. Besides providing lubrication, it keeps air away from the liquid steel, acts as a heat barrier, and absorbs inclusions.
Many continuous casters contain sensors in the mold for automatically synchronizing the flow of liquid steel into the mold with the strand withdrawal speed. As it exits the mold, the strand has a shell thickness of only about 10 millimetres and is immediately water-cooled by spray nozzles. The strength and soundness of the shell at this location determine the maximum casting speed, because rupturing it would result in a breakout of liquid steel and damage to the caster. On its way down, the strand is supported by many rolls to avoid a bulging of the shell by the ferrostatic pressure of the liquid steel it contains. As the shell thickness increases toward the end of this so-called secondary cooling zone, the supporting rolls grow larger and are spaced farther apart. The secondary zone is often also called the metallurgical length, because this is where the strand solidifies and the cast structure develops. Depending on the strand’s cross section and the casting speed, it can be 10 to 40 metres long. The flow of water to the many nozzles in the various sections is often computer-controlled and automatically adjusted as casting conditions change.
After the strand passes through the last pair of support rolls, it enters the run-out table and is cut, while moving, by one or two oxyacetylene torches.
Continuous casters in commercial operation are built according to different design principles. For some steels and solidification patterns, all components are arranged in a vertical line—a straight mold, a straight secondary cooling zone, and vertical strand cutting. Other casters also have a straight mold and a vertical secondary cooling zone, but they bend the strand on its way down, after it has solidified, into a horizontal direction and cut it on a run-out table. (In spite of the horizontal turn, even this design requires a high building and a long ladle lift.)
The majority of continuous casters have a curved mold, a curved secondary cooling zone, and a series of straightening rolls before the horizontal run-out table. Everything down to the straightener is on one radius or on several matching radii. This design results in a low casting machine, as shown in the.
Billet, bloom, beam, and slab
Different design principles are used for casting strands of different cross sections. Billet casters solidify 80- to 175-millimetre squares or rounds, bloom casters solidify sections of 300 by 400 millimetres, and beam blank casters produce large, dog-bone-like sections that are directly fed into an I-beam or H-beam rolling mill. Huge slab casters solidify sections up to 250 millimetres thick and 2,600 millimetres wide at production rates of up to three million tons per year.
In order to match the quantity of steel produced in a heat with the solidification capacity of a mold for a certain strand section, it is often necessary to use a multistrand caster. Some billet casters have six molds in one line next to one another, and all are fed from the same tundish. | <urn:uuid:3ee2f3d5-f0f4-43bb-9eb4-96e4f61b70f5> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://www.britannica.com/technology/steel/Continuous-casting | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370492125.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20200328164156-20200328194156-00312.warc.gz | en | 0.927885 | 1,208 | 3.328125 | 3 | {
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} | Industrial |
23 August 2018
A team of internationally respected coastal scientists including Professor Kate Spencer, Environmental Geochemist at Queen Mary’s School of Geography and Dr Simon Carr, Programme Lead for Geography at the University of Cumbria, formerly of Queen Mary, are conducting a unique experiment into how salt marshes cope with storm surges, as part of RESIST(UK) – a collaborative research project between the University of Cambridge, the British Geological Survey and Queen Mary University of London.
RESIST(UK) stands for ‘Response of Ecologically-mediated Shallow Intertidal Shores and their Transitions to extreme hydrodynamic forcing in UK settings. It is a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded project that is running in the UK, parallel and complementary to an EU-Hydralab+ funded ‘RESIST’ project.
The project is led by Dr Iris Möller from the Cambridge Coastal Research Unit (CCRU) at the University of Cambridge, and the experiment is carried out at the Large Wave Flume (Großer Wellenkanal) at the Coastal Research Centre in Hannover, Germany.
Coastal wetlands cover 756,000 km2 globally. While coastal populations are increasingly at risk from flooding and erosion, this is particularly the case on coasts fronted by wetlands (nation states with mangroves may face a coastal population rise from 1.8 billion to 2.8 billion between 2000 and 2025 (Dodd and Ong, 2008)).
To date, researchers can neither predict the resistance of tidal marshes against more frequent or more severe flooding nor what kind of storm surges might destroy them. Salt marshes are considerably more complex than dunes or sand beaches. On the one hand, they contain large quantities of silt and loam, resulting in "sticky" soil. On the other hand, their protective vegetation is more or less pronounced.
“We just don’t know how important plants are in binding the soil together and stabilising the marsh. Our project will answer this question and supply the first ever data on the resistance of these fascinating natural structures to the kinds of storms from which we need protection as sea levels rise and stormier seas occur in a changing climate,” says Dr Möller.
Professor Spencer and Dr Carr are leading work that explores the geochemical and structural controls on salt marsh erosion and explains salt marsh response to increased wave energy and storm conditions. This uses a combination of standard geochemical techniques and microcomputed tomography, as well as using the EU-Hydralab+ facility in Hannover experimenting on large saltmarsh mesocosms. Dr Clementine Chirol, a coastal geomorphologist and geodata analyst who recently joined the School of Geography, is working alongside Professor Spencer as Postdoctoral Research Assistant.
The project aims to understand how soil type and biology affect the resistance of exposed salt marsh areas to the eroding forces of waves and tides; as well as to develop methods for mapping such resistance and its variability across space to allow prediction of marsh loss in different areas of the marsh, for any given set of sea level, wave and tide conditions.
“This week we’ve visited the EU-Hydralab+ facility in Hannover – one of the world’s largest wave flumes. We’re already seeing some exciting results with sediments from different UK saltmarshes showing different levels of erosion,” says Professor Spencer.
Catching and assessing a storm impact in the natural world is a tough thing to do; but the impacts of storm waves on transplanted saltmarsh soil and vegetation can be simulated under controlled laboratory conditions. Running big storm waves over a trial saltmarsh needs a big artificial channel, or flume.
We will expose sediment core samples extracted from the silty east coast and the sandy west coast of the UK in July to large waves and storm surges in one of the largest indoor flumes in the world, the 300m long, 5m wide, and 7m deep Large Wave Flume – a joint facility of Leibniz University Hannover and Technical University Braunschweig. The hydraulic wave generator simulates continuous waves and swells under deep and shallow water conditions. In addition, it generates continuous waves up to two metres high, as well as wave spectrums with significant wave heights of up to 1.3 metres.
Researchers will examine sediment structure using a micro CT scanner at Queen Mary – this is one of the first times that this technique has been used to examine saltmarsh sediment and root networks. The cores will be opened at the side and fixed at the end of the Large Wave Flume. This is where they will be exposed to the waves, enabling researchers to track the progress of erosion after each wave cycle.
The societal value of coastal salt marsh is high, but areas are in global decline. Salt marsh surfaces appear remarkably resistant to storm impact and are currently keeping pace with sea level rise in elevation terms. However, marsh margin erosion by tidal currents and waves is resulting in considerable net marsh loss.
The RESIST research project takes on the challenge of finding out whether naturally protective salt marshes can resist severe storms. The research could show the consequences of climate change, which could include more frequent storm surges, for salt marshes.
Professor Kate Spencer is leading on a new undergraduate field class module, Future Coasts, which will be running for the first time in the School of Geography in the 2018-19 academic year. The module aims to introduce students to the impacts of climate change on coastal environments and understand how coastal morphology responds to external forcing from sea level rise, wave and tidal energy and the impacts of erosion and flooding on coastal habitats and communities. The field trip will be based around Rotterdam, the Rhine-Meuse delta and Dutch coast and will also explore how innovative and sustainable approaches can be used to build resilient cities, reduce flood risk, improve habitats and to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Future Coasts will be optional for second- and third-year students enrolled on Geography BSc, Environmental Science BSc and Environmental Science with Business Management BSc courses. | <urn:uuid:b5adc909-8c11-4f9b-ad85-9a92bdb369bc> | CC-MAIN-2019-51 | https://www.qmul.ac.uk/geog/news/2018/items/how-do-salt-marshes-cope-with-storm-surges.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-51/segments/1575541301014.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20191215015215-20191215043215-00162.warc.gz | en | 0.918432 | 1,267 | 3.234375 | 3 | {
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} | Science & Tech. |
What is Permanency Planning for Children?
Permanency planning focuses on achieving family support for children living in an institution by finding them a permanent living arrangement that includes “an enduring and nurturing parental relationship.”
Texas law underscores the importance of children with developmental disabilities living in a family or family-like setting by requiring permanency planning for each child living in an institution.
Texas law defines child as a person with a developmental disability who is younger than 22. Institutions include:
- nursing facility,
- intermediate care facility for individuals with an intellectual disability or related conditions (ICF/IID), and
- a setting that provides residential assistance services through the Home and Community-based Services (HCS) program.
Each child’s service plan must include permanency planning goals that are ongoing and reviewed at least semiannually. The law also requires a child’s name be added to a waiver program interest list appropriate to his or her needs.
It is important for the child and his or her parents, guardians, friends and advocate to be actively involved in the permanency planning process.
If the parent or guardian can’t be located, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) may designate a volunteer advocate to help develop the child’s permanency plan. The child’s parent or guardian also can request a volunteer advocate. A volunteer advocate can’t be employed by or be under contract with the institution in which the child lives. An adult relative of a child or a representative from a child advocacy group also may serve as a volunteer advocate.
Permanency Planning Reports
Brochures, Forms and Tools
A Message for Families Brochures
- Form 2260, Permanency Planning Instrument (PPI) for Children Under 22 Years of Age (Family Directed Plan)
- HHSC Permanency Planning Instruction Manual (PDF)
- Permanency Planning Technical Assistance Guide (PDF)
Technical Assistance Tools
These technical assistance tools and materials are provided to assist both the permanency planners and providers in facilitating and understanding the permanency planning process. Any of the tools and materials can be copied and used for training purposes, or when appropriate, given to families participating in permanency planning.
- Describing the Child (PDF)
- Family-based Alternatives (PDF in English)
- Family-based Alternatives (PDF in Spanish)
- History Prior to Placement (PDF)
- Identifying the Child's Relationship (PDF)
- Permanency Planning Laws (PDF)
- Stages in the Permanency Planning Process (PDF)
- Suggestions for Engaging Families (PDF)
- Talking about Goals (PDF)
- Talking about Returning Home (PDF)
- Talking about Support Families (PDF) | <urn:uuid:d0afdec0-9541-4b30-bfe7-0c822c182217> | CC-MAIN-2024-10 | https://www.hhs.texas.gov/providers/long-term-care-providers/local-idd-authority-lidda/permanency-planning-children | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-10/segments/1707947476464.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20240304165127-20240304195127-00217.warc.gz | en | 0.892479 | 580 | 2.78125 | 3 | {
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} | Health |
Canada's waters threatened, report
By Martin Mittelstaedt
The Globe and Mail
Published November 13, 2006
TORONTO — Canada has some of the world's most extensive
water resources, but a new report released today warns
that even a modest amount of global warming will reduce
flows in the Great Lakes and the Athabasca River enough
to crimp hydro-electricity production in Ontario and oil
sands development in Alberta.
The report, from the World Wildlife Fund Canada, reviewed
the likely impacts of a 2-degree rise in average global
temperatures on the two water systems, which play a critical
role in the country's economic development and environment.
It says there will be less abundant water resources primarily
because warming will lead to more evaporation from water
bodies, changes in rainfall patterns, and alterations
in glacial melting, lowering levels in streams and lakes.
"We think of our water resources as endless, but
they're not only finite, they're diminishing with global
warming," said Julia Langer, a spokeswoman for the
environmental group. "All of the data indicates that
these are diminishing water resources."
The study predicts there will be enough water scarcity driven
by the 2 degrees of global warming -- expected to occur
some time between 2026 and 2060 -- that Canadians should
begin planning now to adapt to the change.
"Water availability in the populated and large water-use
regions of Canada is expected to fall as a result of climate
change," the report says, recommending that industries
and regulators in both Ontario and Alberta "incorporate
climate change into their management plans."
In Alberta, flows in the Athabasca River, which runs
through the northern part of the province and is used
extensively by oil sands plants, could diminish by another
10 per cent because of climate change, the report says.
This would be in addition to a decline of about 20 per
cent that has occurred since 1958.
Any further drop would have a major impact on the tar
sands because processing the gooey bitumen requires about
two to 4.5 barrels of water for every barrel of oil produced.
The report predicts there isn't enough water available
in the Athabasca to balance the growing demand from the
petroleum industry with the need to preserve this river
"Flows will be insufficient to satisfy the needs
of oil sands production, as well as other industrial,
commercial, agricultural, municipal and environmental
users, including the biologically rich Peace-Athabasca
Delta," it says.
To maintain water flows in the river during low-water
periods, the report says oil sands development will have
to be curtailed, and it recommends Alberta consider withholding
approvals for oil sands projects until the industry introduces
substantial water conservation measures and scientists
are sure stream flows can cope with climate change.
In the Great Lakes, it says global warming could lead
to enough evaporation to cause water levels to drop by
up to 1.2 metres. A decline of this magnitude would lead
to a drop of up to 17 per cent in hydro-electricity production
at power plants that depend on the water body.
In recent dry years, water-level decreases of only 0.1
to 0.5 metres below average levels have caused major problems
for cottagers, power companies and the shipping industry.
The report recommends Ontario develop alternative energy
projects to offset the expected decline in hydro power
from the Great Lakes, the source of about a quarter of
the province's current electricity supply. | <urn:uuid:8e0d61b6-bfec-4ee7-aac6-2e6a963d3eb5> | CC-MAIN-2021-39 | http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/on/111306_great_lakes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-39/segments/1631780056548.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20210918154248-20210918184248-00617.warc.gz | en | 0.931882 | 758 | 3.03125 | 3 | {
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} | Science & Tech. |
Metabolic syndrome is the name for a group of risk factors that raises your risk for heart disease and other health problems, such as diabetes and stroke.
The term "metabolic" refers to the biochemical processes involved in the body's normal functioning. Risk factors are traits, conditions, or habits that increase your chance of developing a disease.
In this article, "heart disease" refers to ischemic heart disease, a condition in which a waxy substance called plaque builds up inside the arteries that supply blood to the heart.
Plaque hardens and narrows the arteries, reducing blood flow to your heart muscle. This can lead to chest pain, a heart attack, heart damage, or even death.
Causes and Risk Factors of Metabolic Syndrome
Metabolic syndrome has several causes that act together, including:
- Abdominal obesity (large waistline)
- Inactive lifestyle
- Insulin resistance.
Some racial and ethnic groups in the United States are at higher risk for metabolic syndrome than others. Mexican Americans have the highest rate of metabolic syndrome, followed by whites and blacks.
Other groups at increased risk for metabolic syndrome include:
- People who have a personal history of diabetes
- People who have a sibling or parent who has diabetes
- Women when compared with men
- Women who have a personal history of polycystic ovarian syndrome (a tendency to develop cysts on the ovaries)
Preventing Metabolic Syndrome
The best way to prevent metabolic syndrome is to adopt heart-healthy lifestyle changes. Make sure to schedule routine doctor visits to keep track of your cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels. Speak with your doctor about a blood test called a lipoprotein panel, which shows your levels of total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides.
Diagnosing Metabolic Syndrome
Your doctor will diagnose metabolic syndrome based on the results of a physical exam and blood tests. You must have at least three of the five metabolic risk factors to be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome.
A Large Waistline
Having a large waistline means that you carry excess weight around your waist (abdominal obesity). This is also called having an "apple-shaped" figure. Your doctor will measure your waist to find out whether you have a large waistline.
A waist measurement of 35 inches or more for women or 40 inches or more for men is a metabolic risk factor. A large waistline means you're at increased risk for heart disease and other health problems.
A High Triglyceride Level
Triglycerides are a type of fat found in the blood. A triglyceride level of 150 mg/dL or higher (or being on medicine to treat high triglycerides) is a metabolic risk factor. (The mg/dL is milligrams per deciliter—the units used to measure triglycerides, cholesterol, and blood sugar.)
A Low HDL Cholesterol Level
HDL cholesterol sometimes is called "good" cholesterol. This is because it helps remove cholesterol from your arteries.
An HDL cholesterol level of less than 50 mg/dL for women and less than 40 mg/dL for men (or being on medicine to treat low HDL cholesterol) is a metabolic risk factor.
High Blood Pressure
A blood pressure of 130/85 mmHg or higher (or being on medicine to treat high blood pressure) is a metabolic risk factor. (The mmHg is millimeters of mercury—the units used to measure blood pressure.)
If only one of your two blood pressure numbers is high, you're still at risk for metabolic syndrome.
High Fasting Blood Sugar
A normal fasting blood sugar level is less than 100 mg/dL. A fasting blood sugar level between 100–125 mg/dL is considered prediabetes. A fasting blood sugar level of 126 mg/dL or higher is considered diabetes.
A fasting blood sugar level of 100 mg/dL or higher (or being on medicine to treat high blood sugar) is a metabolic risk factor.
About 85 percent of people who have type 2 diabetes—the most common type of diabetes—also have metabolic syndrome. These people have a much higher risk for heart disease than the 15 percent of people who have type 2 diabetes without metabolic syndrome.
Treatment for Metabolic Syndrome
Heart-healthy lifestyle changes are the first line of treatment for metabolic syndrome. If heart-healthy lifestyle changes aren’t enough, your doctor may prescribe medicines. Medicines are used to treat and control risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high triglycerides, low HDL (“good”) cholesterol, and high blood sugar.
The major goal of treating metabolic syndrome is to reduce the risk of ischemic heart disease. Treatment is directed first at lowering LDL cholesterol and high blood pressure and managing diabetes (if these conditions are present).
The second goal of treatment is to prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes, if it hasn’t already developed. Long-term complications of diabetes often include heart and kidney disease, vision loss, and foot or leg amputation. If diabetes is present, the goal of treatment is to reduce your risk for heart disease by controlling all of your risk factors.
Heart-healthy lifestyle changes include heart-healthy eating, aiming for a healthy weight, managing stress, physical activity, and quitting smoking.
Medicines such as statin medications can control or lower your cholesterol and decrease your chance of having a heart attack or stroke. Your doctor also may prescribe other medications to:
- Decrease your chance of having a heart attack or dying suddenly.
- Lower your blood pressure.
- Prevent blood clots, which can lead to heart attack or stroke.
- Reduce your heart’s workload and relieve symptoms of coronary heart disease.
Bariatric Surgery is often considered curative for metabolic syndrome, as it mitigates or eliminates a number of risk factors. If living a heart-healthy lifestyle and medications are not enough to reduce weight and control risk factors, discuss with your doctor if bariatric surgery may be an option for you. | <urn:uuid:71369beb-aee9-4a23-884d-dff9795a705f> | CC-MAIN-2022-33 | https://www.cooperhealth.org/services/metabolic-syndrome | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-33/segments/1659882573104.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20220817183340-20220817213340-00287.warc.gz | en | 0.921848 | 1,251 | 3.921875 | 4 | {
"raw_score": 1.6293232440948486,
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"interpretation": "Moderate reasoning"
} | Health |
When Europeans arrived in America, Native Americans had been living on the land for thousands of years. Unfortunately, the new arrivals didn’t have much respect for that and often built right over important cultural sites—including burial grounds. Myrtles Plantation, in St. Francisville near Baton Rouge, is one building rumored to be right on top of a Native American burial ground. It’s also one of the most haunted houses in America, supposedly the home of no less than 12 ghosts. Legend says that up to 10 murders occurred in the house, but only the murder of William Winter is on record. Along with Winter’s ghost, other spectral residents include a young Native American woman, the spirits of a former owner and her 2 children, a murdered slave woman, at least 1 Civil War soldier and a young girl who died in 1868, who reportedly practices voodoo on unsuspecting guests.
In 1992, the proprietress of the Myrtles photographed what appeared to be a slave girl standing between two of the buildings on the plantation. The insurance company had required photographs to be taken that would show the distances between the buildings to aid the underwriters in rating a fire insurance policy for the plantation.
The National Geographic Explorer filming crew determined that the photograph definitely contained what appeared to be an apparition of what they believe to be a slave girl. The slave girl appeared in the breezeway between The General’s Store and the Butler’s Pantry of the mansion. The horizontal exterior boards of the mansion were clearly visible through the body of the apparition. National Geographic Explorer used the photograph in their documentary and suggested that a postcard should be made of the photograph.
Do you see the young girl dressed in antebellum clothing who appears to be peering out of the large window? She is standing in the window to the left of the white rocking chair. The young girl appears to be looking directly into the camera.
Her eyes, hair, and dress are clearly visible in the photograph but what remains unclear is who is this girl and how did she get there? She is referred to as “The Ghost Girl” of The Myrtles Plantation.
The photo was taken of a teacher and some of her students on the courtyard of The Myrtles Plantation with a Sony Cybershot DSC-P93A camera. Without going into the technical explanation that included megapixel capability, file size, GIF file compression system, shutter speed, aperture setting, ISO speed setting and focal length of the lens, let me confirm that nothing at all unusual was discovered or reported about the photograph or the manner in which it was developed.
The photograph continues to travel the world being thoroughly researched but still without explanation of the ‘Ghost Girl’.
There have been many other strange sightings and happenings here, don’t believe me just go visit for yourself! | <urn:uuid:5f71e5e2-9548-4388-9fe8-70746e487c62> | CC-MAIN-2023-06 | https://scarycarries.com/2019/04/11/myrtles-haunted-plantation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-06/segments/1674764500074.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20230203185547-20230203215547-00342.warc.gz | en | 0.96759 | 591 | 3.09375 | 3 | {
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} | History |
Contents - Previous - Next
Marketing of fruits and vegetables within States composed of many small islands is constrained by lengthy sea journeys, exacerbated by poor market infrastructures and the limited supply of shipping, due to inadequate quantities of available cargo. Assembly markets to bulk produce together by traders for shipment or road transport could help overcome the latter problem. All too often, farmers are encouraged to plant new crops with no attention being paid to the difficulties associated with marketing.
Marketing for small-scale fisheries is also problematic on a number of counts:
* lack of ice and/or refrigeration to hold catches until they can be transferred to market;
* distance from domestic markets, and, in the case of Indian Ocean and South Pacific island States, distance from export markets; and
* poorly developed national infrastructures and international networks for the distribution of fish.
Inability to comply with regulations relating to quality and safety requirements, pesticide residues, naturally occurring contaminants such as mycotoxins, pathogenic bacteria or insects, also hamper exports. Adequate food quality control mechanisms are therefore urgently needed at the producer, processor and government levels to ensure conformity with basic recommended standards, codes of practice and limits for pesticide residues and contaminants such as those prescribed by the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission. This will improve international and regional trade prospects, avoid costly rejection of exported foods, and promote a better quality and safer domestic food supply.
"Reduction of Post-Harvest Losses of Fruits and Vegetables Entering-Island Trade in the Caribbean"
trade in fresh produce has provided a source of revenue
to thousands of small-scale farmers with excess capacity
compared to limited domestic markets. The hucksters and
traffickers, most of whom are women, are highly
independent and usually retain title of produce up to the
point of wholesale, or even retail. The huckster trade is
characterized by inadequate infrastructures relating to
market information, produce preparation and packing
facilities, packaging materials, sea transport, and
wholesale facilities in the importing islands. As a
direct consequence, post-harvest losses have been
frequently very high, with subjective estimates of some
20 to 50 percent due to many factors, depending on the
commodity. This project was implemented from 1986-89 with
FAO assistance in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados,
Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St.
Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. The
objective was to reduce post-harvest losses of
horticultural produce at the country level, specifically
for produce entering inter-island trade, by improving
harvesting, handling shipping and marketing of
horticultural produce-, creating a core of public and
private-sector personnel with knowledge of post-harvest
handling activities for horticultural produce;
identifying and preparing national projects geared to
better post-harvest handling of agricultural produce;
improving market operations in the main importing
countries; improving wharfside, facilities for the
preparation and storage of produce-, and producing
training materials on improved post-harvest handling of
produce. Although the emphasis of regional training
programmes should be at the national level, follow-up
should be ensured through a regionally coordinated and
agreed programme. A regional institution, such as the
Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development
Institute, or the Caribbean Agricultural Rural
Development Advisory and Training Service, could assume
responsibility for coordination, and be backed with a
clear mandate and the approval of the Standing Committee
of Ministers of Agriculture of CARICOM.
The new rules agreed under the recent GATT Round present new challenges for small island developing States' agricultural exports which go mostly to developed countries. For islands to be competitive in the changing food marketing environment, quality and organization must be addressed:
* New food consumption patterns to match consumer preferences, lifestyle and ability to pay. New end products may be in the form of chilled, frozen, fast-food, ready prepared meals, snack foods, products of organic farming, etc. This requires raw materials with different characteristics and farmers must use production techniques conforming to their clients' requirements in terms of safety, animal welfare, breed, variety, etc.
* The changing structure of food retailing and manufacturing strongly influences food consumption patterns and demand for raw materials. Increasingly, food manufacturers and retailers control the food chain vertically. Food retailers compete on convenience, "freshness", health connotations, environmental profiles, and compatibility to lifestyle, not to speak of taste and price. The growing importance of niche markets and the integration of production leads to ever more specialisation in agriculture and an increasing array of direct links between agricultural producers and the manufacturers, retailers, caterers and wholesalers who are increasingly in a position to dictate their conditions to their suppliers.
Small island developing States should consider ways of improving export marketing arrangements with importer countries to take advantage of changing consumption patterns, the growth of niche markets, and the evolution of the distribution system. In this regard, developing a network for the dissemination of information and data concerning world market conditions and trends for small island products would be particularly useful
"Strengthening Food-Control Capabilities in Response to Cholera in the Caribbean"
the 1991 cholera epidemic which spread from Peru to
several Latin American countries, 13 countries in the
Caribbean (Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados,
Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and
Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines,
Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago) were surveyed to
assess existing food control systems and their
effectiveness in ensuring adequate consumer protection.
The survey disclosed serious deficiencies in the food
control systems due to the rapid growth in the number of
itinerant vendors selling street food and the overall
ineffective coverage given to imported food. The concern
of food control officials about the potential threat of
cholera and the lack of needed expertise in all aspects
of food control were addressed by this project (1992-93)
which provided on-site training for inspection of street
food operations; laboratory training for microbiological
analysis of foods; training in food sampling techniques
including imported/exported food, training in food
inspection techniques and methods; and training in
management of food control programmes and consumer
awareness. This project will be followed up by another
initiative focusing on export-import inspection and
certification in the sub-region.
Tourism and the environment
Tourism and agriculture
Tourism and fisheries
Tourism and forestry
plays an important role in the economy of many small island
developing States where it is the major source of employment,
foreign exchange earnings, and national government revenue. The
World Tourism Organization has estimated that tourism receipts
account for some 25 percent of total export earnings in the
Pacific and over 35 percent for Caribbean islands. Much of the
income generated by tourism does, however, leak back to developed
countries (30-50 percent in the Caribbean), mostly to foreign air
carriers, hotel owners and suppliers of imported food and
Because the principal gains from tourism are clearly priced and easily observable, whereas the environmental costs generally affect unpriced resources, there is a tendency to overestimate the net social benefits of tourism.
Tourism leads to increased sewage (much of which is left untreated), resource depletion (especially water), conflicts between recreational and commercial fishermen, and other disadvantages. Generally, per capita consumption of resources by tourists has risen to four times that of local residents. Considering that many natural processes converge and interact on the coastal zone, even small-scale development activities there can considerably affect the environment. Island ecosystems are fragile and feature critical habitats, including coral reefs, mangrove swamps, sea grass beds, bird rookeries and sea turtle hatcheries. Nations seeking to develop tourism face the challenge of developing management plans that minimize impacts on these sensitive habitats.
Trade-offs among sectors using land, water, and biological resources could be addressed in the framework of integrated coastal area management aimed at optimizing use of natural resources and protecting them from increased stress. Given the limited productive potential of coastal areas, allocation of user rights and a limited-entry approach to tourism based on estimates of carrying capacity appear wan-anted; at present, control is generally based on physical limits (number of persons per area per day).
importance of the sector in the total economy, the large
investments already made in hotels and other infrastructures, and
competition from the wide choice of tourist resorts, taking such
decisions will require considerable courage and commitment by
governments, especially as equally lucrative alternatives are
hard to come by.
On the positive side, tourism provides a stimulus for agricultural production and marketing, especially in the fruit and vegetables sectors. Notwithstanding the demand created for locally produced food, there are still substantial imports of food specifically for the tourist sector (in the Caribbean islands, the share of local producers in hotel food supply ranges from as little as 5 percent in Montserrat to 50 percent in Dominica). Although import substitution is possible, the share of domestic agriculture is trending downwards.
Development of tourism has generally deprived the agricultural sector of critical resources (labour and capital) because of the low rates of return on capital employed in agriculture due to low prices and low productivity. Gradual liberalisation has done nothing to improve matters and the next phase will see tariffs reduced to international levels. Given the constraints under which they operate, farmers will doubtless have great difficulty to compete on equal terms. On the basis of the projected growth in tourist expenditures, the value of food demand could expand significantly. If domestic production fails to respond to this increased demand, the tourist industry will be accompanied by even higher levels of food imports with negative macro-economic effects.
If foreign competition could be faced, growth in small island economies could be achieved through a vital link between agriculture and tourism. Areas of opportunity for such linkages (which appear to lie essentially in the market gardening and meat and fish areas) should therefore be examined against the following criteria: existence of local production capability geared to the main tourist season; satisfactory potential for penetration of the tourist market, both locally and regionally; adequate additional demand support from local consumers during the low season; and availability of human resources and skills.
Unfortunately, as already demonstrated in this document, this appears to be fraught with difficulties: increased production requires labour which is in short supply; the cost of credit (especially necessary for small farmers) depends essentially on international financial market conditions; the required land resources are scarce and fragile; external tariffs for agricultural products are bound in GATT, making it impossible to fix levels that would allow local farmers to rebuild their competitive edge and improve the quantity and quality of their products; technology transfer requires qualified ministry staff; building adequate marketing infrastructures, especially roads, is costly.
Opportunities for supplying tourist demand are greater if viewed from a regional rather than a national perspective, some islands having a comparative advantage over others in supplying particular manufactured and agricultural products within a given region. New investment and employment possibilities can be found through small island joint ventures, aiming at supplying to the tourist sector goods and services currently provided by foreign firms. Development and implementation of operational production plans such as regional directories targeted at hoteliers listing details of local manufacturers and producers, and seasonality of local produce; common food quality standards; improved marketing of local produce; representation of regional suppliers at trade shows dedicated to selling to the hotel sector; and improved transportation to facilitate access to markets.
An essential element in the development of the confidence of tour operators and of the tourists in general, is the quality and safety of the food offered inside and outside tourist establishments. Records of frequent diarrhoea episodes or food poisoning are particularly detrimental. Special efforts should be made to ensure the safety and quality of the food supply as outlined above. This should include measures to prevent the transmission of food borne diseases through imported foods.
In order to increase food sales to the tourist sector it is essential to ensure reliable and regular supplies to hotels, for instance through contractual arrangements between hotels and producers or traders to replace the ad hoc arrangements which apply in most small island developing States.
"Agriculture/Tourism Linkages in the Caribbean Islands"
In 1992, the joint Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean/FAO Agriculture Division commissioned a series of case studies on the linkages between agriculture and the tourist sectors in selected member states of the Caribbean Community. The countries involved were: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Following a review of both sectors and their demand and supply requirements, areas of opportunities, between agriculture and tourism were identified along with an analysis of import substitution potential, reduction in inevitable imports and potential employment factor. Those studies suggest that agricultural production has not been so far geared to take advantage of the possibilities (at home or within the region) offered by the tourist demand And that appropriate policies and an institutional base are required to foster and sustain the linkage between agriculture and tourism.
The coastal and oceanic fisheries resources available to small islands developing States constitute an important tourist attraction. This is the case in the Caribbean and for some States in the Indian Ocean. However, with the exception of Fiji and the Cook Islands, revenue generated from tourism in the South Pacific is not as great as that derived from commercial tuna fishing and certain shore-based activities (e.g. copra production and processing) and light manufacturing (e.g. garment production). Small islands developing States in the Pacific foster tourism (e.g. through national promotion programmes and regional tourist agencies). However, due to concern about the adverse cultural impact of unregulated tourism, these countries are turning towards socially and environmentally acceptable tourism rather than mass tourism of the type found in other areas of the world.
Fisheries targeting high-value species and aquaculture of luxury organisms such as pearls and freshwater crayfish for the tourist trade have developed relatively quickly in most island countries. Extensive fishing of certain species to supply restaurants is causing stocks to decline (e.g. coconut crab in Vanuatu). If managed sustainably, such fisheries could increase income-generation and inter-island trade. Coordination of traditional fisheries, marine reserves and tourism (including sport fishing and diving) is necessary to avoid allocation problems and conflicts among various users of coastal areas.
The concept of eco-tourism focusing on marine resources is well established in some islands (e.g. the Maldives) and is becoming more common in others (e.g. Dominica). With this approach, which centres around the use of the resources of the coastal zone for water sports such as swimming and diving, the economic value of fish and coral reefs takes on a new dimension. Indeed, the harvesting and degradation of these resources could damage the reputation of an island as a tourist destination, and unselective and destructive fishing practices such as the use of toxic agents and dynamite which can quickly destroy reefs, are normally banned under fisheries legislation.
Eco-tourism is enhanced in small island developing States by:
* government policies and programmes that prohibit or discourage the harvesting of certain fish (e.g. reef fish);
* establishment of marine reserves or sanctuaries where fishing is selectively regulated or prohibited. Within these reserves the observation of fish and other marine species (e.g. whales and dolphins) is possible. The establishment of marine reserves might also be designed to prevent the destruction of coral reefs either from mining (where coral has been used as a traditional building material) or by indiscriminate or overuse by local residents and tourists.
Sport fishing and diving is becoming a very important tourist activity for many island countries. This activity has gained importance only in recent years, and more recently still, conflicts with other more traditional fishing activities have surfaced. Game fishing is an important economic component of tourism. This type of fishing generates substantial revenues, is selective and mainly confined to offshore areas where likelihood of capture of large pelagic fish (e.g. sailfish) is greatest. For many reef-dependent species, localised fishing sanctuaries can help reduce conflict between user groups. However, sanctuaries do not work for highly mobile resources such as those targeted by off-shore sport fishing. Well-managed sports fisheries can provide direct and indirect employment opportunities for islanders, are unlikely to have substantial adverse resource and environmental impacts, and pose few interaction problems with inshore small-scale or offshore commercial industrial fisheries.
may be faced with demands for a complete ban on commercial
fishing in favour of oceanic sport fishing, but proper management
of highly migratory species is contingent upon successful
regional cooperation. Given their limited coastal resources of
island States, increased tourism and increased fishing will
always lead to allocation problems. Governments will have to
decide short- and long-term resource allocation strategies in
accordance with their countries' economic and social needs. This
activity, like fishing for highly migratory species, also suffers
from a historical lack of research in support to management. This
is due to the limited resources available to small island
developing States to carry out research on oceanic resources and
also to the lack of coordination between studies providing
support to the management of fisheries, marine reserves and
Forests and woodlands contribute an important component to the diversity of locations, environment and interest to tourism. They frequently provide the habitat for species of plant and wildlife and interesting surroundings for eco-tourism and explorations.
The maintenance of forests is essential to conserve landscapes important to tourism and to protect mountains and hill landscapes, watersheds and streams from erosion, siltation and degradation.
streets, parks and the surroundings are an important feature in
the landscape and environment of tourism.
Contents - Previous - Next | <urn:uuid:0df984a2-33e6-4b30-b58b-01bc53b9d6e1> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.fao.org/docrep/T3384E/t3384e06.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394021791079/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305121631-00047-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930218 | 3,744 | 2.734375 | 3 | {
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The Importance of Socializing Your Dog
The personality of a dog is flexible and indeterminate. Dogs can be exuberant or shy; friendly or hostile; fearful or bold; aggressive or passive or some combination of the above. These differences in personality may to some extent be determined by breed, or individual genetics, but for the most part it is based on how and to what extent each particular dog has been socialized.
So what is socialization? Simply put, this is the process where a dog learns to relate to people, other dogs and other animals based on direct experience. You are certainly aware that the relationship your dog has with you is based on the exposure you have had to each other, and whether or not it has been positive or negative. This same principle extends to the relationship your dog is going to have with other living beings – it is based on both the quality and quantity of his exposure to those beings. The one difference is that while your relationship with your animal is a specific, one-to-one connection, socialization is more general and category-based. In other words, if your dog learns during the socialization process that strangers or other dogs should be met with trust and openness, then he will learn to treat any strangers or dogs he might encounter in the future with the same kind of positive attitude he learned when he was younger.
Socialization begins at Home
It is important that socialization begin early in life. Between the ages of three and twelve weeks, a puppy will be sensitive to socializing experiences, meaning that any positive contacts he has with other living beings will make an impression that lasts into later life. The one problem, however, is that at this age the outside world is still a dangerous place for a puppy. His immunizations have only just begun, and he is not as resistant to potentially deadly infections as he will be later in life. At this tender age, a puppy should be kept in protected environments, meaning basically your home and perhaps your backyard. So, his socialization at this stage will be limited to contact with those beings that are sharing his living space – you, your other family members, and any other dogs, cats or other pets you might have.
Socialization with humans at this stage is relatively unproblematic. Touch him, pet him, hold him, play with him, speak to him in a soft and friendly voice, make sure any strangers who visit either greet the dog in friendship or stay away completely and you should get the desired result – a dog who is generally trusting and friendly with people. If he is part of a litter then he can learn to socialize with other dogs through his siblings and parent; but of course in most instances a puppy will be separated from the litter relatively early, so this kind of natural socialization may not be possible. If there is a cat or other dog in your home when the puppy arrives, the main thing is to make sure that the introductions to these other animals is a very gradual process, so that they can all get to know each other in a completely non-threatening context.
At about the age of three months, your puppy should be ready to leave the house to meet other dogs. Puppy school is highly recommended by veterinarians, dog trainers, and other experts because it will teach young dogs how to relate to others of their own species. The purpose of puppy school is to give your young dog a chance to play with other young dogs of varying breeds, so he will learn to view other dogs as friends, not enemies.
While puppy schools are meant to introduce dogs to other dogs in a positive environment, the also play an important role in the relationship between dogs and human beings. One of the crucial things puppies learn in their interactions with other puppies is bite inhibition. Biting during play is natural and frequent, but what a young dog will learn is that if he bites too hard and causes pain, then the dog he has bitten will not want to play with him anymore, and that is something very bad. Biting etiquette is what we are talking about here, and this is something that will extend into a dog’s relationships with human beings. If there is a neighborhood dog that everyone avoids because he bites, you can be sure that this dog did not get the chance to learn biting etiquette by playing with other dogs when he was younger.
The Importance of Continuing the Process
Socialization begins early in life, but it is a process that can never stop. Dogs enter certain periods of their lives when hostile or fearful behavior can manifest, even if they have been well socialized before. Adolescence is the first such period; around the age of four and a half months (the beginning of adolescence for most dogs), they can go through sudden personality changes, becoming willful and aggressive – just like human teenagers. This is one reason why puppy school should be started after the age of three months, so that your dog will still be there when he enters adolescence and there is the opportunity for skilled trainers to help him get past his anxiety and uncertainness.
Many dog owners have experienced these kinds of personality changes when their dogs are between the ages of eight months and two years. The important point to realize is that the process of socialization must be ongoing and perpetual. You should take your dog into public places, like parks, where he can be exposed to new dogs and people each and every day if possible. You might even want to arrange play dates with other dog owners to make sure your dog continues to have rewarding and fun contacts with other dogs throughout his life.
If your dog starts reacting with hostility to other animals or humans, it is recommended that food be used to help him change those reactions. Give him treats whenever strange dogs, cats, or people approach or visit, so he comes to associate new acquaintances with the pleasures of food. Pretty soon, he will make a connection in his mind and his hostility in the presence of other living beings will turn to feelings of acceptance and welcome.
Socialization is important because it will determine what kind of personality your dog is going to have. You want him to be welcoming, friendly, and trusting; this means you will have an animal companion who is a pleasure to be around, for everyone in the family. It also means you won’t have to worry about getting sued because your dog has been attacking people or their pets. And most importantly, it is what is best for your dog, because a well-socialized dog is a happy dog, and that is what any dog owner should want most of all. | <urn:uuid:88444d6e-90d5-49a5-8bf1-9afdd3bcaa9a> | CC-MAIN-2017-09 | http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/bedlington_terrier/articles.html?s=the-importance-of-socializing-your-dog | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-09/segments/1487501170521.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20170219104610-00090-ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973844 | 1,337 | 3.078125 | 3 | {
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Delaware is the second smallest state, but it is nearly double the size of Rhode Island. If D.C. were to become a state, it would be the smallest though, at 61 sq miles.
However the Vatican remains the smallest state in the world at only 0.2 sq miles. While Rhode Island is the smallest in area size, it has the longest name. Its official name is “The State of Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations.”
The smallest US state is also known as the Ocean State. Although major portions are linked to the mainland, no point is more than 30 miles from water. Narragansett Bay is in the middle, cutting the state in half.
The biggest island is Aquidneck Island (also called Rhode Island). Here, Newport, Portsmouth and Middletown can be found. Block Island is more renowned for its beaches. It is just 12 miles off the mainland.
Its population as of 2008 has been estimated at 1,050,788. It is the 43rd biggest in America. The density is 1,012 sq mi 990.78 km2). Of these, 90.96% have been estimated to be white and 6.45% black. The others are divided among the Asians, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians and other races.
The biggest ancestry groups in the smallest US state are the Irish and Italian at 19%. The French Canadian are next with 17% followed by English (12%), Hispanic at 11% and the Portuguese at 8%. As of 2000, 6% of the population were under age five and 24% below 18 years of age. 15% were over 65 and females made up 52% of the total population.
Providence is the biggest with a population of 175,255 followed by Warwick with 85,825. Other major cities are Cranston, Newport, Central Falls, Pawtucket and East Providence. Other cities include Bradford, Harrisville, Hope Valley and Pascoag.
Other Facts about the Smallest US State
Rhode Island was the first state to pass a law banning slavery (May 18, 1852). Bristol was the site of the first Fourth of July Parade. The first act of rebellion against the British by the colonies took place in Narragansett Bay on June 10, 1772. The first standing armies of the colonies were also created at Rhode Island.
Providence meanwhile, was the site of the first Baptist church in the US. It was also the place where the first health lab was created in the US. Pawtucket was the place that women first took part in a strike.
Rhode Island was also the site where the motion picture device got its patent. Newport was also the place where the first nine hole course in the US was invented. Rhode Island is also the first and only state to legalize prostitution.
Although it is the smallest US state, Rhode Island is not lacking in history. Its mansions and historical landmarks make it one of the most attractive states in the US. | <urn:uuid:676d534f-de35-4867-86f7-49db89abd5e0> | CC-MAIN-2015-18 | http://www.dimensionsinfo.com/what-is-the-smallest-state-in-the-us/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-18/segments/1429246639482.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20150417045719-00107-ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977602 | 617 | 3.125 | 3 | {
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Experts are saying Brits could reduce their chances of stroke doing this
The term encompasses all diseases of the heart and circulation, including heart attack, angina and coronary heart disease.
One of the most common forms of cardiovascular disease is stroke, which occurs when the blood supply to the brain is cut off, stopping a vital supply of oxygen to the brain.
According to the NHS, approximately 110,000 people in England suffer a stroke each year and subsequent brain injuries are a major cause of adult disability in the UK.
Factors such as age, lifestyle and diet play a role in a person’s stroke risk.
110,000 people in England suffer a stroke each year
Subsequently, health experts encourage people to maintain a balanced diet and get adequate sleep and exercise to diminish their chances.
But there may be something else we can do as little as once a year to help reduce the risk of stroke by up to 90 per cent, according to researchers.
Their findings indicate a simple suggestion: give blood.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found subjects aged between 43 and 61 had fewer heart attacks and strokes when they donated blood every six months.
Furthermore, scientists at the John Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health studied a group of men aged 42 – 60 for nine years.
They found men who gave blood at least once a year had a 75 - 88 per cent lower risk of having a heart attack.
Why does donating blood have such an impact on stroke risk?
Donating blood reduces the blood’s viscosity or ‘thickness’. Experts believe stored iron in the body leads to the oxidation of cholesterol that can cause build up of fatty material in the arteries.
Age, lifestyle and diet play a role in a person’s stroke risk
Thus donating blood decreases chances of the oxidative stress, which can wreak havoc with the cardiovascular system and in turn lead to stroke.
It comes as scientists found those in good physical condition during middle age had a 37 per cent lower risk of stroke after the age of 65.
The study, from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, stressed the importance of exercising throughout life to minimise health risks in later years.
First author and cardiology fellow Dr Ambarish Pandey said: “Our hope is that this objective data on preventing a fatal disease such as stroke, will help motivate people to get moving and get fit.” | <urn:uuid:c26b6b4f-1cf3-4ca2-bcb9-d770c9d08135> | CC-MAIN-2019-09 | https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/683015/Reduce-stroke-risk-exercise-expert-advice | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-09/segments/1550247481122.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20190216210606-20190216232606-00554.warc.gz | en | 0.954203 | 506 | 3.3125 | 3 | {
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Dr. Bertrand Brugerolle
Médecin-chef, CRF Lay-Saint-Christophe
Strokes (CVA) are acute complications of a vascular disease caused due to a lack of blood supply to a portion of the brain (cerebral infarction) or a ruptured blood vessel (intracerebral hemorrhage). Stroke is the third leading cause of mortality in France, as well as the first leading cause of disability. The most common manifestation of a stroke is hemiplegia (paralysis of one side of the body).
What is a stroke?
In common language, a cerebral vascular accidents are also referred to as 'brain attack' or 'stroke'. The number of new cases each year is estimated to be 100,000 in France, and there are 35,000 annual relapses in post-stroke patients. The number of individuals who have had a stroke is estimated at 500,000 in France. Strokes are commonly seen in males (4 males for 3 females) and more often during winter. The number of cases increases with age; the incidence being 40 cases in 1000 individuals aged over 85.
Cerebral lesions lead to various impairments. Motor impairments are the most common form, however other disorders can be observed such as sensory disorders and cognitive impairments (language, comprehension, memory, perception of time and space)
How does a stroke occur?
The onset can be devastating (signs appear in a few seconds, minutes or hours), immediate or gradual with an unpredictable alteration of consciousness. It immediately leads to one or more neurological deficits depending on the site of the cerebral lesion (focal syndrome). Clinical signs may progress and stabilize or regress.
These examinations affirm the diagnosis and clarify the condition's mechanism.
CT scan (figure 1): Performed in emergency, it distinguishes ischemic (due to vessel obstruction) and hemorrhagic strokes, and clarifies the site, the extent, and the impacts of the cerebral lesion.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is rarely necessary, but was proven useful for some locations (brainstem).
Other examinations are used to validate the stroke mechanism. Examination of the arteries using non-invasive techniques (Doppler and pulsed Doppler ultrasonography) are performed. Radiological examinations of the arteries or angiography are critical when a vascular malformation is suspected, because it enables visualization of the malformation and sometimes its treatment is done through embolization techniques (by the probe used for exploration). Examinations of the heart in search of a potentially embolic heart disease, and high blood pressure are also performed.
Figure 2: Cerebral strokes
Diagram showing the arterial territories of the brain that are affected in focal syndromes.
It depends upon the cerebral vascular territory concerned (figure 2)
Carotid territory (80% of the hemispheric infarctions):
|Left middle cerebral artery||hemiplegia, hemianesthesia, homonymous hemianopsia, aphasia, constructional and gestural apraxia|
|Right middle cerebral artery||Left neglect, anosognosia, hemiasomatognosia, constructional and dressing apraxia|
|Superficial middle cerebral artery||Hemiplegia of the face and arm, and same deficits as above to various degrees|
|Deep middle cerebral artery||Complete hemiplegia|
|Anterior middle cerebral artery||Hemiplegia predominant in lower limb|
Vertebrobasilar territory and posterior cerebral artery
|On the side of the lesion||Paralysis of a cranial nerve|
|On the side opposite to the lesion||Hemiparesis; hemihypesthesia|
Descriptive clinical presentation
Strokes are associated with:
- Motor disorders: the individual initially presents with total paralysis of one side of the body, the muscles are incapable of any activity. Following a few days or weeks, muscle contractions becomes possible again, but this recovering motility is altered and only enables coarse inaccurate of movement. In addition to the motor disorders, are problems with tone which are characterized by resistance to muscle stretching (spasticity), producing the typical hemiplegic attitude: flexion of the upper limb, closed hand, extension of the lower limb;
- Sensory disorders are very common (according to the same physical features as paralysis);
- Visual disorders: impairment of the intracerebral visual pathways is responsible for the loss of vision in one visual hemifield located on the same side as the paralysis (hemianopsia);
- Praxis disorders: discomfort or incapacity in the performance of movements despite the absence of motor disorders;
- Gnosic disorders or sensory integration disorders when peripheral sensory receptors are intact. It is also referred to as sensory and visual agnosia;
- Speech and language disorders: paralysis of the muscles of the palate, tongue, and jaws leads to speech difficulties called dysarthria; comprehension and/or expression difficulties characterizes aphasia. This disorder may be predominant in the motor aspect with preservation of a relatively good comprehension. Comprehension is sometimes very severely affected, with preservation of a discourse riddled with jargon and hardly comprehensible. These difficulties concern both the oral and written aspects of language;
- Depression syndromes are common (30%), as well as issues related with recent memory.
A very complex network of arteries carries blood supply to the brain. Impairment of such arterial ramifications affects a specific brain area and produces particular clinical signs (hemiplegia when the motor area is affected, etc.)
- Diagram of the arteries in the brain: four main axes
- Circle of Willis and vessels of the base of the brain
- Carotid system
What causes a stroke?
Strokes are caused by the interruption of blood flow (ischemia) in a cerebral territory (cf. fig. 3) provoking its destruction. The cerebral tissue is very sensitive to any reduction in the blood flow and will definately necrotize (die) if the lack of blood supply last longer than 6 minutes. There are two main causes of ischemia (see below):
- Obstruction of a blood vessel;
- Disruption of a blood vessel (hemorrhagia).
Aetiologies and risk factors
Causes of Obstruction (ischemic strokes)
- Atherosclerosis: It is a lesion of the artery walls; causing a reduction of the internal diameter of vessels or total obstruction. Fragments may dislodge from the atheromatous plaques to become small emboli (foreign bodies circulating in vessels) that will most likely clog small vessels downstream;
- Embolic thrombosis results from the formation of small clots in cardiac chambers causing a cardiac rhythm disorder (arrhythmia).
Risk factors of vessel obstruction can be identified as
- Major risks: high blood pressure, diabetes, aging, personal or family histories of stroke;
- Minor risks: dyslipidemia (cholesterol level in particular), tobacco use, oral contraception, obesity, and alcohol abuse.
Causes of Intracerebral Hemorrhage (hemorrhagic strokes)
Intracerebral hemorrhage is caused by a sudden rise in blood pressure, trauma, or disruption due to an arterial malformation (angioma, aneurysm).
How does the disease progress?
The mortality rates are very high during the initial stages; one patient out of 10 dies on the first day, and 1 out of 3 or 1 out of 2 during the first month after an incident. After one year, survivors gain back their normal life expectancy similar to individuals of the same age.
All post-acute patients experience full spontaneous recovery and improvement of function. This recovery may vary from one patient to another significantly and it may be unpredictable. Rehabilitation that is started early does not change the course of spontaneous recovery. Reacquisition of neurological control, especially a gross control, in the weeks and months following the stroke is unquestionable. Functional compensations are established and developed, for example: use of the left hand to write in case of hemiplegia on the right side.
A prognosis of recovery is extremely hard to establish. Some signs are pejorative, such as persistent postural deficits (poor equilibrium in sitting), hemineglect, and massive impairment of deep sensibility. Patients with left side hemiplegia display with significant body image disorders and attention deficits, and often experience a later recovery. While age is not a priori a factor for inappropriate prognosis, the number of failures increase with age due to associated disorders (cardiac, respiratory, etc.) and underlying depressive syndrome. The aetiology (causes) of the stroke has an impact: hemorrhages are more severe at the beginning, but are generally less invalidating than ischemia for those who survive the initial phase.
What are the disabilities?
- Potential full recovery including fine finger movements;
- The quality of movements of the upper extremity may be poor, with absence of finger dissociation, grip, and release (opening of the hand). Recovery is more significant in lower limbs, even if impairments of the dorsiflexor muscles are usually persistent;
- Major global impairments may be persistent, in complete upper limbs, and some movements may be possible in the lower limbs, but insufficient to enable walking.
- Walking with or without cane is possible for four patients out of five individuals. One out of five becomes permanently dependent on a wheelchair. These patients require the help of a caregiver to perform their activities of daily living;
- Independence in the activities of daily living is achieved for four patients out of five;
- Full recovery of hand function is rare (15%-30%);
- Communication disorders may remain a primary concern with some speech disorders and comprehension difficulties. Compensatory strategies are often implemented using sign language or facial expression.
Beyond initial complications of decubitus position (phlebitis, pulmonary embolism, respiratory and urinary tract infections, etc.); some effects of the stroke may be persistent: painful shoulder, drop foot, and spastic equinovarus. Finally, stroke relapses may occur.
Complications of Stroke
- In decubitus position: This involves life threatening issues that are critical to the initial phase.
- Painful shoulder: it is very common and often attributed to early trauma (traction on the hemiplegic arm, partial dislocation of the humeral head by the arm weight when getting in and out of bed or chair). Treatments combine preventive measures (avoiding tractions and improper positioning), simple mobilization therapy, intra-articular injections, and functional electrical stimulation.
- Spastic equino varus: This typical deformity is seen in patients who resume walking and increases with speed. The surface area of support is on the anterior and outer edge of the foot. Treatment combines mobilization and muscle relaxants, electrical stimulation, orthotic support or orthopaedic shoes, and surgery if fitting difficulties persist (tendon stretching and transfer).
What are the suggested treatments and management strategies?
In emergency: basic life support and control of brain oedema (resuscitation); specific treatments according to the aetiology of the condition (anticoagulants, clot-dissolving drugs, vascular surgery in some cases); physical therapy interventions (mobilization, proper positioning, avoiding shoulder pain, and prevention of pressure sores).
During the rehabilitation phase, patient management is multidisciplinary
- Physical therapy: neuromuscular rehabilitation facilitating useful movements and inhibiting parasitic ones. In most cases, treatments to lower limbs mainly result in the patient resuming walking;
- Occupational therapy: regaining independence, re-lateralization if necessary, treatment of neuropsychological disorders, potential selection of technical aids, home conversion, help for a third party for people with severe forms of disabilities. Retraining of upper limbs sometimes enabling a full recovery;
- Speech Therapy: treatment of oral and written communication disorders (speech comprehension and production);
- Prescription of orthoses: stabilization splints, drop foot braces, walking aids (single-tip, tripod or quad canes), hemiplegic wheelchairs (one-arm driven), and orthopaedic shoes sometimes required.
- Stroke research addresses different aspects: prevention (reduction of risk factors, especially high blood pressure screening and treatment); better familiarity with the lesion, more effective treatment of causes; initial medications limiting the extent of lesions; more effective rehabilitation treatment of cognitive disorders (assessment of disorders and treatment adjustment according to that assessment).
Living with the side effects of a stroke
The overwhelming majority of hemiplegic individuals return home. Final discharge is the logical outcome at the end of outpatient rehabilitation. Maintaining the acquired performance levels after discharge requires daily practice of adaptive training in home settings (improvement is often noticed), medical supervision in order to prevent and reduce the risk of relapse, maintaining contact with the outside world to prevent de-socialization, as well as orthopaedic supervision may be required.
Vascular hemiplegia may leave side effects that are consistent with normal activities, even with sports.
For more information:
Albert A., Rééducation neuromusculaire de l'adulte hémiplégique. Paris, Masson, 1969, 265 p. (physicians and paramedics)
Girard R., Vivre avec une hémiplégie. Handicap et réadaptation, SIMEP 1987.
Pelissier J., Hémiplégie vasculaire de l'adulte et médecine de rééducation. Paris, Masson, 1988, 370 p. (physicians and paramedics). | <urn:uuid:a40ce876-f4dc-4906-b504-ba9106ae631e> | CC-MAIN-2015-32 | http://cirrie.buffalo.edu/encyclopedia/en/article/348/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2015-32/segments/1438042988840.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20150728002308-00092-ip-10-236-191-2.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.884035 | 2,878 | 3.4375 | 3 | {
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SS 304 pipe is one of the most commonly used types of stainless steel pipes. Known for its excellent corrosion resistance, strength, and durability, it is widely used in various industries such as construction, chemical processing, and food and beverage. This article will cover everything you need to know about SS 304 pipe, including its properties, applications, benefits, and installation best practices.
- Corrosion Resistance – the pipe has excellent corrosion resistance, making it suitable for use in harsh environments such as chemical processing plants and offshore oil rigs.
- Strength and Durability – the pipe is known for its strength and durability, making it capable of handling high pressures and temperatures.
- Heat Resistance – the pipe is also heat-resistant, making it ideal for use in high-temperature applications.
- Hygiene – the pipe is non-porous, making it easy to clean and maintain. It is also resistant to bacteria and other microorganisms, making it ideal for use in food processing plants and medical facilities.
- Aesthetic Appeal – the pipe has a sleek and polished appearance, making it popular for architectural and decorative applications.
- Chemical Processing – the pipe is commonly used in chemical processing plants due to its corrosion resistance and durability.
- Food Processing – It is a popular choice in the food processing industry due to its hygienic properties and resistance to bacteria.
- Water Distribution – the pipe is ideal for water distribution systems due to its durability and resistance to corrosion.
- Oil and Gas – It is widely used in the oil and gas industry due to its resistance to harsh environmental conditions.
- Architecture and Design – Its sleek and polished finish make it a popular choice for architectural applications such as handrails, balustrades, and decorative features.
- Corrosion Resistance – The most significant benefit of using the 304 pipe is its ability to resist corrosion, ensuring the longevity and integrity of piping systems.
- Durability – the pipe is known for its durability, making it capable of handling high pressures and temperatures without cracking or leaking.
- Hygiene – the pipe is non-porous and resistant to bacteria, making it ideal for applications where cleanliness is essential.
- Aesthetic Appeal – The sleek and polished appearance of the pipe makes it a popular choice for architectural and decorative applications.
- Cost-Effective – Despite its many benefits, SS 304 pipe is relatively affordable compared to other types of stainless steel piping materials.
Installation Best Practices:
Proper installation of SS 304 pipe is crucial to ensuring its longevity and performance. Best practices include proper alignment, support, and anchoring, avoiding over-tightening of fittings, using appropriate sealants and joint compounds, and following industry standards and regulations for the specific application and location of the piping system.
The pipe comes in various types, including seamless, welded, and ERW (Electric Resistance Welded). Each type has unique properties that make it suitable for different applications. It is important to understand the differences between these types to choose the right piping material for your specific needs.
Manufacturing Process :
The pipe is manufactured using a process known as cold rolling or cold drawing. This involves passing the metal through rollers or drawing it through a die at a low temperature, which improves its strength and hardness while maintaining its ductility. The resulting pipe is then annealed, which relieves internal stresses and makes it easier to work with.
Maintenance and Care ：
To ensure that the pipe maintains its durability and corrosion resistance, it is essential to clean and maintain it regularly. This includes avoiding harsh chemicals and abrasive materials, wiping up spills immediately, and ensuring proper drainage to prevent stagnation of water or other fluids that can cause corrosion.
In conclusion, SS 304 pipe is a reliable and durable option for various applications in different industries. Its unique properties, including corrosion resistance, strength and durability, heat resistance, hygiene, and aesthetic appeal, make it a popular choice for chemical processing, food processing, water distribution, oil and gas, and architectural applications. Understanding the benefits of SS 304 pipe, as well as installation best practices, can ensure that your piping system performs optimally, maintaining its integrity and longevity. As stainless steel continues to be a popular choice in different industries, SS 304 pipe will continue to play a critical role in ensuring the safety, reliability, and longevity of piping systems worldwide | <urn:uuid:1ec77a12-3455-40da-9ce6-8c45754ce979> | CC-MAIN-2023-50 | https://www.hnyasco.com/news/ss-304-pipe-properties-applications-and-benefits/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-50/segments/1700679100781.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20231209004202-20231209034202-00575.warc.gz | en | 0.932708 | 890 | 2.671875 | 3 | {
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Headaches & Migraines
Our effective treatment options for these debilitating conditions help relieve pain.
Many people do not know whether they are suffering from a common headache or a migraine. It is important to know the difference because the treatments will vary.
A common, or primary, headache will usually cause pressure and pain on both sides of your head. The pain may be mild or severe, but regardless of the severity, it may prevent you from fully functioning at your job or from enjoying leisure activities.
The ordinary headache may last a few minutes or even as long as a few days. The most common type of headache is tension headache and the causes usually stress, muscle strain, or anxiety.
Other types of headaches include:
- Cluster headaches – They’re called cluster headaches because they occur in waves, lasting for several minutes or to a few hours each. Cluster headaches are accompanied by a burning sensation and intense pain.
- Sinus headaches – Characterized by intense pain in the sinus areas and in the front of the head. Some sinus pain sufferers have said that their sinus pain is the worst pain they have ever experienced.
- Hormone headaches – These are headaches that are linked to hormonal fluctuations in women. Menstruation, birth control pills, and pregnancy all affect female estrogen levels, which can trigger headaches.
- Exertion headaches – Exertion headaches can occur after intense physical activity. Common triggers for exertion headaches include weightlifting, running, and sexual intercourse.
Caffeine is also known to trigger headaches, whether it is consuming too much or not at all, as when someone tries to quit caffeine consumption “cold turkey.”
The migraine difference
One of the most common differences between headaches and migraines is that migraines will usually affect only one side of the head. Migraines are also distinguished by pain so intense that it makes the simplest tasks impossible.
Regular migraine suffers may also experience dizziness, nausea, flashing lights, and tingling or numbing the face and hands. The effects of a migraine are sometimes so severe that sufferers seek treatment in hospital emergency rooms.
Complete Healthcare is a healthy alternative
Before you take prescription medications for your headaches or migraines and before you head to the emergency room, call Drs. Christopher Beller and Myriam Hirsch at Complete Healthcare.
Drs. Beller and Hirsch have many years of experience helping people just like you recover get effective, lasting relief from chronic headaches and migraines. Drs. Beller and Hirsch use proven, effective chiropractic therapies and provide follow-up support to help you reduce or eliminate the agony of chronic headaches and migraines.
The overwhelming majority of headaches start in the neck and are often the result of tension. Complete healthcare can provide a wide variety of treatments for your headaches and migraines including cervical traction, electrical stimulation and Low-Level Laser Light Therapy (LLLT).
Complete Healthcare is Charlotte’s Trusted Chiropractic Office
For over 20 years, the doctors and staff at Complete Healthcare have worked hard to provide prompt, effective relief for the relief of headaches and migraines.
We’re respected and trusted because we provide more:
- Same-day appointments
- Minimal wait time
- Friendly, caring environment
- Thorough exams
- Detailed analysis of our findings
- Treatment plan for your approval to help you get out of pain and back work and play
- On-site X-rays, if needed
Advanced, convenient, and thorough care for your headaches and migraines
You don’t have to live with headaches and migraines. Complete Healthcare has the expertise and resources to reduce or eliminate your headaches and migraines in a comfortable and friendly environment.
Our complete healthcare treatments can help you get relief from:
• Low Back Pain • Arm Pain • Pinched Nerves • Neck Pain • Joint & Muscle Pain • Numbness & Tingling • TMJ • Headaches • Arthritis • Shoulder Pain • Leg/Hip Pain • Carpal Tunnel • Whiplash • Disc Problems • Sprains • Strains
We treat these chronic and acute conditions, and more, with proven techniques such as:
• Spinal decompression • Therapeutic exercise • Stretches • Traction • Ice packs • Spinal adjustments • Electrotherapy •Mechanical massage units to alleviate muscular pain symptoms • Low-Level Laser Light Therapy (LLLT)
Your first visit will include a complete evaluation. Many of our patients have told us that they have never had such a thorough evaluation.
And… We can see you today! To schedule a free consultation, please call: (704) 510-1510 | <urn:uuid:8acf8bbe-5252-4120-96b9-e36fcf1659c7> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://charlottecompletechiropractichealthcare.com/headaches-migraines/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335304.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929034214-20220929064214-00556.warc.gz | en | 0.901368 | 982 | 2.78125 | 3 | {
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To characterize people who carry deletions in 16p11.2 and 15q13.3, genetic regions linked to autism, two studies published this summer looked in detail at dozens of people with either deletion. The studies found that deletions in these regions lead to diverse symptoms that only sometimes include autism.
The 16p11.2 region is among the top candidates for autism risk. Deletion or duplication of the 600-kilobase region has been found in as much as 1 percent of people with autism. In one of the new studies, published 16 June in Biological Psychiatry, researchers characterized 85 children who have 16p11.2 deletion and 153 of their unaffected family members1.
They found that 16p11.2 deletion leads to a constellation of symptoms that don’t fit neatly into any one diagnostic category.
Of the 85 children with the deletion, 20 meet the criteria for an autism diagnosis. But these individuals all look subtly different from those with classic autism, says lead researcher Raphael Bernier, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Washington in Seattle.
The children are “quirky” and struggle to engage with others, something Bernier describes as “social immaturity.” But unlike children with classic autism, they seek out social contact, he says.
“We anticipated seeing a bunch of kids who have autism and we ended up seeing a whole bunch of a lot of different things,” he says. “It’s almost as if ‘diagnostic confusion’ is the phenotype for 16p11.2: It’s almost autism, but not quite autism.”
The second study, published 31 July in Genetics in Medicine, found that deletion of 15q13.3 similarly leads to a wide range of symptoms2.
Of the 246 people in the study, 80 percent have a diagnosis of at least one neuropsychiatric disorder, including autism, epilepsy, schizophrenia, speech problems and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The most common feature is intellectual disability, in roughly 58 percent of cases.
However, individuals with a 15q13.3 deletion look clearly distinct from each other, says lead researcher Anne Bassett, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto. “Now the next step is trying to identify what the modifying factors are with respect to this very broad expression,” she says.
The two new studies make an interesting contrast, as they each use very different methods to answer the same question: How do we carefully define the features of a genetic deletion?
In the 16p11.2 study, clinical experts examined each individual at one of three sites across the country. (The project, called the Simons Variation in Individuals Project, is funded by the Simons Foundation, SFARI.org’s parent organization.)
“The beauty of the study is that it really is a state-of-the-art assessment battery,” says Sylvie Goldman, clinical assistant professor of neurology and pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, who was not involved in either study. But this method is expensive, and not possible to do routinely.
For the 15q13.3 study, the researchers searched the literature for descriptions of individuals with the deletion. They collected data from 246 such people, including 113 adults — 7 of whom they identified themselves. They did not find a single 15q13.3 deletion in the genomes of nearly 24,000 controls.
“It’s the first time we have a reliable review of the syndrome,” says Catalina Betancur, director of research at INSERM in Paris, France, who was not involved in the studies. “It confirms that this is a [deletion] with a much stronger effect than what I thought.”
Most people with the deletion inherited it, and more often than not from their mother. This is unusual, as it suggests that despite its strong effects, the deletion does not alter an individual’s likelihood of having children.
“It’s almost as if ‘diagnostic confusion’ is the phenotype for 16p11.2: It’s almost autism, but not quite autism.”
Overall, the study’s method is less rigorous than the detailed assessments in the 16p11.2 study, notes Helen Tager-Flusberg, director of Research on Autism and Developmental Disorders at Boston University, who was not involved with either study. Still, “the paper made up for the limitations in the phenotyping battery by pulling together really a remarkably large number of cases,” she says.
By carefully characterizing the features of each syndrome, both studies revealed new insights about these already well-characterized mutations.
Overall, the 16p11.2 study found that children with the deletion tend to be clumsy, have trouble with speech and have lower intelligence quotients (IQs) and social skills than their family members do. Overall, IQs in children with the deletion range from 25 to 130, with an average of 83. This range is about 27 points lower than the IQs of their unaffected family members.
“You get a nice view of the impact that [copy number variations] have on IQ,” says Betancur. The researchers also see a similar shift in social deficits and repetitive behaviors in children with the deletion.
It would be interesting to compare these children with a control group in the same IQ range, notes Catherine Lord, director of the Institute for Brain Development at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Low IQs can often lead to problems with language or social interaction; conversely, children with language problems often do poorly on intelligence tests.
“The trouble is we don’t know what’s causal and what’s correlated,” Lord says. “So we have to be very careful.”
The study also found that 19 percent of people with the deletion are left-handed and 29 percent use both hands interchangeably, compared with 3 percent and 11 percent, respectively, of their unaffected family members. Although the significance of this finding is unclear, it hints at differences in the brain’s symmetry.
This finding is “incredible” and a credit to the study’s in-depth approach, as routine clinical tests don’t assess handedness, says Betancur.
What neither study resolves, however, is how the same deletion can lead to such wide-ranging effects. “We really don’t know where this variability comes from,” says Tager-Flusberg. “The picture is way more complicated than we thought, and I think that’s important for us to know.”
1: Hanson E. et al. Biol. Psychiatry Epub ahead of print (2014) PubMed
2: Lowther C. et al. Genet. Med. Epub ahead of print (2014) PubMed | <urn:uuid:906f990a-76cb-4f63-a681-dd3d0f05c8d1> | CC-MAIN-2017-39 | https://spectrumnews.org/news/large-genetic-deletion-leads-to-autism-but-not-always/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-39/segments/1505818687447.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20170920194628-20170920214628-00042.warc.gz | en | 0.955827 | 1,452 | 3.109375 | 3 | {
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A direct connection is a faster way to connect network
Connect Two Home Computers:- Most persons don’t know that network can be shared among two computers without cable connections. What is my point? This is because it is common to use a Cable network connection. In fact, the wireless network connection is hard when you are not guided.
People share their files through the means of sharing network. Before you connect two computers to share network resources it will fall under the below best guide.
Connect two computers with cable
The primary way to network computers is to link them together with a cable plug in each of the computers. It is not just any kind of cable. Thus, you require an Ethernet crossover cable, or a null modem series cable or parallel peripheral cable, or a special-purpose USB cables.
Ethernet Method is most in use because it is a reliable, high-speed connection with fewer things to configure. With Ethernet, you will create networks between two computers.
What if one of the computers has an Ethernet adapter and the other system does not? This is a brave question indeed. The answer is yes! By plugging a USB-to-Ethernet converter unit into the computer’s USB port, you can network our computers faster.
USB cables such as 2.0 or even something better with Type-A connectors will be able t connect two computers directly to each other. As for me, I prefer to make use of USB Cables for connections instead of an Ethernet connection. Thus, this is very easy when your computer does not respond to Ethernet network adapters.
Serial and Parallel Connections
This is also known as Direct Cable Connection in Microsoft Windows. It is true that this does not work perfectly even though it yields the same result. This performs fewer functions even down to the speed and it cannot network more than two computers.
All three connection method requires two things to be in place. They are as follows:
- Both computers should have a functioning network interface with an external cable port.
- Both computers’ network settings must be configured correctly.
Connect two computers with a cable through a central infrastructure
Here, instead of using a cable to network, computers are better joined through a central network fixture. This method will need two network cables indirectly connected, one connecting to each computer to the fixture. Common fixture includes USB hubs, Ethernet hubs, switches, and routes.
This method can coordinate a reasonable number of devices. This is very good to use especially when you are still growing as a company.
Wireless connections happen to be the best solution we can use to share and network.
Wi-Fi connections a wireless method of networking and it also can be used over a greater distance compared to other wireless alternatives. Laptops, for instance, have Wi-Fi connections if built. Thus, it is preferred by many as a means of networking. Wi-Fi can be used also even without network fixtures. This is also very easy to set up.
This technology comes second after the Wi-Fi connection. It supports a good number of speed connection between two computers with no need for fixtures. This is common with cell phones. This also requires both devices must be close to easily pair up. Thus, proximity is very needed.
Thank you for your time with us. Connect Two Home Computers | <urn:uuid:2c2c79e4-90c2-4dd5-9a80-f2617ae42e4d> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://shopfortool.com/how-to-connect-two-home-computers-through-a-network/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948932.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20230329023546-20230329053546-00672.warc.gz | en | 0.942629 | 713 | 3.125 | 3 | {
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Object 3003 Templewo: There are various Soviet nuclear bunkers hidden in forests around Poland as a result of the Wisła project. Mostly, these have been torn down and reclaimed by the natural environment that hid them from the world for so many years.
The remains of one such bunker are located in a village called Templewo, which stands in Western Poland, about nine miles from Międzyrzecz. When it was operational, the bunker was codenamed Object 3003. The military site is not listed on any maps, but its remains are still popular with those curious about this secret period in history.
Furthermore, the Templewo bunker was once a site of great interest to naturalists and scientists because it was home to a colony of cannibal ants.
There is little information available about the abandoned Soviet military installations that were created under Wisła. They were constructed and run in secret, and a lot of information about them was excluded from the official documentation.
However, it is widely believed that Object 3003 was completed at the end of 1960 by the Soviet army. It was used for over 30 years before it was abandoned in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Object 3003 was built from precast concrete elements and covered with a thick layer of earth. The bunkers were equipped with a power supply, water tank, and ventilation system. This was necessary for the correct and safe storage of weapons.
During its lifetime, the bunker was expanded with new facilities, such as the Monolith Bunker, being added. This addition was a two-story structure that housed nuclear warheads. In 1992, the Templewo bunker was decommissioned and abandoned by the Russian army.
As noted above, it is almost impossible to find information about military bunkers from the Cold War era in archival records. There are no plans of such locations; there are no details about their spatial organization, field defense, or any changes that were carried out.
This is because the Soviets didn’t want the world to know that they had planted nuclear warheads in such locations, which would mean they could more easily launch them at European targets.
As a result, rather than urban explorers and photographers unlocking the history of such a place, archaeologists have been called in to use a combination of laser-scanning, historical cartography, archived aerial photographs, and declassified satellite imagery to find out what the base looked like when it was operational.
Many buildings on the abandoned military ground were demolished in the 1990s. In 2011, the Granit-type bunker was torn down. By that point, all internal hardware had been removed from the buildings, and any useful materials from the surrounding area had been carted off.
Today, many abandoned Cold War military installations are left unprotected, as they are thought to have little value and cannot be considered cultural heritage because they belong to the recent past.
However, a nuclear storage facility, like Object 3003, will always attract a large number of tourists. After all, these are the ruins of a secret Cold War facility, and the fact that little is known about them just adds to the mystery of the solitary ruins.
The military base at Templewo also became known to the world due to an exceptional wood ant colony that was discovered deep inside a bunker in 2013. A wood ant mound exists on the top of a ventilation pipe jutting out of the ground. These ants lead a normal, natural life.
However, some of the ants fell down the ventilation shaft to a place with no sun, no heat, and no light. But they didn’t give up and instead formed their own colony, which scientists named Ant Colony Two. With their usual diet of honeydew from aphids denied to them, they survived by eating each other.
This was not a huge step for such creatures, as battles between colonies are not uncommon as they search for food, and the victors will eat the defeated. What was particularly fascinating to scientists was that the ants would organize the “waste” from the consumed ants into piles before being transported away.
The ants had no queen, no larvae, and did not reproduce, but that didn’t stop them from carrying out their normal day to day tasks and continuing to survive in the best way they could.
While the general rule of naturalists is not to interfere with nature, the scientist studying the ants felt that helping those in Ant Colony Two wouldn’t be going against that principle since the ants had fallen into a human-made structure rather than a natural one.
Consequently, when the scientists had finished studying them, they put in a boardwalk that connected Ant Colony Two in the bunker with Ant Colony One above – the original colony outside. When the scientists returned a year later, Ant Colony Two had vanished.
Today, the site that once housed Russian soldiers has now been reclaimed by nature. Access to it is via a paved road, but one which has grass growing through the cracks. However, it’s still suitable for a modern car. There are many trenches and foxholes around the area, and visitors should be careful as there’s plenty of barbed wire too.
If you are interested in secret Cold War bunkers based in Poland, why not check out our article on Brzeźnica-Kolonia (otherwise known as Object 3002) here. While the Granit-style bunker at Templewo has been demolished, the one at Brzeźnica-Kolonia is still standing.
The photographer, CarloR, runs a blog about his travels. He likes to visit places that do not usually fit into typical travel plans. Before each trip, he carefully plans all the details and uncovers as much as he can about the history of his chosen location.
Afterward, he openly shares everything that he has learned as well as his experiences upon reaching his destination.
CarloR also takes many detailed photographs of his explorations and publishes them in an article. Visit his website and feel free to contact him with any questions about trips you might have.
Another Article From Us: SS United States: A Fate Unknown | <urn:uuid:a77b7bca-6854-44c5-831d-50c7c48cc069> | CC-MAIN-2021-04 | https://www.abandonedspaces.com/conflict/object-3003-templewo.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-04/segments/1610703564029.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20210125030118-20210125060118-00474.warc.gz | en | 0.983745 | 1,270 | 2.953125 | 3 | {
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Education is not a one-size-fits all proposition. It is quite often necessary to make changes to the traditional education methods employed by most teachers to accommodate the individual needs of a struggling student. Educators can perform a learning needs assessment to ascertain the unique needs of the student and create a plan for helping that student succeed academically.
Establish a learning needs committee. This committee should be made up of a combination of teachers and administrators. This committee will meet every one to two weeks and discuss students who seem to be struggling and could benefit from remedial instruction.
Identify students in need of academic assistance. Ask classroom teachers to refer students who seem to struggle in their classes. Ask teachers to provide a detailed account of the students' weaknesses as well as any accommodations or interventions already tried. You can create a form for teachers to use to facilitate the referring of student, or you can simply ask them to refer via email.
Ask the student to complete a questionnaire. Before the needs assessment team selects programs or procedures to help the struggling student, it helps to ask the student his opinions about learning. Create a questionnaire that asks the student to reflect upon his education, and list any areas in which he feels he struggles.
Interview the student. Ask the student what he finds difficult. It is possible that the student has engaged in metacognitive practices and has already considered why he is doing poorly. Asking for his input could be valuable in the decision-making process.
Gather teachers to identify areas of student weakness. Consult all of the student's teachers and discuss areas in which the student exhibits weakness. Try to isolate two or three distinct areas of trouble around which you can focus your study.
Collect data. Determine the severity of your student's struggles by collecting data regarding the areas of concern. If the group felt that the student had particular problems with homework completion, have all of the student's teachers monitor his homework turn-in for a set period of time and record numerical data regarding his homework turn-in rate.
Tabulate the results of the data collection. Gather the data from all teachers and calculate the student's overall percentages. If the student is under 60 percent in desirable areas, such as percentage of homework turn-in, or over 60 percent in undesirable areas, such as speaks without permission, the student likely needs accommodations in connection to that area of his education.
Select two to four interventions to try. If the data indicates the presence of a problem, set up interventions that will ensure that all of the student's learning needs are met and can assist the student in performing academically.
Try the accommodations. Inform all teachers of the selected accommodations and ask them all to implement them within their classrooms.
Monitor the student's grades. If his academic performance does not improve, consider modifying the selected interventions or abandoning them for a different course of action.
- Photodisc/Photodisc/Getty Images | <urn:uuid:29619b51-8888-4f68-a904-62ef0abc5802> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://classroom.synonym.com/do-learning-needs-assessment-5872853.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250601615.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20200121044233-20200121073233-00451.warc.gz | en | 0.963305 | 593 | 3.546875 | 4 | {
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To provide practice of present continuous in the context of neighbours.
To provide specific information listening practice using a text about noisy neighbours in the context of neighbours
Procedure (44-60 minutes)
T shows a picture of typical Egyptian neighbours and asks: "Who are they?" "What are they doing?" "Are your neighbours good? why?".
Use ECDW technique to pre-teach difficult vocabulary: neighbour, argue, bark, violin, furniture, flat
T chests task and tells SS that they are going to fill in the gaps using the words provided in the word box. T demonstrates the first one with the SS. SS check their answers in pairs. T provides answer key.
T chests task and asks SS to go around asking their peers the questions provided. T hands out the task and asks: "are you going to write anything?" (no) T demonstrates the first question with the SS.
T shows SS a picture of 8 flats, and a task with 8 sentences. T asks SS to match the sentences with flats 1-8, writing the number of the flat. ICQs: "Are you going to write anything?" "Are you going to write words or numbers?" SS check their answers in pairs. T provides answer key.
T asks SS to look at the pictures again and listen. T asks: "what's happening? and where?" SS listen while looking at the picture. T asks SS to say what's happening and where in open feedback.
T shows SS a task with the +ve present continuous sentences: 'The baby is crying', 'She's playing the violin', 'They're having a party' T asks SS to complete the sentences in the negative question forms. ICQ: "Are you going to fill in the gaps?" (Yes) SS check their answers in pairs. T provides answer key.
T shows three marker sentences on PowerPoint. T elicits form from SS.
- T gives instructions: “Using the flat picture you have, you are going to ask each other what they are doing: other questions about Sabina and Sharon”. - T demonstrates with a SS: S: “what are they doing?” T: “they're having a party”. T: “what is he doing?" T: “He is watching football”. - SS practice in closed pairs.
T gives instructions: "you are going to be working in pairs; A & B. T gives out SS picture 'Student A' sheet and demonstrates with a student: T: "I have a different picture, I will tell you what is happening in picture 1, and see if it is the same as you have." T shows useful language on PowerPoint and uses it: T: "In my picture there is a man and a woman playing the guitar". S: "In my picture there is a man and a woman talking". T: "so it is not the same" T show them that she is drawing a circle on the difference. T point hands out the 'Student B' sheet and points out that they must not show their sheets to each other, and that they have to find eight differences. | <urn:uuid:e0f55907-0fb5-4636-bda4-86bdb8a8cef9> | CC-MAIN-2021-21 | https://www.englishlessonplanner.com/plans/33842 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2021-21/segments/1620243992514.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20210513204127-20210513234127-00358.warc.gz | en | 0.949447 | 653 | 3.65625 | 4 | {
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Federal Indian Law—the legal provisions and doctrines governing the respective statuses of, and relations among, the federal, state, and tribal governments—is replete with seeming anomalies when compared to the background of typical domestic law in the United States. The purpose of this post, and of the series of which it is a part, is to identify and examine such anomalies in an effort to acquaint readers with the metes and bounds of Federal Indian Law, while shedding some light on the origins and perhaps the future of this unique legal realm.
The prior post examined one such anomaly, namely, the permissibility of the government’s differential treatment of Indian tribes and their members despite the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection. In this, the second installment in the series, another topic of significant contemporary interest will be surveyed. This is the oddly diminished character of Indian tribal sovereignty and, in particular, the extent to which tribes, in their own territories, lack criminal and civil authority over non-Indians or non-tribal members.
The capacity to enact and enforce laws is, of course, one of the hallmarks of sovereignty within the Western political tradition. This includes both criminal laws and civil laws, the latter often being divided into powers of regulation, taxation, and adjudication. It is typically accepted, moreover, that the reach of a sovereign’s laws extends along two axes: citizenship and territory. That is, the sovereign has the authority to govern not only its citizens but also all others who enter its territory. Thus, for example, inquiries into the jurisdiction of courts over a person or his property ordinarily entail an examination of the person’s citizenship and/or the relationship between the person’s conduct or property and the territory of the sovereign to which the courts belong.
In recent decades, however, Indian tribal sovereignty has increasingly been confined to a single axis—that of citizenship—leaving tribes largely powerless to enforce their laws against non-Indians who, within the tribe’s territory, commit criminal conduct or engage in activities that would normally be susceptible to regulation, taxation, or adjudication. Perhaps surprisingly, the institution primarily responsible for this diminishing conception of tribal sovereignty is not Congress, which the Supreme Court has repeatedly described as having “plenary power” over Indian affairs, but rather the Court itself.
The backdrop to the Court’s activity concerning tribal jurisdiction over non-tribal-members consists of a blend of ideology, history, and legal doctrine. Upon European contact with the indigenous peoples—or “discovery” of their lands—the discovering sovereign, whether England, France, or Spain, is said to have acquired certain powers and rights over the indigenous people and their territory, while the indigenous people are said correspondingly to have lost certain powers and rights. According to this view, the American Indian tribes were left with a diminished form of sovereignty, still including the power to enter into treaties, for example, but no longer including other key sovereign prerogatives. In relation to the U.S. government, which effectively stepped into the shoes of the European sovereigns, the tribes (to quote the Court) “forfeit[ed] . . . full sovereignty in return for the protection of the United States.”
Framed as a matter of legal doctrine, the Court has stated that Indian tribes retain all dimensions of their original sovereignty except for: (1) those ceded by the tribe, e.g., by treaty, (2) those expressly taken away by Congress, and (3) those inconsistent with the diminished sovereign status of tribes, which Chief Justice John Marshall famously characterized as “domestic dependent nations.” It is this third, somewhat circular exception where the Court, by its own lights, determines which powers tribes retain and which powers they no longer possess. To be sure, the Court’s framework can be deceptive, for the exceptions—i.e., the powers that have been tribally ceded, congressionally eliminated, and judicially declared as being lost—probably far outweigh the general rule—i.e., that tribes retain all powers not falling within the exceptions.
Employing this third category, the Court’s modern delineation of tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians, or more broadly over non-tribal-members, essentially began in Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, issued in 1978. Oliphant involved a tribal prosecution of two non-Indians, one of whom had allegedly assaulted a tribal officer and resisted arrest and the other of whom had allegedly damaged tribal property and committed reckless endangerment. The Supreme Court responded with a categorical declaration that “Indians do not have criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians absent affirmative delegation of such power by Congress.” The Court reasoned that such jurisdiction, though neither ceded by the tribe nor expressly extinguished by Congress, would be inconsistent with what the Court believed to be Congress’ historical understanding, and further that such jurisdiction would be unfair to non-Indian defendants unfamiliar with tribal “customs and procedure.”
The first civil-law counterpart to Oliphant was issued just three years later in Montana v. United States, which involved the Crow Tribe’s efforts to regulate non-Indian hunting and fishing on non-Indian-owned land within the tribe’s reservation. In response to the Crow Tribe’s assertion of authority, the Supreme Court articulated a rule less categorical than that of Oliphant but nonetheless quite powerful: tribes are presumed to lack regulatory authority over non-Indians within their reservations, at least for conduct on non-Indian-owned land. This presumption may be overcome, and the tribe may be able to regulate non-Indian conduct, if the tribe can demonstrate either (1) that the non-tribal-members have “enter[ed] consensual relationships with the tribe or its members, through commercial dealing, contracts, leases, or other arrangements,” or (2) that the non-tribal-members’ conduct “threatens or has some direct effect on the political integrity, the economic security, or the health or welfare of the tribe.”
The Montana case involved tribal regulation of non-Indians on non-Indian land, and thus Montana’s main rule and its two exceptions technically applied only to comparable scenarios. Beginning in the mid-1990’s, however, the Court issued several decisions that have since extended the Montana framework to both tribal adjudication and tribal taxation and, moreover, have diminished the significance of the ownership status of the land (i.e., whether or not it is non-Indian-land) within the reservation. At the same time, these rulings have revealed that the two exceptions to Montana’s main rule, especially the second, are narrower than their wording might suggest. Thus, while the Montana framework for civil jurisdiction is not as black-and-white as the Oliphant rule for criminal jurisdiction, from a pragmatic perspective the consequences of the two approaches may often seem indistinguishable.
So why has the modern Court so drastically diminished the territorial axis of tribal jurisdiction, leaving tribes, most of the time, with jurisdiction only over their own members? Such an arrangement is not found elsewhere within the United States—whether one considers the federal government, the states, or even counties and municipalities—nor is it readily found elsewhere outside of the United States, except perhaps in extreme situations such as post-war occupation or the international refusal to recognize a geopolitical group’s sovereignty in the first instance.
The notion that the Court is merely giving effect to historical congressional understandings is not particularly convincing, especially in the civil jurisdictional context (Montana and subsequent cases). Indeed it is difficult to square such a notion with the second method by which tribes may no longer possess a given power, namely, that Congress has expressly taken that power away. One would that think Congress’ failure (or choice not) to extinguish a power expressly would virtually preclude a judicial ruling that such a power has been lost because Congress appeared to believe (but did not say) that the power did not exist.
A more plausible rationale, perhaps, is that the Court’s members harbor serious skepticism about the structure, operation, and integrity of tribal courts or tribal governments more generally. Some of this skepticism may be well founded, but it may also be beside the point. If tribes, like states, possess a genuine species of sovereignty, then a more robust degree of territorial jurisdiction ought presumptively to be recognized (and, correspondingly, ought not to be easily diminished or extinguished or lost). If and when problems of tribal court structure, operation, or integrity arise, they can be addressed on a case-by-case basis, much as the problems with some state court systems have been addressed over the nation’s history. Of course, the potential issues raised by extensive tribal jurisdiction should not be minimized, and they are in some instances not simple and possibly quite serious. But essentially stripping governments of much of their jurisdiction, in response to the prospect of such problems, hardly seems a proportional—and certainly not a conservative—approach.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. | <urn:uuid:7f0129e5-5a12-4e33-81a2-e95805cbef9f> | CC-MAIN-2016-22 | http://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2012/11/15/legal-anomalies-in-federal-indian-law-part-ii-tribal-jurisdiction-over-non-indians/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-22/segments/1464050919950.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160524004839-00090-ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952867 | 1,924 | 2.75 | 3 | {
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Our resident experts are on hand to answer your queries. Here, Shauna Hicks gives tips to help a reader solve the puzzling dilemma of a marriage certificate riddled with inaccuracies.
Question: Would it have been a mandatory requirement for people to provide birth certificates to marry in 1942? My parents were married in Victoria in 1942 and almost none of the details on their certificate of marriage are correct.
For instance, the bridegroom’s name should be Reginald James Banks (according to his birth certificate) and his birthplace should be Carlton. His father’s name should be Alfred John Conquest while his mother’s name should be Mary Aileen Banks.
The bridegroom was born out of wedlock, a ward of the state. When a job was found for him at the age of 15 he went to live with his father’s sister. In the end, he was never adopted or fostered.
The bride’s name, place of birth and date of birth are unknown. She was born out of wedlock and given away to a couple who split up a couple of years later. That woman and her de facto husband signed the certificate as her parents.
It took me three years to find my father’s true identity. I am still searching for my mother’s family. I would have thought that by 1942 you would have had to provide some type of identification to marry. It all seems very odd to me, or was this not unusual for the time?
Shauna Hicks says:
This is an interesting question and like most government functions the answer will lie in the appropriate legislation or regulations. In this instance it would be the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996 and Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages Regulations 2008 and its predecessor legislation and regulations. Current legislation is online but to find a copy of the legislation and regulations in place in 1942 you will need to visit a library holding back copies of Victorian legislation.
State Library of Victoria would be the place to visit if you live in Melbourne. If you are outside Melbourne, they participate in the Ask a Librarian service which might be able to assist you in getting a copy of the relevant section of the Act. Your local library may also be able to assist via interlibrary loan.
However, as we know, even today some people do not always comply with government legislation and regulations and this was also probably true in 1942.
Plus it was in the middle of the Second World War and perhaps rules and regulations were not strictly enforced during those turbulent years. The fact that both parents were present may have also given credence to the wedding and the minister may not have questioned it closely. The true situation of both parties would not have been easy to explain and they may have simply opted for the least complicated explanation.
With regard to the bridegroom, perhaps he has given his aunt and uncle as his parents because he may have regarded them as his parents, rather than his biological parents. That may have been why he was also using their surname of Muir at the time.
With regard to the bride, if she did not know her true identity then it would be reasonable to take the name of the people who brought her up.
It is hard to know at this stage what really happened and it is quite amazing that you have discovered as much as you have of their real identities. I assume that your clues have come from personal information within the families, in which case it may be hard to substantiate with
other sources of information. Best of luck with your search!
Shauna Hicks is the director of Shauna Hicks History Enterprises and has more than 35 years’ experience in Australian, English, Scottish, Irish and Norwegian research. Visit shaunahicks.com.au | <urn:uuid:84130553-cfed-4dfa-be68-3342dbb7c544> | CC-MAIN-2019-13 | http://www.tracesmagazine.com.au/2015/10/ask-our-experts-deceptive-marriage-certificates/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-13/segments/1552912203462.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20190324145706-20190324171706-00434.warc.gz | en | 0.986131 | 774 | 2.640625 | 3 | {
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"interpretation": "Strong reasoning"
} | History |
Proposed pipeline to tunnel under salamander habitat
Another proposed change to a natural-gas pipeline route by the energy company Dominion has been made in order to avoid an endangered salamander dwelling in Augusta and Highland counties. But the new route is not only “incredibly risky,” say those opposed to the pipeline, it is destructive.
“It will be interesting to see what natural forest reaction is to this proposed change,” said
Nancy Sorrells, a former Augusta County supervisor and the co-chair of the Augusta County Alliance, which opposes the pipeline. “All we can do is keep pushing it from every angle.”
On Friday, Dominion released new details surrounding its proposed 564-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline that would cut through a portion of Augusta County where the rare Cow Knob salamander dwells.
National forest officials said plans for the pipeline must be routed around the salamander’s habitat, or under it, in order to preserve the species.
Dominion plans to drill beneath the salamanders.
In its Supplemental Fillings to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Dominion provided variations and adjustments to a formal application filed Sept. 18, to reduce environmental impact and preserve historical and public land issues that have been raised.
“We believe these route adjustments meet the project’s critical need of supplying clean, inexpensive energy to public utility customers while protecting the environmental and cultural resources of communities along the route,” said Diane Leopold, president of Dominion Energy, in a press release. “While the route adjustments themselves are minor, they reflect Atlantic’s strong and sincere commitment to listening to project stakeholders at every stage and addressing their concerns to improve the proposed route.”
In a Cow Knob Route Variation listed by Dominion, the company says it will use horizontal directional drill (HDD) construction to avoid potential impacts on Cow Knob salamanders and their habitat in the George Washington National Forest on and in the vicinity of Shenandoah Mountain in Highland and Augusta counties.
“Drilling beneath the Shenandoah Mountain is incredibly risky for the environment and for the pipeline company itself,” Sorrells said. This is more than drilling a hole through a piece of wood.”
She said in order to create the pipeline an army of machinery would be needed in addition to a large amount of water to operate the drilling equipment — straining or threatening the local environment.
And that’s not even taking into consideration the threat to the environment if the pipeline ever leaked.
Dominion says the pipeline would transport natural gas supplies from Harrison County, West Virginia, southeast through Virginia and south through central North Carolina to Robeson County. Upon regulatory approval, construction is slated for the second half of 2016 with the pipeline in service by the fourth quarter of 2018.
Sorrells calls Dominion’s overall plans for the pipeline sloppy and questions the “critical need” for natural gas. She said in some of the basic paperwork submitted by the company the main tree species listed in the forests of Virginia and West Virginia was the chestnut tree.
“You might find a rare one, but the chestnut tree was wiped out,” she said. It’s almost embarrassing to Dominion that they don’t even know the basic stuff, except the game is real. Is there even a need for this much gas?”
Sorrells said Dominion changes the pipeline route almost “every hour,” which is troubling given the company’s lack of knowledge about the environment and their push to constantly move forward with plans for a pipeline.
“All we can do is keep our nose to the grindstone,” Sorrells said. | <urn:uuid:b880ef9a-28bd-4058-a6b9-0bc96599670c> | CC-MAIN-2019-22 | https://www.newsleader.com/story/news/local/2015/10/31/pipeline-route-changed-again/74961634/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-22/segments/1558232257100.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20190523043611-20190523065611-00473.warc.gz | en | 0.947906 | 782 | 2.71875 | 3 | {
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6. Mercury: a battered world
- Because of its close proximity to
the Sun, the innermost planet Mercury cannot be studied from Earth against the
dark night sky; many astronomers and most people have never seen the elusive
- During the daytime, Mercury's
ground temperature reaches a blistering 700 kelvin; at night it plunges to a
freezing 90 kelvin.
- Although Mercury is one of the
Earthís nearest planetary neighbors, only two spacecraft have ventured near
Mercury. They are the Mariner 10 spacecraft in 1974-75 and the MErcury
Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, abbreviated MESSENGER,
spacecraft in 2008-2011.
- There is a
simple three-to-two resonance between Mercury's rotation period of 58.646 Earth
days and its orbital year of 87.969 Earth days. This spin-orbit coupling is
produced by solar tides in the solid planet,
- The interval
from sunrise to sunset at a given location on Mercury is 87.969 Earth days, and
the night lasts 87.969 Earth days more, so the day on Mercury lasts 175.938
Earth days and twice Mercury's year.
- Mercury's rotation axis is
aligned perpendicular to its orbital plane, so there are no seasons on the
planet, and its polar regions never receive the direct rays of sunlight.
Radar echoes suggest that water ice may reside in permanently shaded regions
within deep craters near Mercuryís poles.
- Mercury has highland craters and
impact basins that resemble those found on the Moon. The craters and basins on
both objects were most likely formed during a late heavy bombardment by
meteorites 3.9 billion years ago.
- An ancient period of volcanic
flow, during the late heavy bombardment of Mercury 3.9 billion years ago,
obliterated small craters, partially filled larger craters, and created
intercrater plains that are not found on the Moon.
- Smooth volcanic plains have
filled old craters and impact basins after they formed, and covered
approximately 40 percent of the surface of Mercury.
- Irregularly shaped depressions
surrounded by bright material have been attributed to volcanic vents on Mercury.
- Long, winding cliffs, or rupes,
are found on Mercury, and not on the Moon. They are attributed to the
contraction of the young planet as it cooled.
- Relative to its size, Mercury has
the biggest iron core of all the terrestrial planets, and Mercury's core is much larger than the
core of the Moon.
- Mercury may have been blown apart
by an ancient collision with a planet-sized object, removing its low-density
- Mercury has a dipolar magnetic
field with a magnetic axis closely aligned with the planetís rotation axis.
- The magnetosphere of Mercury can
be opened on its dayside by magnetic reconnection during interaction with the
magnetic fields emanating from the Sun.
- Rotational twists discovered by
radar observations of Mercury suggest that it has a liquid core in which the
planetís magnetic field might be generated.
- More than a century ago,
astronomers found that Mercury did not appear in its expected place, leading
Einstein to develop a new theory of gravity in which the Sun curves nearby
Copyright 2010, Professor Kenneth R. Lang, Tufts University | <urn:uuid:82abbd67-eb24-43b2-973d-ea9d7f0f58c6> | CC-MAIN-2019-18 | http://ase.tufts.edu/cosmos/view_overview.asp?id=6 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2019-18/segments/1555578593360.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20190423054942-20190423080942-00150.warc.gz | en | 0.912855 | 718 | 4.1875 | 4 | {
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