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Scaevola taccada is a dense, spreading shrub that generally grows up to 3 meter in height. The light green leaves are somewhat succulent with a waxy covering and are alternately arranged along the stem.
The blades are elongated and rounded at the tips, 5 to 20 cm long and 5 to 7 cm wide and the edges are often curled downward. The flowers are white or cream colored, often with purple streaks, 8 - 12 mm long, and have a pleasant fragrance. They have an irregular shape with all five petals on one side of the flower making it appear to have been torn in half. The flowers grow in small clusters from the leaf axils near the ends of the stems. The fruits of Scaevola taccada are fleshy berries. They are white, oblong, and about 1 cm long. The seeds are beige, corky and ridged. The inside of the fruit is spongy or corky and the fruits are buoyant. They can float for months in the ocean and still germinate after having been in salt water for up to a year. One study showed that the seeds germinated best after 250 days in salt water.
(National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG). 1994. Naupaka. In Native Hawaiian plant information sheets. Lawai, Kauai: Hawaii Plant Conservation Center. National Tropical Botanical Garden. Unpublished internal papers.)
(Rauch, Fred D., Heidi L. Bornhorst, and David L. Hensley. 1997. Beach Naupaka, Ornamentals and Flowers.)
(Wagner, Warren L., Darrel R. Herbst, and S. H. Sohmer. 1990. Manual of the flowering plants of Hawai'i.)
(Bornhorst, Heidi L. 1996. Growing native Hawaiian plants: a how-to guide for the gardener.) | <urn:uuid:4847de2d-8bad-482a-88bd-b2afc875fbbd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ntbg.org/plants/plant_details.php?rid=821&plantid=10272 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910244 | 395 | 3.109375 | 3 |
The common name for sedums is Stonecrop. There is a Stonecrop Nursery in eastern New York which was the first garden created by Frank Cabot. Frank created the Garden Conservancy, an organization which strives to preserve some of our exceptional gardens for posterity. Each year it also runs its Open Days Program which opens gardens to the public throughout the country. Frank Cabot went on to create Les Quatre Vents, an outstanding garden at his family home in Quebec.
There are two sedums which most gardeners grow; Sedum acre, a tiny low-growing
groundcover plant with bright yellow flowers. This is being used effectively in the Peace Garden in the plaza between the library and city hall.
The other is Autumn Joy which is in bloom now and will continue to provide color for
months to come. Some references say it requires full sun. Not so! I have it in three locations in my garden. I have several plants growing out of a south-facing wall. But there are tall oaks and maples to the south so that the only time it gets direct sun is in spring before the oaks leaf out. The rest of the year it is dappled light. Another plant is in the east-facing bed on top of my long stone wall where it gets only morning sun. The third plant is in my shrub-perennial border where it gets a bit of sun mid-day. Mine is the ordinary run-of-the-mill Autumn Joy, but there are several cultivars offered in nurseries. Among these are: Crimson, Iceberg, which has white flowers, Autumn Fire and Chocolate Drop, growing only eight inches tall with brown leaves and pink flowers.
There are two native sedums: Roseroot, Sedum rosa and Wild Stonecrop, Sedum ternatum. A third Wild Live-forever, Sedum teliphiodes, grows on cliffs and rocks in Pennsylvania and southward. | <urn:uuid:adef713e-3e75-42d1-ace5-ab0518d6aa74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.the-leader.com/blogs/wild_bill/x799984409/Sedum-Autumn-Joy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958758 | 403 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Recent acts of violence alongside pending legislation and international pressure have brought to light the pressing need for lawmaking in support of LGBT rights in Chile. Together with protests for reforms in the education system, the public seems to be increasingly impatient about what the government is doing to protect LGBT rights. These demands are important beyond the scope of gay rights, because they have brought attention to the need for Chile to recognize, accept and protect the human rights of an evolving, heterogeneous culture as a fundamental prerequisite for continued prosperity.
The passage of an antidiscrimination law, which remained unresolved for over seven years, by a close 58-56 vote in the Chamber of Deputies this month was a basic necessity for the country. The Chilean Movement for Sexual Minorities (MOVILH) notes that in 2011 gay, lesbian and transgender Chileans were increasingly outspoken in reporting abuse and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. However, this recently passed antidiscrimination law does not deal with hate crimes per se, but rather defines illegal discrimination. Furthermore, certain passages have yet to be finalized in a mixed commission of Senators and Deputies on May 2. The recent death of gay youth Daniel Zamudio points to precisely why legislating solely on discrimination does not suffice in this case, serving as an exceptionally violent example as to why hate crimes require specific punishment under the law.
Zamudio received not only the public’s sympathy, but also worldwide attention including a briefing note from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ spokesman, Rupert Colville, urging Chile to enact hate crime legislation. In this regard, the MOVILH also argues that Chilean society is not opposed to legislating on issues of gay rights and antidiscrimination in its entirety, but there is a lack of bravery and willingness within Congress to approach these pending issues. The recent Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ overturning of a Chilean court ruling against lesbian Judge Karen Atala, who lost custody of her children because of her same-sex relationship, is further international pressure for Chile to meet requirements stipulated by international agreements it has signed onto.
Chile’s gay rights deficit is worrying as the country continues to be viewed as an example for continued economic growth despite global market volatility. President Sebastian Piñera’s administration is cautious about giving into all public demands, as Chile’s Minister of Finance Felipe Larraín recently said: “If we surrender to the temptation of appeasing demands by giving in to all of them, we will never get to our final goal [development].” However, most gay rights issues rely merely on political willingness rather than investment for social welfare. Furthermore, acting on gay rights is not the investment equivalent of reforming a public education system.
On the contrary, the lack of legislative initiative to protect gay Chileans is hindering the business community’s business opportunities. Private initiatives have been taken to reach out to gay customers, like for example the granting of access to mortgages and family insurance plans to Banco de Chile customers in same-sex relationships, proving how it is not only the public that is restless, but also the private sector that recognizes the positive effects of social inclusion in business. What could potentially prove threatening to Chile’s continued economic success might just be the lack of recognition given to the longstanding need for social inclusion of minorities in the country’s legal framework. In contrast, Chile’s neighbor Argentina has clearly reaped the benefits of gay tourism and investment since legislating on gay marriage, while Chile continues to turn a blind eye to opportunity.
This is not to say that Piñera’s administration has not taken basic steps to promote the rights of gay couples, like for example Piñera’s public presentation of a civil unions bill in August 2011. However, this legislative project was not only perceived as a political tool in the midst of cabinet discussions with student protest leaders, but is also minimal when considering the prominent use of gay couples in campaign ads for Sebastian Piñera during his presidential campaign. For this reason, the inclusion of a question in the 2012 census that allows gay couples to state whether they live with a same-sex partner may become an important, confidential and unbiased figure that current and future administrations could use to advocate for legislation on gay unions.
This paradox persists despite the heightened quality of life of Chileans. Economic growth is creating an increasingly obvious deficit in basic human rights the country has yet to attain. In spite of continued development and well-regarded fiscal policy through the recession and into today’s administration, Chile continues to be in debt to not only its citizens and the country’s business community, but also to international human rights agreements on sexual orientation and gender identity. These international standards continue to be well above those demonstrated by the current state of gay rights legislation in Chile.
Eduardo Ayala is a guest blogger to AQ Online. He is Chilean-American and works at the Council of the Americas in New York. He graduated from The George Washington University, during which time he also completed coursework at The University of Chile and The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in Santiago. | <urn:uuid:538849d2-1abb-4a38-9afe-136950fa9f61> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://americasquarterly.org/node/3598 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955406 | 1,054 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Language Instruction for Immigrant and Non-English Speaking Children
Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 provides Federal financial support to state and local educational agencies to supplement English language instruction in order to ensure that all English Language Learners, including immigrant children and youth, attain English proficiency, develop high levels of academic language proficiency in English, and meet the same challenging State academic achievement standards as all Maryland students are expected to meet.
To comply with these requirements, the Title III office of the Maryland State Department of Education works with local school districts to ensure that quality, research based ESL programs are offered to language minority students.
Title III, Secs. 3101, 3102 Part A | <urn:uuid:1409dc76-7943-47eb-b75e-4a471fa7eef8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://marylandpublicschools.org/MSDE/programs/title_III/?WBCMODE=PresentationUnpublished%25%3E%25%3E%25%3E%25%3E%25%3E%25%3E%25%25%3E%25%3E%25%3E%25%3E%25%3E%25%3E%25%3E%25%3E%25%3E | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923717 | 140 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Don't feel like exercise? Scientists find compound that may help you work out harderJune 12th, 2012 in Medical research /
As science rushes to develop safe weight loss drugs, a new research report approaches this problem from an entirely new angle: What if there were a pill that would make you want to exercise harder? It may sound strange, but a new research report appearing online in The FASEB Journal suggests that it might be possible.
That's because a team of Swiss researchers found that when a hormone in the brain, erythropoietin (Epo), was elevated in mice, they were more motivated to exercise. In addition, the form of erythropoietin used in these experiments did not elevate red blood cell counts. Such a treatment has obvious benefits for a wide range of health problems ranging from Alzheimer's to obesity, including mental health disorders for which increased physical activity is known to improve symptoms.
"Here we show that Epo increases the motivation to exercise," said Max Gassmann, D.V.M., a researcher involved in the work from the Institute of Veterinary Physiology, Vetsuisse-Faculty and Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. "Most probably, Epo has a general effect on a person's mood and might be used in patients suffering from depression and related diseases."
To make this discovery, Gassmann and colleagues used three types of mice: those that received no treatment, those that were injected with human Epo, and those that were genetically modified to produce human Epo in the brain. Compared to the mice that did not have any increase in Epo, both mouse groups harboring human Epo in the brain showed significantly higher running performance without increases in red blood cells.
"If you can't put exercise in a pill, then maybe you can put the motivation to exercise in a pill instead," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "As more and more people become overweight and obese, we must attack the problem from all angles. Maybe the day will come when gyms are as easily found as fast food restaurants."
More information: Beat Schuler, Johannes Vogel, Beat Grenacher, Robert A. Jacobs, Margarete Arras, and Max Gassmann. Acute and chronic elevation of erythropoietin in the brain improves exercise performance in mice without inducing erythropoiesis. FASEB J. doi:10.1096/fj.11-191197
Provided by Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
"Don't feel like exercise? Scientists find compound that may help you work out harder." June 12th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-dont-scientists-compound-harder.html | <urn:uuid:67f882b4-50c6-4585-a056-180572c3d8a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://medicalxpress.com/print258740076.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950439 | 593 | 2.734375 | 3 |
I do a lesson with tints and shades that requires no drawing skills.
The kids make a large triangular banner using their first or last
initial-usually 24x18 or 24x36 if you have that sized paper.
They make the letter on a piece of 9x12 size paper. They can embellish a
simple block or puffy letter with a few swirls or whatever, but keep it
simple enough to paint in the shape with whatever their color choice is.
Then transfer the letter onto the triangle, near the center of the upper
part of the wide end. I have them tape the letter in place behind the
triangle and trace through on the light box or at the window.
This is a monochromatic painting the way I do it with my 3rd graders. the
choose one color and use it straight from the bottle to paint the letter
shape. This is the only shape with unmixed colors.
Then they divide the background behind the letter into large shapes using
straight or curved lines (nothing too nervous, if you know what I mean. Just
simple lines). I usually limit the number of extra shapes to about 10-12 and
remind the kids that the letter is the star of this show, not the background
Then they start with tints (color plus white) and paint in half the shapes.
Do the same with shades (color plus black) to finish the background area.
when dry, we outline with a wide sharpie marker to neaten up the painted
edges between shapes and around the letter. Sometimes we edge the whole
thing with colored construction paper strips to make the banner a bit more
Concepts used are always mixing from light to dark to avoid needing gallons
of white paint to lighten up a dark blue, for example. Start with the
lightest tint and paint a shape, progressing darker by adding into that bowl
more of the prime color. Same with shades, starting with a drop of black
into the prime color, painting a shape, and progressing with more black til
all the shapes are done. Saves a lot of paint that way!
The kids usually pick a color that will match their bedroom at home . My
third graders love this project and look forward to it each year. If you
need a photo, I can take one and send it tomorrow. I am off Mondays. | <urn:uuid:3c94cfed-9902-49b3-b0c6-766238508e03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.getty.edu/education/teacherartexchange/archive/Feb04/0459.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914659 | 498 | 3 | 3 |
A nocturnal bird of prey.
(AM2: dp. 1,009 (f.); l. 18710; 1 b. 356; dr. 104; s. 14 k.; cpl. 78; a. 2 3; cl. Lapwing)
The first Owl (AM2) was laid down 25 October 1917 by the Todd Shipbuilding Corp., Brooklyn, N.Y.; launched 4 March 1918; sponsored by Miss Ruth R. Dodd; and commissioned 11 July 1918, Lt. (j.g.) Charles B. Babson in command.
Following a New York to Charleston towing assignment, Owl reported to the 5th Naval District at Norfolk, 22 August 1918. Employed as a minesweeper for the remaining months of World War I, she then served as a light ship in the inner approach to Chesapeake Bay until 10 July 1919. From that time until 1936, she was primarily engaged in providing towing services along the eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean. Between June 1936 and January 1941, she operated with units of the Aircraft Division, Base Force, providing planeguard, seaplane tender, and target and mooring buoy planting services from New England to the Caribbean. Then, temporarily attached to Train, Patrol Force at Culebra, P.R., she steamed to Bermuda in May for towing and servicing duties with MinDiv 14. Redesignated AT137, 1 June 1942, she was based at Bermuda until June 1943. During that time, towing and escort duties frequently took her to the east coast, while numerous salvage and rescue missions, including aid to the submarine R1 and torpedoed Argentine tanker Victoria, kept her busy at Bermuda and in nearby convoy lanes.
Detached from Bermudan duty in June, Owl spent the last six months of 1943 with DesRon 30 operating out of Guantanamo Bay. She then steamed back to Norfolk for overhaul, and sailed for Europe. She arrived at Falmouth, U.K., 14 March 1944 to join the Allied forces gathering for the invasion of France. Redesignated ATO137 on 15 May 1944, she arrived off the Normandy coast two days after D-Day. As ground forces pushed inland, she towed port and road construction materials to the French coast, thus aiding the all important flow of men and equipment to the front.
Availability at Falmouth early in the new year, 1945, preceded her return to the United States, 27 February, and midAtlantic coast towing assignments. Transferred to the Pacific Fleet, she sailed from Newport, 5 May, with YNG11 in tow, and arrived at San Diego 23 June, to join ServRon 2. In August she continued on to Pearl Harbor for four months of target towing duty, returning to the west coast 2 January 1946. Owl then provided towing services for the 19th (Reserve) Fleet until beginning inactivation in April. She decommissioned in the 13th Naval District 26 July 1946 and on 27 June 1947 was sold for scrapping to the Pacific Metal and Salvage Co. at Port of Nordland, Wash.
Owl received 1 battle star for World War II service. | <urn:uuid:b5ce094a-a436-4fa4-bd01-7493c969d37b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/o5/owl-i.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964934 | 650 | 2.65625 | 3 |
When the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) was first founded in 1973 there were only 1.5 million wild turkeys across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Today, it is estimated there are more than 5.6 million wild turkeys.
In Utah, wild turkey restoration efforts continue to be the most aggressive in the nation. Over 2,800 wild turkeys have been relocated to suitable habitat areas in Utah since the winter of 1999. As a result, wild turkey permits have increased 20 percent for the spring 2002 season.
However, this program will not be complete until over 200,000 wild turkeys roam the cottonwood river bottoms, pinyon/juniper, and ponderosa pine forests of the state. Whether you pursue wild turkeys as a hunter, or simply enjoy watching these magnificent birds in their natural surroundings, the time to view wild turkeys in Utah has never been better.
At the forefront of this dramatic return in Utah, has been the Federation's volunteers, working side-by-side with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
Now, with most restoration efforts completed in the East, all eyes have shifted to the West, where the wild turkey continues to redefine it's own idea of suitable habitat. While the release of a wild turkey into western habitat remains one of the federation's most enduring symbols, it is just one brick in a foundation of good works that are impacting people's lives and the environment in many positive ways.
Since 1977, the NWTF has spent over 144 million dollars on over 16,000 projects nationwide. The federation helps fund transplants, research projects, habitat acquisition, education, and the equipment needed to successfully accomplish these tasks. Through the Federation's regional habitat programs, volunteers have helped improve hundreds of thousands of acres by planting trees, crops, winter food sources and grasses that provide food and shelter for not only the wild turkey, but many others species of wildlife as well. Also improved in many areas, particularly in the west, has been water quality. Projects occurring right here in southeastern Utah include a San Rafael Desert guzzler, Knolls Ranch habitat improvement, and numerous other projects on the La Sal Mountains, Blue Mountains and Book Cliffs areas.
This month the Price River chapter of the NWTF will be hosting it's annual Wild Turkey Banquet on January 26. For more information, please call (435) 259-9453. | <urn:uuid:75ff55fb-1d04-482b-9c4b-4e8cfec3acf0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sunadvocate.com/print.php?tier=1&article_id=149&poll=269&vote=results | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943449 | 490 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Learn something new every day More Info... by email
Thermal epoxy is any adhesive epoxy that has one or more substances added to it to enhance thermal, or heat, transfer. These epoxies can be electrically conductive or not conductive, depending on the thermal additive used. Silver and other metal-based thermal additives are usually electrically conductive, and thermal epoxies that contain these additives must be applied very carefully so as not to cause electrical shorts. Ceramic-based additives are not electrically conductive but are also not as efficient at thermal conduction.
Manufacturers make thermal epoxies that are designed to work as high-performance engineering adhesives and structural adhesives in a wide range of applications and environments. These include aircraft, boats, marine equipment, cars, surfboards, snowboards, and bicycles, among others. There are thermal formulations for almost every application imaginable, including those that cure while under water, those that remain very flexible or get quite rigid when cured, those resistant to fire or high heat, and even those certified by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for low outgassing.
Heat can damage or destroy electrical components, and today’s high-speed computer components produce a large amount of heat that must be removed. Devices called heat sinks are used to pull heat away from an object and dissipate the heat to the air, sometimes with the help of a cooling fan. Heat sinks are made from metal alloys designed to have excellent thermal conduction properties, and they have specially designed fins to help conduct and remove the heat. They are almost always mounted to a surface using a special adhesive thermal epoxy.
When used in computer applications, a thermal epoxy can help fill microscopic voids that occur in the surfaces of heat sinks and other devices. These voids occur in the manufacturing process. When two objects are mounted together, for instance a chip and a heat sink, the voids fill with air. Air is a very poor thermal conductor, so a substance is introduced to fill the voids and help conduct the heat to the heat sink for removal. The substance used can be thermal grease, thermal tape, thermal pads or, if the device needs to be secured to the mounting surface, thermal epoxy.
When applying thermal epoxy it is very important to use the least possible amount required to fill any voids and make the bond. If a too-thick coat of epoxy is applied, the electrical conductivity of the epoxy will be degraded. Once the epoxy has cured, the bond between the two surfaces is permanent. Epoxies should only be used in well-ventilated areas, and the manufacturer’s instructions should always be followed for best results. | <urn:uuid:48086b1a-3238-4ab2-b4f2-1d8b3a1128c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-thermal-epoxy.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932189 | 569 | 3.515625 | 4 |
DENVER – Put on your poodle skirts and tune in Elvis on the transistor radio, because it’s starting to look a lot like the 1950s.
Unfortunately, this won’t be the nostalgic ’50s of big cars and pop music.
The 1950s that could be on the way to Colorado is the decade of drought.
So says Brian Bledsoe, a Colorado Springs meteorologist who studies the history of ocean currents and uses what he learns to make long-term weather forecasts.
“I think we’re reliving the ’50s, bottom line,” Bledsoe said Friday morning at the annual meeting of the Colorado Water Congress.
Bledsoe studies the famous El Niño and La Niña ocean currents. But he also looks at other, less well-known cycles, including long-term temperature cycles in the oceans.
In the 1950s, water in the Pacific Ocean was colder than normal, but it was warmer than usual in the Atlantic. That combination caused a drought in Colorado that was just as bad as the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
The ocean currents slipped back into their 1950s pattern in the last five years, Bledsoe said. The cycles can last a decade or more, meaning bad news for farmers, ranchers, skiers and forest residents.
“Drought feeds on drought. The longer it goes, the harder it is to break,” Bledsoe said.
The outlook is worst for Eastern Colorado, where Bledsoe grew up and his parents still own a ranch. They recently had to sell half their herd when their pasture couldn’t provide enough feed.
“They’ve spent the last 15 years grooming that herd for organic beef stock,” he said.
Bledsoe looks for monsoon rains to return to the Four Corners and Western Slope in July. But there’s still a danger in the mountains in the summer.
“Initially, dry lightning could be a concern, so obviously, the fire season is looking not so great right now,” he said.
Weather data showed the last year’s conditions were extreme.
Nolan Doesken, Colorado’s state climatologist, said the summer of 2012 was the hottest on record in Colorado. And it was the fifth-driest winter since record-keeping began more than 100 years ago.
Despite recent storms in the San Juan Mountains, this winter hasn’t been much better.
“We’ve had a wimpy winter so far,” Doesken said. “The past week has been a good week for Colorado precipitation.”
However, the next week’s forecast shows dryness returning to much of the state.
Reservoir levels are higher than they were in 2002 – the driest year since Coloradans started keeping track of moisture – but the state is entering 2013 with reservoirs that were depleted last year.
“You don’t want to start a year at this level if you’re about to head into another drought,” Doesken said.
It was hard to find good news in Friday morning’s presentations, but Bledsoe is happy that technology helps forecasters understand the weather better than they did during past droughts. That allows people to plan for what’s on the way.
“I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy,” he said. | <urn:uuid:6b5ff0a8-5351-4289-bb86-d7195a7837dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://durangoherald.com/article/20130201/NEWS01/130209956/0/20120510/Drought-is-making-itself-at-home | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964422 | 739 | 2.640625 | 3 |
EPO is a nootropicWednesday, 10 September, 2008
Erythropoietin (EPO), a hormone that increases red blood cells and is used as a performance enhancer for athletic performance, has now been shown to enhance memory in normal, healthy mice. Mice that received EPO injections had enhanced memory for 3-4 weeks afterwards, which is longer than the elevation in red blood cell count lasts.
This effect isn’t actually novel, as other researchers had noticed that EPO improved brain function over 18 years ago (Grimm et al, 1990), and research into mental illness has also suggested that EPO has an effect on brain function (Ehrenreich et al, 2004). But it was always thought to be dependent on the change in red blood cells, but more recent evidence has suggested it works independently of effects on blood cells (Miskowiak et al, 2007). This mouse model confirms this.
Of course, the researchers have been focusing on this as a treatment, but anyone can see that this is a promising enhancement too. This mouse research showed that EPO enhanced memory and athletic function in healthy mice. It enhances both athletic and mental performance – how good is that?
Then again, if EPO becomes a common cognitive enhancer, it will mean that few of us normal people would ever be able to compete in the Olympics. It was only in 2004 that caffeine was allowed in professional competition, but pretty soon college students will be doping themselves with EPO as a biochemical study aid. It will be interesting when almost all normal people would not be able to pass an Olympic-level drug test.
The possibility exists, however, that we may want the cognitive boost without increasing our red blood cells too much. And now that we know the cognitive effects of EPO are independent of red blood cell production, this may be possible too. Make a drug that stimulates the brain like EPO does, but doesn’t effect an increase in red blood cells. And this study has gone a long way to unraveling the relevant effects of EPO on neuronal plasticity that underly the enhancement to memory circuitry in the brain, which means that we may be able to find drugs that do so more effectively than EPO or act on other brain functions. | <urn:uuid:4b6d67c9-bf43-419d-bd2a-90f5140e91f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hplusbiopolitics.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/epo-is-a-nootropic/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960158 | 465 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Celebrate Princeton Invention: Craig Arnold
Posted December 21, 2009; 01:08 p.m.
Able to adjust its focus more than 100,000 times faster than the human eye, the TAG Lens invented by mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Craig Arnold and his colleagues has applications in materials processing and imaging. (Photo: Brian Wilson)
Name: Craig Arnold, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering
Invention: Tunable Acoustic Gradient Index of Refraction Lens (TAG Lens)
What it does: The TAG lens features a cylinder made of a special material that vibrates when electricity is passed through it, enclosed inside a fluid-filled chamber. Controlling the flow of electricity changes the vibrations that propagate through the fluid, changing the lens' focus more than 100,000 times faster than the human eye can refocus.
Inspiration: After developing a low-cost lens to shape laser beam output into different patterns, Arnold and his colleagues focused their attention on understanding how the device worked and its potential applications. Finding that the lens had the unique ability to focus rapidly at a wide range of focal lengths, they realized its potential went far beyond the original intended purpose, with numerous applications in materials processing and imaging.
Collaborators: Euan McLeod, a 2009 Ph.D. recipient, and Alexander Mermillod-Blondin, a former postdoctoral researcher in the Arnold lab
Back to main story | <urn:uuid:e52b9faa-46f7-4ce0-bef3-858f067d0752> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/14/18O76/index.xml?from=2012-01-01&to=2012-02-01 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93646 | 290 | 3.453125 | 3 |
- 10 to 15 minutes
- Take turns introducing each other while pretending you are on a stage.
- Stand up, bow, and tell all the good things you can about the other person, his hobbies, good qualities, etc. Be sure to over-dramatize.
- Take turns introducing other family members, present or not.
- Challenge your child to introduce a best friend or a favorite teacher.
- Think of famous people and take turns introducing them.
Copyright © 2004 by Susan Kettmann. Excerpted from The 2,000 Best Games & Activities with permission of its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.
To order this book visit Amazon.com. | <urn:uuid:917d251d-f393-43ee-afe9-4b708927c6bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fun.familyeducation.com/manners/activity/35581.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.893032 | 141 | 3.015625 | 3 |
2012-2013 Service Learning Courses
Hispanic Literature in Translation—"Defiant Acts: Spanish and Latin American Theatre"
Isabel de Sena
This course will explore the full spectrum of theatre from the early modern period in Spain and colonial Spanish America to contemporary theatre on both sides of the Atlantic, including U.S. Latino playwrights. We will read across periods to identify preoccupations and generic characteristics as theatre evolves and moves between the street and the salon, the college yard and the court, enclosed theatres and theatre for the enclosed. In the process we will address a wide swath of ideas, on gender, class, freedom and totalitarianism, the boundaries of identity. Students will be introduced to some basic concepts and figures ranging from Lope de Vega’s brilliant articulation of “comedia” to Augusto Boal’s concept of an engaged theatre, and investigate the work of FOMMA (Fortaleza de la Mujer Maya) and similar contemporary collectives. And we will read plays as plays, as literature and as texts intended for performance on a stage. At the same time students will have the opportunity to explore creative practices, through engagement with different community organizations: schools, retirement homes, local theatre organizations, etc. Students are encouraged to apply concepts learned in class to their internships, and to bring their ideas and reflections on their weekly practices for discussion in class. Each other week one hour will be devoted to discussing their work in the community. NO Spanish required, but students who are sufficiently fluent in the language may opt to work in a community where Spanish is the primary language of communication. NO expertise in theatre required though theatre students are very welcome. Open to any interested student.
Fall & Spring
First Year Studies
Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu
[Isizulu: A person is only a person through other persons]
How do the contexts in which we live influence our development? And how do these contexts influence the questions we ask about development, and the ways in which we interpret our observations? How do local, national and international policies impact the contexts in which children live? Should we play a role in changing some of these contexts? What are the complications of doing this?
In this course, we will discuss these and other key questions about child and adolescent development in varying cultural contexts, with a specific focus on the United States and sub-Saharan Africa. As we do so, we will discuss factors contributing to both opportunities and inequalities within and between these contexts. In particular, we will discuss how physical and psychosocial environments differ for poor and non-poor children and their families in rural Upstate New York, urban Yonkers, and rural and urban Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania. We will also discuss individual and environmental protective factors that buffer some children from the adverse effects of poverty, as well as the impacts of public policy on poor children and their families. Topics will include health and educational disparities; environmental inequalities linked to race, class, ethnicity, gender, language and nationality; environmental chaos; children’s play and access to green space; cumulative risk and its relationship to chronic stress; and the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the growing orphan problem in sub-Saharan Africa. Readings will be drawn from both classic and contemporary research in psychology, human development, anthropology, sociology, and public health; memoirs and other first-hand accounts; and classic and contemporary African literature and film.
This course will also serve as an introduction to the methodologies of community based and participatory action research within the context of a service-learning course. As a class, we will collaborate with local high school students in developing, implementing and evaluating effective community based work in partnership with organizations in urban Yonkers and rural Tanzania. As part of this work, all students will spend an afternoon a week working in a local after-school program. In addition, we will have monthly seminars with local high school students during our regular class time.
Environment, Race and the Psychology of Place
This service learning course will focus on the experience of humans living within physical, social and psychological spaces. We will use a constructivist, multidisciplinary, multilevel lens to examine the interrelationship between humans and the natural and built environment, to explore the impact of racial/ethnic group membership on person/environment interactions, and to provide for a critical analysis of social dynamics in the environmental movement. The community partnership/ service learning component is an important part of this class - we will work with local agencies to promote adaptive person-environment interactions within our community.
Children’s Health in a Multicultural Context
This course offers, within a cultural context, an overview of theoretical and research issues in the psychological study of health and illness in children. We will examine theoretical perspectives in the psychology of health, health cognition, illness prevention, stress, and coping with illness and highlight research, methods, and applied issues. This class is appropriate for those interested in a variety of health careers. Conference work can range from empirical research to bibliographic research in this area. Community partnership/service learning work is encouraged in this class. A background in social sciences or education is recommended. | <urn:uuid:4932f7a4-ad95-4a3c-aceb-f7b7ec9a24f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mobile.slc.edu/studentlife/community-partnerships/Service_Learning_Courses.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930146 | 1,062 | 3.015625 | 3 |
BEMIDJI -The Governor's Task Force Prevention of School Bullying met with Bemidji students, parents and educators Wednesday evening kicking off a series of sessions to help redefine the state's anti-bullying statute.
"The Governor has organized a task force of citizens from around the state to make recommendations to the Governor and to the Legislature in regards that might be put forth that would direct all the school districts in the state as to how they should address bullying," said Nancy Riestenberg, School Climate Specialist at the Department of Education.
Riestenberg joined members of the task force to speak with students from Bemidji High School and students from Schoolcraft to discuss their concerns about bullying and ways in which they think it could be prevented.
Students like Thomas Caddy and Tia Siddens, 9th graders at Bemidji High School, bullying is present at the school and it is seen both physically and verbally.
"Words hurt more than fists in a lot of situations because if the physical wound isn't there it could still leave a mark on the mind," Siddens said.
The students said the most common targets of bullying in school are people of different race, sexual orientation or people with a mental disability.
"People who don't have a lot of friends are targeted more because if you don't always have those friends there to help speak up," Schoolcraft student Katie Fgevje said. "With less friends you are more vulnerable in my eyes because you don't have that person to kind of help you get through it."
When asked what the students would recommend the task force do to help the bullying problem in schools, a lot of students said there needs to be an effort to teach students from a young age why bullying is wrong, but also to teach the staff how to resolve and prevent bully situations.
"We have some programs that address bullying and I am happy we have them but I don't think they are exactly effective because if the person is doing it they are not going to be listening to the reasons why they are not supposed to be doing it," Thomas Caddy said.
Riestenberg said this was the first of many student sessions she and the task force will conduct but she said she was impressed by how engaging the students were.
"They confirmed for me what I teach in my job as the school climate specialist at the Department of Education and gave insight to the task force about what students face and what they need," Riestenberg said.
Following the parent session, the task force went to the middle school to meet with parents and educators to see what their concerns and recommendations were.
The common concern among the parents was the issue of cyber bullying in addition to racial and sexual orientation bullying. The parents agreed that the school and the parents need to make sure students know their resources on who they can talk to when being bullied.
"We need to be held accountable for our own actions and we not only need to listen to our kids but we need to show them that we are trying to do something," Marty Cobenais, a parent in attendance said. "If we don't make an effort to do something our kids are not going to come talk to us when they have a problem."
Bemidji School Superintendent James Hess said the bullying issue is one that does need to be addressed not only at the school level but also the community level.
"I think about bullying and I think about the school's role in bullying and I don't think the school is the place to lay all of the blame," Hess said. "I know that if you walk into any classroom in the district you won't find any teachers teaching bullying. I think we need to be a part of the search for a solution to bullying but I don't think we are the stopping place, we are the starting place. We need to look at the greater community to find solutions that are going to be the lasting solutions."
The task force will be meeting with schools across the state and will pass along recommendations to the Legislature by August. | <urn:uuid:96cc40b8-7871-436d-9364-13d3cb186f33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/content/state-task-force-prevention-school-bullying-meets-bemidji-students-parents-educators | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986108 | 831 | 2.578125 | 3 |
A Soyuz rocket launched two Galileo satellites into orbit on Friday, marking a crucial step for Europe’s planned navigation system, operator Arianespace announced.
The launch took place at the Kourou space base in French Guiana, at 3:15pm (6:15pm GMT).
Three and three-quarter hours later, the 700kg satellites were placed into orbit.
The new satellites add to the first two in the Galileo navigation system, which were launched on Oct. 21, last year.
Together they create a “mini-constellation.” Four is the minimum number of satellites needed to gain a navigational fix on the ground, using signals from the satellite to get a position for latitude, longitude, altitude and a time reference.
Galileo will ultimately consist of 30 satellites, six more than the US Global Positioning System.
By 2015, 18 satellites should be in place, which is sufficient for launching services to the public, followed by the rest in 2020, according to the European Space Agency.
It is claimed that the system will be accurate to within one meter. The US Global Positioning System, which became operational in 1995 and is currently being upgraded, is currently accurate to between three and eight meters.
In May, the European Commission said the cost by 2015 would be 5 billion euros (US$6.45 billion).
As a medium-sized launcher, Soyuz complements Europe’s heavyweight Ariane 5 and lightweight Vega rockets. | <urn:uuid:699d891f-bdb8-4b5c-be74-eb4bcd7029f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/print/2012/10/14/2003545181 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944344 | 308 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Did You Know
Did you know that there is a town in Germany by the name of Reher??
That there is also one by the name of Stoltenberg??
Do you know where our Reher and Stoltenberg ancestors came from in Germany??
Johann Reher came from the town of Bebensee.
His father Casper came from Dreggers which was 6 miles east of there. Bad Segeberg is also associated with the family. It is about 7 miles north and the closest large town.
Since the town of Reher is 40 miles west of Bebensee and Dreggers I'm not sure if there is any connection to our name and family. Forty miles in the mid 1800's was quite a distance to travel.
Claus Stoltenberg came from Brodersdorf which is 46 miles north of Bebensee and about 10 miles northeast of Kiel, a major city on the Baltic Sea. Brodersdorf is two to three miles south of the Baltic Sea. Other towns associated with the Stoltenberg side of the family are all located in close proximity. They are LaBoe, Stein, Fahren, Probsteierhagen and Wentdorf.
The town of Stoltenberg is only seven miles to the southeast of Brodersdorf.
The above map of northern Germany will show you where the towns Reher, Stoltenberg, Bebensee, Dreggers, and Brodersdorf are located. I've marked these towns with a dark asterisk * to make them easier to find.
Click on the map to make it bigger and easier to see the towns marked with an asterisk. After the larger map comes up, click on that again to zoom in.
It is about 60 miles from Kiel at the top of the map to Hamburg which is towards the bottom of this map. From Reher to Bebensee it is 40 miles, to Brodersdorf it is 46 miles which is also the distance from Bebensee to Brodersdorf and Stoltenberg... almost a perfect equilateral triangle. See the map below... Reher is in the bottom left corner or the triangle, Bebensee in the bottom right and Brodersdorf in the top.
Hamburg is the port that our Johann & Sophia Reher sailed out of with their two small children, Emma and Ernest when they came to America in 1872.
The map above shows a closer view of the area where Bebensee & Dreggers are located... where Johann Reher and his father were born.
Once again, click on the map to make it larger.
The map above shows a closer view of the area where the Stoltenberg side of the family came from. You'll see all of the towns: Brodersdorf, LaBoe, Stein, Fahren, Probsteierhagen and Wentdorf. I've added the Stoltenberg name myself as the town didn't show up on this map.
So Now You Know | <urn:uuid:093caeea-82d7-4228-9893-9bb346f428bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rareramblings.blogspot.com/2006/05/did-you-know-did-you-know-that-there.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95408 | 651 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Thrombolytic drugs for heart attack
Small blood vessels called coronary arteries supply blood and oxygen to the heart.
- A heart attack can occur if a blood clot completely blocks one of these arteries.
- Unstable angina refers to chest pain and other warning signs that a heart attack may happen soon. It is most often caused by blood clots in the arteries.
Certain patients may be given drugs to break up the clot if the artery is completely blocked. These drugs are called thrombolytics, or clot busting drugs.
- These drugs should be given within 3 hours of when the patient first felt chest pain.
- The medicine is given through a vein (IV).
- Blood thinners taken by mouth may be prescribed later to prevent more clots from forming.
The main risk when receiving clot busting drugs is bleeding, especially bleeding in the brain.
Thrombolytic therapy is not safe for people who have:
- Bleeding inside the head or a stroke
- Brain abnormalities, such as tumors or poorly formed blood vessels
- Had a head injury within the past 3 months
- A history of using blood thinners or a bleeding disorder
- Had major surgery, a major injury, or internal bleeding within the past 3-4 weeks
- Peptic ulcer disease
- Severe high blood pressure
Other treatments that may be done instead of thrombolytic therapy are:
- Angioplasty is a procedure to open narrowed or blocked arteries that supply blood to the heart. It is often the first choice treatment.
- Heart bypass surgery to open narrowed or blocked arteries that supply blood to the heart may also be done. This procedure is also called "open heart surgery."
Anderson JL, Adams CD, Antman EM, Bridges CR, Califf RM, Casey DE Jr, et al. ACC/AHA 2007 guidelines for the management of patients with unstable angina/non-ST-Elevation myocardial infarction: a report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines (Writing Committee to Revise the 2002 Guidelines for the Management of Patients With Unstable Angina/Non-ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction) developed in collaboration with the American College of Emergency Physicians, the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons endorsed bythe American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2007;50(7):e1-e157.
Antman EM, Hand M, Armstrong PW, Bates ER, Green LA, Halasyamani LK, et al. 2007 Focused Update of the ACC/AHA 2004 Guidelines for the Management of Patients with ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction: a report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines: developed in collaboration with the Canadian Cardiovascular Society endorsed by the American Academy of Family Physicians: 2007 Writing Group to Review New Evidence and Update the ACC/AHA 2004 Guidelines for the Management of Patients With ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction, writing on behalf of the 2004 Writing Committee. Circulation. 2008;117(20:296-329.
Reviewed By: Michael A. Chen, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington Medical School, Seattle, Washington. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc. | <urn:uuid:873d034c-6ae5-4566-809b-a5ab3f91b6e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sw.org/health-education?productId=117&pid=1&gid=007488 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.87422 | 749 | 3.0625 | 3 |
The “presidi” translates as “garrisons” (from the French word, “to equip”), as protectors of traditional food production practices
Monday, March 23, 2009
The “presidi” translates as “garrisons” (from the French word, “to equip”), as protectors of traditional food production practices
This past year, I have had rewarding opportunities to observe traditional food cultures in varied regions of the world. These are:
Athabascan Indian in the interior of Alaska (the traditional Tanana Chiefs Conference tribal lands) in July, 2008 (for more, read below);
Swahili coastal tribes in the area of Munje village (population about 300), near Msambweni, close to the Tanzania border in December, 2008-January, 2009 (for more, read below); and,Laikipia region of Kenya (January, 2009), a German canton of Switzerland (March, 2009), and the Piemonte-Toscana region of northern/central Italy (images only, February-March, 2009).
In Fort Yukon, Alaska, salmon is a mainstay of the diet. Yet, among the Athabascan Indians, threats to subsistence foods and stresses on household economics abound. In particular, high prices for external energy sources (as of July, 2008, almost $8 for a gallon of gasoline and $6.50 for a gallon of diesel, which is essential for home heating), as well as low Chinook salmon runs for information click here, and moose numbers.
Additional resource management issues pose threats to sustaining village life – for example, stream bank erosion along the Yukon River, as well as uneven management in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge. People are worried about ever-rising prices for fuels and store-bought staples, and fewer and fewer sources of wage income. The result? Villagers are moving out from outlying areas into “hub” communities like Fort Yukon -- or another example, Bethel in Southwest Alaska – even when offered additional subsidies, such as for home heating. But, in reality, “hubs” often offer neither much employment nor relief from high prices.
In Munje village in Kenya, the Digo, a Bantu-speaking, mostly Islamic tribe in the southern coastal area of Kenya, enjoy the possibilities of a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and fish/oils.
Breakfast in the village typically consists of mandazi (a fried bread similar to a doughnut), and tea with sugar. Lunch and dinner is typically ugali and samaki (fish), maybe with some dried cassava or chickpeas.
On individual shambas (small farms), tomatoes, cassava, maize, cowpeas, bananas, mangos, and coconut are typically grown. Ugali is consumed every day, as are cassava, beans, oil, fish -- and rice, coconut, and chicken, depending on availability.
Even with their own crops, villagers today want very much to enter the market economy and will sell products from their shambas to buy staples and the flour needed to make mandazis, which they in turn sell. Sales of mandazis (and mango and coconut, to a lesser extent) bring in some cash for villagers.
A treasured food is, in fact, the coconut. This set of pictures show how coconut is used in the village. True, coconut oil now is reserved only for frying mandazi. But it also is used as a hair conditioner, and the coconut meat is eaten between meals. I noted also that dental hygiene and health were good in the village. Perhaps the coconut and fish oils influence this (as per the work of Dr. Weston A. Price).
Photos L-R: Using a traditional conical basket (kikatu), coconut milk is pressed from the grated meat; Straining coconut milk from the grated meat, which is then heated to make oil; Common breakfast food (and the main source of cash income), the mandazi, is still cooked in coconut oil
Note: All photos were taken by G. Berardi
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Despite maize in the fields, it is widely known that farmers are hoarding stocks in many districts. Farmers are refusing the NCPB/government price of Sh1,950 per 90-kg bag. They are waiting to be offered at least the same amount of money as that which was being assigned to imports (Bii, 2009b). “The country will continue to experience food shortages unless the Government addresses the high cost of farm inputs to motivate farmers to increase production,” said Mr. Jonathan Bii of Uasin Gish (Bartoo & Lucheli, 2009; Bii, 2009a, 2009b; Bungee, 2009).
Pride and politics, racism and corruption are to blame for food deficits (Kihara & Marete, 2009; KNA, 2009; Muluka, 2009; Siele, 2009). Clearly, what are needed in Kenya are food system planning, disaster management planning, and protection and development of agricultural and rural economies.
Click here for the full text.
Photos taken by G. Berardi
Cabbage, an imported food (originally), and susceptible to much pest damage.
Camps still remain for Kenya’s Internally Displaced Persons resulting from post-election violence forced migrations. Food security is poor.
Lack of sustained recent short rains have resulted in failed maize harvests.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Today I went to a lunch time discussion of sustainability. This concept promoted development with an equitable eye to the triple bottom line - financial, social, and ecological costs. We discussed the how it seemed relatively easier to discuss the connections between financial and ecological costs, than between social costs and other costs. Sustainable development often comes down to "green" designs that consider environmental impacts or critiques of the capitalist model of financing.
As I thought about sustainable development, or sustainable community management if you are a bit queasy with the feasibility of continuous expansion, I considered its corollaries in the field of disaster risk reduction. It struck me again that it is somewhat easier to focus on some components of the triple bottom line in relation to disasters.
The vulnerability approach to disasters has rightly brought into focus the fact that not all people are equally exposed to or impacted by disasters. Rather, it is often the poor or socially marginalized most at risk and least able to recover. This approach certainly brings into focus the social aspects of disasters.
The disaster trap theory, likewise, brings into focus the financial bottom line. This perspective is most often discussed in international development and disaster reduction circles. It argues that disasters destroy development gains and cause communities to de-develop unless both disaster reduction and development occur in tandem. Building a cheaper, non-earthquake resistant school in an earthquake zone, may make short-term financial sense. However,over the long term, this approach is likely to result in loss of physical infrastructure, human life, and learning opportunities when an earthquake does occur.
What seems least developed to me, though I would enjoy being rebutted, is the ecological bottom line of disasters. Perhaps it is an oxymoron to discuss the ecological costs of disasters, given that many disasters are triggered natural ecological processes like cyclones, forest fires, and floods. It might also be an oxymoron simply because a natural hazard disaster is really looking at an ecological event from an almost exclusively human perspective. Its not a disaster if it doesn't destroy human lives and human infrastructure. But, the lunch-time discussion made me wonder if there wasn't something of an ecological bottom line to disasters in there somewhere. Perhaps it is in the difference between an ecological process heavily or lightly impacted by human ecological modification. Is a forest fire in a heavily managed forest different from that in an unmanaged forest? Certainly logging can heighten the impacts of heavy rains by inducing landslides, resulting in a landscape heavily rather than lightly impacted by the rains. Similar processes might also be true in the case of heavily managed floodplains. Flooding is concentrated and increased in areas outside of levee systems. What does that mean for the ecology of these locations? Does a marsh manage just as well in low as high flooding? My guess would be no.
And of course, there is the big, looming disaster of climate change. This is a human-induced change that may prove quite disasterous to many an ecological system, everything from our pine forests here, to arctic wildlife, and tropical coral reefs.
Perhaps, we disaster researchers, need to also consider a triple bottom line when making arguments for the benefits of disaster risk reduction.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
This past week the Northwest experienced a severe barrage of weather systems back to back. Everyone seemed to be affected. Folks were re-routed on detours, got soaked, slipped on ice, or had to spend money to stay a little warmer. In Whatcom and Skagit Counties, there are hundreds to thousands of people currently in the process of recovering and cleaning-up after the floods. These people live in the rural areas throughout the county, with fewer people knowing about their devastation and having greater vulnerability to flood hazards.
Luckily, there are local agencies and non-profits who are ready at a moment’s call to help anyone in need. The primary organization that came to the aid of the flood victims was the American Red Cross.
The last week I began interning and volunteering with one of these non-profits, the Mt. Baker American Red Cross (ARC) Chapter. While I am still in the process of getting screened and officially trained, I received first-hand experience and saw how important this organization is to the community.
With the flood waters rising throughout the week, people were flooded out of their homes and rescued from the overflowing rivers and creeks. As the needs for help increased, hundreds of ARC volunteers were called to service. Throughout the floods there have been several shelters opened to accommodate the needs of these flood victims. On Saturday I was asked to help staff one of these shelters overnight in Ferndale.
While I talked with parents and children, I became more aware of the stark reality of how these people have to recover from having all their possessions covered in sewage and mud and damaged by flood waters. In the meantime, these flood victims have all their privacy exposed to others in a public shelter, while they work to find stability in the middle of all the traumas of the events. As I sat talking and playing with the children, another thought struck me. Children are young and resilient, but it must be very difficult when they connect with a volunteer and then lose that connection soon after. Sharing a shelter with the folks over the weekend showed a higher degree of reality and humanity to the situation than the news coverage ever could.
I posted this bit about my volunteer experience because it made me realize something about my education and degree track in disaster reduction and emergency planning. We look at ways to create a more sustainable community, and we need to remember that community service is an important part of creating this ideal. Underlying sustainable development is the triple bottom line (social, economy, and environment). Volunteers and non-profits are a major part of this social line of sustainability. Organizations like the American Red Cross only exist because of volunteers. So embrace President-elect Obama’s call for a culture of civil service this coming week and make a commitment to the organization of your choice with your actions or even your pocketbook. Know that sustainable development cannot exist with out social responsibility.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Its been two days now that schools have been closed in Whatcom County, not for snow, but for rain and flooding. This unusual event coincides with record flooding throughout Western Washington, just a year after record flooding closed I5 for three days and Lewis County businesses experienced what they then called an unprecedented 500 year flood. I guess not.
There are many strange things about flood risk notation, and this idea that a 500 year flood often trips people up. They often believe a flood of that size will happen only once in 500 years. On a probabilistic level, this is inaccurate. A 500 year flood simply has a .2% probability of happening each year. A more useful analogy might be to tell people they are rolling a 500 sided die every year and hoping that it doesn’t come up with a 1. Next year they’ll be forced to roll again.
But, this focus on misunderstandings of probability often hides an even larger societal misunderstanding . Flood risk changes when we change the environment in which it occurs. If a flood map tells you that you are not in the flood plain, better check the date of the map. Most maps are utterly out of date and many vastly underestimate present flood risk. There are several reasons this happens. Urban development, especially development with a lot of parking lots and buildings that don’t let water seep into the ground, will cause rainwater to move quickly into rivers rather than seep into the ground and slowly release. Developers might complain that they are required to create runoff catchment wetlands when they do build. They do, but these requirements may very well be based upon outdated data on flood risk. Thus, each new development never fully compensates for its runoff, a small problem for each site but a mammoth problem when compounded downstream.
Deforesting can have the same effect, with the added potential for house-crushing and river-clogging mudslides. Timber harvesting is certainly an important industry in our neck of the woods. Not only is commercial logging an important source of jobs for many rural and small towns, logging on state Department of Natural Resource land is the major source of funding for K-12 education. Yet, commercial logging, like other industries, suffers from a problem of cost externalization. When massive mudslides occurred during last year’s storm, Weyerhaeuser complained that it wasn’t it’s logging practices, but the fact that it was an unprecedented, out of the blue, 500 year storm that caused it. While it is doubtful the slides would have occurred uncut land, that isn’t the only fallacy. When the slide did occur, the costs of repairing roads, treatment plants, and bridges went to the county and often was passed on to the nation’s tax payers through state and federal recovery grants. Thus, what should have been paid by Weyerhaeuser, 500 year probability or not, was paid by someone else.
Finally, there is local government. Various folks within local governments set regulations for zoning, deciding what will be built and where. Here is the real crux of the problem. Local government also gets an increase in revenue in the form of property, sales, and business income taxes. Suppress the updating of flood plain maps, and you get a short term profit and often, a steady supply of happy voters. You might think these local governments will have to pay when the next big flood comes, but often that can be avoided. Certainly, they must comply with federal regulations on flood plain management to be part of the National Flood Insurance program, but that plan has significant leeway and little monitoring. Like the commercial logging, disaster-stricken local governments can often push the recovery costs off to individual homeowners through the FEMA homeowner’s assistance program, and off to state and federal agencies by receiving disaster recovery and community development grants and loans. Certainly, some communities are so regularly devastated, and are so few resources, that disasters simply knock them down before they can given stand up again. But others have found loopholes and can profit by continuing to use old food maps and failing to aggressively control flood plain development.
What is it going to take to really change this system and make it unprofitable to profit from bad land use management?
Here’s a good in-depth article on last year’s landslides in Lewis County. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008048848_logging13m.html
An interesting article on the failure of best management practices in development catchment basins can be found here: Hur, J. et al (2008) Does current management of storm water runoff adequately protect water resources in developing catchments? Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 63 (2) pp. 77-90.
Monday, December 29, 2008
It’s difficult to imagine a more colorful book, celebrating locally-grown and –marketed foods, than David Westerlund’s Simone Goes to the Market: A Children’s Book of Colors Connecting Face and Food. This book is aimed at families and the foods they eat. Who doesn’t want to know where their food is coming from – the terroir, the kind of microclimate it’s produced in, as well as who’s selling it? Gretchen sells her pole beans (purple), Maria her Serrano peppers (green), Dana and Matt sell their freshly-roasted coffee (black), Katie her carrots (orange), a blue poem from Matthew, brown potatoes from Roslyn, yellow patty pan squash from Jed, red tomatoes (soft and ripe) from Diana, and golden honey from Bill (and his bees). This is a book perfect for children of any age who want to connect to and with the food systems that sustain community. Order from firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:e139d24e-7144-4cf8-866c-6066d64a435f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://igcr.blogspot.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962803 | 3,622 | 2.875 | 3 |
The Brazilian Supreme Court's recognition of same-sex unions in early May marks the latest victory for gay rights in Latin America. The Court's ruling grants equal legal rights to same-sex civil unions as those enjoyed by married heterosexuals, including retirement benefits, joint tax declarations, inheritance rights, and child adoption.
An Unlikely Victory
As the world's largest Roman Catholic country, Brazil was an unlikely venue for such a promising gay rights victory. The Roman Catholic Church has actively fought proposals for same-sex unions in Brazil, arguing that the Brazilian Constitution defines a "family entity" as "a stable union between a man and a woman."2 The Catholic Church responded to the recent ruling with outrage. As Archbishop Anuar Battisti put it, the Supreme Court's decision marked a "frontal assault" on the sanctity of the family.3
The Catholic Church is losing its power in Brazil, which helped pave the way for the Supreme Court's recent decision in favor of homosexuals. Nevertheless, homophobia retains a tenacious grip on Brazilian society. Despite the fact that the nation boasts the world's largest gay pride parade, the LGBT movement has been unable to achieve fundamental progress and quell discrimination at a societal level. For instance, Marcelo Cerqueira, the head of the Gay Group of Bahia, claims the country is "number one when it comes to assassination, discrimination and violence against homosexuals."4 Additionally, in a disconcerting report, the Gay Group of Bahia found that 260 Brazilian gay people were murdered in 2010, exemplifying the level of hostility towards homosexuals.5 Because of this discriminating environment, gay rights activists traditionally have had little success in Brazil. Most notably, Congress disregarded proposals for gay rights legislation for nearly ten years.
The Supreme Court’s recent ruling was therefore a major turning point after a history of protracted, unsuccessful struggles. The judicial decision was made in response to two lawsuits, one of which was filed by Rio de Janeiro Governor Sérgio Cabral and the other by the Office of the Attorney General. While Congress repeatedly ignored requests for equal rights for gay Brazilian citizens, the Supreme Court argued that "Those who opt for a homosexual union cannot be treated less than equally as citizens."6 In this way, by appealing to the judicial system, the LGBT movement was able to achieve success despite deep-seated hostility throughout Brazilian society and in other branches of the government.
Latin America's Gay Rights Revolution
Professor Omar Encarnación of Bard College calls the recent string of gay rights legislation in Latin America a "gay rights revolution."7 Brazil's ruling came on the heels of several other noteworthy gay rights victories in Latin America, such as Uruguay’s legalization of same-sex civil unions in 2007. Shortly thereafter, in 2010, Argentina became the first Latin American nation and eighth nation worldwide to legalize gay marriage. Other landmark decisions in the past few years include Uruguay's decision to allow all men and women, regardless of sexual orientation, to serve in the military and Mexico City's legalization of same-sex civil unions.
The recent surge in gay rights victories throughout Latin America is altogether stunning, considering the region has generally been regarded as very homophobic. The Catholic Church has traditionally been a formidable enemy to gay rights movements in the region, but the secularization of much of Latin America has led to the impressive expansion of opportunities for gay rights movements.
Yet this success of gay rights movements throughout Latin America cannot be attributed solely to the declining importance of religion in the region. It is equally important, if not more so, to recognize the vital roles played by gay activist groups and the dynamic strategies these groups employ. For instance, gay rights groups in Brazil were able to reverse legislation banning gays from the workplace by forming partnerships with progressive businesses. In recent years, the use of social media has provided much of the gay movement's momentum by enhancing activist groups' ability to communicate and spread information. For instance, as Javier Corrales notes, by simply posting a video of a hate crime in San Juan or of a gay wedding in Argentina on YouTube, gay rights groups have been able to reach thousands of people and garner support.8 These innovative strategies have brought success despite a notably hostile environment towards homosexuals.
Through a comparison with the United States, we can see how remarkable the success of gay rights in Latin America has been. Latin America is marked by a much more homophobic environment than the US, according to a survey conducted by Mitchell Seligson and Daniel Moreno Morales.9 However, although the US has lower levels of societal discrimination towards gays, it is hard to imagine that the United States would completely legalize same-sex civil unions or gay marriage on a national scale. The fact that this legalization occurred in several Latin American nations, despite the formidable opposition there, makes these recent rulings even more significant.
Furthermore, the recent victories for gay rights exemplify the considerable progress toward the region's consolidation of democracy. The three Latin American countries that have now legalized same-sex unions—Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay—were each ruled by repressive military regimes just over two decades ago. Even Colombia, which is one of the region's worst human rights violators, granted same-sex unions equal rights regarding social security benefits and inheritance rights in 2007. The fact that gay liberation movements have been successful in these unlikely places is a testament to how far these countries have progressed in recent years.
Marilia Brocchetto and Luciani Gomes. "Same-sex unions recognized by Brazil's high court." 5 May 2011.
Yana Marull. "Brazil top court recognizes same-sex civil unions." American Free Press. 5 May 2011.
Omar Encarnación. "A Gay Rights Revolution in Latin America." Americas Quarterly. 17 May 2011.
Javier Corrales. "Latin American Gays: The Post-Left Leftists." Americas Quarterly. 19 March 2010.
Mitchell A. Seligson and Daniel E. Moreno Morales, "Gay in the Americas," Americas Quarterly, Winter 2010. | <urn:uuid:a2a8e629-d460-463d-a849-ddef86c77c38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1281&Itemid=228 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945603 | 1,219 | 3.5 | 4 |
By Elliot Mamet
On June 23rd, 1972, President Nixon signed Title IX into law. Nearly 40 years later, the passage of Title IX is viewed as an unequivocal milestone in the struggle to protect, defend and expand civil liberties. As we celebrate Title IX’s 40th birthday, it is worth reflecting on its significance, as well as on the challenges that lie ahead.
Title IX mandates that federally funded institutions may not exclude or discriminate from an educational program or activity on the basis of sex. The law leverages federal funds in order to require equal opportunity for men and women. There are exceptions to Title IX (like sororities or the Boy Scouts), although in general, Title IX has applied quite broadly and unilaterally to different institutions. Through Title IX, the doors have opened a little wider for equal opportunity in the United States.
Title IX shattered the stereotype that women are too “fragile” or “weak” to play sports, but Title IX goes so much further than sports. By prohibiting discrimination based on non-conformity with gender stereotypes, Title IX has been used as an effective tool for defending the civil rights and civil liberties of LGBT students. Additionally, Title IX prohibits discrimination
and harassment based on students’ gender identity, change of sex, and/or transgender status.
Yet even with these successes, enforcing Title IX still has its challenges. One important concern for policymakers is applying Title IX in a way that is conscious of the diversity of gender expression. In a society where gender and sexual orientation mean different things to different people, self-identifying as the normative “male” or “female” can be difficult
. A sound approach to Title IX regulation would prioritize meeting the needs of participants in a particular sport or program. Federally funded institutions should allow students to participate in programs and sports based on the gender with which they identify, in a way that is conscious to individual needs. In this way, programs and activities could act as a safe space where program leaders are more sensitive to the diversity of gender expression.
Looking back at the past 40 years under Title IX, it is clear that Title IX has grown to reflect a fundamental mindset—that human institutions, whether the soccer team or a PhD program—shouldn’t shut out certain categories of people a priori
. If the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation mean anything at all to us today, surely they must be interpreted as another step on our quest to “make declarations of freedom real
,” as Martin Luther King Jr. said. And surely, in its own way, Title IX reflects that quest. It is today, nearly 40 years after Title IX was passed into law, that Title IX’s lessons must be heeded with the utmost resolve.
Elliot Mamet is the summer Colorado College Public Interest Fellow at the ACLU of Colorado. He is an incoming sophomore at Colorado College, a four-year, private liberal arts school, where he is studying political science. | <urn:uuid:8ac58f4a-a9c0-4ab8-86c9-3289216b4be5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aclu.org/node/35386 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947782 | 622 | 3.25 | 3 |
Jonas Salk, with both eloquence and simplicity, once stated that there are two primary approaches to treating ill people. He said that there are therapeutic techniques that directly impact specific symptoms, and there are methods that stimulate the body's own immune and defense system.
Whereas conventional medical treatments today tend to focus on the former goal of treating or controlling symptoms, various natural therapeutics primarily attend to the latter goal of augmenting the person's own inherent defenses. Although the direct treatment of symptoms often has immediate effects, its benefits tend to be short-term. Because such therapeutic interventions do not usually strengthen the person's own defenses, the individual remains prone to recurrence of their problem.
In contrast, therapeutic methods that strengthen a person's immune and defense system has longer term benefit and can prevent recurrence, but the benefit is sometimes achieved more slowly.
These generalizations about therapeutic methods are, however, just that, generalizations. There are plenty of exceptions, but these generalizations create a useful framework from which to evaluate the benefits and limitations of various therapeutic approaches.
Homeopathy and Immune Response
Homeopathy obviously fits into the class of therapeutic methods that augment the body's own defenses. The basis of homeopathy, called the principle of similars, suggests that a microdose of a substance will heal whatever pattern of symptoms this substances causes in large dose. This principle is also observed in the use of vaccinations and allergy treatments, though homeopathic medicines are both considerably smaller and safer in dose and more individualized to the person they are being used to treat.
Although homeopathic medicines are thought to stimulate the body's own defenses, how they do so remains a mystery. One study published in the European Journal of Pharmacology1 showed that a homeopathic medicine, Silicea, stimulated macrophages (macrophages are a part of the body's immune system which engulf bacteria and foreign substances). How or why Silicea was able to have this action or why exceedingly small doses of it are so active is unknown. In the same way that physicians and pharmacologists do not understand how many drugs work, we do not understand how homeopathic medicine actually work.
Homeopathic medicine do not simply stimulate the body's immune system to treat ill people, for they can also calm it when this is necessary for the healing of the individual. An example of this latter effect was observed in a study of the homeopathic treatment of people with rheumatoid arthritis, a condition which is considered an autoimmune illness. People with auto-immune ailments suffer because their body's immune system is over-active and it attacks the person's own cells, not just bacteria, viruses, or foreign substances.
This study on 46 people with rheumatoid arthritis showed that those given an individualized choice of homeopathic medicine got considerably more relief than those given a placebo.2 A total of 82% of those people given a homeopathic medicine experienced relief of pain, while only 21% of those given a placebo got a similar degree of relief.
Homeopathy and Infectious Diseases
Toward the end of Louis Pasteur's life, he had come to realize that germs may not be the cause of disease afterall, but instead are probably the results of disease. In other words, various bacteria and other infective organisms may be present when there is some type of disease, but infection tends to establish itself primarily when a person's own defenses are compromised sufficiently to make him susceptible to the infection. | <urn:uuid:3f099d2c-0c73-4706-a706-d061df50cc48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.healthy.net/scr/Column.aspx?Id=173 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95151 | 704 | 3.125 | 3 |
Racism can be a tough thing to study. In situations where all things appear even, they might not be even at all. For example, in situations where employers are refusing to hire minority candidates, the argument could sometimes be made (although maybe not successfully) that there are extenuating circumstances. A truly successful study of race should be made in a laboratory of sorts. The only difference between two people should be skin color.
Well, thanks to the internet, the great equalizer, we do have such a situation, eBay. Three Yale and Harvard researchers conducted a study called, “Race Effects on Ebay.” The results? Americans are racist.
Even when selling the exact same items, buyers responded more favorably to white people than to black. From Good Technology:
The researchers auctioned off moderately priced baseball cards, which were photographed held in either a dark black hand or a white hand. Though the cards themselves were the same, cards held in a black hand sold for about 20 percent less than cards held in a white hand. What’s more, “the race effect was more pronounced in sales of minority player cards.”
The eBay study mimics a similar one from 2010. While that experiment, from the Centre for Economic Policy Research, focused on iPods sold via general online classified ads, the results were sadly the same: Black sellers received fewer responses and fewer cash offers than white sellers, and the cash offers they did receive were significantly lower. Beyond that, buyers corresponding with black sellers “exhibited lower trust,” according to the researchers. In other words, they were far less likely to accept delivery by mail (44 percent) and far more likely to object to the idea of making a long-distance payment (56 percent).
The 2010 study also found that there were regional discrepancies. The Northeast part of the U.S. was the worst, where black people received 32% fewer offers. The Midwest had a 23% gap and the South, 15%. There was virtually no difference in the West. | <urn:uuid:8d01d38b-c6a2-4acd-b68d-959f2f18f223> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/10/29/ebay-buying-patterns-show-that-u-s-is-still-a-racist-society/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978892 | 419 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Memory loss (amnesia) is unusual forgetfulness. You may not be able to remember new events, recall one or more memories of the past, or both.
Forgetfulness; Amnesia; Impaired memory; Loss of memory; Amnestic syndrome
Normal aging may cause some forgetfullness. It's normal to have some trouble learning new material, or needing more time to remember it.
However, normal aging does NOT lead to dramatic memory loss. Such memory loss is due to other diseases. Sometimes, memory loss may be seen with depression. It can be hard to tell the difference between memory loss and confusion due to depression.
Some types of memory loss may cause you to forget recent or new events, past or remote events, or both. You may forget memories from a single event, or all events.
Memory loss may cause you to have trouble learning new information or forming new memories.
The memory loss may be temporary (transient), or permanent.
Memory loss can be caused by many different things. To determine a cause, your doctor or nurse will ask if the problem came on suddenly or slowly.
Many areas of the brain help you create and retrieve memories. A problem in any of these areas can lead to memory loss.
Causes of memory loss include:
- Alcohol or use of illicit drugs
- Not enough oxygen to the brain (heart stopped, stopped breathing, complications from anesthesia)
- Brain growths (caused by tumors or infection)
- Brain infections such as Lyme disease, syphilis, or HIV/AIDS
- Brain surgery, such as surgery to treat seizure disorders
- Cancer treatments, such as brain radiation, bone marrow transplant, or after chemotherapy
- Certain medications
- Certain types of seizures
- Depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia when symptoms have not been well controlled
- Dissociative disorder (not being able to remember a major, traumatic event; the memory loss may be short-term or long-term)
- Drugs such as barbiturates or benzodiazepines
- Electroconvulsive therapy (especially if it is long-term)
- Encephalitis of any type (infection, autoimmune disease, chemical/drug induced)
- Epilepsy that is not well controlled with medications
- Head trauma or injury
- Heart bypass surgery
- Illness that results in the loss of, or damage to, nerve cells (neurodegenerative illness), such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, or multiple sclerosis
- Long-term alcohol abuse
- Migraine headache
- Mild head injury or concussion
- Nutritional problems (vitamin deficiencies such as low vitamin B12)
- Permanent damage or injuries to the brain
- Transient global amnesia
- Transient ischemic attack (TIA)
A person with memory loss needs a lot of support. It helps to show them familiar objects, music, or photos.
Write down when the person should take any medication or complete any other important tasks. It is important to write it down.
If a person needs help with everyday tasks, or safety or nutrition is a concern, you may want to consider extended care facilities, such as a nursing home.
What to Expect at Your Office Visit
The doctor or nurse will perform a physical exam and ask questions about the person's medical history and symptoms. This will almost always include asking questions of family members and friends. They should come to the appointment.
Medical history questions may include:
- Can the person remember recent events (is there impaired short-term memory)?
- Can the person remember events from further in the past (is there impaired long-term memory)?
- Is there a loss of memory about events that occurred before a specific experience (anterograde amnesia)?
- Is there a loss of memory about events that occurred soon after a specific experience (retrograde amnesia)?
- Is there only a minimal loss of memory?
- Does the person make up stories to cover gaps in memory (confabulation)?
- Is the person suffering from low moods that impair concentration?
- Time pattern
- Has the memory loss been getting worse over years?
- Has the memory loss been developing over weeks or months?
- Is the memory loss present all the time or are there distinct episodes of amnesia?
- If there are amnesia episodes, how long do they last?
- Aggravating or triggering factors
- Has there been a head injury in the recent past?
- Has the person experienced an event that was emotionally traumatic?
- Has there been a surgery or procedure requiring general anesthesia?
- Does the person use alcohol? How much?
- Does the person use illegal/illicit drugs? How much? What type?
- Other symptoms
- What other symptoms does the person have?
- Is the person confused or disoriented?
- Can they independently eat, dress, and perform similar self-care activities?
- Have they had seizures?
Tests that may be done include:
Cognitive therapy, usually through a speech/language therapist, may be helpful for mild to moderate memory loss.
See: Dementia - homecare for information about taking care of a loved one with dementia.
Kirshner HS. Approaches to intellectual and memory impairments. In: Gradley WG, Daroff RB, Fenichel GM, Jankovic J, eds. Neurology in Clinical Practice. 5th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Butterworth-Heinemann; 2008:chap 6.
Luc Jasmin, MD, PhD, Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, and Department of Anatomy at UCSF, San Francisco, CA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Health Solutions, Ebix, Inc.
The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Call 911 for all medical emergencies. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. © 1997-
A.D.A.M., Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited. | <urn:uuid:7e67ab91-4ead-4cf8-b832-93fd010f1eb8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.glendaleadventist.com/body.cfm?id=8&action=detail&AEArticleID=003257&AEProductID=Adam2004_105&AEProjectTypeIDURL=APT_1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909174 | 1,334 | 3.5625 | 4 |
CentOS uses both font systems and they use different folders: http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/Deployment_Guide-en-US/s1-x-fonts.html
Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses two subsystems to manage and display fonts under X: Fontconfig and xfs.
The newer Fontconfig font subsystem simplifies font management and provides advanced display features, such as anti-aliasing. This system is used automatically for applications programmed using the Qt 3 or GTK+ 2 graphical toolkit.
For compatibility, Red Hat Enterprise Linux includes the original font subsystem, called the core X font subsystem. This system, which is over 15 years old, is based around the X Font Server (xfs).
On CentOS5/Redhat it seems that XFS gets its fonts from the X config file /etc/X11/fs/config which points to /usr/share/X11/fonts, and fontconfig gets its config from /etc/fonts/font.conf which points to /usr/share/fonts. By default neither font system sees the fonts from the other system.
Seems that RH wants to move to fontconfig but still has some things that use XFS. Why they didnt just put all the fonts in 1 folder and pointed everything there so that both font systems had all the same fonts is a mystery. | <urn:uuid:6f6791a1-79ef-4e2b-b0e6-f45e18c2f57b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.linux.com/community/forums/person/47161/limit/6/offset/6/post/15543 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.875899 | 288 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Ears, Nose, and Throat Surgery
One of the most critical areas on the human body is the Ear, Nose and Throat area, commonly called ENT. Many times, obstructions or complications in this area can affect basic health system functions such as breathing, eating and sleeping.
Various surgeries for the ear, nose, and throat are available to improve health and functionality. Airway reconstruction is an option for patients with breathing difficulties such as constriction and noisy breathing, while vocal cord surgery addresses similar problems with sound and articulation.
In many cases, surgeons operate on delicate structures such as minute blood vessels, which requires a level of precision and expertise that our medical staff are skilled at providing. Common procedures in the ENT area can include:
Head and Neck
To find a surgeon at Trinity visit our Physician Finder. | <urn:uuid:2d78b7df-6d64-41d2-b067-f79998c60eeb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.trinityqc.com/Surgery/Medical-Services-Home/Surgery/Types-of-Surgery/Ears,-Nose,-and-Throat | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937383 | 168 | 2.75 | 3 |
Mars is a cold desert world. It is half the diameter of Earth and has the same amount of dry land. Like Earth, Mars has seasons, polar ice caps, volcanoes, canyons and weather, but its atmosphere is too thin for liquid water to exist for long on the surface. There are signs of ancient floods on Mars, but evidence for water now exists mainly in icy soil and thin clouds.
Featured Mission: Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity
Curiosity, a robotic rover about the size of a small SUV, is designed to find whether the Red Planet ever was -- or is still today -- an environment suitable for life. The rover landed on Mars in August 2012.
Read More About Mars | <urn:uuid:44defa22-a2e3-44be-8926-f3b018577505> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Mars&Display=Overview&System=Metric | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945198 | 144 | 3.5625 | 4 |
With the hope of encouraging Pennsylvanians to better understand their personal finances, Governor Tom Corbett has declared April to be “Financial Education Month” in the state.
The administration believes a basic financial education is essential to ensuring that Pennsylvanians of all ages are prepared to manage money, credit, investments, and debt.
Pennsylvania Department of Banking is looking to both celebrate and draw attention to public and private education efforts. “One of our goals is to empower people. In the run up to the economic downturn, we saw a lot of very hardworking people make poor decisions with credit cards, mortgage financing, and home purchases,” said Department of Banking spokesperson Ed Novak.
The governor believes in order for Pennsylvanians to fully recover from the economic slide, they need to be responsible for better educating themselves. “It’s clear to us that as a starting point for getting ourselves out of this economic downturn, Pennsylvanians need to increase their financial literacy to help them navigate what is becoming an increasingly complex financial marketplace,” said Novak. | <urn:uuid:eda6fefc-aed0-466c-a50b-bc0c20ee3d66> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.districtadministration.com/news/april-%E2%80%9Cfinancial-education-month%E2%80%9D-pennsylvania | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967909 | 225 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Emacs Lisp uses two kinds of storage for user-created Lisp objects: normal storage and pure storage. Normal storage is where all the new data created during an Emacs session are kept (see Garbage Collection). Pure storage is used for certain data in the preloaded standard Lisp files—data that should never change during actual use of Emacs.
Pure storage is allocated only while temacs is loading the
standard preloaded Lisp libraries. In the file emacs, it is
marked as read-only (on operating systems that permit this), so that
the memory space can be shared by all the Emacs jobs running on the
machine at once. Pure storage is not expandable; a fixed amount is
allocated when Emacs is compiled, and if that is not sufficient for
the preloaded libraries, temacs allocates dynamic memory for
the part that didn't fit. The resulting image will work, but garbage
collection (see Garbage Collection) is disabled in this situation,
causing a memory leak. Such an overflow normally won't happen unless
you try to preload additional libraries or add features to the
standard ones. Emacs will display a warning about the overflow when
it starts. If this happens, you should increase the compilation
SYSTEM_PURESIZE_EXTRA in the file
src/puresize.h and rebuild Emacs.
This function makes a copy in pure storage of object, and returns it. It copies a string by simply making a new string with the same characters, but without text properties, in pure storage. It recursively copies the contents of vectors and cons cells. It does not make copies of other objects such as symbols, but just returns them unchanged. It signals an error if asked to copy markers.
This function is a no-op except while Emacs is being built and dumped; it is usually called only in preloaded Lisp files.
The value of this variable is the number of bytes of pure storage allocated so far. Typically, in a dumped Emacs, this number is very close to the total amount of pure storage available—if it were not, we would preallocate less.
This variable determines whether
defunshould make a copy of the function definition in pure storage. If it is non-
nil, then the function definition is copied into pure storage.
This flag is
twhile loading all of the basic functions for building Emacs initially (allowing those functions to be shareable and non-collectible). Dumping Emacs as an executable always writes
nilin this variable, regardless of the value it actually has before and after dumping.
You should not change this flag in a running Emacs. | <urn:uuid:ad4d8944-58cc-4258-95c3-8dfbddf1f9bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Pure-Storage.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.903646 | 547 | 2.640625 | 3 |
35 - The Philosopher's Toolkit: Aristotle's Logical Works
Peter discusses Aristotle’s pioneering work in logic, and looks at related issues like the ten categories and the famous “sea battle” argument for determinism.
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• J. Hintikka, Time and Necessity. Studies in Aristotle's Theory of Modality (Oxford:1973).
• W. Leszl, “Aristotle's Logical Works and His Conception of Logic,” Topoi 23 (2004), 71–100.
• R. Smith, "Logic," in J. Barnes (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle (Cambridge: 1995), 27-65.
• S. Waterlow, Passage and Possibility (Oxford: 1982).
On the "sea battle" problem:
• G.E.M. Anscombe, “Aristotle and the Sea Battle,” in J.M.E. Moravcsik (ed.), Aristotle: a Collection of Critical Essays, (1967), reprinted from Mind 65 (1956).
• D. Frede, “The Sea-Battle Reconsidered: a Defence of the Traditional Interpretation,” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 3 (1985).
• J. Hintikka, “The Once and Future Sea Fight: Aristotle’s Discussion of Future Contingents in de Interpretatione 9,” in his Time and Necessity (see above). | <urn:uuid:6b8383d2-2542-4a0c-a4ee-4e03bde3787d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/aristotle-logic | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.782416 | 339 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Find More Accuracy in the Treatment of Brain Tumor by Stereotactic Radiosurgery
Stereotactic radiotherapy (also called stereotaxy) is a type of minimally invasive surgical intervention. It uses radiation treatment to deliver a large and precise radiation dose to the tumor area in a single session. This type of surgery applies a three-dimensional coordinates system to locate small targets inside the body. With the help of gamma knife, radiation beams are focused at the tumor from various angles for a short period of time. Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) can be performed by several other machines such as X-Knife, CyberKnife and Clinac. It is used to treat brain tumors and other brain disorders that are difficult to be treated by regular surgery.
This type of surgery works under three main components. The first one is stereotactic planning system; it includes multimodality image matching tools. The stereotactic atlas is a series of cross sections of anatomical structure. In most atlases, the three dimensions are as latero-lateral (x), dorso-ventral (y) and rostro-caudal (z). Another one is a stereotactic device or apparatus which uses a set of three coordinates (x, y and z). And the last one is stereotactic localization and placement procedure. This therapy works in the same way as other forms of radiation treatment. Instead of removing the tumor, stereotactic radiotherapy damages the DNA of tumor cells. In this way malignant and metastatic tumors may shrink more rapidly.
Stereotactic radiosurgery can effectively treat different types of tumors including benign, malignant, primary, metastatic, single and multiple. A study in 2008 by The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center revealed that SRS and Whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT) for the treatment of metastatic brain tumors have more that twice the risk of developing leaning and memory problems than treated with SRS alone. | <urn:uuid:99506c92-9c1f-4600-bc5f-986a02cd0bc7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.radiology-info.org/stereotactic-radiosurgery.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916587 | 415 | 3.25 | 3 |
NOLAN, MATTHEW (1834–1864). Matthew Nolan, Mexican War veteran, Texas Ranger, Nueces County sheriff, and Confederate cavalry officer, was born in 1834 in Providence, Rhode Island. He was the son of Irish immigrants. Some sources claim he was born in New York. His parents died when he and his older sister Mary and younger brother Tom were children, leaving them on their own. Mary married a soldier and enlisted her brothers as buglers in Zachary Taylor's Second Dragoons. She became a laundress so that she could travel with her husband and brothers to Texas on the eve of the Mexican War. They settled in Corpus Christi until Taylor moved his army to the Rio Grande valley at the beginning of the war. By this time Mary was working as a hospital matron. Matthew and Tom Nolan were at the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma and traveled with the army until the end of the war in 1848 and then returned to Corpus Christi.
In 1850 Nolan joined John S. "Rip" Ford's Texas Ranger unit as a bugler where he distinguished himself in a May 26, 1850, skirmish with Comanche Indians near Fort Merrill. In Ford's memoirs he wrote that Nolan "rushed barefoot through prickly pear to get a shot at the retreating foe." Nolan stayed with Rip Ford and the Texas Rangers during the 1850s and fought minor territorial battles throughout Texas. In 1858 Nolan was elected sheriff of Nueces County, and he named his brother Tom a deputy sheriff.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Nolan raised a company of volunteers from Corpus Christi and joined the Second Texas Cavalry. He fought along the Mexican border with his former commander Ford. He returned to Corpus Christi to marry Margaret J. McMahon on May 22, 1862. Nolan rejoined his regiment to take part in the January 1, 1863, recapture of Galveston Island. His actions in the battle of Galveston led to his promotion to major.
Later in 1863 Nolan was sent back to a volatile Corpus Christi to help keep the peace in South Texas and monitor the coast. Corpus Christi was equally divided between Northern and Southerner sympathizers. Ford employed Nolan to keep watch on Cecilio Balerio, Union sympathizer and rancher. With Ford's blessing, Nolan was reelected to county sheriff on August 1, 1864. His job was to arrest, "perfidious renegades." One of these "renegades," former sheriff H. W. Barry, was a Mexican War veteran who was providing cotton to Union ships in the Gulf of Mexico. Nolan reported to Ford that he had seen Barry in action. By December 1864 Corpus Christi was suffering the effects of war, and tensions ran high. On the night of December 22, 1864, Nolan and horse trader J. C. McDonald met outside of the Nolan home, and while they talked, two of Barry's stepsons, Frank and Charles Gravis, appeared and started an argument with Nolan. In the commotion that ensued, one of the Gravis brothers shot and fatally wounded Nolan. Other sources claim that Nolan was in the process of arresting McDonald, and the two brothers, intending to kill McDonald for seducing their sister, accidentally shot Nolan instead.
Matthew Nolan is buried next to his brother Tom in the Old Bayview Cemetery in Corpus Christi.
Murphy Givens, "Corpus Christi History: The Nolans arrive in Corpus Christi," Corpus Christi Caller–Times, August 23, 2000 (http://www.caller2.com/2000/august/23/today/murphy_g/2672.html), accessed March 23, 2011.
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.Stephanie P. Niemeyer, "NOLAN, MATTHEW," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fno33), accessed May 22, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. | <urn:uuid:78d9df1b-e7b0-4b26-b832-9d489e864851> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fno33 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974396 | 855 | 2.71875 | 3 |
scintillation counterArticle Free Pass
scintillation counter, radiation detector that is triggered by a flash of light (or scintillation) produced when ionizing radiation traverses certain solid or liquid substances (phosphors), among which are thallium-activated sodium iodide, zinc sulfide, and organic compounds such as anthracene incorporated into solid plastics or liquid solvents. The light flashes are converted into electric pulses by a photoelectric alloy of cesium and antimony, amplified about a million times by a photomultiplier tube, and finally counted. Sensitive to X rays, gamma rays, and charged particles, scintillation counters permit high-speed counting of particles and measurement of the energy of incident radiation.
What made you want to look up "scintillation counter"? Please share what surprised you most... | <urn:uuid:6be9a152-1f49-45d9-a567-ae82a6556749> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/529005/scintillation-counter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908811 | 173 | 3.71875 | 4 |
Learning how to read coherently and write effectively teaches you to think critically, increases your vocabulary, and improves your language and research skills. No matter what field you enter, communication and writing skills are important and highly sought after by employers. Maranatha’s English major will expose you to enduring literary works and teach you to write more effectively, whether you write sermons, correspondence, books, magazine articles, or other forms of communication. Because of its emphasis on critical thinking and writing, English is also one of the best ways to prepare for graduate school.
Unlike secular English programs that promote relativistic theory about language, Maranatha’s English major teaches students to “approve things that are excellent” (Phil. 1:10) and to evaluate literature from a moral and biblical perspective. The English major will not only immerse you in the wide world of literature and awaken your cultural awareness but also equip you to discern objective truth and beauty according to God’s standard.
An English minor is also available for those majoring in another field who want to improve their ability to think, read, and write effectively through an acquaintance with excellent literary works.
This is the suggested class list for the English major. You may also look over the details for our English Education major.
|English Composition 1||3||English Composition 2||3|
|Computer Information System Elective||1||Computer Information System Elective||2|
|Christian Life 1||1||New Testament Survey||2|
|Old Testament Survey||2||Minor||3|
|Fundamentals of Public Speaking||2||Music Elective||2|
|The Modern World||3||Science Elective||3|
|British Literature Survey to 1789||3||British Literature Survey: 1789 to Present||3|
|Composition and Literature||3||American Masterpieces||3|
|Elementary Spanish 1||3||Elementary Spanish 2||3|
|Computer Information System Elective||1||Baptist Heritage||3|
|Christian Life 2||1||Bible Elective||2|
|Principles of Bible Study||2||Minor||3|
|Writing Elective||3||Literary Criticism||3|
|Period Literature Elective||3||Computer Information System Elective||1|
|Intermediate Spanish 1||3||Intermediate Spanish 2||3|
|Introduction to Philosophy||2||Bible Doctrine 1||3|
|Christian Life 3||1||Minor||3|
|Minor||3||American Studies Elective||3|
|Period Literature Elective||3||Period Literature Elective||3|
|Writing Elective||3||Writing or Period Literature Elective||3|
|Bible Doctrine 2||3||English Elective||3|
|Humanities Elective||3||Humanities Elective||3|
- Copy editor
- Creative writer
- English as a Second Language teacher
- Linguistic specialist
- Literacy tutor
- Literature specialist
Chelsie (Czichray) Messenger (’08) is enrolled in the Professional Communications program at Clemson University and hopes to someday work in business communications or public relations. She previously taught English at Easley Christian School in Easley, SC. “My academic advisor, Nathan Huffstutler, helped me sort out my future career goals and helped me develop my love of technical writing,” Messenger said. | <urn:uuid:cd792278-d518-4e4a-831b-d3adbc686d5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mbbc.edu/academics/majors/english/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.837959 | 729 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Dry, flaky skin, also referred to as xerosis, not only looks unattractive, it can be uncomfortably tight and itchy. In severe cases, the skin is so dry that fissures and cracks develop which can become inflamed or infected. The symptoms worsen in the winter months when skin is exposed to dry air and heat, but some people deal with xerosis all year round.
Dry skin is caused by a lack of moisture in the outer layer of the skin. The outermost layer of the skin contains lipids. These lipids consist of ceramides, fatty acids and cholesterol that help to hold in water and prevent dryness. People with dry skin often have lower levels of ceramides. This affects the skin’s ability to retain moisture. When the outer layer of skin is too dry, skin cells aren’t shed properly and the cells build up on the surface of the skin causing it to look rough and flaky.
Some people are prone towards dry skin genetically, but lifestyle habits play a role too. Ceramides that keep skin moist and supple can be stripped away by using harsh cleansers and detergents, washing skin in hot water, exposing skin to chemicals, frequent bathing and exposure to dry air or extremes in temperature. Areas with the fewest oil glands such as the extremities and trunk are most susceptible.
It’s important to reduce your skin’s exposure to elements that damage the lipid layer and remove moisture from the skin. Some people live in homes with a low humidity. Adding a home humidifier to increase moisture in the air is a simple way to sooth dry, irritated skin. Staying covered up outdoors in the winter helps too.
Another problem that aggravates xerosis is excessive exposure to water, especially hot water. Dry skin was less common years ago when people didn’t have the convenience of taking a shower every day. Using harsh cleansers and bath products including soap also worsen the problem by stripping away the lipids and oils that keep skin moist. A better alternative is to use a soap-free cleanser which contains ingredients that remove dirt while helping to repair the protective lipid barrier. Keep baths short, and use warm, not hot, water. A brief shower is a better alternative.
After cleansing, it’s important to moisturize. Pat skin dry and immediately apply a layer of moisturizer while skin is still slightly damp. Choose one that contains ingredients known to be effective for dry skin such as hyaluronic acid, glycerin, alpha-hydroxy acids or urea. Alpha-hydroxy acids have the additional advantage of smoothing the skin surface and improving its texture so it reflects light better, making skin look more youthful. Stay away from lanolin and fragrance which can irritate the skin.
A lotion works well for xerosis on the body, but creams are better for treating facial dryness. Select a product which contains hyaluronic acid and glycerin along with other moisturizers such as shea butter and safflower seed oil to retain moisture. Using a combination of moisturizers also helps to smooth out the appearance of fine lines and makes skin feel supple and silky.
Dry skin is more than just a cosmetic problem. It can make skin feel itchy and uncomfortable. Fortunately, it can be treated by making a few lifestyle changes and using the right skin care products. | <urn:uuid:9a67df01-912f-47fb-840c-a18cd3caa1a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.skinstore.com/dry-skin.aspx?avs=Gifts%7CShips+Free&avs=Skin+Type%7CDry | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938136 | 710 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Gonorrhoea - the drugs don't work
Published: 23rd Dec 2011 08:41:37
The prospect of untreatable gonorrhoea has provoked alarm around the world, and there are no new classes of antibiotics in development.
In this week's Scrubbing Up column, Peter Greenhouse of the British Association for Sexual Health & HIV (BASHH) argues financial incentives will be needed to seek a new cure.
We're all familiar with stories about hospital-acquired superbugs - MRSA and the like - becoming more difficult to treat, and are fearful whenever an elderly relative needs in-patient care.
But now, with a report from Japan of multidrug-resistant gonorrhoea, and the festive season in full swing, the spectre of an untreatable sexually transmitted infection looms over us - and our teenagers - for the first time in a generation.
Since penicillin was first used to treat gonorrhoea in 1943, the organism has gradually developed novel means of evading control by each new antibiotic.
For treatment to be effective and practical, it must be simple to administer by mouth as a single dose, achieving a high enough concentration of the drug in the body to treat over 95% of infections.
If the efficacy drops below this figure, the treatment has to change.
But over-the-counter medication, widely available in Africa and Asia means people self-medicate often taking the wrong dose at the wrong time, perhaps with alcohol which further reduces the concentration of the drug.
Strains of gonorrhoea which need a higher concentration of a drug to kill them become the dominant ones. This keeps happening until the drug no longer works.
If gonorrhoea becomes untreatable in these countries, the effect on increasing HIV rates could be disastrous - because any sexually transmitted infection which causes inflammation and discharge increases the transmission efficiency of HIV.
On average, transmission is five times more likely to occur if gonorrhoea or chlamydia are present
In the UK, the situation is monitored annually by the Health Protection Agency, providing an essential early warning of drugs which are about to fail, allowing a switch of treatment regimes before they become ineffective.
There's a desperate world-wide demand for new antibiotics, yet the drug companies aren't interested”
Ciprofloxacin - a drug introduced in the mid-1980s after the failure of penicillin - lasted in the UK until 2002: This may have survived longer because of the world-wide drop in gonorrhoea rates following the arrival of HIV, when fear of the new virus meant people practised safe-sex and changed partners less.
But it had already failed in the Far East, some four years previously.
Resistance develops faster in homosexual men, not just because of high rates of partner change.
Most people don't realise that oral sex is an important route of transmission for gonorrhoea, which doesn't usually cause a sore throat.
Gonorrhoea mixes with organisms which live naturally in the rectum and throat, picking up new types of antibiotic resistance from these bugs.
The next drug, cefixime, was introduced around 2003, but lasted only six years in the UK before resistance rose suddenly, hitting 25% among homosexual men.
Now, their only treatment option is an injection (Ceftriaxone) which has recently failed in Japan.
But why isn't there a new drug in development?
Since the mid-1980s and the arrival of HIV, almost all drug company research has focused on antiviral medicines, with no new classes of antibiotics being produced since the 1970s, and none on the horizon.
There's a desperate world-wide demand for new antibiotics, yet the drug companies aren't interested, so how could we motivate them?
Financial reality dictates research policy: Why bother to develop a drug which works in one day or one week, when you could make one - such as an antidepressant, statin or antiviral - which must be taken for months, for years, or for life?
So either the new drug(s) would have to be seriously expensive, precluding their use where they would be most needed, or there would have to be a substantial reward offered, perhaps of a magnitude only affordable by a fund such as the Gates Foundation.
Yet even if novel drugs could be produced, the biology and transmission dynamics of gonorrhoea mean that each new regime would probably fail within five-to-ten years of its introduction, unless we use multi-dose, multi-drug regimes, which will be less practical and more expensive to administer.
Faced with this, what can we do to stay sexually healthy? Stay at home, or take your partner to the New Year party: If that's not possible, use condoms - meticulously, and visit your local clinic - frequently.
Harvard CitationBBC News, 2011. Gonorrhoea - the drugs don't work. [Online] (Updated 23 Dec 2011)
Available at: http://www.ukwirednews.com/news.php/212819-Gonorrhoea-the-drugs-dont-work [Accessed 14th May 2013]
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With the doors to its brand new £1million training centre officially open, one of the UK's leading apprentice training providers, Bristol ba... | <urn:uuid:fe523499-838c-400f-bae6-9c2bb3623a4d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ukwirednews.com/news.php/212819-Gonorrhoea-the-drugs-dont-work | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953702 | 1,579 | 2.625 | 3 |
2011 State Poverty Data Underscore the Need to Protect Programs for Low-Income Women
New data from the Census was just released, and NWLC’s calculations show that many women and their families around the country are still struggling in the wake of the great recession. Though poverty stabilized between 2010 and 2011, protecting low income programs remains absolutely critical for women.
In 2011, more than one in five women was poor in Mississippi (22.3 percent) and Louisiana (20.6 percent). Only one state, New Hampshire, had a poverty rate of less than ten percent for women, at 8.9 percent. In the other 47 states and the District of Columbia, between 10 and 20 percent of women lived below the poverty line.
In 2011, more than half of female-headed families with children were poor in Kentucky (51.3 percent), Louisiana (50.3 percent), Mississippi (51.8 percent), and West Virginia (51.6 percent). In eight more states (AL, AR, ID, MI, NM, OH, SC, and TN), their poverty rates were 45 percent and above.
What about women of color? In eleven states, about a third or more of black women were poor (IA, IN, LA, ME, MI, MN, MS, SD, WI, WV, and, VT). Roughly a third of Hispanic women were poor in six states (IN, MS, NC, PA, RI, TN).
Yet again, these numbers underscore the importance of federal and state programs for low-income people. We’ve talked about this before, but with poverty rates at record highs, programs like Social Security, Medicare, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly food stamps), and the Earned Income Tax Credit, among others, are essential for keeping millions of women and families above the poverty line. We know that women disproportionately rely on these programs, making the message from the state poverty data clear: Programs for low-income families and individuals must be protected. We sincerely hope Congress is taking note.
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Join the New Reproductive Health Campaign
Go to ThisIsPersonal.org to get the facts and tools you need to help protect women's reproductive health. | <urn:uuid:bdeb2041-c205-41ff-9b83-25f9ab6f731e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nwlc.org/our-blog/2011-state-poverty-data-underscore-need-protect-programs-low-income-women | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958876 | 457 | 2.734375 | 3 |
The Founding Fathers, as a group, were a band of very wise men. Perhaps the wisest was Benjamin Franklin, a rare combination of genius and solid common sense. He also had that attribute of truly wise people: the sense to hide his intellect to some extent behind a fog of good humor. How fortunate for America that throughout his life he placed his intellect at the service of his country, a country he understood at an early date embraced all of the colonies in British America.
At the end of his life his final great service to America was at the Constitutional Convention where his calming words helped bring disputing factions together to achieve the task of hammering a document together that has endured through the centuries. Many of the delegates noted the importance of Doctor Franklin in the process of bringing the Constitution to life. One of the delegates, Dr. James McHenry of Maryland, a surgeon who had served as an aide to General Washington during the Revolutionary War, recorded that as Franklin was leaving Constitution Hall “A lady asked Dr. (Benjamin) Franklin, “Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” “A republic,” replied the Doctor, “if you can keep it.”
I have always been struck by that answer, because Franklin indicated in it that it is the responsibility of each individual American to keep the nation a Republic, not the responsibility of someone else. Sound advice in 1787, sound advice in 2011. | <urn:uuid:88670e1b-de04-4c1f-bb76-cc5738111c55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://almostchosenpeople.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982454 | 300 | 2.640625 | 3 |
While Americans and others may celebrate Easter only on a Sunday, that occasion is marked in Spain by an entire week of festivities known as Semana Santa, or Holy Week. The Holy Week festivals that take place all over the country are especially marked in Andalucia. Here, the emphasis is less on doleful repentance and more on celebration of the central figures of Christianity.
The central feature of all those activities are the notable processions that take place in every town in the region. The times, participants and style varies considerably from town to town. But almost all have some common themes.
Typically, traffic is closed off to allow for the floats and the hundreds or sometimes even thousands of people that precede or follow them. The festival is marked by religious figures dressed in Church finery carrying candles and directing the parade. Encircled by them is the main focus of the event: the floats.
Every float is a unique and creative construction that contains a figure of Jesus, Mary or an important saint.
A small statue of Saint Rocco, for example, may be held aloft on one platform, displaying his bare leg. He is regarded as a patron of the sick and the hopeful will often toss money onto the float, seeking relief or improvement.
Other floats will depict scenes from the Bible, early Christian stories, or any of a thousand different images that evoke memories of tales passed down through hundreds of generations. There is the Gitano del Polvorín, the Virgen de la Victoria and the Señor de Sevilla, among many more.
The processions, like the stories, are an ongoing tradition that has its origins in the early Middle Ages. As far back as 1,500 years ago the faithful annually walked with the platforms to celebrate the Annunciation, the Sermon on the Mount, the Rising from the Dead and other well-known scenes from the Bible.
For centuries – during the period Spain was ruled by Islamic Moors, Berbers, Arabs and others from North Africa – the festivals were forbidden. Not surprisingly, therefore, after the Reconquest by Christian kings and the re-establishment of Christianity in the country, the festivals started anew. They have been a regular event in Andalucia, with few interruptions, ever since.
But the natives are not the only participants. Church officials from Rome and elsewhere, along with people from around the world merely wanting to take part, celebrate the Holy Week festivals, too.
The celebrations ramp up a notch the final few days before Easter, making that an especially good time to visit in order to see or participate in Semana Santa. Musicians will play and sing as others carry banners, followed by Nazarenos dressed in tunics and masks.
Whether taking place in Cadiz or Cordoba, or any of the other dozens of cities large and small in Andalucia, the scene is similar. At the end of the procession, which often takes place from dusk to the following dawn, the float enters its individual sponsoring church and a hush comes over the crowd, signifying the culmination of Semana Santa. | <urn:uuid:813e175f-0f5b-4a67-96b8-31e7a3d4464d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cheapholidaysinspain.net/semana-santa-in-andalucia/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952686 | 633 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Objective: To determine the prevalence of infant exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) among infants attending child health clinics in regional NSW; the association between such exposure and household smoking behaviours; and the factors associated with smoking restrictions in households with infants. Methods: Parents completed a computer-based questionnaire and infant urine samples were collected. Information was obtained regarding the smoking behaviours of household members and samples were analysed for cotinine. Results: Twenty seven per cent of infants had detectable levels of cotinine. Infant ETS exposure was significantly associated with the smoking status of household members, absence of complete smoking bans in smoking households and having more than one smoker in the home. Smoking households were significantly less likely to have a complete smoking ban in place. Conclusions: This study suggests that a significant proportion of the population group most vulnerable to ETS were exposed. Implications: Future efforts to reduce children's exposure to ETS need to target cessation by smoking parents, and smoking bans in households of infants where parents are smokers if desired reductions in childhood ETS-related illness are to be realised.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health Vol. 34, Issue 3, p. 269-273 | <urn:uuid:c07b90c1-949d-4495-91c8-adae174d369c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nova.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/uon:10801?exact=creator%3A%22Daly%2C+Justine+B.%22&f0=creator%3A%22Freund%2C+Megan%22 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972855 | 239 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Did You Know... The Facts About HPV?
The Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Last Modified: January 13, 2008
- HPV is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the world.
- By age 50, about 80% of women have been infected by some type of HPV.
- Most HPV infections do not cause any symptoms, therefore people are unaware that they are infected.
- 70-80% of HPV infections resolve spontaneously because our immune system fights them off.
- HPV is found in 99% of cervical cancers.
- There are 100 strains of HPV, 12 or more are classified as “high risk” and are linked to cancer.
- Most women with HPV do NOT develop cervical cancer.
- About 20% of women infected with HPV will develop chronic infection, and 2% of these will develop cervical cancer.
- Two strains of HPV are responsible for causing genital warts.
- Sexual intercourse is not necessary for transmission of HPV; skin to skin genital/genital, genital/anal and possibly genital/oral contact is sufficient for transmission.
- Use of condoms can reduce the risk of transmission, but it cannot prevent all transmission because some genital tissue remains uncovered.
- HPV is the cause of many high and moderate grade abnormal pap smears (CIN 2/3) and some low grade lesions (CIN 1).
- HPV is estimated to cause:
- 70% of anal cancers
- 50% of vaginal and vulvar cancers
- 50% of penile cancers
- 20% of head and neck cancers
- Researchers are looking at vaccinating men as well as women. | <urn:uuid:6fb9d395-c8c3-4011-ba0a-f68f81445448> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oncolink.org/types/article1.cfm?id=9594&c=185 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935549 | 342 | 3.21875 | 3 |
SAINT ALEXANDER NEVSKY
Alexander Nevsky (1220-1263) was proclaimed Saint of the Russian Orthodox Church by Metropolite Macarius in 1547
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Alexander Nevsky (1220-1263)
The life of a saint is always a mystery both for contemporaries and for descendants. Only our Lord and Savoir Jesus Christ can evaluate in full measure all the troubles and accomplishments of his hermit. The life of a saint, although it belongs to the church on our sinful earth, serves as an expression of the will of the Church in Heaven. We recall the saints in the most difficult minutes of our life, when it seemed there is no way out. And that is when God sends us his hermit. This happened to our Russian land more than once.
“In the year 1237,” runs the chronicle, “Batu Khan, cruel and godless, came to the Russian land and there were many Tartars with him. Batu Khan’s army was so big that one Russian had to fight against a thousand Tartars, and two – against a legion. There had never been a battle like that and there were no survivors.
Almost all Russia, except its Northern areas, languished under the Tartar-Mongol yoke for nearly 300 years.
Having conquered the Russian land, the Tartars went down the Volga River where they founded their kingdom – the “Golden Horde”. The town of Sarai was its capital.
Fortunately, the Tartars, though they imposed a heavy tax on Russia, left untouched the Russian Orthodox Church – the guarantee of the future liberation of Russia.
Alexander’s father, Grand Prince Yaroslav, undertook to take care of the devastated Russian land.
The Tartars and Mongols were not the only enemies Russia had to face at the time. Germans and Swedes threatened it from the West. Prince Alexander was 20 years old when he clashed with them for the first time.
Be that time Grand Prince Yaroslav, Alexander’s father, made him Prince of Novgorod. Taught martial arts since early childhood, Alexander was a skilled warrior. He was a man of military bearing and rare beauty. A contemporary wrote about him:
“I traveled about many countries and saw many celebrities, but never did I meet a prince or king equal to Prince Alexander.”
Prince Alexander was a wise and just ruler, and had good manners which made him very popular and highly respected. A contemporary of his wrote:
“He treated priests and monks with love and respect; he was considerate to the poor. And as for metropolitans and bishops, Prince Alexander honored them as he honored Jesus Christ.”
Prince Alexander’s subjects used to say: “Our Prince is sinless.”
In 1240 Prince Birger of Sweden sent his messengers to Prince Alexander with the following address.
“Hey, Prince Alexander! You may resist if you can. But remember that I am already here ready to conquer your land.”
For a long time Prince Alexander prayed in the St. Sofia Cathedral of Novgorod. He recalled the words of Jesus Christ: “No love is greater than the love of a man who gives life for his friends”. When he left the church, he addressed the army in these words:
“God is not force, God is truth.”
Prince Alexander entrusted his hopes to the Holy Trinity and made up his mind to fight.
The two armies met on the banks of the Neva River. One was the army of the proud invader, the other – of the Russian combatants. Our Lord helped his hermit — Prince Alexander. The legend has it that a soldier named Philip had a miraculous vision on the eve of the battle. He was on patrol on the Neva River. At dawn he saw a boat with martyr princes Boris and Gleb, ancestors of Prince Alexander, in full combat gear. Suddenly Philip heard a voice from the boat:
“Gleb, brother of mine! Hurry up, we must help our relative, Grand Prince Alexander.”
And the vision disappeared…
Encouraged by the miraculous vision, Alexander rushed his men to the scene and gave the battle on the banks of the Neva.
The battle was great, says the chronicle, and many people were killed, both Russians and Latins, and Prince Alexander left a scar on the face of their leader with a lance.
At this point I must explain that in medieval Russia all intruders from the West were called Latins.
After the glorious victory in the battle of the Neva Prince Alexander was awarded the honorary title Alexander Nevsky or Alexander of the Neva.
Birger and his warriors were defeated. But another threat to Russia already loomed in the West. The German crusaders (or Teutonic knights) conquered the ancient Russian fortress of Koporye. In 1241 Alexander Nevsky regained it, but in a year the Teutonic knights were back. They also seized the ancient Russian towns Pskov and Izborsk.
By the winter of 1242 Prince Alexander had gathered an army to defend Russia from the German crusaders. And on April 5th Russian warriors and Teutonic knights met in a merciless battle on the ice of Lake Chudskoye, also known as Lake Peipus.
Prince Alexander was praying: God and our Savior Jesus Christ! Help us defend our country, our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters, as many years ago you helped Moses.
Here’s how one chronicler described the battle on Lake Chudskoye:
“Prince Alexander arranged his men in battle formation and moved towards the enemy. Alexander had many brave men, like King David in ancient times. It was a Saturday. The troops clashed when the sun rose. It was a fierce battle. The crackle of breaking spears and the clanging swords sounded as though the ice began to move. The ice couldn’t be seen for blood…
With God’s help the courageous Russian warriors defeated the Teutonic knights. Many knights drowned, others were taken prisoner, and only few of them escaped.
The contemporaries rejoiced over the victory in what would later be called “The Battle on the Ice”.
Entrance of Alexander Nevsky at Pskov after the Battle on the Ice. Artist: Valentin Serov
Having preserved Russian land in the West, the Grand Prince Alexander clearly realized he ought to maintain peace with the Tartars, the “Golden Horde”. Weak and devastated, Russia was in no position to fight again.
The Tartar yoke was a heavy burden on the Russian people. Before he could become a real ruler of his domain any Russian prince had to go to the “Golden Horde” where, after a long and humiliating procedure he might (or might not) get the so called “Yarlyk” – a license to rule. For many Russian princes, landlords and warriors the way to the “Golden Horde” was the last.
Alexander Nevsky too, went to see Batu Khan, the king of the Tartars. Batu Khan was amazed to see him; he told his nobles: “It’s true what they said, that there’s no one like him.” He paid the prince all due honors and let him go safely.
Alexander Nevsky had to go to Sarai, the capital of the “Golden Horde” on three occasions. And every time he was not sure he would return. But he never lost heart, for he was sure that God would not leave him.
In the “Golden Horde” Prince Alexander always remembered he was not only a prince but also a Christian. He told pagans and Muslims about the Christian faith, about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and about the Holy Trinity. That was the beginning of Christianization of oriental peoples. Thousands of them turned their souls to Jesus Christ. Owing to the efforts of Alexander Nevsky the Russian Orthodox episcopate was established in Sarai in 1261.
In 1252 Alexander Nevsky became the absolute ruler of the Russian land. His responsibilities were enormous. He managed to protect southern, eastern and western boundaries of Russia firmly enough. His wise rule breathed a new life into Russia after the Tartar invasion. Churches, monasteries and towns were built all over the country.
Unfortunately, Prince Alexander’s farsighted policy was sometimes disapproved of by his fellow countrymen. In 1261 many Russian towns rose in revolt. The Tartar envoys who had come to collect tribute were killed. People waited for revenge with horror. Prince Alexander had to go to the Tartar capital again in order to ward off devastating raids against Russia. An excellent diplomat, the prince saved Russia and coped with his duty to God and the country.
However years of wars and the affairs of the state undermined Alexander Nevsky’s health. Upon his return from Sarai the Grand Prince fell ill and died in a small monastery of St. Feodor in the town of Gorodets, not far from the ancient city of Vladimir, on November 14, 1263. Just before his death Alexander, in keeping with the ancient Russian tradition, took monastic vows and was named Alexi.
The death of Alexander Nevsky in 1263. Artist: M. V. Nesterov
“Brethren! The sun has set over Russian land! Our Grand Prince Alexander has passes away. No one like him will be found in Russian land.”
And there was so much weeping and groaning as had never been heard before; the land trembled.
Nine days people carried Grand Prince Alexander’s body to the city of Vladimir where the burial service took place in the St. Vladimir Cathedral on November 23. During that service a miracle happened. When a priest about to pull a scroll with the last prayer in the late prince’s hand approached the body, the dead prince stretched out his hand, took the prayer and crossed his hands on his chest again. This episode caused awe and terror in the crowd present…
In 120 years, shortly before a great battle with the Tartars, a monk at the church where the Grand Prince Alexander’s body was buried saw a vision during the night praying.
The candles in front of Prince Alexander’s tomb suddenly lit up and two elders came up to the tomb and said: “Arise, our prince! Hurry to help your relative, Prince Dmitry!” And the saint prince arose and became invisible. After that vision the saint’s tomb was opened and the relics found undecayed. Many sick people who came close to them are said to have been healed.
The Russian Orthodox Church canonized Grand Prince Alexander.
1724 was the time of sweeping and rapid reforms of the Russian emperor Peter the Great. Those were the times of great changes in all spheres of life: spiritual, political, economic. The Emperor and the Holy Synod began to play the leading role in the Russian Church, whereas before the Patriarch was the most important figure. The Emperor and the Holy Synod decided that the relics of Alexander Nevsky be transferred to St. Petersburg, to the monastery built in his honor. On August 30 the capital of the Russian Empire welcomed the boat carrying the holy relics. Peter the Great piloted the boat himself; senior officials assisted him as sailors. A festive religious service for the Grand Prince took place at the monastery of his name. The commemoration of St. Alexander took place shortly after Russia’s victory in the Northern war of 1700-1721 against Sweden.
Almost for 200 years the relics of St. Alexander were kept in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. After the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 the relics were taken away and put on display at a museum of atheism. As for the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, it was closed down. Alexander Nevsky remained a saint most revered by the Russian people. People named in his honor are too numerous to count.
In 1990 the relics of Saint Alexander Nevsky were returned to the Russian Orthodox Church to take their place in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg to the joy of all Russian believers. And we know that owing to St. Alexander’s prayers, our Russian land will be revived and stand firm forever…
Watercolour of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg
7 December, 2012 | <urn:uuid:2480913d-15e6-40fb-bd2f-6aef45cf4cc6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.angelfire.com/pa/ImperialRussian/news/512news.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973254 | 2,727 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Definition of Amylo-
Amylo-: (Amyl- before a vowel.) A prefix pertaining to starch. From the Greek amylon, meaning starch.
Last Editorial Review: 6/14/2012
Back to MedTerms online medical dictionary A-Z List
Need help identifying pills and medications?
Get the latest health and medical information delivered direct to your inbox FREE! | <urn:uuid:36c3d67b-2ea0-4059-b2a7-9dfe7f8391e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=38325 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.723293 | 80 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Many conditions during pregnancy or labor can make a C-section necessary, including:
Prolonged or ineffective labor
Placenta issues if the placenta is positioned abnormally low in the cervix (placenta previa), it can block the birth canal.
The placenta can also suddenly separate from the uterus (placenta abruptia), causing the mother to hemorrhage and the baby to have an abnormal heart rate.
Disproportion or multiple births: if the baby’s head is too large for the birth canal, or if there is more than one baby to deliver, a C-section may be safer than a vaginal delivery.
Abnormal presentation: if the baby’s position in the womb is abnormal, it may be safer to deliver via a C-section.
Prolapsed cord: if the umbilical cord cord comes before the baby through the vagina, it can strangle the baby during a vaginal delivery.
Fetal distress or medical problems: if the mother has diabetes, genital herpes, hypertension, cardiac disease, toxemia, or ovarian or uterine cysts, vaginal delivery may be hazardous for both mother and child.
If a C-section may be necessary for you, it is important to plan ahead and know what risks may be involved. Learn more about potential C-section risks . | <urn:uuid:78507a5a-ee15-4d6b-ad54-97268b6b77ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pelvichealthsolutions.com/print/133 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.867079 | 279 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Some of school going kids uses Electricity and Magnetism related science projects Experiments in there school’s science fair. children’s always trying to know that what is a magnet or something about electricity.
Someone can make electricity and Magnetism Science Fair Projects Using Batteries, Balloons etc. these Electricity and Magnetism Physics Projects are so interesting and Hair Raising.
Electricity and magnetism, electromagnetic waves and Magnetism are most used in these Physics Projects of school. here we have video to know more about Electricity and Magnetism Physics Projects Experiments. | <urn:uuid:060c7c0a-7914-4268-ba4d-692994040b5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scienceprojects.in/electricity-and-magnetism-physics-projects-experiments.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90903 | 116 | 3.21875 | 3 |
About this site
The main goal of Across Cultures is to celebrate Canadian cultural diversity by highlighting the extraordinary contributions that different communities have made to Canada, as well as the many challenges they have had to face, while acknowledging the less praiseworthy moments in Canadian history regarding cultural diversity. The site is also intended as a tribute to filmmakers from various cultural and ethnic communities who have made it their work to show the Canadian population the great richness of their cultures. Lastly, the site is designed to help teachers present the issues around Canadian multiculturalism in a dynamic and inviting way that also matches the goals of their academic programs.
Films and film clips
The site features 120 films from the NFB collection (60 in English; 60 in French in the French part). Of those, 48 (24 in English; 24 in French in the French part) include an audio description for the blind and visually impaired; and 49 films (27 in English; 22 in French in the French part) are available with closed-captioning. Users will also find 164 film clips (80 in English; 84 in French in the French part).
These 120 films are only a fraction of NFB productions on Canada’s ethnic and cultural communities; however, they are representative of communities from all over the country, and altogether more than 60 years of film production are covered. The selection does not include films on Aboriginal peoples, since another site – Aboriginal Perspectives – is devoted entirely to them.
Some people may be surprised at the omission of well known works from our list. They are absent because we were unable to obtain online broadcast rights for all the films we might have wanted to include and because the project, which is supported by the Canadian Memory Fund, had to leave aside some newer works to give pride of place to those of high heritage value.
How the site is organized
The Across Cultures Web site is divided into five sections: Themes to Explore; Cinema and Representation; Points of View; See Everything, Hear Everything; and For Teachers. The Themes section covers 6 themes formulated as questions. Each theme includes film clips with accompanying questions, original articles and interviews with experts, public opinion polls, archival materials and classroom activities. Cinema and Representation considers the ways in which ethnic and cultural communities have been represented in NFB documentaries. In it, you will find film clips, archival materials, original articles by NFB experts, interviews with filmmakers and a classroom activity. The third section, Points of View, addresses issues of racism, identity and social integration in Canada. It comprises original articles by Canadian experts in the field, film clips and discussions. The See Everything, Hear Everything section gives users access to all the complete films, film clips, archival artefacts and other types of audiovisual content available on the site. Finally, For Teachers offers lesson plans, web links and bibliographic resources. It contains a Glossary of Terms (also available on the Tools menu) to familiarize users with the language of cultural diversity.
Our main focus is on the complete films, but we also include film clips as an easy introduction to each section. The clips allow teachers, students and other users to quickly pinpoint specific content – the issues raised in each theme, expert viewpoints, or aspects of ethnic and cultural representation, for example. Of course, the complete films are always available and easily accessed for viewing.
Clearly, we cannot claim to cover every aspect of diversity, describe every issue, raise every question, or mention the challenges and achievements of every ethnic and cultural community in the country. Across Cultures does, however, provide an excellent introduction to the area for anyone interested in multiculturalism and the issue of cultural diversity in Canada.
We encourage users to visit two other sites our team has built with support from the Canadian Memory Fund, which also deal with issues of cultural diversity: Documentary Lens and Aboriginal Perspectives. | <urn:uuid:62e46120-c5fa-4204-ad44-3599df504842> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www3.nfb.ca/acrosscultures/text.php?txt=abo | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954063 | 793 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Aleja wakes up very early in the morning, as she does every Saturday, to go to the market and buy the groceries for the week. She takes with her the same amount of money she usually does, but to her surprise she can’t even buy half of the things she needs.
At home, Aleja has five small children waiting for her to bring them something to eat. She is a single parent, mother of two sponsored children from Betel Student Center in the city of Oruro. She was abandoned by her husband and left with her children.
The family lives in a very small and dark room where they have three beds, a small table, some chairs and a small, wrecked shelf. Outside of the room, they use a small space covered with old pieces of calamines as their kitchen.
Aleja works washing clothes. She earns around $21 per week, and that is how she supports her family. She uses the money to pay the rent, the water, the electricity, the gas and buy the food and some things her children need for school.
Bolivia is experiencing a food crisis as a consequence of many things. Besides the inflation, there are other variables that are affecting the country.
When we have the “typical” unrests, immediately some food is “hidden,” so people speculate, and as a consequence the prices rise. This general rise of prices in basic food has affected everybody, especially those who need it the most.
“It affects my family because I can’t feed my children properly, I can’t provide them everything they need,” says Aleja.
Families have had to reduce the number of meals they have every day, because what they earn and what they have is simply not enough.
When people go to buy what they need for the week, they go back home with half, or less, of the things they were supposed to buy. It seems like money doesn’t have the same value anymore. It seems like money flies out of their hands. It seems like money falls out from holes in their pockets.
Sonia, the Betel Student Center director says,
“Many rather not eat bread anymore. They eat quinua (grain) or other things they bring from their crops. They eat chuño (dried potato) soup. They bring food from the country, like potatoes, chuño, grains, and that way they don’t have to buy things here.
For example, they don’t eat oat, lentils or milk. Things that are good for them, they can’t have because they are too expensive.”
The development centers have also been affected by this situation. Suddenly, the budget they had wasn’t enough, so they had to take some measures that also affected the children. They had to reduce the daily provision they gave the children in order to make the money last for the whole month. Sonia explains,
“We were very sad, because we started to give the children only one plate of food. One day they received soup; the other a dry plate. We also suspended special activities for the children, like field trips. Also in the material for the classes, we stopped buying some things.”
However, not everything is discouraging. Thanks to special funding through the Complementary Intervention Program (CIV), many children who have malnutrition will be helped by receiving extra nourishment at the student center.
This intervention will benefit 80 child development centers in Bolivia. They will work with all of the undernourished registered children, up to 18 years old.
Sonia says that parents are very thankful for this extra support they receive. They were already thankful for the meals, but this extra food can be considered an extra blessing for them.
They are very thankful; they come here and say that here they can have meals and a soft drink. Those are the only three days they can eat. At their home they don’t.
Children don’t miss a day at the center, even though many of them live far away and have to walk around one hour or more to get here.”
The children are very thankful, too. They might not express it with words, but their faces of happiness, when they receive their meals, say it all. | <urn:uuid:37656ef5-b908-4c95-a371-46214e59590e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.compassion.com/holes-in-the-pockets/quote-comment-10992/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98699 | 905 | 2.625 | 3 |
Digital Audio Networking Demystified
The OSI model helps bring order to the chaos of various digital audio network options.
Credit: Randall Fung/Corbis
Networking has been a source of frustration and confusion for pro AV professionals for decades. Fortunately, the International Organization of Standardization, more commonly referred to as ISO, created a framework in the early 1980s called the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model, a seven-layer framework that defines network functions, to help simplify matters.
Providing a common understanding of how to communicate to each layer, the OSI model (Fig. 1) is basically the foundation of what makes data networking work. Although it's not important for AV professionals to know the intricate details of each layer, it is vital to at least have a grasp of the purpose of each layer as well as general knowledge of the common protocols in each one. Let's take a look at the some key points.
The Seven Layers
Starting from the bottom up, the seven layers of the OSI Reference Model are Physical, Data Link, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation, and Application. The Physical layer is just that — the hardware's physical connection that describes its electrical characteristics. The Data Link layer is the logic connection, defining the type of network. For example, the Data Link layer defines whether or not it is an Ethernet or Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network. There is also more than one data network transport protocol. The Data Link layer is divided into two sub-layers: the Media Access Control (MAC) and the Logical Link Control (above the MAC as you move up the OSI Reference Model).
The seven layers of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model for network functions.
Here is one concrete example of how the OSI model helps us understand networking technologies. Some people assume that any device with a CAT-5 cable connected to it is an Ethernet device. But it is Ethernet's Physical layer that defines an electrical specification and physical connection — CAT-5 terminated with an RJ-45 connector just happens to be one of them. For a technology to fully qualify as an Ethernet standard, it requires full implementation of both the Physical and Data Link layers.
The Network layer — the layer at which network routers operate — “packetizes” the data and provides routing information. The common protocol for this layer is the Internet Protocol (IP).
Layer four is the Transport layer. Keep in mind that this layer has a different meaning in the OSI Reference Model compared to how we use the term “transport” for moving audio around. The Transport layer provides protocols to determine the delivery method. The most popular layer four protocol is Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). Many discuss TCP/IP as one protocol, but actually they are two separate protocols on two different layers. TCP/IP is usually used as the data transport for file transfers or audio control applications.
Comparison of four digital audio technologies using the OSI model as a framework.
TCP provides a scheme where it sends an acknowledge message for each packet received by a sending device. If it senses that it is missing a packet of information, it will send a message back to the sender to resend. This feature is great for applications that are not time-dependent, but is not useful in real-time applications like audio and video.
Streaming media technologies most common on the Web use another method called User Datagram Protocol (UDP), which simply streams the packets. The sender never knows if it actually arrives or not. Professional audio applications have not used UDP because they are typically Physical layer or Data Link layer technologies — not Transport layer. However, a newcomer to professional audio networking, Australia-based Audinate, has recently become the first professional audio networking technology to use UDP/IP technology over Ethernet with its product called Dante.
The Session and Presentation layers are not commonly used in professional audio networks; therefore, they will not be covered in this article. Because these layers can be important to some integration projects, you may want to research the OSI model further to complete your understanding of this useful tool.
The purpose of the Application layer is to provide the interface tools that make networking useful. It is not used to move audio around the network. It controls, manages, and monitors audio devices on a network. Popular protocols are File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Telnet, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Domain Name System (DNS), and Virtual Private Network (VPN), to name just a few.
Now that you have a basic familiarity with the seven layers that make up the OSI model, let's dig a little deeper into the inner workings of a digital audio network.
Breaking Down Audio Networks
Audio networking can be broken into in two main concepts: control and transport. Configuring, monitoring, and actual device control all fall into the control category and use several standard communication protocols. Intuitively, getting digital audio from here to there is the role of transport.
Control applications can be found in standard protocols of the Application layer. Application layer protocols that are found in audio are Telnet, HTTP, and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Telnet is short for TELetype NETwork and was one of the first Internet protocols. Telnet provides command-line style communication to a machine. One example of Telnet usage in audio is the Peavey MediaMatrix, which uses this technology, known as RATC, as a way to control MediaMatrix devices remotely.
SNMP is a protocol for monitoring devices on a network. There are several professional audio and video manufacturers that support this protocol, which provides a method for managing the status or health of devices on a network. SNMP is a key technology in Network Operation Center (NOC) monitoring. It is an Application layer protocol that communicates to devices on the network through UDP/IP protocols, which can be communicated over a variety of data transport technologies.
Control systems can be manufacturer-specific, such as Harman Pro's HiQnet, QSC Audio's QSControl, or third party such as Crestron's CresNet, where the control software communicates to audio devices through TCP/IP. In many cases, TCP/IP-based control can run on the same network as the audio signal transport, and some technologies (such as CobraNet and Dante) are designed to allow data traffic to coexist with audio traffic.
The organizing and managing of audio bits is the job of the audio Transport. This is usually done by the audio protocol. Aviom, CobraNet, and EtherSound are protocols that organize bits for transport on the network. The transport can be divided into two categories: logical and physical.
Purely physical layer technologies, such as Aviom, use hardware to organize and move digital bits. More often than not, a proprietary chip is used to organize and manage them. Ethernet-based technologies packetize the audio and send it to the Data Link and Physical layers to be transported on Ethernet devices. Ethernet is both a logical and physical technology that packetizes or “frames” the audio in the Data Link layer and sends it to the Physical layer to be moved to another device on the network. Ethernet's Physical layer also has a Physical layer chip, referred to as the PHY chip, which can be purchased from several manufacturers.
Comparing Digital Audio Systems
The more familiar you are with the OSI model, the easier it will be to understand the similarities and differences of the various digital audio systems. For many people, there is a tendency to gloss over the OSI model and just talk about networking-branded protocols. However, understanding the OSI model will bring clarity to your understanding of digital audio networking (Fig. 2).
Due to the integration of pro AV systems, true networking schemes are vitally important. A distinction must be made between audio networking and digital audio transports. Audio networks are defined as those meeting the commonly used standard protocols, where at least the Physical and Data Link layer technologies and standard network appliances (such as hubs and switches) can be used. There are several technologies that meet this requirement using IEEE 1394 (Firewire), Ethernet, and ATM technologies, to name a few. However, because Ethernet is widely deployed in applications ranging from large enterprises to the home, this will be the technology of focus. All other technologies that do not meet this definition will be considered digital audio transport systems, and not a digital audio network.
There are at least 15 schemes for digital audio transport systems and audio networking. Three of the four technologies presented here have been selected because of their wide acceptance in the industry based on the number of manufacturers that support it.
Let's compare four CAT-5/Ethernet technologies: Aviom, EtherSound, CobraNet, and Dante. This is not to be considered a “shoot-out” between technologies but rather a discussion to gain understanding of some of the many digital system options available to the AV professional.
As previously noted, Aviom is a Physical layer–only technology based on the classifications outlined above. It does use an Ethernet PHY chip, but doesn't meet the electrical characteristics of Ethernet. Therefore, it cannot be connected to standard Ethernet hubs or switches. Aviom uses a proprietary chip to organize multiple channels of audio bits to be transported throughout a system, and it falls in the classification of a digital audio transport system.
EtherSound and CobraNet are both 802.3 Ethernet– compliant technologies that can be used on standard data Ethernet switches. There is some debate as to whether EtherSound technology can be considered a true Ethernet technology because it requires a dedicated network. EtherSound uses a proprietary scheme for network control, and CobraNet uses standard data networking methods. The key difference for both the AV and data professional is that EtherSound uses a dedicated network, and CobraNet does not. There are other differences that may be considered before choosing between CobraNet and EtherSound, but both are considered to be layer two (Data Link) technologies.
Dante uses Ethernet, but it is considered a layer four technology (Transport). It uses UDP for audio transport and IP for audio routing on an Ethernet transport, commonly referred to as UDP/IP over Ethernet.
At this point you may be asking yourself why does the audio industry have so many technologies? Why can't there be one standard like there is in the data industry?
The answer to the first question relates to time. Audio requires synchronous delivery of bits. Early Ethernet networks weren't much concerned with time. Ethernet is asynchronous, meaning there isn't a concern when and how data arrives as long as it gets there. Therefore, to put digital audio on a data network requires a way to add a timing mechanism. Time is an issue in another sense, in that your options depend on technology or market knowledge available at the time when you develop your solution. When and how you develop your solution leads to the question of a single industry standard.
Many people don't realize that the data industry does in fact have more than one standard: Ethernet, ATM, FiberChannel, and SONET. Each layer of the OSI model has numerous protocols for different purposes. The key is that developers follow the OSI model as a framework for network functions and rules for communicating between them. If the developer wants to use Ethernet, he or she is required to have this technology follow the rules for communicating to the Data Link layer, as required by the Ethernet standard.
Because one of the key issues for audio involves time, it's important to use it wisely.
There are two types of time that we need to be concerned with in networking: clock time and latency. Clock time in this context is a timing mechanism that is broken down into measurable units, such as milliseconds. In digital audio systems, latency is the time duration between when audio or a bit of audio goes into a system until the bit comes out the other side. Latency has many causes, but arguably the root cause in audio networks is the design of its timing mechanism. In addition, there is a tradeoff between the timing method and bandwidth. A general rule of thumb is that as the resolution of the timing mechanism increases, the more bandwidth that's required from the network.
Ethernet, being an asynchronous technology, requires a timing method to be added to support the synchronous nature of audio. The concepts and methodology of clocking networks for audio are key differences among the various technologies.
CobraNet uses a time mechanism called a beat packet. This packet is sent out in 1.33 millisecond intervals and communicates with CobraNet devices. Therefore, the latency of a CobraNet audio network can't be less than 1.33 milliseconds. CobraNet was introduced in 1995 when large-scale DSP-based digital systems started replacing analog designs in the market. Because the “sound system in a box” was new, there was great scrutiny of these systems. A delay or latency in some time-critical applications was noticed, considered to be a challenge of using digital systems. However, many believe that latency is an overly exaggerated issue in most applications where digital audio systems are deployed. In fact, this topic could be an article unto itself.
A little history of digital systems and networking will provide some insight on the reason why there are several networking technologies available today. In the late '90s, there were two “critical” concerns in the digital audio industry: Year of 2000 compliance (Y2K) and latency. To many audio pros, using audio networks like CobraNet seemed impossible because of the delay —at that time, approximately 5 milliseconds, or in video terms, less time than a frame of video.
Enter EtherSound, introduced in 2001, which addressed the issue of latency by providing an Ethernet networking scheme with low latency and better bit-depth and higher sampling rate than CobraNet. The market timing and concern over latency gave EtherSound an excellent entry point. But since reducing latency down to 124 microseconds limits available bandwidth for data traffic, a dedicated network is required for a 100-MB EtherSound network. Later, to meet the market demands of lower latency requirements, CobraNet introduced variable latency, with 1.33 milliseconds being the minimum. With the Ethernet technologies discussion thus far, there is a relationship between the bit-depth and sample rate to the clocking system.
Audio is not the only industry with a need for real-time clocking schemes. Communications, military, and industrial applications also require multiple devices to be connected together on a network and function in real-time. A group was formed from these markets, and they took on the issue of real-time clocking while leveraging the widely deployed Ethernet technology. The outcome was the IEEE 1588 standard for a real-time clocking system for Ethernet networks in 2002.
As a late entry to the networking party, Audinate's Dante comes to the market with the advantage of using new technologies like IEEE 1588 to solve many of the current challenges in networking audio. Using this clocking technology in Ethernet allows Dante to provide sample accurate timing and synchronization while achieving latency as low as 34 microseconds. Coming to the market later also has the benefit of Gigabit networking being widely supported, which provides the increased bandwidth requirement of ultra-low latency. It should be noted here that EtherSound does have a Gigabit version, and CobraNet does work on Gigabit infrastructure with added benefits but it is currently a Fast Ethernet technology.
Dante provides a flexible solution to many of the current tradeoffs that require one system on another due to design requirements of latency verses bandwidth, because Dante can support different latency, bit depth, and sample rates in the same system. For example, this allows a user to provide a low-latency, higher bandwidth assignment to in-ear monitoring while at the same time use a higher latency assignment in areas where latency is less of a concern (such as front of house), thereby reducing the overall network bandwidth requirement.
The developers of CobraNet and Dante are both working toward advancing software so that AV professionals and end-users can configure, route audio, and manage audio devices on a network. The goal is to make audio networks “plug-and-play” for those that don't want to know anything about networking technologies. One of the advances to note is called “device discovery,” where the software finds all of the audio devices on the network so you don't have to configure them in advance. The software also has advance features for those who want to dive into the details of their audio system.
Advances in digital audio systems and networking technologies will continue to change to meet market applications and their specific requirements. Aviom's initial focus was to create a personal monitoring system, and it developed a digital audio transport to better serve this application. Aviom's low-latency transport provided a solution to the market that made it the perfect transport for many live applications. CobraNet provides the AV professional with a solution to integrate audio, video, and data systems on an enterprise switched network. EtherSound came to the market by providing a low-latency audio transport using standard Ethernet 802.3 technology. Dante comes to the market after significant change and growth and Gigabit networking and new technologies like IEEE 1588 to solve many of challenges of using Ethernet in real-time systems.
Networking audio and video can seem chaotic, but gaining an understanding of the OSI model helps bring order to the chaos. It not only provides an understanding of the various types of technology, but it also provides a common language to communicate for both AV and data professionals. Keeping it simple by using the OSI model as the foundation and breaking audio networking down into two functional parts (control and transport) will help you determine which networking technology will best suit your particular application.
Brent Harshbarger is the founder of m3tools located in Atlanta. He can be reached at email@example.com. | <urn:uuid:471ac2ee-9ae9-4ba4-873f-f68c3ed27f25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://svconline.com/proav/audiovisual-equipment_digital-audio-networking-demystified/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936211 | 3,677 | 3.375 | 3 |
Definitions for acanthosis nigricans
acanthosis nigricans, keratosis nigricans(noun)
a skin disease characterized by dark wartlike patches in the body folds; can be benign or malignant
U.S. National Library of Medicine
A circumscribed melanosis consisting of a brown-pigmented, velvety verrucosity or fine papillomatosis appearing in the axillae and other body folds. It occurs in association with endocrine disorders, underlying malignancy, administration of certain drugs, or as in inherited disorder.
Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:
"acanthosis nigricans." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2013. Web. 23 May 2013. <http://www.definitions.net/definition/acanthosis nigricans>. | <urn:uuid:e965dce6-d5f5-44b9-932c-bffad7cbea19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.definitions.net/definition/acanthosis%20nigricans | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.746493 | 182 | 2.75 | 3 |
Eye tracking is a process that identifies a specific point in both space and time that is being looked at by the observer. This information can also be used in real-time to control applications using the eyes. Recent innovations in the video game industry include alternative input modalities to provide an enhanced, more immersive user experience. In particular, eye gaze control has recently been explored as an input modality in video games. This book is an introduction for those interested in using eye tracking to control or analyze video games and virtual environments. Key concepts are illustrated through three case studies in which gaze control and voice recognition have been used in combination to control virtual characters and applications. The lessons learned in the case studies are presented and issues relating to incorporating eye tracking in interactive applications are discussed. The reader will be given an introduction to human visual attention, eye movements and eye tracking technologies. Previous work in the field of studying fixation behavior in games and using eye tracking for video game interaction will also be presented.
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The final chapter discusses ideas for how this field can be developed further to create richer interaction for characters and crowds in virtual environments. Alternative means of interaction in video games are especially important for disabled users for whom traditional techniques, such as mouse and keyboard, may be far from ideal. This book is also relevant for those wishing to use gaze control in applications other than games. Table of Contents: Introduction / The Human Visual System / Eye Tracking / Eye Tracking in Video Games / Gaze and Voice Controlled Video Games: Case Study I and II / Gaze and Voice Controlled Drawing: Case Study III / Conclusion | <urn:uuid:8c0c846c-d799-4940-be43-00d219ed7bc8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.paperplus.co.nz/book/Gazing-at-Games?i=9781608456499 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917502 | 326 | 2.953125 | 3 |
MONTFERMEIL, France (AP) -- The streets in one of the Paris region's toughest housing projects, burgeoning with immigrants, bear names like Cezanne, Picasso and Utrillo, as if to stamp the French heritage onto the psyches of its residents.
But neither the names of the great masters nor the idyllic images conjured up by the name of the project, Les Bosquets, or The Groves, capture the daily realities of the French-style ghetto, an enclosed world where many residents don't speak French.
Delinquency soars and the unemployment rate is estimated at some 40 percent, nearly four times the national rate. Montfermeil's town hall could not provide an official figure.
Just 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) from Paris, Les Bosquets is light years from the world of Parisians.
Les Bosquets, like other projects that surround the big cities of France, belies this nation's special brand of integration whereby newcomers from afar assimilate into the French culture, becoming one with it whatever their origins. Despite quiet debate, French authorities, whatever their political colors, have stood by a French model that's colorblind to differences, in total contrast to the U.S. notion of a vibrant melting pot.
The story of France is often viewed as the antithesis to the U.S., one in which race and ethnicity are not counted in the government census and minority rights need not exist, due to residents who share a common identity of "French." Many French shudder at the word "multiculturalism."
But housing projects such as Les Bosquets, often cut off by poor public transport from the cities, raise questions about how much assimilation is really happening in France and whether the French model of integration, long the nation's pride, is wearing thin.
Even Muslim immigrants from France's former North African colonies, many in their third generation, and making up a large portion of residents of Les Bosquets, are far from melding with the mainstream.
For Patrick Simon, a leading demographer, the French model has a basic flaw that is becoming increasingly evident as time goes by.
"It's a model founded on the invisibility of differences," Simon said. The problem is that minorities are increasingly visible, many of them with origins in France's former colonies in Muslim North Africa, and because "we see them, we can't ignore their existence."
Even second- and third-generation citizens of foreign origin are perceived as different and treated thus.
Statisticians are not allowed to count people by their origins, complicating research.
But the postcard vision of France with church steeples perched over a contented populace that's wearing berets and carrying baguettes has been upended in the Seine-Saint-Denis region northeast of Paris.
French kings are buried in the great cathedral of Saint-Denis, the main town, but traditional minorities have become the majority in the region.
A study by Simon puts immigrants and their descendants through the second generation at 75 percent of the city's population. It includes people from French overseas departments (8 percent), who are French but of color. The jobless rate was 16.5 percent in 2009, according to Insee, the national statistics agency. But the economic leaders are in the white minority, Simon said, putting new stress on the notion that immigrants and their children are being successfully assimilated.
In Les Bosquets, the most widespread complaint remains poor public transport and the isolation that keeps Les Bosquets at a distance from mainstream France. It takes nearly 90 minutes to get to Paris.
"They've done everything to keep us closed among ourselves," said a 34-year-old born in France of Algerian parents. "It is they who don't want us to integrate." Like most residents of the projects, the man, who works with a private fire department, refused to identify himself by name.
Discrimination is a fact of life in France for minorities, and a poll by the Ipsos firm published this year in the daily Le Monde showed no sign that that might lessen. A full 70 percent of those questioned felt there were "too many foreigners in France." The finger was pointed, above all, at those of the Muslim faith. | <urn:uuid:05b0838c-b50b-41ff-8751-461d3e7d5199> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.the-daily-record.com/ap%20international/2013/03/14/in-colorblind-france-rising-diversity-tests-unity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966891 | 886 | 2.5625 | 3 |
TV is one of the most popular forms of media. As much as there are many people who might want to dispute this, a majority of people still find themselves drawn to the entertainment box. Radio which was more popular in the previous generation is slowly losing its glory. This is mostly because there are numerous gadgets that can be used to listen to music.
Podcasts for example can be used in place of the radio. This is one of the things that is increasingly gaining popularity in social media. Some of the basics that involve the podcasts include:
This is a combination of the words “broadcast” and “iPod”; podcasts are a kind of digital media that is episodic. Users can download to this media via web syndication when they have subscribed. They take the form of the audio although there are video podcasts where slideshows are used.
In the past, they were only used by the techie demographic but the general public son caught up. Content used in the podcasts usually ranges from culture, sports, music and magic among many others.
Social Media and Podcasts
Podcasts were introduced almost at the same time as social media. Most people understand social media as fancy web 2.0 terminologies that are related to Facebook and Twitter which are a means of opening up communication as well as interactions between organizations and their followers, fans and audience, brands and persons.
The podcasts allow for a wider interaction with people mostly because of the syndication feeds. Feeds permit the users to download the podcasts once they have been released and listen to them using a variety of mediums. This is different from the radio where you have to tune in at a specific time or date.
Most of the time, the people who have produced the podcasts will become the producers and vice versa thus they end up holding conversations with each other. Podcasting calling usually calls for active participation and listening.
Content and Freedom
Podcasts empower both the consumer and the producer. Listeners can choose the time they want to listen to the content.
Anyone with a computer and microphone can participate as it does not have too many restrictions. They have become one of the most unique ways of sharing information/content. Podcasts have broad audience, do not have any restrictions, can be used easily as it does not have difficult applications and is one of the major forms of media which gives people voice to be heard. More on podcast transcription | <urn:uuid:ad8d8b89-e64e-4c8c-a837-922392c50742> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.transcriptionwave.com/blog/tag/media/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973245 | 496 | 2.65625 | 3 |
One of the great bits of repartee in The King’s Speech comes as the maverick Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue, is just getting to know His Royal Highness Prince Albert, the stammering Duke of York:
Logue: “Surely a prince’s brain knows what his mouth’s doing?” Bertie: “You’re obviously not well acquainted with many royal princes.”
No one could have imagined any such dialogue involving Archduke Otto von Habsburg, who died on July 4—not because the archduke was a fearsome personality, but because he was a pre-eminently intelligent and decent man.
The full name he was given at his baptism in 1912—Franz Josef Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xavier Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius—speaks volumes about the history of his family, whose rule over central Europe extended back some seven centuries. Otto might have been thought an anachronism after his father, Emperor Karl, was driven from the throne of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary in the waning days of World War I. Yet the son declined to disappear from the scene and played roles both dramatic and useful over the eight decades of his maturity.
He worried Hitler, who saw him as a potential threat to the Anschluss uniting Austria with Germany. So the Nazi Führer twice tried to meet the young Austrian nobleman when Archduke Otto was studying in Berlin in 1931-32. Otto von Habsburg not only rebuffed Hitler on both occasions, thus putting himself firmly on the Gestapo’s list of enemies; in 1938, as the Nazi vice was closing on an independent Austria, the archduke, at obvious risk to his life, volunteered to return to Austria as the head of government, to provide a national rallying point against Nazi paganism.
In June 1940, the Luftwaffe bombed the Belgian castle in which Otto von Habsburg and his family were living, just hours after the family had fled south ahead of the Wehrmacht’s drive west. Hounded by the Gestapo in neutral Lisbon, Archduke Otto and his family came to the United States at the invitation of President Franklin Roosevelt and spent the Second World War years in America. Otto von Habsburg returned to Europe after the Nazi defeat, married Princess Regina of Sachsen-Meiningen, who was working as a nurse at a Munich refuge camp the archduke visited (and whose father, Duke George III, had died in the Soviet Gulag); the couple had seven children, and lived a model Christian family life.
Elected to the European parliament in 1979, Otto von Habsburg spent 20 years as perhaps that body’s most respected member: an adroit debater in seven languages, he kept alive the vision of a post-Cold War Europe reunited as a single civilizational enterprise, built on the sturdy foundations of biblical religion, faith in reason, and commitment to the rule of law. In that sense, Otto von Habsburg was arguably the first modern “European.”
He may also have been the last. For the European Union, as it has evolved in the early 21st century, has been built around a naked public square in which biblical religion plays no role; faith in reason is faltering under the assault of post-modernism and political correctness; and the rule of law is jeopardized by what another great son of Mitteleuropa, Joseph Ratzinger, has called the “dictatorship of relativism.” In 2006, I spent a memorable evening discussing this unhappy situation with the Archduke Otto, at an Acton Institute dinner in Rome at which we were seated across the table from one another. He was not bitter, for he was a man of deep Catholic faith, and thus a man of hope. But he was concerned about Europe’s future, and his concerns have turned out to be entirely prescient.
Otto von Habsburg’s father, Emperor Karl, was beatified by John Paul II in 2004. The late pope once greeted Archduke Otto’s mother, Empress Zita, by saying that he was “happy to receive the widow of my father’s last sovereign.” It is entirely safe to say that we shall not see their likes again. May they rest in peace.
George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
Become a fan of First Things on Facebook, subscribe to First Things via RSS, and follow First Things on Twitter. | <urn:uuid:b10dbb94-fad8-468b-aff7-b26cb6722a09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/08/the-first-and-last-european/george-weigel | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974207 | 979 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Bipolar Disorder: Hypomanic Episodes
Hypomanic episodes can occur in people who have mood disorders. Hypomanic episodes are less severe than manic episodes, although a hypomanic episode can still interfere with your ability to function properly.
Hypomania may be diagnosed if:
- A distinct period of elevated or irritable mood occurs in which the mood is clearly different from a regular nondepressed mood.
- Three or more of the following symptoms last for a
significant period of time:
- Inflated self-esteem or unrealistic feelings of importance
- Decreased need for sleep (feels rested after only a few hours of sleep)
- Racing thoughts or flight of ideas
- Being easily distracted
- An increase in goal-directed activity (work or personal)
- Irresponsible behaviors that may have serious consequences, such as going on shopping sprees, engaging in increased sexual activity, or making foolish business investments
- The mood or behavior change is noticeable to others.
- The episode is not severe enough to cause impairment in social or job functioning and does not require hospitalization.
- The symptoms are not caused by Reference substance abuse Opens New Window.
If you feel that you or someone you care about may be experiencing a hypomanic episode, contact your doctor to discuss the possible causes and the treatment options.
|By:||Reference Healthwise Staff||Last Revised: Reference March 1, 2012|
|Medical Review:||Reference Patrice Burgess, MD - Family Medicine
Reference Lisa S. Weinstock, MD - Psychiatry | <urn:uuid:cf6b712a-8b66-47e4-a30e-29c063f0b066> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pamf.org/health/healthinfo/index.cfm?A=C&hwid=aa167947 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914609 | 323 | 2.796875 | 3 |
An accessor method is an instance method that gets or sets the value of a property of an object. In Cocoa’s terminology, a method that retrieves the value of an object’s property is referred to as a getter method, or “getter;” a method that changes the value of an object’s property is referred to as a setter method, or “setter.” These methods are often found in pairs, providing API for getting and setting the property values of an object.
You should use accessor methods rather than directly accessing state data because they provide an abstraction layer. Here are just two of the benefits that accessor methods provide:
You don’t need to rewrite your code if the manner in which a property is represented or stored changes.
Accessor methods often implement important behavior that occurs whenever a value is retrieved or set. For example, setter methods frequently implement memory management code and notify other objects when a value is changed.
Because of the importance of this pattern, Cocoa defines some conventions for naming accessor methods. Given a property of type
type and called
name, you should typically implement accessor methods with the following form:
The one exception is a property that is a Boolean value. Here the getter method name may be
isName. For example:
This naming convention is important because much other functionality in Cocoa relies upon it, in particular key-value coding. Cocoa does not use
getName because methods that start with “get” in Cocoa indicate that the method will return values by reference. | <urn:uuid:fa5c2fa1-af36-4ff5-8788-a254b8275e51> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/General/Conceptual/DevPedia-CocoaCore/AccessorMethod.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.8814 | 334 | 4.3125 | 4 |
Identifying time lags in the restoration of grassland butterfly communities: a multi-site assessment
Woodcock, B.A.; Bullock, J.M.; Mortimer, S.R.; Brereton, T.; Redhead, J.W.; Thomas, J.A.; Pywell, R.F.. 2012 Identifying time lags in the restoration of grassland butterfly communities: a multi-site assessment. Biological Conservation, 155. 50-58. 10.1016/j.biocon.2012.05.013Full text not available from this repository.
Although grasslands are crucial habitats for European butterflies, large-scale declines in quality and area have devastated many species. Grasslandrestoration can contribute to the recovery of butterfly populations, although there is a paucity of information on the long-term effects of management. Using eight UK data sets (9–21 years), we investigate changes in restoration success for (1) arable reversion sites, were grassland was established on bare ground using seed mixtures, and (2) grassland enhancement sites, where degraded grasslands are restored by scrub removal followed by the re-instigation of cutting/grazing. We also assessed the importance of individual butterfly traits and ecological characteristics in determining colonisation times. Consistent increases in restoration success over time were seen for arable reversion sites, with the most rapid rates of increase in restoration success seen over the first 10 years. For grasslands enhancement there were no consistent increases in restoration success over time. Butterfly colonisation times were fastest for species with widespread host plants or where host plants established well during restoration. Low mobility butterfly species took longer to colonise. We show that arable reversion is an effective tool for the management of butterflycommunities. We suggest that as restoration takes time to achieve, its use as a mitigation tool against future environmental change (i.e. by decreasing isolation in fragmented landscapes) needs to take into account such time lags.
|Programmes:||CEH Topics & Objectives 2009 onwards > Biodiversity|
|CEH Sections:||CEH fellows
|Additional Keywords:||arable reversion, calcareous, grassland enhancement, mesotrophic, functional traits, recreation|
|NORA Subject Terms:||Ecology and Environment|
|Date made live:||12 Sep 2012 15:38|
Actions (login required) | <urn:uuid:4cc9b21b-9ac9-4733-b1e7-35a758cedd90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/19510/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.885742 | 497 | 2.84375 | 3 |
You are browsing the web and suddenly come across a page that displays numbers
instead of letters? You see four numbers inside a little box instead of letters? Well then you might just be missing a Unicode font. Here is a simple fix.
Those four numbers inside the little box are the hexadecimal code for the letter. If you have not got the font that translates those four numbers into a character or glyph you will only be able to see the number.
Here you can find a list of all Unicode fonts as well as a comparison of those Unicode fonts.
Having a look at the list, "GNU Unifont" clearly stands out with 63,446 characters 63,449 glyphs. As the name already suggests GNU Unifont is free to use and to download. You can get the GNU Unifont for Mac and Windows from here. Download the WinZip archive for Mac or Windows, it is 3MB in file size.
Once downloaded simply unzip the file and copy it to your systems fonts folder.
If you have trouble with that have a look here for Windows 7 users and here for Windows XP users. Basically in Windows the fonts are located at c:\windows\fonts.
Mac users can check this out to install the font.
Additionally here is a link to the Unicode 6.0 Character Code Charts. | <urn:uuid:2ec01d0c-807c-44a2-b57d-bcae60101f03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://technolux.blogspot.com/2011/05/numbers-instead-of-letters.html?showComment=1330194151258 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.894804 | 277 | 2.515625 | 3 |
A diplomatic crisis is engulfing part of Borneo, after Filipino rebels seized control of a remote section of Malaysia’s Sabah state as part of an unresolved territorial dispute that stretches back centuries. Malaysian security forces have surrounded 100 to 200 members of the Royal Army of Sulu, who have holed up in the village of Lahad Datu for the past two weeks in order to press their historic claim to the land. The Philippine and Malaysian governments are now engaged in tense negotiations in order to resolve the dispute without the use of force. The rebels, who hail from the autonomous island province of Sulu in the southwestern Philippines, had been given until midnight on Tuesday to voluntarily leave the area, but Manila has been desperately trying to negotiate an extension to this deadline to avoid bloodshed and a tense standoff currently hangs in place.
The leader of the rebel unit is the brother of Jamalul Kiram III, one of the two main claimants to the title of Sultan of Sulu. Back in the 17th century, before the Philippines existed in its present form, the two principle sultanates in the region were Sulu and Brunei. In 1658, the Sultan of Brunei for some reason gave Sabah to the Sultanate of Sulu, which today is considered part of the Philippines. However, the picture is further complicated by an 1878 deal between the Sultanate of Sulu and the British North Borneo Company, in which Sabah was leased to the Europeans on a rolling contract. To this day, the Malaysian government pays a token sum, equivalent to around $1,500, to the Philippines every year in recognition of this continuing arrangement. The Royal Army of Sulu interprets this deal as a lease that can be canceled, while Malaysia believes that it represents the permanent transfer of the territory.
It does not appear that the Malaysian authorities are willing to give up the land, which boasts valuable petroleum reserves, palm-oil plantations and also serves as an agricultural and manufacturing hub. Regional commentators have accused the Sulu rebels of trying to exploit past claims as a gateway toward ensuring future prosperity. “The governments of Malaysia and the Philippines are trying to manage this incident carefully,” Jonah Blank, senior political scientist specializing in Southeast Asia for RAND Corp., a global policy think-tank, tells TIME. ”We’ve seen many Muslim rebel groups arise or take refuge in the southern part of the Philippines, and Malaysia has brokered a fragile cease-fire: neither Kuala Lumpur nor Manila is eager to see that fall apart.”
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday appealed to Kiram to instruct his brother to end the occupation. “If you are truly the leader of your people, you should be one with us in ordering your followers to return home peacefully,” he said during a statement aired on national TV. On Sunday, Manila sent the Philippine navy ship BRP Tagbanua to Borneo carrying Filipino-Muslim leaders, social workers and medical personnel for a “humanitarian mission” to bring their compatriots home. However, Royal Army of Sulu sources indicate that the rebels are not willing to entertain such a retreat.
Some observers believe that the timing of the occupation is designed to disrupt the Malaysian national elections that are due before the end of June, and the issue has now become a political hot potato domestically. The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, a Philippine NGO, on Tuesday released a joint statement condemning the arbitrary detention of three al-Jazeera journalists who were in Sabah to report on the standoff. The group was eventually released after being held and interrogated for at least six hours. Liew Chin Tong, a Democratic Action Party MP and shadow Defense Minister for the Pakatan Rakyat opposition coalition of Malaysia, tells TIME that the country is now suffering the consequences of decades of poorly enforced border controls. “Sabah is a key state which was previously seen as a safe zone for the government but now keenly contested by the opposition,” he says. | <urn:uuid:8f830757-4651-4164-af8b-bf91bc721caa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://world.time.com/2013/02/26/sabah-standoff-diplomatic-drama-after-sulu-militants-storm-malaysia/?iid=gs-article-mostpop2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963717 | 820 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Stop by the library to fill out an application to get a library card. To get a card, the hopeful patron must present a photo identification and at least one proof of residence (a utility bill, an envelope mailed to yourself). Minors must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. This spring, everyone will be recieving a brand new card to celebrate the activation of the One Card Network, a project of the sister libraries belonging to the Washington County Library System. The updated cards are free and each will automatically link to our Overdrive electronic book database.
GREAT SCHOOLS offers ten easy tips for inspiring children to make reading a part of everyday life. Great Schools Website
YOUTH COMPUTER STATION - Visit a quiet corner of our sunny children's room to play (and learn) on our children's computer. The computer provides a myriad of games to encourage many skills and some games just for fun. Parents may also choose to use this work station themselves while their children read books, play with our puppet theatre or learning games, explore our interactive science display, or simply sit at a table to draw in a sunny room.
STOP HUNGER AND LEARN - Every correct answer you give while playing this online brain-building game earns ten grains of rice for the United Nations World Food program. Visit Free Rice.
ONE BOOK, LOTS OF FAMILY FUN - Copies of Suzanne Bloom's picture book The Bus for Us are available at all Pennsylvania pubic libraries. Reading aloud is one of the best activities you can do to prepare your child for school. Make time to read aloud every day, using lots of expression while taking time to enjoy the pictures and asking thought-provoking questions. Before reading the book: Look at the cover, point out the title and author. Ask your child to tell you everything he or she knows about riding a bus and going to school. While reading the book: Occasionally run your finger under the words as you read them. Use facial expressions and vary your voice. Ask questions about the story (Is this the bus, or it is another type of truck? What do you think the children have in their bags?) Have your child help you read the repeated question, "Is this the bus for us, Gus?" After reading the book: Talk about the emotions the children in the story felt. Point out their expressions in the drawings. Talk about the different vehicles shown in the story. Read books about trains, boats, airplanes, dirigibles,trucks or cars. Stop by your California Information Station to pick up an activity book outlining additional ideas, including games to play, activities to develop STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) Skills, and tips on safety and preparing for school. For information about the book and its creator, visit www.paonebook.org. | <urn:uuid:2eac1533-a580-48a0-9d16-f60afed89bad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.calpublib.org/patrons.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931426 | 573 | 2.890625 | 3 |
General Information / Education / Medical / Cultural / Entertainment
The History ... Cumberland Gap has been used as a crossing point in the Appalachian Mountains. Animals have used it as a path to the green pastures of Kentucky. Native Americans used the Gap as the Warrior's Path that led from the Potomac River down the south side of the Appalachians through the Gap and north to "The Dark and Bloody Ground" known as Kentucky and on to Ohio.
In 1750 Dr. Thomas Walker found the Gap and mapped its location, but the French and Indian Wars closed the new frontiers.
Daniel Boone and many other long-hunters used the Gap to the Kentucky hunting grounds. In 1775, after the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals ended most Indian troubles, Boone and thirty men marked out the Wilderness Trail from what is now Kingsport Tennessee through the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky. Part of the Wilderness Road can be walked in Cumberland Gap, Tennessee by the Iron Furnace.
Before the Revolutionary War over 12,000 people crossed into the new frontier territory. By the time of Kentucky's admission to the Union, over 100,000 people had passed through the Gap. By 1800 the Gap was being used for transportation and commerce, both east and west. In the 1830's, other routes west caused the Gap to decline in importance.
During the Civil War the Gap was called the Keystone of the Confederacy and the Gibraltar of America. Both armies felt the invasion of the North or South would come through the Gap. Both armies held and fortified the Gap against the invasion that never came.
The Gap exchanged hands four times to be finally abandoned in 1866 by the Federal Army.
Today the Cumberland Gap is the main local route North and South, via Cumberland Gap Parkway (Hwy. 25E). By the mid 1990's a four lane tunnel under the Gap will open a new North-South, East-West route and the Cumberland Gap will be restored like the first pioneer saw it.
Claiborne County located on the Tennessee-Kentucky-Virginia borders in East Tennessee, one of the state's three "Grand Divisions." It was formed in 1801 from parts of Hawkins and Grainger Counties. The county seat is Tazewell.
The communities of Tazewell and New Tazewell are in Claiborne County, Tennessee. We are located in the beautiful mountains of the Cumberland Gap area. Cumberland Gap is located where Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia meet.
Claiborne County is a rural county with a population of 28,828. The county covers 2400 square miles. Tazewell, the county seat, is located about 40 miles north of Knoxville, Tennessee. Along with our beautiful mountains we have beautiful Norris Lake with 850 miles of shoreline. Norris Lake was the first T.V.A. lake built in the late 1930's. The lake is fed by two large rivers, the Clinch and the Powell. The lake is enjoyed by fisherman and water lovers of all ages.
Some of the larger communities in the county are Tazewell, New Tazewell, Harrogate, Speedwell, Forge Ridge, Midway, Springdale, Cumberland Gap, Cedar Grove, Dogwood Heights, and Lone Mountain.
Population in Claiborne County 28,828
Communi Comm Services
Claiborne County Utility District
United Cities Propane Gas
The Claiborne County area is home to 11 schools. The Claiborne County Board of Education consists of 7 members.
For additional information contact our superintendent of schools is Dr. Roy K. Norris. You can contact the central office at Box 179, Tazewell, Tennessee 37879. The phone number is (423)626-5225.
Welcome to Lincoln Memorial University (LMU). For more than 100 years, LMU has helped serve the higher education needs of our tri-state area and beyond. We are excited by that heritage, and we invite you to share it! The University offers a talented, dedicated faculty and staff, a strong and varied curriculum, a well-rounded student life, a beautiful campus, and excellent facilities.
In keeping with its Lincoln legacy, LMU prides itself in providing well developed and relevant academic programs for today's students destined to compete in tomorrow's competitive workplace. Some of our nation's most competent lawyers, doctors, nurses, artists, veterinarians, business persons, and writers have their academic roots at Lincoln Memorial University
Claiborne County Hospital and Nursing Home 1850 Old Knoxville Road P.O. Box 219 Tazewell, TN 37879 (865) 626-4211
The Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum houses one of the most diverse Lincoln and Civil War collections in the country. Located on the beautiful campus of Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee.
Exhibited are many rare items - the silver-topped cane Lincoln carried the night of his assassination, a lock of his hair clipped as he lay on his death bed, two life masks made of Lincoln, the tea set he and Mary Todd owned in their home in Springfield, and numerous other belongings. Over 20,000 books, manuscripts, pamphlets, photographs, paintings, and sculptures tell the story of President Lincoln and the Civil War period in America.
The Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in Cumberland Gap is a natural opening in the mountains made famous by Daniel Boone. The Indians used this path long before Boone arrived. Today, you can visit the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and enjoy the history and beauty of our area.
If your interested in fishing, boating, or any water activity, then Norris Lake offers all that and more. There are several marinas and boat docks throughout the county.
Toll Free 800-747-0713 | <urn:uuid:8f8ec58b-1a8f-4afd-8a3e-5e77c6bbf2ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.knoxville-tn.com/claiborne.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941477 | 1,195 | 3.90625 | 4 |
NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partner university faculty. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Cold and Flu
Catching Colds and Flu
I wasn`t sure which catergory this would come under, but it involves catching a cold or the flu. I know that germs are the cause of getting these conditions and being outside in the cold whether without a jacket doesn`t cause someone to get them. But someone told me that if you are exposed to a cold environment and then warm one, back and forth, it can make someone sick with the cold or the flu, and does involve germs somehow. If that is true, can you please explain how that happens? Thanks
A cold or flu is caused by a viral infection, and viruses tend to be very contagious. They are spread primarily by droplets, or in other words, by saliva and mucus either sprayed into the air or by direct human contact. Going repeatedly from a cold to a warm environment and back should not increase one's chances to become infected. However, when the weather turns colder, people tend to begin spending more time indoors. This creates closer human contact and thereby increases the likelihood of infection. This is in large part why cold and flu season is during the colder months.
Allen M Seiden, MD
Professor of Otolaryngology, Director of Division of Rhinology and Sinus Disorders, Director of University Taste and Smell Center, Director of University Sinus and Allergy
College of Medicine
University of Cincinnati | <urn:uuid:ff296fbf-229d-4b32-9143-e1023cdf4f1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netwellness.uc.edu/question.cfm/68811.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959128 | 332 | 3.453125 | 3 |
Buried inside Robert Bryce’s relatively new book entitled Power Hungry is a call to “aggressively pursue taxes or caps on the emissions of neurotoxins, particularly those that come from burning coal” to generate electricity such as mercury and lead. This is notable not because Bryce agrees with many environmental and human health experts, but also because the book credibly debunks the move to tax or cap carbon dioxide emissions both from technical and political perspectives.
The word “neurotoxic” literally translates as “nerve poison”. Broadly described, a neurotoxicant is any chemical substance which adversely acts on the structure or function of the human nervous system.
As its subtitle signals, Power Hungry also declares policies subsidizing renewable sources of electricity, biofuels and electric vehicles as too costly and impractical to make a significant difference in making the U.S. power and transportation systems more sustainable.
So why take aim at mercury and lead, which is certain to drive up the cost of coal-fired electricity just as a carbon cap or tax would? Because, Bryce asserts, “arguing against heavy metal contaminants with known neurotoxicity will be far easier than arguing against carbon dioxide emissions. Cutting the output of mercury and the other heavy metals may, in the long run, turn out to have far greater benefits for the environmental and human health.” Bryce draws a parallel to the U.S. government ordering oil refiners to remove lead from gasoline starting in the 1970s.
In the book, which has has received predominantly good reviews on Amazon.com, Bryce makes some valid points about the carbon density of our energy sources. Among his overarching messages is that the carbon density of the world’s major economies is actually declining (see graph below). Not to be missed: his attack on carbon sequestration, pp. 160-165. His case about the threat of neurotoxins begins on p. 167.
There’s a lot more to this challenge of reducing America’s reliance on coal-fired power plants than this. But considering the failure by the U.S. Congress to agree on a carbon tax or cap, his idea has serious merit and deserves a broad discussion, especially as Congress reassess its budget priorities. This includes billions of dollars of tax breaks and incentives for oil and other fossil fuels. | <urn:uuid:ed7842f6-485f-401b-96c7-6ca3e6045411> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theenergyfix.com/2011/05/07/tax-toxins-not-carbon-dioxide-from-coal-fired-power-plants/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955607 | 481 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Deaths in Moscow have doubled to an average of 700 people a day as the Russian capital is engulfed by poisonous smog from wildfires and a sweltering heat wave, a top health official said today, according to the Associated Press.
The Russian newspaper Pravda reported: “Moscow is suffocating. Thick toxic smog has been covering the sky above the city for days. The sun in Moscow looks like the moon during the day: it’s not that bright and yellow, but pale and orange with misty outlines against the smoky sky. Muscovites have to experience both the smog and sweltering heat at once.”
“Russia has recently seen the longest unprecedented heat wave for at least one thousand years, the head of the Russian Meteorological Center,” the news site Ria Novosti reported.
Various news sites report that foreign embassies have reduced activities or shut down, with many staff leaving Moscow to escape the toxic atmosphere.
Russian heatwave: This NASA map released today shows areas of Russia experiencing above-average temperatures this summer (orange and red). The map was released on NASA’s Earth Obervatory website.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, based on MODIS land surface temperature data available through the NASA Earth Observations (NEO) Website. Caption by Michon Scott.
According to NASA:
In the summer of 2010, the Russian Federation had to contend with multiple natural hazards: drought in the southern part of the country, and raging fires in western Russia and eastern Siberia. The events all occurred against the backdrop of unusual warmth. Bloomberg reported that temperatures in parts of the country soared to 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit), and the Wall Street Journal reported that fire- and drought-inducing heat was expected to continue until at least August 12.
This map shows temperature anomalies for the Russian Federation from July 20-27, 2010, compared to temperatures for the same dates from 2000 to 2008. The anomalies are based on land surface temperatures observed by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. Areas with above-average temperatures appear in red and orange, and areas with below-average temperatures appear in shades of blue. Oceans and lakes appear in gray.
Not all parts of the Russian Federation experienced unusual warmth on July 20-27, 2010. A large expanse of northern central Russia, for instance, exhibits below-average temperatures. Areas of atypical warmth, however, predominate in the east and west. Orange- and red-tinged areas extend from eastern Siberia toward the southwest, but the most obvious area of unusual warmth occurs north and northwest of the Caspian Sea. These warm areas in eastern and western Russia continue a pattern noticeable earlier in July, and correspond to areas of intense drought and wildfire activity.
Bloomberg reported that 558 active fires covering 179,596 hectares (693 square miles) were burning across the Russian Federation as of August 6, 2010. Voice of America reported that smoke from forest fires around the Russian capital forced flight restrictions at Moscow airports on August 6, just as health officials warned Moscow residents to take precautions against the smoke inhalation.
Posted by David Braun
Earlier related post: Russia burns in hottest summer on record (July 28, 2010)
Talk about tough: These guys throw themselves out of 50-year-old aircraft into burning Siberian forests. (National Geographic Magazine feature, February 2008)
Photo by Mark Thiessen
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You may also email David Braun (email@example.com) if you have a comment that you would like to be considered for adding to this page. You are welcome to comment anonymously under a pseudonym. | <urn:uuid:10b103c1-284b-41c5-8dc9-bc9d1b7577ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2010/08/09/russia_chokes_as_fires_rage_worst_summer_ever/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933289 | 827 | 2.84375 | 3 |
New to Typophile? Accounts are free, and easy to set up.
In current practice, usage of the term case most likely refers to the use of uppercase (capital) or lowercase letters. See some examples below. In letterpress practice, case refers to the physical box (case), usually wooden, that a given set of letters is stored. Capital letters were stored in the upper (top) case and lowercase letters were stored in the lower (bottom) case.
ALL CAPS -- All letters are capitalized.
Title Case -- The first letter of each word is capitalized.
Sentence case -- where the first character is capital and the remaining words are lowercase.
Camel Case -- Also called internal caps where one or more characters in a given word (or string) has a capitalized letter. This is often used in programming languages and increasingly seen for naming or branding companies or products.
Greek OpenType Features | <urn:uuid:06038c8e-90d1-4164-95a8-b7f743ee2869> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://typophile.com/node/12862 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901676 | 194 | 3.453125 | 3 |
|born on||11 March 1611 at 12:00 (= 12:00 noon )|
|Place||Southwick, England, 50n50, 0w13|
|Timezone||LMT m0w13 (is local mean time)|
|Astrology data||20°32' 15°14 Asc. 17°30'|
British scientist, a brilliant linguist and mathematician. He was the son of a non-conformist clergyman who died when the boy was five and left the legacy of a good library. Pell was a bright and multi-lingual student and very handsome. Famed in philosophy and math, he established a school in Sussex.
Married in 1632, he had eight kids. Also unpractical and improvident, he struggled with his financial position and died in poverty 12/12/1685.
- Relationship : Marriage 1632 (Lasting)
- Death, Cause unspecified 12 December 1685 (Age 74)
chart Placidus Equal_H.
- Death of Father 1617 (When he was five)
Martin Harvey in Nativitas I, "His youngest uncle guessed 'about noon.'"
- Notable : Famous : Top 5% of Profession
- Notable : Extraordinary Talents : For Languages
- Vocation : Science : Mathematics/ Statistics (Mathematician)
- Family : Parenting : Kids more than 3 (Eight)
- Family : Relationship : Number of Marriages (One)
- Family : Childhood : Family traumatic event (Age five when dad died)
- Lifestyle : Financial : On the edge (Impractical; died in poverty) | <urn:uuid:2bd8bc63-0ea9-4134-8957-a9c8e63a7056> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Pell,_John | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.89329 | 342 | 3 | 3 |
What fun it is to build a snowman each year! This Shared Reading book is similar to the familar "Buckle My Shoe" but with original text. It shows each step necessary to make a snowman. It is a perfect way to develop the concept of sequencing with your students. ?This full colored printable comes with matching pictures and word cards for your Pocket Chart & a student extension worksheet to use in a poetry journal or as a Take-Home page.?Enjoy our poem! Jackie and Kylene
Jackie and Kylene primary grade teachers who specialize in Singable Text for grades Kindergarten & 1st. Our songs, poems, and songs are always set to familiar tunes and great for developing literacy skills in both English only and English Language Learners. We LOVE creating both our singables and other resources that support teachers like skill-based games, writing extensions, emergent readers.
Visit our website at www.jkcurriculumconnection.com for additional FREE downloads and teaching tips and resources. | <urn:uuid:6b97b0e6-b4fe-4444-96af-1e5e97be9b8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/jbalbright/1-2-a-snowman-for-you-shared-reading-book | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918246 | 209 | 3.140625 | 3 |
Variation is a term used in genetic science, and concerns the emergence of different varieties, or species. This genetic phenomenon causes individuals or groups within a given species to possess different features from others. For example, all human beings on Earth possess essentially the same genetic information. But thanks to the variation potential permitted by that genetic information, some people have round eyes, or red hair, or a long nose, or are short and stocky in stature.
Darwinists, however, seek to portray variation within a species as evidence for evolution. The fact is, however, that variations constitute no such thing, because variation consists of the emergence of different combinations of genetic information that already exists, and cannot endow individuals with any new genetic information or characteristics.
Variation is always restricted by existing genetic information. These boundaries are known as the gene pool in genetic science. (See The Gene Pool.) Darwin, however, thought that variation had no limits when he proposed his theory267, and he depicted various examples of variation as the most important evidence for evolution in his book The Origin of Species.
All human beings on Earth share basically the same genetic information, but thanks to the variation potential permitted by this genetic information, they often look very different from one another.
According to Darwin, for example, farmers mating different variations of cow in order to obtain breeds with better yields of milk would eventually turn cows into another species altogether. Darwin’s idea of limitless change stemmed from the primitive level of science in his day. As a result of similar experiments on living things in the 20th century, however, science revealed a principle known as genetic homeostasis. This principle revealed that all attempts to change a living species by means of interbreeding (forming different variations) were in vain, and that between species, there were unbreachable walls. In other words, it was absolutely impossible for cattle to evolve into another species as the result of farmers mating different breeds to produce different variations, as Darwin had claimed would happen.
Luther Burbank, one of the world’s foremost authorities on the subject of genetic hybrids, expresses a similar truth: “there are limits to the development possible, and these limits follow a law.” 268 Thousands of years of collective experience have shown that the amount of biological change obtained using cross-breeding is always limited, and that there is a limit to the variations that any one species can undergo.
Indeed, in the introduction to their book Natural Limits to Biological Change Professor of Biology Lane P. Lester and the molecular biologist Raymond G. Bohlin wrote:
That populations of living organisms may change in their anatomy, physiology, genetic structure, etc., over a period of time is beyond question. What remains elusive is the answer to the question, How much change is possible, and by what genetic mechanism will these changes take place? Plant and animal breeders can marshal an impressive array of examples to demonstrate the extent to which living systems can be altered. But when a breeder begins with a dog, he ends up with a dog—a rather strange looking one, perhaps, but a dog nonetheless. A fruit fly remains a fruit fly; a rose, a rose, and so on.269
Variations and their various changes are restricted inside the bounds of a species’ genetic information, and they can never add new genetic information to species. For that reason, no variation can be regarded as an example of evolution.
The Danish scientist W. L. Johannsen summarizes the situation:
The variations upon which Darwin and Wallace placed their emphasis cannot be selectively pushed beyond a certain point, that such variability does not contain the secret of “indefinite departure.” 270
The fact that there are different human races in the world or the differences between parents and children can be explained in terms of variation. Yet there is no question of any new component being added to their gene pool. For example, no matter how much you seek to enrich their species, cats will always remain cats, and will never evolve into any other mammal. It is impossible for the sophisticated sonar system in a marine mammal to emerge through recombination. (See Recombination.) Variation may account for the differences between human races, but it can never provide any basis for the claim that apes developed into human beings.
Vestigial Organs Thesis
One claim that long occupied a place in the literature of evolution but was quietly abandoned once it was realized to be false is the concept of vestigial organs. Some evolutionists, however, still imagine that such organs represent major evidence for evolution and seek to portray them as such.
A century or so ago, the claim was put forward that some living things had organs that were inherited from their ancestors, but which had gradually become smaller and even functionless from lack of use.
The tonsils, which evolutionists long sought to define as vestigial organs, have been found to play an important role in protecting against throat in fections, particularly up until adulthood.
Those organs were in fact ones whose functions had not yet been identified. And so, the long list of organs believed by evolutionists to be vestigial grew ever shorter. The list of originally proposed by the German anatomist R. Wiedersheim in 1895 contain approximately 100 organs, including the human appendix and the coccyx. But the appendix was eventually realized to be a part of the lymph system that combats microbes entering the body, as was stated in one medical reference source in 1997:
Other bodily organs and tissues—-the thymus, liver, spleen, appendix, bone marrow, and small collections of lymphatic tissue such as the tonsils in the throat and Peyer’s patch in the small intestine—are also part of the lymphatic system. They too help the body fight infection. 271
The tonsils, which also appeared on that same list of vestigial organs, were likewise discovered to play an important role against infections, especially up until adulthood. (Like the appendix, tonsils sometimes become infected by the very bacteria they seek to combat, and so must be surgically removed.) The coccyx, the end of the backbone, was seen to provide support for the bones around the pelvic bone and to be a point of fixation for certain small muscles.
In the years that followed, other organs regarded as vestigial were shown to serve specific purposes: The thymus gland activates the body’s defense system by setting the T cells into action. The pineal gland is responsible for the production of important hormones. The thyroid establishes balanced growth in babies and children. The pituitary ensures that various hormone glands are functioning correctly.
Today, many evolutionists accept that the myth of vestigial organs stemmed from sheer ignorance. The evolutionist biologist S.R. Scadding expresses this in an article published in the magazine Evolutionary Theory:
Since it is not possible to unambiguously identify useless structures, and since the structure of the argument used is not scientifically valid, I conclude that ‘vestigial organs’ provide no special evidence for the theory of evolution.272
Evolutionists also make a significant logical error in their claim that vestigial organs in living things are a legacy from their ancestors: Some organs referred to as “vestigial” are not present in the species claimed to be the forerunners of man.
For example, some apes have no appendix. The zoologist Professor Hannington Enoch, an opponent of the vestigial organ thesis, sets out this error of logic:
Apes possess an appendix, whereas their less immediate relatives, the lower apes, do not; but it appears again among the still lower mammals such as the opossum. How can the evolutionists account for this? 273
The scenario of vestigial organs put forward by evolutionists contains its own internal inconsistencies, besides being scientifically erroneous. We humans have no vestigial organs inherited from our supposed ancestors, because humans did not evolve randomly from other living things, but were fully and perfectly created in the form we have today.
It has now been realized that the appendix (below), which evolutionist biologists imagined to be vestigial, plays an important role in the body's immune system. The lowest bone in the spinal column, known as the coccyx, is al so not vestigial, but a point for muscles to at tach to. | <urn:uuid:cbaed394-8c49-43f9-8158-1c78ccd127c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://harunyahya.com/en/books/14789/The_Evolution_Impasse_II/chapter/4896 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957133 | 1,725 | 4.21875 | 4 |
The dangers of feeding lorikeets
Lorikeet feeding habits
Lorikeets are brightly coloured parrots of the family Psittacidae and sub-family Loriinae (lories and lorikeets). Six species are found in Australia, although further species occur in New Guinea, Indonesia and many South Pacific islands.
The tip of a lorikeet's tongue holds a brush-like appendage, enabling the bird to feed on pollen, nectar and fruits. Because lorikeets are mainly seen feeding on blossoms, it was long thought that nectar was their staple diet. However, studies have now shown that pollen is probably their major food. They also eat insects and insect larvae, together with other invertebrates found in foliage and blossom.
Lorikeets travel in small, swift flocks which attract attention with their piercing calls. The birds locate blossoms by sight and by the calls of other birds already feeding. When food is abundant, large numbers gather in the blossoms and foliage, clamouring noisily.
Lorikeets have a very simple digestive system. Proteins and fats are obtained from pollen and insects, and carbohydrates come from the sugars found in nectar. They spend a large amount of time foraging for food, which indicates that carbohydrates are extremely important to them. Their diet is high in energy, and low in protein.
The dangers of feeding lorikeets
Many people have taken to encouraging lorikeets into their gardens by giving them a variety of alluring foods. These foods are usually based on sugar, honey or jam, which will ensure regular visits to the garden by these wonderfully happy, colourful birds. However, it is this very act of 'kindness' that can cause the death of lorikeets at an unnaturally early age.
OEH officers became concerned at outbreaks of lorikeets dying in large numbers for no apparent reason, and decided to investigate. Autopsies were carried out by NSW Agriculture. With other investigations, these autopsies established that the lorikeets were dying from a disease called necrotizing enteritis. A bacteria called clostridia was isolated as the organism responsible.
Necrotizing enteritis is associated with poor hygiene and an inadequate diet, and it was found that the disease is not normally associated with lorikeets living a natural way of life. The scientists could directly relate the lorikeets' deaths to inadequate artificial diets, and to the unsanitary conditions of trays and other containers from which they were being fed.
Another disease is also having a serious impact on lorikeets. Called psittacine beak and feather disease (PBFD) or psittacine circovirus disease, it is considered the most important viral disease affecting cockatoos, parrots, lories, lorikeets and macaws around the world. Affecting the immune system of the birds, it often results in an AIDS-like condition. The keratin in the birds' bodies breaks down, causing deformed beaks and feathers, and feather loss. The disease is usually fatal, but infected birds may not display symptoms for many months or even years.
Infected birds can drop faeces, which contain the potentially infectious circovirus particles, into the environment to infect other birds. Unfortunately, there is a great potential for the virus to spread at places like feed stations. Clustering in large numbers, many birds may come into contact with contaminated perches and food dishes.
Preventing lorikeet deaths
Obviously the best solution to these problems is to stop feeding the birds altogether. The only feeding method recommended by OEH is to plant a variety of flowering native shrubs, such as grevilleas, callistemon (bottlebrushes) and banksias, around your garden. These plants not only look good; they also provide safe, healthy food for blossom-feeding birds such as lorikeets and honeyeaters.
Page last updated: 15 April 2011 | <urn:uuid:e0afd3d8-8fbf-4b4b-97fa-d0872c3e4772> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/animals/TheDangersOfFeedingLorikeets.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966955 | 839 | 3.734375 | 4 |
Doing u-substitution twice (second time with w) Example where we do substitution twice to get the integral into a reasonable form
Doing u-substitution twice (second time with w)
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- Let's see if we can take the integral of cosine of 5x over e to the sine of 5x dx.
- And there's a crow squawking outside of my window so I'll try to stay focused.
- So let's think about whether u-substitution might be appropriate. Your first temptation might to said,
- "Hey, maybe we let u equal sine of 5x, and if u is equal to sine of 5x,
- we have something that is pretty close to du up here." Let's verify that.
- So du could be equal to -- so du/dx (derivative of u with respect to x),
- well we just use the chain rule. Derivative of 5x is 5,
- times the derivative of sine of 5x with respect to 5x, that's just going to be cosine of 5x.
- If we want to write this in differential form, which is useful when we do our u-substitution,
- we could say that du is equal to 5 cosine 5x.
- Now when you look over here, we don't have quite du there. We have just cosine of 5x dx--
- sorry, I need cosine of 5x dx, just like that. So when you look over here,
- you have a cosine of 5x dx, but we don't have a 5 cosine of 5x dx,
- but we know how to solve that. We can multiply by 5 and divide by 5.
- 1/5 times 5 is just going to be 1. So we haven't changed the value of the expression.
- But when we do it this way, we see pretty clearly, we have our u and we have our du.
- Our du is 5 -- let me circle that and let me do that in that blue color --
- is 5 cosine of 5x dx. So we can rewrite this entire expression as --
- I'll do that 1/5 in purple -- this is going to be equal to 1/5 --
- I hope you don't hear that crow outside; he's getting quite obnoxious --
- 1/5 times the integral of, well all this stuff in blue is my du,
- and then that is over e to the u. So how do we take the anti-derivative of this?
- Well, you might be tempted to -- well, what would you do here?
- Well, we're still not quite ready to simply take the anti-derivative here.
- If I were to rewrite this, I could rewrite this as (this is equal to)
- 1/5 times the integral of e to the negative u du.
- And so, what might jump out of you is maybe we do another substitution,
- and we already use the letter u, so maybe we might use w. We'll do some "w-substitution."
- And you might be able to do this in your head, but we'll do w-substitution just to make it a little bit clearer.
- So let's -- this would've been really useful if this was just e to the u,
- because we know the anti-derivative of e to the u. It's just e to the u.
- So let's just try to get it in terms of the form of e to the negative something.
- So let's set -- and I'm running out of colors here -- w equal to negative u.
- And in that case, then dw (derivative of w with respect to u) is negative 1,
- or if we were to write that statement in differential form,
- dw is equal to du times negative 1 is negative du.
- So this right over here would be our w, and do we have a dw here?
- Well we just have du; we don't have a negative du there.
- But we can create a negative du by multiplying this inside by negative 1,
- but then also multiplying the outside by negative 1.
- Negative 1 times negative 1 is positive 1; we haven't changed the value.
- We have to do both of these in order for it to make sense.
- Or I could do it like this. So negative 1 over here, and a negative 1 right over there.
- And if we do it in that form, then this negative 1 times du --
- that's the same thing as negative du -- this is this right over here.
- And so we can rewrite our integral -- it's going to be equal to --
- now it's going to be negative 1/5 -- trying to use the colors as best as I can --
- times the indefinite integral of e to the -- well instead of negative u, we could right w.
- E to the w. And instead of du times negative 1 or negative du, we can write "dw."
- Now this simplifies things a good bit. We know what the anti-derivative of this in terms of w.
- This is going to be equal to negative 1/5 e to the w, and then we might have some constant there,
- so I just do a plus C. And now we just have to all of our un-substituting.
- So we know that w is equal to negative u, so we could write that --
- so this is equal to negative 1/5 -- I want to stay true to my colors -- e to the negative u,
- that's what w is equal to, plus C. But we're still not done un-substituting.
- We know that u is equal to sine of 5x. So we can write this as being equal to
- negative 1/5 times e to the negative u, which is negative u is sine of 5x,
- and then finally, we have our plus C. Now, there was a simpler way that we could've done this
- by just doing one substitution. But then you kind of have to look ahead a little bit
- and realize that it was not trivial to take -- not to bad to take your anti-derivative of e to the negative u.
- The inside that you might of have although you shouldn't really hold yourself
- when you feel too bad when you didn't see that inside.
- We could've rewritten that original integral -- let me rewrite it --
- it's cosine of 5x over e to the sine of 5x dx. We could've written this entire integral as being equal to
- cosine of 5x times e to the negative sine of 5x dx. And in this situation, we could've said
- u to be equal to negative of 5x, and say well, if u is equal to --
- or negative sine of 5x, then du is going to be equal to negative 5 cosine of 5x,
- and we don't have a negative 5 -- oh, dx, we don't have a negative 5 here,
- but we can construct one by putting negative 5 there, then multiplying by negative 1/5,
- and then that would've immediately simplified this integral right over here to be equal to
- negative 1/5 times the integral of -- well, we have our du -- let me do this in a different color --
- that's the negative 5 -- let me do it this way -- negative 5 cosine of 5x dx.
- So that is our du -- I'm just changing the order of multiplication -- times e to the u.
- This whole thing now is u this second time around. So if we did it this way, with just one substitution,
- we could've immediately gotten to the result that we wanted. You take the anti-derivative of this --
- I'll do it in one color now, just 'cause I think you get the idea -- this is equal to
- negative 1/5 e to the u plus C. u is equal to negative sine of 5x,
- so this is equal to negative 1/5 e to the negative sine of 5x plus C. And we're done.
- So this one is faster; it's simpler, and over time, you might even start being able to do this in your head.
- This top one, you still didn't mess up by just setting u equal to sine of 5x;
- we just have to do an extra substitution in order to work it through all the way.
- And I was able to do this video despite the crowing crow outside -- or squawking crow.
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At 5:31, how is the moon large enough to block the sun? Isn't the sun way larger?
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Definitions of bullying
Bullying is when a person or a group repeatedly and intentionally uses or abuse their power to intimidate, hurt, oppress or damage someone else. It can be covert or cyber-based (happening online through social networks or even through mobile phones). Bullying can be physical or emotional.
According to the National Centre Against Bullying, there are five different kinds of bullying behaviour. They are:
1. Physical bullying: when physical actions such as hitting, poking, tripping or pushing, are used to hurt and intimidate. Repeatedly and intentionally damaging someone's belongings is also physical bullying, says the centre.
2. Verbal bullying: involves the use of negative words, like name calling, insults, homophobic or racist slurs, or words used to intentionally upset someone.
3. Social bullying: when lies, the spreading of rumours or nasty pranks are used. This includes repeated mimicking and deliberate exclusion.
4. Psychological bullying: involves the repeated and intentional use of words or actions which can cause psychological harm. Examples include intimidation, manipulation and stalking.
5. Cyber bullying: this is the big one at the moment and is when technology is used to verbally, socially or psychologically bully. It can occur in chat rooms, on social networking sites, through emails or on mobile phones.
- mutual arguments and disagreements
- single episodes of social rejection or dislike
- single-episode acts of nastiness or spite
- random acts of aggression or intimidation.
Find more bullying solutions and information
- 15 solutions to bullying and cyber bullying
- Helping when your child is bullied
- How bullies pick their victim
- My child is a bully
- What makes a bully
- What is bullying
- Facts and figures about bullying
- Is your child being bullied
- How to deal with bullying
- What parents can do about bullying
- When your child is a bully, here's what to do
- How to talk about bullying and cyber bullying
- Cyber bullying: here's what it is and how to tackle it
- How parents can prevent bullying
- School policies on bullying
This article was written by Fiona Baker, former editor in chief of Mother & Baby, Pregnancy & Birth and Wondertime magazines, for Kidspot, Australia's leading parenting and pregnancy resource. Sources include Bullying No Way , National Centre Against Bullying, Raising Children Network, Bullying Hurts brochure
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- 2. 'Granny's gone to heaven': How to talk to your kids about death
- 3. How to get kids to listen
- 4. How to stop nagging
- 5. How birth order affects siblings
- 6. Pool safety
- 7. Kaz Cooke's 5 sibling rivalry tips
- 8. United parenting: how to be on the same page
- 9. How to tackle cyber bullies
- 10. When your child is the bully, here's what to do | <urn:uuid:0aee6d75-e2cf-43c9-82ef-c467587a8389> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kidspot.com.au/School-Bullying-Definitions-of-bullying+3109+258+article.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.927192 | 618 | 3.921875 | 4 |
Summer is usually the time for beach fun and barbeques but if you're stuck inside with a miserable cold, you may be sick longer than usual.
Medical experts are now saying that summer colds can last longer and have a higher chance of recurring than winter colds.
Winter viruses that cause upper respiratory infections are joined in the warmer months by enterovirus. This virus spread by coughing, sneezing and fecal matter. On top of the typical common cold symptoms, enterovirus can cause diarrhea, sore throats and rashes and linger around longer.
Another summer-specific factors is constant exposure to re-circulated air, which can dry out the lining of the nostrils and provide easier access to viruses. Dr. Muhammed Choudhry of Texas Health WNJ says there are several way to battle these summer colds.
"Most of these should respond to rest and plenty of hydration. They are usually caused by viruses and should get better in a few days. If they do not, you should talk to your doctor and see if there's something else that needs to be done such as a prescription to an antibiotic," said Choudhry.
You can prevent summer colds by following these tips:
WASH HANDS OFTEN
GET PLENTY OF SLEEP
EAT A BALANCED DIET
AVOID CONTACT WITH SICK PEOPLE
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Studies of a thigh bone fossil have uncovered strong evidence that a human-like creature walked upright six million years ago rather than the widely accepted four million years ago.
Walking on two feet, bipedalism , is one of the characteristics that distinguishes apes from humans.
‘Dating the beginnings of bipedalism is very important in the human story,' said Chris Stringer, human evolution expert at the Natural History Museum. 'Because, for many experts, it would mark a clear divergence from the ancestral/ape pattern and show that the human lineage had really begun.'
‘Bipedalism probably does represent a fundamental first step in human evolution,’ Stringer said. ‘As Darwin recognised, walking on two legs frees up the arms and hands for tasks like carrying, tool making, and tool use. And much of what happened in human evolution later on stemmed from it.’
CT (Computed tomography) scans were carried out on the fossil thigh bone and the density patterns of the bone were much closer to a modern human than to an ape.
Reported on the National Geographic website, Robert Eckhardt, who lead the research team at Pennsylvania State University, said ‘In present-day chimps and gorillas, the thicknesses in the upper and lower parts of that bone are approximately equal. In modern humans, the bone on top is thinner than on the bottom by a ratio of one to four or more.’ The ratio in the fossil was one to three, showing a bone formation more in line for an upright walker.
Eckhardt and the research team report their findings in the journal Science . | <urn:uuid:ca11177c-8f6e-47aa-bf65-328acb265754> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/news/2004/sept/news_5312.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948439 | 340 | 3.921875 | 4 |
After failing to win reelection to the Congress Morris moved to Philadelphia and resumed his law practice. A series of newspaper articles on finance secured him the post of assistant to Robert Morris (no relative) in handling the finances of the new government (1781-85). In this position he planned the U.S. decimal coinage system. As a member of the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787 Morris played an active role, defending a strong centralized government and a powerful executive, opposing concessions on slavery, and putting the Constitution into its final literary form. He remained, however, a champion of aristocracy who distrusted democratic rule.
In 1789 Moris went to France as a private business agent, remained in Europe, and was appointed (1792) U.S. minister to France. During the French Revolution his sympathies lay with the royalists; he even helped plan a scheme to rescue Louis XVI. His recall was requested in 1794, but he traveled for several years before returning to America in 1798. From 1800 to 1803, Morris, a Federalist, was a U.S. senator from New York. He then retired to his estate. He condemned the War of 1812, going so far as to recommend the severance of the federal union. Morris was a strong advocate of the Erie Canal and served as chairman (1810-13) of the canal commission.
See his Diary of the French Revolution (1939), edited by his great-granddaughter, Beatrix Cary Davenport; biographies by T. Roosevelt (1888, repr. 1972), D. Walther (tr. 1934), and R. Brookhiser (2003); M. M. Mintz, Gouverneur Morris and the American Revolution (1970).
(born , Jan. 31, 1752, Morrisania house, Manhattan—died Nov. 6, 1816, Morrisania house) American statesman and financial expert. He was admitted to the bar (1771) and served in the New York Provincial Congress (1775–77) and the Continental Congress (1778–79). He distrusted the democratic tendencies of colonists who wanted to break with England, but his belief in independence led him to join their ranks. As assistant superintendent of finance (1781–85), he proposed the decimal coinage system that became the basis for U.S. currency. A delegate to the Constitutional Convention, he helped write the final draft of the Constitution of the United States. He served as minister to France (1792–94) and as a U.S. Senator (1800–03), and he was the first chairman of the Erie Canal commission (1810–16).
Learn more about Morris, Gouverneur with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Born in what is now part of New York City in 1752, Gouverneur Morris was of Welsh and Huguenot background. Morris graduated from King's College, known since the American Revolution as Columbia University, in 1768. He practiced law in the city starting in 1771.
Morris had a wooden leg as a result of an accident that occurred while he was climbing onto a carriage without anyone tending to the horses, which suddenly took off, catching his left leg in one of the carriage wheels on May 14, 1780. Physicians told Morris that they had no choice but to remove the leg below the knee.
On May 8, 1775, Morris was elected to represent his family estate in the New York Provincial Congress, an extralegal assembly dedicated to achieving independence. His advocacy of independence brought him into conflict with his family, as well as his mentor William Smith, who had abandoned the patriot cause when it moved towards independence.
Despite an automatic exemption from military duty because of his handicap and his service in the legislature, he joined a special "briefs" club for the protection of New York City, a forerunner of the modern New York Guard.
After the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, the British seized New York City and his family's estate. His mother, a Loyalist, gave the estate over to the British for military use. Because his estate was now in the possession of the enemy, he was no longer eligible for election to the New York state legislature and was instead appointed as a delegate to the Continental Congress.
He took his seat in Congress on January 28, 1778 and was immediately selected to a committee in charge of coordinating reforms in the military with General Washington. On a trip to Valley Forge, he was so appalled by the conditions of the troops that he became the spokesman for the Continental Army in Congress and pushed for substantial reforms in the training and methods of the army. He also signed the Articles of Confederation in 1778.
In 1779, he was defeated for re-election to Congress, largely because his advocacy of a strong central government was at odds with the decentralist views in New York. Defeated in his home state, he moved to Philadelphia to work as a lawyer and merchant.
In Philadelphia, he was appointed assistant superintendent of finance (1781-1785), and was a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, before returning to live in New York in 1788.
During the convention, he was a friend and ally of George Washington and others who favored a stronger central government. Morris was elected to serve on a committee of five (chaired by William Samuel Johnson) that would draft the final language of the proposed Constitution. Catherine Drinker Bowen, in Miracle at Philadelphia, called Morris the committee's "amanuensis," meaning that it was his pen that was responsible for most of the draft.
"An aristocrat to the core," Morris believed that "there never was, nor ever will be a civilized Society without an Aristocracy". He also thought that common people were incapable of self-government and feared that the poor would sell their votes to rich people, and consequently thought that voting should be restricted to property owners. Morris also opposed admitting new Western states on an equal basis with the existing Eastern states, fearing that the interior wilderness could not furnish "enlightened" statesmen. At the Convention he gave more speeches than any other delegate, totaling 173.
He went to Europe on business in 1789 and served as Minister Plenipotentiary to France from 1792-1794. His diaries written during that time have become an invaluable chronicle of the French Revolution, capturing much of the turbulence and violence of that era. He returned to the United States in 1798 and was elected in 1800 as a Federalist to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of James Watson, serving from April 3, 1800, to March 3, 1803. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1802. After leaving the Senate, he served as chairman of the Erie Canal Commission, 1810-1813.
At the age of 57, he married Anne Cary ("Nancy") Randolph, who was the sister to Thomas Mann Randolph, husband of Thomas Jefferson's daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph. He died at the family estate of Morrisania and is buried at St. Ann's Episcopal Church in the Bronx borough of New York City.
Morris's half-brother, Lewis Morris (1726-1798), was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Another half-brother, Staats Long Morris, was a Loyalist and major-general in the British army during the American Revolution. His nephew, Lewis Richard Morris, served in the Vermont legislature and in the United States Congress. His grandnephew was William M. Meredith, United States Secretary of the Treasury under Zachary Taylor. Morris's great-grandson, also named Gouverneur (1876-1953), was an author of pulp novels and short stories during the early twentieth century. Several of his works were adapted into films, including the famous Lon Chaney, Sr. film The Penalty.
Envoy to the Terror: Gouverneur Morris and the French Revolution.(Napoleon's Troublesome Americans: Franco-American Relations, 1804-1815)(Book review)
Jun 22, 2007; Envoy to the Terror: Gouverneur Morris and the French Revolution. By Melanie Randolph Miller. (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2005.... | <urn:uuid:ca50703c-be5e-4ae8-b152-642554eb74ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.reference.com/browse/Gouverneur+Morris | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978672 | 1,712 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Habitat Affects Escape Behavior of Birds
It seems birds of the same species raised in diverse settings behave differently in the face of a threat. Birds raised in an urban environment react differently than country-bred birds when faced with a predator.
A study undertaken by Diego Ibanez-Alamo, researcher at the University of Granada (UGR) and Anders Pape Moller from Paris-Sud University, highlights the fact that urbanization plays an influential role in a bird's survival strategies.
They analyzed the escape techniques of 1,132 birds belonging to 15 species in different rural and urban areas.
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The study showed that city birds have changed their behavior to adapt to new threats like cats, which are their main enemies in an urban habitat, instead of their more traditional enemies in the countryside, such as the sparrow hawk.
"When they are captured, city birds are less aggressive, they produce alarm calls more frequently, they remain more paralyzed when attacked by their predator and they lose more feathers than their countryside counterparts," explained by Juan Diego Ibanez-Alamo.
They were surprised to see that urbanization was directly linked with these differences. This finding gives rise to the concept that escape strategies evolve alongside the expansion of cities.
"It is crucial to discover how birds adapt to transformations in their habitat so that we can decrease their effects," said Ibanez-Alamo..
"Predation change caused by city growth is serious," outlined Ibanez-Alamo.
As the scientist indicates, tactics against their hunters are "crucial" so that birds can adapt to their new environment: "Birds should modify their behavior to be able to survive in cities because if not, they will become extinct at the mercy of urban growth."
These results appear in the journal, Animal Behavior. | <urn:uuid:cd6f5793-37ef-4050-ada7-07a73ce582e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/4148/20121108/habitat-affects-escape-behavior-of-birds.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954264 | 375 | 3.828125 | 4 |
FDA OKs Nexium for Kids 1-11
FDA Approves Nexium for Short-Term Treatment of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) in Young Children
Feb. 28, 2008 -- The FDA today approved short-term use of the drug Nexium for children aged 1-11 with gastroesophageal
reflux disease (GERD).
The FDA OK'd Nexium in two forms -- a delayed-release capsule and a liquid
form -- in doses of 10 milligrams or 20 milligrams for kids aged 1-11.
Nexium was already approved for children aged 12-17 in 20 mg or 40 mg
"This approval provides important information for appropriate dosing for
children ages 1-11 years with GERD," Julie Beitz, MD, director of the FDA's
Office for Drug Evaluation III in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
"Children prescribed this drug should be monitored by their physicians for
any adverse drug reactions."
Nexium is part of a class of drugs known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs).
PPIs decrease the amount of acid produced in the stomach and help heal erosions
in the lining of the esophagus, a condition known as erosive
The FDA approved Nexium's use in children aged 1-11 for short-term treatment
of GERD based data extrapolated from previous studies done in adults, as well
as studies done in children.
In one study, 109 GERD patients aged 1-11 were treated with Nexium once
daily for up to eight weeks to evaluate Nexium's safety and tolerability. Most
of the patients showed healing of their esophageal erosions after eight weeks
The most common adverse reactions in children treated with Nexium were headache, diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea, gas, constipation, dry mouth, and
Nexium isn't approved for children younger than 1. The drug's safety and
efficacy hasn't been established in children in that age range, the FDA
Nexium is made by the drug company AstraZeneca. | <urn:uuid:fd2fc2d7-ff17-4181-a9c1-8cd3dea5fa75> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://children.webmd.com/news/20080228/fda-oks-nexium-for-kids-1-to-11?src=rsf_full-7001_pub_none_rltd | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935739 | 442 | 2.578125 | 3 |
I was helping a friend with setting up her iMac computer yesterday for genealogy and she said something that caught my attention. She said, "I have to learn what all the genealogy terms mean." That brought home a common problem with all specializations; learning the jargon.
Jargon is a really a technical term I became acquainted with during my graduate studies in Linguistics at the University of Utah. It is defined as special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand. The main problem with jargon is that we often do not even know we are using it.
Take for example, the word "genealogy" itself, as in "I am doing my genealogy" or "I am working on my genealogy." What does that statement communicate to a non-genealogist? And sometimes we wonder why we get blank stares. The challenge is that there is really no way to avoid jargon. It is present in every (I mean every) activity and profession and interest in the entire world from skydiving to sewing. Every human activity has its own special set of insider terms.
Jargon can be very exclusionary. If you are the outsider, trying to understand what the "insiders" are talking about can be a formidable challenge. An extreme type of jargon is called an argot. Sometimes the word argot is associated with criminal activities so using the word jargon is more appropriate. Usually term "argot" is used to identify an extreme jargon specifically designed to exclude outsiders. What is more difficult is that the people who are using the jargon are usually not even aware that they are using specialized words and terminology.
I have noticed that many people who are new to genealogy are put off immediately by genealogists using terms they don't immediately understand. For example, they are asked if they have a pedigree chart or family group record. Although these terms seem so simple and fundamental, they are in fact very specialized uses of common words. If you add in the jargon associated with computers and computer use, coming into the world of genealogy can be formidable.
By the way, it often doesn't help to try to explain or define our "jargon" terms because we end up using even more jargon to define the terms. I suggest that when you are talking to non-genealogists, you think carefully about the terms you are using and ask frequent questions to see if those you are speaking to understand what you are saying. | <urn:uuid:6e93fe2b-c79c-4a5b-bddd-d6a159374e81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2012/05/understanding-jargon-of-genealogy.html?showComment=1337842114368 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974727 | 511 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Editor’s Note: Ronald E. Hall, Ph.D. is a professor at Michigan State University and the author of "The Melanin Millennium." He has lectured on skin color both domestically and internationally, and testified as an expert witness in skin color discrimination cases. His forthcoming book is a revised edition of "The Color Complex."
By Ronald E. Hall, Special to CNN
(CNN) - In the early part of this century, there were separate facilities for blacks and whites, the Ku Klux Klan was a popular white supremacist organization and racism was easy to see.
In 1964, civil rights legislation outlawed racial discrimination, and there has been an advance of racial equality, including the election, and re-election of the first black president.
But while overt acts of racism have declined, discrimination continues in another form: colorism.
Colorism is a manifestation of how Western imperialism has exported European ideals, most notably the universal idealization of light skin, to American shores.
Not only have whites discriminated against blacks because of skin color, but people of color have also discriminated against one another. While colorism has existed for some time, it has only been recently acknowledged, as seen in the increase of legal cases and studies examining this “ism.”
Colorism is rooted in the long span of American history. The NAACP’s Crisis magazine printed an editorial on a heated exchange between the light-skinned W. E. B. DuBois and the dark-skinned Marcus Garvey. DuBois referred to Garvey as "fat, black” and “ugly," as if to suggest that a dark skin color denoted inferiority. Such an exchange was not an anomaly. A prominent NAACP official referred to Garvey by skin color, as a "Jamaican Negro of unmixed stock.” The not-so-subtle derogatory remark implied that having dark skin was unattractive.
Recently, I was retained as an expert witness for a suit filed against Sears Holding Management Corp. in Chicago. The plaintiff in the case was African-American, and previously employed by the defendant as an executive. In filing suit, the plaintiff alleged she was denied equal pay, promotion and then terminated on the basis of her age, race and skin color. According to testimony, a light-skinned African-American male employee of the company with less seniority cooperated in the plaintiff’s eventual termination. The case is ongoing.
In 1989, the Federal District Court of Atlanta heard the case of Walker vs. the Internal Revenue Service. Tracey Walker, the plaintiff, alleged that her IRS supervisor discriminated against her via performance evaluations on the basis of skin color. This is a landmark case as both the plaintiff and her supervisor are African-Americans. The plaintiff is light-skinned, whereas the defendant, by comparison, is dark-skinned. The presiding judge determined that such discrimination is a fact in the African-American community but that the plaintiff had failed to prove it to his satisfaction in her particular case.
The issue has not only been among African-Americans. In Felix v. Marquez, a case litigated in 1981 by the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, the litigants were employees of the Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in Washington. The darker-skinned Felix alleged that the lighter-skinned defendant did not promote her because of colorism. During the trial, Felix contended that only two of her 28 fellow employees were as dark or darker in skin color than she, which Felix suggested is the reason she was not promoted.
The increase in legal cases has been telling of the increase in acknowledging colorism in the United States, and recent studies have also explored the topic around the world.
Eurogamy is a discriminatory marital pattern based on having light skin. Eurogamy was demonstrated in a study done in Asia using random samples of a mail-order bride magazine published from 1991 through 2000. In the study, 620 Asian females were questioned about their spousal preferences. When light skin was a requirement for marriage, 96% of the females requested Caucasian men, 2% requested Asian men and 2% requested Hispanic men.
Colorism is manifested in discriminatory references to skin color, even who is seen as a suitable mate: If there is no action, it will continue as another insidious “ism” of the new millennium.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ronald E. Hall. | <urn:uuid:1ca79dbb-a837-4931-90f1-0987fae2bad7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/13/opinion-colorism-is-the-new-ism/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97268 | 914 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Title IX built generation of better athletesby Alex Friedrich, Minnesota Public Radio
ST. PAUL, Minn. — For the girls at this year's Minnesota high school track and field championships, Title IX is a lesson in a history book.
The sports it helped open up now dominate the lives of many of the girls.
Take 18-year-old Aitkin, Minn., High School senior Emily Lundgren, who runs the 400 meters.
Lundgren, who has been captain of her track and basketball teams and also plays tennis, said sports have been a big part of her life since the first grade.
"That's what you do in your summer — you practice your sports," she said. "They mean a lot to me, to say the least. They've really made me who I am today."
Lundgren and her teammates are arguably better athletes because of Title IX. It has given them better coaching, training facilities and even sports and nutrition research than girls received 40 years ago.
The change is the result of Title IX, a landmark piece of federal legislation enacted 40 years ago tomorrow.
Designed to prevent gender discrimination in the nation's education system, Title IX has paid dividends. Ten times more young women now play high-school sports than in 1972, according to statistics from National Federation of State High School Associations. There are six times as many female college athletes in NCAA colleges.
But it has become better known for opening up sports to women. Critics, meanwhile, say that progress has come at the cost of men's programs.
Stronger high school athletes grow into better college players -- and a few into professional athletes.
One example of the resources now available is the basketball camp held for young girls this month at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Varsity women's basketball players helped run the girls through drills, teach them special moves and immerse them in the game.
One of the teachers is Alyssa Favilla, a St. Thomas sophomore varsity forward who said sports gave her structure.
"They taught me time management — and how to be a competitor," she said. "And I use that in the classroom, too."
With each generation since Title IX, female athletes have grown bigger, stronger and faster, said Mary Jo Kane, director of the University of Minnesota's center for research on women's sports.
"They are infinitely more gifted than they have ever been," Kane said. "And it is a direct result of the decision of Title IX."
Kane, 61, knows what it's like to have been excluded. She grew up a tomboy in Illinois in the 1950s and '60s and played touch football, basketball and baseball in her neighborhood. But her high school had no organized sports for girls.
The choice was little better for JoAnn Andregg, now associate athletic director at the University of St. Thomas. At her California high school, women's volleyball and basketball held second-class status: No coaches. No budget. No rights to the gym.
"That usually meant we got in there after the boys' team was finished practicing," Andregg said. "Then we got in there. And we had to wear these God-awful uniforms, these one-piece uniforms for practice and games. I remember that so distinctly. "
Title IX changed that. Now, high schools and colleges typically provide sports opportunities proportional to the number of enrolled students of each gender.
In the last four decades, the number of women's college teams per campus has almost quadrupled, according to a report by Brooklyn College professors R. Vivian Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter. But that has led to criticism that growth has come at the expense of men's programs.
While women now outnumber men on many college campuses, critics note that fewer women play college sports.
The American Sports Council, a group that wants to Congress to overhaul Title IX, has filed two lawsuits contesting the requirement of proportional sports offerings. Council media director Jim McCarthy said cash-strapped colleges have limited or slashed men's sports such as swimming, volleyball and soccer to make room for women's sports such as rowing, ice hockey and bowling.
McCarthy said Title IX requirements have led to a quota system that excludes male athletes who normally would have a shot at sports.
"That's been an absolute outrage, because the law is supposed to protect against discrimination," he said.
The solution, McCarthy said, is to end proportionality -- or at least survey all students about their real sports interests.
"Let the students themselves have a voice in how the law is applied," he said.
Kane and other Title IX supporters don't oppose surveys. But she said the methodology of past attempts has been flawed, and new surveys would have to be constructed and administered correctly.
Title IX supporters also say colleges are
Kane says colleges could cut the fat from large football programs and use the savings to pay for women's sports without dropping men's.
Students still seem to prefer men's sports, judging from what some college athletes say.
"We've earned a lot of respect," Favilla said. "But I can see how they don't see us as equal sometimes. We don't dunk or don't sprint as fast. But usually they treat us well."
Andregg, of St. Thomas, is concerned with one ironic outcome of the legislation.
Thanks to Title IX, women's college sports have become more competitive. So men now want to coach them. According to the Brooklyn College report, more than half of women's college sports teams have male coaches. Before Title IX, only one in 10 did.
"We're going to have daughters coming up who never see a female coach," Andregg said of the trend. "And I just think that's a shame."
If that happens, Andregg says, girls won't have many female athletic role models - and that might risk the gains they've made in the past 40 years. | <urn:uuid:9124bd57-926a-43e8-966a-169164a4176e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/06/22/social-issue/title-ix-anniversary?refid=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981286 | 1,236 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Great apes go through mid-life crisis
They may not take up surfing or start second careers as cupcake-makers, but chimpanzees and orangutans seem to go through a ‘mid-life crisis’, just like humans.
A study of 508 great apes in captivity shows that the animals’ sense of well-being bottoms out in their late 20s to mid-30s, the ape equivalent of middle age, before rebounding in old age.
The finding that mid-life crises may not be uniquely human suggests that the events might have a biological, rather than a sociological, cause.
Men and women worldwide, regardless of their wealth or status, experience a dip in happiness at middle-age, generally defined as from the mid-30s to late 50s. Despite this universality, social scientists have struggled to identify the underlying cause of the dissatisfaction. Social and economic factors, such as financial hardship and the failure to realize unrealistic ambitions, are possible causes.
Alexander Weiss, a psychologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK, and his team set out to see if there might be a biological factor involved in the crises. They sought to assess the well-being of captive chimpanzees and orangutans as judged by their keepers or those who knew them well.
The apes covered all age ranges, and their ‘happiness’ was rated through a survey answered by their keepers. The survey covered four criteria: the animals’ overall mood; how much pleasure they got out of socializing; their success in achieving goals such as obtaining food and objects they desire; and how happy the keeper would be if he or she were that animal for a week.
The survey is admittedly anthropomorphic, says Weiss, but he adds that it is easy for someone who spends a lot of time with an ape to gauge its mood. Moreover, his previous work shows that the measure of well-being is consistent when measured by different caretakers, and is based, in part, on inherited genetic factors.
Among three different groups of chimps and orangutans surveyed, the happiest tended to be the oldest and youngest, and the most dissatisfied tended to be in their 30s. The study, however, is a snapshot — it didn’t follow any of the apes over time — which means there could be confounding factors such as the early death of unhappy apes. Nonetheless, Weiss believes the results offer a true picture. | <urn:uuid:d98c45fc-0842-42c1-be0e-559356cd3679> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sliverdemon.tumblr.com/tagged/primates | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972744 | 504 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Even if, internationally, Austria is not considered to be a special case, there is still widespread agreement on the fact that cooperation and the coordination of interests between the federations is one of this country’s distinctive features. The common definition for this type of cooperation is “social partnership”.
The federations and chambers work in close contact with one or other of the two political parties, the Austrian People’s Party or the Social Democratic Party of Austria. The considerable economic growth and rise in employment and wages during the 1950s and 1960s created a favourable basis for the exchange of economic and socio-political interests. All this contributed to the wide-spread establishment of the Austrian system of social partnership in the 1960s. If the 1970s could be regarded as its heyday, the 1990s, in particular, have witnessed a change in this system’s significance.
Social partnership is neither anchored in the Austrian constitution nor laid down in any specific act. It is rooted in the free will of the players concerned. To a large extent, it is implemented informally and confidentially and is not normally accessible to the general public.
The umbrella federations of the social partners wield great influence as regards political opinion-forming and decision-making. Their co-operation has thus often been criticised as a “secondary government”, although the political omnicompetence often attributed to the social partners has, in fact, never existed as such. The co-operation and coordination of interests among the associations and with the government have only ever applied to specific fields of politics, such as income policies and certain aspects of economic and social policies, (e.g. industrial safety regulations, agrarian market legislation, labour market policies and principles of equal treatment). In these areas, during the past decades the social partners have substantially contributed to Austria’s economic, social and political stability – evidence of which can be found in economic growth, in the rise of employment, in the expansion of the welfare state and also in the often quoted “social peace”.
Several avenues for political decision-making are open to the large national federations. A traditionally used channel is their close relationship with one or the other of the long-standing government parties, i.e. the Social Democratic Party or the Austrian People’s Party. In addition, the federations are incorporated, both formally and informally, into the political opinion-forming process of the relevant ministries, as evidenced by their participation in a number of committees, advisory boards and commissions. Even at the parliamentary level, involvement of experts from the federations and chambers is a normal practice.
Austria’s accession to the European Union has expanded the federations’ scope in that they not only have privileged access to relevant information and documentation. Of even greater importance are their possibilities for influencing the Austrian position in proposing EU legislation. All in all, by comparison with many other countries, this means that the large national federations in Austria have excellent possibilities for shaping the policies relating to their interests. However, social partnership in the true sense of the word goes beyond this: its core task consists of the balancing of opposing interests in the aforementioned political fields through contextual compromises among federations or between the federations and the government.
Since the 1980s, economic, social and political changes have become apparent in Austria, too. Evidence of this lies in reduced economic growth, rising budgetary deficits, increasing competition and unemployment, and an expanding rivalry between the political parties. Against this backdrop, it has not only become more difficult for the federations to align the different interests of their members to a common denominator: reduced turnout in elections to the chambers and the general calling into question of compulsory membership are symptoms of change. In addition, it is not only becoming increasingly difficult, but also rarer, to strike a balance between the federations’ interests. Well-known institutions, such as the Paritätische Kommission für Lohn- und Preisfragen (Parity Commission for Wages and Prices), which – particularly in the comments of foreign observers – has been widely recognised as a central institution of the Austrian social partnership, have lost some of their significance. The changes are mainly manifest in the re-weighting of the influence of the players involved in the political decision-making process; the government has gained formative power and influence. In important budgetary, economic and socio-political questions it decides both the procedure and the core contents. Austria’s accession to the European Union has reinforced this development. At the same time, however, EU membership also entails a loss of terrain for the federations. Decisions on topics such as agricultural, competition and monetary policies are decided at EU level. Here, the influence of the federations is essentially limited to formulating the Austrian position, which is just one out of 15.
All this does not currently mean that the system of social partnership has come to an end. There are also visible signs of continuity. The privileged position of the national federations remains unchanged. In the political decision-making process a balance of interests can still be achieved. However, the influence has lessened. Not the end, but certainly changes and reforms of the social partnership, are currently on the agenda. | <urn:uuid:4cb83bfd-7a4b-43d4-b30c-4cc358633a50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bmeia.gv.at/en/foreign-ministry/austria/government-and-politics/social-partnership.html?ADMCMD_editIcons='%22() | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961314 | 1,078 | 2.96875 | 3 |
"From the creators of Animachines, a playful way for kids to learn actions, animals, and opposites."
Opposites are everywhere in our world. A day at the park will reveal busy kids and active animals doing opposite actions. There, on the slide: Sam goes up as Hiroko zips down. And there, in the tree: one squirrel climbs up and another scurries down. Not far away, Daddy is quiet but Simon is LOUD, while a mother bird is silent as she feeds her chirping babies.
In Kids Do, Animals Too ten pairs explain opposites to young children. Each pair features people and a different animal, including: fast, slow -- dogs in, out -- mice up, down -- squirrels on, off -- frogs ahead, behind -- ants quiet, loud -- birds under, over -- spiders wet, dry -- ducks toward, away -- butterflies asleep, awake -- squirrels, bats
The softly colored artwork features familiar park settings, and includes look-and-find details that cleverly connect each active scene. Meanwhile, the aptly crafted language keeps the action moving and the learning fun. | <urn:uuid:1092c38d-3421-415a-be56-5c3963664b20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.booksamillion.com/product/9781550379235 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911476 | 235 | 2.578125 | 3 |
January 10, 2002
Parshat Vaerah (Exodus 6:2-9:35)
From the Torah's beginning until its end, God is portrayed as being personally involved in the welfare of humanity. Deism is not a Jewish notion. God is not an "unmoved mover," the proverbial clockmaker who after assembling and winding his ware, steps back watching it tick down, never to again involve Himself with it. On the contrary, God hears our innermost thoughts, feels our deepest concerns, judges us and guides us through our lives. A traditional Jewish concept of God is one that is interactive and intimately personal.
This week's Torah portion, Vaerah, begins with God hearing, and ultimately reacting to, the Israelites brutal enslavement. "I have now heard the moaning of the Israelites because the Egyptians are holding them in slavery, and I have remembered My covenant." (Exodus 6:5) The covenant being remembered is between God and the Israelite people. Curiously, it was the king of Egypt, and not God, or the Israelites themselves, who coined the phrase, "Israelite People." Acting out of panic, Pharaoh wanted to do away with the Hebrews, when he declared they were becoming too numerous. (Exodus 1:9)
Even so, the distinction placed on our understanding of covenant is an important one. The covenant serves to bind God to an entire group, not to an individual, or a handful of individuals. "The God of Israel is no mythological deity who mingles freely with men in history," writes philosopher Rabbi Emil Fackenheim in his book, "God's Presence in History." "Nevertheless, not messengers, not angels, not intermediaries, but God himself acts in human history."
God hears the cries of the people Israel and responds. The plagues used to dislodge the Hebrew slaves are physical indicators of God's personal involvement. Admittedly, not all the Hebrew slaves were liberated from their miserable environment. Over the span of several hundred years, countless generations of Israelites were born and died while held captive by Pharaoh and his cohorts, never having experienced the beauty of life.
Collectively, we have survived as a people, and the covenant between God and us continues. While unimaginably large numbers of Jews have suffered and died throughout history, the Jewish People continue to thrive; the covenant remains intact. To those who are turned off to faith because of great personal, or even national loss, little can be said; out of respect, perhaps nothing ought to be said. After the Holocaust, for example, a number of Jewish theologians have felt the covenant was so compromised that it is no longer binding.
All that notwithstanding, the spiritual question most of us encounter is whether life is little more than a series of coincidences. To some, our existence is the outgrowth of luck, possibly karma, astrology or magic. To the Jew, our people's existence is the result of God, and the covenant we have with Him. No doubt, life is made more palatable because of it. And, if the message conveyed throughout the Torah is correct, all peoples, Jewish or not, are additionally blessed to have a God who is personally involved in the day-to-day affairs of their lives.
Michael Gotlieb is the rabbi of Kehillat Ma'arav in Santa Monica. | <urn:uuid:507b5db3-5b77-4c98-9bf9-9e586af2ff36> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishjournal.com/torah_portion/article/gods_covenant_20020111 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971179 | 695 | 3.265625 | 3 |
By Vendor > AgBio Communications > grassland plants of south dakota and the northern great plains
grassland plants of south dakota and the northern great plains
"Learning to identify and understand the plants that produce the forage, provide the cover, protect the soil, and enrich our lives in many ways is an essential first step to conserving our native grassland, whether they are the grasslands we own and manage, or the grasslands we hunt and hike over, or simply the grasslands we view from our vehicles. This photographic guide can help you discover and learn about the plants inhabitating our northern prairies and plains." David J. Ode, Botanist/Ecologist, South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department Authors are James R. Johnson and Gary E. Larson
$19.95 and Free Shipping
As Done By:
AgBio Communications — Click to view all items by this member. | <urn:uuid:33d1ac47-0039-4ab9-bb75-7bac80e23076> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.madeinsouthdakota.com/Catalog/Product.cfm?shopBy=vendor&vendorId=833&productId=14745 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.890771 | 189 | 2.875 | 3 |
Herbal In Italy
( Originally Published 1912 )
The Italian botanists of the Renaissance devoted them-selves chiefly to interpreting the works of the classical writers on Natural History, and to the identification of the plants to which they referred. This came about quite naturally, from the fact that the Mediterranean flora, which they saw around them, was actually that with which the writers in question had been, in their day, familiar. The botanists of southern Europe were not compelled, as were those whose homes lay north of the Alps, to distort facts before they could make the plants of their native country fit into the procrustean bed of classical descriptions.
One of the chief of the commentators and herbalists of this period was Pierandrea Mattioli [or Matthiolus] (Text-fig. 40), who was born at Siena in 1501, and died of the plague in 1577. We realise something of the frightful extent of this scourge, when we remember that it claimed as victims no less than three of the small company of Renaissance botanists, Gesner, Mattioli and Zaluzian. Leonhard Fuchs was brought into fame by his successful treatment of one of these epidemics. It should also be recalled that, while Gaspard Bauhin, one of the best known of the later herbalists, was practising as a physician at Basle, no less than three of these terrible outbreaks occurred in the town.
Mattioli was the son of a doctor, and his early life was passed in Venice, where his father was in practice. He was destined for the law, but his inherited tastes led him away from jurisprudence to medicine. He practised in several different towns, and became physician, successively, to the Archduke Ferdinand, and to the Emperor Maximilian II.
Mattioli's ` Commentarii in sex libros Pedacii Dioscoridis,' his chef-d'oeuvre, the gradual production and improvement of which occupied his leisure hours throughout his life, was first published in 1544. It was translated into many languages and appeared in countless editions. The success of the work was phenomenal, and it is said that 32,000 copies of the earlier editions were sold. The title does not do the book justice, for it contains, besides an exposition of Dioscorides, a Natural History dealing with all the plants known to Mattioli. The early editions had small illustrations only (Text-figs. 41, 42, 93 and 94), but, later on, editions with large and very beautiful figures were published, such as that which appeared at Venice in 1565.
Mattioli's descriptions of the plants with which he deals are not so good as those of some of his contemporaries.
He found and recorded a certain number of new plants, especially from the Tyrol, but most of the species, which he described for the first time, were not his own discoveries, but were communicated to him by others. Luca Ghini, for instance, had projected a similar work, but handed over all his material to Mattioli, who also placed on record the discoveries made by the physician, Wilhelm Quakelbeen, who had accompanied the celebrated diplomatist, Auger-Gislain Busbecq, on a mission to Turkey.
Busbecq brought from Constantinople a wonderful collection of Greek manuscripts, including Juliana Anicia's copy of the Materia Medica of Dioscorides, now in the Vienna Library (see pp. 8 and 154). He discovered this great manuscript in the hands of a Jew, who required a hundred ducats for it. This price was almost prohibitive, but Busbecq was an enthusiast, and he successfully urged the Emperor, whose representative he was, to redeem so illustrious an author from that servitudes." His purpose in buying the manuscript seems to have been largely in order to communicate it to Mattioli, who would thus be able to make use of it in preparing his Commentaries on Dioscorides.
The personal character of Mattioli does not appear to have been a pleasant one. He engaged in numerous controversies with his fellow botanists, and hurled the most abusive language at those who ventured to criticise him.
Another Italian herbalist, Castor Durante, slightly later in date than Mattioli, should perhaps be mentioned here, not because of the intrinsic value of his work, but because of its widespread popularity. At least two of his books appeared in many editions and translations.
Durante was a physician who issued a series of botanical compilations, bedizened with Latin verse. The best known of his works is the Herbaro Nuovo,' published at Rome in 1585 (Text-figs. 45 and 103). A second book, the original version of which is seldom met with, has survived in the form of a German translation, by Peter Uffenbach. The German version was named ` Hortulus Sanitatis.' As an illustration of Durante's charmingly unscientific manner, we may take the legend of the " Arbor tristis " which occurs in both these works. The figure which accompanies it (Text-fig. 45) shows, beneath the moon and stars, a drawing of a tree whose trunk has a human form. The description, as it occurs in the ` Hortulus Sanitatis,' ay be translated as follows :
"Of this tree the Indians say, there was once a very beautiful maiden, daughter of a mighty lord called Parisa taccho. This maiden loved the Sun, but the Sun forsook her because he loved another. So, being scorned by the Sun, she slew herself, and when her body had been burned, according to the custom of that land, this tree sprang from her ashes. And this is the reason why the flowers of this tree shrink so intensely from the Sun, and never open in his presence. And thus it is a special delight to see this tree in the night time, adorned on all sides with its lovely flowers, since they give forth a delicious perfume, the like of which is not to be met with in any other plant, but no sooner does one touch the plant with one's hand than its sweet scent vanishes away. And however beautiful the tree has appeared, and however sweetly it has bloomed at night, directly the Sun rises in the morning it not only fades but all its branches look as though they were withered and dead."
Much more famous than Durante was Fabio Colonna, or, as he is more generally called, Fabius Columna (Plate IX), who was born at Naples in 1567. His father was a well-known littérateur. Fabio Colonna's profession was that of law, but he was also well acquainted with languages, music, mathematics and optics. He tells us in the preface to his principal work that his interest in plants was aroused by his difficulty in obtaining a remedy for epilepsy, a disease from which he suffered. Having tried all sorts of prescriptions without result, he examined the literature on the subject, and discovered that most of the writers of his time merely served up the results obtained by the ancients, often in a very incorrect form. So he went to the fountain head, Dioscorides, and after much research identified Valerian as being the herb which that writer had recommended against epilepsy, and succeeded in curing himself by its use.
This experience convinced Colonna that the knowledge of the identity of the plants described by the ancients was in a most unsatisfactory condition, and he set himself to produce a work which should remedy this state of things. This book was published in 1592, under the name of ` Phytobasanos,' which embodies a quaint conceit after the fashion of the time. The title is a compound Greek word meaning "plant torture," and was apparently employed by Colonna to explain that he had subjected the plants to ordeal by torture, in order to wrest from them the secret of their identity. But it must be confessed that Colonna himself is by no means free from error, as regards the names which he assigns to them.
The great feature of the `Phytobasanos,' however, is the excellence of the descriptions and figures. The latter are famous as being the first etchings on copper used to illustrate a botanical work (Text-figs. 46 and 105). They were an advance on all previous plant drawings, except the work of Gesner and Camerarius, in giving, in many cases, detailed analyses of the flowers and fruit as well as habit drawings. We owe to Colonna also the technical use of the word "petaI," which he suggested as a descriptive term for the coloured floral leaves'.
By means of his wide scientific correspondence, Colonna kept in touch with many of the naturalists of his time, notably with de l'Écluse and Gaspard Bauhin.
A passing reference may be made here to a book which is rather of the nature of a local flora than a herbal, entitled Prosperi Alpini de plantis .iEgypti,' which was published at Venice in 1592. It contains a number of wood-cuts, which appear to be original. The one reproduced (Text-fig. 47) represents Salicornia, the Glasswort. The author was a doctor who went to Egypt with the Venetian consul, Giorgio Emo, and had opportunities of collecting plants there. He is said to have been the first European writer to mention the Coffee plant, which he saw growing at Cairo. Prospero Alpino eventually became Professor of Botany at Padua, and enriched the botanical garden of that town with Egyptian plants. | <urn:uuid:1b1ebe26-94c4-4b92-bb8f-ba22fa0f2460> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oldandsold.com/articles31n/herbals-14.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986529 | 2,017 | 2.5625 | 3 |
NASA scientists captured some footage of Plasma Indirection, a plasma shift on the surface of the Sun that looks like huge tornadoes churning. Pretty amazing stuff.
As if it could not make up its mind . . . darker, cooler plasma slid and shifted back and forth above the Sun’s surface seen here for 30 hours (Feb. 7-8, 2012) in extreme ultraviolet light. An active region rotating into view provides a bright backdrop to the gyrating streams of plasma. The particles are being pulled this way and that by competing magnetic forces. They are tracking along strands of magnetic field lines. This kind of detailed solar observation with high-resolution frames and a four-minute cadence was not possible until SDO, which launched two years ago on Feb. 11, 2010. So it’s our 2nd Anniversary! | <urn:uuid:859b72c9-5c36-4f90-b40b-9e16cde07631> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://headblitz.com/tornadoes-on-the-sun-are-the-size-of-earth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9224 | 171 | 2.75 | 3 |
The benefits of a post-secondary degree are plentiful. For example, an employee with a four year college degree earns 60 percent more than a worker with only a high school diploma. Paying for college, however, has become a daunting task and strain for many American students and families. The cost of higher education across the country is rapidly increasing, at almost double the rate of inflation, outpacing increases in financial aid and many families ability to pay. The combination of these factors result in too many students being unable to earn or complete their degrees due to financial constraints.
By one estimate, the federal government spent over $367 billion in 2005 aloneon subsidizing Americans' retirement savings and tax breaks to build upother assets like buying a home. Unfortunately, those subsidies gooverwhelmingly to those Americans who already have high-incomes; almostnone of it goes to the poorest Americans who need the most helpbuilding the financial assets that can lead to long-term economicopportunities and security. | <urn:uuid:de1d1846-2553-496a-a929-b3719615d67e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://progressivestates.org/tags/issue/194?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959162 | 200 | 2.609375 | 3 |
We Can End Domestic Abuse
If your friend or loved one is experiencing domestic violence or is a survivor, there are many ways you can help to support them.
Do respect what she wants to do.
Every step is up to her.
Do share resources with your friend or loved one.
Professionals who work at shelters and on hotlines can help. You can’t do it all alone!
Do offer your unconditional understanding and support.
Start by helping them feel good about themselves. Emphasize their strengths.
Do be clear that you are there to listen, and not to judge.
There is an important balance between expressing concern and telling someone what to do. Encourage them to express their feelings and make their own decisions.
Do tell her it's not her/his fault.
Stress that she doesn’t deserve the abuse and that abuse is NEVER okay. Remind them often that you’re there for support whenever necessary.
Do identify the unhealthy behaviors.
Keep track of things you have noticed about the relationship and the abuser. Identify the changes you have seen in your loved one's behavior.
Do acknowledge the scariness of domestic violence.
It is scary and difficult to talk about interpersonal violence. Be prepared with good information.
Do encourage your loved one to build a support system.
A good support system includes the safe and healthy people in her life.
Don't spread gossip.
Gossip can put a victim in danger if it gets back to the abuser, so think before you speak. Your friend or loved one has taken a big step in coming to you—it is critical that they can trust you with confidential information.
Don't blame your friend or loved one for the abuse.
The victim should never feel as though the abuse is her fault.
Don't make them do something.
Don't force her to do something she is uncomfortable doing. They can make their own decisions. Don't try to end the relationship for them.
Don't criticize your loved one or her partner.
Even if you disagree with her choices. This may isolate them even more by making them feel that no one approves, or that they have to hide their relationship. | <urn:uuid:a084608e-2549-48ea-9167-0b08e963d2b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clackamas.us/domesticviolence/supporting.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961435 | 457 | 2.78125 | 3 |
new zealand curriculum
The New Zealand Curriculum is
built around the acquisition of essential academic and practical
skills. It identifies 7 academic or essential
These are balanced by 8 practical
or essential skills:
- Language and languages
- Social sciences
- The arts
- Health & physical
- Communication skills
- Numeracy skills
- Information skills
- Problem-solving skills
- Self-management and
- Social and co-operative
- Physical skills
- Work and study skills
Each term, most schools prepare
student Progress Reports and hold parent-teacher evenings.
Subjects Taught At New Zealand Schools
The following is a general list of subjects taught in
New Zealand schools. Not all schools offer all the subjects
listed and others may offer additional disciplines. Some subjects
||Agriculture & Horticulture |
||Business Studies |
||Classical Studies |
||Media Studies |
||Physical Education |
||Social Studies |
||Graphics & Design |
||Clothing & Design
The school year begins in late January or early
February, after a summer holiday of about 6 weeks, and ends in
December. It is divided into 4 terms with breaks of two to three
weeks between them.
Secondary school students have slightly longer holidays
then primary school students.
Check with your local New Zealand school for actual term dates,
however the terms usually run as follows:
Term 1 - End of January to early April
Term 2 - Late April to end of June
Term 3 - Mid July to late September
Term 4 - Mid October to mid December (or early December for
New Zealand’s qualifications system is changing from traditional examination based awards to standards based qualifications. In 2002, level 1 of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) replaced School Certificate. The NCEA will replace Sixth Form Certificate in 2003 and University Bursaries in 2004.
National Certificate of Educational Achievement
NCEA (National Certificate of Educational Achievement) is New Zealand's main national qualification for secondary school students and part of the National Qualifications Framework.
The Qualifications Framework covers industry and education qualifications from year 11 (formerly Form 5) of secondary schooling and entry level to vocations, through to post-graduate level.
All qualifications currently on the Framework are made up of national standards. A standard describes what a learner should aim to achieve in a skill or knowledge area. Standards are set by written criteria along with a national moderation system. Learners who meet all requirements get credit for that standard; those who don't may be reassessed when they are ready.
Each standard is at a level from 1 to 8. Level 1 is similar to School Certificate level; level 2 to Sixth Form Certificate; levels 3 and 4 are similar to University Bursaries. Each standard also has a credit rating.
Schools can also use many standards from beyond the school curriculum. Any number or combination of standards may be assessed within a course, so schools can develop courses to suit their students.
Students accumulate Framework credits towards National Certificates and National Diplomas. As well as being able to work towards a range of National Certificates, eg, National Certificate in Computing, from 2002 school students will work towards a general qualification, the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA). Students can start on Framework qualifications at school and carry on in the workplace or tertiary studies.
NCEA provides the pathway to tertiary education and workplace training and gives everyone a full picture of what students know and can do.
- Challenges students of all abilities, in all learning areas
- Reports more details about a student's achievement
- Is officially recognised in New Zealand and internationally
- Is recognised by employers, universities and polytechnics and used as the benchmark for selection
- Provides opportunities to begin studying for tertiary and industry qualifications * Enables students to gain credits from traditional school curriculum areas AND alternative school curriculum programmes
- Has exams as well as internal assessment
- Has a national system for checking internal assessments
- Shows credits and grades for separate skills and knowledge in some standards
The National Qualifications Framework contains two types of national standards: achievement standards and unit standards. Credits from all achievement standards and all unit standards count towards NCEA.
Choosing A School
Most New Zealand students attend state-funded schools
and every student has the right to enrol at the state school
nearest to their home. If the school is at risk of overcrowding,
it can set a home zone that is geographically
defined. Students living in this zone have the right to go to
that school. Those living outside the zone can be enrolled only
under special circumstances. These include situations where
students have brothers or sisters attending the school or require
access to special programmes such as special education or Maori
language. If the school is still at risk of over-crowding,
selection is made through a supervised ballot.
ERO reports are available at no charge from New Zealand schools
and ERO offices.
Families also have the right to visit schools and meet with the
principal and staff before deciding to enrol their children as
State schools are fully funded by the Government. At
primary and intermediate level they are co-educational with
classes that include both boys and girls. Both co-educational and
single-sex schooling is available at secondary level.
State schools do not charge fees, however parents are expected to
make donations towards the support of special programmes or
services. These are also charges for stationery and uniforms.
Meals are not provided but snacks can generally be purchased from
the school Tuck Shop, but many parents prefer to
provide a packed lunch.
The term integrated schools generally refers
to schools with a religious focus - usually Roman Catholic
in denomination that used to operate as private institutions. In
recent years, these schools have been integrated into the state
system, hence the name, integrated schools, and receive
government funding. Although they follow the state curriculum
requirements, all have retained their special religious or
philosophical character. A small number of institutions, such as
Montessori or Rudolf Steiner schools, are secular in character.
Private or independent schools receive only limited
government funding and are almost entirely dependent on income
derived from student fees. There are no standard fees as each
school determines its own fee scale. Fees also vary according to
levels, with fees in Years 12 and 13 usually significantly higher
than those charged in Years 9 and 10.
Fees at primary schools also vary according to level, although
these are generally much lower than secondary school fees.
Private schools are governed by their own independent boards but
must meet government standards in order to be registered and they
are also subject to the same ERO audits as state schools.
Boarding schools exist mainly at secondary school level.
Currently 78 state and integrated schools and 24 private schools
have boarding arrangements.
The Correspondence School teaches a full range of school
Home-based schooling must meet the same standards as
registered schools, and approval to exempt the student from
regular schooling must be obtained from the Ministry of
A small annual grant is available for teaching materials.
Home schooling accounts for less than 1% of school enrolments.
Most schools require students to wear a uniform at all
times unless the school has an optional uniform policy. School
uniforms are sold by most major department stores and some
schools also operate their own Uniform Shops and sell both new
and second-hand items.
Teachers are not allowed to physically punish students
in their care. Legal disciplinary methods include removal of
privileges, extra homework or detention. Parents or guardians are
advised in advance if a child is given detention, as this will
require the child to stay at school for a specified time after
the end of the standard school day.
For serious offences, students may be suspended from school for a
period of time and if they are over 16 years of age, they can be
expelled permanently. Expulsion generally occurs when a
students conduct either sets a dangerous example to other
students or threatens their safety. There are formal procedures
for suspending or expelling a student.
Most secondary and primary schools expect students to do
homework. Each school has its own rules on the amount and type of
Parents or guardians are responsible for ensuring that a
child can get to school. Each year about 100,000 children use
school buses. Although school bus services are contracted by the
Ministry of Education, students are expected to meet the costs of
If a child has to travel a long distance to school, and there is
no public transport or school bus service, financial assistance
can be provided. Financial assistance and/or bus and taxi
services are provided for special education students.
If you plan to change schools, the principal of your
childs current school should be informed as soon as
Transfer involving a change in the level of schooling, such as
from primary to intermediate or intermediate to secondary,
require additional documentation. Details of application
procedures are provided by the school the student plans to
transfer to. Most intermediate and secondary schools have open | <urn:uuid:aa6c71c9-c0e4-41ca-ab3d-5d51afacd830> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nz-immigration.co.nz/education/curriculum.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945796 | 1,922 | 3.5 | 4 |
NINE BANDED ARMADILLO
Photo Credit: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Dasypus novemcinctus
OTHER NAMES: Armadillo, Common Long-Nosed Armadillo
DESCRIPTION: The nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) cannot easily be confused with any other North American wild mammal. The armadillo’s body is covered with an armored carapace or shell. The carapace is a double layer of horn and bone, segmented into three main divisions: an anterior scapular shield covering the shoulder; a posterior pelvic shield covering the hip region; and a middle section comprised of a series of bands connected by soft, infolded skin between the bands. The head and legs are covered with thick scales, and the tail is encased in a series of bony rings. Coloration of nine-banded armadillos is generally grayish brown, with yellowish-white scales along the side of the carapace. The armadillo has a long, pointed snout, small eyes, and large, cylindrical ears. The armadillo’s pointed snout, short, stout legs, and heavy claws are well suited for digging and burrowing. Armadillos have a limited number of vocalizations: a low, wheezy grunt associated with digging and rooting; a wheezy grunt uttered by recently captured individuals; an audible buzzing noise given when highly alarmed or fleeing, a pig-like squeal given by frightened individuals; and a weak purring given by young attempting to nurse from an unrelated female. Total length ranges from 24 to 31 inches and weights vary from 8 to 15 pounds. There are six subspecies of Dasypus novemcinctus in Central and South America, but only one subspecies, D. n. mexicanus occurs in North America.
DISTRIBUTION: Dasypus novemcinctus mexicanus’ original distribution was from the lower Rio Grande Valley between Mexico and Texas, southward through Mexico and Central America to northwestern Peru on the west side of the Andes, and all of South America to northern Argentina east of the Andes, including the islands of Grenada, Trinidad, Tobago, and Margarita. The range of the nine-banded armadillo has undergone rapid expansion into the southern United States since the late 1800s. The recent rapid expansion of the armadillo’s range was facilitated by a number of factors: reduction in the number of large carnivores; climatic and biotic changes; and accidental and deliberate relocations of animals to unoccupied areas. Armadillos now occur throughout the southern and southeastern U.S., as far north as Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska. These animals are common throughout most of Alabama, but less common in several northeastern counties.
HABITAT: The armadillo is very adaptable and does well in most habitat types found in Alabama. They generally avoid or are scarce in very wet or very dry habitats. Habitat suitability likely depends more on the characteristics of the substrate or soils, rather than vegetation type due to the armadillo’s feeding and burrowing behavior.
FEEDING HABITS: A major portion of the armadillo’s time spent outside its burrow is devoted to feeding. They typically start foraging as they emerge from their burrow and move at a slow pace following an often erratic course. Prey is apparently detected by smell, although sound also may play a role. Typical foraging behavior involves quickly probing with the nose and occasionally pausing to dig for prey. Armadillos are opportunistic feeders and consume a wide variety of food items. Invertebrates, primarily insects, make up roughly 90 percent of their diet. Small vertebrates and plant material make up the remainder of their diet. Researchers also have seen evidence of armadillos feeding on small reptiles and amphibians, the eggs of ground-nesting birds, and carrion.
LIFE HISTORY AND ECOLOGY: Armadillos seem to exhibit a polygynous mating system, with most females paired with a single male and most males paired with more than one female. Den burrows have an enlarged nest chamber and are more complicated than a burrow dug for other purposes. The nest is a bulky mass of dried plant debris crammed into the nest chamber without any obvious structure. Armadillos in areas with poorly drained soils will construct above ground nests of dry plant material. Most breeding among armadillos occurs during the summer (June-August). The normal gestation period is 8 to 9 months, with most young born between February and May. The armadillo exhibits monozygotic polyembryony in which a single fertilized egg normally gives rise to four separate embryos at the blastula stage of development. This results in a litter of four genetically identical haploid clone offspring. Dasypus is the only genus of vertebrates in which this reproductive phenomenon occurs. The offspring are precocial and begin accompanying the female outside of the burrow at about 2 to 3 months of age. By 3 to 4 months, the young are self-sufficient. Most males reach sexual maturity between 6 to 12 months of age, but females do not become sexually mature until they are 1 to 2 years old.
REFERENCES: Author: Chris Cook, Wildlife Biologist, June 2005
Armstrong, J. Controlling Armadillo Ddamage in Alabama. ANR-773. Alabama Cooperative Extension System. 2pp.
Layne, J. N. 2003. Armadillo. Pages 75-97 in G. A. Feldhamer, B. C. Thompson, and J. A. Chapman, eds. Wild Mammals of North America: Biology, Management, and Conservation. Second edition. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD and London, U.K.
Nowak, R. M. 1999. Walker’s Mammals of the World, sixth edition, volume one. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD and London, U.K. 903 pp.
Outdoor Alabama Magazine Article, Nine-banded Armadillo
Watchable Wildlife Article | <urn:uuid:2f4dd03f-9452-4d19-bff5-a881b710035a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.outdooralabama.com/watchable-wildlife/what/Mammals/armadillo.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914825 | 1,311 | 3.828125 | 4 |
Chatrooms, social networking sites “behind generation that can’t spell”November 23rd, 2010 - 6:33 pm ICT by ANI
London, Nov 23 (ANI): A study has suggested that Internet chatrooms and social networking sites are to be blamed for children spelling words incorrectly.
The study says as people type at speed online, there is now a “general attitude” that there is no need to correct mistakes or conform to regular spelling rules.
And this means that children who have been brought up with the Internet do not question wrongly spelt words.
“The increasing use of variant spellings on the internet has been brought about by people typing at speed in chatrooms and on social networking sites where the general attitude is that there isn’t a need . . . to conform to spelling rules,” the study stated.
“We are now witnessing the effect these linguistic variations are having on children born into the computer age with such a high level of access in and out of schools,” the Scotsman quoted report author Lucy Jones, a former student at Manchester University, as saying.
“They do not question their existence,” she stated.
The paper, which surveyed a group of 18 to 24 year olds as part of the research, found that the majority believe that unconventional spellings are used on the Internet because it is faster and has become the norm.
More than one in five (22 percent) said they would not be confident in writing an important e-mail without referring to a dictionary or spell checker.
Despite the widespread use of so-called “variant” spelling, almost a third of those questioned said that alternative non-standard spellings are “completely unacceptable”.
Two thirds believe that dictionaries should contain variant spellings.
“From this most recent survey we can conclude that the unprecedented reach and scale of the internet has given rise to new social practices and it is now an agent in spelling change,” Jack Bovill, chair of the English Spelling Society, added. (ANI)
- Traditional art of letter writing 'dying out' among kids - May 21, 2010
- Merriam-Webster's Word of the Summer is Sarah Palin's 'refudiate' - Sep 08, 2010
- Excessive Internet browsing affects mental health - Sep 26, 2010
- Indian kids worst victims of cyberbullying, says study - Jan 18, 2012
- Attempting to save English from horrors of 'text-speak' - Jun 07, 2010
- Twitter, MySpace, Facebook revamping dictionaries - Jan 09, 2010
- Teen drinking linked to higher internet use - May 10, 2011
- 'More Indian teens using networking sites to communicate' - May 23, 2012
- A million kids worldwide addicted to Facebook - Nov 04, 2011
- Social networking teens may turn drinks, drugs addicted - Aug 26, 2011
- Mobile phones can produce hilarious text - Jan 09, 2011
- Britain nurturing kids into becoming 'couch potatoes' - May 04, 2011
- Government all for Internet freedom: NSA - May 16, 2012
- Now, a robot that can read and learn like a human! - Dec 07, 2010
- UK kids with own Internet profile are 'vulnerable' to grooming online - Apr 20, 2011
Tags: bovill, computer age, dictionaries, dictionary, e mail, english spelling, internet chatrooms, linguistic variations, lucy jones, manchester university, report author, scotsman, social networking sites, social practices, spell checker, spelling change, spelling rules, spelling words, spelt, variant spellings | <urn:uuid:5aad71b0-ac16-4352-8bfb-a5bccb40b8c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/chatrooms-social-networking-sites-behind-generation-that-cant-spell_100464205.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.913906 | 767 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Time to think big
Did the designation of 2010 as the first-ever International Year of Biodiversity mean anything at all? Is it just a publicity stunt, with no engagement on the real, practical issues of conservation, asks Simon Stuart, Chair of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission.
Eight years ago 183 of the world’s governments committed themselves “to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on Earth”. This was hardly visionary—the focus was not on stopping extinctions or loss of key habitats, but simply on slowing their rate of loss—but it was, at least, the first time the nations of the world had pledged themselves to any form of concerted attempt to face up to the ongoing degradation of nature.
Now the results of all the analyses of conservation progress since 2002 are coming in, and there is a unanimous finding: the world has spectacularly failed to meet the 2010 Biodiversity Target, as it is called. Instead species extinctions, habitat loss and the degradation of ecosystems are all accelerating. To give a few examples: declines and extinctions of amphibians due to disease and habitat loss are getting worse; bleaching of coral reefs is growing; and large animals in South-East Asia are moving rapidly towards extinction, especially from over-hunting and degradation of habitats.
|This month the world’s governments will convene in Nagoya, Japan, for the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Conference of the Parties. Many of us hope for agreement there on new, much more ambitious biodiversity targets for the future. The first test of whether or not the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity means anything will be whether or not the international community can commit itself to a truly ambitious conservation agenda.|
The early signs are promising. Negotiating sessions around the world have produced 20 new draft targets for 2020. Collectively these are nearly as strong as many of us hoped, and certainly much stronger than the 2010 Biodiversity Target. They include: halving the loss and degradation of forests and other natural habitats; eliminating overfishing and destructive fishing practices; sustainably managing all areas under agriculture, aquaculture and forestry; bringing pollution from excess nutrients and other sources below critical ecosystem loads; controlling pathways introducing and establishing invasive alien species; managing multiple pressures on coral reefs and other vulnerable ecosystems affected by climate change and ocean acidification; effectively protecting at least 15 per cent of land and sea, including the areas of particular importance for biodiversity; and preventing the extinction of known threatened species. We now have to keep up the pressure to prevent these from becoming diluted.
We at IUCN are pushing for urgent action to stop biodiversity loss once and for all. The well-being of the entire planet—and of people—depends on our committing to maintain healthy ecosystems and strong wildlife populations. We are therefore proposing, as a mission for 2020, “to have put in place by 2020 all the necessary policies and actions to prevent further biodiversity loss”. Examples include removing government subsidies which damage biodiversity (as many agricultural ones do), establishing new nature reserves in important areas for threatened species, requiring fisheries authorities to follow the advice of their scientists to ensure the sustainability of catches, and dramatically cutting carbon dioxide emissions worldwide to reduce the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification.
If the world makes a commitment along these lines, then the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity will have been about more than platitudes. But it will still only be a start: the commitment needs to be implemented. We need to look for signs this year of a real change from governments and society over the priority accorded to biodiversity.
|One important sign will be the amount of funding that governments pledge this year for replenishing the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the world’s largest donor for biodiversity conservation in developing countries. Between 1991 and 2006, it provided approximately $2.2 billion in grants to support more than 750 biodiversity projects in 155 countries. If the GEF is replenished at much the same level as over the last decade we shall know that the governments are still in “business as usual” mode. But if it is doubled or tripled in size, then we shall know that they are starting to get serious.|
IUCN estimates that even a tripling of funding would still fall far short of what is needed to halt biodiversity loss. Some conservationists have suggested that developed countries need to contribute 0.2 per cent of gross national income in overseas biodiversity assistance to achieve this. That would work out at roughly $120 billion a year—though of course this would need to come through a number of sources, not just the GEF. It is tempting to think that this figure is unrealistically high, but it is small change compared to the expenditures governments have committed to defence and bank bail outs.
It is time for the conservation movement to think big. We are addressing problems that are hugely important for the future of this planet and its people, and they will not be solved without a huge increase in funds. | <urn:uuid:2d3e80a0-ca7b-4358-80a9-0f5129e87a3e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cms.iucn.org/es/recursos/focus/enfoques_anteriores/cbd_2010/noticias/opinion/?6131/time-to-think-big | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940236 | 1,055 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Following Oceana’s newly released report on the harmful impacts of illegal fishing, one of the questions that I as Oceana's Northeast representative was asked most often was, “Where is this happening?” The short answer: Illegal fishing happens everywhere, from the most distant waters near Antarctica to just off the U.S. coast.
This week brought great news for shark populations that are dwindling both in U.S. waters and worldwide. Today, the Delaware House of Representatives introduced a bill prohibiting the possession, trade, sale and distribution of shark fins within the state. If passed, House Bill 41 would make Delaware the first East Coast state to pass a ban on the shark fin trade, following in the footsteps of Oregon, Washington, California, Hawaii and Illinois.
Current federal law prohibits shark finning in U.S. waters, requiring that sharks be brought into port with their fins still attached. However, this law does not prohibit the sale and trade of processed fins that are imported into the country from other regions that could have weak or even nonexistent shark protections in place.
This unsustainable catch is driven by the demand for shark fins, often used as an ingredient in shark fin soup, and kills millions of sharks every year. Delaware’s bill would close the loopholes that fuel the trade and demand for fins, and ensure that the state is not a gateway for shark products to enter into other U.S. state markets.
Not only was there great news coming out of the U.S., international shark lovers have reason to celebrate as well. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), voted this week to place stricter regulations on the trade of manta rays, three species of hammerheads, oceanic whitetip and porbeagle sharks, acknowledging that these species are in dire need of protection. When countries export these species, they are required to possess special permits that prove these species were harvested sustainably. This decision will greatly curb illegal overfishing and reduce the numbers of endangered sharks killed globally.
History was made today in Bangkok, when Parties to CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna) voted to protect five species of sharks and two species of manta rays. The seven protected species are: oceanic whitetip (Carcharhinus longimanus), porbeagle (Lamna nasus), scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini), great hammerhead (S. mokarran), smooth hammerhead (S. zygaena), oceanic manta ray (Manta birostris) and reef manta ray (M. alfredi).
All seven species are considered threatened by international trade – the sharks for their fins, and the manta rays for their gills, which are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. CITES protection is an important complement to fisheries management measures, which, for these species, have failed to safeguard their survival.
The vote was to list the animals for protection under Appendix II which does not entail a ban on the trade, but instead means that trade must be regulated. Exporting countries are required to issue export permits, and can only do so if they can ensure that they have been legally caught, and that their trade is not detrimental to the species’ survival.
All of the proposals received the two-thirds majority needed to be accepted – but the listing is not yet final. Decisions can be overturned with another vote during the final plenary session of the meeting, which wraps up on Thursday. This is what happened with porbeagle sharks in the 2010 CITES meeting in Qatar – an Appendix II listing approved by the Committee evaporated with another vote in plenary. As a result, at that meeting, none of the proposed shark species were granted protection. Now, three years later, we’re hopeful that the international community finally sees the importance of regulating the trade that puts these animals at risk.
Keep your fingers crossed!
Happy Friday, everyone.
It's been a rough few weeks for the oceans at CITES, but now it's time to pick up the pieces. If CITES taught us anything, it's that the work of the ocean conservation community is more important than ever.
This week in ocean news,
....Rick at Malaria, Bed bugs, Sea Lice and Sunsets discussed one of the more shady aspects of CITES: the secret ballots, which were invoked for votes on bluefin tuna, sharks, polar bears, and deep water corals.
…The Washington Post reported that Maryland is cracking down on watermen who catch oysters in protected sanctuaries or with banned equipment. Once a principal source of oysters, the Chesapeake now provides less than 5 percent of the annual U.S. harvest.
…For the first time, scientists were able to use videos to observe octupuses’ behavioral responses. The result? The octupuses had no consistent reaction to one film -- in other words, they had no “personality.” Curiously, other cephalopods display consistent personalities for most of their lives.
…The New York Times wondered if the 700,000 saltwater home aquariums in the United States and the associated trade in reef invertebrates are threatening real reef ecosystems.
This is the ninth in a series of dispatches from the CITES meeting in Doha, Qatar.
As Oceana marine scientist Elizabeth Griffin put it: “This meeting was a flop.”
CITES has been a complete failure for the oceans. The one success -- the listing of the porbeagle shark under Appendix II -- was overturned yesterday in the plenary session.
“It appears that money can buy you anything, just ask Japan,” said Dave Allison, senior campaign director. “Under the crushing weight of the vast sums of money gained by unmanaged trade and exploitation of endangered marine species by Japan, China, other major trading countries and the fishing industry, the very foundation of CITES is threatened with collapse.”
Maybe next time -- if these species are still around to be protected.
The failure of CITES means that Oceana’s work – and your support and activism – is more important than ever. You can start by supporting our campaign work to protect these creatures.
Here's Oceana's Gaia Angelini on the conclusion of CITES:
This is the eighth in a series of dispatches from the CITES conference in Doha, Qatar.
More difficult news out of Doha today.
While seven of the eight proposed shark species (including several species of hammerheads, oceanic whitetip and spiny dogfish) were not included in Appendix II, the one bright spot was for the porbeagle shark, which is threatened by widespread consumption in Europe.
The porbeagle’s Appendix II listing is a huge improvement because it requires the use of export permits to ensure that the species are caught by a legal and sustainably managed fishery.
And there is a slight chance that the other shark decisions could be reversed during the plenary session in the final two days.
Here are Oceana scientists Elizabeth Griffin and Rebecca Greenberg reflecting on the shark decisions:
This is the seventh in a series of posts from CITES. Check out the rest of the dispatches from Doha here.
Eight shark species have been proposed for listing to Appendix II of CITES, including the oceanic whitetip, scalloped hammerhead, dusky, sandbar, smooth hammerhead, great hammerhead, porbeagle and spiny dogfish.
Listing these species, which are threatened by shark finning, is necessary to ensure international trade does not drive these shark species to extinction.
Here's Oceana's Ann Schroeer from our Brussels office with an optimistic outlook on the upcoming shark proposals at CITES.
This is the latest in a series of posts from CITES. See the rest of the dispatches here.
Over the weekend, CITES failed to include 31 species of red and pink coral in Appendix II, trade protections that were promised during the last CITES Conference more than two and a half years ago.
These corals are harvested to meet the growing demand for jewelry and souvenirs. The unregulated and virtually unmanaged collection and trade of these species is driving them to extinction.
Many of the corals are long-lived, reaching more than 100 years of age, and grow slowly, usually less than one millimeter in thickness per year. These colonies are fragile and extremely vulnerable to exploitation and destruction, and their biological characteristics severely limit their ability to recover.
Oceana campaign director Dave Allison had this to say about the corals decision (first video), as well as the failure of CITES to protect marine species in general (second video.)
Happy Friday, ocean fans. It's almost spring, and a surfing alpaca exists in the world. Things are looking up.
Before we get to the week's best marine tidbits, an important announcement: Oceana board member Ted Danson will be answering questions live on CNN.com on April 1, so send your ocean queries in, stat!
Also, don't forget that today is the last day to take the Ocean IQ quiz for a chance to win prizes, including a trip with SEE Turtles.
This week in ocean news,
…Yes, CITES failed to deliver on bluefin tuna yesterday, but as Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Julie Packard pointed out, at least the conversation is changing. Bluefin is now in the same rhetorical realm as endangered land creatures such as tigers and elephants.
…Deep Sea News wrote a requiem for a robot -- the Autonomous Benthic Explorer (ABE) that was lost at sea last week during a research expedition to the Chilean Subduction Zone. On a recent dive, ABE had detected evidence of hydrothermal vents. At the time of its loss, ABE had just begun a second dive to home into a vent site and photograph it.
This is the fifth in a series of dispatches from CITES. You can read the other dispatches here.
Although there were repeated calls from delegates from the E.U., U.S. and Monaco to allow time for parties to meet and arrive at a compromise position, a Libya delegate forced a preemptory vote on the E.U. proposal, which resulted in a 43 to 72 vote, with 14 abstaining.
Campaign director Dave Allison called the defeat "a clear win by short-term economic interest over the long-term health of the ocean and the rebuilding of Atlantic bluefin tuna populations."
The decision could spell the beginning of the end for the tigers of the sea.
Here's Oceana's Maria Jose Cornax on the decision: | <urn:uuid:d2464720-2e87-4061-9f5b-3ccfe0c3f6db> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oceana.org/es/category/blog-free-tags/cites | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945931 | 2,336 | 2.96875 | 3 |
SULUJAM INDIANS. Although they were apparently native to the area lying between the San Antonio and Frio rivers south and southeast of San Antonio, the Sulujams were not encountered by the earliest Spanish travelers who traversed parts of southern Texas. They were first seen in 1709 at the site of present-day San Antonio. There is no indication that they had been displaced from some other area and had migrated into southern Texas. Sulujams are said to have entered Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo of San Antonio in considerable numbers when it was founded in 1720. As the registers of San José have not been found, no figure can be given for the total number of Sulujams in residence at the mission. A few entered nearby San Antonio de Valero Mission, whose surviving registers identify twelve Sulujam individuals for the period 1719–56. No Sulujams seem to have entered the remaining three missions of San Antonio or any missions elsewhere. It is generally thought that the Sulujams spoke a dialect of the Coahuilteco language, but this is not based on conclusive evidence. Nothing is known of the Sulujams' culture other than that they lived by hunting and gathering.
Thomas N. Campbell and T. J. Campbell, Historic Indian Groups of the Choke Canyon Reservoir and Surrounding Area, Southern Texas (San Antonio: Center for Archaeological Research, University of Texas at San Antonio, 1981). J. Jesús Figueroa Torres, Fr. Juan Larios, defensor de los Indios y fundador de Coahuila (Mexico City: Editorial Jus, 1963). Frederick Webb Hodge, ed., Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico (2 vols., Washington: GPO, 1907, 1910; rpt., New York: Pageant, 1959).
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.Thomas N. Campbell, "SULUJAM INDIANS," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bms44), accessed May 21, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. | <urn:uuid:09cf9a85-e36a-490f-a0ab-ab24bed53e87> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/bms44 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.925016 | 463 | 3.40625 | 3 |
European Decorative Arts and Sculpture
Arched Entrance from the Chapter House of the Carmelite Convent in Limoges (Les Grands Carmes des Arènes)Made in Limoges, western France, France, Europe
Second half of 13th century
Artist/maker unknown, French
1928-76-1Purchased with funds contributed by Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Tatnall Starr, 1928
LabelThis arched entrance served as one of two passages connecting the contemplative space of the convent's cloister to the communal area of the chapter house (a meeting room for the governing body of the monastery). During the French Revolution (1789–99), the convent—continuously occupied and much expanded since its foundation in the thirteenth century—was closed and the nuns expelled. The convent was then sold and many of the buildings demolished. The chapter house escaped destruction, and in the early twentieth century this arch was rediscovered in its original location and eventually came to the Museum.
Social Tags [?]european art 1100-1500 [x] european decorative arts and sculpture [x] fransiscan monestary too [x] of the child of jesus (carmelite) [x] st. terasea of the little flower [x] the st. francis [x] [Add Your Own Tags]
* Works in the collection are moved off view for many different reasons. Although gallery locations on the website are updated regularly, there is no guarantee that this object will be on display on the day of your visit. | <urn:uuid:0024d85b-6eca-46fb-ad55-52228ee500b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/42253.html?mulR=27307%7C1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931598 | 331 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Opportunities and Challenges in High Pressure Processing of Foods
By Rastogi, N K; Raghavarao, K S M S; Balasubramaniam, V M; Niranjan, K; Knorr, D
Consumers increasingly demand convenience foods of the highest quality in terms of natural flavor and taste, and which are free from additives and preservatives. This demand has triggered the need for the development of a number of nonthermal approaches to food processing, of which high-pressure technology has proven to be very valuable. A number of recent publications have demonstrated novel and diverse uses of this technology. Its novel features, which include destruction of microorganisms at room temperature or lower, have made the technology commercially attractive. Enzymes and even spore forming bacteria can be inactivated by the application of pressure-thermal combinations, This review aims to identify the opportunities and challenges associated with this technology. In addition to discussing the effects of high pressure on food components, this review covers the combined effects of high pressure processing with: gamma irradiation, alternating current, ultrasound, and carbon dioxide or anti-microbial treatment. Further, the applications of this technology in various sectors-fruits and vegetables, dairy, and meat processing-have been dealt with extensively. The integration of high-pressure with other matured processing operations such as blanching, dehydration, osmotic dehydration, rehydration, frying, freezing / thawing and solid- liquid extraction has been shown to open up new processing options. The key challenges identified include: heat transfer problems and resulting non-uniformity in processing, obtaining reliable and reproducible data for process validation, lack of detailed knowledge about the interaction between high pressure, and a number of food constituents, packaging and statutory issues.
Keywords high pressure, food processing, non-thermal processing
Consumers demand high quality and convenient products with natural flavor and taste, and greatly appreciate the fresh appearance of minimally processed food. Besides, they look for safe and natural products without additives such as preservatives and humectants. In order to harmonize or blend all these demands without compromising the safety of the products, it is necessary to implement newer preservation technologies in the food industry. Although the fact that “high pressure kills microorganisms and preserves food” was discovered way back in 1899 and has been used with success in chemical, ceramic, carbon allotropy, steel/alloy, composite materials and plastic industries for decades, it was only in late 1980′s that its commercial benefits became available to the food processing industries. High pressure processing (HPP) is similar in concept to cold isostatic pressing of metals and ceramics, except that it demands much higher pressures, faster cycling, high capacity, and sanitation (Zimmerman and Bergman, 1993; Mertens and Deplace, 1993). Hite (1899) investigated the application of high pressure as a means of preserving milk, and later extended the study to preserve fruits and vegetables (Hite, Giddings, and Weakly, 1914). It then took almost eighty years for Japan to re- discover the application of high-pressure in food processing. The use of this technology has come about so quickly that it took only three years for two Japanese companies to launch products, which were processed using this technology. The ability of high pressure to inactivate microorganisms and spoilage catalyzing enzymes, whilst retaining other quality attributes, has encouraged Japanese and American food companies to introduce high pressure processed foods in the market (Mermelstein, 1997; Hendrickx, Ludikhuyze, Broeck, and Weemaes, 1998). The first high pressure processed foods were introduced to the Japanese market in 1990 by Meidi-ya, who have been marketing a line of jams, jellies, and sauces packaged and processed without application of heat (Thakur and Nelson, 1998). Other products include fruit preparations, fruit juices, rice cakes, and raw squid in Japan; fruit juices, especially apple and orange juice, in France and Portugal; and guacamole and oysters in the USA (Hugas, Garcia, and Monfort, 2002). In addition to food preservation, high- pressure treatment can result in food products acquiring novel structure and texture, and hence can be used to develop new products (Hayashi, 1990) or increase the functionality of certain ingredients. Depending on the operating parameters and the scale of operation, the cost of highpressure treatment is typically around US$ 0.05-0.5 per liter or kilogram, the lower value being comparable to the cost of thermal processing (Thakur and Nelson, 1998; Balasubramaniam, 2003).
The non-availability of suitable equipment encumbered early applications of high pressure. However, recent progress in equipment design has ensured worldwide recognition of the potential for such a technology in food processing (Could, 1995; Galazka and Ledward, 1995; Balci and Wilbey, 1999). Today, high-pressure technology is acknowledged to have the promise of producing a very wide range of products, whilst simultaneously showing potential for creating a new generation of value added foods. In general, high-pressure technology can supplement conventional thermal processing for reducing microbial load, or substitute the use of chemical preservatives (Rastogi, Subramanian, and Raghavarao, 1994).
Over the past two decades, this technology has attracted considerable research attention, mainly relating to: i) the extension of keeping quality (Cheftel, 1995; Farkas and Hoover, 2001), ii) changing the physical and functional properties of food systems (Cheftel, 1992), and iii) exploiting the anomalous phase transitions of water under extreme pressures, e.g. lowering of freezing point with increasing pressures (Kalichevsky, Knorr, and Lillford, 1995; Knorr, Schlueter, and Heinz, 1998). The key advantages of this technology can be summarized as follows:
1. it enables food processing at ambient temperature or even lower temperatures;
2. it enables instant transmittance of pressure throughout the system, irrespective of size and geometry, thereby making size reduction optional, which can be a great advantage;
3. it causes microbial death whilst virtually eliminating heat damage and the use of chemical preservatives/additives, thereby leading to improvements in the overall quality of foods; and
4. it can be used to create ingredients with novel functional properties.
The effect of high pressure on microorganisms and proteins/ enzymes was observed to be similar to that of high temperature. As mentioned above, high pressure processing enables transmittance of pressure rapidly and uniformly throughout the food. Consequently, the problems of spatial variations in preservation treatments associated with heat, microwave, or radiation penetration are not evident in pressure-processed products. The application of high pressure increases the temperature of the liquid component of the food by approximately 3C per 100 MPa. If the food contains a significant amount of fat, such as butter or cream, the temperature rise is greater (8-9C/100 MPa) (Rasanayagam, Balasubramaniam, Ting, Sizer, Bush, and Anderson, 2003). Foods cool down to their original temperature on decompression if no heat is lost to (or gained from) the walls of the pressure vessel during the holding stage. The temperature distribution during the pressure-holding period can change depending on heat transfer across the walls of the pressure vessel, which must be held at the desired temperature for achieving truly isothermal conditions. In the case of some proteins, a gel is formed when the rate of compression is slow, whereas a precipitate is formed when the rate is fast. High pressure can cause structural changes in structurally fragile foods containing entrapped air such as strawberries or lettuce. Cell deformation and cell damage can result in softening and cell serum loss. Compression may also shift the pH depending on the imposed pressure. Heremans (1995) indicated a lowering of pH in apple juice by 0.2 units per 100 MPa increase in pressure. In combined thermal and pressure treatment processes, Meyer (2000) proposed that the heat of compression could be used effectively, since the temperature of the product can be raised from 70-90C to 105-120C by a compression to 700 MPa, and brought back to the initial temperature by decompression.
As a thermodynamic parameter, pressure has far-reaching effects on the conformation of macromolecules, the transition temperature of lipids and water, and a number of chemical reactions (Cheftel, 1992; Tauscher, 1995). Phenomena that are accompanied by a decrease in volume are enhanced by pressure, and vice-versa (principle of Le Chatelier). Thus, under pressure, reaction equilibriums are shifted towards the most compact state, and the reaction rate constant is increased or decreased, depending on whether the “activation volume” of the reaction (i.e. volume of the activation complex less volume of reactants) is negative or positive. It is likely that pressure a\lso inhibits the availability of the activation energy required for some reactions, by affecting some other energy releasing enzymatic reactions (Farr, 1990). The compression energy of 1 litre of water at 400 MPa is 19.2 kJ, as compared to 20.9 kJ for heating 1 litre of water from 20 to 25C. The low energy levels involved in pressure processing may explain why covalent bonds of food constituents are usually less affected than weak interactions. Pressure can influence most biochemical reactions, since they often involve change in volume. High pressure controls certain enzymatic reactions. The effect of high pressure on protein/enzyme is reversible unlike temperature, in the range 100-400 MPa and is probably due to conformational changes and sub-unit dissociation and association process (Morild, 1981).
For both the pasteurization and sterilization processes, a combined treatment of high pressure and temperature are frequently considered to be most appropriate (Farr, 1990; Patterson, Quinn, Simpson, and Gilmour, 1995). Vegetative cells, including yeast and moulds, are pressure sensitive, i.e. they can be inactivated by pressures of ~300-600 MPa (Knorr, 1995; Patterson, Quinn, Simpson, and Gilmour, 1995). At high pressures, microbial death is considered to be due to permeabilization of cell membrane. For instance, it was observed that in the case of Saccharomyces cerevasia, at pressures of about 400 MPa, the structure and cytoplasmic organelles were grossly deformed and large quantities of intracellular material leaked out, while at 500 MPa, the nucleus could no longer be recognized, and a loss of intracellular material was almost complete (Farr, 1990). Changes that are induced in the cell morphology of the microorganisms are reversible at low pressures, but irreversible at higher pressures where microbial death occurs due to permeabilization of the cell membrane. An increase in process temperature above ambient temperature, and to a lesser extent, a decrease below ambient temperature, increases the inactivation rates of microorganisms during high pressure processing. Temperatures in the range 45 to 50C appear to increase the rate of inactivation of pathogens and spoilage microorganisms. Preservation of acid foods (pH ≤ 4.6) is, therefore, the most obvious application of HPP as such. Moreover, pasteurization can be performed even under chilled conditions for heat sensitive products. Low temperature processing can help to retain nutritional quality and functionality of raw materials treated and could allow maintenance of low temperature during post harvest treatment, processing, storage, transportation, and distribution periods of the life cycle of the food system (Knorr, 1995).
Bacterial spores are highly pressure resistant, since pressures exceeding 1200 MPa may be needed for their inactivation (Knorr, 1995). The initiation of germination or inhibition of germinated bacterial spores and inactivation of piezo-resistive microorganisms can be achieved in combination with moderate heating or other pretreatments such as ultrasound. Process temperature in the range 90-121C in conjunction with pressures of 500-800 MPa have been used to inactivate spores forming bacteria such as Clostridium botulinum. Thus, sterilization of low-acid foods (pH > 4.6), will most probably rely on a combination of high pressure and other forms of relatively mild treatments.
High-pressure application leads to the effective reduction of the activity of food quality related enzymes (oxidases), which ensures high quality and shelf stable products. Sometimes, food constituents offer piezo-resistance to enzymes. Further, high pressure affects only non-covalent bonds (hydrogen, ionic, and hydrophobic bonds), causes unfolding of protein chains, and has little effect on chemical constituents associated with desirable food qualities such as flavor, color, or nutritional content. Thus, in contrast to thermal processing, the application of high-pressure causes negligible impairment of nutritional values, taste, color flavor, or vitamin content (Hayashi, 1990). Small molecules such as amino acids, vitamins, and flavor compounds remain unaffected by high pressure, while the structure of the large molecules such as proteins, enzymes, polysaccharides, and nucleic acid may be altered (Balci and Wilbey, 1999).
High pressure reduces the rate of browning reaction (Maillard reaction). It consists of two reactions, condensation reaction of amino compounds with carbonyl compounds, and successive browning reactions including metanoidin formation and polymerization processes. The condensation reaction shows no acceleration by high pressure (5-50 MPa at 50C), because it suppresses the generation of stable free radicals derived from melanoidin, which are responsible for the browning reaction (Tamaoka, Itoh, and Hayashi, 1991). Gels induced by high pressure are found to be more glossy and transparent because of rearrangement of water molecules surrounding amino acid residues in a denatured state (Okamoto, Kawamura, and Hayashi, 1990).
The capability and limitations of HPP have been extensively reviewed (Thakur and Nelson, 1998; Smelt, 1998;Cheftal, 1995; Knorr, 1995; Fair, 1990; Tiwari, Jayas, and Holley, 1999; Cheftel, Levy, and Dumay, 2000; Messens, Van Camp, and Huyghebaert, 1997; Ontero and Sanz, 2000; Hugas, Garriga, and Monfort, 2002; Lakshmanan, Piggott,and Paterson, 2003; Balasubramaniam, 2003; Matser, Krebbers, Berg, and Bartels, 2004; Hogan, Kelly, and Sun, 2005; Mor-Mur and Yuste, 2005). Many of the early reviews primarily focused on the microbial efficacy of high-pressure processing. This review comprehensively covers the different types of products processed by highpressure technology alone or in combination with the other processes. It also discusses the effect of high pressure on food constituents such as enzymes and proteins. The applications of this technology in fruits and vegetable, dairy and animal product processing industries are covered. The effects of combining high- pressure treatment with other processing methods such as gamma- irradiation, alternating current, ultrasound, carbon dioxide, and anti microbial peptides have also been described. Special emphasis has been given to opportunities and challenges in high pressure processing of foods, which can potentially be explored and exploited.
EFFECT OF HIGH PRESSURE ON ENZYMES AND PROTEINS
Enzymes are a special class of proteins in which biological activity arises from active sites, brought together by a three- dimensional configuration of molecule. The changes in active site or protein denaturation can lead to loss of activity, or changes the functionality of the enzymes (Tsou, 1986). In addition to conformational changes, enzyme activity can be influenced by pressure-induced decompartmentalization (Butz, Koller, Tauscher, and Wolf, 1994; Gomes and Ledward, 1996). Pressure induced damage of membranes facilitates enzymesubstrate contact. The resulting reaction can either be accelerated or retarded by pressure (Butz, Koller, Tauscher, and Wolf, 1994; Gomes and Ledward, 1996; Morild, 1981). Hendrickx, Ludikhuy ze, Broeck, and Weemaes ( 1998) and Ludikhuyze, Van Loey, and Indrawati et al. (2003) reviewed the combined effect of pressure and temperature on enzymes related to the ity of fruits and vegetables, which comprises of kinetic information as well as process engineering aspects.
Pectin methylesterase (PME) is an enzyme, which normally tends to lower the viscosity of fruits products and adversely affect their texture. Hence, its inactivation is a prerequisite for the preservation of such products. Commercially, fruit products containing PME (e.g. orange juice and tomato products) are heat pasteurized to inactivate PME and prolong shelf life. However, heating can deteriorate the sensory and nutritional quality of the products. Basak and Ramaswamy (1996) showed that the inactivation of PME in orange juice was dependent on pressure level, pressure-hold time, pH, and total soluble solids. An instantaneous pressure kill was dependent only on pressure level and a secondary inactivation effect dependent on holding time at each pressure level. Nienaber and Shellhammer (2001) studied the kinetics of PME inactivation in orange juice over a range of pressures (400-600 MPa) and temperatures (25-5O0C) for various process holding times. PME inactivation followed a firstorder kinetic model, with a residual activity of pressure-resistant enzyme. Calculated D-values ranged from 4.6 to 117.5 min at 600 MPa/50C and 400 MPa/25C, respectively. Pressures in excess of 500 MPa resulted in sufficiently faster inactivation rates for economic viability of the process. Binh, Van Loey, Fachin, Verlent, Indrawati, and Hendrickx (2002a, 2002b) studied the kinetics of inactivation of strawberry PME. The combined effect of pressure and temperature on inactivation kinetics followed a fractional-conversion model. Purified strawberry PME was more stable toward high-pressure treatments than PME from oranges and bananas. Ly-Nguyen, Van Loey, Fachin, Verlent, Hendrickx (2002) showed that the inactivation of the banana PME enzyme during heating at temperature between 65 and 72.5C followed first order kinetics and the effect of pressure treatment of 600-700 MPa at 10C could be described using a fractionalconversion model. Stoforos, Crelier, Robert, and Taoukis (2002) demonstrated that under ambient pressure, tomato PME inactivation rates increased with temperature, and the highest rate was obtained at 75C. The inactivation rates were dramatically reduced as soon as the essing pressure was raised beyond 75C. High inactivation rates were obtained at a pressure higher than 700 MPa. Riahi and Ramaswamy (2003) studied high- pressure inactivation kinetics of PME isolated from a variety of sources and showed that PME from a microbial source was more resistant \to pressure inactivation than from orange peel. Almost a full decimal reduction in activity of commercial PME was achieved at 400 MPa within 20 min.
Verlent, Van Loey, Smout, Duvetter, Nguyen, and Hendrickx (2004) indicated that the optimal temperature for tomato pectinmethylesterase was shifted to higher values at elevated pressure compared to atmospheric pressure, creating the possibilities for rheology improvements by the application of high pressure.
Castro, Van Loey, Saraiva, Smout, and Hendrickx (2006) accurately described the inactivation of the labile fraction under mild-heat and high-pressure conditions by a fractional conversion model, while a biphasic model was used to estimate the inactivation rate constant of both the fractions at more drastic conditions of temperature/ pressure (10-64C, 0.1-800 MPa). At pressures lower than 300 MPa and temperatures higher than 54C, an antagonistic effect of pressure and temperature was observed.
Balogh, Smout, Binh, Van Loey, and Hendrickx (2004) observed the inactivation kinetics of carrot PME to follow first order kinetics over a range of pressure and temperature (650800 MPa, 10-40C). Enzyme stability under heat and pressure was reported to be lower in carrot juice and purified PME preparations than in carrots.
The presence of pectinesterase (PE) reduces the quality of citrus juices by destabilization of clouds. Generally, the inactivation of the enzyme is accomplished by heat, resulting in a loss of fresh fruit flavor in the juice. High pressure processing can be used to bypass the use of extreme heat for the processing of fruit juices. Goodner, Braddock, and Parish (1998) showed that the higher pressures (>600 MPa) caused instantaneous inactivation of the heat labile form of the enzyme but did not inactivate the heat stable form of PE in case of orange and grapefruit juices. PE activity was totally lost in orange juice, whereas complete inactivation was not possible in case of grapefruit juices. Orange juice pressurized at 700 MPa for l min had no cloud loss for more than 50 days. Broeck, Ludikhuyze, Van Loey, and Hendrickx (2000) studied the combined pressure-temperature inactivation of the labile fraction of orange PE over a range of pressure (0.1 to 900 MPa) and temperature (15 to 65C). Pressure and temperature dependence of the inactivation rate constants of the labile fraction was quantified using the well- known Eyring and Arrhenius relations. The stable fraction was inactivated at a temperature higher than 75C. Acidification (pH 3.7) enhanced the thermal inactivation of the stable fraction, whereas the addition of Ca^sup ++^ ions (IM) suppressed inactivation. At elevated pressure (up to 900 MPa), an antagonistic effect of pressure and temperature on inactivation of the stable fraction was observed. Ly-Nguyen, Van Loey, Smout, Ozean, Fachin, Verlent, Vu- Truong, Duvetter, and Hendrickx (2003) investigated the combined heat and pressure treatments on the inactivation of purified carrot PE, which followed a fractional-conversion model. The thermally stable fraction of the enzyme could not be inactivated. At a lower pressure (<300 MPa) and higher temperature (>50C), an antagonistic effect of pressure and heat was observed.
High pressures induced conformational changes in polygalacturonase (PG) causing reduced substrate binding affinity and enzyme inactivation. Eun, Seok, and Wan ( 1999) studied the effect of high-pressure treatment on PG from Chinese cabbage to prevent the softening and spoilage of plant-based foods such as kimchies without compromising quality. PG was inactivated by the application of pressure higher than 200 MPa for l min. Fachin, Van Loey, Indrawati, Ludikhuyze, and Hendrickx (2002) investigated the stability of tomato PG at different temperatures and pressures. The combined pressure temperature inactivation (300-600 MPa/50 -50C) of tomato PG was described by a fractional conversion model, which points to Ist-order inactivation kinetics of a pressure-sensitive enzyme fraction and to the occurrence of a pressure-stable PG fraction. Fachin, Smout, Verlent, Binh, Van Loey, and Hendrickx (2004) indicated that in the combination of pressure-temperature (5- 55C/100-600 MPa), the inactivation of the heat labile portion of purified tomato PG followed first order kinetics. The heat stable fraction of the enzyme showed pressure stability very similar to that of heat labile portion.
Peelers, Fachin, Smout, Van Loey, and Hendrickx (2004) demonstrated that effect of high-pressure was identical on heat stable and heat labile fractions of tomato PG. The isoenzyme of PG was detected in thermally treated (140C for 5 min) tomato pieces and tomato juice, whereas, no PG was found in pressure treated tomato juice or pieces.
Verlent, Van Loey, Smout, Duvetter, and Hendrickx (2004) investigated the effect of nigh pressure (0.1 and 500 MPa) and temperature (25-80C) on purified tomato PG. At atmospheric pressure, the optimum temperature for enzyme was found to be 55-60C and it decreased with an increase in pressure. The enzyme activity was reported to decrease with an increase in pressure at a constant temperature.
Shook, Shellhammer, and Schwartz (2001) studied the ability of high pressure to inactivate lipoxygenase, PE and PG in diced tomatoes. Processing conditions used were 400,600, and 800 MPa for 1, 3, and 5 min at 25 and 45C. The magnitude of the applied pressure had a significant effect in inactivating lipoxygenase and PG, with complete loss of activity occurring at 800 MPa. PE was very resistant to the pressure treatment.
Polyphenoloxidase and Pemxidase
Polyphenoloxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (POD), the enzymes responsible for color and flavor loss, can be selectively inactivated by a combined treatment of pressure and temperature. Gomes and Ledward (1996) studied the effects of pressure treatment (100-800 MPa for 1-20 min) on commercial PPO enzyme available from mushrooms, potatoes, and apples. Castellari, Matricardi, Arfelli, Rovere, and Amati ( 1997) demonstrated that there was a limited inactivation of grape PPO using pressures between 300 and 600 MPa. At 900 MPa, a low level of PPO activity was apparent. In order to reach complete inactivation, it may be necessary to use high- pressure processing treatments in conjunction with a mild thermal treatment (40-50C). Weemaes, Ludikhuyze, Broeck, and Hendrickx (1998) studied the pressure stabilities of PPO from apple, avocados, grapes, pears, and plums at pH 6-7. These PPO differed in pressure stability. Inactivation of PPO from apple, grape, avocado, and pear at room temperature (25C) became noticeable at approximately 600, 700, 800 and 900 MPa, respectively, and followed first-order kinetics. Plum PPO was not inactivated at room temperature by pressures up to 900 MPa. Rastogi, Eshtiaghi, and Knorr (1999) studied the inactivation effects of high hydrostatic pressure treatment (100-600 MPa) combined with heat treatment (0-60C) on POD and PPO enzyme, in order to develop high pressure-processed red grape juice having stable shelf-life. The studies showed that the lowest POD (55.75%) and PPO (41.86%) activities were found at 60C, with pressure at 600 and 100 MPa, respectively. MacDonald and Schaschke (2000) showed that for PPO, both temperature and pressure individually appeared to have similar effects, whereas the holding time was not significant. On the other hand, in case of POD, temperature as well as interaction between temperature and holding time had the greatest effect on activity. Namkyu, Seunghwan, and Kyung (2002) showed that mushroom PPO was highly pressure stable. Exposure to 600 MPa for 10 min reduced PPO activity by 7%; further exposure had no denaturing effect. Compression for 10 and 20 min up to 800 MPa, reduced activity by 28 and 43%, respectively.
Rapeanu, Van Loey, Smout, and Hendrickx (2005) indicated that the thermal and/or high-pressure inactivation of grape PPO followed first order kinetics. A third degree polynomial described the temperature/pressure dependence of the inactivation rate constants. Pressure and temperature were reported to act synergistically, except in the high temperature (≥45C)-low pressure (≥300 MPa) region where an antagonistic effect was observed.
Gomes, Sumner, and Ledward (1997) showed that the application of increasing pressures led to a gradual reduction in papain enzyme activity. A decrease in activity of 39% was observed when the enzyme solution was initially activated with phosphate buffer (pH 6.8) and subjected to 800 MPa at ambient temperature for 10 min, while 13% of the original activity remained when the enzyme solution was treated at 800 MPa at 60C for 10 min. In Tris buffer at pH 6.8 after treatment at 800 MPa and 20C, papain activity loss was approximately 24%. The inactivation of the enzyme is because of induced change at the active site causing loss of activity without major conformational changes. This loss of activity was due to oxidation of the thiolate ion present at the active site.
Weemaes, Cordt, Goossens, Ludikhuyze, Hendrickx, Heremans, and Tobback (1996) studied the effects of pressure and temperature on activity of 3 different alpha-amylases from Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, and Bacillus licheniformis. The changes in conformation of Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus subtilis, and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens amylases occurred at pressures of 110, 75, and 65 MPa, respectively. Bacillus licheniformis amylase was more stable than amylases from Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens to the combined heat/pressure treatment.
Riahi and Ramaswamy (2004) demonstrated that pressure inactivation of amylase in apple juice was significantly (P < 0.01 ) influenced by pH, pressure, holding time, and temperature. The inactivation was described using a bi-phasic model. The application of high pressure was sh\own to completely inactivate amylase. The importance of the pressure pulse and pressure hold approach for inactivation of amylase was also demonstrated.
High pressure denatures protein depending on the protein type, processing conditions, and the applied pressure. During the process of denaturation, the proteins may dissolve or precipitate on the application of high pressure. These changes are generally reversible in the pressure range 100-300 MPa and irreversible for the pressures higher than 300 MPa. Denaturation may be due to the destruction of hydrophobic and ion pair bonds, and unfolding of molecules. At higher pressure, oligomeric proteins tend to dissociate into subunits becoming vulnerable to proteolysis. Monomeric proteins do not show any changes in proteolysis with increase in pressure (Thakur and Nelson, 1998).
High-pressure effects on proteins are related to the rupture on non-covalent interactions within protein molecules, and to the subsequent reformation of intra and inter molecular bonds within or between the molecules. Different types of interactions contribute to the secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structure of proteins. The quaternary structure is mainly held by hydrophobic interactions that are very sensitive to pressure. Significant changes in the tertiary structure are observed beyond 200 MPa. However, a reversible unfolding of small proteins such as ribonuclease A occurs at higher pressures (400 to 800 MPa), showing that the volume and compressibility changes during denaturation are not completely dominated by the hydrophobic effect. Denaturation is a complex process involving intermediate forms leading to multiple denatured products. secondary structure changes take place at a very high pressure above 700 MPa, leading to irreversible denaturation (Balny and Masson, 1993).
Figure 1 General scheme for pressure-temperature phase diagram of proteins, (from Messens, Van Camp, and Huyghebaert, 1997).
When the pressure increases to about 100 MPa, the denaturation temperature of the protein increases, whereas at higher pressures, the temperature of denaturation usually decreases. This results in the elliptical phase diagram of native denatured protein shown in Fig. 1. A practical consequence is that under elevated pressures, proteins denature usually at room temperature than at higher temperatures. The phase diagram also specifies the pressure- temperature range in which the protein maintains its native structure. Zone III specifies that at high temperatures, a rise in denaturation temperature is found with increasing pressure. Zone II indicates that below the maximum transition temperature, protein denaturation occurs at the lower temperatures under higher pressures. Zone III shows that below the temperature corresponding to the maximum transition pressure, protein denaturation occurs at lower pressures using lower temperatures (Messens, Van Camp, and Huyghebaert, 1997).
The application of high pressure has been shown to destabilize casein micelles in reconstituted skim milk and the size distribution of spherical casein micelles decrease from 200 to 120 nm; maximum changes have been reported to occur between 150-400 MPa at 20C. The pressure treatment results in reduced turbidity and increased lightness, which leads to the formation of a virtually transparent skim milk (Shibauchi, Yamamoto, and Sagara, 1992; Derobry, Richard, and Hardy, 1994). The gels produced from high-pressure treated skim milk showed improved rigidity and gel breaking strength (Johnston, Austin, and Murphy, 1992). Garcia, Olano, Ramos, and Lopez (2000) showed that the pressure treatment at 25C considerably reduced the micelle size, while pressurization at higher temperature progressively increased the micelle dimensions. Anema, Lowe, and Stockmann (2005) indicated that a small decrease in the size of casein micelles was observed at 100 MPa, with slightly greater effects at higher temperatures or longer pressure treatments. At pressure >400 MPa, the casein micelles disintegrated. The effect was more rapid at higher temperatures although the final size was similar in all samples regardless of the pressure or temperature. At 200 MPa and 1O0C, the casein micelle size decreased slightly on heating, whereas, at higher temperatures, the size increased as a result of aggregation. Huppertz, Fox, and Kelly (2004a) showed that the size of casein micelles increased by 30% upon high-pressure treatment of milk at 250 MPa and micelle size dropped by 50% at 400 or 600 MPa.
Huppertz, Fox, and Kelly (2004b) demonstrated that the high- pressure treatment of milk at 100-600 MPa resulted in considerable solubilization of alphas 1- and beta-casein, which may be due to the solubilization of colloidal calcium phosphate and disruption of hydrophobic interactions. On storage of pressure, treated milk at 5C dissociation of casein was largely irreversible, but at 20C, considerable re-association of casein was observed. The hydration of the casein micelles increased on pressure treatment (100-600 MPa) due to induced interactions between caseins and whey proteins. Pressure treatment increased levels of alphas 1- and beta-casein in the soluble phase of milk and produced casein micelles with properties different to those in untreated milk. Huppertz, Fox, and Kelly (2004c) demonstrated that the casein micelle size was not influenced by pressures less than 200 MPa, but a pressure of 250 MPa increased the micelle size by 25%, while pressures of 300 MPa or greater, irreversibly reduced the size to 50% ofthat in untreated milk. Denaturation of alpha-lactalbumin did not occur at pressures less than or equal to 400 MPa, whereas beta-lactoglobulin was denatured at pressures greater than 100 MPa.
Galazka, Ledward, Sumner, and Dickinson (1997) reported loss of surface hydrophobicity due to application of 300 MPa in dilute solution. Pressurizing beta-lactoglobulin at 450 MPa for 15 minutes resulted in reduced solubility in water. High-pressure treatment induced extensive protein unfolding and aggregation when BSA was pressurized at 400 MPa. Beta-lactoglobulin appears to be more sensitive to pressure than alpha-lactalbumin. Olsen, Ipsen, Otte, and Skibsted (1999) monitored the state of aggregation and thermal gelation properties of pressure-treated beta-lactoglobulin immediately after depressurization and after storage for 24 h at 50C. A pressure of 150 MPa applied for 30 min, or pressures higher than 300 MPa applied for 0 or 30 min, led to formation of soluble aggregates. When continued for 30 min, a pressure of 450 MPa caused gelation of the 5% beta-lactoglobulin solution. Iametti, Tansidico, Bonomi, Vecchio, Pittia, Rovere, and DaIl’Aglio (1997) studied irreversible modifications in the tertiary structure, surface hydrophobicity, and association state of beta-lactoglobulin, when solutions of the protein at neutral pH and at different concentrations, were exposed to pressure. Only minor irreversible structural modifications were evident even for treatments as intense as 15 min at 900 MPa. The occurrence of irreversible modifications was time-dependent at 600 MPa but was complete within 2 min at 900 MPa. The irreversibly modified protein was soluble, but some covalent aggregates were formed. Subirade, Loupil, Allain, and Paquin (1998) showed the effect of dynamic high pressure on the secondary structure of betalactoglobulin. Thermal and pH sensitivity of pressure treated beta-lactoglobulin was different, suggesting that the two forms were stabilized by different electrostatic interactions. Walker, Farkas, Anderson, and Goddik (2004) used high- pressure processing (510 MPa for 10 min at 8 or 24C) to induce unfolding of beta-lactoglobulin and characterized the protein structure and surface-active properties. The secondary structure of the protein processed at 8C appeared to be unchanged, whereas at 24C alpha-helix structure was lost. Tertiary structures changed due to processing at either temperature. Model solutions containing the pressure-treated beta-lactoglobulin showed a significant decrease in surface tension. Izquierdo, Alli, Gmez, Ramaswamy, and Yaylayan (2005) demonstrated that under high-pressure treatments (100-300 MPa), the β-lactoglobulin AB was completely hydrolyzed by pronase and α-chymotrypsin. Hinrichs and Rademacher (2005) showed that the denaturation kinetics of beta-lactoglobulin followed second order kinetics while for alpha-lactalbumin it was 2.5. Alpha- lactalbumin was more resistant to denaturation than beta- lactoglobulin. The activation volume for denaturation of beta- lactoglobulin was reported to decrease with increasing temperature, and the activation energy increased with pressure up to 200 MPa, beyond which it decreased. This demonstrated the unfolding of the protein molecules.
Drake, Harison, Apslund, Barbosa-Canovas, and Swanson (1997) demonstrated that the percentage moisture and wet weight yield of cheese from pressure treated milk were higher than pasteurized or raw milk cheese. The microbial quality was comparable and some textural defects were reported due to the excess moisture content. Arias, Lopez, and Olano (2000) showed that high-pressure treatment at 200 MPa significantly reduced rennet coagulation times over control samples. Pressurization at 400 MPa led to coagulation times similar to those of control, except for milk treated at pH 7.0, with or without readjustment of pH to 6.7, which presented significantly longer coagulation times than their non-pressure treated counterparts.
Hinrichs and Rademacher (2004) demonstrated that the isobaric (200-800 MPa) and isothermal (-2 to 70C) denaturation of beta- lactoglobulin and alpha-lactalbumin of whey protein followed 3rd and 2nd order kinetics, respectively. Isothermal pressure denaturation of both beta-lactoglobulin A and B did not differ significantly and an increase in temperature resulted in an increase in thedenaturation rate. At pressures higher than 200 MPa, the denaturation rate was limited by the aggregation rate, while the pressure resulted in the unfolding of molecules. The kinetic parameters of denaturation were estimated using a single step non- linear regression method, which allowed a global fit of the entire data set. Huppertz, Fox, and Kelly (2004d) examined the high- pressure induced denaturation of alpha-lactalbumin and beta- lactoglobulin in dairy systems. The higher level of pressure- induced denaturation of both proteins in milk as compared to whey was due to the absence of casein micelles and colloidal calcium phosphate in the whey.
The conformation of BSA was reported to remain fairly stable at 400 MPa due to a high number of disulfide bonds which are known to stabilize its three dimensional structure (Hayakawa, Kajihara, Morikawa, Oda, and Fujio, 1992). Kieffer and Wieser (2004) indicated that the extension resistance and extensibility of wet gluten were markedly influenced by high pressure (up to 800 MPa), while the temperature and the duration of pressure treatment (30-80C for 2-20 min) had a relatively lesser effect. The application of high pressure resulted in a marked decrease in protein extractability due to the restructuring of disulfide bonds under high pressure leading to the incorporation of alpha- and gamma-gliadins in the glutenin aggregate. The change in secondary structure following high- pressure treatment was also reported.
The pressure treatment of myosin led to head-to-head interaction to form oligomers (clumps), which became more compact and larger in size during storage at constant pressure. Even after pressure treatment at 210 MPa for 5 minutes, monomieric myosin molecules increased and no gelation was observed for pressure treatment up to 210 MPa for 30 minutes. Pressure treatment did not also affect the original helical structure of the tail in the myosin monomers. Angsupanich, Edde, and Ledward (1999) showed that high pressure- induced denaturation of myosin led to formation of structures that contained hydrogen bonds and were additionally stabilized by disulphide bonds.
Application of 750 MPa for 20 minutes resulted in dimerization of metmyoglobin in the pH range of 6-10, whereas maximum pH was not at isoelectric pH (6.9). Under acidic pH conditions, no dimers were formed (Defaye and Ledward, 1995). Zipp and Kouzmann ( 1973) showed the formation of precipitate when pressurized (750 MPa for 20 minutes) near the isoelectric point, the precipitate redissolved slowly during storage. Pressure treatment had no effect on lipid oxidation in the case of minced meat packed in air at pressure less than 300 MPa, while the oxidation increased proportionally at higher pressures. However, on exposure to higher pressure, minced meat in contact with air oxidized rapidly. Pressures > 300-400 MPa caused marked denaturation of both myofibriller and sarcoplasmic proteins in washed pork muscle and pork mince (Ananth, Murano and Dickson, 1995). Chapleau and Lamballerie (2003) showed that high-pressure treatment induced a threefold increase in the surface hydrophobicity of myofibrillar proteins between O and 450 MPa. Chapleau, Mangavel, Compoint, and Lamballerie (2004) reported that high pressure modified the secondary structure of myofibrillar proteins extracted from cattle carcasses. Irreversible changes and aggregation were reported at a pressure higher than 300 MPa, which can potentially affect the functional properties of meat products. Lamballerie, Perron, Jung, and Cheret (2003) indicated that high pressure treatment increases cathepsin D activity, and that pressurized myofibrils are more susceptible to cathepsin D action than non- pressurized myofibrils. The highest cathepsin D activity was observed at 300 MPa. Cariez, Veciana, and Cheftel ( 1995) demonstrated that L color values increased significantly in meat treated at 200-350 MPa, the meat becoming pink, and a-value decreased in meat treated at 400-500 MPa to give a grey-brown color. The total extractable myoglobin decreased in meat treated at 200- 500 MPa, while the metmyoglobin content of meat increased and the oxymyoglobin decreased at 400500 MPa. Meat discoloration from pressure processing resulted in a whitening effect at 200-300 MPa due to globin denaturation, and/or haem displacement/release, or oxidation of ferrous myoglobin to ferric myoglobin at pressure higher than 400 MPa.
The conformation of the main protein component of egg white, ovalbumin, remains fairly stable when pressurized at 400 MPa, may be due to the four disulfide bonds and non-covalent interactions stabilizing the three dimensional structure of ovalbumin (Hayakawa, Kajihara, Morikawa, Oda, and Fujio, 1992). Hayashi, Kawamura, Nakasa and Okinada (1989) reported irreversible denaturation of egg albumin at 500-900 MPa with concomitant increase in susceptibility to subtilisin. Zhang, Li, and Tatsumi (2005) demonstrated that the pressure treatment (200-500 MPa) resulted in denaturation of ovalbumin. The surface hydrophobicity of ovalbumin was found to increase with increase in pressure treatment and the presence of polysaccharide protected the protein against denaturation. Iametti, Donnizzelli, Pittia, Rovere, Squarcina, and Bonomi (1999) showed that the addition of NaCl or sucrose to egg albumin prior to high- pressure treatment (up to 10 min at 800 MPa) prevented insolubulization or gel formation after pressure treatment. As a consequence of protein unfolding, the treated albumin had increased viscosity but retained its foaming and heat-gelling properties. Farr (1990) reported the modification of functionality of egg proteins. Egg yolk formed a gel when subjected to a pressure of 400 MPa for 30 minutes at 25C, kept its original color, and was soft and adhesive. The hardness of the pressure treated gel increased and adhesiveness decreased with an increase in pressure. Plancken, Van Loey, and Hendrickx (2005) showed that the application of high pressure (400- 700 MPa) to egg white solution resulted in an increase in turbidity, surface hydrophobicity, exposed sulfhydryl content, and susceptibility to enzymatic hydrolysis, while it resulted in a decrease in protein solubility, total sulfhydryl content, denaturation enthalpy, and trypsin inhibitory activity. The pressure- induced changes in these properties were shown to be dependent on the pressuretemperature and the pH of the solution. Speroni, Puppo, Chapleau, Lamballerie, Castellani, Aon, and Anton (2005) indicated that the application of high pressure (200-600 MPa) at 2OC to low- density lipoproteins did not change the solubility even if the pH is changed, whereas aggregation and protein denaturation were drastically enhanced at pH 8. Further, the application of high- pressure under alkaline pH conditions resulted in decreased droplet flocculation of low-density lipoproteins dispersions.
The minimum pressure required for the inducing gelation of soya proteins was reported to be 300 MPa for 10-30 minutes and the gels formed were softer with lower elastic modulus in comparison with heat-treated gels (Okamoto, Kawamura, and Hayashi, 1990). The treatment of soya milk at 500 MPa for 30 min changed it from a liquid state to a solid state, whereas at lower pressures and at 500 MPa for 10 minutes, the milk remained in a liquid state, but indicated improved emulsifying activity and stability (Kajiyama, Isobe, Uemura, and Noguchi, 1995). The hardness of tofu gels produced by high-pressure treatment at 300 MPa for 10 minutes was comparable to heat induced gels. Puppo, Chapleau, Speroni, Lamballerie, Michel, Anon, and Anton (2004) demonstrated that the application of high pressure (200-600 MPa) on soya protein isolate at pH 8.0 resulted in an increase in a protein hydorphobicity and aggregation, a reduction of free sulfhydryl content and a partial unfolding of the 7S and 11S fractions at pH 8. The change in the secondary structure leading to a more disordered structure was also reported. Whereas at pH 3.0, the protein was partially denatured and insoluble aggregates were formed, the major molecular unfolding resulted in decreased thermal stability, increased protein solubility, and hydorphobicity. Puppo, Speroni, Chapleau, Lamballerie, An, and Anton (2005) studied the effect of high- pressure (200, 400, and 600 MPa for 10 min at 10C) on the emulsifying properties of soybean protein isolates at pH 3 and 8 (e.g. oil droplet size, flocculation, interfacial protein concentration, and composition). The application of pressure higher than 200 MPa at pH 8 resulted in a smaller droplet size and an increase in the levels of depletion flocculation. However, a similar effect was not observed at pH 3. Due to the application of high pressure, bridging flocculation decreased and the percentage of adsorbed proteins increased irrespective of the pH conditions. Moreover, the ability of the protein to be adsorbed at the oil- water interface increased. Zhang, Li, Tatsumi, and Isobe (2005) showed that the application of high pressure treatment resulted in the formation of more hydrophobic regions in soy protein, which dissociated into subunits, which in some cases formed insoluble aggregates. High-pressure denaturation of beta-conglycinin (7S) and glycinin (11S) occurred at 300 and 400 MPa, respectively. The gels formed had the desirable strength and a cross-linked network microstructure.
Soybean whey is a by-product of tofu manufacture. It is a good source of peptides, proteins, oligosaccharides, and isoflavones, and can be used in special foods for the elderly persons, athletes, etc. Prestamo and Penas (2004) studied the antioxidative activity of soybean whey proteins and their pepsin and chymotrypsin hydrolysates. The chymotrypsin hydrolysate showed a higher antioxidative activity than the non-hydrolyzed protein, but the pepsin hydrolysate showed an opposite trend. High pressure processing at 100 MPa inc\reased the antioxidative activity of soy whey protein, but decreased the antioxidative activity of the hydrolysates. High pressure processing increased the pH of the protein hydrolysates. Penas, Prestamo, and Gomez (2004) demonstrated that the application of high pressure (100 and 200 MPa, 15 min, 37C) facilitated the hydrolysis of soya whey protein by pepsin, trypsin, and chymotrypsin. It was shown that the highest level of hydrolysis occurred at a treatment pressure of 100 MPa. After the hydrolysis, 5 peptides under 14 kDa with trypsin and chymotrypsin, and 11 peptides with pepsin were reported.
COMBINATION OF HIGHPRESSURE TREATMENT WITH OTHER NON-THERMAL PROCESSING METHODS
Many researchers have combined the use of high pressure with other non-thermal operations in order to explore the possibility of synergy between processes. Such attempts are reviewed in this section.
Crawford, Murano, Olson, and Shenoy (1996) studied the combined effect of high pressure and gamma-irradiation for inactivating Clostridium spmgenes spores in chicken breast. Application of high pressure reduced the radiation dose required to produce chicken meat with extended shelf life. The application of high pressure (600 MPa for 20 min at 8O0C) reduced the irradiation doses required for one log reduction of Clostridium spmgenes from 4.2 kGy to 2.0 kGy. Mainville, Montpetit, Durand, and Farnworth (2001) studied the combined effect of irradiation and high pressure on microflora and microorganisms of kefir. The irradiation treatment of kefir at 5 kGy and high-pressure treatment (400 MPa for 5 or 30 min) deactivated the bacteria and yeast in kefir, while leaving the proteins and lipids unchanged.
The exposure of microbial cells and spores to an alternating current (50 Hz) resulted in the release of intracellular materials causing loss or denaturation of cellular components responsible for the normal functioning of the cell. The lethal damage to the microorganisms enhanced when the organisms are exposed to an alternating current before and after the pressure treatment. High- pressure treatment at 300 MPa for 10 min for Escherichia coli cells and 400 MPa for 30 min for Bacillus subtalis spores, after the alternating current treatment, resulted in reduced surviving fractions of both the organisms. The combined effect was also shown to reduce the tolerant level of microorganisms to other challenges (Shimada and Shimahara, 1985, 1987; Shimada, 1992).
The pretreatment with ultrasonic waves (100 W/cm^sup 2^ for 25 min at 25C) followed by high pressure (400 MPa for 25 min at 15C) was shown to result in complete inactivation of Rhodoturola rubra. Neither ultrasonic nor high-pressure treatment alone was found to be effective (Knorr, 1995).
Carbon Dioxide and Argon
Heinz and Knorr (1995) reported a 3 log reduction of supercritical CO2 pretreated cultures. The effect of the pretreatment on germination of Bacillus subtilis endospores was monitored. The combination of high pressure and mild heat treatment was the most effective in reducing germination (95% reduction), but no spore inactivation was observed.
Park, Lee, and Park (2002) studied the combination of high- pressure carbon dioxide and high pressure as a nonthermal processing technique to enhance the safety and shelf life of carrot juice. The combined treatment of carbon dioxide (4.90 MPa) and high-pressure treatment (300 MPa) resulted in complete destruction of aerobes. The increase in high pressure to 600 MPa in the presence of carbon dioxide resulted in reduced activities of polyphenoloxidase (11.3%), lipoxygenase (8.8%), and pectin methylesterase (35.1%). Corwin and Shellhammer (2002) studied the combined effect of high-pressure treatment and CO2 on the inactivation of pectinmethylesterase, polyphenoloxidase, Lactobacillus plantarum, and Escherichia coli. An interaction was found between CO2 and pressure at 25 and 50C for pectinmethylesterase and polyphenoloxidase, respectively. The activity of polyphenoloxidase was decreased by CO2 at all pressure treatments. The interaction between CO2 and pressure was significant for Lactobacillus plantarum, with a significant decrease in survivors due to the addition of CO2 at all pressures studied. No significant effect on E. coli survivors was seen with CO2 addition. Truong, Boff, Min, and Shellhammer (2002) demonstrated that the addition of CO2 (0.18 MPa) during high pressure processing (600 MPa, 25C) of fresh orange juice increases the rate of PME inactivation in Valencia orange juice. The treatment time due to CO2 for achieving the equivalent reduction in PME activity was from 346 s to 111 s, but the overall degree of PME inactivation remained unaltered.
Fujii, Ohtani, Watanabe, Ohgoshi, Fujii, and Honma (2002) studied the high-pressure inactivation of Bacillus cereus spores in water containing argon. At the pressure of 600 MPa, the addition of argon reportedly accelerated the inactivation of spores at 20C, but had no effect on the inactivation at 40C.
The complex physicochemical environment of milk exerted a strong protective effect on Escherichia coli against high hydrostatic pressure inactivation, reducing inactivation from 7 logs at 400 MPa to only 3 logs at 700 MPa in 15 min at 20C. A substantial improvement in inactivation efficiency at ambient temperature was achieved by the application of consecutive, short pressure treatments interrupted by brief decompressions. The combined effect of high pressure (500 MPa) and natural antimicrobial peptides (lysozyme, 400 g/ml and nisin, 400 g/ml) resulted in increased lethality for Escherichia coli in milk (Garcia, Masschalck, and Michiels, 1999).
OPPORTUNITIES FOR HIGH PRESSURE ASSISTED PROCESSING
The inclusion of high-pressure treatment as a processing step within certain manufacturing flow sheets can lead to novel products as well as new process development opportunities. For instance, high pressure can precede a number of process operations such as blanching, dehydration, rehydration, frying, and solid-liquid extraction. Alternatively, processes such as gelation, freezing, and thawing, can be carried out under high pressure. This section reports on the use of high pressures in the context of selected processing operations.
Eshtiaghi and Knorr (1993) employed high pressure around ambient temperatures to develop a blanching process similar to hot water or steam blanching, but without thermal degradation; this also minimized problems associated with water disposal. The application of pressure (400 MPa, 15 min, 20C) to the potato sample not only caused blanching but also resulted in a four-log cycle reduction in microbial count whilst retaining 85% of ascorbic acid. Complete inactivation of polyphenoloxidase was achieved under the above conditions when 0.5% citric acid solution was used as the blanching medium. The addition of 1 % CaCl^sub 2^ solution to the medium also improved the texture and the density. The leaching of potassium from the high-pressure treated sample was comparable with a 3 min hot water blanching treatment (Eshtiaghi and Knorr, 1993). Thus, high- pressures can be used as a non-thermal blanching method.
Dehydration and Osmotic Dehydration
The application of high hydrostatic pressure affects cell wall structure, leaving the cell more permeable, which leads to significant changes in the tissue architecture (Fair, 1990; Dornenburg and Knorr, 1994, Rastogi, Subramanian, and Raghavarao, 1994; Rastogi and Niranjan, 1998; Rastogi, Raghavarao, and Niranjan, 2005). Eshtiaghi, Stute, and Knorr (1994) reported that the application of pressure (600 MPa, 15 min at 70C) resulted in no significant increase in the drying rate during fluidized bed drying of green beans and carrot. However, the drying rate significantly increased in the case of potato. This may be due to relatively limited permeabilization of carrot and beans cells as compared to potato. The effects of chemical pre-treatment (NaOH and HCl treatment) on the rates of dehydration of paprika were compared with products pre-treated by applying high pressure or high intensity electric field pulses (Fig. 2). High-pressure (400 MPa for 10 min at 25C) and high intensity electric field pulses (2.4 kV/cm, pulse width 300 s, 10 pulses, pulse frequency 1 Hz) were found to result in drying rates comparable with chemical pre-treatments. The latter pre-treatments, however, eliminated the use of chemicals (Ade- Omowaye, Rastogi, Angersbach, and Knorr, 2001).
Figure 2 (a) Effects of various pre-treatments such as hot water blanching, high pressure and high intensity electric field pulse treatment on dehydration characteristics of red paprika (b) comparison of drying time (from Ade-Omowaye, Rastogi, Angersbach, and Knorr, 2001).
Figure 3 (a) Variation of moisture and (b) solid content (based on initial dry matter content) with time during osmotic dehydration (from Rastogi and Niranjan, 1998).
Generally, osmotic dehydration is a slow process. Application of high pressures causes permeabilization of the cell structure (Dornenburg and Knorr, 1993; Eshtiaghi, Stute, and Knorr, 1994; Fair, 1990; Rastogi, Subramanian, and Raghavarao, 1994). This phenomenon has been exploited by Rastogi and Niranjan (1998) to enhance mass transfer rates during the osmotic dehydration of pineapple (Ananas comsus). High-pressure pre-treatments (100-800 MPa) were found to enhance both water removal as well as solid gain (Fig. 3). Measured diffusivity values for water were found to be four-fold greater, whilst solute (sugar) diffusivity values were found to be two-fold greater. Compression and decompression occurring during high pressure pre-treatment itself caused the removal of a significant amount of water, which was attributed to the cell wall rupture (Rastogi and Niranjan, 1998). Differential interference contrast microscopic examination showed the ext\ent of cell wall break-up with applied pressure (Fig. 4). Sopanangkul, Ledward, and Niranjan (2002) demonstrated that the application of high pressure (100 to 400 MPa) could be used to accelerate mass transfer during ingredient infusion into foods. Application of pressure opened up the tissue structure and facilitated diffusion. However, higher pressures above 400 MPa induced starch gelatinization also and hindered diffusion. The values of the diffusion coefficient were dependent on cell permeabilization and starch gelatinization. The maximum value of diffusion coefficient observed represented an eight-fold increase over the values at ambient pressure.
The synergistic effect of cell permeabilization due to high pressure and osmotic stress as the dehydration proceeds was demonstrated more clearly in the case of potato (Rastogi, Angersbach, and Knorr, 2000a, 2000b, 2003). The moisture content was reduced and the solid content increased in the case of samples treated at 400 MPa. The distribution of relative moisture (M/M^sub o^) and solid (S/S^sub o^) content as well as the cell permeabilization index (Zp) (shown in Fig. 5) indicate that the rate of change of moisture and solid content was very high at the interface and decreased towards the center (Rastogi, Angersbach, and Knorr, 2000a, 2000b, 2003).
Most dehydrated foods are rehydrated before consumption. Loss of solids during rehydration is a major problem associated with the use of dehydrated foods. Rastogi, Angersbach, Niranjan, and Knorr (2000c) have studied the transient variation of moisture and solid content during rehydration of dried pineapples, which were subjected to high pressure treatment prior to a two-stage drying process consisting of osmotic dehydration and finish-drying at 25C (Fig. 6). The diffusion coefficients for water infusion as well as for solute diffusion were found to be significantly lower in high-pressure pre- treated samples. The observed decrease in water diffusion coefficient was attributed to the permeabilization of cell membranes, which reduces the rehydration capacity (Rastogi and Niranjan, 1998). The solid infusion coefficient was also lower, and so was the release of the cellular components, which form a gel- network with divalent ions binding to de-esterified pectin (Basak and Ramaswamy, 1998; Eshtiaghi, Stute, and Knorr, 1994; Rastogi Angersbach, Niranjan, and Knorr, 2000c). Eshtiaghi, Stute, and Knorr (1994) reported that high-pressure treatment in conjunction with subsequent freezing could improve mass transfer during rehydration of dried plant products and enhance product quality.
Figure 4 Microstructures of control and pressure treated pineapple (a) control; (b) 300 MPa; (c) 700 MPa. ( 1 cm = 41.83 m) (from Rastogi and Niranjan, 1998).
Ahromrit, Ledward, and Niranjan (2006) explored the use of high pressures (up to 600 MPa) to accelerate water uptake kinetics during soaking of glutinous rice. The results showed that the length and the diameter the of the rice were positively correlated with soaking time, pressure and temperature. The water uptake kinetics was shown to follow the well-known Fickian model. The overall rates of water uptake and the equilibrium moisture content were found to increase with pressure and temperature.
Zhang, Ishida, and Isobe (2004) studied the effect of highpressure treatment (300-500 MPa for 0-380 min at 20C) on the water uptake of soybeans and resulting changes in their microstructure. The NMR analysis indicated that water mobility in high-pressure soaked soybean was more restricted and its distribution was much more uniform than in controls. The SEM analysis revealed that high pressure changed the microstructures of the seed coat and hilum, which improved water absorption and disrupted the individual spherical protein body structures. Additionally, the DSC and SDS-PAGE analysis revealed that proteins were partially denatured during the high pressure soaking. Ibarz, Gonzalez, Barbosa-Canovas (2004) developed the kinetic models for water absorption and cooking time of chickpeas with and without prior high-pressure treatment (275-690 MPa). Soaking was carried out at 25C for up to 23 h and cooking was achieved by immersion in boiling water until they became tender. As the soaking time increased, the cooking time decreased. High-pressure treatment for 5 min led to reductions in cooking times equivalent to those achieved by soaking for 60-90 min.
Ramaswamy, Balasubramaniam, and Sastry (2005) studied the effects of high pressure (33, 400 and 700 MPa for 3 min at 24 and 55C) and irradiation (2 and 5 kGy) pre-treatments on hydration behavior of navy beans by soaking the treated beans in water at 24 and 55C. Treating beans under moderate pressure (33 MPa) resulted in a high initial moisture uptake (0.59 to 1.02 kg/kg dry mass) and a reduced loss of soluble materials. The final moisture content after three hours of soaking was the highest in irradiated beans (5 kGy) followed by high-pressure treatment (33 MPa, 3 min at 55C). Within the experimental range of the study, Peleg’s model was found to satisfactorily describe the rate of water absorption of navy beans.
A reduction of 40% in oil uptake during frying was observed, when thermally blanched frozen potatoes were replaced by high pressure blanched frozen potatoes. This may be due to a reduction in moisture content caused by compression and decompression (Rastogi and Niranjan, 1998), as well as the prevalence of different oil mass transfer mechanisms (Knorr, 1999).
Solid Liquid Extraction
The application of high pressure leads to rearrangement in tissue architecture, which results in increased extractability even at ambient temperature. Extraction of caffeine from coffee using water could be increased by the application of high pressure as well as increase in temperature (Knorr, 1999). The effect of high pressure and temperature on caffeine extraction was compared to extraction at 100C as well as atmospheric pressure (Fig. 7). The caffeine yield was found to increase with temperature at a given pressure. The combination of very high pressures and lower temperatures could become a viable alternative to current industrial practice.
Figure 5 Distribution of (a, b) relative moisture and (c, d) solid content as well as (e, f) cell disi | <urn:uuid:759ff0b9-9458-45d0-8deb-368c01089695> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/815480/opportunities_and_challenges_in_high_pressure_processing_of_foods/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924161 | 14,546 | 2.5625 | 3 |
2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. Why should you care?
Biodiversity is the number of different species that exist in a given area. The healthier an area is, the more biodiversity it has. Different forms of wildlife and plants inhabit areas, and these plants and animals learn to coexist and form ecological relationships with each other.
In unhealthy environments, only a few kinds of species of each plant or animal exist. This is what is known as a monoculture, and monocultures are unhealthy. Whether a monoculture is ten thousand or a hundred thousand acres planted all together of one kind of crop, or an entire subdivision with lawns all growing the same five plants, monocultures are vulnerable to pests and disease. For example, part of the fire ant problem in the United States is exacerbated by homeowners, because fire ants prefer monocultures and will shy away from biodiverse areas.
By contrast, the more kinds of species that inhabit an area, the more likely it is that at least a few strains of plants or animals will be resistant to pests and disease. If you have thirty kinds of plants, and a virus blows in across the ocean from a remote island, your lawn has a better chance of surviving and renewing itself than if you have only five kinds of plants. In the same way, having more species of wild birds will provide more secure insect control than having only a few kinds of wild birds. So, by growing more kinds of plants in your yard, you will attract more animals, and help to increase your neighbourhood’s biodiversity. | <urn:uuid:5a91c161-3285-41c8-8469-edeb3b85a206> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theinfomine.com/2010/05/02/why-biodiversity-matters/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948197 | 325 | 3.4375 | 3 |
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Ancient Shark Jaws is a common fossil archaeology artifact.
Sharks have no true bones, only cartilage. Because their feeding habits involve biting things with a great deal of force, losing Teeth is Common. Therefore, sharks have multiple rows of teeth which they replace constantly throughout their lifetimes.
Patches and hotfixes
- Patch 4.0.3 (15-Nov-2010): Added | <urn:uuid:1cc52b7e-57e8-469c-a1ae-656c4ab1e8b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wowwiki.com/Ancient_Shark_Jaws | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.897862 | 104 | 3.109375 | 3 |
Research and Tracking
Accurately tracking birth defects is the first step in preventing them and reducing their effect. Birth defects tracking systems are vital to help us find out where and when birth defects occur and who they affect. This gives us important clues about preventing birth defects and allows us to evaluate our efforts.
We base our research on what we learn from tracking. By analyzing the data collected, we can identify factors that increase or decrease the risk of birth defects and identify community or environmental concerns that need more study. In addition, research helps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) answer critical questions about the causes of many of these birth defects.
What We’ve Learned
We know what causes some birth defects, such as Down syndrome and fetal alcohol syndrome. However, for about two-thirds of birth defects, the causes are unknown.1 Also, we don’t understand well how certain factors might work together to cause birth defects. While there is still more work to do, we have learned a lot about birth defects through past research. For example:
- Taking supplements containing folic acid, a B vitamin, at least 1 month before getting pregnant and during pregnancy lowers the risk of having a baby with serious birth defects of the brain and spine (neural tube defects). For this reason, all women who can become pregnant should take supplements containing 400 micrograms of folic acid every day.
- Drinking alcohol during pregnancy can cause the baby to be born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs). Pregnant women should not drink alcohol any time during pregnancy. Women also should not drink alcohol if they are planning to become pregnant or are sexually active and do not use effective birth control.
- Smoking in the month before getting pregnant and throughout pregnancy increases the chance of premature birth, certain birth defects (such as cleft lip, cleft palate, or both), and infant death. Quitting smoking before getting pregnant is best. However, for women who are already pregnant, quitting as early as possible can still help protect against some health problems.
- Women who are obese when they get pregnant have a higher risk of having a baby with serious birth defects of the brain and spine (neural tube defects) and some heart defects. Helping women to reach a healthy weight before they get pregnant could prevent birth defects.
- Poor control of diabetes in pregnant women increases the chance for birth defects, and might cause serious complications for the mother, too. If a woman with diabetes keeps her blood sugar well-controlled before and during pregnancy, she can reduce the chance of having a baby with birth defects.
- Taking certain medications during pregnancy can cause serious birth defects, but the safety of many medications taken by pregnant women has been difficult to determine. If you are pregnant or planning a pregnancy, you should not stop taking medications you need or begin taking new medications without first talking with your doctor. This includes prescription and over-the-counter medications and dietary or herbal products.
Birth Defects Tracking and Research
The Metropolitan Atlanta Congenital Defects Program (MACDP)
MACDP is a population-based tracking system for birth defects among children born to residents of metropolitan Atlanta. Population-based means that the researchers look at all babies with birth defects who live in a defined study area, which is important to get a complete picture of what is happening within this known population. Established in 1967, MACDP was the nation's first population-based system for active collection of information about birth defects. Active data collection means that committed staff members seek out information about birth defects and continually review medical records at multiple health care facilities in a given geographic area. Information obtained from MACDP is used to understand the characteristics of affected children, learn about other health outcomes associated with birth defects, and provide data for education and health policy decisions leading to prevention of birth defects. The system also serves as a model to help other programs develop and implement new tracking methods.
Learn more about the Metropolitan Atlanta Congenital Defects Program (MACDP) »
State-Based Tracking Systems
CDC funds population-based birth defects tracking systems in 14 US states and territories. The tracking systems use the data to help prevent birth defects and to refer infants and children with birth defects to needed services. Identifying birth defects at a state level also strengthens public health officials' ability to estimate prevalence and evaluate risk factors that are the most important in their community. State-based birth defects tracking programs provide important insights into our continued efforts to prevent birth defects and support families affected by them.
National Birth Defects Prevention Network (NBDPN)
CDC supports and collaborates with the NBDPN. The NBDPN is a group of over 225 individuals working at the national, state, and local levels, who are involved in tracking, researching, and preventing birth defects. The NBDPN serves as a forum for exchanging ideas about preventing birth defects for tracking and researching birth defects, and providing technical support for state and local programs. Established in 1997, the NBDPN assesses the effect of birth defects on children, families, and the health care system. It also identifies risk factors for birth defects. This information can be used to develop strategies to prevent birth defects and to assist families and their providers in preventing other disabilities in children with birth defects.
International Clearinghouse for Birth Defects Surveillance and Research (ICBDSR)
The ICBDSR brings together birth defects programs from around the world with the aim of conducting worldwide tracking and research to prevent birth defects and to improve the lives of people born with these conditions. CDC supports and collaborates with the ICBDSR as a way to gain knowledge and expertise on birth defects worldwide and to further our domestic goals and those of the international community.
Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT)
Environmental public health tracking is the ongoing collection, integration, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of data on environmental hazards, exposures to those hazards, and health effects that may be related to the exposures.
CDC has worked with representatives from 23 state and local health departments that have received EPHT grants to develop a monitoring system for 12 birth defects. These defects were selected because they are serious birth defects that are relatively easily identified at or around the time of birth, have some potential for environmental risk factors, and could be adequately ascertained by the different types of birth defects tracking systems. The EPHT Network tracks the prevalence of these defects and publishes annual data tables and maps in the national portal. Currently, the national portal has birth defects data for Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Utah, and Wisconsin.
National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS)
Established in 1997, NBDPS is the largest population-based U.S. study looking at risk factors and potential causes of over 30 major birth defects. CDC funds the study and collects data with researchers from other study sites, collectively called the Centers for Birth Defects Research and Prevention (CBDRP). Participating sites have included Arkansas, California, Georgia (CDC), Iowa, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Texas, and Utah.
Understanding the potential causes of birth defects can help us learn how to prevent them. The NBDPS has made key contributions in understanding the risk of specific medications when used just before and during pregnancy. Data from the NBDPS has also clearly demonstrated that maternal obesity is a strong risk factor for a number of major birth defects and has confirmed the association between maternal smoking and orofacial clefts. The NBDPS is one key step toward bringing us to a day when fewer babies are born with birth defects.
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
NHANES is a nationally-representative survey designed to look at the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States. The survey is unique in that it combines interviews and physical examinations, including the collection of blood samples.
CDC uses information from these studies to look at the amount of folic acid taken in from food and dietary supplements. Green vegetables, fruits, and juices have natural folate, and other foods, such as cereal and bread, have folic acid added to them. CDC is looking at NHANES data to see how people get folic acid and to see if they are getting the recommended amount. This information will help determine if adding different levels of folic acid to these foods or different types of foods would affect peoples’ intake. CDC is also using these data to look at folic acid intake and blood folate concentrations among women who are pregnant, or who may become pregnant, as well as specifically among women who are obese or who have diabetes. CDC also uses NHANES data to look at patterns of prescription medication use among pregnant women. This information will help determine the most commonly used medications during pregnancy, which CDC will use to identify medications that need future research to characterize their safety or risk during pregnancy.
- Nelson K, Holmes LB. 1989. Malformations due to presumed spontaneous mutations in newborn infants. New England Journal of Medicine 320:19-23.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities
Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities
1600 Clifton Road
Atlanta, GA 30333
TTY: (888) 232-6348
New Hours of Operation | <urn:uuid:adefe937-7928-47fb-9bc2-b4ca758e8bfa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/birthdefects/research.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944953 | 1,938 | 3.796875 | 4 |
The issue of Nubian rights is an often neglected and poorly understood issue for public opinion. This is not a big surprise since Egyptians did not get any education on that part of their country and it hardly ever surfaces as part of the political discussion. Despite the active participation of Nubians in and before the revolution; their efforts to highlight their cause and their history of discrimination, little attention is given to them. Nubians have more recently become a part of the political discussion, more evident in the presidential race. However, as usual Nubians were excluded from participating in shaping their country’s future as none of them was selected to be in the constitution drafting committee.
Nubians are the inhabitants of a historical part in the South of Egypt and Northern Sudan. Their suffering started long before the building of the High Dam in 1964; it was in 1902 when Aswan Dam was built. The end result was about 44 villages that drowned along with the historic area that witnessed one of the humanity’s earliest civilizations. Some of the villages even drowned without prior notice; village inhabitants would wake up one day to find their property, their land and their cattle drowned. They were moved away to the desert land of Kom Ombo despite their heavy reliance on the Nile for agriculture all their life. They never received their rightful compensation for their displacement despite many promises made by successive regimes. They postponed the call for their rights several times for considerations of war and national crises. In addition, Nubians suffered from political, economic and cultural marginalization. School curricula exclude their cultural heritage and their language is not taught in schools (even in areas where they live) and it may become extinct if efforts are not made to preserve it.
Despite the marginalization, Nubian always asserted their “Egyptianness”. They have taken numerous patriotic stances and sacrificed several times for the sake of their country. They deserve respect not only for their struggle, but because they’re Egyptian and deserve full citizenship. They are fighting for their rights and their place in the new scene after the revolution. However their struggle exemplifies the many of the issues that Egypt suffers from:
Firstly, the “Nubian issue” reflects our crisis with growing racism and intolerance. Clearly, discrimination against different groups in Egypt is not uncommon whether it was based on gender, religious beliefs, class, etc. Activist Fatma Emam recently wrote an article of her experience as a black Egyptian and the racism she encounters on a daily basis. Her article served as a wakeup call for so many who were unaware of such experiences to “black Egyptians”. Moreover, a common issue often cited by Nubians is that most Egyptians assume they’re Sudanese or African as if Egypt doesn’t have that southern part where darker-skinned people live. The problem highlighted here is not only that we are being racist, but we are also in deep denial about it.
However, it’s not hard to find reasons why the situation has become so deteriorated. We lived under a centuries of authoritarianism and colonialism. Both systems usually play the cards of racism and divide-and-conquer very well; and they deprive societies from progressing towards pluralism. I am not justifying the racism or discrimination. However, I believe that’s a major lesson to be learnt. The more marginalized people are, the more likely people would want to rebel. And we can take South Sudan as an example. When people do not enjoy full participation and self-determination, they no longer want to be part of a country that denies them those rights.
Secondly, the “Nubian issue” also reflects a crisis with our “elite”, and by elite here I mean our opinion leaders, intellectuals, and media people. We may also add the emerging younger elite that started to gain more visibility after the revolution. A few of the elite come out to speak up about discrimination, racism, and Nubian rights. This can be seen a part of bigger elite crisis reflected in their detachment from the public and their failure to truly engage the public. Even when the revolution began, it was hardly credited for the efforts of the elite. It is sad that the people who should lead the change get trapped by infighting and at many cases follow their own personal interests.
One explanation that could be given as to why “the elite” shy away from the Nubian cause is considerations of populism. It seems like the Nubian issue is not “sexy” or “doesn’t sell” for intellectuals, so more favorable topics are preferred. For example, we will not find a lack of “elite” who spoke out against Palestinian displacement, but a handful who spoke against Nubian displacements.
We know that activism is more effective when there is more solidarity from different groups. That’s why women issues would be further promoted if more men stand by them, and Christians’ rights would be easier to attain if more Muslims speak up against their violations. It is true that more people now calling for inclusion and representation than ever before, but a strong stance against racism, sectarianism and discrimination is still much needed.
Thirdly, history tells us that many peoples were exploited under many guises. Arab nationalism was one of those ideologies under which lots of abuses and violations against minorities in different Arab countries were justified. The attack on other languages and cultures within Arab nations carried the banner of Arab nationalism. I would personally be happy with Arab union and with breaking geographical and economic barriers between us one day. However, all I can see that from now are big shiny words about Arab brotherhood and solidarity, while none of it is materializing.
Until now, Nubians are accused of separationism when they speak up for their rights. And more often than not they’re told it’s not the right time to bring it up. It’s time for us to realize that values of democracy and diversity must be respected and should never be taken away under any ideological guise or notion. Discrimination cannot be condoned or downplayed anymore; we can’t even afford it anymore.
Thanks Fatma Emam for the advice given for producing this piece. | <urn:uuid:eccec58b-587d-4fa9-89e0-7a03e42dc45b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rwac-egypt.blogspot.com/2012/05/lessons-from-nubia.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977828 | 1,288 | 3.296875 | 3 |
HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS OF BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
Baylor University was founded under the leadership of Judge R.E.B. Baylor, Reverend James Huckins, and Reverend William Milton Tryon, three farsighted pioneer missionaries working through the Texas Baptist Education Society. They, along with other associations, sent representatives in 1848 to create the Baptist State Association, which later became the Baptist State Convention.
1845-Baylor chartered on February 1 by the Republic of Texas.
1849-Instruction in law begun.
1857-School of Law organized.
1883-School of Law closed.
1920-School of Law reorganized.
1886-Baylor merged with Waco University and moved to Waco.
1903-College of Medicine organized in Dallas by assuming responsibility for operating the University of Dallas Medical Department.
1943-Moved to Houston.
1969-Given independent status.
1903-College of Pharmacy organized in Dallas.
1930-College of Pharmacy terminated.
1905-Theological Seminary organized in Waco.
1907-Separated from Baylor University.
1910-Moved to Fort Worth.
1918-College of Dentistry organized in Dallas by taking over the State Dental College which had been founded in 1905.
1971-The College was separately incorporated in 1971, although Graduate programs continued to be offered through Baylor University.
1996 -The College became a part of the Texas A&M System on September 1, 1996.
1919-Baylor Hospital organized in Dallas – now Baylor University Medical Center.
1919-College of Arts and Sciences organized.
1919-College of Fine Arts organized, which consisted of offerings in music and in expression.
1921-Terminated in favor of the present School of Music.
1919-School of Education organized.
1920-School of Nursing organized as a diploma-granting program.
1921-School of Music organized.
1923-School of Business organized.
1959-Renamed Hankamer School of Business in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Hankamer of Houston.
1947-Graduate School organized. Graduate study and degrees had been offered since 1894.
1950-The School of Nursing reorganized as an academic unit of Baylor University offering a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree.
2000-Renamed Louise Herrington School of Nursing in honor of Louise Herrington Ornelas.
1951-Graduate program in hospital administration established in conjunction with the Army Medical
Field Service School, Fort Sam Houston.
1971-Graduate program in physical therapy added.
1971-Program in physicianʼs assistant added in collaboration with the Army Medical Field Service School, Fort Sam Houston. Terminated in 1977.
1972-Name of Army Medical Field Service School changed to Academy of Health Sciences of the U.S. Army.
1973-Baylor University Memorandum of Agreement with the U.S. Army Academy of Health Sciences affiliated more than 20 programs of instruction with 150 course offerings for academic credit at Baylor University. Terminated in 1977.
1987-University School organized. Responsibilities were reassigned to other academic units in 1992.
1993-George W. Truett Theological Seminary organized in Waco.
1994-Seminary classes begin.
1995-School of Engineering and Computer Science organized.
2002-Honors College organized.
2005-School of Social Work granted independent status from the College of Arts and Sciences. | <urn:uuid:f3fb7f6c-84f3-4d5d-8d1e-feb7ca68c17b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baylor.edu/facultyhandbook/index.php?id=70143 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944724 | 733 | 2.59375 | 3 |